Author: steve towers

Lean Six Sigma – let’s bridge the Gap

In my encounters I am frequently asked the question of what is the difference between Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Customer Experience Management method (CEMMethod™). Often the question is prompted as a consequence of the huge investment many large corporations have made into up-skilling their people and processes to LSS. Many times those same executives are querying the return on those investments and hence now looking at more progressive alternative approaches to evolve their business performance.
For those familiar with Outside-In thinking and practice the difference is fundamental however if you haven’t been exposed to such training or working in one of the worlds leading Outside-In companies it would be good to have a short comparison of the key thematic differences.
In the interests of full disclosure I was an Industrial Engineer qualified as a Lean Master and Six Sigma Master black belt and I see and witness the significant differences everyday. Does the implication of the difference mean we should abandon LSS? No, far from it. In fact integrating the Outside-In perspectives into existing programs is a proven tried and tested way of advancing LSS to the centre stage of winning performance.
Case in point is a North American plastics extrusion company. They had previously been a powerhouse of Six Sigma, grown into and become a Lean ‘Toyota way’ dynamo only to run into the problem of diminishing returns. Investing just as much in getting better the decreasing returns and eroding margins made it an issue at the top table. In true pragmatic Texan style (their CEO is from Dallas) they embraced Outside-In big time. Over 6-9 months people were upskilled and let loose to transform the organisation. Not only did they save their bacon they are now a world leading company. And what do they call their program? OIL – Outside-In Lean. Nice eh?
So be pragmatic. Look for the bridges from here to there and you can have the best of both worlds.

Table 1: Comparison of some differences between Lean Six Sigma and the CEMMethod(tm).

Element
Lean Six Sigma
Customer Experience Management/Outside-In
Mind-set
Industrial Age
Customer Digital Age
Focus
Improve current work
Align to achieve SCO’s
Intent
Process will exist at the end of a review
Processes may be removed
Results
Focused on improving outputs
Focused on delivering Outcomes
Cost reduction
Triple Crown achievement (Cost/Service/Revenue)
Structure
Accepts the functional hierarchy
Proposes the appropriate structure to deliver SCO’s
Techniques
Effect based activity (value/non value added – waste identification – SPC etc.)
Causal based activity (what creates the work in the org. then let’s fix the causes)
Intelligent Processes
No mechanism exists to ensure processes are intelligent
Specifically designed to implement and mature intelligent processes
Customer
End to End working e.g. SIPOC
Centric working – the customer is at the heart of everything that happens
Are at the end and beginning of processes
Are enlightened, Promiscuous, Rebellious, Prosumer, Multi-channel, high expectations
Enterprise objectives
Operational and tactical. Aims to fix process.
Strategic and Operational. Aims to implement a sustainable architecture.
Scope
Process based improvements
Enterprise wide transformation
Other resources to explore:
Outside In The Secret: www.outsideinthesecret.com
CEMMethod™: www.cemmethod.com
Certified Process Professional: www.certifiedprocessprofessional.com


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

Customer Journey Mapping – ensuring success

Forrester Research’s[1] recent report suggested that despite good intent many Customer Journey Mapping initiatives fail. Why is this so despite the often significant investment required, the many consultants offering help, and the good intent of the people involved? The key reason in our findings is that fundamentally Customer Journey Mapping does not sufficiently represent the Complete Customer Experience and instead skates the surface and emphasizes just customer touch points and the customer lifecycle.
So how do you represent the Complete Customer Experience?
The BP Groups research with 800+ clients worldwide in the last two years provides us with an easy to apply 1-2-3 guide to maximise the chances of success.
  1. Ensure your mapping exercise encompasses 
    (a) the customer experience – the moments of truth, and 
    (b) the internal interactions which contribute to the moments of truth, the handovers and business rules within our organizations.[2] 
    The reality here is that all work an organization does is ultimately spawned from those moments of truth. Hence you need to map the complete customer experience.
  2. Understand the Successful Customer Outcome[3]. 
    Mapping is a worthy task however it needs to have context. Do you fully comprehend the real customer needs that shape the customer experience? There are organizations that spend years customer journey mapping with context. Why are we doing this and what is the ultimate Successful Customer Outcome? 
    It should come as no great surprise that top teams lose faith with efforts that lack clear definition and purposeful delivery.
  3. Focus on mapping the Causes of Work[4]. 
    It stands to reason that identifying the causes of work and then seeking to eliminate them will significantly reduce costs and improve service simultaneously. All too often process improvement work focuses on the tasks and activities that are an ‘effect’ created by a ’cause’. Masking the pain never works, it will get worse and spreads. You need to identify the Cause of the pain and eliminate it. 
    This then becomes a ‘seek and destroy’ mission and as a consequence Customer Journey Map’s should be broad and deep. It is about the Causes of Work that create the activity across functional silo’s. By identifying the very Causes of Work and in subsequently fixing them much of the internal complexity becomes unnecessary. Do not get deflected by specialists who may be fixed in a shape of work created decades ago.
The Complete Customer Experience represents a unified view that enables Customer Journey Map’s to deliver success from the get go.
Customer journey mapping is just the beginning of customer centric transformation. To deliver ultimate success you need to include the complete customer experience – not just the bits directly experienced by the customer but as importantly how the internal systems and processes are wired. Reframing the organisation to achieve success requires a multi disciplinary effort involving the front line, the back office, the top team and the technologists. For a more detailed review of emerging shape of organisations James Dodkins latest book ‘Foundations for Customer Centricity’ is short and stimulating read. You can download a complimentary copy at this link:http://bit.ly/foundationsEbook
In summary Customer Journey Mapping should be inclusive – let’s make it so.
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8KSN_McWIg


