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We are presented frequently with the opportunity to add value to our stakeholders and be aware that possibilities present themselves in various ways often at unexpected times. In this article I want to discuss how such situations presented to me, to someone I recently met and one for you as well.

Last week I received a call from a client complaining that the seat seam had failed on less than 1/10 of one percent of the stock pants we had shipped recently. My approach in this type of problem solving follows the medical model of ‘first do no harm’ and then ‘stop the bleeding.’ I spoke with our production manager and learned that the operation we were utilizing was not the best technique. I ordered the factory to stop production at this operation immediately. Although the failed percentage was very small, it made no sense to continue to produce with the incorrect method and risk further seam failure. But in the real world in which we exist versus the hypothetical problem world, we need to make delivery dates. Please know that my client had originally accepted the approval samples with the incorrect sewing method. Technically we were covered but I am not interested in winning the battle and losing the war. The war in this case is to look out for the interests of my client by taking care of the needs of my client’s customers.

We know the right method to use and I ordered a machine that will be delivered within one week of diagnosing the problem. And we will work extra time to make up any short fall in delivery. But the pants will be done right for now and for the future. Employing “double loop” learning enables us to take care of the cause of the problem and not just deal with the symptom. My client had wanted to take the risk, since the defect rate was so minute, of making another week’s worth of production with the incorrect method. To the wearer of the pants, one seam blow out is one too many. Here the opportunity presented to improve quality, add value and engender trust that we perform on our promise of quality.

In many situations there is often little time to plan for improvements and you’ve got to think on the fly. If adding value is part of your culture the opportunities should become obvious. I met a very successful retired executive, name Richard, this week who told a story of how he thought quickly and seized an amazing opportunity that added multi-billions of dollars in very profitable sales for his company. Some of you may remember the Commodore computer which was a very early, if not the first, compact or portable computer. This executive, who holds a CPA, was hired away from Arthur Anderson to work for Commodore which at the time was making calculators and digital watches. When he first entered the office he noticed a gentleman saying his “good-byes’ to the staff. Richard walked up and asked the man who he was and why he was leaving. The man responded that he was an inventor and was leaving the company because he surmised that a new executive team would mean that he would automatically be losing his job.

Richard asked him to show him what he had been working on and the inventor took him upstairs and showed him a mother board for a personal computer. At that time, the only computers in use were large enough to fill a room. No one was using desk top personal computers. To make a long story short, Richard retained the inventor and the Commodore computer sold billions of dollars worth. The moving van was already on the way to take the inventor’s furniture to another town. But because Richard acted quickly, was aware and concerned about the people in the company he turned the chance meeting into millions of dollars in profits.

What is the value added for you today? I would like to introduce the American Apparel Producer’s Network (AAPN) (www.aapnetwork.net) of which I am a long time member and currently serve proudly on the board of directors. Greco Apparel is currently a member of only this organization and of course the NAUMD. In the past year I have had conversations with Richard Lerman, executive director of the NAUMD and Mike Todaro and Sue Strickland of the AAPN. The AAPN consists of members representing the entire supply chain in the sewn products industry from fiber producers through end users such as some large like Guess? and Patagonia. Our members are primarily based in the Western Hemisphere with sourcing capabilities on a global basis. We can find sourcing for an order as small as one custom unit or more than 500,000 pants or jeans per week. And leads for these relationships can be started in literally minutes once the email blast is sent. In addition to sourcing expertise our members have demonstrated that they can provide consulting or information on wide range of subjects including fabric, trim, logistics, international trade laws and state of the art technology either directly or through some close contact. I suggest you check the website to learn more. The association members are quality business people upon whom you can rely. If you are involved in manufacturing or supply chain logistics then you and your company would benefit from AAPN membership. The AAPN has been on the vanguard to educate and implement Sustainability starting with their past meeting in Miami last May attended by more than 200 people from around the world.

