Kudos Wednesday: Saluting MY Boss, You... Our Readers, Followers, Friends and Customers

“it's a smile, it's a kiss, it's a sip of wine ... it's summertime!” ― Kenny Chesney

Good Afternoon FSO USA,

Welcome to a TERRIFIC Wednesday. It's officially summer here in New York, but "spring" will never leave the steps of all FSO employees.

What does SUMMER mean to ME? It means we will be fulfilling more DREAMS and providing MORE Opportunities for both our employees and clients. We are building a National Brand. We are taking my vision, and all the energy from Headquarters in NY and bring it to all of our Regional Offices and Client Sites.   

I am humbled by your faith in us. Heartened by so many companies joining the FSO bandwagon and spreading our message across social media and the world. Those include these notable recent blog readers whom I salute today. Kudos and big thank you hugs to:

Access Staffing
Adecco Usa
ADP
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer, & Feld
Albert Einstein College Of Medicine
Amazon
American Express Company
American Honda Motor Company
American University
Amgen
Amster Rothstein & Ebanstein
Anchor Associates Group Inc
Angelo, Gordon & Co.
Anne Arundel County Govt
Arent Fox Llp
Arhus Kobmandsskole
Arrowhead Aea5
Asrc Federal Holding Company, Llc
Aurelius Capital Management
Automatic Data Processing
Automattic
Ball State University
Baltimore Technology Park
Bank Of America
Barclays Financial Corp.
Bbdo New York
Bechtel Corp
Black Oak Computers Inc
Blackrock Financial Management
Bloomberg Bloomberg
Brandprotect
Brookfield Asset Management
Bsnl
BT (UK searching for Denise)
Cahill Gordon & Reindel
California Department Of Justice
California Education And Research Federation Network
California State University, Long Beach
Canon Usa
Carolinas Healthcare System
Cb Richard Ellis
Cbi Connect
Central Methodist University 
Charles Schwab & Co.
Citigroup
City Of Houston
Clyde & Co Llp
Colgate-palmolive Co.
Colliers Abr, Inc - Cassidy Turley
Colt Technology Services Group Limited
Columbia University
Comporium Communications
Conagra Foods
Concordia College
Condenast Publications
Control Risks Group Llc
Cottage Hospital
County Of Marin
County Of Suffolk, New York
Credit Suisse Group
Credit Suisse Group / Canada
Cuddy & Feder Llp
Cwie, Llc
Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.
Data Control And Systems
Datagram
Dell
Deloitte & Touche (TN)
Delta Dental Of California
Department Of Administrative Services  (ohio)
Department Of The Interior, Office Of The Secretary
Department Of Veterans Affairs
Detroit Public Schools
Devry
Dga Security Systems
Dickstein Shapiro Llp
Discover Financial Services
Distributed Systems Services
Duane Morris
Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway, United Kingdom
Emerge212
Equity Residential
Ernst & Young Llp
Esi International
Espn
Evercore Partners Services East, Llc
Facebook
Factory Mutual Insurance Company
Federal Aviation Administration
Federated Systems Group
Fedex Fedex Office & Print Services
Fidelity National Financial
First American Equipment Financial
Fisher Scientific
Florida Department Of Management Services
Florida International University
Fort Hays State University
Fortressitx
Free Sas
Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.c.
GE
Genentech
Georgetown University
Gerson Lehrman Group
Godaddy.com, Llc
Google Corporate
Goose Creek Consolidated Isd
Graphnet Inc.
Gravitas Technology
Greenberg Traurig P.a
Griffin Information Systems Limited
Group M Worldwide
Hachette Book Group
Hamilton-clermont Cooperative Assn.
Hccs - Houston Community College System
Hearst Corporation
Hewlett-packard Company
Higher Colleges Of Technology
Hill & Knowlton, Inc
Hillsborough County Aviation Authority
Hilton Hotels Corporation
HMA
Hughes Hubbard & Reed Llp
Ibm Corporation
IBM Corporation
Ikon Office Solutions
Illinois Wesleyan University
Immedion, Llc
Intergrated Office
Internal Revenue Service
International Business Times
Io Capital Princess, Llc
Jefferies International Limited
Jewish Board Of Family & Children 's Services
Johnson & Johnson
Jones Apparel Group
Kabel Bw
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hayes, And Hudler
King & Spalding Llp
