Zane Tankel Wrote His Own Rules For Managing People
They're a little unorthodox. But Tankel has learned how to build a strong organization without stifling his people.
I once worked for an insurance company," says 40-year-old Zane Tankel, president of Collier Graphic Services in New York City. "That outfit would ring a bell at the beginning and end of coffee breaks and lunch, with a final bell at the end of the day. We all counted the minutes to the next bell. It was like being in prison."
As a recent graduate of The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Tankel knew all the textbook reasons for a strong organization. But the insurance company began his real-world education in how to create structure without stifling people. That lesson has helped him take Collier, a printing and engraving company, from near-bankruptcy in 1963 to $17 million in sales this year.
Tankel's management style is an unorthodox blend of textbook rules and people sense:
Forget what you want; figure out what the guy working for you wants.
Tankel says his earliest lesson in management came during college, where he majored in sociology and did volunteer social work at a Philadelphia crime-prevention bureau.
"I worked with teenaged offenders, and I saw that they got into trouble for very different reasons: some guys because it got them respect from buddies, others because they were hyper, some because they were just plain bad.
"People are motivated in different ways in their work behavior, too. Rules don't make them work; you've got to win over the individual. If I don't have that pressman downstairs wanting to work for me, he'll mentally put in his own work rules and do just so much.
"Typical incentive programs just widen the gap between good employees and marginal ones. The good ones get better and the marginal ones stay marginal. Personally, I believe the ideal is to elevate marginal employees to the same level as the top employees. You do that by knowing them. A guy's incentive to work isn't what I think ought to be an incentive: it's what he thinks it is. Maybe it's because he likes me, or because he just takes a lot of pride in his craft.
"I always try to project myself into the other guy, to figure out what he wants, and I ask my managers to do the same."
Make the union your partner.
Collier started as a letterpress engraver back in 1932. By the time Tankel took over, the printing industry was moving away from letterpress and toward the newer, less costly offset process. "In 1969 one of our major clients was planning to switch to offset," says Tankel. "At the time, we had no offset capabilities, and the changeover cost was beyond our means. But the client guaranteed us a $400,000 chunk of business if we'd figure out a way to do it. With that kind of money at stake, I had to do something."
Tankel figured he might be able to find an offset company that would accept the $400,000 commitment as equity, but where and how would he find it? There was one source of reliable information: the union. They knew who had the skilled people and who was meeting their payroll. "The union also had a vested interest in the success of both companies," says Tankel. "The union collects dues from employed people, not the unemployed."
The plan worked, with the union suggesting a company and putting Collier in the offset business. It had a fringe benefit, too. Tankel's overture to the union went a long way toward gaining the confidence of his union employees. "The men really rallied around me. They would punch out and then stay to look over a job, try to catch errors that weren't their immediate responsibility. They were going way beyond what they'd ever done before.
"And every time they responded that way, I felt -- and still do -- that I should do a little more for them. That doesn't mean you get so caught up in boosting morale that you lose sight of the bottom line. Everyone here knows that he's here to earn money and the company's here to earn money, too.
"My philosophy is simple: A happy employee is a more productive employee so, selfishly, I want my employees to be happy."
Be grateful when employees show up for work.
Sometimes it pays to show appreciation when people simply do what's expected of them, says Tankel. During a transit strike, for example, many of Collier's employees had to struggle to get to work. When the strike was over, Tankel handed out desk sets and plaques to the stalwarts who had showed up regularly.
"At the time, a couple of my managers didn't think we needed the extra $3,500 expense. But they changed their minds; the effect on the people was great."
Then there was the time Tankel gave a case of wine to everyone who came in during a blackout, and another case of wine to those who trudged through a blizzard to get to work. "I appreciate loyalty," he says, "and I always try to let everyone know it."
Fire some of your best performers.
Collier's top salesman in 1969 was also Tankel's top pain in the neck. "He'd come in and completely disrupt the place with complaints, ranting and raving about jobs that weren't done right. It wasn't worth spending hours each day soothing hurt feelings and undoing the damage, so I fired him," says Tankel.
"The place was calmer, although a lot of people thought I was crazy for firing our top salesman. But we did all right, and the experience confirmed my belief that the price of a disruptive person is much higher than that of a nice guy who maybe doesn't sell as much."
While Tankel isn't afraid of drastic measures, he's also quick to try to salvage a good employee who's temporarily off the beam. One of his managers had developed a hot temper with clients, and Tankel saw the attitude spreading. In all other respects, the man was a credit to the company.
