Month: March 2012

The Focus has shifted from Inside-Out to Outside-In

I am frequently asked to summarise the difference between the inside-out industrial/information age mindset, and that of Outside-In (think Apple, Google, Zara, Zappos, Emirates etc.) thinking and practice. So here to answer that request (and from a section in my upcoming new book) is the overview.

Over the following weeks we will delve into each area and I will provide examples and case studies of each aspect of this Copernican shift.

The Focus has shifted from Inside-Out to Outside-In

Industrial/Information Age Customer Age

People Silo’s Multi functional
Specialist Multi skilled
Isolated Relationships
Awards – Time served Awards – Value Created
Autocratic Dynamic (to suit the needs)
Processes Doing things right Doing the right things and doing things right
Manufacturing mindset Customer Experience
Tasks/Activities and Outputs Outcomes and SCO’s
Stocks Flows
Products Services
Left to Right, Top to Bottom Customer Centric
IT Algorithmic Heuristic
Hierarchical Hyperlinked
Analytical Understanding
Ownership Access
Strategy Top Down Inclusive
Structured and Rigid eg 5 yr plans Agile and Adaptive
Tablets of stone Continual Alignment to SCO’s
Market/product focus Customer/expectation focus
Customers Uninformed Prosumer
Loyal Promiscuous
Forgiving Rebellious
Locked-In Demand Flexibility
Compliant and managed High Expectations and fickle
Single channel Multi channel
(c) 2012 Steve Towers

Next week we’ll start by reviewing the Customer Aspect
 

Join us at IT Web South Africa http://bit.ly/AfricaSixSigmaOnSteroids
Join us at PEX Week London http://bit.ly/PEXLondon2012

Join us at the CPP Master Class London http://londonmasters2012-estw.eventbrite.com 

ɯoʇʇoq oʇ doʇ puɐ ʇɥƃıɹ oʇ ʇɟǝl ʇou sı plɹoʍ ǝɥʇ

There is a saying that the map is not the territory. And yet so many treat their representation of the world as fact and reality. When you draw a process and agree with others that is how it looks just because you may all agree doesn’t make it real. It is just a collective hallucination. It is an abstract of reality. Does your world always flow top to bottom and left to right, or is it more real than that?

Great illustraton of Outside-In thinking and practice.

Jeff Bezos provides his viewpoint..

.”I would hope people would say that Amazon is earth’s most customer-centric company, and that we work backwards from customers. Many companies sort of look at what their skills are and they work forward from their skills. They say this is what we’re good at, and this is what we’ll do. It’s a very different approach from saying here is what our customers need, and we will learn whatever skills we need.”

That really describes the dfference between inside-out thnking (examine your capabilities and figure out how to optimise them) to Outside-In – figure out the Customer needs and align everthing to deliver the Successful Customer Outcome.
http://bit.ly/AmazonOutsideIn