Kirby Mcinerney Llp
Kirkland & Ellis Llp
Leaseweb Usa
Legal Source Ls Llc
Leslie Digital Imaging Llc
Lexis-nexis
Linode
Lion Resources
Liquidnet Holdings
Los Angeles County Office Of Education
Loyola Marymount University
Macquarie Bank
Macquarie Holdings
Marriott International
Marsh
Mayer, Brown & Platt
Mcnc
Medex Pharmacy
Mediadata
Memorial Sloan-kettering Cancer Center
Merck And Co
Miami University
Michaels Stores
Michigan State University Federal Credit Union
Micro Graphic Info Svcs
Microsoft Corp
Middle Country Public Library
Milbank - Milbank Tweed Hadley Mccloy
Ministry Of Education Computer Center
Miox Corporation
Montclair State University
Morgan Stanley Group
Moses & Singer Llp
Motorola
Mount Sinai School Of Medicine
Multiverse
Munsch Hardt Kopf Harr
Namesco Limited
Nassau County Board Of Cooperative Education Services
Nassau County Boces
National Board Of Medical Examiners
Navy Network Information Center
NBC Universal (multiple)
NBS
Nbty
Nco Group
Ncs Pearson
Neuberger Berman
New Mexico State University
New York City Public Schools
New York Power Authority
New York Public Library
New York University
Next Jump
Nomura International Plc
Northern Michigan University (Guess WHO?)
Northern Ohio Educational Computer Association
Nyedc
Off Campus Telecommunications
Old Republic
Onewest Bank Fsb
Openband Multimedia, Llc
Orange
Orange County - Telecommunications Department
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
Oshean
Partners Healthcare System
Pavlov Njencom Colo
Perfect Building Maintenance
Peter-paul_verduin
Pfizer
Pillsbury Madison & Sutro
Pitney Bowes Plc
Plum Creek Marketing
Plus One Health Management
Polaris Project
Polytechnic University
Powerspace & Services
Preferred Office Products
Pricewaterhousecoopers, Llp
Privax Limited
PwC (30 locations!)
Qitx
R.r. Donnelley & Sons Company
r.sea
Readers Digest
Reed Smith Llp
Reed Smith Llp (PA)
Regus Business Centers
Research In Motion
Revenue Assurance Test
Richards Kibbe & Orbe Llp
Robins, Kaplan, Miller, & Cire
Rockefeller Group Technology Solutions
Row 44
Royal Bank Of Canada
Salesforce.com
San Diego City Schools
San Francisco Marriott Marquis
Santa Clara County Office Of Education
Sarah Lawrence College
Scholastic
SFR
Sharp Electronics Corporation
Shearman & Sterling
Sidley Austin Brown & Wood
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Llp
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Llp
Social Law Library
Societe Generale
Socorro Independent School District
Softbank Bb Corp
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Spherion Corporation
src Federal Holding Company, Llc
Standard Motor Products
Starwood Hotels
State Of Montana
Stinson Morrison Hecker Llp
Straub Clinic & Hospital
Sungard Availability Services Usa
Syracuse University
Systems Research And Applications Corp.
Talktalk
Teco Energy
Tesoro Companies
Texas Blending & Warehousing Corp
Texas Instruments
Texas Medical Center
The Chubb Corporation
The City Of New York
The Coca-cola Company
The Heritage Foundation
The Interpublic Group Of Companies
The Jnt Association
The Limited
The Metrohealth System
The Municipal Communications Utility Of The City O (Iowa)
The New York Times Company
Toronto District School Board
Tower Group Companies
Trlg – Hq
Ttx Company
U.s. Bancorp
U.s. Center For Disease Control And Prevention (
U.s. Environmental Protection Agency
Ungaretti & Harris
United Business Technologies
United Stationers Supply Co.
University Of Connecticut
University Of Florida
University Of New Mexico
University Of Notre Dame
University Of Texas At San Antonio
Us Department Of Defense Net
Varian Medical Systems
Virgin
Virgin Media
Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State Univ
Virgo Penn Business Centers L
Vivo
Volumedrive
W.w.grainger
Warrenville, Illinois, United States
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weitz & Luxenberg P.
Wellington Management Company, Llp
Wells Fargo & Company
West Corporation
White & Case Llp
Widnes, Halton,
Wisdom Tree Investments, Inc.
Workforce Software
Wyndham Worldwide Corporation
X--ray Optical Systems, Inc.
Xerox Corporation
Yaquinto Printing (texas)
Yon Lew
Zuckerman Spaede

You are our only reason for being. You, our clients, are MY boss.

