In the first of our series of features looking towards building a new normal that was better than what we had before,  with the insights collated from the many panel sessions hosted by Kris Oldland throughout the pandemic, we begin with establishing an understanding of what leadership looks like in a post-pandemic world... 

The challenges of coping with the sudden on rush of a series of global lockdowns as governments across the globe reacted to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic meant that many organisations who were in the midst of planning how they could evolve their service offerings were suddenly faced with a much more pressing concern – how could they stay operational.

One man who was involved in a number of such situations was Harald Wasserman, Co-Managing Director Si2 Partners.

 

---

Field Service News has produced an eBook '10 Thoughts for Service Leaders Planning Recovery' for our subscribers based on the many hours of live streams we hosted to support field service organisations.

 

If you are already on either our Access All Areas or VIP subscription tiers you can access this on the button below now. If you have yet to subscribe or are on our complimentary subscription tier then click the button to upgrade or subscribe now

 

 

 

---

 

The FIeld Service Centre is a Key Asset in Today's new world

“Only a few weeks ago I was working with a number of companies and we were talking about how to transform the company into a pro-active service organisation. Then as the onset of the coronavirus and the global lockdowns arrived, the situation changed rapidly and totally. We were no longer talking about high level strategies, but instead our focus was now centred on immediate challenges. Where do we get the workload for our service technicians tomorrow?” Wasserman explained.

“It soon became clear that the service centre was one of our key assets in this discussion, as they are in contact with the customers and so were fundamental in establishing where the work could be for our service technicians. What we discovered very rapidly was that having this customer contact would be key to our survival and that the service centre would be instrumental in establishing that contact.

Another early discovery that was crucial that Wasserman believes played a pivotal role in companies being able to adapt to the new world that we all suddenly found ourselves in as the pandemic spread was the importance of an orderly approach to initiating customer contact.

“I noticed that it was important that we have a structure which is effective and allowed for fast contact with our customers,” he recounts “it was absolutely this customer communication that has allowed us to continue with a workload that has remained at 80% to 100% of our capacity - which was excellent at such a challenging time.

 

"We have also started an initiative to contact customers who we may not have been in contact with for a number of years, and this proactive approach has been very much welcomed by these customers..."

 - Harald Wasserman, Si2 Partners. 

 

“We have been able to adapt our organisation to a more customer focused organisation now,” he says reflecting on the work that has been put in place since the onset of the lockdowns. “Instead of waiting for the customer to make contact with us we have pivoted to become much, much more proactive in reaching out to them and this has meant that we are still able to generate the work required to keep our business operational.

“We have also started an initiative to contact customers who we may not have been in contact with for a number of years, and this proactive approach has been very much welcomed by these customers. So, we have implemented both new engagements with our lapsed customers and also a more proactive approach to our existing customer base and this has been the positive approach we have taken to guide us through this crisis.

It has meant getting some of our people out of their comfort zones - we have changed the status quo in that whereas before we would have waited for the customer to initiate the conversation, now our team are contacting the customers themselves and kicking off the conversation. It is not easy, in some cases it is like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack, however, it has been an endeavour that has been essential.”

Another aspect that has changed radically as a result of the crisis is how the role of management has changed and this is another area that Wasserman feels has been under increasing scrutiny.

“The management role within field service has become increasingly important during this time. Perhaps at the top of their responsibilities is the ongoing communications with their team. This is vital because our field service engineers and technicians, those in the front line are often operating more or less alone at the moment and they of course have many questions at this time.

“For example, what are the guidelines for them if the customer isn’t taking the necessary precautions that can ensure that our engineers are working within a safe environment given the current conditions? Our approach has been to issue clear advice to give our field workers firm support in their decision making. In this situation for example, if the customer is not willing to provide an environment in which our people can work safely then they must respect that the importance of our staff is our most fundamental priority. This had to be a management decision and had to be communicated strongly to give our staff the confidence to act when they are isolated in the field, and to know that they had our full backing.

‘Day by day we have to make a lot of these types of decisions to support our field workers, but also we have to ensure we are able to adapt our working processes to be able to be more flexible to fulfil the workload we have. 

 

"We see that the companies that are probably dealing with the situation the best are those who have a built-in resilience. It is those companies who have a built-in adaptability and flexibility embedded within their DNA already..."

