Chieh Huang: Confessions of a recovering micromanager
Chieh Huang: Confessions d’un micromanager repenti
Chieh Huang is cofounder and CEO of Boxed.com, a company that's disrupting the wholesale shopping club experience. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
is talk to you about micromanagement
du micromanagement
ces dernières années.
over the last few years of my life.
great, wonderful, imaginative people --
géniales, merveilleuses et inventives,
une taille de police d'écriture.
that deal with Times New Roman,
avec du Times New Roman,
sur la police Helvetica,
Voilà ce qui manquait » ?
que nous ressentons intérieurement
that we probably see in ourselves
le plus épuisé de votre vie.
you've ever been in your life, right?
où vous êtes resté tard au bureau
you stayed the latest at work,
came home from a road trip,
pour le travail.
looking over your shoulder,
était derrière votre dos,
when she's over right?
quand elle vient, non ?
data to support this.
a observé 100 employés d'hôpitaux.
their next 12-hour shift all alone,
pendant leur rotation de 12 heures.
s'ils se sentaient fatigués.
they asked them, "Do you feel fatigued?"
was actually really interesting.
ceux qui bougent le plus
the people who moved the most
qui ne contrôlaient pas leur travail.
that didn't have control over their jobs.
isn't really effective,
n'est pas vraiment efficace,
wonderful, imaginative people
merveilleux et inventifs
qu'on pourrait se passer de poser.
you probably don't even need to ask.
your luggage stolen at the airport?"
votre bagage à l'aéroport ? »
mais on ne me l'a jamais demandé.
been asked, right?
à vous, manager :
mornes et sans imagination ? »
dull and unimaginative people?"
we better back it up with data.
on a préparé nos chiffres.
à des centaines de gens.
of people around the country --
ennuyeux et sans imagination ?
dull and unimaginative people?
ennuyeux et sans imagination.
dull and unimaginative people.
understand the question --
dull and unimaginative people.
pourquoi continuons-nous de micromanager ?
and so why do we do this still then?
really, really simple
vraiment très simple
and have actually felt.
et que nous avons tous éprouvé.
into an organization --
it could be a law firm,
it could be anything --
of the totem pole, right?
at doing the work,
are all great micromanagers.
de super micromanagers.
si vous êtes vraiment bon,
if you're really good at it,
à gérer le travail des autres.
people doing the work.
what happens after that?
que se passe-t-il ?
who manage the people doing the work,
les gens qui font le travail.
over the output of your job.
du produit de votre travail.
appelée Boxed dans mon garage.
called Boxed in our garage,
I know it doesn't seem like much --
je sais ça paraît modeste,
washer in the back --
when we started this,
au moment de la création,
she was really proud of me --
elle était super fière,
certain qu'elle avait son calepin en main
and I'm pretty sure she had her phone up
"Oh, is John from Harvard still single?"
était encore célibataire.
gone wrong in the beginning,
qui dérape le premier jour.
le secteur mobile croissait
mobile commerce is going to be big,
were going to change over time,
allait évoluer avec le temps :
that you don't want to lug home --
difficiles à rapporter à la maison,
mais celui de 24
of Oreo cookies but the 24-pack
de papier toilette, celui de 48 ;
of toilet paper but the 48-pack --
à la manière d'un entrepôt,
much like a warehouse club would do
"OK, this printer is taking forever, man.
était extrêmement lente,
that would delight the customer
destinés à réjouir le client
keep smiling," you know?
the monotony of the job as well
la monotonie de notre boulot,
et emballait des colis
and packing all of the boxes,
for eight, nine, 10, 12 hours a day
pendant 9, 10 ou 12 heures,
of millions of dollars worth of stuff,
des centaines de millions de dollars,
really, really quickly.
vraiment vite.
my role started to change, too.
le PDG dans son garage,
doing all the work,
remballais, la totale.
who picked and packed,
qui déballaient et emballaient
qui recevaient et emballaient.
picking and packing.
qui dirige les départements
who manage the departments
the people picking and packing.
ceux qui reçoivent et emballent.
in time, I lost control.
all of these customers with these notes.
amusaient mes clients.
mais je ne peux plus en écrire.
write these notes anymore,
comment écrire ces petits mots.
how to write these notes.
what you should write,
quelle couleur, quoi écrire,
this has to be that big.
mais pas trop quandmême.
la motivation de tous
of raising morale
in the fulfillment center
du centre d'approvisionnement
and people started complaining to HR.
et les gens s'en plaignaient aux RH :
has got to get out of my hair, OK?
me laisse faire mon boulot !
we said, "OK, you know?
