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

Back to the Future… 1996 are you listening?

Online Newsletter (http://www.itstime.com/oct96.htm)

spike bullet October, 1996 –

spike bullet Re-engineering – Middle Managers are the Key Asset

        By Steve Towers, used with permission (Thanks, Steve!)

Tips for Success as a Middle Manager

There are a number of individual and organizational actions that lead to proven success:

  1. Move away from day-to-day operations – these belong in the front-line.
  2. Think like senior managers
  3. Understand the business strategy
  4. Participate at all levels by exploiting their technical and organizational expertise
  5. Manage change and people together.
  6. Utilize their role as ‘Ace mediator’.
  7. Become a practical visionary.
  8. Become the master of change

(Full text of the article follows)

Steve Towers, Chairman of the Business Process Management Group (BPMG) and UtiliSense, offers some sage advice for survival.

Preamble: Middle Managers are under immense pressure from above and below to do more with less.

Everyone is doing it – Southern Electric International acquiring SWEB, Hanson and Eastern Group getting together, North West Water and Norweb forming United Utilities. London city is rife with more rumors – who’s next? One thing is certain and that is that everything is changing. Many utilities are anticipating, and indeed pre-empting change, by taking greater control over their own destiny through Business Process Re-engineering. Amidst all this radical change what is happening to the Middle Manager? Is the role still a viable one? What does the Middle Manager have to do to survive?

Pressure to change almost irresistible

The current Merger/Acquisition mania-sweeping the sector, coupled with nervous Regulators, Customer dissatisfaction, Director pay publicity, and the looming election are rocking the boat and causing utilities to rethink themselves. This self-appraisal is resulting in ‘new-look’ organizations which have been become Down-sized, Customer focused, Team managed with Flatter, de-layered organization structures.

Middle Manager has become an endangered species

In response to the need to cut costs some organizations have effectively scrapped the role of Middle Manager! They are viewed by many writers on change as excess ‘organizational baggage’. Mike Hammer, co-author of ‘Re-engineering the Corporation’ says in his latest eulogy ‘. . . we refer to this managerial hierarchy . . . as the Death Zone of re-engineering. Middle managers have the most invested in the status quo and stand to lose the most in re-engineering’ So that’s it? The end of Middle Management as we know it? Yes and no, the organizations that have achieved re-engineering success (ant there’s a lot who haven’t) have done so with the middle manager playing the key role. However it does involve transforming the role.
Evidence is now emerging that organizations who view the middle manager as ‘dead wood’ are doomed; companies that ‘hack out’ the middle manager are destroying the greatest potential asset. Unfortunately many still believe that by scrapping this vital resource they will succeed. This is one of the reasons why so many re-engineering programs falter and subsequently fail.

Middle Manager survival

The key to success is changing the role. Middle managers are no longer up-and-down information conduits, or simple plan-control-evaluate-functionaries. They embody the core competence of the successful organization.
Re-engineering success is achieved by the middle managers identifying the business breakthroughs; becoming good role models and overcoming the organizational barriers that prevent success. Senior management are beginning to appreciate that in true Pareto style, if they are to achieve the customer improved, reduced cost, flexible and dynamic business they must use and enhance this organizational role. The really successful business managers know that the pivotal position of the middle managers can convert a cynical ‘change-blitzed’ organization.

So what does the Middle manager need to do to ensure success?

