Help Us to Help You
If you’ve seen the movie “Jerry McGuire,” there’s a scene where McGuire (Tom Cruise), as a sports agent, implores his client, football star Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), with “help me help you.” What he wants from Tidwell — begging literally on his knees — is for him to act in a manner that will help McGuire land a football contract for the athlete. McGuire is convinced that if Tidwell responds in a certain fashion to management (and presumably fans), that he can land the best possible deal for his client. (His only client, I might add.)
I thought about this issue, “help me to help you,” because it rather perfectly captures what we try to do. We understand that you often face numerous obstacles in your daily activities of running a business or organization, with a plethora of task and, to-do lists, and ensuring that you remain profitable.
TRC has transformed itself during our 20-plus years of effort, and we believe that we’ve accomplished much in the way of logistics and processes that make sense and are cost-effective at recycling mercury-containing thermostats. Yet we are not arrogant about past successes.
We would enthusiastically welcome any suggestions from you which might assist in your recycling process. Or as Jerry McGuire said, “help us help you.” Every organization’s effectiveness and future rest on new ideas and processes and then tinkering with them as time passes. We have worked hard over the years on your behalf, the industry and our environment to create these procedures. But no one is perfect, and most of all, we don’t intend to fall into the trap of self-congratulation.
Rather, because we are on the heels of New Year’s resolutions, it seems appropriate to renew our perspective by drawing on your expertise and hands-on experience to improve. We promise to listen carefully to you, our industry insider. If you have an idea or suggestion that will improve our approach or procedures, tell us about it. It will receive serious consideration. And if there is anything you can do to “help us, help you,” we’re game, like Jerry McGuire.
How does the movie end? Well, you will have to watch the movie (or view it again), but Cuba Gooding Jr. won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. And we wouldn’t mind helping you in our supporting role.