The AAPN is considering attending the NAUMD convention next April. There are synergistic opportunities available to both sets of membership. I would like to thank Richard, Sue and Mike for their continuing dialog about how they can bring increased value to all of us.

One of the principle benefits of education is that you can learn from the experience of others. Sure, our own experience will be the most valuable as we tend to remember the lessons we pay dearly for with our personal blood, sweat and tears. But we are apt to experience more and require more answers than we can resolve ourselves. For some reason, I have always been comforted by the fact that someone else has experienced a similar challenge, dilemma or grief before I have. Instead of suffering to determine the answer on my own I can learn how someone else dealt with the situation.

I am going to take a wild, non-researched, guess and figure that the people reading this article are probably past the half way mark in their careers. Based on anecdotal feedback I have received, those readers whom I have encountered fall into this category. Maybe it’s just the senior apparel executives that speak with me. During graduate school I read a fascinating book by Harvard professor Robert Kegan. “In Over Our Heads,” subtitled “The Mental Demands of Modern Life,” was about business careers, and was rooted in a psychological approach to growth and accomplishment. Much is what we normally experience in our careers but have not associated into a coherent framework. There are normal phases in our career growth defined by characteristics that typify each decade from our twenties to our sixties.

If this book had been written more recently, I speculate that Kegan would have extended our expected work life past the standard retirement age of 65. We are, after all, living longer, and in many cases need to earn more than we had anticipated to sustain a suitable or attractive retirement period. We are generally healthier and will outlast the predicted expectations of the Social Security Administration when our savings accounts there were initiated. This can be both positive and negative news depending on one’s health and economic status.

As we approach the latter part of our careers and have experienced some financial and organizational success, our activities should expand to include mentoring and teaching our younger colleagues. I have been flattered and honored to be offered to teach a class in apparel manufacturing at Philadelphia University. Some of us remember this academic institution better as The Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. I began to wonder what thoughts and ideas would be on the minds of undergraduates who would be expecting to enter the apparel industry today. What lessons could I teach them from my thirty-six years on the garment industry relating to the business in general and not just about the pure technical manufacturing part? How could I help these eager, creative young minds learn how to apply their efforts and education to realize their dreams and aspirations and reap appropriate rewards from a successful career in the apparel industry of tomorrow?

What would you like to tell these young ones? What’s the best way to take what we have learned in our careers and invest both in our futures and the future of others whom you may be mentoring in your own organizations? What stories can you tell? What pitfalls can you help them avoid? How can you make them more effective and efficient based on the hard knocks lessons you have learned?

In his book, Kegan discusses the concept of becoming ‘masters’ of our work rather than apprentices or imitators and it is more a claim on mind rather than a demand for the acquisition of a particular skill set or competency. He writes: “Up until recently the field of career development has been more focused on the career than the person having the career. We know we have become masters of our work when we have occasion to consider, often with a smile or twinge of apprehension, that if our mentor, supervisor or original boss were to see the way we just handled a given situation he or she would a) roll over in her grave, b) wonder if he created a monster or c) fail to recognize me now as the protégé she once knew. We have not forgotten our old associates but no longer pattern ourselves after them. We have become ‘masters’ when the pattern we are seeking to follow resides inside and not outside.”

It is possible that we may never, unfortunately arrive at this place but sometimes one can achieve mastery in his forties or after 50 without regard to his achieved rank or salary level. Our arrival is not a place on a temporary continuum guaranteed by the passage of time. You don’t achieve mastery simply by putting in time. Some people experience minimal growth because they may have one year of experience repeated thirty times. You know who they are and they are both boring and minimally contributing. “Rather, mastery is a place on an evolutionary continuum made possible by the emergence of a quantitative new order of consciousness,” writes Kegan.

