Bored/Board? How about a Piggy Paddy Wagon?

“Them hogs are really traveling in comfort” said the truck stop attendant, as the Scenicruiser’s driver leaned toward his window to order a fill up.

Offended, the driver asked the pump jockey why he thought his passengers were piggish. It turned out that an enterprising farmer had bought a similar ex-Greyhound, and was using it to haul hogs to market. He frequently fueled at this truck stop.

I hear you all snickering out there, but this column is NOT about our passengers.

Looking for an efficient way to transport hogs, the farmer had spotted the old bus. Gutted, in someone’s halfhearted attempt to build a motorhome, and available for short money… with a little effort it was ideal as a piggy paddy wagon.

It was a clever way of using something intended for one purpose, to fill an entirely different need.

Have you thought about your Board of Directors? (We’re DONE with the pig metaphor). Many companies are organized so that they require a Board, but often it’s a formality. Other operators are set up so they don’t need one.

Some CEO’s look at a Board like it’s a speed bump… necessary, but irritating.

When properly done, it shouldn’t be that way. If you have the right folks involved, either formally or informally, you can gain valuable insight into how other businesses and coach operators are making money and solving problems.

Unless your corporate structure demands it, you don’t have to have a formal Board, or even meet… but a group of trusted advisors, committed to your business’ success, can’t be a bad thing.

Many operators make frequent phone calls to colleagues. They have a number of folks that they informally poll when making important decisions. They use friends as a sounding board for ideas.

That’s not much different than the farmer using a bus rather than a truck. Using friends in a larger, and useful, capacity is healthy (heck, they may even get something out of it).

Along the same lines, (and just as cheap), consider staying in touch with retirees who’ve worked for either your company, or ones like it. It makes us old geezers feel relevant, and once in a while we slip, and say something useful.

There’s another set of resources who REALLY want to help, and who cost nothing. The sales people who call on you regularly have a wealth of knowledge about all sorts of things. Every group has some good folks, and some losers. By now you’ve figured out which are there just to sell you stuff, and which really want to contribute.

Use the best ones as resources. They can help you understand their product or service, but just as important, they can tell you what other companies are doing. The good ones want to be like Johnny Appleseed… planting good ideas along the way, helping their customers and industry grow.

Your vendors all talk to each other, sharing information about customers, market conditions, and creative ideas. You want to be in that loop. Your fuel vendor knows a ton about engines, and your engine dealer has something to offer about fuel economy. Chemical folks can tell you a lot about how other, related, industries resolve issues, and your Accountant can give insight into how unrelated businesses handle things.

Coach sales people cover large territories, and talk to compatriots and competitors all over the country. It’s likely that, whatever your problem, they (or one of their buddies) have seen it somewhere, and know potential solutions.

You want to be careful what you share (and who you share with), but these folks all have an interest in your success. When you do well, they’ll get a chunk. Figure out who you can trust, and use them. They’ll love it, and it offers extra value to whatever they’re selling.

The ones you can’t trust, why are you buying from them?

Cultivate honesty. Years ago a business book recommended that every company have a “Vice President of Bovine Organic Fertilizer” (my family friendly translation). This is someone who had the courage to tell the CEO that his ideas were… manure. We all need someone like that (for me… it’s my wife)

Any time you can get several of these people in the same room, treat it like a Board Meeting. Bounce ideas off them. You still get to be boss, but if most of the folks you respect think an idea is bad, take a hard look at it.

Sales folks primary function may be selling you the “stuff” it takes to operate, but why can’t you do what the pig farmer did, and use them for something different, but just as important?

NOW, if only the farmer had taught the hogs to use the lavatory… this would have a happy ending (well… not for the pigs).