There are a number of individual and organizational actions that lead to proven success:
1. Move away from day-to-day operations – these belong in the front-line.
Avoid being distracted by the minutia of life. Becoming buried in the detail is a sure-fire way of missing the point. There’s a need to focus on the important more strategic issues, let the front-line worker gain the necessary knowledge and competence to develop the skills to fulfill a more rounded role, and indeed deal with the detail.
2. Think like senior managers
Looking up and out provides scope for dealing with more substantive issues. Contributing to the internal ‘way forward’ debates will ensure that the Middle Managers extensive knowledge is utilized for organizational benefit.
3. Understand the business strategy
What are the things which cause the organization to want to change? How can the organization direct its own future, anticipating threats and exploiting opportunity?
4. Participate at all levels by exploiting their technical and organizational expertise
Many Middle Managers have internalized a great deal of technical and organizational knowledge – how their business works best, the mechanics of the way things get done, what will work and why some things fail. Spread the knowledge. It will ensure that decision making is informed and well thought out.
5. Manage change and people together.
Set an example and coach the less experienced through difficulties.
6. Utilize their role as ‘Ace mediator’.
Someone who is able to understand internal and external pressures on the organization and satisfy competing interests.
7. Become a practical visionary.
Converting the strategic ‘top-think’ into meaningful actions, and counseling the front-liners through often difficult transformation.
8. Become the master of change
Set the agenda by recognizing what is possible and harnessing the organization to achieve it. Understand the practical ways of implementing change, initiate activities that lead to ‘shifts in thinking’ about the way work is done.

Comments from the field

Asking the question ‘How can you become a more effective middle manager?’ elicited the following thought-provoking responses.
Rory Chase, Managing Director of IFS International in Bedford, has first-hand experience of the challenges:

  • He says “the new role of the middle manager embraces three key areas – Team leadership, Change Maker and Facilitator.”
  • Rory explains that Team leadership is about setting an example, establishing a good role model and actively leading from the front.
  • Being a Change Maker means being innovative, looking for continual improvement and interpreting the needs of senior management, staff and customers alike.
  • The Facilitator is about getting the right things to happen.
  • Rory finally adds “Getting total buy-in to change.
  • Gaining the commitment of the organization to successful improvement.”
  • That’s no small agenda to accomplish, especially since ‘business as usual’ doesn’t stop as the new role develops.

In the more fragmented United States utility sector they have been experiencing this type of change for some time now. Leonard Sayles, author of ‘The Working Leader’ and a senior manager at the Center for Creative Leadership says:

  • “Everything has changed.
  • You have much more demanding customers, who are increasingly demanding customization.
  • These customers are not only demanding, their needs are in flux . . .
  • The market is itself more turbulent.”
  • Leonard sees the new role as completely rethinking the past, “You need to keep redesigning and adapting the (business) processes, with the power and autonomy people can have.
  • This type of integration can only take place through a variety of middle manager negotiations and interventions.
  • Mainly you have to remember that all the things you’ve been told (about managing) are totally wrong.”

Grasp the Change

Realizing this transformation will free not just yourself but the people around you. Seizing the initiative, and going for growth will truly empower you and the organization. Chocks away!

Acknowledgement:

After an early career in the Utility and then the Financial Services sector Steve Towers co-founded Utilisense Consulting, now established as a leading BPR consultancy.   He is Chairman of the Business Process Management Group (BPMG) and has recently been appointed Chairman of IntraNet Solutions, a systems consultancy currently undertaking Internet/IntraNet assignments with leading blue chip companies.

Well that was back in the 20th century. Is it really any different now?

  

Part 4 of 4: There are four distinctly Outside-In ways that you can rethink process and in doing so achieve Triple Crown benefits – Rethinking the Business you are In

The previous three articles in this four part theme we reviewed Part 3: ‘Reframing process for an Outside-In world‘,  Part 1: ‘Understand and applying Process diagnostics‘ and the Part 2: ‘Successful Customer Outcome‘ map. 
We now move our attention to the fourth  way we can rethink process forever


Rethinking the Business you are in.

In the Southwest airlines example reviewed earlier we referred to the different viewpoints of the ‘business’ you are in. The two views – one the organisations, regarded as inside-out reflect the activities and functions undertaken. So British Airways see themselves in the business of flying airplanes and approach the customer with that product/service in mind. They set about marketing and selling the flights and hope to pull the customers to the product through pricing, availability and placement. In a slowly changing world where customers have little choice this strategy can provide a route to success.


