BEST PERSONAL BUSINESS PRACTICES



BEST PERSONAL BUSINESS PRACTICES

The Rotary International Club has a test for interactions and communications. This Four-Way test is simple and yet serves as a guideline for Personal Best Practices in business relationships.

1. Is it the TRUTH?

2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3. Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

TRUTH

We all know that the truth or reality to one person may not be true to the next person. However, in a business context, identifying what is true is critical. Sometimes reality is harsh and others don’t want to hear it (think Enron), but a responsibility of a Best Practices company is to encourage truth-telling so that the company can improve.

A few years ago, a conversation occurred between an attorney for a life insurance company and an assessor for the then-new Insurance Marketplace Standards Association. The assessor was suggesting that the lawyer’s company should go through the rigorous testing and qualify to become a member of this ethics-based organization.

The attorney replied, “We know we have problems, but we can’t afford the cost of fixing them.” Three years later, the same company was fined $10 million by state Insurance Regulators who found those same problems they “couldn’t afford to fix.” The hard truth now may save your company from a harsher truth later.

FAIRNESS

The best companies in the insurance industry consider fairness to their policy holders in addition to the strict interpretation of legal requirements for dealing with them. In a complaint situation, in addition to the company’s standard practices, the consumer’s viewpoint is taken into account. When appropriate, the company has a chance to “wow” the policy holder by a standard practice of fairness. Exceptions are also sometimes made in order to be fair.

One forward step in working fairly with other people is to assume the best. Assume that every person, including you, is doing the best they can this minute with what they have to work with. The opposite, of course, is assuming that everyone else is out to get the better of everyone else and that assumption is the fountain of a lot of negative “vibes.”

Presuming the best of everyone allows the company to treat every person fairly, including the company itself. This is not a gambit that requires a company to give everyone else a better deal, nor does it require it to sacrifice its own interests – it requires the company to consider its own interests equally with others’ interests.

GOOD WILL AND BETTER FRIENDSHIPS

Companies don’t usually think in terms of “friendships”, but they certainly value the good will of the community, customers and regulators. The best companies consider their relationships with outside “shareholders” as vitally important and cultivate those with good will.

BENEFITS FOR ALL

One methodology of business decisions involves a process of predicting end results of each potential decision. The advisors determine who all the owners are in the decision, what the ideal solution would be for each of the owners, and the decision that would be the best possible outcome for each of the owners combined.

For instance, in a merger of two or more companies, decisions must be made about which procedure will be put in place for the new combined licensing departments.

In this situation, the owners of the problem and potential solutions are identified as (1) Company A department employees , (2) Company B department employees, (3) producers going forward and (4) customers going forward.

The quickest solution would be to apply the procedure of the “winning” company in the merger to the new entity. However, the BEST practice might be something different. The two companies’ procedures would need to be compared in the light of what’s best for the producer, the (new) company and the customer in the long run. The procedures adopted for the new entity may include the background check thoroughness from one of the two companies, the more restrictive Appointment Guidelines from the other company, and new training standards different from either company.

While this Best Practice decision-making process certainly takes longer than a snap decision, employee morale is better, producer quality and retention is better, and customers are certainly better served.

CONCLUSION

The Rotary Four-Way test brings out the best in relationship-building on a personal level all the way up to a business-to-business or business-to-regulator level. It can be a personal choice as well as a company choice to adopt this Best Practice.

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