The new president of the University of Colorado, Hank Brown, got rid of 10 administrative positions and his own free parking space before noon on his first day in office. Read about it here.
It will save the university about $800,000 per year. No one was fired, some of the positions were open, others were retiring. However its the sentiment that counts. He is obviously setting the tone for his administration at the school that has been rocked with scandal over the past few years.
I liked the bit about the parking space. Lets face it — if all the administrators and high paid professors at a college or university had to pay for their spots and jockey for spaces on the top floor of the parking structures like the rest of the folks, parking at a university might be a lot different.
Of course, one says, the profs and administrators need their reserved spaces so they can get to class on time…DUH…and I guess everyone else doesn’t?
I loved it. Robert Townsend, the CEO hired to take Avis out of touble a few years ago and the one who came up with the "We Try Harder" slogan, got rid of his, and all his VP’s reserved parking spaces. His comment — "if you want a spot near the door, then get to work before everyone else." "Also," he noted "you meet the nicest people in the parking lot."
Townsend was something — he had no secretary — He opened his own mail, answered his own phone, and used the steno pool. When he travelled he had a big rubber stamp made and gave it to the mail room. When any letter came in, he told them to open it, read it, and then stamp it. They were then to send it to whomever they though should deal with it. The stamp said "Deal with this and don’t tell me what you did." Worked great — he had no mail in his inbox when he returned, and over his tenure at Avis, never had a problem with this policy.
JVH
One Response
how old are you? – old enough to remember ‘up the organization’ but young enough to be a blogger.