|
|
|
PROUDLY PRESENTS
Dick Richardson
Resident of The United States and 3-DNET® VIP member
Email contact : dick@exec.org
INTERVIEW WITH 3-DNET®
Listen to sample sound "bites" from the interview:
Question 1 : Tell me about yourself
I have 20 years of experience in retail sales and marketing management. My sales and marketing experience can be universally applied to adapt successfully in any type of business to increase sales and profits wherever I go. When the going gets tough, I don’t complain. I work as hard and as long as I have to, to turn things around and create possibilities that didn’t exist before with my innovative thinking and strong work ethic to get the job done. Additionally, I work aggressively to achieve the company’s goals to meet or exceed the company’s budget and I am very good at forecasting. I am very familiar with company policies and reporting requirements. Interdepartmental communication is important to me and I am culturally diversified and have the ability to get along and work with everyone. Including the occasional disgruntled customer!
Question 2 : What can you offer to your next employer ?
I am confident that I will make an immediate impact to increase sales and profits by auditing and creating a strategy to work with the company’s existing account base and from my network of buyers, distributors, wholesalers, e-trade and catalogues. Furthermore, because of my extremely fast ability to learn, I will also find new distributors, wholesalers and buyers without wasting a lot of time and resources to increase revenue. The important thing is that I know how to win and make things happen. I have the knowledge and ability to target market and focus to acquire and work with large accounts and give them the attention that they need and provide them with expert category help and professional customer service. I am very competitive but a team player and know how to build and motivate a successful sales team.
Question 3 : What are your strengths ?
My strengths are leadership, strong tenacity to achieve results, goal oriented, good communication, team player, customer satisfaction and strong negotiation skills. The ability to successfully lead a group of trained professionals is very difficult unless you can inspire trust, confidence and follow through on your word to them. Staying focused and not giving up helps me to achieve results to reach my goals and the company’s goals. Communicating effectively makes things run more smoothly in a company where everyone understands each other and is on the same page to create a vision of what the company picture looks like. This also reduces errors and losses in revenue. It takes a person with excellent negotiation and people skills to be able to work with customers to create sales and mitigate losses.
Question 4 : What are your accomplishments ?
My greatest accomplishment was being able create a vision and provide the leadership necessary for Snapple Natural Beverages to have the confidence to allow me to travel to the West Coast of the United States to open up the first Snapple Beverage Distributorship West of New York. This was a very big step for Snapple because they were only interested in building their business on the East Coast of the U.S. and I convinced them that it was necessary to expand in order to keep the majority market share in flavored ice tea throughout the U.S. to avoid other competitors from taking a majority market share of the market. My vision and hard work paid off and within two years, Snapple grew from a $100 Million company to a $200 Million company which led to the buyout of Snapple to Quaker Oats for $1.2 Billion.
Question 5 : What are your limitations ?
There are no limitations that should impede employees to achieve the necessary goals and results needed to keep a company profitable and be successful. There are always people and resources available to learn, guide and motivate you to get where you need to be to reach the next level. If you are being emotionally, technically or physically challenged, you must have passion for what you do and take steps outside of work as well as during work to overcome and find a solution for what is limiting you from being successful and achieving your goals and objectives
Question 6 : How much are you worth ?
I feel that my worth cannot be measured with just money. My potential employer will have to offer me a work environment that allows me to feel good about what I do and where I work in order for me to make a long term commitment to stay with the company. There must be an adequate training program provided with administrative support and the tools needed to be successful. Although, I will have great respect and admiration for my superiors and work within the corporate guidelines and policy, I will need the autonomy to express my ideas, create possibilities and innovate new ways to increase revenue, improve customer service, speed up the supply chain, streamline paperwork, decrease supply costs etc. This is what I feel that I am worth and it’s the price a company will have to pay for me to work for them with passion, integrity and pride. As far as my worth in money is concerned, I feel confident that my credentials, background and experience speaks for itself and will create a vision to convince the decision maker to see that I can take their company to the next level and demonstrate what I can do for their company. If I can do this, I’m sure that my potential employer will provide a competitive fair market value salary, bonus and benefits that a reasonable ordinary prudent person with my education, knowledge and experience would need to survive to live comfortably so I can focus on my job to be successful and not focus how much money I should be making.
Question 7 : What are your ambitions for the future ?
My ambition is to eventually become the CEO and or President of a corporation and successfully lead that company to be the one that drives the market with the latest state of the art technology and innovation to produce the best quality products and services, number one in customer service, low employee turnover, perpetual growth, exceed the budget and produce profits year after year, shareholder satisfaction, recognized as one of the best company’s to work for!
Question 8 : How long would it take you start contributing to the firm?