We grow every day.... yes... EVERY DAY..... We accomplish that by having the BEST people on our team. 

We work tirelessly to deliver Service Extraordinaire with a smile. Perhaps that is why I love Wednesdays.... because it gives everyone an opportunity to reflect upon things, and challenge oneself to make the rest of the week great!! Because the "rest of the week" is just a little bit of our future.... so what we do great today makes our future even greater!!  

To my team: Make the most of the receptive door these fine folks listed here have opened for us, Remind our readers and clients what attracted them to us in the first place. Challenge each and every one of yourselves to think of how you can create that excitement, action and growth in your own sites, your own cities and your own Region. 

Take our Personal, Passionate and Productive way of doing business to heart each and every day.

It's a passion for life and business that can't be faked and this hasn't been duplicated, even as hard as our competitors have tried.

Be great and (re)IMAGINE!

The future is bright, and I promise you I personally could not be more focused on helping each and every one of you achieve your greatest success. 

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

ABOUT FSO:

• The fastest growing and most successful national onsite outsourcing in the U.S. focused on 1) improving services, 2) reducing costs, and 3) giving employees  an opportunity to grow.
• We outsource functions like: Mail, Copy, Reception, Switchboard, Office Services, Records, Messenger, IT, Concierge, Front & Back Office and much more.
• 1600+ employees, operating in 60+ cities, 225+ operational sites, 98% employee retention & 100% client retention.
• We (re)imagine the ways businesses are run.

ABOUT FSO CEO & FOUNDER – MITCH WEINER:

• Pioneer of the onsite outsourcing business model.
• 20+ years of industry experience.
•  Previous owner of Archer, which he sold to Canon.

VIDEO:
Brief "corporate portrait" video shows who we are and what we can do for you HERE

FSO Onsite Outsourcing: "Some Things Never Change" .... except HERE

And all of this, in and of itself, is radical CHANGE from business as usual. FSO has a culture that breeds success, overcomes challenges and exceeds expectations. 

Good Morning Folks,

Welcome to Monday and I trust you all had a fantastic weekend. Wherever you are across the USA you probably spent time this weekend split between mothers and basketball (except for MVP Kevin Durant who found a way to brilliantly combine the two J). The playoffs are coming to the wire and just like in our business, you always have to watch out for those underdogs.  

In the world of Onsite Outsourcing, that is exactly what FSO has been, that underdog who has always found the way to win.  So that is my message to start out this week. We can never forget – ever – what got us here as the underdogs to win, and what we need to continue to do to get us to the next level.

People want to work with people they like— people they trust— people who have their back and have fun. They know what it takes to hold onto what they have and cherish the wins by doing exactly what they say they are going to do. It's because clients want hospitality, energy, happiness and stability. 

Our brand has always been synonymous with the best service and best people ever.  
So our clients look forward to coming to work every day and a peaceful sleep when they don't have to take worries home.

Consistent through all my pursuits has been a “Happiness-Centric” perspective. The model delivers on three key differentiators. First, customers receive service they’ve never before come to expect. In a world of behemoth organizations that seeks to instill into employees their dogmatic, formulaic and unyielding protocols for customer engagement, we instead hire for attitude. Attitude can have a tremendous impact. Everybody. Everyday. 


I call it hiring for “the twinkle in their eye, a skip in their step, the fire in their belly.” Any manager can train off the company manual, but you cannot train for the right attitude, one where an employee means it when she says, “How are you doing today?”


Second, we are returning a personal touch to business that has been lost in the customer service experience. Consumers – whether business or personal – have come to accept, even expect, a lackadaisical – even lousy - interaction with their vendors. So when an organization like FSO delivers outstanding, over-the-top customer engagement, it’s like some golden nugget delivered each day to those customers by a partner – not a vendor – who connects culturally, strategically and who truly cares about their success. 

