The Spreadsheet Manager Chapter Two: Beverage Service Time

PREVIOUS CHAPTER LINK


H.D. simply could not stop fidgeting and the sleep that he wanted was simply out of the question entirely. He was running about 50/50 for getting upgraded to first class based on frequent flyer miles and this time he didn’t luck out and, to add insult to injury, he got assigned a middle seat on a non-stop from Philadelphia, corporate headquarters, to the Bay Area of California, his current residence.

            H.D.’s internal dialogue started to get the best of him.

            He thought to himself, “What have I done? I just fired one of the most sought after operations executives in the industry and I have no replacement even established. I haven’t even talked to the VP of human resources. Think, think. What do I do next? I have made this major decision and I don’t really have a plan or any supporting information.”

            Leadership Learnings: Having an edge so that you can make tough decisions without all the information comes first. Having the resolve to commit to that decision (or to abort when you are wrong at the expense of looking foolish) is where you will be truly tested.

            Just about that time he observed the flight-attendant hurrying down the aisle looking ever so annoyed at the yet another passenger was asking her for a special request.

            H.D.’s thought bubble continued, “I wonder what the issue is that has gotten her bent out of shape. Was she always like this or was this a special case?”

            H.D. didn’t want to hold her up any more so he simply got his diet soda, bag of peanuts and two cookies and let her pass. After she completed her route and stowed her cart, she took unlatched the jump seat in the back of the airplane and proceeded to catch a short ‘break’ while filling out her paperwork.

            H.D. waited for the restroom in use light to turn on and he went to the back of the airplane under the guise of wanting to use it next.

He smiled coyly, leaned his head to the side slightly and said, “Hey there. I’m H.D. What are you working on?”

“I’m Jackie; nice to meet you.” She said cautiously, “I have to fill out these beverage cart report sheets after I am done with serving the passengers.”

“I run a pharmaceutical company. Do you mind if I see one. I’m always curious about what different workers use to monitor their business.”

Flight Attendant Productivity Record
Name	Jackie Thompson
Date	3/1/12
Service Time	Type	Time Out	Time In
	Bev	1735	1758
	Dinner	1902	1940
Supervisor Name
Supervisor Signature
Pilot/ Navigator Approval
Final Internal Controls Review

H.D. looked at her log bit puzzled. He paused and thought about it for a few seconds before he spoke, “So, Jackie, how long have you been keeping these records.

“Let’s see, off and on for a couple of years.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well they have been in the ‘require procedure’ for I’d say the last 5 years, maybe, but when we get a new manager, these sometimes become hot button items for us to keep working on. A lot of times we will have meetings where the central scope of the meeting is to talk about the timeliness or completion of paperwork like this.”

“OK, so it’s a management tool.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Do you know what it is used for? I mean… behind the scenes, what are they doing with this information?

“Well I definitely don’t know the purpose of these documents, but I do know how they affect me.”

“Well that’s good; what is that” H.D. said.

“There are three basic things that this document means to me:

1.      The management monitors the amount of time that it takes me to complete my beverage service.

2.      The management calculates a productivity rate and I am graphed on chart against my peers.

3.      They use my productivity as a factor during my annual review.”

H.D. looked even more astonished as he tried to wrap his head around the purpose of this log sheet in general and how beverage productivity would improve the bottom line results of this airline.

       “Alright, run through number one. Are there some requirements or standards that you are supposed to maintain for each beverage or dinner service?”

       By this time the gentleman who was using the bathroom was long gone along with two or three other passengers.

       “Yes, as a matter of fact we do. We are supposed to complete a standard beverage service in fifteen minutes and we also have to finish dinner service in forty minutes.”

H.D. was getting anxious at this point and said, “What happens if you don’t meet those set requirements?’

       “Well… you will certainly here about it at your review and you will likely not get as good of a raise or no raise at all if your numbers are low.”

       “Has anything worse ever happened?”

       “Yes, the days of mandatory flight-attendant retirement at the old age of 32 from the 1970s is long gone, but sometimes we lose people because of this.”

