This week I’m going to pass the baton over to Ranjay Gulati.
He is the Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School,
and talks about ‘Outside-In’ in great detail.
Read this fantastic article here http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6201.html
So what are you doing to bring a smile to your loyal customers?
Companies with a worldwide presence face many challenges such as globalization, regional trading agreements and the uncertainty of the economic markets. These challenges require a coordinated approach which maximizes the benefits of a world-wide presence and at the same time provide a local focus. Global processes are the way to achieve this balance and include front end activities like customer acquisition or new business processing, support processes like information systems right the way through
to back end customer retention and financial management.
How does a company create, implement, and manage global processes?
Co-ordination. Teams need to develop a common process approach which regardless of culture speaks the same language i.e. what is the successful customer outcome (SCO)? Figuring out how work gets done and achieves the SCO is key to global process success. Implementation needs a pragmatic approach which acknowledges cultural perspectives.
Bringing a strategic multi disciplinary team together led by qualified process leaders familiar with cultural and economic challenge is a starting point.
Rolling out that discipline and process approach through geographic teams provides a means to learn and exchange and grow key processes to maturity.
What are the most common challenges associated with global processes?
Getting everyone on the same page. Even the way we think and speak of processes is different and so developing a common way of looking at work is critical to a successful operation. For instance the collecting the money process¹ has a very specific objective however each location may have different custom and practice how do you ensure a uniform and yet different approach? The underpinning technology that supports a global
process can be common, however the business rules that we operate to make sure our endeavor is successful often need to be different.
What is the relationship between global processes and performance
improvement?
The relationship is absolute. In the 20th century we may have talked about standardization and conformity. Performance is now much more driven by the capability to act in the moment e.g. a US insurance company has the slogan think global, act local¹ which provides both a degree of uniformity and empowers the people locally to act in the best interests of the business there and then.
Why should the average employee care about global processes?
It is the understanding that there is a framework and common structure torunning the business successfully that provides assurance that senior management knows what they are doing and are operating as a team. Process is the way we get work done. It is the way we deliver value to our customers.
It¹s the way we create profits for our shareholders. This can then be encapsulated in our rewards systems and provide a framework for success, both in process, people, systems and global strategy.
(From the desk of James Dodkins)
From the desk of James Dodkins
There is no easy way to introduce a new order of things however there are some principles that can be followed based on this type of mind shift.
1. Objective and immediate.
The results we achieve with Outside-In are significant and substantive e.g. Triple Crown*. Accordingly any effort should first of all identify the clear tangible benefits.
2. Talk is cheap.
Fine words and phrases will not win hearts and minds without substance. Delivery is key, hence the ‘start where you are’ sentiment. In current projects (where support may be lacking) introduce the techniques within the CEMMethod by stealth.
Lift the heads of those around you to think of Moments of Truth, Break Points and Business Rules for instance. “Nothing new mate, just some stuff other guys have used within… Six Sigma../..Lean../..EA../..compliance etc. (delete as appropriate)”
3. Build support.
With (2) underway you will build support. That is the point to shift focus and begin the more practical discussion of where and how.
4. Go for broke.
If you are extremely lucky/persuasive and have the top team already onboard go for broke. Discover the worst most problematic issues and set to righting em. By fixing the Cause you will remove the Effect.
5. Move on.
It is a 400 year shift in mindset (Dee Hock, VISA founder).
It will ultimately transform the planet. The jury is in fact back and the results speak for themselves. So when all looks desolate and casting your pearls before swine is depressing, remind the swine that they are part of the problem and move on.
6. Make it so.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE it just feels that way when surrounded by flat-landers (doh).
Learn, exchange and do.
James Dodkins, Chief Customer Officer,
BP Group
This is gentle reminder about our upcoming 2014 CPP Professional Global Training. Classes book quickly so please reserve soon.
http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html
Course Overview:
The CPP Professional qualification is an acknowledgement of the understanding and practical skill set associated with Outside In, Enterprise BPM and the effective implementation of the CEMMethod. The CPP Professional role is to guide and maximize the organization’s efforts toward its operational and strategic goals while removing the impediments the industrial age artefacts that stand in their way.
