Jeff Bezos implemented these Inspirational Five Principles for global domination

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos employed 
rules and principles to make the company successful that are revealed in a new book,  “Flywheels: How Cities Are Creating Their Own Futures.”

The book was written by Tom Alberg, an early-stage investor and ex-Amazon board member of 23 years, and he explained Bezos'”Day1″attitude.

The book also talks about how Bezos overcame the company’s early difficulties in attracting investors.

Alberg described the rules that Bezos followed at work based on his experience watching the tech magnate make judgments.

Customer Obsession

In his book, Alberg noted, “The most important thing is customer obsession.” He went on to say that too many organizations, in his opinion, focus on their competition rather than Their customers.
According to Bezos, who testified before a congressional committee, “Customers Are consistently, delightfully unsatisfied.

We are continually inventing on behalf of our clients out of a desire to delight them” Alberg writes. According to him, Bezos made moves that harmed Amazon’s short-term business line but benefited customers and ultimately helped Amazon become a trillion-dollar company.

Continuous Invention & Innovation

“Continuous invention and innovation” is the second principle. According to Alberg, client happiness and inventiveness are inextricably linked. “When making decisions, customer happiness and innovation are powerful touchstones,” he added.


When you ask yourself, “What is the best decision for the customer?” it becomes much easier to make decisions. “Is there a way to invent our way to a solution?”and”Is there a way to invent our way to a solution?” Alberg writes.

Operational Excellence

According to Alberg, the third principle championed by Bezos is operational excellence. “Two-pizza teams,” “one-click shopping,” “single-threaded leaders,” and “working backward/becoming Outside-In” are some instances.

One of Bezos’ more inventive techniques is the”two-pizza rule,”which aims to avoid wasting a full day on unproductive meetings.

So, how does it work?
The more people you have at a meeting, the less productive it will be. The notion is that instead of expressing their viewpoints and ideas, most people will end up agreeing with each other (groupthink).

What is the solution?
Never have a meeting where two pizzas aren’t enough to feed everyone. According to Alberg, the fourth principle underpinning Bezos’ decision making process at Amazon is to think long-term.

Think long term

This can be everything from starting a new business to investing in new technology. Bezos’ early use of AI is one example.

“Jeff told the board that he intended to apply AI in every element of the business when firms were just beginning to understand the possibilities of machine learning and AI,” he wrote. The next step for Bezos was to employ AI experts and instruct the existing engineers on how to use AI.

According to Alberg, Amazon produced and made AI capabilities available to clients on Amazon Web Services, originally run by Andy Jazzy, now the new global CEO since the Jeff Bezos exit. Making AI available to employ in their businesses actually to compete against Amazon.

Staying Optimistic

Alberg noted that his fifth principle, and probably the most important, is his “staying optimistic for the future and how we are only in Day 1.” Bezos’ “Day 1” mindset is founded on the broader premise that, “while the internet and Amazon may appear mature to many, we are still at the beginning, according to Bezos.

Alberg commented, “It is his greatest expression of optimism about what the future will hold.”

These concepts are “not hidden,” according to Alberg. “However, you must adhere to them at all times, something most businesses are unwilling or unable to do.”

What is the Best Decision for the Customer?

Tom Alberg


Get the book: https://bit.ly/CXObsessed

Watch Bezos talking about Customer Obsession: https://youtu.be/Yr_vQgzAgDM

Image Credit: CC: Daniel Oberhaus, 2019


Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?

https://lnkd.in/djWxB8m

👉 Step #1 – Review the upskilling options to become an ACX Professional & ACX Master: https://lnkd.in/dANgYX59

👉 Step #2 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE*  https://bit.ly/OI2021now

👉 Step #3 – Connect With The Community: https://linktr.ee/SteveTowers

👉 Step #4 – Keep Pace with Change: Recent Keynote – The Hard Benefits of XM | https://cemnext.com/xmroi2023

👉 Step #5 – Review the Testimonials Accredited Customer Experience Professional – BPG (bpgroup.org)

Outputs and Outcomes – what is your Poison?

An output is something you produce; an Outcome is a result of what you produce. “I have answered the customer query” is an output, “I have solved the customer problem” is an outcome. Here’s another… “We have made 10 cars today” is an output, “I have sold 10 cars today” is an outcome. As Steve Jobs said in 1997, “You have to start with the Customer Experience (and their successful outcome) and work backwards.”

Unfortunately, most organizations focus on outputs and correspondingly can get really good at doing dumb things. Think of the call center and the major typical KPI of Average Handle Time (AHT). That is an output measure. But what is the actual Outcome achieved from the customer contact? If your primary focus is the AHT, that’s what will drive the behaviors of the people as a priority over everything else; no matter how much you talk of customer-centricity, if you pay them for great AHT, that is what they will focus on.

