Chamber University > Articles of the Month > November

How A Small Local Laundry Company Grew
By Bill Miller
Founder, Performance Leadership LLC.

How did a small local laundry grow into a multi-billion dollar international corporation we know as Cintas today? In a word “talent”…the kind of talent that thrives in a culture of honesty, opportunity, and commitment. In the future, companies leading their Industries will be those companies that can effectively identify, acquire, and retain talent. Companies can no longer afford the cost of high employee turnover and the exodus of talented people. Companies can no longer accept attrition and mediocre performers as an inherent cost of doing business.

Mediocre performers and high attrition rates impede growth and destroy company agility and competitiveness. The two major causes of attrition and mediocre employee performance are….

• Hiring practices and…
• Leadership and people skill problems on the frontline. 

30% of business failures are due to poor hiring practices. Annual losses generated by poor hires, absenteeism, drug abuse, and theft amount to $75 billion per year according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.  Hiring is the beginning of everything. The cost of hiring mistakes is enormous - ranging from 30% of an hourly employee’s annual income to 150% of a manager’s yearly salary.  “Bad hires” and turnover take an enormous toll on morale, growth, profits, customer relations, missed goals and objectives…not to mention the threat of legal hassles and headaches.  

Building a winning team has everything to do with leadership and people skills. Research has revealed that 50% of employee job satisfaction is determined by the quality of relationship with their manager.  Many companies are floundering in their attempts to improve employee retention because they have not placed the responsibility for positive and constructive relationships with employees squarely in the hands of the frontline managers.

Successful leaders have the ability to develop individual talent, and aggregate individual talent into peak performing teams.  Developing a motivated peak performing team isn’t a mystery.  It begins with the leader’s conviction that achievement is the key to motivation.  There is nothing like success to foster positive attitudes and high morale.  Great leaders focus on improving performance.  They create an environment that fosters individual achievement.  And with achievement follows enthusiasm, commitment, and loyalty.  In business today productive employees must become even more productive.  We are doing so through improved technology, improved processes, “old fashioned American ingenuity” and…higher standards of leadership.

The demand for effective leadership and supervision is greater than it has ever been.  Business leadership and supervision is harder today. The pool of talent in America is shrinking.  In our world of intense competition, career mobility, and a shrinking talent pool, we can no longer afford the mistakes made by leaders with poor people skills and complacent attitudes towards employees.  We need leaders who appreciate and understand people… fair minded leaders who inspire rather than dictate. We need practical leaders who practice common sense, and who can face “tough” people decisions and bring them to conclusion.

There are no “natural born leaders.” Leadership is a talent - - the result of genuine appreciation and understanding of people, and the development of specific personal skills.  Every leader has a unique personal “management style.”  People don’t follow mission statements on the wall, a declaration in the corporate lobby, or a letter from the board of directors.  People follow people. People don't quit companies. They quit managers.

Performance and growth depend upon building a winning organization.  Building a winning organization depends upon hiring processes and frontline leadership and people skills.  The objective is to attract, hire, and retain talented employees matched to corporate culture and business strategy.

Following a successful 35-year career with Cintas Corporation, Bill founded Performance Leadership, LLC.  Since then, his company has been helping clients in the tri-state area build talented organizations drawing upon the knowledge and experience gained in helping develop one of the most talented business organizations in America.