My 20 years of sales and marketing management experience as well as customer base and business contacts can be universally applied to any type of business. Additionally, I am very educated and have an extremely fast aptitude to learn what is necessary to immediately begin contributing to the company. I will have already performed weeks of research about the company that I am interviewing with and will have prepared an action plan in my head, to be successful and intelligently speak about the company, products or services we sell or manufacture. Furthermore, with a minimal amount of training, tools and support from the company, I will be able contribute within one week of being hired. For instance, with SANYO Electronics the first week of employment, I met with Fry’s Electronics and Office Max and resolved $300,000 of accounts payables and received $150,000 in additional business. Within the first week of working with Varta Microbattery, I met with Spencer Gifts who gave me a PO worth $250,000 of business.
Question 9: What is your management style?
My management style is to be a leader and inspire others to realize their potential so that they can be great in what they do. As a leader, I will gain the respect and support of my sales team and peers through my actions reflecting honesty, trust, integrity, knowledge, understanding, compassion, patience, communication, training and follow through with what I say I am going to do. I don’t believe in trying to change people. Instead, I like to work with each person’s strengths to make them over achieve and their weaknesses to make them stronger. Additionally, reporting and accountability are very important to me so that I can be organized and can give my superiors a picture of what’s going on within a moments notice. Therefore, I would require a small business and marketing plan outlining current accounts, ways to improve those accounts, potential target accounts and what we have to do to close those accounts, potential advertising venues, trade shows, schedule of their weekly and monthly meetings, future schedules, forecasting, call reports, expense reports, budgets, etc.
Question 10: Why do you think you have a good potential to be a manager?
I have already proven my success as a sales and marketing manager by hiring and building a sales team and network of brokers, wholesalers and distributors for Snapple Natural Beverages, Big Head Coffee Cola, Picasso Distributing, SANYO Electronics and Varta Microbattery. I always greet every employee with respect and take the time to get to know them on a personal level so that they feel that they are important and a part of the company’s success. My patience and understanding are a virtue and allow me to be able to communicate effectively with people to find solutions, overcome obstacles and do what needs to be done.
Question 11: What would you look for in hiring people?
I look to hire people with experience and who have good references. Their must also be good chemistry to be able to work with each other and other employees in the company with the new employee. They must be willing to work hard and do what it takes to get the job done and accountable for that work without making up excuses about why it didn’t get done! Additionally, that person needs to be able to be coached and be willing to learn or train to overcome obstacles and gain the necessary knowledge to achieve their goals and the company’s goals.
Question 12: As a manager, have you ever had to fire someone?
Yes. One instance that stands out is when an employee handed in an expense report to me and when I went over it, I found some unusually high expenses on the report from a trade show and I questioned the expenses and brought them to the attention of the employee. His response was that he spent $400 in entertainment costs taking a potential client to dinner. The potential buyer was a friend of mine and said that he never went to dinner with the employee. What really happened was that he spent $400 going out with friends drinking and handed in a fraudulent receipt from a restaurant. I talked with the employee about the expenses to give him a chance to explain that it was an oversight or a mistake but he did not want to speak about it so I brought this to the attention of human resources and we met with the employee and gave the employee a chance to explain the incident as a mistake and to pay back the $400 but he refused to pay back the money and was given a choice to resign or be fired. The employee immediately resigned.
I would be glad to provide examples if you wish.
Question 13: What do you see as the most difficult task of being a manager?
The most difficult task of being a manager is trying to keep the employees happy by supporting them, motivating them, putting out fires and giving them what they need and have the employees remember the picture of the company’s vision every day so that they can focus on their job and achieve the results needed to keep the company profitable and successful. After this, it’s making sure that I have time to return phone calls, go to meetings, keep organized to complete reports and assignments for my supervisors and the company and having the endurance and motivation to meet deadlines and get whatever else needs to be done
Question 14: Describe what you feel is the best work environment?
I would like to work in an environment that is exciting and everyone has passion and enthusiasm for what they are doing. Where all of the employees are acknowledged, appreciated and everyone is responsible for playing a part in the company’s success. Together, we will have the same vision of what the company is trying to achieve and we are all working towards the same goal. This can be accomplished if there is good interdepartmental communication and chemistry that allows everyone to act as a team and support each other which breeds trust, honesty, integrity and encourages people to reach their potential and bring out their best.
Question 15: Looking back how do you describe your past employer?
I enjoyed working with a global company like SANYO Electronics. It was a great Japanese cultural learning experience for me and it was very challenging for me considering the large budget I needed to sustain and all of the responsibilities that I had. Additionally, the people were great. I have the same feelings for my current employer, Varta Microbattery except that instead of being a Japanese company, I’m working with a German company and culturally, it’s a lot different but I really enjoy the corporate culture and the people I work with.
