More on my train ticket saga, they weren't as clever as I thought...

If you want to read from the start of this story then please go to the original post by clicking here. You probably won't understand what I am talking about if you haven't read it, sorry.

Two weeks ago, back again at my favourite airport train line, I arrived to find that not only was the ticket machine displaying "Exact Change Only", but this time the clever people were not as clever as I thought in my last post and had put the train fare up to $20.20. Luckily I had the extra 20 cents as well as my usual twenty dollar note and could catch the train coming in four minutes instead of joining the long queue at the ticket booth.

Returning this week I find they have installed specific ticket machines that are connected for credit card or ATM transactions, but only tickets to the City not anywhere else on the train network.

I wonder if the extra 20 cents was to;

• pay for the Credit Card machines
• because the ticket machines kept running out of change
• because they had outsourced their operation,
• because they were trying to save money,

possibly 20 cents a customer?

Meanwhile I had my $20:20 cents ready and was on my way.

Riveting stuff I know :-),

Rob

CEOs need to understand their employee's time horizon

Much has been written about getting "buy-in" from the employees when senior executives want to create change. Yet often the new CEO falls into the trap of "telling" the employees the new direction for the organization. As opposed to working with their employees; listening, talking, brainstorming in order to form a joint view of the new way forward.

An understandable reason for this is that the new CEO is under time pressure to get things done. Wall Street wants results as soon as possible. Taking the time upfront to formulate a collective view is either seen as taking too long or the result of the CEO not being a decision maker or both.

But here is the rub. The time horizon of the new CEO is one to five years. They need tangible results within twelve to eighteen months and their overall tenure is likely to be around five years. The time horizon for the employees is actually longer than this, they see themselves working for the same organization for at least five, ten, fifteen years or more. So when the new CEO starts 'telling" them about the new direction they either agree with what the CEO is saying and get on board or if they disagree they simply decide to "wait this one out" and see what the next CEO brings.

I wonder how many CEOs out there have the majority of their employees "waiting this one out" while they are puzzled because real change isn't taking place?

Regards,

Rob