CEMMethod is an advanced approach for undertaking process change and transformation. In traditional approaches the emphasis has often been exclusively on efficiency and effectiveness and as a consequence businesses were struggling in terms of cost, quality and customer’s satisfaction. The BP Groups CEMMethod is a process framework, which is now replacing traditional industrial age approaches of process change and transformation in order to deliver first and foremost Successful Customer Outcomes. Introduced in 2006 in the book Customer Expectation Management, the CEMMethod is the process industry’s standard in designing, developing and delivering Outside In process transformation, as it overcomes the many shortcomings of traditional inside out thinking.
Benefits of Training & Certification:
Caters to high demand in industry for Managers and Senior Executives with Certified Process Professional qualifications and Experience.
All our Instructors are practical proven experienced professionals working with the BP Group which has over 20 years of direct hands-on experience with real world companies in Process and Business Transformation and Change consulting and training
You will learn what it feels like to access some of the most advanced toolkits from the worlds leading organisations experiencing many of the challenges you’re likely to face–while being coached by world leading Gurus actively involved with the application of CEMMethod at many organizations. This “learning by doing” style of instruction demands your open mind and active participation.
For more details please log on to:
http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html
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Thanks & Warm Regards,
Rachel Smith | Business Development Manager | BP Group
Email: rachel.smith@bpgroup.org
Tel No: 00 44 20 3286 4248
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BP Group, New Bond House, 124 New Bond Street, London W1S 1DX
Offices in London – Houston – Denver – Bangalore – Sydney – Associates in 118 countries
Office: US: +1 303 800-0924 | UK: +44 20 3286 4248 | Fax: +44 20 7691 7664
Dear Colleague,
I am delighted to be working with PEX Asia on their 2014 summit.
The event is designed for process management professionals who want to be at the forefront of change, champion excellence in their organisation and collaborate on creating the next generation of process transformation strategies.
Process Excellence is being redefined in this digital age, transforming organisations and revolutionising how business is conducted globally. To be competitive your company needs to continually evolve and move beyond just Lean Six Sigma.
Process Excellence today draws on a raft of evolving methodologies including Lean, Six Sigma, Business Process Management, Enterprise Architecture, Total Quality Management and Statistical Process Controls to enable organisations to improve the way they operate and deliver. Notable organisations such as the Singapore Exchange, ANZ, Shell, Nokia and the BP Group will be sharing the different ways they have blended and harmonised approaches within their ranks to enable their teams to connect more swiftly to relevant information, improve workflow automation and meet the ever changing consumer and market needs.
Excitingly, as part of this year’s event we have provided delegates with an exclusive opportunity to undertake our certification training programme.
This is designed as two in-depth workshops which will give you the essential skills to take on process change and lead with excellence.
Completing the course will also qualify you as a Certified Process Professional (CPP Levels 1 & 2).
The process professionals we researched with during production of PEX Asia identified their core challenges as how to core challenges as how to:
1. Differentiate their organisation by continually meeting and exceeding process quality and customer service
2. Capture, synthesise and align their client and business needs
3. Continuously improve workflow automation and project turnaround times
4. Swiftly adapt, evolve and improve global supply chain management in ever changing markets
5. Better manage multiple PEX projects
All within reduced timeframes and budgets and still meeting the expected outcomes from reporting executives and boards!
At the PEX ASIA 2014 you will find presenters, delegates, information and ideas which pose solutions to resolving these exact challenges. Using PEX to drive business growth, increase profitability and competitive advantage is more critical than ever.
This is your chance to revitalise, strengthen and accelerate your process strategies.
We hope that you will be able to join us in Singapore at our PEX Asia 2014
Please do take a moment to look through the brochure or go to our PEX Asia website for more details. I look forward to meeting you in February in Singapore!
Steve Towers
Lead Coach and Co-Founder
BP GROUP, UK
I also want to touch on the hurdles these companies using OI as their route to customer-centricity faced or are facing. While achieving customer-centricity is a noble goal even a necessity for many companiesit’s not easy. It requires transformational change.
On the flip side, sticking to incremental change doesn’t get you there. Not even close.
Amazon.com may have achieved Jeff Bezos’s dream of becoming the world’s most
customer-centric company. And Amazon had the advantage of starting from
scratch with nothing preexisting in the way, except for a pervasive business
culture that believes companies went broke by trying to be too nice to
customers and became successful by rigorous cost control and a laser-like
focus. But Bezos understood the comfort level customers would feel with
Amazon sourcing whatever they need to buy (almost) instead of dealing with
scores of online merchants, including some not trustworthy. He also
understood that the best way to keep customers is by continually finding new
ways to offer them value. These were hardly popular concepts when he started
Amazon. And for straying from conventional “wisdom,” Bezos and Amazon took a
pounding from pundits and analysts before proving them wrong.