As we have already seen the tables have turned and the enlightened customer demands so much more.
Southwest and other Outside-In companies understand this challenge and take a customer viewpoint.
What business would you say these six companies are in: Hallmark Cards, BMW, Disney, Zara, AOL, OTIS elevators, China Mobile?  Try it from the customers perspective and you’ll arrive at a very different answer – try these, expression, joy, magic, style and comfort, community, moving people, connectivity. Yes they are very different and will reframe the way you think of the service and products you provide. Go further and look inside your existing company.


Are you still separated into functional specialist areas providing specific outputs to other departments in the so called ‘value chain’? Do you have internal ‘service level agreements’ that specify what you’ll deliver and when? How much of our internal interaction adds ultimate value for the customer? This way of organising work imposes limitations on our ability to truly deliver successful customer outcomes. The Inside-out viewpoint is inefficient, prone to red tape, is extremely risk adverse (checkers checking checkers) and slow in delivering product and service.


Many inside-out organisations actually regard customers as an inconvenience rather than the reason why they exist.


What business are you in? Past, present, future?


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Part 3 of 4: There are four distinctly Outside-In ways that you can rethink process and in doing so achieve Triple Crown benefits.

In the first two articles in this four part theme we reviewed ‘Understand and applying Process diagnostics‘ and the ‘Successful Customer Outcome‘ map. We now move our attention to the third  way we can rethink process forever

Reframing process for an Outside-In world

A fundamental principle of Outside-In is the understanding of where your process starts and ends.

In the 20th century many techniques and approaches developed to better understand and create processes. In its earliest form pioneering work undertaken by the United States Airforce created modelling approaches based on the Structured Analysis and Design Technique (SADT) that produced iDEF (Integrate DEFinition Methods). iDEF became recognised as a global standard as a method designed to model the decisions, actions, and activities of an organization or system[1].  iDEF as a method has now reached iDEF14 [i] and embraces a wide range of process based modelling ideas. Concurrent with the development of iDEF technology providers created proprietary modelling approaches, and subsequently developed into modelling language standards, used by many organisations to represent their systems and ways of working. The convergence of business process modelling and business process management (BPM) has now produced a rich set of tools and techniques
able to model and ideally manage an organisation. In fact one of the more accepted definitions of BPM (based on the British Journal of Management[ii]): “Business process management (BPM) is a management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organisation with the wants and needs of clients. It is a holistic management approach”

Until a few years ago process management approaches looked within the boundaries of the organisation and the combination of modelling and management approaches were adequate to understand the enterprise. The impact of process management in improving organisation performance has been profound however we now face a different reality driven by the customer.

As a consequence both disciplines now present a series of problems that include

(a)    understanding the beginning and end of the process,

(b)   the techniques used to model process are inadequate and focused  on the wrong things

Strangely customer involvement in a process often appears as an afterthought and the actual representation systems (left to right, top to bottom) create an illusion that fosters the belief that “the customer isn’t my job”.

Let’s deal with each in turn by example:
a.     The beginning and end of process

To aid the discussion let’s look at two airlines, British Airways and Southwest, and we’ll review how they ‘think’ about their business through the eyes of process. If you sit down with British Airways executives and asked the question “where does your process start and end?” the response reflects the main source of revenue, seat sales.

So the answer “the process is from the ticket purchase to the collecting the bags off the carousel” is no great surprise. In fact that is the way we have mostly thought about process in that it starts when it crosses into organisation, and finishes when it leaves. We can easily model that, identify efficiency improvements, improve throughput and optimise apparent value add.

As far as British Airways is concerned what you do outside of that process is no concern of theirs, after all they are an airline and that’s what they do. Now let’s change our perspective and visit Love Field in Texas and meet the executive team of Southwest. Ask the guys the same question “where does your process start and end?” and the answer is a whole different viewpoint.

The process begins when the potential customer thinks of the need for a flight, and only ends when they are back at home following the journey. The scope of this process is defined by the phrase “the customer experience is the process”. That’s an Outside-In perspective and creates opportunities across the whole customer experience.

