MAPS to guide you

Mike Bosley, SeatbeltPlanet.com

At SeatbeltPlanet.com, we think in terms of MAPS. For those in Oklahoma City, we’re not talking about the OKC MAPS project. We’re talking about four core principles we run our business on.

M – Metrics

We are relentless about measuring results and people. We use those metrics as a constant scoreboard. And the information, including our financials, is available to all employees.

Generally, nobody cares more about a business than the owner. But the more metrics an employee knows about the business, the more they are able to think and act like an owner.

A – Action

We want to be a group of people with a propensity to action. So we use the phrase, “Own the outcome.”

You’ve probably heard someone talking about working with a customer and they said, “Well, I sent them an email.”

The desired end result is that the customer is happy with the transaction. The employee didn’t own the outcome, they just owned the next action.

P – People

We treat our customers, vendors, and employees with unconditional love. That means we always love them, even if they’ve wronged us.

Of course, sometimes we’ll love them but still need to move on. But whether we make mistakes or they do, we do everything we can to make sure we show our unconditional love.

S – Strategy

Most of our strategy is based off the blue ocean principle. A blue ocean is beautiful and blue because there are not animals in there eating each other just trying to survive. The red ocean, on the other hand, is full of blood because of all the competition.

Our idea is to always be looking for a blue ocean. There are other seatbelt companies that do most of their business selling online. We have a more custom experience, and although we do sell products on our website, we base most of our business on custom work.

We refuse to manage by rules, but manage by the four MAPS principles instead. As you grow, the tendency is to come up with rules to take care of situations. But if you have guiding principles, it makes the decision making process much clearer.

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