 - Nick Frank, Si2 Partners

 

“The very way we in which we work has changed fundamentally both in the field but also the way we as management are working. For example, I would normally have four or five meetings a day, now I am having ten or more which are all remotely hosted. The meetings we have now are quicker and more intense, which is of course a part of the current situation, but also, they are more direct."

It is clear that much of the areas which Wasserman outlines as crucial elements shared amongst those companies he has seen adapt best to the challenges of Covid-19 have centred around strong and decisive leadership. This he believes is no coincidence. “There has absolutely been a correlation between those organisations that were able to make quick decisions and show strong leadership and those who were able to adapt easiest to the shifting sands of the operational environment of the pandemic,” he comments.

“The people on the working level they need guidance. They need clear rules. If you don’t give them this, they will struggle. There simply isn’t time for them to be thinking about ‘am I doing the right work?’ ‘Should I do X or Y in this situation?’ or even ‘what do I do?’.

Such questions will have a direct impact on the productivity of your field workers. Therefore, strong leadership and providing strong support for your team is absolutely critical in maintaining efficiency in crisis situations.

“We saw this very early and the importance of ensuring that we were communicating important decisions very quickly to our people and continuing this level of clear, consistent communication with our workforce on an ongoing basis is essential, “ he added.

However, one of the that has arisen as we work under the confines of the current lockdowns, is finding the time for communications that are discussions rather than announcements. For many of us now is a time of action as we continue to constantly adapt and fight to hold onto to the business we have and meet the needs of the customers we serve.

“We are all dealing with a critical situation and it is hard to find time for anything else when we are in the midst of the challenge,” comments Nick Frank, Wasserman’s Co-Managing Director at Si2 Partners.

“However, when we are able to bring our key personnel together there are so many lessons to be learnt. This is because it is so extreme, everything has happened so quickly, and we haven’t really had time to think about it. We see that the companies that are probably dealing with the situation the best are those who have a built-in resilience. It is those companies who have a built-in adaptability and flexibility embedded within their DNA already.

“Those are the companies that we are seeing emerge as those who are ‘most comfortable’, certainly as comfortable as it is possible to be at such a time. They are making decisions; they are showing strong leadership and I think if there is one lesson to be learnt it is the value of strong leadership,” Frank concludes.

 

---

Field Service News has produced an eBook '10 Thoughts for Service Leaders Planning Recovery' for our subscribers based on the many hours of live streams we hosted to support field service organisations.

 

If you are already on either our Access All Areas or VIP subscription tiers you can access this on the button below now. If you have yet to subscribe or are on our complimentary subscription tier then click the button to upgrade or subscribe now

 

 

 

---

 

Micheal Kuebel of Salesforce has been working with a number of companies to help them overcome the challenges of the global lockdowns. In this excerpt of the Field Service Podcast Kuebel identifies four key traits that he has seen emerge as common success factors amongst those companies he has seen adapt quickest and most successfully to the Covid-19 challenge.

---

 

Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'

---

 

Leadership, Customer-Centricity, Empowerment, Agility

There has been a lot of innovation on show of late. Of course, much of it has been born out of necessity as companies have frantically tried to adapt to the realities of a global lockdown as we deal as a planet with the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Yet, undoubtedly some companies have taken the challenges of the pandemic far more comfortably in their stride than others. Have there been some shared fundamental tenets of how those who adapted best were able to do so?

Michael Kuebel, Senior Director of Product Management, Salesforce has been working closely with many companies including Koenig and Bauer who were an excellent example of a company that was able to show agility and ingenuity in equal measure as they pivoted and adapted to the new scenario of a Covid-19 infested world. He certainly believes there are some shared attributes amongst those companies who showed the same levels of resilience that Koenig and Bauer did. 

"We see basically four kinds of success factors when we talk to customers and see how they master this most turbulent of markets," Kuebel explained on the Field Service Podcast.

"Number one is strong leadership. We saw that when we talk to our customers and ask, 'how did you cope with the crisis?' We saw a common thread of companies establishing a clear understanding of customers and safety first. It was a time to come up with a complex strategy, it was a time for these simple clear directives.

