Unknown Roads and Experienced Travelers

By David Dora

If one is fortunate during a business career, at some point, experience and knowledge become wisdom. For countless business people, this process can take many years.

The blessing of experience-driven wisdom is that it enables you to look back with understanding and to view current events with insight. Wisdom helps to more accurately predict how present-day situations may unfold.

Whatever the stage of your career, or level of management, this book offers shared wisdom and lessons to help navigate the business world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781329815551

Book preview

Unknown Roads and Experienced Travelers

UNKNOWN

ROADS

AND

EXPERIENCED

TRAVELERS

Experience-Driven Wisdom

for Navigating

The Business World

DAVID M. DORA

Copyright © 2015 by David M. Dora

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2015

ISBN 978-1-329-81555-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015907709

Published by:

BDD Graphics
33822 Blue Lantern St.


Dana Point, CA 92629

www.facebook.com/bddgraphics

[e-mail]

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

Dedication

This book is dedicated to three mentors I was fortunate to have during my early, middle, and late career:

Michael L. Cannon - President, Cannon Institute

Joseph FioRica - Executive Vice President & General Manager, Member Board of Directors, Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (Retired)

Robert O. Shepard - Executive Vice President, Corporate Administration, Member Board of Directors, Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (Retired)

Introduction

The wisdom collected in this book is for all levels and stages of your career. The early chapters provide wisdom for those individuals beginning their working careers and learning how to be productive.

Subsequent chapters focus on building communication skills, creative thinking, satisfying customers, and staying out of trouble on projects. For those who aspire to management, there is a chapter about the basic wisdom of first-time management, as well as chapters that address the progression to senior manager.

Traditionally, learning to be productive and competent in a career has involved a combination of activities:

Academic training andlearning

On-the-jobexperience

Mentoring; working with an experienced person who passes on the lessons learned through their work experience; their experienced-driven wisdom.

Most of us will not be able to remember all the elements of an academic theory. However, most of us can remember a catchy work-related saying that will be shared with you by mentors and peers. For example, if you are a beginning automobile mechanic, you will read about right-hand threads on nuts, bolts, and screws. But the saying your mentor probably taught you was righty tighty, lefty loosey, and that is more likely to have stuck in your mind.

How is experience-driven business wisdom communicated in the workplace? My personal and observational experience is that as you work in business, very often you’ll hear a phrase, a short story, a parable, or a pithy line, that constitutes what I refer to as a business wisdom. These sayings communicate the unwritten rules of work, reflect the organizational culture, and summarize the working experience that has been gained through years of trial and error by countless people.

The Source of Business Wisdom

Business wisdom develops over time as practitioners in business experience similar situations, problems, and successes. This practical experience creates communal knowledge and insight, or business wisdom.

Wisdom Sayings are normally short and memorable, designed to communicate the wisdom of people’s experience and many times help us avoid mistakes. They are often humorous, and sometimes take the form of play on words

I have a favorite bit of business wisdom:

It is best to go down an unknown road with an experienced traveler

I think most readers have heard phrases such as learn from your mistakes, failure is a good teacher, and School of Hard Knocks. At times you have also probably heard, or thought to yourself, I wish I had known about this five years ago! In other words, you are traveling an unknown road.

You can learn from the experience of others, who became competent on the job, managed their careers, and became effective managers in a business environment. These are your experienced travelers.

This book attempts to capture the forty-two years of my own working experience. It is my hope that you will enjoy and benefit from the wisdom accumulated during my four-decade business journey and the sharing of my own experiences as well as those of my peers, superiors, subordinates, and mentors.

Chapter 1 -

Career Planning and Brand You

I began my business career in 1970, and retired in 2012. My first position was Manager Trainee/Assistant Manager at a JC Penny Store. By the end of my working career I had become Executive Vice President of Corporate Operations, Chief Operating Officer and Board of Directors Member for Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. This was the highest position that an American could hold in this Japanese subsidiary company; referred to as the Senior American Executive. The president was always a Japanese manager who was assigned by the parent company for a five-year term.

During my forty-two years in business I observed what I believe to be a number of common elements of successful business careers. How well you conduct yourself, as well as how you manage the various situations and hurdles you will face in the workplace, will play a role in how well your career progresses.

Career Planning:

Where to start?

In the beginning, you must have passion:

•         What do you like to do?

•         Do you like what you are doing?

The difference between these two questions is about avocations versus vocations. There are many things that people like to do but they are not activities for which you can earn a living. For example, you may like to play baseball but are nowhere close to having enough skill to be a professional major-league baseball player.

Most people choose a vocation that will earn them a living. But it is still very important to like the work that you do in your vocation. This does not mean that you must enjoy every day on the job, but rather that in general and in the long run, you should derive satisfaction from your work.

If you are working at a job where almost every day is unbearable drudgery, and many days you almost cannot drag yourself out of bed to go to work, it’s time to freshen up your résumé and start looking for new job. If you are miserable on the job it will show in your performance. Your coworkers will know you are miserable, your superiors will know you are not happy, and the quality of your work will suffer.

Getting help with career direction:

The great majority of people who finish high school or college do not have a very good idea of what they want to do for a career. Often, they accept the first job that is offered. I was one of these people.

