THE SOUL OF THE FIRM

Authored by Bill Pollard, he shared his practical experiences to run his successful business, that
is Service Master, with 200,000 employees and serve more than six million customers in thirty
one countries.

Bill Pollard was a lawyer by profession and he was invited to join Service Master as a Partner by
The President and CEO of Service Master; a health care business. They serve hospitals, schools,
and home owners and they trade under the major brand names of Service Master, TruGreen-
ChemLawn, Terminix, Merry Maids and American Home Shiled. Bill is currently the Chairman
who also served as CEO for more than 10.5 years.

He had a humble start and was first assigned as a Front Liner, (HouseKeeper , to be exact) in
order for him to experience the feelings and emotions of his Front Line Service workers, to get
to know them better and to better understand how these Frontliners served their customers.
They also dedicate certain day in a year which they declare as `WE SERVE, day, where every
leaders have the opportunity to participate in direct-serving their customer. Such day helps to
keep ServiceMaster in touch with the reality.

Bill Pollard mentioned that people has the potential to contribute in 3 different ways,

1. Contribute values to customers with the service they provide.
2. Contribute value to owners, as their combined effort worth more than the sum of the

efforts of individual participants.
3. Contribute value to each others, as they learn together and experience the satisfaction
of accomplishment and advancement and as they develop their own self worth.

These 3 Principles of People Value correspond to their Companies objectives : To pursue
excellence, Grow profitably, Help people to develop.

Every worker are encourage to actively involve in these 3 principles and by practicing
these principles, they nurture the soul of the firm. These could be achieved thru a fair and
competitive package, paying attention to their workers, hear their needs, and help workers
to reach their goal. Such practices create an environment that contributes to workers
development to be more committed to the firm.

Service Master values a diversity of personality, gifts, ways of thinking, etc. One of the Service
Master Leadership Principle is that they pay based on performance and promote based on

potential.

People want to work for a Cause, not just a Living. Getting the right person for the right job
is also important. A clear mission is stated out to provide an ethic or direction to do what
is right. They identify the right person thru their STAR : Selection, Training, Assessment and
Recognition. They also look for partners or people who are strong in WOO – Winning Over
Others.

Service Masters also values their people by looking at family. Health families are essential to
an effective business firm. Sometimes, spouse are included in business meetings, children are
encouraged to visit their parents at work and to participate in stock ownership of the company.

People are reminded that work is not a curse but an opportunity for one to contribute their
abilities.

Every firm has customers. All business is sustainable as they are able to create and keep
customers. This is one of the best way to celebrate work. In Service Master, they sell and serve
people, people who wants solutions to problems. Build relation of trust with customers, listen
and respond to their needs, empower their people to correct mistakes immediately when they
occur in order to establish a long lasting customer relationship.

Service Master also see the importance to increase productivity of their staff. Improved
productivity and quality service go hand in hand.

Too many large organizations are crippled by the cancer of bureaucracy and expansion of
middle management. People are caught up in activities of the layers but not in results for
the customer. Instead, to ensure organizational structure encourages flexibility, change and
innovation.

In order to survive into the next century, it is better be flexible and ready to change. Peter
Drucker defines innovation as `change which creates a new dimension of performance.” The
reality of future growth and opportunity in any firm is simple dependant on the performance
of its people. Growth is not an option, but a mandate. There must be growth in number of
customers served and growth in revenue and profit. When growth doesn’t happen, changes
must be made. If growth is to sustain itself, the people of the firm must also grow. Hire people
for what they can do, reward performance that benefits customer, not only the boss.

Objectives of Service Master :

To honor God in all we do

To help people develop

To pursue excellence

To grow profitably

These objectives are not just carved in stone on their lobby wall. But it is seen working every
day in the lives of their people. The soul of each person joining together with others to form the
Soul of the Firm.

Empowered people will strive and push for growth. As we empowered people within the
firm, we learn to delegate within a framework of authority and accountability, and we should
never take back the right to make decision. People will not own the result unless they have an
opportunity to participate and understand the reason for their work. If they see no value in
what they are doing, they will have no motivation to improve.

Learning is everybody’s responsibility in a firm. Our business is to train, develop and motivate
our people, to meet the needs and demands of customers. We can’t deliver quality service to
the customer without motivated and trained people.

People who work together to achieve a common goal would want effective leadership, leaders
they could trust and leadership that nurture the soul.

Servant Leadership are givers, not takers. It is not dependable on title, position, remuneration.
They are opportunity seekers and not entitlement takers.

Build on the ordinary and expect the extraordinary. Build a team of people around the skills
and talents of the ordinary person, not just around the special skills and talents of those few
extraordinary people. There are more ordinary people, more to select from, more potential to
develop, more opportunity for commitment and loyalty to the common mission of the firm and
more potential to understand, serve and sell to customer who are also ordinary people.