In Sink Out-of-the-Box Thinking

By Dean Sink, Mickey President

Probably one of the surest ways to stunt the growth of a company is to keep doing something ?because that?s the way it?s always been done.? Sound familiar? If that?s the policy, or the protocol ? even if it has always worked – then doesn?t it make sense that you will never improve the process, the product, the service?

For example, conventional combo bodies and trailers always got the job done for delivering both draft and packaged beer products off the same truck. So if Robert Badely and his team at our Southeast Reconditioning/Service Center in Ocala, FL accepted the status quo, they would never have brainstormed the idea of putting the keg bays on the bottom of the truck to make unloading easier for the driver. It?s a great story of out-of-the-box thinking that you can read more about in this issue of The Mickey Spirit.

Another case in point is the Mickey Mobile Service Program, which we also write about in this edition. If we continued to do things the way everybody else does them, we?d bring trucks into one of our facilities for warrantee work or ship the customer the required parts so they could make the repairs on their own. Of course we?ll do those things as required, but we add one other option: we?ll send one of our dedicated mobile service trailers with a trained Mickey crew and all the necessary tools and equipment to do the work on-site at the customer location. I agree with Larry Jacobs, our Customer Service Manager, when he says: ?It?s all about taking care of the customer, whatever it takes.? Even if it takes doing something differently.

Then there?s the story of Ajax Turner Co., Inc., an Anheuser-Busch wholesaler in La Vergne, TN that tailors its delivery system to the specific needs of the specific customer. “You have to deliver in ways that make money and make sense for both you and your customer,? says Gil Williams, Ajax Fleet Manager. ?There?s no such thing as a cookie cutter delivery model.”

It’s like they say on Wall Street: ?Past performance is no guarantee of future results. And it?s like we say here at Mickey: “Just because it’s always been done a certain way doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way.”

Enjoy this issue of The Mickey Spirit.