"For all of the companies that we worked with, there was a focus on making sure their customers remained operational, and making sure that their employees, customers, their families and the society stayed safe. They execute this latest shift through a much more focused visibility. When in the past, they were looking at reporting cycles of a month, now it's more once a day or even intra-daily visibility. They need those KPIs right now, because it's such a volatile situation.

"Also, we saw that strong leadership must also lift the company through being a role model, creating trust and of course, making fact based decisions," Kuebel added. 

 

"You need to make sure that your people are enabled, that they have the tools and they have the knowledge to make decisions when in the field..."

- Michael Kuebel, Salesforce

 

Indeed, this has been echoed through much of the reporting Field Service News has done on the topic and it does appear that there is a strong correlation between those organisations who were able to act swiftly but from a position of data-driven insight and those organisations that coped best with the lockdown scenario. Another strong link amongst such companies is also the willingness to have open and ongoing customer dialogue. 

"The second aspect I mentioned, customer centricity," concurs Kuebel.

"We see customer engagement very much in focus. For practicality reasons at this time, we all need to enable our customers to help themselves better. That way they were creating a digital journey that the customer actually said, well, that's actually even effortless for me, it works and it's helping me stay productive. That is only possible if you have a 360 degree view on the customer and that you have processes that are centred around the customer.

"Then there is empowerment," Kuebel continues. "You need to make sure that your people are enabled, that they have the tools and they have the knowledge to make decisions when in the field. I think especially this factor of empowerment has been something that I think has received an enormous boost within the last couple of weeks during the crisis, just look at the amount of companies that suddenly have home office as the new normal - that was never a plan and now it works and it will be very difficult to turn this back.

"Once you create that level of trust, and you see that people are effective, even when they are not in the office, this is something that is there to stay. However, you need to have the right tools to enable people to work with them. You need to know if you have an on-premise solution, you have no chance in virtualising a call centre overnight, but with a cloud solution, the right tools, the right knowledge and the right information, it's no big deal to do that. We have a couple of customers that were virtualising their dispatching calls and jobs literally within hours."

The final factor that Kuebel lists is perhaps the secret sauce that separates those companies who are best-in class and the rest of the pack.

"Last but not least, you need this agile mindset and an agile platform that allows you to easily adapt to basically go into these MVP (minimum viable product) situations and roll it out with the view that it's good enough to stay afloat - and then, we see we can develop from there. When I look at Koenig and Bauer for example, when I talk to them, when I talk to their management, there's a very, very clear leadership. The way that they communicate with their customers, the predominant mindset is around customer centricity, agility and empowerment. It was therefore, no surprise to me that Koenig and Bauer were one of the companies that are able to manage through the crisis relatively well."

 

---

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
• Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
• Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer

Michael Kuebel of Salesforce talks to the Kris Oldland, Field Service News about the massive lens the pandemic has shone on the need for digital transformation in the field service sector and how the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation

---

 

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'

---

 

Digital Transformation - The Silver Lining of Covid-19? 

One of the major upshots and a significant silver lining to all of the hardship we have been through in the last few months is the major acceleration of digital transformation projects across all industries within the field service sector.

But just how much has digital transformation changed in terms of the magnitude and importance of the programs that we were all undertaking in some form prior to the COVID-19 pandemic?

But how have these projects changed? Just how dramatically have they been accelerated and what does that mean for the field service sector?

One man who has a deep level of experience of digital transformation within the field service sector is Michael Kuebel, Senior Director of Product Management, Salesforce. With an impressive career spanning both sides of the field service sector, with various senior field service management roles as well helping other field service organisations with their own digitalisation journey in his role with Salesforce, Kuebel has an ingrained knowledge of the role modern digital solutions can play in enhancing service delivery. 

"The key word here is how do we understand digital transformation”, Kuebel commented on a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast. 

"Where does the digitalisation journey actually start? You know, when we approach our customers, especially on the field service side, very often the predominant setup from the past involves very siloed organisations in terms of applications but also in terms of processes. So you may have  a service call centre that doesn't have too much information about the customer because it might be disconnected to sales. You may have a customer that has one or maximum two channels so you can either call or send an email but hardly any portals or tracking.

 

"I think if COVID-19 told us something, it is that the most important translation of digital transformation is to have the customer in the middle. Essentially, to have customer success as the paramount target behind all digitalisation efforts..."

