Company Helps Work Out Workplace Woes : Productivity: Interact Performance Systems Inc. in Orange develops management training programs for some of the nation’s largest firms.
It is a problem that has dogged many U.S. manufacturers and service companies since the 1970s: How does a company successfully encourage its employees to do a better job?
Managers at Calcomp Inc. used to pat employees on the back and say, “Good job.” But the Anaheim maker of computer graphics equipment found that while praising employees makes them feel good for a time, it has not translated into consistently improved work performance. So last October, the company hired Interact Performance Systems Inc. to train its managers in ways to motivate workers.
Today, managerial praise is much more specific, and executives say that employees’ job performance has significantly improved.
To pull this off, the Lockheed Corp. unit had help from Francis L. Price of Interact Performance, an Orange company that develops management training programs for some of the nation’s largest companies. Solving workplace problems is Price’s business.
Usually, Price’s team talks to managers and employees about their company duties and responsibilities. These discussions usually lead to the heart of the problem.
“Once I confront the supervisors and workers with the problems, their initial reaction is denial, and then they’re unwilling to take responsibility,” said Price, 43.
“In many cases, there’s nothing you can do except to bring to light the problems and empower the supervisors to confront the issues and take the appropriate actions,” he said.
Often, effective teamwork requires a minor organizational change within a division or its decision-making process, Price said.
With the U.S. economy hobbled by the recession, many firms are seeking professional help to improve the productivity of their work force. And companies such as Interact Performance benefit from this surge of corporate self-improvement.
Last year, Interact Performance’s revenue reached $2.3 million, and despite the recession, Price said, he expects sales to top $3 million in 1992, based on recent contracts signed with clients.
With his 14 employees, Price provides services to clients such as Allergan Inc. in Irvine, Allstate Insurance Co., General Motors Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
From his dark, leather-covered armchair, Price has a breathtaking view of Anaheim Stadium and the surrounding area. But all this is lost on Price as he searches his files and studies clients’ organizational charts to improve their efficiency and workplace morale.
As a boy from a poor family in Kingston, Jamaica, Price wanted to become a successful entrepreneur.
“People ask me what keeps me going,” he said. “I tell them that I’m an immigrant. I’ve gone through all the travails of an immigrant’s life, and the only way to go is up.”
While growing up, Price watched his young, widowed mother peddle cool “cow’s foot jelly” to laborers digging trenches along Kingston’s dirt roads. For years, selling the jelly--a high-protein drink made from boiled beef hoofs--was his mother’s sole source of income to support Price and his five siblings.
She became so good at it that she saved enough money to start her own restaurant. Later, she expanded into two eateries. This enterprising spirit was not lost on Price.
“My mother was the first entrepreneur I met, and I’ve always wanted to be like her--being good at what I do and owning my own business,” Price said.
In 1967, he left home to pursue a business degree at a small college in Rochester, N.Y., where he worked at odd jobs to help pay his tuition.
After graduation, he worked in Xerox Corp.’s finance department and studied the operation of large U.S. corporations. After six years, he tried his hand in the retail sector, selling personal computers in Dallas.
Price expanded his business to two stores, which eventually failed during the 1981-82 recession. Undaunted, he moved his family to Orange in 1983 to start over. But it was tough, and he ended up becoming chief executive of Interact Performance, then a troubled management training firm in Provo, Utah. The firm’s Pasadena owner agreed to sell a portion of the firm to Price if he could make it profitable within two years.
Price, who commuted to Orange on weekends, led the consulting firm to profitability in less than 24 months. He then used his four-bedroom home as collateral for a loan from the firm’s owner to buy the firm, which he relocated to Orange County in 1985.
This year, his firm will venture overseas for the first time, Price said. It will translate some of its management training programs into Spanish for employees of Ford Motor Co. in Spain.
