Posted on Tue, Mar 30, 2010 @ 06:20 AM
The president of a well-established health sciences company was faced with the need to change the way the organization interacted with its customers. Customers reported that the organization had grown far too complex to do business with, compared to its major competitors. The executive perspective was that the company possessed an urgent need to change... but was concerned that middle management had grown too conservative and rigid to lead, or even accept, significant change. We put together an approach that demonstrated that middle managers could and would engage in constructive ways to invigorate the organization.
The approach consisted of a six week process, the goal of which was to recommend what changes should be made, complete with a business case and implementation plan. A set of four respected middle managers and four excellent customer service staff were put on the project team. The schedule was challenging and the expectations demanding.
The first week, while producing several critical outputs, was largely focused on training the team in the business and change management skills and methods required to be successful. Each week thereafter for the remainder of the project, the team presented key findings and recommendations at a scheduled executive briefing on key deliverables. At the end of the process, the president and his leadership team committed to the well-detailed strategic change effort.
Five key attributes of this approach enabled the success of the team:
- Substantial and visible executive expectations and support from the senior leadership.
- Careful selection of the right initial team members.
- A challenging but flexible and highly disciplined approach to the initial work.
- A customized approach to the work consistent with the culture of the company.
- Effective partnering between our external resources that brought experience and discipline to the internal team.
This positive start convinced senior management that the organization was capable of successfully addressing the customer service issues that threatened its survival.
Within 100 days the team implemented a series of process changes that positively enhanced the customer experience while lowering the cost of service. Over the course of the next eighteen months, organizational changes and new systems made more significant change feasible. The benefits were derived not simply from reduced costs and simplified customer interactions, but through increased sales and new cross-selling initiatives. The success was obtained through the creative efforts of staff and active executive support up to and including the Board of Directors.
Several years after the project ended, one of the sponsoring executives reflected that the project had been one of the most exciting and innovative experiences of his career. For him, it was a powerful learning that substantive change could be not just a hoped-for possibility--but a living, tangible and valuable reality.
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Posted on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 @ 07:42 AM
Industry: Transportation Equipment
Function: Design/ Engineering/ Marketing/ Sales/ Customer Service
Location: Domestic US
One of the major global vehicle providers of distribution and logistics equipment needed to defend its slim lead with regard to its information-management products – products that make the vehicles themselves more valuable to its customers, help customers to eliminate waste in their operations, and justify the “premium brand” image (and higher purchase prices) of our client’s equipment. In addition, it needed to take rear-guard actions to prevent current-customer dissatisfaction with the base-level first-generation product – and quell risks of defection.
In a dramatic shift in our client’s new product development approach, we supported the key business functions in rethinking their competitive position, product positioning, and key feature set – as well as driving ideas for changing their process for product development, launch, and post-sales support. We designed and facilitated strategic conversations that brought together disparate functions within the company, earlier than ever before in their history, to share their perspectives on customer needs – and helped the group to determine collectively what its first-best next steps might be to both defend the current business, and stake out exciting new territory for the future.
While the follow-up work for this client is still in process, early reports suggest fundamental changes in collaboration and engagement across key players and functional silos – and the promise of exciting new prospects for business innovation, and product design and development processes for the company.