More than that it raises the prospect of additional revenue streams, spreads the risk associated with a dependency on seat sales, reinforces the customer relationship and develops an entirely different way of doing business.  So let’s ask another question of our friends at Southwest “guys, what business are you in?”, and the answer changes everything you ever thought about airlines forever “we’re in the business of moving people”.

Downstream Southwest may well turn the industry further on its head as they move from being the low cost airline to the ‘no cost airline’ and give their seats free of charge. What would that do to your business model if 95% of your revenues, as with British Airways, comes from seat sales?

The business challenge for Southwest becomes one of controlling the process to benefit and maximise the customer experience. That involves partnering, sharing information and doing all necessary to make customers lives easier, simpler and more successful.

Now how do you model that?

b.     The techniques used to model process are inadequate and focused on the wrong things

We have reviewed the ultimate cause of work for all organisations is the customer. Organisations exist to serve the customer though the provision of products and services and in this way develops revenue that goes to the profit and onward distribution to the stockholders.

In other organisations without the profit motivation, for instance the public sector, then the effective delivery of services is measured by citizens and stakeholders.  Accordingly it stands to reason that everything happening within the organisation should be organised and aligned to deliver customer success and anything that isn’t is potentially ‘dumb stuff’. The techniques we use to ‘capture’ process are however not suitable to understanding the causes of work and focus attention instead on the visible tasks and activities that are perceived to create value for customers. In the context of the enlightened customer[iii] this is at best misleading and at its worst actually part of the broader problem. In Outside-In companies the focus has shifted to understanding the causes of work, and then engineering those causes to minimize negative effects.

Once more to go Outside-In we need a perspective shift and we can achieve this by identifying those three causes of work and then set out to reveal them and their negative impact.

How big is the size of the prize? Efficiency and productivity gains of 30% to 60% are common. Cost reduction of services by 50% is not unusual.

Cause elimination is a seek and destroy mission. It’s the challenge to weed out the “dumb stuff” in our organizations.

By truly fixing the Causes of Work, rather than messing around with the Effects (a bit like moving the chairs on the deck of the Titanic) we will all find our customers and employees life simpler, easier and more successful. Are you ready to challenge your assumptions and start eliminating those causes of work? Fix the Cause, remove the effect.

[1] http://www.idef.com/IDEF0.htm

[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEF

[ii] Understanding Business Process Management: implications for theory and practice, British Journal of Management (2008) (Smart, P.A, Maddern, H. & Maull, R. S.)

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Part 2 of 4: There are four distinctly Outside-In ways that you can rethink process and in doing so achieve Triple Crown benefits.

In the first article in this four part theme we reviewed ‘Understand and applying Process diagnostics’. We now move our attention to the second  way we can rethink process forever –
Identify and aligning to Successful Customer Outcomes

“Businesses can be very sloppy about deciding which customers to seek out and acquire” Frederick F. Reichheld

The six questions we ask ourselves in this iterative process are:
I.    Who is the customer?
At first glance should be an easy answer however it is not as obvious as it seems. The ultimate customer for any profit making enterprise is the person, or company who provides the revenue by purchasing the products or services we produce. It is a matter of fact that in our inside-out legacy world we have created multiple customer-supplier relationships which include internal ‘service’ providers such as Information Services, Human Resources and so on. In mature Outside-In organisations the internal customer ceases to exist as we progressively partner to align to Successful Customer Outcomes and artefacts such as Service Level Agreements become a thing of the past.


II.    What is the Customers current expectation?
The 2006 book “Customer Expectation Management “ Schurter/Towers reviewed in detail the of creating and managing customer expectations and how through clear articulation companies such as Virgin Mobile in the US redefine their market place. In the context of the SCO map we need to understand the customers (as identified in the answer to question 1) current expectation. This often reveals both a challenge and opportunity. Customers will tell it as it is, for instance in an insurance claim process “I expect it is going to take weeks, with lots of paperwork and many phone calls”. That should tell you the current service is most likely poor and fraught with problems, delays and expensive to manage however this presents the opportunity. If that is a market condition (all insurance claims are like this) then moving to a new service proposition will be a potential competitive differentiator.  