-Michael Kuebel, Salesforce

 

"Then on the other side of the equation you have engineers - that in some places until recently even we're still outgoing with pen and paper and with only a very rough understanding what they are supposed to do. By this I mean they would have no information about asset history or even customer background or customer understanding. This is something that has been widely understood and so in many companies [these silos] has been the initiation for saying we need to go into a digital transformation in field service as well.

"Very often we see that field service is one of the last silos to overcome, just because it has been very much seen as a pure technical function. These were the guys that repair something if it's broken. But most companies now understand that field service has a different role. It has the role of creating revenue and profitability and has a super important role on customer experience and the customer journey. In fact, it is developing into one of the main, if not the main USP within an organisation. 

"Service is one of the main reasons customers stay loyal to a brand or a product and that's understood by many organisations. This is why I think the digitalisation journey has started already in most organisations a couple of years ago," Kuebel adds. 

However, while many if not all of us were on the digital transformation journey in one shape or another before the pandemic, the acceleration of such projects has been dramatic as a result of the necessity for new thinking during a period of ongoing uncertainty as global borders came crashing down and the lockdowns ensued. However, Kuebel believes there is another even more important learning we can take away from the last few months. 

"I think if COVID-19 told us something, it is that the most important translation of digital transformation is to have the customer in the middle. Essentially, to have customer success as the paramount target behind all digitalisation efforts," he explained.

"We want to make sure that our customers are in the middle and we have a 360 degree view of them. They can book engineers, track engineers, find the data online through an app or through chat or WhatsApp etc.

“We must have intelligent scheduling optimisation and the customer must have visibility on where the engineer is. Equally, the engineer himself must have visibility on all the customer history, the asset history, and access to information and knowledge. So they also have a 360 degree view around the customer, including being connected via devices and so on.

"This has all been on the long list of strategy before Covid-19 but the virus told us basically to fast forward a couple of years within a couple of weeks, and make all these things happen. I've seen so many examples where customers have been putting something on track that they actually were planning for the long term and just launched it." 

This is an excellent insight as one of the needs for solutions today, has resulted in a shift in mindset so we no longer look for the perfect solution, but the best solution that can help us now and we can refine it as we progress. Perhaps this is the first big learning of the new normal? 

 

---

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

Nick Frank like many has been spending more time with his young family during the pandemic and says there is much to learn from a child's perspective as we move through and beyond Covid-19 in service.

 

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose..."

 - Dr. Seuss

 

Dr Seuss children’s books are famous the world over and as many of us mix work with home schooling, we can appreciate there is so much to learn from a children’s view of the world. Maybe you are now getting to the point where you can start to learn the lessons from your pandemic experience. Maybe you are now getting to the point where you can start to learn the lessons from your pandemic experience.

 

5 LEarnings the Field Service Sector Can Take From the Covid-19 Crisis

Here are the top five lessons learned we have heard, which I am sure will be added to in the coming months: 

1. We can move fast when we want to!

It has been amazing at how fast companies have adapted to working remotely and in a new operating reality. One manager we talked to told us how a major equipment manufacturer rolled out an Augmented Reality Solution in 3 days, taking risks that they never would have thought in the pre-COVID 19 world.  It just goes to show what organisations can do when they have clear vision and purpose.

Talking to a cross section of managers, it also becomes clear that the most successful had already been building a culture of flexible working and innovation. This has allowed them to react effectively to the challenge. One hopes these successes should re-enforce companies’ ‘can-do’ beliefs and increase the pace of innovation. Although the road has been tougher for those conservative companies who have been slower to embrace digital technology, the cliff edge nature of the crisis has created the ‘burning platform’ required to drive change. For these companies it will be a real leadership test if they can take the bold decisions required to increase their dynamism and not revert back to type.

2. Communicate, communicate and communicate is a vital success factor

Research has shown that those organisations that are most successful at thriving in difficult situations, do so because they have the support of their stakeholders. In this crisis, we continually hear leaders talk about the importance of communication to employees and customers. Remote working has forced managers and team members to review not only how they talk to each other but recognise why communication is so important!