       “What do you mean… Did something happen?”

       “One of my closest friends, Rose, was let go because she couldn’t meet the established timeframes for many, many flights. Our old manager really had a bug up her butt for Rose. We need somewhere to retire. Just because Rose was pushing sixty, doesn’t mean she couldn’t do the job. She just couldn’t roll the cart as fast anymore. I mean, seriously, it weighs upwards of 400 pounds.”

       Jackie was really getting spun up at this point and H.D. realized it, so he decided to change the direction of the conversation.

       “So, Jackie, I have to notice that you seemed just a little bit uneasy during the dinner service. Do you mind if I ask why?”

       “No problem. Well... I was running dangerously close to my forty minute target. We recently had another ‘Rose’ situation and I want to keep mu head above water. Me and a few of the other flight attendants have figured out that as long as you are in the middle of the pack or better you will be fine.”

       “What do you mean?”

       “Mister… do you really care about all this stuff or are you trying to hit on me? If I was ten years younger, I would definitely think you are trying to hit on me.”

       They both chuckled.

       “No I’m definitely not hitting on you… so what do you mean middle of the pack?”

       “Well hold on… you may as well just take a look at one:

She continued, “This one is for the beverage service speed; we have another, that is almost identical, that ‘helps us optimize our dinner service productivity’.”

H.D smirked, “It sounds like you heard that one from someone once or twice before.”

“You have no idea!” she replied.

H.D. took a deep breath and collected his thoughts before saying anything else to Jackie. Running the food service function of the flight attendant’s job using this tight of controls seemed like overkill, but it wasn’t sticking out like a sore thumb in American business these days.

“So, what would you say this measurement drives you to do?”

“Well, I tend to hurry through my beverage service and I guess if you saw me irritated, it probably is that way to the other customers as well. I didn’t realize.”

“Do you think there is anything significant about that?” H.D. asked inquisitively.

“Well, honestly, our current company tag-line is first-class service, coach-class prices. There is nothing first-class about my service. I probably seem like a crotchety waitress from a New Jersey diner.”

They both laughed out loud.

H.D. continued, “We laugh, but its true. This is probably really hurting your business. Personally, I would pay an extra $20-$50 if I had really crappy service during a flight… Um… I’m not saying your service is bad… just in general that having bad service would make me less inclined to use the same airline again… oh geez… sorry ”

“Yeah just so you know… you’re definitely not going to be having a drink with me now.”

H.D. stumbled over his words, “Um… sorry… You know what I meant.”

She smiled at him and casually let him off the hook.

H.D. took a two-minute pause and drifted away from the conversation. He looked at the chart, looked at Jackie and then looked at the other flight attendant who also seemed to be in a hurry.

H.D. exclaimed, “Son-of-a…”

Jackie chuckled and said, “You look like you saw a ghost. What’s going on?”

“I think I just figured something out that has been stressing me out for about the last three months.”

H.D. handed her his card and then replied, “Do you mind if I have a way of getting in contact with you. I may want to ask you a few more questions about your job?”

She glanced down at his card and said, “What do you do at your company anyways?”

H.D. had always tried to remain humble even though he was more excited than ever about becoming a relatively young chief executive.

H.D. quietly responded as they exchanged numbers, “I’m the CEO. I’m really new though. We are having major problems. If I don’t get to the bottom of this and quickly, I’m not going to be there for long.

Jackie looked genuinely impressed and smiled deeper as they parted ways.

H.D. went back to his seat and got his brief-bag out of the overhead compartment. He rummaged through some of the papers and found what he was looking for, the 2011Annual Report/ Filling to the Securities and exchange Commission. H.D had read this report and others like it from front to back about twenty times while interviewing with the LiTek. However, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until now.

Business Learnings: Annual & Quarterly filings of public companies are always at least somewhat of a sales pitch to investors. I have yet to see one that has said, “We made really bad decisions this year and now our financial statement is totally hosed.”

H.D. ripped a page out of the report and was about to tear it up when he paused and said to himself, “No, this is the problem and the solution.”