Best Buy senior execs banked on their understanding of how customers really
wanted to buy electronics.
Best Buy made a major shift from a “cash and carry” electronics discounter
to a combined product/service provider that supports every facet of
customers enjoying high-tech electronics, with some appliances thrown in for
good measure. To get there, Best Buy had to re-staff the stores with better
trained, higher paid employees; bring in substantial new management
expertise, redesign stores from the ground up, go to store plans that flexed
with local demographics and take a huge financial risk on a then untested
concept of “higher touch” electronics retailing. Best Buy senior execs
banked on their understanding of how customers really wanted to buy
electronics. Customers rewarded them by leaving competitors in droves, until
the two primary U.S. competitors collapsed.
Fed-X has been an Outside-In company from the day the first Dassault Falcon
flew off from Memphis back in 1971, and it has reaped the rewards. But in
1998 Fed-X chose to break its own air courier business model by acquiring
the parent of both Roadway trucking and RPS (Roadway Parcel Express, formed
to compete against UPS). The customer problem the acquisition solved was
visible every day at hundreds of thousands of shipping docksone pile of
small parcels for priority air shipping by Fed-X; a 2nd pile of small
parcels for routine ground shipping by UPS; and a 3rd pile of larger
shipments, including single packages over 60lbs., to be picked up by various
LTL (less-than-truckload) carriers that serviced varying city pairs.
For logistics managers this meant: multiple types of waybills and manifests
to complete; multiple tracking systems (or no tracking); angst and errors
from trying to price shipments to attach shipping charges to invoices; and
three different pick-up vans, often jockeying for space at a single loading
dock at the same time. But once Fed-X melded the three service into one,
logistics could have just one pile of shipments for ground and air,
including packages up to 150lbs.
UPS, a totally inside-out company at the time, never saw the opportunity,
despite seeing the three piles every day, because they were seeing the piles
from their point of view, not the customer’s.
All these cases represent achieving customer-centricity through
transformational change from inside-out business practicesplus, overcoming
inertia and defying yet more conventional “wisdom.” In the CRM space,
there’s a pejorative term, “boiling the ocean,” to describe asking companies
to change too much. Supposedly, attempting “excessive” change leads to
certain failure and death by firing squad. Yet any company striving to
achieve customer-centricity has to switch from the inside-out perspective to
Outside-In. And that takes “boiling the ocean.”
Feeling the urgency for change will help some companies clear the hurdles.
Not feeling the urgency for change will cause others to take face plants on
the trackor wither away at the starting blocks.
Reactive cases
UPS was forced Outside-In (or else it would have gone upside down) by
Fed-X’s ground transportation acquisition. For an extraordinarily routinized
and standardized company, that meant adopting a new business model requiring
disruptive process change.
More recently, Sprint was on the slippery slope, put there by inside-out
thinking, including deplorable customer service. Its new CEO is taking an
Outside-In view of the business to try to dig out of the hole. Too late?
Maybe, maybe not. Forgiveness doesn’t always come easy. Sometimes it doesn’t
come at all.
And speaking of forgiveness, General Motors is struggling for life after
bankruptcyand trying to overcome an almost impermeable inside-out culture.
Getting to Outside-In is a prerequisite for winning back customer trust. So
far, reports coming out of GM have been mixed.
What are you waiting for?
Sure Outside-In takes work. But don’t wait for an industry competitor to go
there first. Forced change is so much harder than proactive change. And
don’t wait until it’s too late and suffer the ultimate change. The
Outside-In train is leaving the station, likely populated by a competitor or
two or four. It’s time you hopped on board for the journey to Outside-In.
From l>r: Grace, Angela, Mark, Steve, Kandice, Jamie, Moosa, Nivesh
This was one of those sessions that transcends what we did in a few days. Moosa and Nivesh will return to Qatar, Jamie to Phoenix, Kandice to Denver (yay!), Steve to Singapore, Mark to the world of education, Angela here in the Bay, and Grace to Washington DC.
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The purpose of the Business Rules Tool Kit is to give you an actionable approach to identifying and optimizing the process-based behavior in your organization, thereby Increasing Revenues and Enhancing Customer service.