Therefore one of our biggest competitive advantages is our commitment to training and developing our employees. We strive to have the most inspired, motivated, and best trained employees in the industry!

Our clients love FSO because of our ENERGY, PASSION and SMARTS. 

It is a job expectation that we are coming to the table proactively and providing solutions and creative ideas to our clients and their issues. It doesn’t matter what level our employees are at— from associate, to supervisor or manager— they are on the ground and are closer to what happens every day in their operation and can provide insight, observations and ideas that positively affect our awesome clients.

I advise our employees to ignore negative energy, to stay positive, smile, be happy, and to think of new ideas that create, innovate and build a future that makes possible what was never possible before.

In just about any business environment the only thing you can really count on is that everything will change. So, it’s best to be prepared for it and if you outsource with FSO you will be. Everything we do, every way we behave, respond, greet, secure and (re) imagine the future, is radical CHANGE from business as usual. FSO has a culture that breeds success, overcomes challenges and exceeds expectations. 

Crafting this morning’s message to kick off the week, I can’t wait to see all the happy, inspired people in our corporate office who do a great job supporting us in the field every day.  

Your energy, enthusiasm and professionalism are always greatly appreciated and looking forward to a great week! 

Have a great day and thanks for being a part of our amazing journey.

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

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"Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footsteps on the moon"

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ThrowBack Thursday: "Switching It Up" For Four Generations Working Alongside One Another

“In the legal profession, we are always trying to find ways to be more efficient and as competitive as possible in the market,” said LaFramboise. “Keeping up with developing technology and infusing it in your firm is absolutely essential to accomplishing that.”

Good Morning Folks,,

Telecommunications was always and still is the backbone of any service business.

Smartphones, iPads, BlackBerries, Facebook, LinkedIn—they’re revolutionizing the practice of law. But not everyone has cottoned to this technology. There is a technology generation gap, and bridging it requires recognizing and respecting how attorneys young and old use technology to do their jobs.

Ted Schwartz just got an iPhone, he tells Matthew Malamud for the American Association for Justice.

“It’s terrific!” the 66-year-old attorney from Philadelphia exclaimed, ticking off all the ways he uses it: “as a phone, obviously, but also to send and receive e-mails, and for driving directions.” His voice conveys the astonishment of someone who remembers when making a mobile phone call meant stepping into a booth to use a pay phone."

Communications technology has changed since the days when Schwartz clerked in a law office during law school in 1966. Back then, law offices still had rooms with telephone switchboards where operators manually connected calls by switching out and plugging in numerous wires.

According to WikiPedia, "A telephone switchboard is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network or in enterprises to interconnect circuits of telephones to establish telephone calls between the subscribers or users, or between other exchanges. The switchboard was an essential component of a manual telephone exchange, and was operated by one or more persons, called operators who either used electrical cords or switches to establish the connections.

The electromechanical automatic telephone exchange, invented by Almon Strowger in 1888, gradually replaced manual switchboards in central telephone exchanges starting in 1919 when the Bell System adopted automatic switching, but many manual branch exchanges remained operational during the last half of the 20th century in offices, hotels, or other enterprises. Later electronic devices and computer technology gave the operator access to an abundance of features. In modern businesses, a private branch exchange (PBX) often has an attendant console for the operator, or an auto-attendant, which bypasses the operator entirely.

The first telephones in the 1870s were rented in pairs which were limited to conversation between those two instruments. The use of a central exchange was soon found to be even more advantageous than in telegraphy. In January 1878 the Boston Telephone Dispatch company had started hiring boys as telephone operators. Boys had been very successful as telegraphy operators, but their attitude (lack of patience) and behaviour (pranks and cursing) was unacceptable for live phone contact,[1] so the company began hiring women operators instead. Thus, on September 1, 1878, Boston Telephone Dispatch hired Emma Nutt as the first woman operator. Small towns typically had the switchboard installed in the operator's home so that he or she could answer calls on a 24 hour basis. In 1894, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company installed the first battery-operated switchboard on January 9 in Lexington, Massachusetts."

