6. See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It.

Take personal responsibility for making things happen. Respond to every situation with a can do attitude, rather than explaining why it can’t be done. Be resourceful and show initiative. Always stay above the line.

Matt's Message:

I have been with Famous just over seven great years now, and with National Accounts since the beginning. Not only have I seen Famous grow by leaps and bounds, but have also have seen National Accounts bloom into an important segment of our company. The reason for this is that we have great associates who practice this fundamental in our daily business affairs, and in our personal lives as well.

I take this particular fundamental to heart as I feel in today’s society people are so quick to come up with reasons why something cannot be done, as opposed to figuring out what it is going to take to get the task completed.

In my days prior to coming on with Famous I dealt with many contractors on a daily basis and the one common denominator I found with quite a few of my coworkers was they always had excuses as to why a particular task could not be done, or why they didn’t show up to complete the task at hand. As you can imagine, that can be quite a frustrating thing to deal with on a daily basis. After coming to Famous my perspective changed. Day in and day out I saw everyone put forth an effort to identify issues and take responsibility to make sure solutions were initiated. It was a breath of fresh air.

Many years ago, when National Accounts was in its infancy, we had growing pains with this new program.  One example I remember very vividly was our customer had forgotten to order 12 water heaters that they needed for the next day for inspections. Many people would say “Well they forgot to order the material. Not our problem.”  NOT Famous! We identified the issue, figured out the logistics, and made it happen. Some of our competitors would have said “We will get them out to you tomorrow.”  With no box trucks available, we put the heaters onto a pickup truck and made several trips to take care of our customer’s needs.  It felt great to work as a team to make it happen rather than saying “No, we can’t do that”.

SEE IT: Identify the issue.

OWN IT: Take personal responsibility for the problem at hand. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it.

SOLVE IT: Identify what can be done to solve the problem as well as identifying the root cause so a process can be put in place and the issue can be avoided in the future.

DO IT: Put your plan in motion and see it through till the end to make sure it goes off without a hitch.

Live this fundamental in your personal life as you would in your professional life. If you are a success at home you will be a success at the office!

Matthew Casey
Operations Manager / National Accounts