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

10 Steps to Achieve “Outside-In” Capability

SynopsisIn the previous articles we have reviewed the global business transformation underway and how Advanced BPM is helping notable organizations assert their leadership. In this final article we’ll look at the ingredients of success and ten best practice ‘how tos’ to deliver the transformation.

This final part of the six part series we review how world leading trend setter companies are achieving dramatic success with an ‘Outside in’ approach.
For every dumb inside-out example there’s now a rival, usually leading the pack who like Southwest Airlines are so outside-in focused that they are more than profitable. They crush the competition with an ability to reduce costs and improve service simultaneously. So what are the lessons we can learn from the leaders?
The ‘How To’ Top Ten List to Achieve Outside-In Capability
1. Define your Customer
A couple of kick starters here include asking the organization ‘what business are we in’ and ‘who is the person/group/company that provides us with revenue’. Too often organizations create a mass of so called internal customers and the resulting customer-supplier internal relationships do not contribute to achieving a Successful Customer Outcome for the real customer.
OutsideIn The Secret
2. Articulate your Successful Customer Outcome (SCO)Easyjet, Europe’s 2nd largest airline defined a relatively simple SCO – “Bums on Seats”. Everything they do across people, process, systems and strategy is aligned with achieving that. Hallmark Cards based in the US out of Kansas City define their SCO as “Expression’. A good SCO will catapult performance as people better understand how their contribution adds to the achievement of the SCO.
3. Establish your alignment to achieving the SCOFour areas to start from include people reward systems, systems capability, process maturity and strategic endeavour. If you have a scorecard or Strategy map ask yourself how many performance measures (a) contribute to the SCO, and (b) are forward looking to progressively help us get better at delivering results. We can’t go forward by just looking in the rear view mirror.
4. Identify customer touchpoints – Moments of Truth (MOT)Customers are the Cause of Work. Every interaction we have with them results in work for our organization and creates Points of Failure. Apple have done a miraculous job in creating the i-phone and integrating the MOTs into one slick interface. Rather than many key presses for a simple operation like getting the contact list those various actions have been combined into one finger swiping Moment of Truth and in doing so made the customers life simpler, easier and more successful. Once you have identified the MOTs the edict is ‘remove or improve’.
5. Reveal internal hand-offs – Breakpoints (BP)Moments of Truth spawn Breakpoints. Every customer interaction requires us to go away and do stuff internally. The resulting activity with hand-offs between departments, people, systems and functions are Breakpoints. These Points of Failure result in unnecessary non value added work which from recent BP Group Research may be as much as 70-90% of what actually goes on in a company. Once identified Breakpoints should be removed.
6. Capture the Business Rules (BR)Business Rules determine our behaviour. They tell us what to do and when. Frequently BR’s were created to prevent things going wrong and get forgotten as we change and develop our businesses. Identify them, make them explicit and challenge them.
7. Perform an Impact and Risk Assessment against Customer NeedsAre you delivering what the customer says they want, or actually what they really need? Henry Ford said “If I had asked them what they wanted they would have said faster horses”. Are you creating the equivalent of faster horses and then wondering why sales are struggling? Do your processes rely on input from self-selecting customers analysed by the marketing teams? Get the customer in there. Seek the answers and then match the real need.
8. Develop an Outside-In Action PlanMany of the inside-out plans are really obvious as the actions are more about dealing with symptoms and affects rather than the true causes of work. Truly Outside-In Action Plans are about reinforcing the achievement of SCO’s through process change and subsequently defining and managing new customer expectations. How many of us knew we needed an Apple ipod before they were invented? What about that extra fancy drink from Starbucks that you are addicted to? What about the personal loan that hits your bank account the same day?
9. Execute the Plan as you go (simple and no nonsense)Many plans stay exactly that – just plans. The Outside-In reality demonstrates that many actions revolve around stopping the dumb stuff which shouldn’t need escalated sign-offs and committees to push them through. One recent survey suggested that more than 80% of the effort around plans in inside-out organizations consisted of talking about, getting buy-in and then achieving sign-off. If you are doing dumb stuff then stop it. Now.
10. Begin the Journey to the Outside-In world now.Waiting for executive sign-off or consensus will never get you off the launch pad. There’s that old Irish joke of when you are lost in Eire and you stop to ask a guy directions and he ponders, stares off into space for a couple of minutes and then offers the sage wisdom “I wouldn’t start from here”. Most of us don’t have a choice – just get started.
Examine everything you do from the CEM perspective and begin where ever you are currently to implement this ‘call to arms’. Your progress as individuals, teams or improvement initiatives will get noticed soon because you will be achieving triple crown success – taking out costs, improving service, and ultimately driving more revenue to the bottom line.
“…keep things simple. People get lost when a systematic approach becomes over complex and they lose sight of the actual goal.” Richard Branson, 2007
In doing so you will be creating a sustainable, agile and responsive enterprise where everyone explicitly contributes to individual, team and corporate success.
All the Very Best in your journey!

