"Making the very complex...awesomely simple” is no mere catchphrase, it is truly John Spence’s mission in life. Driven by an insatiable curiosity to understand the fundamental aspects of what it takes to achieve and sustain excellence in business and life, John Spence has earned a reputation as a leading authority in the areas of Business Excellence, High-Performance Teams, and Advanced Leadership Development, making him one of the most highly sought after executive educators and professional speakers in America.
John's list of clients includes GE, IBM, AT&T, State Farm, Allstate, Pepsi, NCR, Lanier, Alltel, Frito Lay, the PGA Tour, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the Mayo Clinic and more than 200 other top-level organizations worldwide. John has also been a featured guest lecturer at more than 90 Colleges and Universities including Harvard, Stanford, Rutgers, Cornell and the Wharton School of Business.
John Currently serves as Executive in Residence to the University of Central Florida Technology Incubator and a special advisor to the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University.
John is also the Managing Partner of Flycaster & Company (www.flycasterandcompany.com) a business improvement, strategic branding and graphic design firm based in Gainesville, Florida.
September 9th, 2007
Here is a copy of a recent note I sent to a CEO I am coaching. He is a fantastic guy, really, really smart and does a superior job with his company. He knows all of the things in this memo well (as you likely do too!) it is simply that he needed to be reminded of it – and more importantly, pushed hard to do a better job of executing these key ideas in a consistent way throughout his organization.
January 18th, 2007
For more than a dozen years I have traveled worldwide sharing my insights and ideas with top companies. From IBM and GE to Merrill Lynch and Verizon I have had the opportunity to work closely with senior managers at more than 300 companies. And almost to a person, their top concern after one of my classes is always: “John, we love your session, these are amazing ideas that could have a huge impact on our business… but how do we make sure we take these ideas and put them into action? How do we make sure the training sticks, that this is not just an event but a real catalyst for positive change?”
The answer is simple, but by no means easy. The fulcrum for taking ideas and turning them into action is creating a performance-oriented culture of “disciplined execution.” An organization where people have a sense of urgency to get the most important priorities accomplished and where every person holds themselves and their fellow workers 100% accountable for accomplishing key goals.
October 11th, 2006
I think I am going to get my team to design a new t-shirt for me, it will say in big letters on the front “The Messenger” and all around it will be drawings of bullet holes with blood running down.
Yes, they still shoot the messenger! For the past several years I have been deploying a very in-depth and well-researched “Organizational Effectiveness Audit” for many of my clients. Based on my own experience in working with several hundred companies and adapted from the national “Great Places to Work” study, the audit is superb for identifying specifically where organizations are strong… and where they need work.
August 31st, 2006
I have been jumping up and down on this topic for the past 6 months or so and finally this month almost every major business magazine is featuring cover stories or main stories about how dismal customer service is in America. No kidding – we all know it and live through it every day!
Another great example this morning: I stopped in at my dry cleaners to pick up and drop off some clothes. Last time I was there they had ruined a pair of my pants and gave me a credit for the cleaning bill (yep, they ruin a $65 pair of pants and refund me $2.43 for the price of “cleaning” them – wow, that makes me feel good!) – anyway, I asked the lady at the counter if she would apply the credit to the new “house” account I had just established the week before, to which she replied: “ I am sorry we don’t offer any discounts to people with accounts.” What? First of all this was a credit for a mistake they had made… but it also alerted me that I was no longer going to get the 15% discount I had received for the last 4 years because of a “special customer” program I belonged to.
August 27th, 2006
In another entry on this blog you’ll see a list of key business strategies from a CEO I admire a great deal, Carl Rapp of Philadelphia Gear Corporation - an absolutely super company, very successful, with incredible employees. Now, with all of the praise I just heaped on PGC, let me introduce you to another leader and organization that I am truly impressed with. Skinner Nurseries is one of the country’s leading suppliers of green goods for the landscape industry - they sell trees, shrubs and plants - and they do it extremely well. The COO of the company is a very talented guy named Kevin Van Dyke, who is nearly obsessive in trying to understand and improve the business. Again, he has surrounded himself with a deep bench of the very best people in their industry and he works for great owners, but I also must give a ton of credit to Kevin for the culture, focus and success of Skinner Nurseries – he is definitely a driving force in the operation.
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