Question 16: What have you done to increase productivity, performance, efficiency, etc..?
Varta Microbattery is basically an OEM manufacturer of batteries and was not set-up for retail sales. I created and introduced new marketing materials, merchandisers, new battery products, labeling, packaging, UPC codes that made us competitive in the retail market so that retail buyers of Supermarket Chains, Drug Store Chains, Convenient Store Chains, Club and Mass Merchandising accounts would be interested to buy our products. Basically, I created the retail department and a market to sell our batteries. Additionally, I decreased the cost to make the batteries through global sourcing, decreased the shipping cost and the amount of time of delivery and trained our customer service representatives and logistics department on our retail battery line so that they would understand the differences in retail and OEM and how to speak the retail language to address retail customer questions and cross sell to OEM and retail accounts
Question 17: Whether you are a "computer wizard", how do you respond to the financial side of your responsibilities?
I have a strong financial background and am very careful when I forecast the amount of product that I need for a customer to increase inventory turnover, not take up needed space in the warehouse, increase profits, avoid liquidations and losses. I know how to manage and achieve my budget. I am very careful when traveling to schedule my travels at least 30 days out to get the best pricing on airfare, hotels and car rentals and I always try to make at least 2-3 appointments to maximize my time and the company’s money. I don’t believe in spending large amounts of money to advertise your product. Instead, I feel that there are less expensive ways that are as good or better to get publicity such as trade shows, trade journals, magazines and inserts. I am always thinking about costs and how it can affect the company’s bottom line.
Question 18: How many people have you supervised in your recent job?
Up untill now, I have been managing and supervising 20 distributors and about 30 reps throughout the U.S. because in my current position working for a little over one year as Sales Manager for the Retail Department for Varta Microbattery, the position is new and I was hired to create and grow this division to a point where hiring more people was necessary and economically feasible. I am now at that point where I have grown the company enough to begin hiring some regional managers and supervising as many sales people as required. However, when I worked with SANYO Electronics, I was in charge of 10 regional managers, 50 distributors and over 100 reps throughout North America.
Question 19: What do you like more, working with figures or words?
I enjoy working with words because I have a BA degree in English Literature and I love to read and write to expand my knowledge on a professional level, technical level and personal level. I am an excellent communicator and people person that is able to talk with anyone about anything which allows me to get along with everyone I meet. I’ve been told more than once that I have, “The Gift of the Gab” and should be in politics.
Question 20: How do you think that your subordinates receive you?
At Varta Microbattery, my subordinates have complete trust, confidence and respect for me because they know that I was hired for being an expert in my field and they need to count on me for professional advice concerning the retail battery industry in which they have no experience. To have your piers listen to you with a blind faith attitude is a compliment to me. I have never given them bad advice and they believe in me. They also know that they can call me or come into my office at anytime to speak with me for business or personal reasons and I will support and give them the time necessary to listen to them and help create solutions.
Question 21: What do you think of your previous boss?
I have much admiration and respect for my previous boss who was the President of SANYO Electronics. He was hired during hard times when business began to slow down where SANYO laid off 15,000 employees and he worked feverishly to turn things around and keep the company successful and profitable during a difficult period in time. My current boss, who is the President for Varta Microbattery, is a very smart businessman and engineer so he knows the battery business inside and out. He is able to work with all the departments in the company and understands everything that is going on at all times. I respect his knowledge, experience and background very much. He always knows the answer to my questions and knows how to keep the company running competitively and profitably.
Question 22: Describe a situation in which your work was criticized?
There are different company guidelines and policies for every company and the way I do things isn’t necessarily the universal way other people do things. Therefore, a person should be objective and try to work within the company’s guidelines and policy as best as possible and communicate with different departments on how they would like things accomplished. How else will I be able to learn new things, improve myself and create a team attitude if I am not open to criticism? A perfect example would be when I received my first order for Varta Microbattery for $250,000 from a customer that had all of the information on the PO for delivery, terms, payment etc. I was so excited about the order and just figured that I would just hand in the order and everything else would be taken care of like it was at SANYO. I was wrong! I was criticized by accounting for not getting all the information and credit documents prepared and signed by the customer, by the logistics department for not filling out a new customer account information sheet for shipping and setting them up in SAP, by the comptroller for giving a 2% payment discount for early payment without his permission and by our German office for promising the production and shipment of the batteries too quickly and not providing them with enough time. I humbly abided by their wishes and learned from the experience that this is the way to do it and everyone gets along and works as a team to get things done.
Question 23: If I spoke with your boss what he would say about your greatest strength and weaknesses?