If you are interested in delving deeper get the book ‘Outside-In The Secret’


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

Outside-In. A definition?

“Outside In is a way to focus an organization on doing one thing, achieving one goal and doing it right.

By focusing the organization on this one goal, the unnecessary complexity of all other things that do not contribute to this goal can be eliminated.

Outside Inners know that customers are the key to achieving this goal.”

Steve Towers & David Mottershead

Some organisations may avoid the term Outside-In and use other terms such as ‘customer centricity’ or ‘customer alignment’. But at their heart such approaches fit this definition precisely.


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.

The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.


Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism
 http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

PEX USA 2015 – the judges cut

It takes nine months and a lot of graft sifting through the entries, interviewing candidates and then choosing the winners of the Award process. If you have a story to tell do share with the PEX Network and the broader community. It is a terrific acknowledgement of the team effort and organization investment in delivering performance improvements. If you are interested then visit http://www.pexweek.com, meanwhile this was the video from the 2015 Awards process. Enjoy.

This was my tenth year of judging. I am lucky to work with so many great people who keep me upto speed, and then share their efforts with the community.
Here are a few shots of my immediate judging colleagues from 2015.

 

PEX Week USA 2015 – 10/10 for effort guys

The Customer Experience is the Process – how can you do that?

James Dodkins, CCO BP Group

Marketer’s are fond of segmenting customers by circumstance, for instance, where you live, your age profile and median salary. This approach is very limiting and only provides sparse information on what are the real Needs of the customer. For that we need a little more science and understand those requirements by identifying the successful customer outcome. 

This leads us to Categorizing by Need. So for instance a potential customer in the experience of either buying, renting or servicing a car might be ‘tech savvy’ or ‘silver surfer’ or ‘time is money’ people.  We can drill down into specific needs and identify how to operate the underpinning workflow systems, necessary interactions, people skills and so on.

We can summarize this into a handy grid we call the Customer Categorization approach (a handy tool created by BP Groups CCO James Dodkins www.jamesdodkins.com)

Naturally you should try this for yourselves and if you want to get professional about it join us on one of our upcoming CPP classes where we discuss, try out and prove 50+ other techniques as part of the CEMMethod™ approach. You will go away with a working template of how to deliver customer centricity and outside-in for you and your organization.

Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16
http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism
http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

Customer Experience at its best – new book worth a read

James Dodkins new eBook launched in December 2014, “Foundations for Customer Centricity.” explores the basis of what makes a great Customer Experience.

The book delivers a pragmatic and executable plan that provides the means for organizations to deliver on the promise of Customer Centricity in terms of cost, revenue and service.

Participate in James Dodkins appearances in Florida w/c 19 January: http://www.pexweek.com/AgendaSection.aspx?tp_day=46284&tp_session=60456
Connect with James: http://twitter.com/jdodkins  
Evaluate the approach (45 minute webinar): http://bit.ly/BPGJan2015
Join and share your understanding on Linked-in: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=8234289

Keywords: CX, Customer Experience, Customer Experience Management, Customer Centricity, Successful Customer Outcomes


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalismhttp://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

6 Tips for Understanding Customer Needs (with 4 min video and Guide)

Get your hands on SCO’s. What are they? How can they help?

Need a handy Guide (13 pages)?
Download the SCO101 : http://bit.ly/SCO101



Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalismhttp://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

Customer Experience – do you get it?

Did you miss THE webinar discussion Customer Experience?
Fear not my astute colleague, follow the link(s) below and fill your boots.

Webinar Foundations of Customer Centricity (45 mins)
**New Book** Foundations of Customer Centricity
Not as new Book Outside-In (2010)
http://bit.ly/Outsidein2015
CEMMethod Webinar & Download
http://bit.ly/cem2015
Connect with Steve Towers http://twitter.com/stowers
Connect with James Dodkins http://twitter.com/jdodkins

Visit the site http://www.bpgroup.org


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalismhttp://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html