“I remember clerking one day,” Schwartz said, “and there was no one to operate the switchboard so they asked me to be the telephone operator. I, of course, had all of three minutes of training on this thing. The lawyers were on the phone—some were talking with clients in Hong Kong and California. You can imagine what happened. I pulled the plugs and I had the client in Hong Kong talking to the client in California while the lawyers in one office were talking to the lawyers down the hall. They came out of their offices screaming.”

Today’s attorneys don’t have to rely on a switchboard, and they aren’t tethered to an office. They have cell phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, and tablet computers. They e-mail, instant message, text message, blog, tweet, and update their Facebook pages.

In law firms’ attempts to go paperless, they’re relying more on devices like the iPad, which can be used in the office and the courtroom. They’re also moving into cloud computing, which requires less information technology infrastructure and frees up office space by moving data storage to Internet-based servers. These technologies also enable lawyers to work from anywhere, not just the office, because they can access files via the Internet.

But not everyone feels the same way about the technology at his or her disposal. A generational conflict is at play, and technology is at the center of the fray.

Rather than making things easier, technology sometimes frustrates communication between legal professionals young and old. Instead of being a communication conduit, tools like e-mail and text messages can be an impediment, which is why the different generations need to constantly work to resolve their differences.

For the first time, four generations are working alongside one another. The WWII Generation (or Silent Generation), born before 1945, comprises five percent of today’s workforce. Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, make up the largest share of the workforce at 38 percent. Generation Xers, born between 1965 and 1980, are 32 percent, and Generation Yers (or Millennials), born between 1980 and 2000, are 25 percent.

Members of each generation tend to share common perspectives on workplace issues, including communication,1 and each generation has divergent attitudes toward technology in the workplace. A member of the WWII Generation, for example, may prefer to correspond by memo, letter, or personal note, while a Baby Boomer is more apt to reach out by telephone or personal interaction. Generation Xers and Yers are most likely to send coworkers voicemails, e-mails, instant messages, or text messages.2 These two groups rely heavily on social networking tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, though mostly in their personal lives.

Take Schwartz, for example. His iPhone is the first mobile device he’s owned that is capable of sending and receiving work e-mail. His colleagues, including his Generation X colleague Pamela Lee, had been prodding him to get one for some time. “I can’t live without my iPhone!” Lee said, perplexed by how she ever managed without a smartphone. “Technology has made things easier.”

Schwartz, on the other hand, is a little less enthusiastic. “It is a convenience, I will tell you that, and it keeps me in touch. But it is a curse because it keeps me in touch. Being connected 24/7 has its drawbacks.”

He is a typical Baby Boomer. They weren’t born into a digital world and aren’t as comfortable with today’s gadgetry.3 Boomers tend not to consider ubiquitous technology-related products and services like Facebook.

However, Generation Y member Drew LaFramboise, who is only as old as the Apple Macintosh computer, thinks of today’s technology as an extension of himself. “I just don’t function as well without it,” said the new attorney from Columbus, Ohio.

Natasha Patel, a career adviser with Columbia University Law School, sees a gap between older partners and younger associates when it comes to knowing when to use electronic communication.

“You’ve got a generation that communicates everything online and a generation that doesn’t rely on electronic communication as its sole method to communicate,” said Patel. If associates want to advance, they’ll need to “meet the partners at their level,” she advises young lawyers. This means forging relationships the old-fashioned way, by regularly meeting with partners and speaking to them in person when issues arise, not just shooting off an e-mail, according to Patel.

Patel also sees a problem with young associates feeling isolated in the work environment, which may be attributable in part to electronic communication. This isolation in turn affects retention. “They are behind a computer in their offices most of the day. And though e-mail is the easiest mode of communication, they should feel comfortable enough to go knock on the partner’s door and strike up a conversation,” she said.

Generation X member Sonia Chaisson of Los Angeles said she is more likely to pick up the phone to speak with an older colleague than to send an e-mail or a text. She also said she sometimes forgets that older people aren’t as hip to the various language shortcuts that younger people use in e-mail and text messages, such as TTYL (talk to you later) or BTW (by the way). “I have to remind myself to write everything out in full sentences when I’m communicating to older adults,” she said.

Betty Barrett, an associate professor of sociotechnical systems with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, agrees with Patel. “I advise my students to be aware of the fact that they are working in a world where the authority figures have different expectations and different sets of behavior patterns,” she said.