My boss would say that my greatest strengths would be: 1) the knowledge and tenacity to get the job done and be a winner, 2) the wonderful personality I have to allow me to get along with everyone I meet, especially my customers, 3) being able to perform research and answer questions with confidence, honesty and accurately to provide a strong trust between us, 4) motivating others to perform at their maximum level to exceed the expectations of the company, 5) the ability to quickly find solutions to problems and put out fires. As far as weaknesses are concerned, my boss would say that: 1) I should travel a little bit more to meet more buyers and set-up more appointments, 2) become more familiar with the technical OEM side of the company so I can start to cross selling and 3) give more realistic confidence levels with new customer sales that I just met instead of over promising sales for forecast reasons.
"If I spoke with your boss.... ?"
Question 24: How can you handle life under pressure and with tough deadlines?
I try to be as organized as possible on a professional and personal level and follow a regular daily schedule that is flexible enough to allow me the time to work longer hours so that I have never had a problem with meeting deadlines and having it affect my life to create a feeling of pressure, stress and anxiety. Meeting deadlines is a common everyday part of business. As long as you, your company, your suppliers and your customers are organized, plan properly and are realistic, there should never be too many issues. Occasionally, emergency’s come up with one of your suppliers not coming through for you or your customer will need products sooner than normal and you may not have enough inventory on hand to cover this emergency. The best thing to do is to do your best and try to work with the customer and find creative solutions to meet their deadline.
Question 25: What do you think you do better: staff work or line work?
I am a very high energy, gregarious, result driven person that is definitely better suited for staff work and building and motivating a strong sales force to meet or exceed the budget and to keep the company highly profitable and successful.
Question 26: In your current position, what problem have you identified that was previously overlooked?
I have identified to my boss that I find myself having to constantly call Germany to follow up with samples to buyers, part numbers, setting up new accounts etc. The result is that my timing is not good because I cannot give the information to the potential buyers on time and they lose interest in meeting with me. A possible solution that I have introduced that was not followed through was for me to have a small warehouse or storage area with samples so I can send the information out immediately to potential customers whenever they request them. Another issue that I identified was that we are being penalized almost on a weekly basis with one of our accounts for not delivering the correct amount of products stated on the sales order form, incorrect product codes on the labels, delivering the product too early or late. I suggested that the way to resolve this would be to carry enough inventory to have on hand to avoid delays, explain to logistics the difference between the pick-up date and the delivery date and contact the printing company to place the correct product codes on the labels. This was never followed through.
Question 27: If you had a choice of job and a company which would you choose?
Working for a company that you like and has a good reputation is important but I would choose the job because that is what I trained my whole life for and I can apply all of my knowledge, education, experience, skills and background to be successful and make a difference.
Question 28:Do you have any objection to take a psychological test?
I believe that psychological testing is one of the most integral parts that leads to the success of a company by allowing the company to choose the correct mix of employees to create the right chemistry and working environment.
Question 29: Do you consider yourself as a creative person?
I have the ability to create possibilities and find solutions to overcome obstacles very quickly that will allow the company to move forward and inevitably be more successful.
Question 30: How do you describe your personality?
I am a people person who has a personality that allows me to get along with all types of people and cultures. Especially, putting out fires with disgruntled customers. I am goal oriented and strive to be part of a winning team. I have a way of motivating people to set higher goals and supporting them to achieve those goals. Having a professional certificate in conflict and dispute resolution allows me to be a good listener and negotiator and allows me to be objective to always understand both sides of the issue so everyone feels fairly treated.
Question 31: What type of outside reading you do?
The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is read the Bible. I then practice speaking Spanish by reading some books on the subject. I like to read books about business and just finished reading “The 8th Habit, From Effectiveness to Greatness” by Stephen Covey and “Put the Moose on the Table, Managers to Leaders”, by Randall Tobias.
Question 32: What are some of your outside activities?
I enjoy spending as much time as possible with my wife and 3 kids traveling and teaching my kids new things about nature, culture, sports etc. We enjoy together snowboarding, snorkeling, surfing, guitar, karate and making sand castles on the beach and food.
Question 33: Are you continuing your education?
Yes. I believe in the perpetual pursuit of knowledge and I am currently enrolled in the prestigious University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business Executive Masters Program. They have a satellite campus in San Francisco that I travel to when I have the time and money to take classes.
Curriculum Vitae Confidential
3-DNET® is a secure and effective way to make new contacts
-- both business and social!
Networking is a requirement for Business and Individual alike.
The ONLY security these days is how wide your network is and how shrewdly you market yourself.
3-DNET® can assist you!
Copyright 1995-2006 The 3-D Network Company
3-DNET® is a registered trademark of The 3-D Network Company International Inc.