A model that we use to help us connect the dots is the Customer Performance Landscape.

It is a fantastic tool for creating the linkages between everyone and everything to ensure we are all aligned to Successful Customers and grow shareholder value. You can experience this in our ACX Master program.

Learn more here: https://bit.ly/ACXM2021


Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?

https://lnkd.in/djWxB8m

👉 Step #1 – Review the upskilling options to become an ACX Professional & ACX Master: https://lnkd.in/dANgYX59

👉 Step #2 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE*  https://bit.ly/OI2021now

👉 Step #3 – Connect With The Community: https://linktr.ee/SteveTowers

👉 Step #4 – Keep Pace with Change: Recent Keynote – The Hard Benefits of XM | https://cemnext.com/xmroi2023

👉 Step #5 – Review the Testimonials Accredited Customer Experience Professional – BPG (bpgroup.org)

🖐 The Five Avoidable Mistakes of 80% of Customer Experience initiatives

Strategic positioning of customer experience is now widely recognized as a key to business success.

If you’re customer-first and do it in a smart way, then it can help the company.

Gartner 2021

Unfortunately, the majority of many well-intended CX initiatives become a victim of organization inertia and bureaucracy and sink to the level of metrics on dashboards buried in functional departments.

At best these failing efforts deliver small incremental performance improvements rather than providing the customer and business insights necessary to strategic success.

We have identified five major errors and causes of failure

1. Top teams have unreasonable expectations of CX success

2. Customers needs are not clearly defined from the Outside-In

3. CX Initiatives are not implemented with transformation in mind.

4. CX Initiatives focus on the wrong measures, rather than successful customer outcomes.

5. CX Initiatives go way down deep into functional complexity

👉 Error #1: Top teams anticipate CX Success without understanding the enterprise was never designed to do this stuff.

Talking about customer experience and implementing the changes necessary to delivering CX success are two quite distinct things. Many organizations brief their senior people with the importance of the business transformations underway, why a focus on the customer is essential to survive and thrive, and why it is necessary that the dots are connected from every activity to the customer experience. Fair enough. However, Top teams then anticipate internal leadership towards customer centricity but at the same time do not enable the underlying functions to realign to achieve successful customer outcomes.

The organization structure, rewards systems and technology were never designed to deliver great customer experiences

The realization that the organization structure, rewards systems and technology were never designed to deliver great customer experiences, they were in fact originally designed with an industrial age mindset to achieve industrial age goals. To achieve strategic CX success, it is necessary to understand the limitations imposed by inside-out thinking (getting better at doing stuff faster) and help the organization migrate to Outside-In thinking and practices (alignment to delivering Successful Customer Outcomes)

👉 Error #2: Customers needs are not clearly articulated and underpinned by smart Outside-In metrics

The challenge here is two-fold. Do we understand who our customers are, and what success looks like from their perspective?

It is frequently observed that 80% of profit comes from 20% of customers however organizations are especially fickle when it comes to understanding where they should focus limited resource to get the maximum sustained return from the appropriate customers.

Good discipline here is about identifying the categories of customer and prioritizing them in terms of needs and success. That can mean migrating away from undesirable customers. Intrinsic in this failure is arbitrarily segmenting customers by circumstance (where they are based, the length of relationship, immediate spend available etc.) rather than categorizing customers based on their needs.

Needs assessment is NOT about asking customers what they want.

Needs assessment is NOT about asking customers what they want.
If you asked your kids what they want for dinner, don’t be too surprised if they say burgers, ice cream, chocolate and gummy bears, on one plate. That question is just plain stupid. So why go asking customers what they want?

Smart CX companies figure out their customer needs even when the customer doesn’t know them. Case in point would be the launch of the iPhone more than a decade ago.

Apple’s genius was in understanding the new customer and getting ahead of the game to design products and services that met, at the point of launch, something customers could never have articulated.

This is not, however, an excuse to stop listening to customers, that is more essential than ever before. Just stop asking them dumb questions which may cause you to do the wrong things (rather like Nokia did).

👉 Error #3: For CX initiatives delivering success will require change and transformation

This is a very common problem and is rooted in the idea that CX initiatives are just another thing to integrate into the existing ways of working. This couldn’t be further from the truth. A fundamental of successful CX initiatives is identifying and implementing the ongoing change required across the enterprise to align everything to Successful Customer Outcomes.

align everything to Successful Customer Outcomes.

