Change
Most of us would rather not go to a hospital. When we do go, it often seems that most of the staff aren’t too happy to see us there either. Individual medical professionals and staff can sometimes be friendly one-on-one, but nobody greets you, nobody welcomes you, and you spned most of the time sitting around in uncomfortable chairs, reading dull magazines, and trying to not breathe the air in the cramped waiting rooms.
I don’t write this post as an endorsement of Kaiser, but I recently went to a Kaiser facility and was extremely surprised by the great service. It provides a great view into transforming of customer experiences. In the case of Kaiser, admittedly I was expecting the worst. The ‘Thrive’ branding seems so perfect, but how could a large company in such a tough industry transform such a typically negative experience into a positive one? Kaiser proved, at least in my case, that it could be done. Anyone who provides service to the general public could learn from the detailed and simple steps Kaiser has taken to make the customer experience far exceed the expectations. (more…)
As the economy continues to remain in tough shape, companies have held to the mantra that “cash is king.” This is certainly true as companies use cash reserves to maintain operations, while revenues falter. However, there is a second “king” that is emerging in importance as well. That is the customer.
During the booming economy, many companies were able to take consumer demand for granted at a macro level. The more products offered, the more stores opened, the greater the revenues. It was simple. This translated into less attention to truly delivering great customer experiences in terms of meeting true needs or offering excellent customer service. There is a building awareness of the need to re-focus companies from solely driving on internal operations efficiencies and financial structures and into delivering great customer experiences.
Some companies, such as Apple and Southwest Airlines were already focused on customer experience well before the economic meltdown and are faring the downturn much better.
A recent article in BNET was somewhat scolding executives for needing to go to ‘Strategic Planning 101′ in response to a Dartmouth Professor’s claim that newspaper publishers are just sitting around and whining, while their businesses go in the tank.
A clip from the article shows a somewhat insulting list of what Strategic Planning 101 is all about. Usually I just ignore this type of advice, but in this case it was so far off the mark, I had to comment.
______________________ARTICLE CLIP___________________
Strategic Planning 101
- Get a bunch of smart people in a room together … without cell phones and Blackberrys
- Have somebody present a completely honest analysis of the competitive situation
- Throw out all the sacred cows and preconceived notions
- Brainstorm new ideas until you can’t stand to look at each other anymore
- Vote on them, take the top ten, assign each to an executive to develop a business plan
- Meet back, present the plans, debate, decide on one or two to implement, and execute
At least you’d think that’s what they’re doing, right? All those high-paid executives with fiduciary responsibility can’t just be sitting around complaining and waiting to die. Or can they? What do you think? Do Syd and I expect too much from officers and directors that shareholders depend upon to make their investment worthwhile?
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This misguided view of what strategic planning has two major gaps that are the undoing of most efforts to set and execute strategy. (more…)
The Professional Services Journal invited Jeanne Urich, SPI Research, and I to co-lead a webinar on professional services transformations. We share background on the industry-leading PS Maturity Model Benchmark as well as our PS Transformation approach.
If you are responsible for improving performance of a professional services orgnaization or merging services organizations, you will find this webinar valuable in terms of specific benchmark performance metrics from the ”best-of-the-best” and a well proven process for transformation with some tools and case exmaples to apply to your business.
This month we published, with SPI Research, a white paper focused on how to successfully transform professional services organizations (PSOs). PSOs have an ability to rapidly scale and drive greater profitability if you have the right focus and ability to transform smoothly. Since PSOs are people-driven businesses, they have an ability to change very rapidly, but also are at the greatest risk in hitting roadblocks to change as well.
The white paper points out the specific reason why PSO transformations typically fail to reach their desired results due to the use of under-scoped and limited tools of change management and business process re-engineering solutions alone. A complete framework for transformation and a streamlined and proven transformation process are described. The paper also shares some breakthough statistics from the 2009 Professional Services Maturity Model that clearly tie leadership and strategic focus to greater profitability and overall performance.
For a copy of the white paper - click here.
Today I met with about 50 professionals with a variety of experiences with M&A integration at the Association for Corporate Growth. The topic of my presentation was to share the true keys to success that have made the difference in companies who successfuly create shareholder value through business combinations. Several people were interested in getting a copy of the slides so I’m trying out an online publishing tool called DoXtop to easily share these.
In addition to the presentation, I’ve also included a link to a companion article to go with the presentation for those who are interested.
By: Michael Kanazawa (picture: Charles M. Jones, 1953, Flickr)
You’ve just been tasked with launching a major change effort, “hmm, what to use?”
A question was raised recently to me about the differences between Change Management, Process Reengineering and Corporate Transformation. Often these terms are interchanged, mixed together and used in confusing ways. I was asked to clarify the differences and discuss how and when each should be applied to solve business challenges. Here’s my shot at clarifying the intangible and helping to select the right tool for the right job.
All of these three terms relate to change, but to different levels and types of change. The problem with the fuzzy definitions is that it leads to people applying the wrong practice to their business challenge. It’s like someone saying, “We need to dig a tunnel from England to France; let me get my Black & Decker rechargeable drill.” Or equally bad, “We need to place a screw in the living room wall to hang a mirror; hold on while I get the dynamite.” (more…)
A Checklist and Process for Conducting Rapid Due Diligence on Your Own Company
By: Michael Kanazawa
When economic storms strike businesses, often the first move is to quickly reorganize to reduce costs. This is often a necessary move to reduce the fixed cost structure of the business. However, if done without a sense of strategy and priorities, it can damage healthy parts of the business and miss the opportunity for even deeper reductions in ailing parts of the business. The ability to conduct a rapid and sound strategic assessment can create an important distinction between flailing and decisive action. Conducting a form of due diligence on your own company can provide a fast way to set direction and priorities without just relying on gut feel, politics, and outdated assumptions to make the changes. In this post we share a specific checklist and process to get through an assessment fast. (more…)
By: Michael Kanazawa
The American Management Association recently published an article I wrote in ‘Executive Matters’ that highlights the challenges with traditional approaches to corporate change programs and three key tips for making sure that your corporate change efforts succeed. People have become highly skeptical and jaded about corporate change programs…and often for good reason. The article provides a great overview and specific tips for a better and more accelerated approach to change management.
For a full copy of the article, click here.
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Michael Kanazawa shares recent insights and tips about the no-nonsense, results-driven approach to driving business breakthroughs found in his new book Big Ideas to Big Results.