It has also forced many companies to think more deeply about their customers success and even the success of their industry. Working with their stakeholders to make tough decisions about what can and cannot happen. For example, how to solve customer issues without having and engineer on site. We even spoke to an Aerospace Maintenance Solution provider who decided to offer free of charge their Helpline to their competitors’ customers, because they had the capability and these customers needed support.

 

3. Flexibility and Agility are key to survival

What has surprised me is how many industrial companies have somehow kept moving ahead and utilising their field resources. Although most are running below capacity, many have been agile and fortunate enough to maximise resources. Some examples:

• Print equipment manufacturer switching service resources to priority industry such as food packaging
• Switching field staff to technical support roles
• Using down time for product training and even role out of new service systems
• Working with employees around using vacation time to minimize the economic impact.

A challenge for many is how to incorporate this new found agility into the culture of the company in a sustainable way.

 

4. Gaining a true understanding of the value of digitalisation

Many companies have had a crash course in Digital. Not so much in the technology itself but the value of the technology. For many OEM’s it is understanding how it is possible to solve customer problems through remote/digital access, having a 360 degree view of the customer situation from the home office or simply how to work collaboratively as a team.

From the customer side there is a greater appreciation of how technology can be used to keep their plants running or become more effective. Where IT security was a concern, perhaps now greater effort will be made to allay these worries.
For all parties a new openness to the use of technology presents a great opportunity to change the way we work together.

5. The best prepared have naturally built resilience into people and organisations

One of the major lessons learned has been to see the difference between a fear driven reactive approach to dealing with crisis, to one that comes from an inner resilience and is more step by step. Those with the latter mindset, in a strange way welcome the crisis as it has reinforced what their companies have to get right to survive. They perceive the change in attitude to risk, digitisation and people as a tremendous opportunity to be grasped.

As we speak, we are seeing new commercial and leadership learnings starting to evolve. However, it is clear that the companies that build on these lessons will emerge from this pandemic crisis stronger, fitter and more agile. NOW is an exciting time to be in business as we must scale new heights in innovation and effectiveness in order to survive.

---

Further Reading:

• Read more articles by Nick Frank @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/nickfrank
• Read more articles about digitalisation in service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/digitalisation
• Read more articles about management in service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/management
• Read more about Si2Partners @ https://si2partners.com/
• Read more about the Service Leaders Network @ https://serviceinindustry.com/2019/12/03/why-we-created-the-service-leaders-network/

Things seem to be slowly loosening up.  How is your service and support team gearing for how to best support your customers moving forward?  Would you like to know what your peers are thinking? Dave Bennet, VP RevTwo and his colleagues are hosting a survey to assess how we are approaching building the new normal. Here he outlines their thinking... 

---

Take part in the survey now by clicking the following link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fieldserviceprioritiespostCOVID19 

---

 

Building the New Normal of Field Service

As we talk to service organizations, different technologies are getting a closer look now more than ever. We can group their post-COVID technology thinking into these areas:

1. Do more Remotely. There are a bunch of tools out there that enable an expert to talk to and see what someone in front of a machine is doing. They can use their own expertise to tell the user what to do. Some are just using the equivalent of Apple’s FaceTime.
2. Artificial Intelligence. Using AI to help call center agents, field service engineers and even end users to help solve problems, with the goal of reducing site visits and improving repair efficiency.  Some AI solutions focus on call center, some focus on the end user.  Some are web based, some aren’t.  Some can be used offline. Some use bot technology. 
3. Augmented Reality/Merged Reality. There are tools that enable an expert far away to actually draw or input on a screen with a person in front of a machine so they can not only tell the user what to do but show them how to do it.  
4. Building up Organizational knowledge. Companies that don’t didn’t have troubleshooting guides for their equipment are now building them. Some are beefing up their knowledge bases so that they have articles that provide more reach and cover more problems.  Some companies are actually building their own “learning tools”.
5. There is even more of an emphasis on implementing more training and apprenticeship programs. The Silver Tsunami was seen as a challenge before COVID.  Now the pandemic has brought this problem to the forefront.  How to leverage expertise, from supporting customers to training customers and technicians, will be an important component of any strategy moving forward.