III.     What process does the customer think they are involved with?
In the inside-out world we see process in a functional context. Therefore insurance claims are dealt with by an insurance claims department. Customer Retention is the baby of you guessed it, the Customer retention department and marketing is done by the marketing people. This split of responsibility is a legacy of functional specialisation created by relating to business as a production line. Adam Smith wrote in ‘The Wealth of Nations’ (1776) of an English pin factory.  He described the production of a pin in the following way: ”One man draws out the wire, another straightens it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head: to make the head requires two or three distinct operations: to put it on is a particular business, to whiten the pins is another … and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which in some manufactories are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometime perform two or three of them”. The result of labor division in Smith’s example resulted in productivity increasing by 240 fold. i.e. that the same number of workers made 240 times as many pins as they had been producing before the introduction of labor division. The insights form Smith underpinned the industrial revolution however using this principle to organise ourselves in the 21st century is to a very large part the wrong approach. That is precisely what the answer to the question will tell us – “sorry sir you are talking to the wrong department, let me transfer you”. Or even getting stuck in automated response system hell “press 1 for this, 2 for that, 3 for the other and 4 if you have missed the first three options.” These are features of the labor division mindset. Ask a customer what process they think they are and you will frequently be surprised by the answer.


IV.    What do we do that Impacts customer success?
Often we ask customers to do numerous many activities which appear sensible  to receive service or indeed buy products. Relating back to the insurance claim we can see rules and procedure around how to make claims, the correct way to complete forms, the process of collating the information, the timeframes within which to claim, the way we can reimburse you and more.  Often times these restrictions that we impose made sense at some time in the past however they may no longer be relevant.

The situation is compounded by the way internal functional specialism focus on project objectives. Richard Prebble, a respected New Zealand politician writes in his 1996 book “I’ve been thinking” of the inability of organisations to think clearly of the amount of work they create and in fact “they spend a million to save a thousand every time”.
His story of the challenge within large organisations is typical “The Post Office told me they were having terrible problems tracking telephone lines … They found an excellent program in Sweden which the Swedes were prepared to sell them for $2m …. So the managers decided to budget $1m for translating into English and another $1m for contingencies. But, as the general manager explained, it had turned out to be more expensive than the contingency budget allowed and they needed another $7m. “How much”, I asked, “have you spent on it so far?” “Thirty-seven million dollars” was the reply. “Why don’t we cancel the programme?” I asked “How can we cancel a programme that has cost $37m?” they asked   “Do you believe the programme will ever work?” I asked “No, not properly” “Then write me a letter recommending its cancellation and I will sign it” The relief was visible. I signed the letter, but I knew I needed new managers.”

This type of inside-out thinking causes companies to create apparently sensible checks and controls within processes that actually manifest as customer inconvenience, cost and delay. Are you making the customers lives easier, simpler and more successful?


V.    The Successful Customer Outcome – what does the customer really need from us?
At this point we should have enough information to objectively create several statements that articulate the SCO. These statements should be specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). Usually there will 6-10 such statements which become the actual key performance measures as move the process Outside-In. For example a North American business school completed the SCO map and created these statements from the customer perspective for an ‘Education loan application’ process:
a.    I need to receive my financial assistance
b.    I need to receive aid  before the semester starts
c.    I need to attend the classes I have chosen
d.    I do not want to call to chase progress
e.    I need to receive the correct amount
f.    I do not want to have to fix your mistakes

There is no ambiguity here and we avoid a common mistake of using management weasel words such as ‘efficient, effective, timely’ which may mean things internally but to a customer are of little help. Creating SCO statements that may be used as measures for process success is a key aid on the journey to Outside-In.


VI.    And now we reach the core of the onion. What is the one line statement that best articulates our Successful Customer Outcome? This one-liner embodies the very nature of the process and sometimes the business we are in. In ‘Thrive- how to succeed in the Age of the Customer’ McGregor/Towers (2005), Easyjet (Europe’s second largest airline) is used as an example in this quest. Their simple “Bums on Seats” SCO sentence works both from a company perspective (we must maximise utilisation, offer inexpensive seats, get people comfortably and safely to their destinations) and the customers needs  “I need a cheap safe seat to get me to the sunshine quickly without a fuss”.  