I’ve also read that of those individuals who obtain a college degree, after five years of work three out of five of them are working in a profession that is unrelated to their degree. I was one of these people.

My bachelor’s degree was in Psychology. My first job out of college in 1970 was in retail sales at JC Penney. After one year on the job, I was dissatisfied. I found that I did not like retail sales and each day was drudgery. I needed to find a different career, but what?

Interest and aptitude testing:

In 1971, I read a newspaper article about career guidance that discussed a process of Interest and Aptitude testing that was offered by a local university. This was not like the one hour preference testing that was done in high school. This involved taking 70–100 tests that could take as long as six months to complete.

The goal of the tests was to determine a person’s three strongest Interests and three strongest Aptitudes; then to make three career suggestions that correlated the person’s Interests and Aptitudes. In 1971, I spent five months taking these tests, and three career suggestions were given to me:

•         Computer Systems Analyst

•         Market Research Analyst

•         Operations Management

After some quick research on each of these careers, I decided to pursue work as a computer programmer. The local community college offered courses for a degree in Business Data Processing. This was 1972, a few years before the founding of Apple, and there was no such thing as a four-year degree in Computer Science. Within eighteen months I completed the Associate of Arts degree, and was working as a beginning computer programmer. It’s hard to explain, but for me, computer programming was as easy as breathing.

During my first two years as a computer programmer I found myself always working on business systems. It became obvious to me that I needed a business education. So I enrolled in a local college’s MBA program. I completed the program in 1975. A year later I was offered a lightweight operations management position and left the career of computer programming. This new job was in line with my current career plan and compatible with the three career directions that had been suggested to me. I remained in operations management for the balance of my working career.

Today there are a number of private companies that offer Interest and Aptitude testing for career guidance. I have recommended this process to many individuals over the years. Everyone I know who has used this process to help determine their career direction has been happy with the results. I advise people to find these companies by calling the career placement department of a local college or university to ask for recommendations.

Go to where the work is.

If the profession you desire does not exist where you currently live, you need to relocate to the geographical area where the work is concentrated. For example:

•         If you want to be in country music – Go to Nashville.

•         If you want to be in investment banking – Go to Wall Street.

•         If you want to be in politics – Go to the City, County Seat, State Capital, or Washington, DC.

•         If you want to be in musical theater – Go to Broadway.

•         If you want to be a rock star – Go to YouTube!

Get a seat at the table.

In 1974, I was in a business class working towards my MBA. There was a fellow in the class, about 45 years old, who was the Plant Manager of a manufacturing company. I think they made tin cans. One day he told the class that he had joined his company after graduating from high school. His first job was sweeping the floors. Twenty plus years later he was the plant manager.

I was not able to find a job as a beginning computer programmer in 1972. At that time, the Aerospace Industry was downsizing the US Space program and hundreds of laid off computer programmers were looking for work in Southern California; and I had no working experience as a computer programmer. I found a job as a computer operator trainee; my seat at the table. Five months later, a computer programmer’s job came open came at the company, and I was promoted to Computer Programmer Trainee.

Interviewing

To get a seat at the table you will need to go through the interview process. You can find a lot of reference information on the Internet on how to interview. Here are some basics:

You’re a candidate from outside the company:

•          Research the company and its products.

•          If the company is publicly traded, look up the current stock price.

•          Call the company, talk to the receptionist, and very politely explain that you will be coming in the following day to interview for a particular position, and that you would like to know if there is a current employee with the same position that you could speak with to learn more about what he or she does. The worst that can happen is that your request will be turned down. The point is that you should take the initiative to find out as much as you can beforehand.

You’re a candidate from inside the company:

•         Obtain and read the detailed job description for the position for which you are interviewing.

•         If the open position is because a current employee is leaving the company, call them and ask them to tell you about their job.

•         If the company is adding additional employees for a position, call a person who does this job and ask them what they do.

During the interview:

•         For questions about why you are applying for this position, always give run to answers, not run from answers. Run to answers tell your interviewer that you are moving towards a goal, such as a greater challenge, more responsibility, etc. Run from answers tell your interviewer that you are running away from what you consider to be a bad situation, such as you don’t like your boss, you don’t like your coworkers, you don’t like the work, etc. Run from answers imply negativity. For more examples, see Chapter 8 - Run From versus Run To Interviews.

•         As you answer the interviewer’s questions, intersperse your own questions into the dialogue. You are indicating to the interviewer that not only are you interested, but that you have initiative

•         Normally at the end of an interview, you’ll be asked, Do you have any questions? The absolute WORST thing you can do is to answer No. You need to have three to five questions written down that you can ask. Some examples:

•         What is the decision process for filling this open position?

•         I have heard your requirements and I have presented my qualifications, I believe I can be an asset for your team.

•         Who would I be reporting to if you select me?

•         I read in the Wall Street Journal that you launched a new product last month; how are sales going?

•         How do you feel about me as a candidate?

•         When will the decision be made?

Post Interview Follow-up:

•         The day of the interview, or no later than the following day, send the interviewer an email, letter, or card thanking him or her for the interview opportunity and expressing your confidence in your ability to do the job and to be a good addition to their company.

•         When you asked the question, how do you feel about me as a candidate,