When is a dirty bathroom a broken window? No, thats not a riddle. Its a question that could today be at the core of a businesss success or failure. Answer that question correctly and use that answer as a beacon, and your business could dominate its competition indefinitely. Ignore the solution to the puzzle, and you will be condemning your business to failure in a very short period of time. The broken windows theory, first put forth by criminologist James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in a piece called Broken Windows in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in March 1982, explains what a broken window is in criminal justice terms. But the brilliance of that theory goes much further than one interpretation. It can and should be applied to business, too, and it can make a critical difference- if American businesses will simply take the time and have the courage to notice. When Wilson and Kelling first unveiled the theory, the idea of concentrating on seemingly petty criminal acts like graffiti or purse snatching seemed absurd: How would a crackdown on jaywalking lead to a decrease in murders? The broken windows theory states that something as small and innocuous as a broken window does in fact send a signal to those who pass by every day. If it is left broken, the owner of the building isnt paying attention or doesnt care. That means more serious infractions...theft, defacement, violent crime- might be condoned in this area as well. At best, it signals that no one is watching. This is the heart of the broken windows theory: Wilson and Kelling write that social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. Why? Because the message being sent out by a broken window- the perception it invites is that the owner of this building and the people of the community around it dont care if this window is broken: They have given up, and anarchy reigns here. Do as you will, because nobody cares. Wilson and Kelling suggested that a broken window- any small indication that something is amiss and not being repaired- can lead to much larger problems. It sends signals, they said, that the bad guys are in charge here; no one cares about maintaining some kind of order, and anyone who wishes to take advantage of that situation would be unopposed. It leads to lawlessness, a kind of anarchy by neglect. Just as physicians now recognize the importance of fostering health rather than simply treating illness, so the police- and the rest of us- ought to recognize the importance of maintaining, intact, communities without broken windows, wrote Wilson and Kelling. Years later, Wilson told me that the idea behind the broken windows theory had to do with the responsibility of the police to take seriously small signs of disorder because people were afraid of disorder, and there was a chance disorder could lead to more serious crime. Still, critics of the theory greeted it with skepticism, believing that attention to small infractions would necessarily would necessarily decrease the amount of attention that could be devoted to much more serious crimes. The same objection, in slightly less genteel verbiage, was raised when Rudolph Giuliani, the newly elected mayor of New York City in 1994, announced his intention to eliminate graffiti on subway cars and move the hookers and pimps out of Times Square, to make Manhattan more family-friendly. Critics practically laughed in Giulianis face, intimating that the law and order mayor- who had been elected based largely on his experience as a U.S. attorney for the New York area- was dealing with the small crimes because he knew he couldnt contain the larger ones. They were proved wrong. Giuliani and his new police commissioner, William Bratton, believed that if they sent out clear signals to criminals, and to New Yorks citizenry generally, that a zero tolerance policy would be applied to all crime in the city, the result would be a safer, cleaner city. And the statistics bore them out: Over the following years, the numbers of murders, assaults, robberies, and other violent crimes all went down dramatically. And it had all started with graffiti on subway cars. I can hear you asking, What does that have to do with my business? Its all about crime and criminals. That same theory is applicable to the world of business. If the restroom at the local Burger King is out of toilet paper, it signals that management isnt paying attention to the needs of its clientele. That could lead the consumer to conclude that food at this restaurant might not be prepared adequately, that there might be health risks in coming here, or that the entire chain of fast food out outlets simply doesnt care about its customers. Given that scenario, it is not a stretch of the imagination but in fact a point of logic to conclude that the broken windows theory should be applied to business, as it was to the problems of crime in urban areas. Certainly, the perception of the average consumer is a vital part of every business, and if a retailer, service provider, or corporation is sending out signals that its approach is lackadaisical, its methods halfhearted, and its execution indifferent, the business in question could suffer severe- and in some cases, irreparable- losses. This book is about broken windows in business: how they happen, why they happen, why they are ignored, and the fatal consequences that can result from their being allowed to go unchecked. It is meant as a cautionary tale, a primer, a road map, a manifesto, and a salute to those companies that fix their broken windows promptly. It will explore not only specific examples of broken windows, how they occurred, and what their long-term results were but also the culture that creates an environment in which windows are broken and left unfixed. I believe that small things make a huge difference in business. The messy condiment area at a fast food restaurant may lead consumers to believe the company as a whole doesnt care about cleanliness, and therefore the food itself might be in question. Indifferent help at the counter in an upscale clothing store-even if just one clerk- can signal to the consumer that perhaps standards here arent as high as they might be (or used to be). An employee at the gas station who wears a T-shirt with an offensive slogan can certainly cause some customers to switch brands of gasoline and lose an enormous company those customers for life. But thats only the tip of the iceberg. I think we as a society have fostered and encouraged broken windows in our business by standing by and letting them happen. If the waiter at a local chain restaurant is impolite, or even merely complacent, about our order, we chalk it up to a bad day, one employee in one outlet of a large chain, and we dont send a letter to management or the corporate level. Even if we do change brands of gasoline after seeing an attendant in an offensive T-shirt, we do not write or e-mail the president of the oil company to alert him to the problem. We are enablers to window breakers in every aspect of every business. We dont even necessarily patronize those companies that fix their broken