Being different really works, and can be applied in so many ways.

In Las Vegas, I had the privelege of serving as Director Of Engineering / Operations from July 1998 to December of 2000. I gave myself a "Christmas Present" that year...and retired after 28 years in the telecom business.

Being different has paid off big time for me as an individual. Reading about successes like Southwest Airlines (The book "Nuts" regarding Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines was really neat!), as well as a number of other individuals has been key for me to be willing to be different.

When I assumed the position in Vegas, I even started out different.

Though I had been in management for many years, I had always kept my installation and field skills sharp by being a field manager with my employees, versus the "I got promoted and now I'll sit in my office" kind of guy.

I was living in Seattle at the time, and saw an opportunity for the position of Director Of Operations / Engineering for the Las Vegas Market in the classifieds of the Seattle Times. The opportunity sounded very interesting, and I had wanted to move to Las Vegas for a long time anyway, so I thought...what the heck.

But I took a different approach to applying for the position. I instead applied for a position as an installation contractor through a temporary placement agency, rather than actually going straight to the company.

I was hired to install a number of equipment racks, and a couple of DS-3 multiplexers, and I hauled myself on down to Vegas, and began work “in the field” for a couple of weeks.

I found that I liked the company, and decided to apply for the position of Director for the Las Vegas market.

The VP's office for the Nevada market was local, so I got a copy of my resume, called the VP, and asked if I could speak with him for a moment. He agreed.

I walked in, closed the door, and gave him my resume. There was a moment of silence. He then asked me what I had been doing at the company for the last few weeks, and I told him I had been installing equipment racks and such, and he sat back and a very interesting discussion took place.

He asked me to keep all of this silent, to continue working, and he would contact the regional VP, and get back to me. He also asked for a documented report of the changes that I would make in the market, should the job be offered.

So I went back to work, and kept my mouth shut. I also began writing the report.

I didn't hear anything for over a week, then got a call that he wanted to see me. Could I come in the following day? Sure! He also said I should be prepared to meet 2 key regional VP's regarding the position.

I tweaked my report that evening, and headed for the meeting the next day.

The 2 players were the VP's for the multi-state region, and they couldn't believe the approach I had taken in looking at the position. We discussed the method I had used, kind of a "stealth" approach, and they were impressed with the whole concept.

The meeting then turned to my observations of the work force, any changes I thought needed to be made, and on and on.

We talked for a number of hours, and then called it a day. They said they would be in touch.

The next week, on a Monday morning while I was in the field doing an installation, I got a call about 10:00, and was offered the job over the phone.

They then asked me to come to the breakroom area at noon.

I started cleaning up my tools, and headed for the offices. I walked in, and had about 20 minutes until going to the breakroom. While sitting at my "contractor" desk, there was an announcement on the overhead speaker system. It asked all employees to meet in the breakroom at noon, as there was to be a special announcement. I now, for the first time...was nervous!

As approximately 80 employees gathered in the lunchroom area, I took my place among them, and wondered what would be next. We hadn’t rehearsed this, so I just sat there…nervously.

The VP took the floor, and began telling the story of how he had been looking for the right person for the Director position for about 4 months, and that he had finally found the right person. He began to read my resume of the previous 25 plus years, but as of yet, had not said who the person was. When he was finished, he said, "So, without further explanation, I would like to ask John Palma to step forward."

I will never forget that moment. The place was in shock. It was definitely a different way of doing things.

Fortunately, during my time there as a contractor, I had made many friends, and had earned some respect as an installer. So even though they were very surprised, I had taken care to win the folks as friends during the waiting period I had been going through.

There were some tense moments during the next 2 weeks with a couple of the managers who had previously been giving me orders, as they all now worked for me, but we got through those issues and worked everything out.

We bonded as a team, and began making a number of the changes over the next few months in the market that I had observed needing some work while I had worked in the field.

During the next 2 1/2 years, the market went from being number 26 of 26...i.e. Nevada was the worse market in the network of cities, to number 1. We accomplished it through a number of very practical but different ways of serving our customers.

Since I had the responsibility for managing every department except sales, I could get everyone together and work on problems as a team. This proved to be a first for this group.

I created a “war room” to solve problems. I choose to cover the fancy walls with $15.00 sheets of 4’ by 8’ sheets of marker board, all the way around the room. I changed the sign on the door from Conference Room to War Room to convey the fact. At first I had some resistance, as it was taken as a negative, like we were going to get together and fight with each other. But when we got together for our first session, I explained to them that the war wasn’t in our midst, it was “out there”. I explained that we were at “war” with our competitors, and that if we didn’t work together as a team, putting aside departmental turfs and such, we would be our own worst enemy, and bring ourselves down as a market. Though there were a few fights, everyone soon learned I meant business when it came to solving our problems, and there were no sacred cows or departments immune to being called on the war room carpet. When daily problems arose, we would get folks together right then, define what had occurred, and hammer out workable procedures and compromises as a team. Things began to change. The group began to see the whole picture, rather than just their own little group. The customer and their needs became the focus. I got it through their heads that the customer didn’t exist to fit our procedures, but rather our procedures had to exist to fit the customer. 2 of the 9 managers didn’t like the group approach, and after 2 months of trying to get them to work with me, I found it was futile. They were “empowered to seek employment elsewhere”.

Other creative approaches were employed, and it was really a cool 2 ½ years of my life.

I have now been gone from the company for nearly 2 years, but I am still very close to the management group that we had. They were a great bunch of folks. I have many fond memories of how being different paid off both personally for me in securing the position, and then for the market in moving to be number 1 in the company.

In fact, I still get together with them for to play poker, and I really feel for them in the industry of today. It’s a shame that the telecom industry has been devastated with all the scandals and such.

Anyway, I have now started a newsletter, and I hope to be different with it as well.

Since “retiring”, I have gotten interested in this whole information product arena. I have been very disappointed with the bulk of "newsletters" I subscribe to. Most are way to full of "buy this by mid-night" kind of stuff, and most seem to lack the thought provoking and practical ideas that one would expect to offer to someone in exchange for the time they invest in reading and trust they give to an “information publisher”.

I hope I can be different, even in this new venture of becoming an information publisher. I have a lot to learn, but so far, I am enjoying the process.

I apologize for the length of this post…I get carried away with the memories of times gone by.

John Palma




http://www.cluelessinlasvegas.com