But that is not to say Baby Boomers are off the hook. Barrett thinks that each generation needs to recognize and respect that there are differences among them. Baby Boomers need to understand that younger generations think of mobile communications technology as an extension of who they are and what they do; multitasking is second nature to them, Barrett contended.

“I’m of an older generation that was brought up to pay attention to whoever was speaking to you and that a sign of respect was putting your work down when being spoken to,” she said. “Young people increasingly don’t have those values, and that is where we’re seeing conflict.”

Barrett spoke of a manager who hired several young workers. “They were on their cell phones all the time, this manager told me,” she recounted. “He wanted to know how bad it would be to take away the use of their cell phones during the workday.” She warned against it. “It’s something they’ve grown up with. They’re going to panic—they’re going to have a physical reaction to not having that cell phone. Students are coming out of college today with their phones in their hands all the time—it’s part of them.”

Baby Boomers also should recognize that younger generations expect feedback instantaneously. “I will get frustrated if I e-mail someone and they don’t get back to me right away,” Lee admitted.

Just because older generations are less likely to depend on technology the way younger generations do doesn’t mean they eschew technology altogether. Let’s dispense with a stereotype: Most veteran legal professionals today know how to use a computer. Yes, they may still remember the days of typewriters and mimeographs, but they’ve kept up with the changing technology. Still, there is a clear generation gap when it comes to adopting and using new technology and applications.4

For example, although just two-fifths of all legal professionals say they use mobile devices in the courtroom, almost three-quarters of Generation Yers do.5 About half of Generation Xers and just 23 percent of Baby Boomers use mobile devices in the courtroom.

The generations also diverge in their attitudes toward using technology. Compare Schwartz and LaFramboise: Schwartz sees technology as helpful, while LaFramboise sees it as something that’s necessary.

“In the legal profession, we are always trying to find ways to be more efficient and as competitive as possible in the market,” said LaFramboise. “Keeping up with developing technology and infusing it in your firm is absolutely essential to accomplishing that.”

While two-thirds of Baby Boomers think it’s impolite or distracting to use a laptop or PDA during a meeting, just 57 percent of Generation Yers think it’s impolite and even fewer (49 percent) think it’s distracting.

Not surprisingly, the percentage of adults who use electronic tools, such as laptop computers and iPads, trails off with age. For example, 70 percent of Generation Yers own a laptop, while just 46 percent of Baby Boomers do.

Whereas present-day law firms are confronting technology and social media, the law firms of the future will have to confront this new dynamic.

“Young people in many ways, especially the very young,” Barrett said, “are developing earlier and earlier this capability to multitask and interact in an electronic environment, and that’s changing how they are. But that evolutionary change is going to be much slower than the change in technology, so that imbalance is going to always cause some serious dynamics in how the generations perceive each other and their interaction with technology.”

As telephone exchanges converted to automatic (dial) service, switchboards continued to serve specialized purposes. Before the advent of direct-dialed long distance calls, a subscriber would need to contact the long-distance operator in order to place a toll call. In large cities, there was often a special number, such as 112, which would ring the long-distance operator directly. Elsewhere, the subscriber would ask the local operator to ring the long-distance operator.

The long distance operator would record the name and city of the person to be called, and the operator would advise the calling party to hang up and wait for the call to be completed. Each toll center had only a limited number of trunks to distant cities, and if those circuits were busy, the operator would try alternate routings through intermediate cities. The operator would plug into a trunk for the destination city, and the inward operator would answer. The inward operator would obtain the number from the local information operator, and ring the call. Once the called party answered, the originating operator would advise him or her to stand by for the calling party, whom she'd then ring back, and record the starting time, once the conversation began.

While many have written-off the old-fashioned service and personal attention you'd once expect from the phone company and other service providers in favor of voice -automation and voice mail loops ,at FSO we opt for the way it use to be. That's why we answer your calls personallywith active involvement of the most tenured outsourcing leadership team in the business: Myself (Founder, Chief Happiness Officer, & Owner) and Jim Caton (President, Chief Chaos, & Owner) are “hands on” leaders who are intimate with every operation and who remain so for the life of the contract.

Thanks to WikiPedia, The American Association for Justice for helping us prepare this story, and to you for supporting FSO. Matthew Malamud is an associate editor of Trial. He can be reached at matthew.malamud@justice.org.