windows, if the less attentive one is in a more convenient location or has a slightly lower price. Thats not to say we are all to blame when a company has broken windows and doesnt fix them, but it does mean we all bear some responsibility to stand up for what we actually want and have every right to expect out of a company to which were giving our hard-earned money. In a capitalist society, we can assume that a company that wants to succeed will do its best to fulfill the desired of its consuming public. If the company sees sales slipping but doesnt have data from consumers as to what made them decrease their spending on a retail level, the company will not necessarily know what to fix. Still, corporations and even small businesses that dont notice and repair their broken windows should not simply be forgiven because their consumers didnt make enough of a fuss. It is the responsibility of the business to tend to its own house. The owner of a Starbucks franchise who decides that revenues are at a healthy level, such that he or she can put off painting the store for another year, is asking for trouble: Yes, things are fine now, but when the paint is faded and peeling and consumers are no longer getting the experience theyve come to expect, it will be too late to fix things with, literally, a fresh coat of paint. The time to repair broken windows is the minute they occur. Its better, however, to prevent such smashed panes of glass to begin with. This book will examine the origins of broken windows into two purposes in mind. First, we will see how the small things that can snowball into large problems develop so we can best illustrate how to repair the damage once its been done. But it is equally important to see how these things happen so that a smart business owner can make sure to prevent them at- or before- the very first sign of trouble. If you have a policy to paint the store every year, youll never have to worry about whether this was the year you waited too long. In order to best understand how the broken windows theory relates to business, its important to examine the original theory- as it related to criminal activity- in some detail. Because of the brilliant thinking of Wilson and Kelling, Broken Windows illustrated a serious societal problem that was going unnoticed, and helped turn around some of the countrys largest cities (including the largest of all) by paying attention to detail. It began with a program in New Jersey in the mid 1970s. The Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program was meant to improve the quality of life in twenty-eight Garden State cities, and it was to do so, in part, by increasing the number of police officers on foot patrol, rather than in patrol cars. Police chiefs, Wilson says today, felt that such a move was not likely to lower crime levels, and the police chiefs were right: They didnt have an effect on crime rates. But they did have an effect- and in my view, a powerful effect- on how people felt about their communities and their willingness to use it, suggesting that fear of disorder was as important as fear of crime. Indeed, as Wilson and Kelling wrote in the Atlantic, residents of the foot-patrolled neighborhoods seemed to feel more secure than persons in other areas, tended to believe that crime had been reduced, and seemed to take fewer steps to protect themselves from crime (staying at home with the doors locked, for example). Moreover, citizens in the foot-patrol areas had a more favorable opinion than did those living elsewhere. What does this all mean to business? Its not likely that having police officers walk the aisles of a Wal-Mart store will increase sales. But it was the perception that something was being done to increase order that made the difference for the people living in these New Jersey cities. In a business (as well discuss in detail through out this book), the broken windows can be literal or metaphorical. Sometimes a broken window really is a broken window, and a new pane of glass needs to be installed as quickly as possible. Most of the time, however, broken windows are the little details, the tiny flaws, the overlooked minutiae, that signal much larger problems either already in place or about to become reality. Well examine companies- huge ones, household names- that have failed to notice and repair their broken windows and have suffered greatly for it. Well also look at those that have made it a priority to attend to every potentially broken window and ordered plenty of replacement panes to make quick, seamless repairs. The lessons learned will be many, and varied, and they will have happy, and not-so-happy endings. Sometimes companies that deserve to be rebuked for their laziness will go unpunished, but other times there will be retribution at the hands of the public, which shows exactly what happens when you give people what they dont want. What the public wants more than anything else is to feel that the business- retail or service-oriented, consumer or business-to-business- that work for them care about what they want. Consumers are looking for businesses that anticipate and fulfill their needs and do so in a way that makes it clear the business understand the consumers needs or wants and is doing its best to see them satisfied. Broken windows indicate to the consumer that the business doesnt care- either that it is so poorly run it cant possibly keep up with its obligations or that it has become so oversize and arrogant that it no longer cares about its core consumer. Either of these impressions can be deadly to a business, and well see examples of both as we proceed. If you run a business, and you truly believe that little things dont make a difference, you really should read this book- it may save your business. If you dont run a business but would like to, this can be the road map to your success. IF youre merely interested in business and wonder why one succeeds where a very similar one fails, perhaps the examples contained here might help answer that question for you. But it cant be overemphasized that tiny details- the smaller, the more important- can indeed make a tremendous difference in a businesss success or failure. Sometimes, yes, a company can make a huge mistake (the whole New Coke thing was less a broken window than a neutron bomb placed dead center on corporate headquarters), but often, even those are foreshadowed by the little things that go, alas, unnoticed. A broken window can be a sloppy counter, a poorly located sale item, a randomly organized menu, or an employee with a bad attitude. It can be physical, like a faded, flaking paint job, or symbolic, like a policy that requires consumers to pay for customer service. When the waiter at a Chinese restaurant is named Billy Bob, thats a broken window. When a call for help assembling a bicycle results in a twenty-minute hold on the phone (playing the same music over and over), thats a broken window. When a consumer asks why she cant return her blouse at the counter and it told, Because thats the rule, that is a broken window. Theyre everywhere. Except at the really sharp businesses. Read on. |
