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It’s a fact:  Every day 14 Americans are killed in trucker related accidents – scores more injured.  Every day.

It’s also a fact that the average American trucker will not live long enough to collect social security.

What’s that all about and how does that relate to 18 wheelers in accidents?  The answer is sleep, or the lack thereof.  Truckers almost by definition either don’t get proper sleep or suffer a significant sleep disorder – sleep apnea, or both.

The profile of the greatest number of sleep apnea victims, poor diet, overweight, poor health habits, fit the profile of the stereotypical trucker who finds truck stop buffets a contest, and takes less time for sleep than those who aren’t paid by the mile.

National studies report that seven of 10 truck drivers clasify as obese.  One Midwest trucking company recently reported their situation to be worse than that.  Their CEO said he believes almost half of his drivers were classified as being ”morbidly obese.”

An advertisement by the Sleep4Safety.com group in the current issue of national trucking magazine Driver Health(circulation 100,000) proclaims that “death is not a form of retirement” and asks its truck driving readers, “did you know the average trucker will be dead before their 61st birthday?”  Sobering and certainly food for thought as you glance in the rear view mirror at the 18 wheeler closing fast behind y0u.

Sleep4Safety CEO Sigurjon Kristjannson contends an 18 wheel truck piloted by a sleep-deprived driver can be as deadly as a drunk driver going the wrong way on the interstate.  “Imagine,” he suggests, “that three of every 10 truckers you see on the highway today probably have the situational awareness equivalent to having .06 to .08 alcohol in their blood system.  They are, in a very real sense,” he says, “driving intoxicated – not an alcohol fueled intoxication, but one created by chronic sleep deprivation.  “Ask yourself,” he says, “how far and 18 wheeler, traveling 60 miles an hour, travels in that brief moment the driver nods off and what can happen during that time.”

Dr Jeffrey Durmer, Atlanta, identified by the publication as “Dr Sleep” and the Chief Medical Officer at Sleep4Safety urges sleep testing to identify those drivers with sleep apnea problems and then on-the-job treatment.  Driver Health publisher Andy Shefsky writes that his goal is to rise “the average truck driver life expectancy age from just shy of 61 to 77, in line with the average American life expectancy.”

Accomplishing that will require 18 wheel pilots to eat right, exercise, and check to make sure, as basic as it sounds, they’re getting enough good sleep.  And, if not, to accept non-intrusive treatment on the job.

The cost of failing to do so, goes far beyond the equipment repair and replacement to staggering medical bills, soaring insurance rates for the companies to the 14 people who, each day, lose their life in a trucking accident – one of each three being the trucker himself.

Sleep well – and hope that trucker coming up in back of you also did.

Pithy Quotes: “You never know when checkout time is.”  Val Dempsey, CEI, Atlanta

Bud Carter

Senior Chairman Vistage Atlanta

Publisher of the motivational quotes book entitled Chairman Carter’s Collection of Pithy Quotes (Quotes designed to improve your bottom line, or, at the least, your disposition).

Short quote: Big Message:
 
Frank Maguire is one of those folks who seems to have had a knack for being at the right place as history is made:  in the Kennedy White House; alongside the Fred Smith  when FedEx’s first plane landed, and with the Colonel when Kentucky Fried sold.
 
In fact, it was at one of the first meetings the new owner/CEO had with his staff that produced one of the shortest, but impactful, quotes I’ve heard.    The new head honcho was  talking about pending changes when Colonel Sanders took his seat at the boardroom table. “What’s he talking about, Frank,” asked the Colonel.  Maguire tried to avoid answering, but pressed, he quietly explained the new owners thought they could put close to a penny more per customer to the bottom line reformulating the gravy by substituting water for milk.
 
Col. Sanders bristled, and when the CEO finally asked, he answered as directly as a  80  year old with a bloated bankroll would.   The response from the head of the table was something along the line that the conglomerate now owned the company and changes benefiting profitability would be made.
 
At that point, Maguire says Colonel Sanders gathered up his papers, stuffed them unceremoniously in his briefcase, pushed away from the table, and with a laser glare told the new CEO, “Don’t f**k with the gravy.”
 
The temptation to mess with the gravy, regardless your business, is omnipresent, good times and bad.  As The Colonel said …

Bud Carter
Senior Chairman Vistage Atlanta
Publisher of the Business Quotes book entitled: Chairman Carter’s Collection of Pithy Quotes (Quotes designed to improve your bottom line, or, at the least, your disposition).

Part of the compensation in our profession working with CEOs, is the sense of pride experienced when a member or a member company wins recognition for something beyond profitability; or, in this economy, survival.

Three member companies in the same Atlanta Vistage group have been named as among the Top Places To Work in Atlanta.   McKenney’s, Inc. (member John McKenney) and DeKalb Office (member John Rasper) both finished 17th in their company size competition, while Wells Real Estate Funds (member Leo Wells) was named The Top Place to Work in Atlanta in the mid-size company category They have 400 employees. The awards, made annually by The Atlanta Business Chronicle, provide public recognition for local businesses who have created unique work environments, and also serves to create a strong sense of pride for team members as well as strengthening the critical areas of recruiting and retention.