If know of someone who would enjoy working for or with FSO please do not keep us a secret.

Have a GREAT day

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here

Notes:
AARP, Leading a Multigenerational Workforce (2007), assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org_/cs/misc/leading_a_multigenerational_workforce.pdf.
Id.
Sara J. Czaja et al., Factors Predicting the Use of Technology: Findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement, 21 Psychol. and Aging, 333 (2006).
LexisNexis, LexisNexis Technology Gap Survey (2008), www.lexisnexis.com/media/pdfs/LexisNexis-Technology-Gap-Survey-4-09.pdf.
Id.
Pew Research Center, Generations and Their Gadgets (Feb. 3, 2011), www.pewinternet.org/reports/2011/generations-and-gadgets.aspx. The authors separated younger Baby Boomers, age 47–56, from older Baby Boomers, age 57–65; the 46 percent of Baby Boomers who own a laptop is an average of the two segments’ proportions.
Pew Research Center, 65% of Online Adults Use Social Networking Sites (Aug. 26, 2011), http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/2011/generations-and-gadgets.aspx.
Id.

(re) IMAGINE Mondays: Change Is Good If It's Going In The Right Direction

"How many retail clerks are you on a first name basis with? How many retail clerks know what style and color shirts you prefer when you shop? Salemanship is an art and most companies don't have any real salesmen working for them that truly enjoy what they do, go the extra mile for their customers, nor build any genuine relationship with their customers."

Good Morning and Welcome to Monday FSO USA, Clients, Readers and Fans!!

Monday is a day to cause mayhem and havoc for our competitors! Rumors are flying around the country about FSO and our company! AWESOME! Our competitors are getting nervous and they are feeling the pressure.

Here's why:

Change is one of the most guaranteed things in life, but few people want to accept that fact, and fewer can deal with it.

Just look at history and you don't have to go far back to see how fast things can change. Take 250 years ago. That's not very far when you think about it. The United States of America didn't even exist. Look how much this one little band of rebels against the British monarchy accomplished in that time. We took on the most powerful nation in the world at the time and kicked ass and started our own country from scratch.

Go back 500 years ago. What did the United States look like then? There was nothing here but Indian tribes. No buildings. No roads. No corporations. No electricity. No water systems. No airports. No cars. No financial system. No banks. It was better than when the dinosaurs ruled our continent but not by much.

What was life like 5,000 years ago on this planet? Civilization was just starting to take root.

Let's move up in time. When I grew up we had 3 major TV networks and 3 UHF stations. TV was in black and white. There were no cell phones. No personal computers. No video games. No Internet. None of the great stuff like we have today. I remember going to the World's Fair and seeing the World of Tomorrow pavilion and being totally fascinated by what visionaries expected the world to be like in the 21st century and what has come to be was even beyond that vision.

But the bottom line is time changes everything and does it continuously. It is a destroyer and creator both. Change is remarkably efficient at taking out what is not right, what is not healthy, what is not good and productive, and what is no longer needed in a system. In that respect change is positive and it is vital. Change kills things and at the same time change gives birth to brand new things and brand new opportunities.

So to succeed when everything is falling apart you merely have to accept the reality and destructiveness of change and join its side and adapt as things are changed. Don't fight it, because you can never win trying to keep and maintain what needs to be changed. This is when those who know how to do well when life becomes overwhelming and each day brings another unforeseen punch in the face from change, thrive and succeed most.

The key is to make change your partner and look for the brand new opportunities that are being created from the transition of the economy. The new gardens that change is now planting and seeding.

You have to be an optimist and creative, pessimism and doing things the same way will take you down the toilet with everything else going downhill now. 

From a practical perspective, there's a great amount of inefficiency and unproductiveness in many aspects of business these days. You can go to any mall in the US and it all looks the same. You can instantly spot the stores that are well managed, with great staff, great products, great marketing, good value, good prices, etc. and those that are not. The stores going out of business deserve to and need to. They are not being run well or what they are selling is no longer marketable. And that's the bottom line. You can only get away with running a business badly for so long and then change will take you out.

