Chieh Huang: Confessions of a recovering micromanager
黃傑: 一位正在戒微觀管理癮的管理者的告白
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
是要和大家談微觀管理,
身為一名微觀管理者,
over the last few years of my life.
great, wonderful, imaginative people --
比如在座的各位——
接著壓碎他們的靈魂
that deal with Times New Roman,
字體我們是不可能成交的,
我們缺的就是這個!」
that we probably see in ourselves
看到具體化的呈現。
you've ever been in your life, right?
you stayed the latest at work,
成為最後一個離開的人,
came home from a road trip,
道路旅行回到家的時候,
looking over your shoulder,
when she's over right?
data to support this.
their next 12-hour shift all alone,
十二小時獨自執班,
they asked them, "Do you feel fatigued?"
「你們覺得疲勞嗎?」
was actually really interesting.
會覺得最疲勞,
the people who moved the most
that didn't have control over their jobs.
isn't really effective,
微觀管理不是很有效,
wonderful, imaginative people
有想像力的人帶進來,
you probably don't even need to ask.
在機場被偷嗎?」
your luggage stolen at the airport?"
been asked, right?
是否有任何人問過你:
dull and unimaginative people?"
又沒想像力的人?」
we better back it up with data.
我們最好用資料來佐證。
of people around the country --
dull and unimaginative people?
且沒有想像力的人?
且沒有想像力的人。
dull and unimaginative people.
understand the question --
dull and unimaginative people.
無聊且沒想像力的人。
and so why do we do this still then?
really, really simple
and have actually felt.
都知道且感覺得到的。
into an organization --
it could be a law firm,
it could be anything --
of the totem pole, right?
at doing the work,
你會得到什麼獎賞?
are all great micromanagers.
很棒的微觀管理者。
if you're really good at it,
如果你真的很擅長它,
people doing the work.
管理做工作的人。
what happens after that?
之後會發生什麼事?
who manage the people doing the work,
管理做工作的人的人,
over the output of your job.
called Boxed in our garage,
一間公司,叫做 Boxed,
I know it doesn't seem like much --
它看起來不怎麼樣——
washer in the back --
when we started this,
我太太對我感到很驕傲,
she was really proud of me --
她對我感到很驕傲——
and I'm pretty sure she had her phone up
我很確定她還拿著手機,
"Oh, is John from Harvard still single?"
哈佛的約翰還單身嗎?」
一開始就出了差錯,
gone wrong in the beginning,
行動商務將會變得很大,
mobile commerce is going to be big,
were going to change over time,
不想吃力搬回家的龐大包裝——
that you don't want to lug home --
是 24 件裝的,
of Oreo cookies but the 24-pack
of toilet paper but the 48-pack --
而是 48 件裝的——
much like a warehouse club would do
就像倉儲會員店會做的那樣,
我們有台很慢的印表機,
"OK, this printer is taking forever, man.
要一輩子才會印出東西來。
that would delight the customer
能討好消費者的東西吧。」
「嘿,保持微笑。」
keep smiling," you know?
或「我們也愛開特力。」
the monotony of the job as well
and packing all of the boxes,
for eight, nine, 10, 12 hours a day
of millions of dollars worth of stuff,
really, really quickly.
my role started to change, too.
我的角色也開始改變了。
doing all the work,
真的開始管理別人,
who picked and packed,
picking and packing.
who manage the departments
the people picking and packing.
管理撿貨和包裝的人的人。
in time, I lost control.
all of these customers with these notes.
來讓客人感到很愉快。
write these notes anymore,
但我不能再寫字條了,
how to write these notes.
what you should write,
要寫什麼內容、
this has to be that big.
of raising morale
配送中心內的單調性
in the fulfillment center
大家開始向人力資源處抱怨。
and people started complaining to HR.
has got to get out of my hair, OK?
能不能別再來煩我了?
we said, "OK, you know?
「好,你知道嗎?
that's 'delight the customer,'
and that's these notes -- have at it."
就是這些字條——來做吧。」
was actually pretty startling.
these really ornate minimurals on them.
you'd get really fun notes like this:
會收到像這樣的有趣字條:
if they bought a bigger size,
went off the rails a few times.
"Thx, thx," all the time,
「謝了,謝了」,
my boss used to write that to me,"
以前就只會寫那些給我。」
things on the other side.
we sell everything in bulk:
都是大型量販包:
big packs of toilet paper,
大型量販包的廁所衛生紙、
多力多滋和奧利奧餅乾。
of contraception,
40-pack of condoms.
四十包大包裝的保險套。
four 40-packs of condoms --
大包裝的保險套——
"I know how to delight the customer."
要如何讓客人愉快。」
or to promote him, but he's still there.
還是升遷他,但他還在那裡。
a little bit off the rails
conflicted in all of this.
that I counted on being here,
紅色的 T-E-D 字樣,
a really bad sense of humor,
was conflicted, right?
we started doing things
of our core mission
should we let them fail?
要讓他們失敗嗎?
we should celebrate failure.
that says, "Let's celebrate failure."
「我們來慶祝失敗吧。」
if we would go all the way there,
"Hey, Chieh, you failed last quarter,
「嘿,傑,你上一季失敗了,
如果你是那種組織的一員,
an organization like that,
to sit in on that meeting.
我想要參與那種會議。
many people celebrate failure,
有很多人會慶祝失敗,
is actually pretty necessary
that you give them at hand.
你給他們的任務。
be seen as a milestone
前進過程的里程碑。
that you might fail more often,
and it's pretty great.
cost millions of dollars to build,
建造的成本要數百萬美元,
without spending millions of dollars?"
且不用花數百萬美元?」
this is not photoshopped,
這不是用軟體修圖過的,
what format it needed to be.
要是什麼形式。
the first prototype:
有實體鏡攝影機,光達系統。
stereoscopic cameras, lidar systems.
the efficiency of a conveyor belt
of a conveyor belt.
just stop with engineers.
get the word out; do the right thing."
on the marketing team.
很棒的女士,妮塔莎。
『粉紅稅』要怎麼辦?」
we doing about the pink tax?"
粉紅稅是什麼?」
what is this pink tax?"
it's really interesting.
that in 32 states across America,
on women's products
are taxed like luxury goods items.
會被當作是奢侈品來收稅。
或是她打給我,說:
bring some pads on the way home,"
回家時買些衛生棉。」
現在有貿易戰爭,經濟狀況不好,
there's a trade war going on,
但我保證下個月——
but next month I promise --
they rebate the tax
that we unfairly have to collect.
退回給全國各地的客人。
you might be thinking,
of not micromanaging?"
真正有利面是什麼?」
我沒有做自動引導的車子。
the Pink Tax" campaign.
taking all the credit for it.
and takes all the credit for it.
功勞都是他的。
他真的做到了。」
He's really got it down."
100 percent pat,
the most fundamentally challenging lesson
to 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