Once the customer needs are articulated work backward to recraft the appropriate structures that will guide the enterprise progressively towards success. That will, of course, require potentially significant changes to the shape and technology of how work gets done. It will reach into every nook and cranny of the business. Ultimately the organization may look quite different from the industrial age model and will become shaped to achieve the ongoing change brought about by the digital revolution.

👉 Error #4: CX Initiatives focus on the wrong measures, rather than successful customer outcomes.

The Successful Customer Outcome is like the beacon on the hill; everyone should be aligned and progressively moving in that direction. If your metrics are not contributing to that alignment, you may be getting better at doing the wrong things (in the context of delivering an optimized CX).

There is a remarkable lack of science in this sphere of CX Initiatives.

Here’s a good question to ask anyone in the business “is everything you are doing aligned to delivering a successful customer outcome?” and if the answer comes back with anything other than “yes, 100%” you may be doing dumb stuff really well. The why of that is easy to understand – you get what you measure, and frequently companies excessively measure outputs (what is produced) rather than business outcomes (what is delivered).

If you task people to measure outputs and reward them for improving those outputs, there is often a repeated disconnect between the work performed and the end customer delivery. Getting a balance right here is essential.

There is a remarkable lack of science in this sphere of CX Initiatives.
Reliance on simplistic measurement systems, with ‘one question rules them all’ approaches is not only misleading but may cause you to do precisely the wrong things.

👉 Error #5. CX Initiatives go way down deep into functional complexity

CX Initiatives have lofty visions but all too often become bogged down in organization politics and the natural resistance to change. Often the local leadership pays lip service to the customer experience ‘it is not my job after all’ and this resulting crawl ultimately thwarts the CX initiative.

focus on winning the triple crown – simultaneously improving the Customer Experience, Reducing Costs and Growing Revenues

To deliver and ensure ongoing success, the guiding light of the Successful Customer Outcome and it is associated focus on winning the triple crown – simultaneously improving the Customer Experience, Reducing Costs and Growing Revenues – should be on every agenda in the business. Linking the triple crown across the departments and divisions dispels the practical objections as everyone becomes accountable for demonstrating their substantial triple crown contribution. This, in turn, ensures a significant contribution to delivering the ROI for the CX Initiative.

There are many bear traps and blind alleys to avoid on the journey to delivering CX success however an understanding of the most common errors will ensure a greater chance of success. After all the goal is to deliver strategic Successful Customer Outcomes that result in terrific and rewarding customer experiences.


Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?

https://lnkd.in/djWxB8m

👉 Step #1 – Review the upskilling options to become an ACX Professional & ACX Master: https://lnkd.in/dANgYX59

👉 Step #2 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE*  https://bit.ly/OI2021now

👉 Step #3 – Connect With The Community: https://linktr.ee/SteveTowers

👉 Step #4 – Keep Pace with Change: Recent Keynote – The Hard Benefits of XM | https://cemnext.com/xmroi2023

👉 Step #5 – Review the Testimonials Accredited Customer Experience Professional – BPG (bpgroup.org)

Three Secret (Top Team) Reasons why we have to get more scientific about the Customer Experience

Complexity is an insidious thing. Humans seem unable to keep things simple and will add rules, reporting lines, and complications seemingly for the fun of it. And process people take it to a whole new level.

Why is that so? There is a simple answer, but many people don’t like it, or don’t want to admit it; if you pay people for doing dumb stuff they get really smart at it.

Are you rewarding people for doing dumb stuff?

Politicians are especially good at creating fiefdoms and empires, and the ones really clever at that rise above the rest, making the problem progressively worse by in-turn recruiting like minded people. 

Now as much as humans have traditionally done this, there is a new kid on the block. And this new kid is defining a whole new way of being, one that is built and operated with the customer at the center of everything.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t that people haven’t talked about the customer before, just this time it is very different. The new game is all about customer experience management (CEM). 

Here are a few of the meaningful stats that back this up.

According to Gartner, 89% of all businesses will compete on customer experience this year.

Another 89% believe customer experience will be their main differentiator by 2022.

The Temkin Group found that companies that earn $1 billion annually can expect to earn, on average, an additional $700 million within 3 years of investing in customer experience.

 84% of companies who claim to be customer-centric are now focusing on the mobile customer experience.97% of global consumers cite customer service as important in their brand choice and loyalty.

CX also influences on-the-spot purchasing, too – as 49% of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalized experience.

BPG Research 2021

And for those organizations effectively embracing the customer experience CEM is much more than journey mapping and the surface experience. For the leading companies, CEM is the opportunity to connect everything they do, from the customer interaction, right through to individual task, activity, and systems that support them.