The company one liner will become part of a series which are measureable through the SCO statements and can be tested and revised depending on evolving customer expectations and needs. It may in fact ultimately replace the inside-out strategic process and provide the organisation with its Raison d’être.

Of course when we start the journey it is often sufficient to create SCO maps to help grow understanding and even if the actual SCO Map is subsequently replaced (as we take a broader view) the improvement in understanding around the customer is invaluable.

In the third part of this four part series we will review “Reframe where the process starts and ends”

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Part 1 of 4: There are four distinctly Outside-In ways that you can rethink process and in doing so achieve Triple Crown benefits.

I explore these more thoroughly in the new book however for now let’s take them in bite sized chunks.
•     Understand and applying Process diagnostics
•    Identify and aligning to Successful Customer Outcomes
•    Reframe where the process starts and ends
•    Rethink the business you are in

Let’s start with…
1. Understand and applying Process diagnostics:
(These will be familiar to CPP people however a refresher is always nice)
Earlier we have mentioned Moments of Truth, those all important interactions with customers. Let’s take that discussion further and include other closely related techniques for uncovering the real nature of process – breakpoints and business rules.

Firstly Moments of Truth (MOT) were first identified by Swedish management guru Richard Normann (1946-2003) in his doctoral thesis “Management and Statesmanship” (1975).
In 1989 Jan Carlson, the CEO of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) immortalized the phrase with his book ‘Moments of Truth’. He clearly linked all customer interaction as the Causes of Work for the airline and set about eradicating non value added MOT’s and then improving those he couldn’t remove. 
a)    Moments of Truth are a Process Diagnostic
b)    They occur ANYWHERE a customer “touches” a process
c)    They can be people-to-people, people-to-system, systems-to-people, system-to-system, and people-to-product
d)    ANY interaction with a customer is a Moment of Truth
e)    Moments of Truth are both process Points of Failure and Causes of Work

Carlson transformed the fortunes of SAS with this straightforward insight – all work in our organisations is ultimately caused by the Moment of Truth. Fix them and you fix everything else.
All Moments of Truth should be eradicated and those remaining improved. In doing so the customer experience is improved, costs are reduced and productivity maximised.

Next let’s review Breakpoints. Breakpoints (BP’s) are the direct consequence of MOT’s and are all the internal interactions that take place as we manage the processes caused by the customer interactions. 
a) Any place that a hand-off occurs in the process is a Break Point
b) Break Points can be person to person, person to system, system to person or system to system
c) Break Points are both process Points of Failure and Causes of Work

By identifying BP’s we can set about uncovering actions that would in turn remove them, or if not improve them. BP’s are especially evident were internal customer supplier relationships have been established say between Information Systems departments and Operations. Empirical research suggests that for every Moment of Truth there are an average of 3 to 4 Breakpoints. In other words a process with ten MOT’s will typically yield 30-40 Breakpoints.
All Breakpoints should be eradicated and if not at the very least improved. In doing so we get more done with less, red tape is reduced, control improves and the cost of work comes down.

The third in our triad of useful Outside-In techniques is Business Rules.
Business Rules are points within a process where decisions are made.
a)    Some Business Rules are obvious while others must be “found”
b)    Business Rules can be operational, strategic or regulatory and they can be system-based or manual
c)    Business Rules control the “behavior” of the process and shape the “experience” of those who touch it
d)    Business Rules are highly prone to obsolescence
e)    We must find and make explicit the Business Rules in the process

Business Rules (BR’s) are especially pernicious in that they are created for specific reasons however over time their origin is forgotten but their effect remains. For instance one Life insurance company had a delay of eight days before issuing a policy once all the initial underwriting work was complete. This has a serious impact on competitiveness as newcomers were able to issue policies in days rather than weeks. After some investigation it was discovered that the ‘8 day storage’ rule was related to the length of time it takes ink to dry on parchment paper. This rule hadn’t surfaced until the customer expectations changed. There are many examples of previously useful rules evading 21st century logic and blocking the achievement of successful customer outcomes. All Business Rules should be made explicit and challenged in todays context.