McKenney’s (Mckenneys.com) had coffee mugs and bumper stickers made for their employees and tout their accomplishment on the welcoming screen in the lobby. Wells has posted their team’s accomplishment on their web page (wellsref.com), emailed the news to the thousands in the field who offer the Wells products and commented about his company’s unique workplace on his own web site: www.leowells.com.

Wells, since the newspaper award, won individual recognition when he was inducted into the Hall of Distinction by the Southeastern chapter of the Real Estate Investment Advisory Council and Georgia State University. He is only the fifth person to be so honored.

The award, REIAC Southeast’s highest honor, is presented “to recognize the people and commercial real estate projects that have made the most dramatic impact on Metro Atlanta.” REIAC is a national nonprofit trade association serving the commercial real estate industry.
 
Leo founded Wells Real Estate Funds in 1984 and was recently named a member of the Board of Governors of NAREIT®, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts®, and a couple years ago was a national winner of a Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. He has been a member of Vistage group #150 for 15 years.

Speaker/consultant Bob Prosen once said, “Your choice as CEO is to work hard or hire smart.” McKenney, Rasper and Wells obviously do both – and very well.

Bud Carter
Senior Chairman Vistage Atlanta
Publisher of the Business Quotes book entitled: Chairman Carter’s Collection of Pithy Quotes (Quotes designed to improve your bottom line, or, at the least, your disposition).

Two of the so-called “soft” disciplines are more important, some would argue even more critical, during the current downturn in the economy: Human Relations and Marketing.

For HR the challenge is maintaining the company’s culture through one or more rounds of layoffs, perhaps cuts in wages as well. Making sure that communications throughout the organization are clear. That management does its job getting the message through middle management to the front line – a challenge even during good times.

There’s an additional challenge for the HR folks when an acquisition or merger is attempted (regardless the economy). Theirs is the responsibility of helping make sure the cultures align and mesh. Most mergers/acquisitions that fail do so not because the numbers didn’t work out, but because the people couldn’t. When the Stephen Covey and Franklin Planner people couldn’t make it work, the message was clear: no one got around to doing Due Diligence on the cultures.

The challenge for Marketing is to raise the company’s and/or product(s) profile, to make sure they are seen as survivors and to position the enterprise to leverage its position once things start to improve. Jim Cecil is generally regarded as the Guru of Nurture Marketing. His is an approach that urges disciples to “drip” on their prospects periodically over long periods and raise awareness so that when the product or service is needed, your company’s will be “top of mind.”

Cecil suggests periodic, albeit scheduled, mailings of something of value. Communications that give, but don’t ask or sell. A constant “dripping” of value. Kraig Kramer’s newsletter do that – offering without charge or sales pitch, a different tool free for the downloading which can profit your business. And, by the way, when you have need, you’ll remember Kraig and his CEOtools.com web site.

Attuned to the times, Cecil told one of my CEO groups, “Management’s challenge is to sell more with fewer people to customers who demand more service and attention for less money.” A salient snippet, a bit of pithy wisdom indeed.

For many, it was Grand Master of Marketing Cecil who forever defined Marketing and made clear the necessity it be separate on the organizational chart from Sales when he explained, “Sales picks the low hanging fruit; Marketing waters the tree.”

Good (economic) weather will come again in time … are you making sure your trees are being watered?

Bud Carter
Senior Chairman Vistage Atlanta
Publisher of the Quotes Book entitled: Chairman Carter’s Collection of Pithy Quotes (Quotes designed to improve your bottom line, or, at the least, your disposition).

It may well be that two of my groups’ most recent speakers will be the two who provided the most lasting message.

Sam Bowers‘presentation “Sales and Marketing in the New Economy” made clear, from his perspective, that the old axiom, “Faster, better, cheaper – your choice, any two” no longer applies. That, in fact, being able to provide your company’s product, its service, better, faster and cheaper is now the price of admission just to be considered. “It is,” he said, “the new definition of Capitalism.”

Sam asked a key question: “What are you providing now that your customer does not value?” According to Bowers, “The concept of Value Added has bankrupted more companies than any other.” Bowers is far from subtle. One of his comments is already on my web site, Businessquotes.com: “Business entertainment,” he said, “is attempted bribery intended to encourage an employee steal.” Later, noting the chaotic economy, said, “The recession will end when consumers can no longer delay the purchase of durable goods.” Makes sense.

The second would be Futurist David Houle who told both my CEO groups that “intellectual property is the new currency” and asked each what was the intellectual currency of their business. Houle identified technology, health and medicine and energy has the high growth areas for the future.

The former media executive (he played key roles in the start-up of CNN and MTV) told members that no generation before ours has ever lived through an entire age, but this generation will have been here for the start as well as the finish of the Technology Age.” It is his contention we have now entered into The Shift Age (the title of his new book) – a transitional decade before whatever comes next.

Citing the current economy, Houle provided additional content for my collection of pithy quotes, noting, “Thrift is the new extravagance, the new cool” and later added, “The speed of change today is in constant acceleration.”

Bud Carter
Senior Vistage Chairman Atlanta
Publisher Chairman Carter’s Collection of Pithy Quotes (designed to improve your bottom line, or, at the least, your disposition)