Measure What Matters

Jerre L. Stead

"Head Coach," chairman, and CEO
Ingram Micro Inc.
Santa Ana, California

What's the most important metric that I track? Customer delight. Each quarter, we measure our quality of service against that of our competition worldwide: Are we considered statistically equal? Less respected? Or are we much better -- world-class -- compared with our competitors?

We ask our customers 60 survey questions. I have those questions memorized: They're that important to me. They explore a range of issues -- from "My salesperson thinks of me as a partner and provides me with the technical support I need" to "When I call Ingram Micro, the phone is answered within three seconds." Part of our employees' incentive program is based on how customers respond to those questions.

I also measure customer delight by talking directly to customers. Each week, I answer hundreds of customer emails and almost the same number of voice mails. These direct interactions don't provide hard numbers, but I sure learn a lot. A few years ago, I was on a shuttle bus in New York City. When the driver saw the Ingram Micro logo on my bag, he said, "You know, I've been trying for months to become one of your resellers. It's a tough process." Driving was a part-time job for him, and he was trying to become a "customer" -- one of our value-added resellers (VAR).

I thanked him for telling me about his problem, and then I made sure that he got approved that very day. I also assembled a team to streamline our approval process -- ASAP. And we created a new metric: "Has a VAR-customer candidate received a response of yes or no within 24 hours?"

Just for fun, I still track that driver every week. Customer delight is that important.

Jerre L. Stead headed several companies, including AT&T Global Information Systems and Legent Corp., before he joined Ingram Micro in 1996. Ingram is the world's largest distributor of computer-technology products and services. Stead's book, Soaring With the Phoenix (Warner Books), coauthored by James A. Belasco, was published in March.

Gary White

CEO
The Gymboree Corp.
Burlingame, California

What matters at Gymboree is employee satisfaction. We're a company that's centered on kids. Our motto is "Celebrate Childhood." If people aren't happy working here, that's going to show in our products and services for children -- and that won't do.

Each year, we survey all 7,000 of our employees. We ask how they feel about working here and what we can do to make work a better experience. And, to make sure that we get at what's really going on, we ask questions in many different ways. Then we assemble a team to work on what we've learned.

Many of the changes that we've made to create a more comfortable workplace -- for women with children in particular -- have come directly from these surveys. We support telecommuting and flexible work schedules for many jobs. We've made it easier for women who are in the later stages of pregnancy to work: We give pagers to them and to their spouses, so they can be in constant contact with each other during those critical final weeks. And, for parents who return to work, we've set up baby-changing stations in the women's and men's restrooms.

Another lesson that came out of the surveys was the need to keep work fun. So, every Thursday at 3 p.m., we ring a bell and declare recess. Some people walk around a lake that's near our offices. Others play on the grounds. Four square, a schoolyard game, is very popular. You'll get people from information services playing against people from human resources. In that way, people who otherwise might have no interaction come together. Recess is one thing that helps keep us "small" -- even as we grow.

Keeping employees happy is the key to long-term success. That means keeping the channels of communication open -- measuring satisfaction through surveys, as well as by just walking around and checking in with people.

Gary White "celebrates childhood" by collecting yo-yos (he owns 200 of them). He joined Gymboree as senior VP and COO in 1996 and became CEO in 1997. The company runs nearly 400 parent-child play programs and operates more than 500 retail clothing stores.