Next time we’ll take a look at the second way to radically redefine process:

  • Identify and aligning to Successful Customer Outcomes

Global leading companies compete head to head in London in April

What do these 30 companies have in common?

They are all shortlisted finalists for this years Annual Process Excellence Awards. The team of judges has evaluated more than 200 submissions to produce the finalists who will now compete head to head at the BPGroup and Process Excellence 18th Annual Conference in London during April – http://bit.ly/BPG18_UK –

Atlantic Industries Ltd | BAA | Betfair | BP Lubricants | BSkyB | Cable & Wireless | Capgemini Polska Sp.z o.o. | Carphone Warehouse / Best Buy Europe | Citi | Computershare | DSM | Firstsource | Intelenet Global Services Pvt. Ltd | Irish Life Corporate Business | KuwaitPetroleum International | Lloyd’s Register | Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd | Network Rail | Procter & Gamble | RBS Insurance | RoyalBolton HospitalNHS Foundation Trust | RS Components UK | Schenker Arkas Transport & Trading | ScottishPower | Sellafield Ltd | Serco plc | Sutherland Global Services | Tesco | Virgin Media |

There are 8 Categories for the finalists including:
Best BPM Program | Best BPM Project | Best BPO Program | Best Lean Transformation | Best Process Improvement Program | Best Process Improvement Project in Service & Transaction | Best Project Contributing to Innovation | Best Start Up Process Improvement Program

This years entries demonstrate the rapid evolution of process excellence and BPM towards Outside-In.

If you would like to review the conference, download the brochure and attend the event please visit http://bit.ly/BPG18_UK for the latest information.

If you are not in Europe and wish to attend the other 18th Annual Conferences we are live in:

Stockholm, Sweden – June: http://bit.ly/BPG18_Nordic

Sydney, Australia, June: http://bit.ly/BPG18_Australia 

Apple v.Amazon – Two Outside-In behemoths slug it out

Both organisations are VERY successful and represent the embodiment of Outside-In:
Steve Jobs “the Customer Experience is the process”, and
Jeff Bezos “..rather than ask what are we good at and what else we can do with that skill, you ask who are our customers? What do they really need? And then you say we’re going to give them that..”

In the light of recent product launches from Apple e.g. iPad2. So how do their business models compare?

Here is an excellent review of the difference and an indicator of who is going to win the race…

Outside-In Sales – by James Dodkins

Moving Outside-In effects every aspect of how an organisation manages itself. This is especially true at the ‘point of sale’ where we as customers interact with companies selling us product or service.
This article explores the shift in perspective and how organisations and sales teams can rethink their role.
The Game is changing, are you?
There has been a perspective shift in sales over the last five years, the 21st Century selling environment has changed drastically. Many businesses are finding it hard to adapt, while others are thriving and achieve record profits. How is this possible?
Let’s go back five years and examine the sales profession. The customer’s desire for knowledge was such that sales tactics such as emails or cold calls were reaping benefits hand over fist and were considered key in the sales process. Many a time the customer would not know what they wanted until it was suggested and if they did know and wanted to find out information for themselves, they had to get in front of a sales agent; this allowed for the ‘hard sell’ to begin.

The main goal of many sales agents was to get the sale at any cost. Sales agents were able to say what they wanted in order to close the sale and the customer, none the wiser, would invariably believe what they were being fed and hand over their money. 

Companies could be accused of putting many other aspects above a customer’s needs, however five years ago, while not the most effective way, it didn’t drastically effect a businesses success. Customers had money to spend and time to spend it; and sales agents rubbed their hands together, happy to take it from them. Result? Company wins, Customer loses.