Interestingly this eradicates unnecessary complexity and creates a virtuous circle. You figure out what a successful customer outcome looks like, you align everything you do to achieve it, the customer ‘gets it’ and comes back for more, and you evolve the customer experience to be even better next time. 

It is a bit like a fitness regime as you get fitter, you get faster, you become better, and what was once difficult becomes easy.

👑 Those who Get It Win the Triple Crown

Not surprisingly great CEM drives down the cost of delivery, improves service and grows revenue. This triple crown of deliverables becomes the tangible measure of success for Customer Experience Management.

And as if this wasn’t motivation itself to do more CEM the work environment is simplified; we can increasingly reward each other for delivering results and outcomes (doing the right thing), rather than just measuring and rewarding what we do (doing things right).

That is what I mean when we say ‘let’s get more scientific about the customer experience’

Do you want to know more?


6 Ways to Transform Process and the Customer Experience (at the Same Time)

Steve Towers Keynotes

Where do I start?

I was keynoting a conference in Europe recently, and senior executives in the room were getting the rationale behind moving Outside-In. However, there seemed to be two perplexed groups in the place.

One was what a refer to as the ‘traditional process guys’, and the other ‘the customer is first people’, and interestingly they both asked the same question “Where do we start?”

My honest and most direct answer is “You do not have a choice. You have got to start where you are and go from there!” OK, I get what you’re thinking, how could they take that away and begin to transform their organizations?

So, I walked them through TWO distinctly different ways to navigate to Outside-In working and practice, depending on your mindset, enterprise history and maturity. For the two categories of customer in the room, the NEEDS are the same, just the way they navigate to achieving them is different.

What are the Results?

From a results perspective, both approaches focus on winning the triple crown, that is Improving Service, Growing Revenues and Reducing Complexity (and hence lowering costs).

ApproachProcess EngineeringCustomer First
FocusProcess is the starting pointStarts with Customer Needs
ScopeReengineering the ProcessesAligning everything to Customer Needs
IntentionBuild out from Process to Department to Division to EnterpriseArticulate Successful Customer Outcomes and Remove the complexity of things that do not contribute to it
BenefitsLocal wins building to business-wide transformationImmediate delivery against Triple Crown benefits
Executive Buy-inSlow burn, however when they see the benefits and ‘get it’ the support is significantStarts at the strategic level so influences everything the organization does
RecommendationIf your remit is just ‘improving processes’ this approach will get you their steadily, however, the challenges facing traditional business are seismic so is there time? So, make immediate gains but push hard for more quickly.By demonstrating the value of ‘customer first’ in terms of the triple crown the enterprise can align quickly and effectively. Importantly avoid the ‘soft and fluffy’ sentiments expressed by many in the customer experience world.

How can I Implement?

Back in 2006 the BPG launched the CEMMethod™ and built out an approach, using the 50+ techniques based on global next practice from companies like Virgin, Zara, BMW, Zappos, Apple and Emirates. Since then more than 3,000 companies in 116 countries have become accredited and certified to transform their processes and organizations.

Now in version 11, the choice you make in deployment is based on your ambition and remit within the enterprise.
If you are a leader needing to embrace the digital customer ‘Customer First’ leaps out as the main option. Alternatively, if you are in a traditional process-based business (lean, six sigma, BPM etc.) the more conservative ‘process engineering’ approach may be preferred.

You can access the following resources that will help you make an informed choice:

CEMMethod™ – review its potency and pedigree:
www.cemmethod.com

Outside-In The Secret of 21st century companies (free access): http://bit.ly/StevesOIBook

The Accredited Customer Experience Program 2018-19: https://www.bpgroup.org/acxp1819.html

The Certified Process Professional Program: https://www.bpgroup.org/certifiedprocessprofessional.html

I look forward to guiding you to transformation when you are ready!

What do you mean when you say ‘Outside-In’?

Outside-In is a regular theme during most of my keynotes, not least this last week here in Florida. A question asked from the floor related to the 30-second elevator test “can you explain to the CEO what this stuff is, why it is different, and how it reframes the work we do?”. I guess I was about to fudge and say this needs more than 30 seconds, and then remembered my two-slide explanation!
So, for those guys looking for a simple explanation, these two slides will do the job. I have put a bit of narrative in there also.

120+ in Florida at the keynote, 16 January 2018

Steve Towers Florida keynote
Florida keynote to top team of major global industrial corporation

The old, industrial-age traditional way of doing business.
We make products (and services). We look for the market to sell them in. We segment customers by circumstance and pitch our products to those segments. We add variations to the products to better fit certain niche segments. We build back-end systems and digital capabilities in this increasingly complex world. We are rigid, functionally oriented and abhor change.