As a technology partner for service organizations, we have also noticed that buyer behavior is a little more uneven than before.  Some organizations have decided to “pull in their horns” and wait for things to settle down.  These organizations are generally waiting to see what the others do.  The “Early Adaptors” are rapidly investing in these technologies because they have always been the first to buy.

The founders of RevTwo have more than 80 years’ collective experience working with service and support organizations such as yours.  We certainly have our own opinions on what you should be doing to adapt to the post-COVID world. 

But we (and everyone else) want to know what you think.  So we put together a simple 10 question survey to try and find out.  It timed out at about 2.5 minutes to complete.  Please take the time to do so, and we will publish the results in our next post.  Your organization as well as your customers can benefit by understanding how the rest of us are planning to deal with this new reality.

---

Take part in the survey now by clicking the following link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fieldserviceprioritiespostCOVID19 

---

Further Reading: 

• Read the exclusive fieldservicenews.com eBook Ten Thoughts for Service Leaders Planning Recovery @ www.fieldservicenews.com/White-Papers/10-thoughts-for-recovery.pdf
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Read more about remote assistance in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote+assistance
• Visit the RevTwo website @ revtwo.com
• Read more about Artificial Intelligence in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial+intelligence

Aston University’s Professor Tim Baines reflects on how the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has meant that he has had to re-evaluate his predictions from 2019 as industries rapidly pivot and shift their priorities and why servitization has a role to play in that recovery.

People don’t like to admit their mistakes and professors are no different. Indeed, we like to believe that we give more attention to the science anfacts than others may do. But I was wrong. Late last year, I wrote a piece that predicted that the three priorities for manufacturing business in the 2020s would be about responding to the challenges of poor productivity and climate change, and grasping the opportunities of digital.

Servitization's role in Covid recovery

I think it’s now quite safe to say that although these will remain important, priorities will shift towards the recovery of the economy – in particular the recovery and rebuilding of industry large and small. I also think that we will start to pay more attention to embedding greater industrial resilience, in an attempt to insure against similar disruptions in the future. It’s early days, but how might we do this?

My earlier judgment seemed sound at the time. I based my prediction on what I saw, was told and read about. I rationalised that there were three principal forces driving change, and my logic went something like this:

The UK, among other western economies, has an historical problem with productivity, we work too many hours to generate the level of wealth we create and this adversely affects growth something that everybody is keen to address. The evidence of climate change is becoming more acute; it can be seen in the melting ice sheets in Greenland and raging bushfires of Australia.

Customers and consumers are becoming more sensitive to the environmental impact of consumption, and supply chains are being restructured. Meanwhile, digital innovation is all around - whether you see it as IOT, Industry 4.0 or simply a new App - and its adoption within industry is being widely advocated.

What my logic did not account for was the seismic shock of a pandemic. Business has changed in a way none of us could have foreseen; borders have closed, travel is banned, staff are in isolation, society is in lock-down, working from home is the new norm and the kids are off school! Business activity is polarising; some factories are being mothballed, while those that service the food and healthcare sectors, for example, are exceptionally busy. Indeed, governments are intervening in ways unimaginable since, in many countries, the Second World War. At this time, I know it’s difficult to look beyond the next few weeks, but it is important to look forwards, albeit with a little care and sensitivity.

 

"Resilience is key and business models based around services are more conducive to achieving this..."

 

Economic activity is essential and it must recover. Undoubtedly, there will be many government initiatives to kick-start the economy, but how do we rebuild the manufacturing industry to be more resilient to future shocks, whether these shocks are health-related, trade-related, or indeed from the adverse effects of climate change. Quite clearly, the same as before is not sufficient. We have a unique opportunity to move industry forward and adopt business models that are better-aligned with the new world we will enter.

The 1900s and early 2000s were dominated by production-consumption business models, exemplified by mass production, Henry Ford and the consumer society – make, sell, dump. Feeding a growing world population, ruthless in its consumption of resources, servicing hungry global markets and all too often insensitive to the impact on the environment. This was not sustainable, and now many sectors have ground to a halt.

While mass production of course is still alive across some sectors - food and medicine to name a few - in other sectors this lockdown has shown that we do not need cars, airports and shopping centres to the extent we used them. As such, there is a great opportunity for services, delivered remotely and consumed locally, which help to build the quality of our lives without the need for consumption. If industry can build new business models on this basis, we will also create a truly resilient economy.