 
Today there is a new breed of customer, a customer who knows what they want, an enlightened customer if you will. The immense growth of the internet has allowed customers to get the information they need at the drop of a hat. The customer’s desire for knowledge is still there, however they now know where to discover this. On average, according to ‘The Bupa Health Pulse’ survey, 58% of patients now go to the doctor after ‘self-diagnosing’. This is largely down to how readily available the information is online. This is the same with customers, they search and gain extensive knowledge around the product and ‘self-diagnose’ what they need and no longer can be told what they want.
In a complete shift from five years ago; customers now have more information yet less disposable income and as a result are now thought on as harder to sell to. What’s the solution? Don’t sell to them; let them sell to themselves! 
Let’s look at Apple for example; their sales agents are there to facilitate and support the sales process, taking a more consultative approach. The customer walks into an Apple shop knowing exactly what they want; the sales agent’s responsibility is to make sure the customer gets exactly want they want and that they leave after having a positive experience with Apple. The customer wants to buy, not to be sold to.
If you are a sales agent reading this you may well ask; what can I do to change?

Taking all into account there are many ways to become more effective. To name a few, firstly you need to make sure your product knowledge is faultless; if a customer knows more about the product than the staff, how much confidence will they have in you or the company for that matter?  Use their knowledge of the product to support them as they buy. Never be annoyed that they know as much about your product as you, show that you are impressed and complement them on this, be happy that they have practically done your job for you and given you something in common straight away. Use this to build rapport, get them involved with the product, don’t sell to them; ask them the questions that will make them sell to them self. Focus on making the customer experience a great one and you will outperform any agent stuck in the ‘hard sell’ mentality.

If you are otherwise involved in a company you may well ask; how can we rise above the rest? The best advice I can give is to move quickly, capitalise on other company’s shortfalls during this harsh economic climate, overtake them while they stagnate and become truly customer focused. Remember it’s no longer what you tell the customer about your product that matters to them; it’s what Google tells them, it’s what Facebook tells them, it’s what their friends and co-workers tell them. So leave all customers with a brilliant image of your company and you will grow exponentially more than with a website bragging about your greatness. People’s attention spans are decreasing in the digital age and according to the BBC, most internet users will spend less than one minute on an average website, so make your information quick, informative and user friendly. 
You can monitor how far along the customer has taken themselves in the sales process by how specific their search is. Common sense would dictate that the more specific the search, the further along the sales process they are. Make sure everything you do is customer-centric. Result? Company wins, Customer wins.
The planned introduction of internet sales tax, more likely than not, will bring some sales back out into the field, this allows a company’s representatives to interact face to face and deliver a truly fantastic customer experience that will perpetuate growth on all levels, however the amount of information available on the internet is still constantly increasing and is unlikely to stop, so this 21st century sales perspective shift, in my opinion, is here to stay.
To thrive in this environment companies need to take an Outside-in sales approach. Compared to five years ago many people may regard this as an ‘uneven playing field’ however the playing field is just as even as before, the game is changing, are you?
James Dodkins, Head Coach, The Alexander John Group
Review James LinkedIn profile at: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/jamesdodkins
Contact James at: james.dodkins@gmail.com
Visit Company website: http://www.alexanderjohngroup.com/
                      
 
About James:
Sales and Business Performance Transformation Coach specialising in the development of individuals and organizations.

James has a proven track record of success working with over 700 business professionals across the UK within award winning FTSE 100 companies.

He has been largely involved with high priority contracts with approximate contributions of £10.4 million a year, while continually demonstrating a high level of performance motivation.
James is currently looking to work with individuals interested in goal realisation and implementation to bring about immediate changes and long-term results towards business and life success.
As a field innovator, James has contributed regular development of coaching methodology aids to enhance
effectiveness for positive client results.

James is in the process of creating ‘Begin to Win: The Flip-it Guide to Sales and Success©’

Specialties:

  • Sales Performance
  • One to one and Group Coaching
  • Motivational Coaching
  • Goal realisation
  • Goal implementation