Old Industrial Age thinking model

 

The new Outside-In customer-centric way.
We identify the customers we would like to do business with. We understand their needs (even when they may not know them themselves) and specific Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO’s).
We categorise customers by need. We then create the capability to deliver to these categories the SCO’s (both products, people and digital). Progressively we manage new and existing customer expectations to deliver success without exception. We are agile, innovative and attuned to 21st century needs.
21st century Outside-In business model

Let me know if this works for you.

Ciao, Steve

For the curious, the original slides came from a deck presented as a keynote in Sydney, Australia 3 years ago.
You can access that here:  http://bit.ly/SydneyPEX

Successful Personal Outcomes program launches !!!

If you haven’t seen the hullaballoo about the new program where have you been?

Without further hoodoo here is the short intro video… http://www.successfulpersonaloutcomes.com

It is a EIGHT video FIVE week program with handouts and LIVE closing webinar. These are the techniques we use actively in all our work with global clients. Tried, tested and proven they really do make that difference in whatever work and lives we have.

See you on the inside! http://www.successfulpersonaloutcomes.com
Steve


Join us also for a face to face session in a city near you…

Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Emirates success

Certified Process Professional Masters Champions (CPP-Master) Program

An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 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

Telstra’s finance transformation: A journey to excellence

Transforming the processes in the Finance arena – video interview

 “Partner with the business and drive Outcomes”

So often the backoffice is regarded as the last place to fix the customers experience. Here we see an approach about fixing internal customers experience utilizing Outcomes based thinking coupled with key interactions. Result is a significantly streamlined Finance function, enabling the frontline to deliver better Successful Customer Outcomes.

The Finance Transformation Summit in Australia
http://www.financetransformation.com.au/ – November 10-11, 2015





Do you want to get in the picture? Join us soon at a session in a city near you…


Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Amazons success

Certified Process Professional Masters  Champions (CPP-Master) Program

An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 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

Six steps to winning with the Customer Experience

1. Start by identifying the Moments of Truth (customer interactions)that exist across all of your customer experiences (you can create more specific experience maps later).


2. Make a list of all the Moments of Truth (MOT).For each MOT write a description, method of interaction, and customer expectation.
We use the Diagnostics dashboard to make sure we turn the MOTs into 15 quantifiable and actionable metrics.

There are three ways to collect and collate this information:

  • Workshops of all interested people.
    That includes customers, advisors, employees and management.
  • Recording of actual experiences.
    Yes, record the experiences and evaluate afterwards. We use a video technique that identified Moments of Truth with red flashes, Internal Interactions with blue and decision points as green.
  • Analysis of customer feedback.
    Review the letters, calls and social network commentary and capture the experiences to gain insights and a better understanding.

3. Document the learning and produce a visual illustration(process activity maps).


4. Use the maps to identify areas working well and those that need improvement.Focus on the critical MOTs — those crucial interactions that determine whether the experience you are creating delivers the optimum encounter, expectation and emotion.


5. Build a Action Plan to engineer the ABACUS of the customer experience.
At each stage identify the relevant MOTs that cover off these elements
:

  • Awareness
    When and How does the customer become aware of the process, product or service you offer?
  • Buy-In
    How and Where does the customer ‘get it’ and become an advocate for the experience?
  • Acquisition
    How is the purchase made. Not just a product buy but the actual commitment.
  • Care
    Why should the customer care? How do you ensure the trust and commitment is reciprocal and reinforced?
  • Use
    How does the product, service work. Has it been designed from the customers perspective (Outside-In)? Ease of use goes beyond efficiency and focuses directly on the actual customer experience.
  • Share
    In our always-on world how does Share happen? Is that understood and optimized? Recall the fantastic tale from Canada – Westjet Christmas story[1] with more than 35 million hits on youtube in 3 months. By the way that is more than the population of Canada! That’s good news, but what about capturing the bad news before it becomes a crisis – recall the United Breaks guitar[2] story?


6. Engage the entire organization to undertake the journey to Customer Experience Management.We use the structured CEMMethod™, derived from the work of companies such as Virgin, Disney, Southwest Airlines, Emirate, BMW, Bentley, Zara and many more truly Outside-In enterprises. Whoever and where-ever you are it is directly and immediately useful.

If you are serious about engineering the Customer Experience then let us know (below). We will provide immediate links to videos, resources and an expert community doing this stuff as a way of life.




[1] Westjet Christmas – a terrific example of sharing your values and ethos – http://bit.ly/1habsP2

[2] United Breaks Guitars – how a bad experience turns into a corporate crisis – http://bit.ly/1dmOKaW