Is mastery another way to express the concept of ‘self-actualization’ described by Abraham Maslow as the highest level in his hierarchy of human needs? Probably, but we can expand the concept further. Maslow defined this portion at the top level of the pyramid being close to a point at the top. But is there really a stopping point to becoming all we possibly can become or can we continue to grow as our careers, life and learning progress? Why not! Who’s to stop you?

As my career developed and morphed in new, previously unimaginably directions, I have had to make adjustments to changes in technology, international trade laws and practices, demands of the markets and gyrating profit margins. I grew to accept the concept that self-actualization can be both open-ended and continual limited only by the extent of my consciousness. No one can stop you unless you stop yourself. Let the younger generation see you implement this practice and you will have crowned your career mastery by unselfishly enhancing the career opportunity of others to know the joys of achievement of their own mastery.

A few months ago, I discussed how my company decided to fire our major account. While this was the right move, it was certainly worrisome to risk losing volume in a time of recession. But in analyzing our remaining accounts, we discovered that while these clients each represented lower sales volume, the gross profit was higher. This prompted me to recall one of the lessons my father Domenick taught me. He used to repeat the adage, “the big ones don’t let you eat and the little ones don’t let you sleep.”

It took a few years for this idea to sink in. The big accounts, with the large orders and popular name brands, seemed more glamorous. But we were squeezed on prices then and now. Sound familiar? The smaller accounts seemed to be bothersome for the amount of units they ordered but the gross profit margin was more attractive. Let’s remember the name of the game is profits and not just sales.

The aggravation or annoyance that you may encounter from handling smaller accounts should be ameliorated by the use of technology. With a sophisticated data base for enterprise resource planning, dealing with smaller accounts is made simpler. And they still remain profitable. Now that’s attractive.

In these challenging times, it’s important not just to review and select your account base but also to keep your mind and the minds of your associate’s wide open to new opportunities. Brainstorm with your team to develop fresh ideas for marketing and services. If you get fifty ideas contributed and only two are valuable, you are still ahead. Quoting from an Investor’s Business Daily article, Mr. Jay Forte, a consultant, reminds us to “tell your people that no matter what happens, we are all going to look for and take advantage of opportunities. By creating a culture of learning, where you’re soliciting input from all employees and sharing the latest news with them, you make it easier to include them in your hunt for opportunities. Have them gather information about you industry and talk to customers so that they’re always generating ideas.”

My mind is more open than ever since my thirty-six years in this apparel and uniform industry. Fortunately, I have been through a number of recessions so while this experience may not be easy, it’s not unfamiliar. Now is the opportunity to apply different thinking about services and products. A few weeks ago, I took an unsolicited call from a sales VP in the shoe business. Typically in the past I would have dismissed the call as a mistake as we are in the apparel business. But I decided to listen. This fine gentlemen introduced me to his line of high-quality, slip-resistant shoes. Something I would have never thought about on my own now seemed a very natural extension for my uniform and career apparel clients in addition to the clothing we currently manufacture.

After a few weeks of speaking to clients about this line and networking with sales people I have know for many years, great interest has ensued. We are on the verge of confirming our first orders which will total more than 100,000 pair (about 24 container’s worth) of a product that never crossed my mind until 2009! In addition, due to this product expansion, for the first time, Greco Apparel, will be taking a booth at the NAUMD convention in Las Vegas in April, and sharing the booth and expense with my new shoe vendor. I induced them to join the NAUMD as well. Today, during a meeting with that sales VP, he thanked me for taking his initial phone call! It is I who is grateful as well.

Further in response to client demands and new prospective business, we are in the process of setting up a small and flexible sewing line. We can handle various products, small runs and give very quick turn time. Mostly we outsource our programs to larger contract factories. While we will continue with that strategy, those factories typically don’t want to be bothered with the smaller orders. But they are profitable and a means to service client needs. Customized response on typical items and the ability to produce specialty products in this career apparel business is a service my clients are delighted to have. I would not have thought this business attractive if the economic environment had not changed. Abraham Lincoln said. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important that any other one thing.” Think about it.