Simplicity’s Magic Word

The red rash around the top of the collar gives it away. The urgent tone of his voice only confirms Kate’s hunch. Mark is angry.

‘You said “no” to that urgent order I sent through,’ says Mark sharply.

‘That’s right. We can’t do it in the time you want.’ Kate surprises herself with her outward calmness.

‘But we … you … we … never say “no”. We’re all about service, remember. Service. The customer as number one and all that. Isn’t that what we talked about only last weekend at the retreat?’

‘Yes,’ replies Kate, ‘but it was “customers” that we talked about. Not “the loudest customer with the most urgent order”. There is a difference.’

‘Oh, come on! These guys have an urgent order themselves which they won’t be able to meet if we can’t supply them today. They’ll go nuts. I’ll be spending the next few weeks getting them back on board.’

‘That might be the price we pay for avoiding a whole lot of cost and hassle for a lot of other people,’ says Kate. ‘I could change all our plans to get this urgent order through. If I do that, I will satisfy this one customer. Given that we are already flat out, other orders – orders that have already been scheduled – will be put back. That will mean at least three customers who’ve been promised delivery today will end up receiving their product late. On that basis alone the maths is simple: three annoyed customers versus one annoyed customer. No change wins.’

By now the redness has crept up and colonised the whole of Mark’s face. Kate’s apparent unflappability only seems to increase the hue.

‘But the factory can run faster if we ask them too. We’ve done it before. Just squeeze the order in. That way everyone is happy: better productivity and extra sales. A win-win.’

‘No. That won’t work. Every time we do that we have quality problems. We end up throwing out defective product and we put our quality reputation at risk by sending out substandard product. In other words, more cost and even more disgruntled customers.’

‘Then let’s run overtime. I need this order to meet my budget,’ pleads Mark.

‘No. I won’t do that either. This product you’re ordering hardly makes us any money – the margin is already low. Run it on overtime and we go backwards. It might make your sales volume look good, but it will cost us more. And on top of that, this customer of yours only orders from us once every two months. They’re not that important.’

‘Not important!’ Mark’s exasperation leaves him momentarily lost for words. ‘Not important. Of course they’re important. Every customer is important. Every sale is important.’

Kate is unperturbed. ‘Relatively less important. The three customers we would irritate are all major customers. You know: big sales, big contributors to our profits. The reality is that moving heaven and earth for this one small customer is simply not worth the trouble or cost if we look at the big picture. That was another catch phrase last weekend, if you remember.’

Mark has no response. He turns away and stares blankly down the corridor, then looks back at Kate.

‘So what am I supposed to tell them?’ he says, subdued.

‘You have to use your least favourite word. You have to tell them the truth. You have to tell them sorry but “no”. N. O. Not this time.’

Kate waits for a response but is met only with a silent stare. She turns her attention to the wall beside her. A large whiteboard summarises the production plan for the next few days. She turns back to her computer and taps away for a moment, then looks back at Mark.

‘Tell them we can get it to them on Friday afternoon. Point out that that will be a day quicker than what we normally promise; that you are doing them a favour.’

‘Sure,’ says Mark dispiritedly. He skulks off.

‘And tell them,’ says Kate loudly after him, ‘to learn how to say “no” themselves.’

As she turns back to her planning board, Kate ponders the stress, extra cost, rework, waste and general complexity she has just avoided for the business.

‘Wow,’ she says quietly to herself. ‘”No” is a powerful word if you want to keep things simple. I’ll have to try using it more often.’