« Vous savez quoi ?
talentueux et merveilleux,
that's 'delight the customer,'
d'émerveiller le client. »
and that's these notes -- have at it."
lâchez-vous sur les petits mots ! »
was actually pretty startling.
these really ornate minimurals on them.
miniatures pour égayer les documents.
you'd get really fun notes like this:
ils écrivaient des choses drôles :
if they bought a bigger size,
plus grandes - ils écrivaient :
went off the rails a few times.
que ça a déraillé plusieurs fois.
"Thx, thx," all the time,
« mb, mb » à chaque message.
my boss used to write that to me,"
rapidement écrit par mon ancien boss.
things on the other side.
c'était parfois trop.
we sell everything in bulk:
big packs of toilet paper,
des lots de papier toilette,
of contraception,
de 40 préservatifs.
des lots de 40 préservatifs.
40-pack of condoms.
four 40-packs of condoms --
quatre lots de 40 préservatifs.
comment émerveiller son client.
"I know how to delight the customer."
or to promote him, but he's still there.
ou le virer - il est encore avec nous.
a little bit off the rails
conflicted in all of this.
that I counted on being here,
un TED rouge sur la scène,
[MITIGE]
a really bad sense of humor,
de mon sens tordu de l'humour.
was conflicted, right?
à faire des choses
we started doing things
avec notre mission
of our core mission
should we let them fail?
si nous devions les laisser faire.
une mauvaise chose.
we should celebrate failure.
that says, "Let's celebrate failure."
souvent : « Célébrons l'échec. »
envie d'emprunter cette voie.
if we would go all the way there,
du comité d'administration,
"Hey, Chieh, you failed last quarter,
les résultats sont mauvais,
d'une telle organisation,
an organization like that,
to sit in on that meeting.
participer aux réunions.
many people celebrate failure,
is actually pretty necessary
that you give them at hand.
la mission qu'on leur a confiée.
be seen as a milestone
l'échec comme une étape
that you might fail more often,
qu'on pourrait échouer plus souvent
and it's pretty great.
et ils sont assez bons.
cost millions of dollars to build,
ont coûté des millions de dollars.
without spending millions of dollars?"
sans dépenser des millions ? »
this is not photoshopped,
pas de Photoshop ici -
what format it needed to be.
aucun plan, aucun format.
sorti le premier prototype :
the first prototype:
de vision stéréoscopique et de lidars.
stereoscopic cameras, lidar systems.
que les tapis roulants
the efficiency of a conveyor belt
of a conveyor belt.
dans des tapis roulants.
just stop with engineers.
get the word out; do the right thing."
de semer la bonne parole.
on the marketing team.
dans ce département, Nitasha.
pour la taxe rose ? »
we doing about the pink tax?"
what is this pink tax?"
c'est super intéressant.
it's really interesting.
that in 32 states across America,
sur les produits pour femmes,
on women's products
are taxed like luxury goods items.
sont considérés luxueux.
bring some pads on the way home,"
des serviettes hygiéniques,
avec cette guerre commerciale,
there's a trade war going on,
mais, promis, le mois prochain,
but next month I promise --
ils remboursent la taxe
they rebate the tax
that we unfairly have to collect.
au client de manière injuste.
you might be thinking,
of not micromanaging?"
de ne pas micromanager ? »
the Pink Tax" campaign.
taking all the credit for it.
de TED pour recueillir votre admiration.
and takes all the credit for it.
et récolte tous les fruits.
He's really got it down."
Il a tout compris. »
100 percent pat,
the most fundamentally challenging lesson
fondamentale la plus difficile
to micromanagement ...
au micromanagement :
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chieh Huang - EntrepreneurChieh Huang is cofounder and CEO of Boxed.com, a company that's disrupting the wholesale shopping club experience.
Why you should listen
Started in Chieh Huang's garage five years ago, Boxed now has hundreds of employees in facilities all over the United States. Since the garage, the company has sold hundreds of millions of dollars of products and has raised over a quarter billion dollars in funding to date. Forbes named Boxed one of the next "billion-dollar startups."
Prior to Boxed, Huang served as the CEO of Astro Ape, one of the first mobile social gaming studios. His personal honors include being named to Bloomberg 50 (Bloomberg Businessweek's 50 people to watch in 2018), National Retail Federation's list of "People Shaping Retail’s Future, Crain's "40 Under 40" and Goldman Sachs's list of "100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs." He is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and received his JD from Fordham University.
Chieh Huang | Speaker | TED.com