The Corporate Drain: Solutions for the Inefficient American Workplace

By Yoel Yohan

“His candid insight . . . transforms the boardroom business as usual attitude and leads your corporation to a higher platform of performance.” —Dr. Norman (Chip) Harbaugh, MD, FAAP, CEO/Chairman of the Board-Emeritus/Founder, Kids Health First

It’s time to look at a typical day at work in corporate America and how bad habits, bad procedures, and bad communication creep into the workplace, undermining productivity. Business experts agree that procedural inefficiency is an all-too-familiar theme in today’s workplace and that eliminating it is one of business managers’ most important responsibilities.

The Corporate Drain provides business leaders with tools to recognize problems and tips for raising efficiency and improving performance, such as:

• Unclogging the flood of information (emails, paper reports, meetings, and conference calls)
• Maximizing the potential of each employee using cost-effective incentives
• How training can never be underestimated or over-applied

The globalization of the business world challenges American companies to observe and understand how cultural diversity affects their operations. Author Yoel Yohan, raised in India and educated at a British military school, accredits his successful career at global giant, United Parcel Service, in part to his own cultural diversity.

In The Corporate Drain, Yohan provides powerful examples and tools for profitable growth in today’s international marketplace.

“Addresses the shortfalls in corporate America and uses a common-sense approach in fixing workplace problems. Yoel integrates appropriate humor and not only educates but entertains as well.” —Bill Ribble, former UPS VP

“Yoel has captured the essence of American corporate culture. His recommended solutions can be easily implemented in any business.” —Atif Abdulmalik, CEO, Arcapita Bank

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jan 8, 2007
• ISBN: 9781612541112

Book preview

Introduction

I was eighteen years old and a new American citizen when I first went to work loading trucks for United Parcel Service (UPS) in 1969. My initial plan was to make some money to help offset the expense of going to college. When I retired from the same company thirty-seven years later, I had worked the operations, engineering, logistics, finance, and supply chain for a $40 billion global enterprise with close to half a million employees. The management experience ranged from district and air operations to corporate engineering.

Before taking early retirement at the ripe age of fifty-five, I wore just about every conceivable hat within UPS, from driving trucks to working in the finance department. That’s what managers did back then, when the company was still relatively small and executives needed to be familiar with every aspect of the business. Now it’s different; there are specialists within every department, and it’s becoming less common for young people to work their way up the executive ranks beginning at the lowest rungs of the ladder. But my experience within a successful American company—a company whose very existence relied on efficiency and on creating new models of efficiency—led me to this conclusion:

Corporate America is not efficient.

In fact, it is downright inefficient, wasteful, and even pathological in the creation of behaviors, routines, and bylaws that stifle productivity and growth. My goal in writing this book is to highlight some of the areas that often cause significant loss of productivity within companies and to offer solutions for the same, based on my own unique experience and perspective.

My introduction to business began in Jabalpur, India, a city in central India with ancient roots, where my father held a post as a theology professor. I remember jogging with Dad in the mornings to get milk, carrying an empty bucket. He wanted to see someone milk the cow in front of him. And he paid extra for this privilege! The additional sum meant he could make sure no water was mixed in with the milk. One of my most vivid childhood memories is that of learning that a little extra money is worth the price of quality.

My dad was born in India in 1914 and always talked about how he had seen both world wars. He could easily be dubbed a professional student, since he accumulated ten degrees in his lifetime, ranging from law to theology and culminating with a PhD in sociology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a common Indian custom to honor a person when writing to them by acknowledging their education. His degrees would take up a couple of lines when addressing an envelope.

Dr. Walter Yohan, my dad, was like a machine: he just worked and studied. He taught sociology, philosophy, and world religions at DeKalb College in Georgia until the age of seventy, when he took mandatory retirement. Little did I know that later I would become that same working machine. I believe I inherited his focus on achievement, which is what kept me going for thirty-seven years at UPS. His teaching career spanned fifty years. He passed away in 2000.

My mom, Dr. Shantilata Yohan, joined my father in the United States in 1962. She went to school in Nashville and followed Dad to Atlanta in 1963. She also completed her PhD in psychology at Georgia State University and was a professor at DeKalb College until the age of seventy. She has held positions on the global board of the local Methodist church and continues to travel and speak to women’s groups around the world, even in her eighties.

While in India, Dad and Mom had the insight to teach me the English language at home. They knew that I would learn the Indian language anyway, so Hindi became my second language, after English. To reinforce this, they made sure I attended a British military school.

Like my dad, the headmasters at the military school were particular about having things done a certain way. I recall how the uniforms we wore were frequently checked for proper fit. All the students had to have the width of their trouser bottoms inspected, and the hems could not measure less than fourteen inches wide. The fashion in those days was to wear narrow trousers—a fad the British had started. As ridiculous as this may sound, it taught me attention to detail at an early age.

Attending a British military school in India helped me with my discipline, motivation, and drive to persevere, regardless of the obstacles. Little did I know that the training I received at that school would prepare me for my future business career in the United States and prove invaluable in my success.

My parents had planned to stay only two years in the United States to earn their degrees, but realizing it would take longer, they sent for me when I was thirteen, along with my eleven-year-old brother. We arrived in New York in 1964 on a Pan Am flight. I had only eight dollars with me, which equaled the maximum forty rupees that could be converted per person.

Since I had attended only English-speaking schools in India, there was no language barrier to assimilation in my new country. But there were some cultural barriers. Often, when I did things the way they were done at the British school—like standing up to answer questions asked by a teacher—I was immediately ridiculed by my classmates. There was also an age difference to contend with: at fifteen I was a senior in high school, and at sixteen I started college. This proved to be a disadvantage both in sports and in social activities. But I liked the United States and was determined to be a success.

I began as a truck loader for UPS. My last six years with the company were spent at the corporate offices in Atlanta in the industrial engineering department, working as a project manager and business planner responsible for budget planning processes. The intervening years of development were instrumental in my knowledge and insight into corporate American business, since my career path touched many diverse occupations. I have learned not only what works best but also what does not work. Throughout my career, I have managed and touched the lives of thousands. My mentorship abilities have developed success for many more. The legacy and reputation I developed for myself involved integrity, strong personal relationships, and unsurpassed knowledge of the business.

Many of the insights in this book come from the knowledge and application of cultural diversity; my training in the British military school system; and the genuine interest taken by my American teachers and professors to help me while I was coping with cultural differences. I have the greatest admiration for my UPS mentors and coaches, who truly put their faith and confidence in my abilities. There are so many that naming them would be impossible, and I would most certainly leave someone out.

Now it’s time to look at a typical day in corporate America and see what doesn’t seem to be working. . . .

PART 1

WORK FLOW

Unclogging the Information Pileup

CHAPTER 1

Conference Calls, Meetings, & Reports

How does information flow through a corporation? It’s worth thinking about for a minute, considering that information is the recognized coin of the realm, the key to operating successfully and maintaining a competitive advantage. Possibly the largest paradigm shift of our time has been the wholesale conversion of most aspects of our lives into information that can then be processed, stored, and picked apart for new information.

Yet the way most corporations handle information internally is largely inefficient and actually forms a barrier to the flow of meaningful communication. There are three particular culprits in this area: conference calls, meetings, and reports.

CONFERENCE CALLS

In one of my many operations jobs at UPS, I was asked to be on a conference call every day at 9:30 a.m. The call usually lasted one hour.

Let’s look at the preparation time for just this one conference call. The information to be discussed involved figures that were only available at 7:00 p.m. the night before the