I find it amazing how clueless and bureaucratically most businesses are run. It's a wonder they survive for as long as they do. In today's dynamic world things move and change at a lightning pace. You have to be fast and nimble to adapt and keep up with it each day. The dinosaurs in business are getting killed because they are just that running their businesses like dinosaurs and not able to keep up anymore. Someone is doing a better job. Someone has better trained salesmen. Someone has more innovative products or services. etc. etc. People like FSO!

I recently hired someone who started the interview sharing what he learned from his first job in in Philadelphia: working in a local department store in the men's clothing department. He told me, "I think I was the only one who actually WORKED in my department. Most of the other salesmen would stand around either chatting or pretending to be doing something. When I didn't have a customer to wait on, I would go around and straighten up my area and make sure it looked pristine. When that was done I would pickup the phone and call my customers and tell them about upcoming new styles coming in and sales for the next week. I was the only salesman in the entire store that would ask customers for their first name and phone number to keep in touch with them and build a relationship with them."

He continues, "My manager, Jason Bonner, said he'd never seen anyone do the things I did in all his decades of retailing. He'd never seen anyone look so happy to be working. I would even organize all the inventory in the back stock rooms perfectly which wasn't even in my area of responsibility. My sales per hour for the store were 4 times and higher to the norm and higher than anyone else. Customers would come in the men's department and specifically ask for me to shop with them and help select their clothes and suggest what'd look best on them. They obviously loved the fact that someone actually enjoyed and was enthusiastic about waiting on them, and showed a genuine interest in them."

Right in the first moments of the first interview I knew he had the skip, fire, passion and love of hospitality that made him a shoe-in for the job. It's easy to spot, because so few people that we meet with that "X factor"-- that extra smile, the inner happiness, the hunger to serve, all in the name of becoming all they can be.

How many retail clerks are you on a first name basis with? How many retail clerks know what style and color shirts you prefer when you shop? Salemanship is an art and most companies don't have any real salesmen working for them that truly enjoy what they do, go the extra mile for their customers, nor build any genuine relationship with their customers. This is one of the biggest problems and deficiencies in business today. And this permeates into other aspects of businesses as well. Management at most companies is atrocious and incompetent. They don't know what they're doing and most times they are just "coasting" instead of doing what they're supposed to do which is managing and building business.

I could go on and on. The mess, mismanagement, and incompetence out there permeates so much of our lives today. In business, big and small. In government, federal, state, and local. Especially with the incumbents we beat replace every day in the outsourcing world. So many people just don't know how to do things the right way anymore, have no enthusiasm, and aren't productive.

We all have talent and lots of skills. More than most. People in here will do fine because we are used to "dancing" with business challenges every day.

To build your own career - knowledge building is essential. Whether it's in hospitality, mail, copy, records, messenger, security or facilities there are trends, innovations, technology and essential best practices that surround these services.

Do you know what these are? Is your site "keeping up with the times?" Are you and our staff having discussions about things you have seen, read or heard in the market that are cutting edge?

What have you done this year to introduce something NEW, INNOVATIVE or exciting to our clients? Like onsite Concierge Services? Or an iPad Check-in App for guests? These are just a snippet of things that are being introduced by FSO but we are always looking for more ideas, more creative services and solutions we can bring to our prospects and clients.

Now get to work, ignore the negative energy, stay positive, smile, be happy, and energize your mind to its maximum potential to think of new ideas that create, innovate and build a future that makes possible what was never possible before.

Have a great day…make it happen…SMILE…and, thanks for being a part of this amazing journey.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

ABOUT FSO:

• The fastest growing and most successful national onsite outsourcing in the U.S. focused on 1) improving services, 2) reducing costs, and 3) giving employees  an opportunity to grow.
• We outsource functions like: Mail, Copy, Reception, Switchboard, Office Services, Records, Messenger, IT, Concierge, Front & Back Office and much more.
• 1600+ employees, operating in 60+ cities, 225+ operational sites, 98% employee retention & 100% client retention.
• We (re)imagine the ways businesses are run.

ABOUT FSO CEO & FOUNDER – MITCH WEINER:

• Pioneer of the onsite outsourcing business model.
• 20+ years of industry experience.
•  Previous owner of Archer, which he sold to Canon.

VIDEO:
Brief "corporate portrait" video shows who we are and what we can do for you HERE