Executive Q&A: Scott Celley - Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce

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8 IMPACT | SePTeMber 2010 www.phoenixchamber.com
he recession has forced companies to cut staff and make other adjustments that require nearly everyone to do more with less. To cope with increased workloads and maintain their sanity, employees have had to learn to work smarter in addition to working harder. Employees utilize time management systems, more efficient work processes and advanced technology to work smarter these days. From the standard to-do list to wireless communications, 21st century personnel are adapting these tools and processes to get smart. “Working smarter is the efficient use of time,” says Jon Summerfield of Blue Avenue Design, a Gilbert Web design firm. “You find that your business is not necessarily about making money, it’s about optimizing your time. There are 100 things you can do a day but what’s the smart thing to do? What’s the efficient thing to do? You’ve got to make the big decision on what is the best return on your time.” To some, working smarter is all about making time to devote to growing the company or personal productivity. “It’s all about saving time in your daily operations and administrative tasks so that more time can then be used for business development and strategizing,” says Andrea Aker, president of Aker Ink Public Relations. “People who keep Jonathan Summerfield’s Blue Avenue Design office goes wherever he goes, helping him drive business. task lists, follow schedules and have defined business and marketing plans are able to utilize their time more effectively and efficiently. They aren’t operating day-to-day without an end result in mind.” Rewarding Efforts How people work smarter depends on their particular circumstances. Staff size, employee abilities, available technology and other resources all go into the mix. Joy C. Cervantes CPA in Scottsdale employs a onepage business plan borrowed from the book, “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits,” that helps the firm identify and measure quarterly goals and results. The firm develops themes along with defined targets and employee rewards to work smarter. “We build in fun with it which lets our employees enjoy rewards once we achieve our goals,” says company President Joy Cervantes. “We set not only firm goals, we set individual objectives and we focus on areas of sales, profits, cash flow and quality of service so that each of the goals is clearly defined,” Cervantes says. “Everyone is accountable. Every month we meet to see how everyone has progressed.” Even the busy tax season does not escape quarterly goals and measurement. During the first quarter of this year, Cervantes set a goal of Andrea Aker of Aker Ink has advice for anyone who’s on the outs with their inbox. turning around all tax returns within 21 days. The firm developed a racing theme to chart daily progress and keep track of the time it took to process client returns. When the firm reached its mark by turning around returns in an average of 18 days, the employees were rewarded with an afternoon event at F1 Race Factory. “We had trophies, t-shirts and we all went go-kart racing. It was a fun thing to reward ourselves,” Cervantes says. www.phoenixchamber.com | IMPACT 9
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Executive Q&A: Scott Celley - Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce

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