So, I believe that resilience is key and business models based around services are more conducive to achieving this. But what could such services look like in practice? In my next blog, I will reflect on some of the businesses that are making great progress in this space.

---

Further Reading:

• Read more articles by Tim Baines @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/timbaines
• Read more on servitization @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Read more about Covid-19 in service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
• Read more about the Advanced Services Group @ https://www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk
• Read more about the World Servitization Conference @ https://www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/wsc2020

In this highlight from the Field Service Podcast Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News and Kevin Green, former CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation discuss what the impact of Covid-19 will be in terms of market disruption...

---

 

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

---

 

Can we Look forward to a New Normal that is Better than before?

In the last few months we’ve seen such rapid changes in such a short amount of time. There is often talk about disrupters entering a market, but the truth is that perhaps the biggest disrupter our civilisation has ever seen is not a new emerging technology or organisation but the Covid-19 pandemic.

Across the conversation with Green on episode one series five of the Field Service Podcast we explored a number of different aspects to what breeds agility and adaptability into an organisation. We discussed the crucial role of leadership, strategy, people and processes reflecting back on the positives that have emerged as companies have been forced into action to survive the global lockdowns and the economic tsunami of recession, they look set to trigger.

Perhaps the simplest question, has the most complex answer. It is also the question on everybody’s lips. What comes next? What does the new-normal of tomorrow look like?

“When we look at the impact of disruption a classic example of this will be what happens at the end of this year,” Green states.

“If you take a cultural analogy, you know, the adaptive organisation will say ‘okay, what have we learned from this? How do we adapt what we do in light of that [learning]?’

 

The challenges we’ve all been through in recent months, surely it would be criminal to not seize the learnings from this time as Green suggests and build a better, brighter version of what we had before the lockdowns came?

 

“Actually, we found that we can have 90% people working from home and we can still deliver the product, we can do some amazing things, using technology as a tool so how do we structure our business going forward? Do we continue to have people working at home, perhaps we have half the people and we can get rid of some office space because we don't need it anymore?

"That's a demonstration of an organisation which is learning and developing and taking the experience of this crisis and trying to build on it and use it for good. What you will find though is that some other organisations will just revert the type. The lockdowns will eventually be lifted and everyone goes back to work and we carry on in the same way.

“That is a classic example of an adaptive learning organisation, versus one which isn't responsive to its environment because it won't see the opportunities that the crisis has created for it and won't learn from this and won't adapt. We'll see a lot of organisations, just go back to doing things it as they’ve always done them.

“However, I think there will be other organisations that saying ‘hang on a second, there is some real good stuff that we've learned here. We've used technology differently, our staff have operated in different ways and we've given them more autonomy. Why don't we build on that and use it as we go forward?”

The challenges we’ve all been through in recent months, surely it would be criminal to not seize the learnings from this time as Green suggests and build a better, brighter version of what we had before the lockdowns came?

 

---

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Leadership and strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Kevin Green on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-green-221a7522
• Follow Kevin Green on Twitter @ twitter.com/kevingreenwnc
• Buy Competitive People Strategy @ Competitive People Strategy: How to Attract, Develop and Retain the Staff You Need for Business Success

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, talks to author of best-selling book Competitive People Strategy and ex CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation Kevin Green about whether Entrepreneurial organisations have a secret special sauce or whether it is a skill that can be nurtured and developed in house?

---

 

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

---

 

Outline the true purpose of your organisation

We have seen a number of companies adapt and pivot in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and an entrepreneurial streak has been evident in the vast majority of those companies that have been at the forefront in doing so.

As other companies who may not have such innovative flair embedded within their ranks look on from the sidelines the question many business leaders are now asking is whether such entrepreneurial leanings can be developed and nurtured or whether they are just essential characteristics and so should be ‘acquired’ for recruitment instead?

“It [entrepreneurialism] is quite often in organisations that are going to turn on a sixpence , they're going to respond very, very quickly,” Green suggests.

“Quite often it's about their purpose, he adds “I don't think Dyson talks about money, they talk about design at it’s principle. If there's a challenge the country has like building ventilators, then Dyson would automatically step up to the plate because of its purpose.

