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Paul Burri: Default Memos and Carbon Copies
I have worked for only two large companies during my career, and believe me, it’s a lot different than working in a small company.
In a small company, you simply get up from your desk, walk down the hall and talk to the person. It’s a lot easier and quicker to get things done in a small company because you have fewer people to talk to, and fewer people make the decisions. That, of course, is why small companies are more nimble and get things done quicker.
Back in “the old days,” much communication in a large company got done via memos between people. Most of the time, phone calls would not be returned promptly, if at all. Also, there was a distinct advantage in having agreements and understandings in writing.
I assume that memos now have been replaced by intra-company e-mails, but I suspect that the problems I experienced are much the same. I would send a memo and never get a response. Sometimes it was a matter of the person being busy; other times, it was political.
But often it was critical for me to have an answer before I could proceed with my task, and it was often that numerous memos would not result in a response. That is, until I figured out two solutions to the problem, and I’m pretty sure those solutions would still be effective today.
One solution I called the “cc solution.” (Even today, “cc” still stands for carbon copy, even though many people have no idea what a carbon copy is.) I found that I would get a nearly 100 percent response rate to my memos if I noted at the bottom that I was sending a cc to the person’s boss. Often, it wasn’t even necessary to actually send the copy to the boss. Thinking that the boss also was receiving my memo worked remarkably well in encouraging a response — and especially if I marked it “second request.”
The other solution was what I called the “default” memo. Say I needed to get a budget figure from a department head, and he kept neglecting to answer my request for a number. I would send him a memo that read something like this:
“I have not received an answer to several requests for a budget amount for 127 Widgets for Project A-134619-G. From other sources I have determined that the amount should be $697,344.17. If I do not have a response from you by the close of business on Friday, June 16, I will assume that you agree with this figure and proceed accordingly.”
So I was now deciding on a number that would almost certainly affect the person’s department. Almost without fail I would receive a new number — usually a lot higher or a lot lower — depending on which department was responding. In either case, I got my response.
— Paul Burri is an entrepreneur, inventor, columnist, engineer and iconoclast. He is not in the advertising business, but he is a small-business counselor with the Santa Barbara chapter of Counselors to America’s Small Business-SCORE. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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