Key Question:
A: You must help each person find their talents and develop them.
Q: What advantage does Glenn have when it comes to dealing with people?
A: He doesn't expect any of them to act like him or Wanda or even to act like another employee. When it comes to managing people, most of us are guilty of wanting people to act like we act. We try to bend people to our will and mold them into what we want them to be.
Glenn says, "Every one of our employees have special gifts, and we try to use those gifts in the areas that they feel most comfortable in working. We respect our employees as human beings. They perform a service for us, and we could be very cold and just pay them with a paycheck, but they're like family to us."
We see this "family feeling" in most of the businesses we study and it works because it is human nature to want to belong.
Think about it
Do you take time to see every employee as a unique person?
Clip from: Automated Food Systems
He invented a machine, then created, then captured his market.
Duncanville, Texas: This is the story of an American nightmare that turns into the American dream. IIt's a cult classic. It begins when Glenn Walser gets fired from his job. No for goofing off, but for demanding too much - he is a man of principle.
Getting fired on principle -- "I had an argument with the boss" -- has a long tradition in the USA. Many of us just have to work for ourselves. People often say, "I'm unemployable! " It is not that it is has to be my way, but if it can be a better -- faster, cheaper with a higher quality -- then, let's do it! And then, there are so many of us who started our business to vindicate that belief; we needed to prove to ourselves that we were right.
So, meet Glenn Walser. He had an idea for a machine to automate labor-intense processes, but most people just laughed at him.
In 1976 Glenn started this business on a dream and a prayer, created a new industry, and then became the world's leader within it. With one investor who believed he could do it, he went about developing the first automated corndog system. Now, the Walsers have moved out of the passing lane to enjoy a little more of life as it is given while their nephew runs the company day-to-day.
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Automated Foods, Incorporated
Glenn Walser, founder
1034 Explorer Street
Duncanville, TX 75137
Visit our web site: http://afstexas.com
Business Classification:
Food processing, Manufacturing
Year Founded: 1976
Help Others Excel
GLENN: (Voiceover) You have to build a business upon principles. First off, I think a lot of our success has been because we pay attention to details.
We paid attention to design details, we pay attention to financial details, we pay attention to employees. I think one of the most valuable assets that we have as a company is not necessarily our ideas but how we treat our employees.
HATTIE: What do you think you do that others don't do? Or what are you doing that you think we could learn from?
GLENN: We respect our employees as human beings. They perform a service for us, and we could be very cold and just pay them with a paycheck, but they're like family to us.
(Voiceover) Every one of our employees have special gifts, and we try to use those gifts in the areas that they feel most comfortable in working. Jim is a machinist with us. He's a welder, he's an installer. He is really developing into all phases. Now Charles, he is very good in sheet metal bending and forming and fabricating. And John, I couldn't ask for a more easygoing fellow to do any job we ask him to do. Robert is a star. He can do anything that I can do and probably better and faster. And then we have Tina, which does all of our accounting--anything from answering the phone, taking parts orders, shipping parts out to customers. Then we have Shannon, which is our most recent employee. She's our receptionist and does a lot of the taking of parts orders and shipping. And then we have Gwen Collins that started out as a receptionist a couple of years ago, I guess. I inquired did she have any interest in learning mechanical desktop for design, and she jumped at the chance. And within two months, she
was a proficient auto CAD and mechanical desktop user and she can scream when she gets on the computer with a speed far faster than I can. And very soon, we realized what each employee likes to do and what he is happiest doing, and we try to use them in those jobs.