 

“I think organisations whose leadership has created that purpose, those who’ve created an agile culture, these are the ones likely to be able to respond quickly to these sorts of external events and challenges..."

 

“They think ‘actually there is a major challenge here, the country needs an organisation to help design and build new ventilators. We've got a lot of expertise that's right at the heart of what we do.’ So, they were able to step into that space to help. An organisation that's pretty agile and nimble can come forward and respond and I think they've certainly done that.”

It is within this ethos of firmly understanding a companies purpose that Green believes the ability to adapt lies.

“I think organisations whose leadership has created that purpose, those who’ve created an agile culture, these are the ones likely to be able to respond quickly to these sorts of external events and challenges. Whereas if you're big and lumbering and you're, you're very mechanistic, it's much more difficult to be able to, you know, turn on that sixpence.

“In fact, [these companies are] more like an oil tanker, it takes a long time to change things if you’ve done things the same way for decades and decades and everything's quite hard wired,” Green adds.

“Leadership has a major role to play in organisational design and culture. If you are three quarters of the way, there already then it enables you to respond to these challenges which are thrown down whereas other organisations will find it much, much more difficult.”

 

---

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Leadership and strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Kevin Green on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-green-221a7522
• Follow Kevin Green on Twitter @ twitter.com/kevingreenwnc
• Buy Competitive People Strategy @ Competitive People Strategy: How to Attract, Develop and Retain the Staff You Need for Business Success

In this highlight from the Field Service Podcast Kevin Green, author of Competitive People Strategy and former CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation lists five key considerations that he believes can lead an organisation to establishing an adaptive culture. Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News hosts.

---

 

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

---

 

The Key Ingredients to an Adaptive Culture? People and Processes

In any kind of change management process there is a deep rooted need for establishing clear processes and outlining the reasons for change in a clear, concise and transparent manner at all levels. However, this is particularly crucial when trying to change something as firmly embedded within an organisation as its corporate culture. The culture of a company is as fundamental as it gets when it comes to the core ethos that exists across all areas of operation.  

Tackling such a change requires significant understanding of both where you are and where you wish to be so you can effectively plot a path from one to the other. In episode one of season five of the Field Service Podcast, Green outlined five key considerations which he believes organisations looking to establish such change should be aware of.

“I think there are five things that most organisations, if they're going to build an adaptive culture need to know,” Green explained.

“The first of these is to create a clear, coherent purpose. Why are we here? What are we doing? What do we stand for? This should be something that stands the test of time so people can see it's not just about money, it's about something else, something more fundamental to why the business exists.

“Secondly, I think you've got to define, embed and live the values. You've got to really make sure that the values mean something, and that people understand them. You can’t just impose them, you must engage people in a conversation so that they feel they own them. They [the wider team within the business, must feel they] are part of the organisation that's created them.

The third consideration Green outlines revolves around who you hire within your leadership teams.

 

"You have to make sure you recruit talent and that you don't get obsessed with superstars..."

 

“You must hire and develop managers who are good people, managers who can coach and develop people,” Green adds.

You don’t want management who take the attitude of ‘I’m the boss I tell you what to do’ in a traditional instruction-driven manner Green explains, commenting “It's more about listening, engaging, developing, helping people learn."

The fourth consideration is again rooted in finding the right people that will thrive in the type of environment you are creating. “You have to make sure you recruit talent and that you don't get obsessed with superstars,” Green comments “Make sure that people fit the culture. [This way] you find managers and leaders and other talent that are going to thrive in the environment you're creating.”

The final consideration Green outlines is process orientated. “You really need to focus on how the work actually gets done,” he asserts.

“For example, is it lean or agile? There's lots of tools out there, which are all about empowering people to work locally to improve things. An environment of continuous improvement where people's views are listened to, where they can come up with solutions to the problems that customers and people are having with the product or service is hugely important.

“If you follow those five things, you're pretty well along on journey of moving from a mechanistic culture to one which is much more adaptive and responsive to customers wants and needs.”

 

---

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Leadership and strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Kevin Green on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-green-221a7522
• Follow Kevin Green on Twitter @ twitter.com/kevingreenwnc
• Buy Competitive People Strategy @ Competitive People Strategy: How to Attract, Develop and Retain the Staff You Need for Business Success