The feature for this week's Undercover Boss is Mike White, President and CEO of Direct TV, a $23 million company, the largest in the United States and Latin America! Mike White did not start from the bottom of the barrel of Direct TV. He was recruited about 6 months ago from Pepsico management team where he worked for 20 years! So, the employees might still not know him! Are you sure about that? Because in my company, we always know who our CEO is, they always have news when a new CEO is named!! Anyway, let us go back to where I was.....
Direct TV is one company that is not hit by the recession. Why? Many more people are staying home and not going out. As a result, Direct TV have been adding jobs because of demand! Good for the company!!!
Mike is married and have 3 kids, 2 daughters and a son. He is managing 23,000 employees, and his goal for the company is to continue to innovate for the future generation! When he was on the field, he saw some things that can be improved with his company, which he told his management team. He posed as Tom Peter, an unemployed salesman.
His first stop was in the service training center in Bersamar, Alabama,where he met with Phil, a service technician. He found out from Phil that the GPS in the van was his, and not supplied by the company!! What? That is a million dollar company, and cannot even supply the GPS to their service technician!!! Hmmm...!!! That is peanuts compared to how much they earn!!! On the house they had to service, they needed an HD receiver which they did not have in the van! Phil quickly made some calls to find one and he got one in 20 minutes! Mike was so impressed with Phil that on the revelation time of his true identity, he told Phil that the company will provide GPS for all service technician! He also gave $5,000 to Phil to help his youth ministry. Nice!!!
He went next to Las Vegas, the Direct TV warehouse where he met with Ryan, a warehouse specialist. He was amazed how organized Ryan was. When the people came to get the orders, the CEO was overwhelmed and had problem finding where everything was. Well, I would too if this was the first day on the job!! Yikes!! You are making excuses for the CEO!!! Why not? He is also human!!! Mike also found out that delivery is only on Thursdays which is not good! Ryan told Mike that he has a degenerative disk and was out of commission for 7 months, amd he has a wife and 2 kids to support! Why does the CEO always seems to probe on the employees lives? That makes the program more interesting, so the people that the CEO had contact with can be rewarded!!! That is not fair! How about the other employees that did not have contact with him but still performing their jobs efficiently above and beyond? Who knows, and who cares??? What was Ryan's reward? He told Ryan to organize the best party for his 2 boys and he will pay for it!! That is good and dandy, but what about the long range reward? You can never be satisfied, can you?
Next place where he visited was the direct installation service in Birmingham, Alabama. The service technician was Tequilla who has been working with the company for 3 years! That is right, a woman technician who had been questioned by customers! Mike found out that Tequilla is a very strong woman and is really good with her work. During the installation, it was raining hard, and here was Tequilla on the ladder on the roof! My! My! My! I did not know that in inclement weather the installation had to go on! As a result of being slowed down by Mike, Tequilla missed her family reunion! Her reward? To be the first woman technician in the women's leadership skill team. She also had a family reunion all paid for by the CEO!
Last stop was with Chloe, customer support in Denver, Colorado. Mike was so impressed with how she handles customers that she is the first recipient of Direct TV $10,000 scholarship. She is also to meet with Mike twice a year for mentoring.
Comments, anyone???
Posted by vs at 10/12/2010 8:47 AM | Add Comment
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment