Service Executives across the world should see Brexit as an opportunity for increasing their influence on companies growth plans writes Nick Frank, Managing Partner, Si2 Partners...
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Nov 10, 2016 • Features • Management • Brexit • management • Nick Frank
Service Executives across the world should see Brexit as an opportunity for increasing their influence on companies growth plans writes Nick Frank, Managing Partner, Si2 Partners...
We believe Service Executives across the world should see Brexit as an opportunity for increasing their influence on companies growth plans.
Most economic commentators believe that the medium term growth prospects for the UK and even the global economy have been severely dented, but these strengthening headwinds should also act as a wake up call for industry.
The more visionary businesses have redoubled their efforts to innovate and many are introducing Service Thinking into their growth plans. While digitization of products enables new ways of thinking and captured the imagination of many, there is nothing like the threat of hardship to accelerate change!
This is why the recent launch a UK National Strategy for Engineering Services by Chris White MP, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Manufacturing group is both timely and needed.
Although a UK initiative, it is is very relevant to all globally developed economies.
Chris White recognizes that: “The developing trend of ‘servitised manufacturing’ is a specific example of UK innovation that has allowed early adopters to develop successful differentiated offerings in the global market.”
He goes on to describe a sense of urgency, which is very relevant to today’s situation!
The developing trend of ‘servitised manufacturing’ is a specific example of UK innovation that has allowed early adopters to develop successful differentiated offerings in the global market...
Policy makers recognise that within the context of a countries industrial strategy, many of the world’s leading companies have developed new service orientated business models in order to prosper.
Dave Benbow, Global Head of Engineering at Rolls-Royce PLC explains: “We have consistently delivered shareholder value through being market leaders in engineering services: ensuring that our engines are designed, manufactured and supported in-service to deliver power for our customer whenever required throughout their lifetime.”
But sustaining this success requires a back to back business philosophy with their supply base.
The fact of the matter is that mind-set change is not happening fast enough and needs to be accelerated!
To address this, a central theme to the National Strategy is the creation of an Industry Council to inspire UK companies to innovate new ways of delivering value through services.
The goal is to add 1.9% or £31.6bn to the UK economy. To put this in context this is more value added than the UK’s globally recognised legal industry. Industry leading companies will challenge their supply chain to reduce costs by 20% and increase asset availability by 20%: A 20/20 vision which they know has to be delivered to remain competitive.
As Managing Director at the global industrial services group Babcock recognises: “In numerous engineering and technology domains, we have found that by taking responsibility for ‘outputs’ – asset performance – we have been able to give our customers more value than the simple delivery of discrete products or programmes.”
This requires a massive shift in thinking, almost a re-invention of how we look at manufacturing and engineering. The new council will work in partnership with academia to develop skills and capability, from both a technology and business perspective.
It will interact with government to not only influence cross-industry thinking, but to flex it’s economic muscle to drive mind-set change in how the massive infrastructure projects such as the HS2 rail link will be engineered and delivered. It was after all Margret Thatcher in the 80’s who drove the Ministry of Defence to start the procurement of Outcome based availability contracts that has led to the UK’s commercial and academic leadership in this particular industry niche.
The strength of this approach is that the core team which includes Si2 Partners, is industry led.
The message for service organisations all round the world is that your role in value creation is being recognised.
Indeed as when driving fundamental transformation, the importance of Industry, Academia and Government working together to effect sustainable change cannot be underestimated.
The message for service organisations all round the world is that your role in value creation is being recognised.
Indeed the major global industrial players are beginning to push the service orientated, outcome based business models deeper into their supply chains. To accelerate change, executives can seize the opportunity of economic uncertainty to show how services are one of the strategies that organisation can deploy to sustain long-term business growth.
You can download the UK National Strategy for Engineering services and the supporting market data that underpins the strategy at http://si2partners.com/uk-national-strategy-engineeringservices-now-available-download/.
If you would like to be involved in the next phase of this initiative, then you can sign up for more information from Cranfield’s Through-life Engineering Services Centre who have been a key player in facilitating this National approach.
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Nov 09, 2016 • Features • Management • Aly Pinder • management
No man is an island, so don’t leave your field service technicians isolated if you want to ensure you keep delivering field service excellence writes Aly Pinder...
No man is an island, so don’t leave your field service technicians isolated if you want to ensure you keep delivering field service excellence writes Aly Pinder...
The nature of the field service team is an oxymoron. Field service workers often work independently in remote areas with minimal contact with the “home” office or other technicians during their day.
Often times, the only contact the technician has with others is with dispatch to schedule the next call.
Technicians often are no more of a team than your salesforce. Both are independent workers who must deliver on a combined effort. This type of structure will begin to show its cracks field service as we all prepare for the aging and retiring field workforce.
As technicians leave the business, their individual knowledge, expertise, and customer relationships will fade away.
Can your organisation afford to lose this wealth of knowledge capital?
So what can you do about this? A three-legged stool approach is needed.
First off, you need to do everything you can to keep your good and great technicians on your team for as long as possible. So whether you incentivise them to stick around longer in the field or provide them the flexibility to become remote support experts – keeping your expert technicians as long as you can should be your #1 goal.
[quote float="left"]Mentorship programs will continue to play a bigger role in service as we all prepare for the wave of millennials coming into the workforce over the coming years...[/quote] Secondly, you need to ensure you capture all of that great knowledge from your experts prior to their impending departure. Invest in the tools and technologies necessary to capture, store, and disseminate best practices from the field team to others in real-time.
And finally, you need to build a bridge between your expert workers and the next wave of technicians.
As seen in Aberdeen Group’s recent Field Service 2016: Strengthen the Team, Bond with Your Customers report (June 2016), the Best-in-Class were able to achieve these three goals by implementing a few best practices listed below:
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Measure your field technician’s engagement frequently. Knowing what drives your technicians is integral to ensuring you can keep them around for the long haul. The wrong incentives lead to the wrong behaviours or worse yet a premature exit from the team.
Engagement was historically something for HR teams to measure office workers or for the marketing team to gather from customers. But more and more Best-in-Class service organisations are beginning to monitor and measure their field service team’s engagement AND acting on what they gather. If you don’t know there is a problem, you won’t be able to address it.
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Establish mentors and coaches to pass along knowledge. Top performing service organisations identify top field technicians and ensure they can help mold the next crop of workers. Under performing organisations don’t even know who their top technicians are and thus don’t know they should both keep those employees and give them ways to help the entire team learn how to excel at service.
Mentorship programs will continue to play a bigger role in service as we all prepare for the wave of millennials coming into the workforce over the coming years (NOTE – the millennial wave has already begun).[/unordered_list]
Create a culture of continuous improvement
And as old dogs leave the business, it is even more integral that a culture of continuous improvement pervade to ensure your field team delivers more and more value to customers during every interaction.
The field team does not have to be built on individuals who work alone.
Connecting the team to knowledge, best practices, and continued learning is integral in 2016. Don’t leave your field workers on an island by themselves, a team is needed to excel at delivering service value to customers.
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Nov 07, 2016 • Features • Management • management • Blumberg Advisory Group • selling service
Michael Blumberg, President of Blumberg Advisory Group explores the nuances of marketing services and how to get it right...
Michael Blumberg, President of Blumberg Advisory Group explores the nuances of marketing services and how to get it right...
Want to know more? 20% discount for Field Service News readers on Michael Blumberg’s latest online course on marketing service more @ http://fs-ne.ws/pv2m305UvI5 claim your discount with the code “FSN1”
Service executives often struggle to grow their businesses when they try to apply product-marketing concepts to service marketing.
The 4 P’s marketing mix is one such concept that works great for products but not for services. It is based on the theory that the success of a company’s marketing program is based on how well the company manages strategies and tactics related to product (i.e., design, form/factor, etc.), price, promotion (e.g., sales, advertising, etc.), and place (i.e., distribution).
The problem is that these 4 P’s do not always apply to services. Service products are intangible and difficult to describe, so they can be challenging to promote. Another problem is that place has a fuzzy connotation in service marketing because there are multiple entities involved in service distribution.
The perception a customer has about a service provider is what influences their decision to work with that service provider.
In order to achieve results, service executives instead need to master three fundamental or strategic concepts about service marketing. First, perception is just as important as reality. The perception a customer has about a service provider is what influences their decision to work with that service provider.
Customers need to trust that their service provider has the capability to deliver service before it is actually delivered.
Second, customers pay more for services over the lifetime of a product than they do when purchasing the product itself. In fact, they may pay as much as 8-10 times more for services than what they originally pay for the product.
Clearly the dollars can add up. Finally, there is a relationship between “value in use” and time. Value in use is the cost to your customer in absence of the service. Some services are mission critical. If they are not performed in a timely manner, the customer may lose money by not having the service available. Seeing this connection allows service marketers to effectively price their services and articulate the value of what they provide.
By mastering these strategic concepts service providers will begin to observe a shift in the way they think about service marketing. In fact, only by changing their mindset can they hope to become more effective in implementing strategies that lead to higher revenues, greater profits, and increased market share. Service providers who go through such an evolution understand that the Successful Service Marketing™ mix is actually based not on 4 but on 7 key principles.
These principles are:
PORTFOLIO:
Often described in terms of a service-level commitment, such as 24/7with a four-hour response time. The more distinctions a service provider can make to define their service portfolio, the more likely they will be to fulfill the needs of prospective customers.
PROVIDER:
Tangible elements of the service infrastructure, such as a call center, self-service portals, enterprise systems and service technology that make it possible to deliver on the promise of the service portfolio.
PROCESS:
The steps customers must take to request the service, and the tasks that occur to deliver the service. For example, performing front-end call screening and diagnostics before dispatching a field technician.
PERFORMANCE:
Evidence that the service provider can deliver on your promise, such as KPIs, customer satisfaction results and customer testimonials.
PERCEPTION:
The ability to win business and retain satisfied customers is based on the service provider’s ability to influence the perception that current and prospective customers have of them. This goes beyond simply promotion through advertising, branding, and communications. It gets to the essence of who are service provider is, what they stand for, and how they portray themselves in the market.
PLACE:
Services distribution channels can be complex. Quite often, consumers can purchase service from one place, order or request it from another place, and have it delivered to them at a third place (e.g., onsite, depot, remote, etc.). Sometimes it’s the same company delivering this service. Other times it’s not. Regardless, the service marketing mix must deal with these complexities.
PRICE:
Of course, there is always the issue of price. The important thing to remember is that price is a function of value in use and perception that consumers have of their service provider (i.e., expertise, experience, capability).
There are just a few more concepts that service providers need to learn if they are going to win at service marketing. First, they have to know their market. Service providers obtain this knowledge through market research. If they know who buys, what they buy, and why they buy then they can sell more service to customers, to more customers, and get them to buy more often.
Market research also provides the insight needed to communicate effectively with current and prospective customers. It helps determine what messages, what images, what ideas will resonate with them and make them want to buy. Marketing is about taking a need and converting it into a want. You may need a watch to tell time but you want a Rolex because of the status and prestige associated with owning one. So when you have really good market research of who buys, what they buy and why they buy, you can construct your message in such a way that you turn a need to a want.
Many companies price their services on the basis of either cost-plus or competitive pricing strategies
A third type of pricing strategy is called value-in-use pricing. It involves measuring the economic value or loss to the customer of not having the service available in a timely manner. This can be significant. For example, a manufacturing facility may lose millions of dollars every hour its machines are down. Therefore, it may be willing to a pay premium for faster service.
Market research can help determine whether a service provider should pursue a cost-plus, competitive, or value in use pricing strategy.
The final aspect to winning service marketing is called invisible selling. This is based on the premise that companies win service business not by pushing their offers onto prospects, but by pulling customers towards them. One way is through indirect marketing as opposed to direct selling. Indirect marketing includes publishing articles or white papers that demonstrate that the service provider understands the problems companies in their market are experiencing and that they have solutions. Other forms of indirect marketing involve using social media and public speaking opportunities to influence others to seek out the service providers’ expertise.
When companies put all the elements of a Successful Service Marketing™ program together, when they fully understand the strategic concepts of service marketing, when they effectively apply the seven principles of service marketing, when they learn how to optimally price their services, and when they use market research effectively, they achieve phenomenal results. Their service-marketing program becomes successful, their sales take off, and their profits skyrocket.
Want to know more? 20% discount for Field Service News readers on Michael Blumberg’s latest online course on marketing service more @ http://fs-ne.ws/pv2m305UvI5 claim your discount with the code “FSN1”
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Oct 10, 2016 • Features • Management • management • Demand Generation
The profit contribution of services compared to product profits has been the subject of many workshops over the past decade. Still, achieving a true shift in sales focus is a “Groundhog day” experience writes Coen Jeukens, Service Contract Manager, ...
The profit contribution of services compared to product profits has been the subject of many workshops over the past decade. Still, achieving a true shift in sales focus is a “Groundhog day” experience writes Coen Jeukens, Service Contract Manager, Bosch Security Systems...
At the Copperberg April 2016 UK Field Service Summit service industry experts had their own groundhog day experience when discussing the “Demand generation” topic: what can the service manager do to go beyond the daily break-fix mode towards cross and upselling.
In five consecutive rounds the same discussion was reiterated varying the contributing industry experts. The individual rounds revolved around common convictions like:
Should we dilute customer trust created by service engineers with potential alienation when stepping into a commercial role;
- Service is about helping customers, not selling to customers;
- Service and sales have different counter parts and decision making units;
- What is a meaningful incentive for service people to spot sales revenue and vice versa;
- Service and sales people have different DNA.
When looking at the discussions at an aggregate level, demand generation is possible when taking the following recommendations to heart:
Use service engineer more as a brand ambassador than sales-lite;
- Empower service engineer to become a hero on site;
- Incentivise customer feedback instead of monetizing prospects/ leads;
- Feed customer feedback into marketing function;
- Creation of a “product” development function for services;
- As service manager, do not boast yourself as being a profit centre, but emphasise your contributing role in co-creation with sales.
The service engineer as brand ambassador
Comparing the amount of customer touch points and level of client trust, service engineers do have an edge over sales representatives.
Though it sounds tempting to dual use service engineers as sales-lite, don’t do it.
Engineers gain their stature through technical competence and stamina to prolong the operational performance of a piece of equipment. As such the engineer is the perfect ambassador for brand loyalty.
In analogy with politics, the ambassador is an important player in a multi-faceted sales game: the ambassador provides intelligence, sales translates intel into leads and deals, while fencing the ambassador’s neutrality.
When contemplating to add a sales role to service engineers, do balance the risk and reward. Bear in mind that from a decision-making unit (DMU) perspective the service engineers’ counterpart is the end user and not the asset owner/ buyer. At best the end user will decide on OPEX matters.
When it comes to CAPEX the end users’ role diminishes to that of influencer.
Hero on site
Other reasons not to mingle sales and service objectives are the differences in DNA and aspirations. A sales representative strives to become trusted business advisor in order to generate long-term revenues.
A service engineer by default has a long-term relationship, a high level of trust and an advisory role. The service engineer wants to be the hero on site, he wants to be able to help.
- As a hero on site and brand ambassador, the service engineer can use his stature to open doors and generate leads on two levels:
- OPEX leads: consumables and wear & tear components
- CAPEX leads: generate demand for new offerings
Empowerment is the key on both levels:
- OPEX leads: It is easy for a service engineer to convince an end- user to buy small maintenance related components. It makes him a hero if he can supply and install them right away. Any “delay” in conversion of lead into sales not only deteriorates the sales momentum, it also affects the hero status of the engineer.
- CAPEX leads: In his default mode, the service engineer will try to fix the existing equipment compared to suggesting a replacement or new buy. When hinting towards the latter, the service engineer puts his hero status at risk because the conversion of the lead into a sale falls outside his control. Nothing is more deadly for a hero than raising an expectation he can’t deliver.
Incentivise customer feedback
Frequent customer touch points and a high level of trust put your service engineer in a unique position to be the eyes and ears of your organisation. Capitalising on that position requires a multi-tired approach.
In analogy with the concepts of “big data”, capturing the sensory output of the service engineer is step one. The interpretation of that data into a lead is step two. The conversion into a sale is step three.
When the collection of data is driven by an intended use for sales, you may not only miss out on many subtleties of customer feedback, but also bias the observation with short-term gains.
Apart from asking your service engineer to collect specific data that is not in his DNA, you may also risk the neutrality of your ambassador/ hero.Ideally you may incentivise your service engineers to collect customer intelligence and feedback regardless of its conversion into sales.
Feed marketing
Information collected by service engineers is a valuable addition to the data input of your marketing function. Once in your marketing process it augments existing data and will result in better quality leads.
Better leads are more prone to be picked up by sales. Follow up by sales will make the service engineer feel taken seriously.
Knowing service engineers have access to high quality and individual customer intelligence, using that information may also inspire you to rethink the workings of marketing.
Markets are less homogeneous than a decade ago. New technologies and the growing importance of customer experience will even further individualise customer behaviour.
Services development function
Acknowledging declining profit margins and fierce competition on products, transitioning to a more customer/ services centric earnings model is the logical way to go. The customer intelligence and feedback from your ambassadors and heroes will become vital in understanding his needs.
Where your products development department can tell you everything about your products and their roadmap, any service engineer can tell you how your customers use those products and how customers experience their use.
The combination of product and its use open up new sales opportunities. As use is the dominant factor, the appearance of the offering is customer specific.
Setting up and embedding a services development function in your organisation will enable you to add service revenue streams in an efficient manner.
Your service engineers will be the prime suppliers of input to your service development function. Similarly to proving input to your marketing function, the engineer and customer will feel appreciated when they receive feedback that their information is taken seriously.
Service as contributing centre
In achieving demand generation, adding sales roles and goals to the service department may sound as a logical thing to do.
The profit contribution promise may even tempt you further.
Success lies in positioning your service department as a contributing centre. Let sales be in the lead. Use the traction of the sales department to get organisational and CEO buy in.
Success lies in positioning your service department as a contributing centre. Let sales be in the lead. Use the traction of the sales department to get organisational and CEO buy in.
Make sales the internal hero by feeding them with high quality service engineer data.
Empower your service engineer and make him the external hero.
As finishing touch, invest in a service marketing and services development function. Sales and service seek the commonality and acknowledge each other’s strength.
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Oct 07, 2016 • Features • Management • Leadent • management • CEO
Alistair Clifford Jones, CEO Leadent Solutions looks at why failing your own field service operations is also failing your customers...
Alistair Clifford Jones, CEO Leadent Solutions looks at why failing your own field service operations is also failing your customers...
It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, customers are becoming more demanding and products less differentiated. The boundary between efficient customer service and the best products is blurred. If you talk to people about what car to buy the topic is often more focused on aftercare service than the actual car.
In the case of domestic appliances this is certainly the case; although many manufacturers have outsourced their service business, it is still perceived as the service arm of the manufacturers. I know my wife will never purchase a well-known brand again as the service company was in her view ‘a nightmare’ (her post on Facebook attracted many similar ‘likes’ effectively trashing the product), when the problem was a different organisation.
Service management is now the shopfront for products, not an afterthought, but it never seems to have the investment it deserves, certainly not compared to areas of the business like product development or marketing.
Service management is now the shopfront for products, not an afterthought, but it never seems to have the investment it deserves, certainly not compared to areas of the business like product development or marketing.
Why is this? I guess it’s not seen as dynamic or sexy, and operations rarely have a position on the board. Unfortunately, many organisations still view operations as a cost and a target for reduction, rather than investment.
This is where CEOs and CFOs have failed. Not only to understand how influential service management is on their overall business, but also how investment in technology, supporting efficient processes, will really drive down costs and more importantly enhance the customer experience.
There have been many business cases, requiring substantial capital expenditure, which have been rejected, often as the argument has been based purely on operational costs and not the impact of poor service on future sales.
I hate the phrase ‘no brainer’ but in today’s world, we are missing a trick in excluding the company’s reputational damage through poor service from a business case. Also in failing to recognise how cheaply cloud-based products can be implemented as the cost becomes a monthly charge rather than a huge operational expenditure. If our industry leaders truly understood this, implementing a solution would surely become a ‘no brainer’ and the costs of running a service business balanced with the repeat sales.
Our team has spent the last 10 years determining what makes the very best field service organisations succeed. We know how to get organisations like yours working smarter, delivering better customer experience whilst reducing costs, that’s why today we have launched Leadent Service Cloud to help CEO’s stop failing their customers.
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Sep 28, 2016 • Features • Management • Astea • management • first time fix
Improving first-call/visit resolution rates can be challenging and frustrating for field service organisations, because there are so many factors and variables that prevent technicians from completing a repair on the first visit writes Astea's ...
Improving first-call/visit resolution rates can be challenging and frustrating for field service organisations, because there are so many factors and variables that prevent technicians from completing a repair on the first visit writes Astea's Debbie Geiger...
Find out more about this subject in Astea's latest white paper here
The customer may not provide enough information to the call center representative, or that information may not be accurately relayed to the dispatcher or tech; the technician may need assistance with the repair; the parts might not be available, or the tools may not be on-site; the dispatcher may not allot enough time for the repair in the schedule.
There are ways to improve first-call resolution rates, but they require a shift in strategy and an investment in work order, dispatch, and scheduling automation solutions.
We recently held a webinar in conjunction with RTM Consulting. During this webinar we presented some operational and technology strategies for improving first-time fix rates in our webinar “First Call/Visit Resolution: Getting it Fixed the First Time.”
Failing to fix an issue on the first visit can be detrimental to customer satisfaction and retention.
Yet, according to The Service Council (TSC), average first-time fix rates are just 74 percent; that means more than a quarter of all calls require multiple visits.
Those additional visits come at considerable cost. Aberdeen found that service calls that aren’t resolved in a single visit require an average of 1.5 additional visits to complete. Even for small organisations, that can result in thousands of dollars in additional costs per day. And that doesn’t even include the cost of lost business from those disappointed customers, who are more likely to look elsewhere for their service needs.
The key to addressing the problem is to take a more disciplined, holistic approach
The key to addressing the problem is to take a more disciplined, holistic approach, and RTM has outlined three critical planning components for addressing first-time fix rates:
Prevention:
Improved training of call centre staff and technicians, increase use of remote diagnostics and Internet of Things (IoT) technology, and improved preventive or predictive maintenance approaches can reduce the number of equipment failures that need fixed in the first place.
Triage:
Carefully outline incident handling, support tiers, parts management, and other processes that affect the likelihood of having the right technician and the right part at the customer site.
Continuous Improvement:
Institute knowledge management, variability analysis, root cause analysis, and process improvement strategies so you measure, track, and log information that will help make your service organization a little smarter after every incident.
Clearly outline what you want your first-call resolution processes to look like, and implement the technology needed to manage and support delivery of those services. Create a gap analysis so you know how you are performing now, and how you’d like to be performing in the future.
Through collaboration and improved data visibility, your team can find better solutions for each customer problem, and do so more efficiently and likely at a lower cost.
Through collaboration and improved data visibility, your team can find better solutions for each customer problem, and do so more efficiently and likely at a lower cost.
Remote monitoring of assets helps capture service diagnostic information that can be provided to field technicians in advance. Giving call centre staff more guidance through question trees and full access to customer history data can help resolve more calls over the phone (without costly truck rolls), and provide better information to technicians when they do have to go on-site.
Find out more about this subject in Astea's latest white paper here
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Sep 15, 2016 • Features • Management • Jan Van Veen • management • Service Innovation and Design
Management Consultant and service management specialist Jan Van Veen looks at how you can drive sustainable success in your organisation by unlocking full and continuous value innovation power at your disposal...
Management Consultant and service management specialist Jan Van Veen looks at how you can drive sustainable success in your organisation by unlocking full and continuous value innovation power at your disposal...
As the world is changing at an increasing pace, companies need continuous value innovation at a higher pace on top of the current incremental improvements of their products, services and operations.
However, most companies struggle to innovate their business and fall behind (new) competitors who are successfully adopting change or even driving change in the industry.
Based on many consulting engagements and recent interviews (as part of my research) it appears that three key perspectives - on people’s ability to drive change, managing performance and customer value - do make the difference for success.
A typical example
The following is a typical situation:
A leading manufacturer of heavy capital equipment is trying to grow its services business, as capital investments in their industry have dropped dramatically and are not expected to recover in the near future. The focus is to grow the business from advanced maintenance and operating services and other business solutions, which should become more significant, compared to basic maintenance, repair and spare part services.
Most companies struggle to innovate their business and fall behind (new) competitors who are successfully adopting change or even driving change in the industry.
The organisation has been restructured a few times in a row. People are being pushed to the limit to achieve new, stretched bottom-line targets. Different task forces and a programme management office has been established.
However, progress is limited and the business results are not really improving.
Entities are blaming each other for not delivering: market units are frustrated that the business units do not develop the right propositions; market units are being blamed for not selling the new service offerings. Too many people consider their own performance being fairly well, without showing any concern about the bigger picture of declining performance, which is falling behind the competition’s performance.
There are many task-forces on various topics, most of which are not really addressing the real business challenge, but more focusing on improving traditional business as usual.
As a result, this company is being hit harder by the current downturn in their industry then its competitors. Shareholders’ confidence in the new strategy and the leadership is deteriorating.
Now, wouldn’t it be great if.... Instead of...
Wouldn’t it be great if this company would have been able to fully utilise their ability to adapt to change and peoples eagerness to learn, improve and grow?
Just imagine how different the picture could have been:
Many people within the company are aware of early signs of developments in the industry and changing customer needs. They are the first to discuss these changes with their customers and develop new solutions, in close collaboration with their customers.
Set-backs are crucial learning points to adjust strategy and actions and to continue thriving for success.
For sure, they had some set-backs and they expect more to come - after all, things often go different than originally expected.
However, nobody considers these set-backs as failures and these are by no means a threat for careers. These set-backs are crucial learning points to adjust strategy and actions and to continue thriving for success. People and departments support each other in doing what is needed to get things done and keep momentum in the innovation.
How to make this happen?
There are three key perspectives, which seem to make the difference for sustainable success. These perspectives define how we manage our businesses and how we engage people to change without creating obstacles or resistance.
Performance:
Sustainable and increasing success is achieved by continuously pursuing opportunities, adopting to changes, learning and building smarter capabilities for strong performance.
People:
People are considered to be eager to grow, develop and drive change when they believe in the reasons for change and they are not pushed into a defensive fight-or-flight mode. These good reasons are based on a compelling purpose and vision, not on burning platforms, financial business cases or shareholder-value.
Customer Value:
Customer value goes beyond the availability of your great products and technology. There are so many more ways to be valuable and relevant to the success of customers and their value creation process. With this broader view, you will recognise more customer needs and challenges, transcending product requirements and related maintenance services.
Practical example of modern management practices
The following are a few examples of modern management practices - driving sustainable success by mobilising people and maintaining momentum - which are based on these new perspectives.
Customer value goes beyond the availability of your great products and technology. There are so many more ways to be valuable and relevant to the success of customers and their value creation process.
Live a shared and compelling purpose and vision - every day...
Keeping this picture alive will rally all people in an organisation.
They see and believe in the opportunities to do great things and grow as a company, as a team and as an individual. Everybody has a common picture of the direction in which the company has to develop. This picture is much more compelling than “double digit growth”, “being customers’ 1# choice” or “being industry leader”.
Keep the voice of the customer alive - every day...
A living and up-to-date picture of customers’ challenges, needs and expectations will drive the right decisions, actions, ideas and intrinsic motivation for innovation as well as daily operations.
Start every meeting with a customer story or insight.
Extend customer insights beyond your business as usual - without blinkers...
Without this insight it is hard to develop and increase your relevance and differentiation for customers and develop your business to outperform the industry now and in the future.
Too often, customer insights and feedback which do not directly impact current products, services, marketing and sales are neglected. Sticking to your “core-business” can be a risky attitude.
Respond to (potential) changes outside - again without blinkers...
Have everybody in the company continuously build awareness about what is changing in the outside world. What is (potentially) changing in technology, politics, regulations, demographics, customer needs, habits, competition, other industries, etcetera.
What impact could these changes have on your work and your business? Which opportunities could arise? Which competencies and capabilities would you need? Which signs could indicate that the change is really happening - now? What can be done now to be prepared to respond rapidly when needed and do this quicker than any other actor in the industry?
Manage high performance through a strategic dialogue - ongoing...
Outcome based, bottom line targets show the direction and priorities for managing and developing the business into a fit organisation with the required capabilities and business model to perform.
Targets are aligned with priorities and strategic objectives. Stretched targets explicitly assume change is required to meet them - so work smarter, not harder or faster.
These business review meetings are transparent and constructive discussions about the performance, root causes, alternatives, measures and priorities. Discuss and agree how other teams or entities can contribute to achieve the objectives.
Align expectations and targets of these teams with the (new) priorities of the business and the specific teams and entities to really enable them to help.
Want to know more? Read Van Veen's full original article here
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Jul 18, 2016 • Features • Management • management • Human resources
As the field workforce of many companies begins to go through perhaps the greatest cultural shift in modern history, it is vital that companies begin paying attention to the stars within their midst and help them grow into more senior roles.
As the field workforce of many companies begins to go through perhaps the greatest cultural shift in modern history, it is vital that companies begin paying attention to the stars within their midst and help them grow into more senior roles.
Jennifer Lescallett, Affymetrix, explained exactly why and how we can achieve this during a presentation at Field Service Medical earlier this year...
Apparently only 10% of companies spend time developing their top talent. This is despite the fact that talent acquisition and retention is a critical area for most companies. In field service where training engineers to maintain a specific set of devices can be both a long and costly endeavour this is perhaps magnified even further.
So why doesn’t nurturing our top talent take more of a front seat?
“As leaders of Service and Support organizations, we are all hard-wired to fight fires and resolve immediate issues facing our customers. We want our customers to be successful, our teams to have the resources to make it happen, and for our businesses to thrive. Given the many day-to-day issues that arise, it can be difficult to carve out time to strategize and focus on top-talent. It is undeniably, however, our most important job,” explained Jennifer Lescallett, Senior Director, Affymetrix, at Field Service Medical held a little earlier this year.
"As leaders of Service and Support organizations, we are all hard-wired to fight fires and resolve immediate issues facing our customers. ..."
Identifying potential stars given the above it’s crucial that as a first step you can identify those with genuine potential.
“Imagine the bell curve” Lescallett explains “At one side of the curve you have your lower performers, people that haven’t employed all of the best practices. In the middle you have those people who are solid, steady team players who love what they do – fixing issues and working with customers.”
“And then there is the final part of the curve, the top performers; this is where the focus needs to be.”
However, Lescallett advises that we then drill deep into these high performers to find those that can fill future leadership roles.
“These are people on your team that have curiosity and deep engagement. They are the ones that face adversity with determination and grit. And they have a way of looking at a customer problem and knowing intuitively how to resolve it.” Lescallett explains
“People with these high potential qualities also want to be engaged at the strategic level. They have insight into your organisation and a keen ability to connect the dots. Their capacity for learning is vigorous and expansive. They feed off of challenges and high-stakes situations.”
Lescallett herself has adopted a three part process for identifying and developing talent.
The process is identified as:
1. Developing success profiles
2. Assessing and reviewing your talent strategy
3. Executing the plan
“The first two steps are relatively easy. You can lock you and your team away in a day-long, closed door session. Don’t forget to leave your phones and computer at the door and delegate the fire-fighting to someone else. Use this precious time to get your talent plan aligned, develop success profiles and assess your organisation."
"It is the third element, however, that is the trickiest to implement because it means scheduling time to devote to it on a routine basis,” she says.
“You want someone who can identify a need and has the enthusiasm and energy to figure out a solution. You want someone that can think out of the box, that’s truly creative, that works well in a team or whatever the key behaviours are that you are seeking in future leaders.”
There are three key steps in developing your success profiles Lescallett suggests.
The first of these is defining the behaviours that drive success.
“You want someone who can identify a need and has the enthusiasm and energy to figure out a solution. You want someone that can think out of the box, that’s truly creative, that works well in a team or whatever the key behaviours are that you are seeking in future leaders.”
“You have to then build the competencies around the behaviours that you want.”
“Next you have to define the destination roles in your organisation."
Maybe it is an assignment in a new territory/geography you are expanding into, or maybe it’s leading in a small business unit within the organisation for example.”
“It is important to help people not only build their expertise in the service and support department but also make sure that they can rotate through different groups within the organisation” she adds
The second process Lescallett suggests is to use different models to assess future ability.
"“It’s often easy to spot the ‘racehorses’. Those that come into an organization and are raring to go, always making contributions and searching for more. However, there are diamonds in the rough that are worth unearthing too,”
While the 360 report is a tool for the employee, the leadership team can use other tools like a talent grid to assess the organization as a whole. This provides a way of comparing and contrasting the organization and getting a better feel for the talent pool.
Lescallett explains that “there are many ways of evaluating teams, including a matrix format mapping them on a grid, with potential being the x axis and performance being the y axis – this is a particularly useful and commonplace tool for visualising exactly who on your team have both the potential and the work ethic to step into a leadership role, whilst also helping you see who could potentially be in need of more coaching and guidance.”
Another avenue for critical feedback is getting the opinions of more than just the line managers, says Lescallett.
“Certainly they [line managers] have a very good idea of where their team is, but it’s important to get assessment from a range of leaders in the business because people can see different things in different individuals.”
“It’s often easy to spot the ‘racehorses’. Those that come into an organization and are raring to go, always making contributions and searching for more. However, there are diamonds in the rough that are worth unearthing too,” she explains.
“People that might have the technical skills but haven’t fully refined some of the leadership skills you need in the organization. You have nurture them and build on their strengths. It is important not to discount those who may not be 100% polished yet.”
The final process Lescallett suggests is a broad review of the data.
“You should review the group data as a team of managers to make sure that other teams like Marketing and Sales are evaluating their teams in the same way that you are evaluating yours.”
As a manager, mentor or coach, it’s vital to set the expectations that a person’s career is their responsibility – they own it. A person may have all of the qualities of being high potential, but it’s up to them to pave the way for their own success.
One thing is certain though, building a healthy pipeline of future leaders is critical for the success of every business.
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Jul 05, 2016 • Management • News • COnsultants • management • Si2 partners
Si2 Partners consultancy is launched to help industrial companies leverage services and take advantage of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industry 4.0 to beat the competition and win in their markets. Founding Partner Nick Frank tells us...
Si2 Partners consultancy is launched to help industrial companies leverage services and take advantage of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industry 4.0 to beat the competition and win in their markets. Founding Partner Nick Frank tells us more
Si2 On-Demand is a new way for managers and their teams to get advice and the support they need to get things done – as they need it, when they need it and as much as they need! Managers engage with Si2 to solve problems, get new ideas or validate their thinking. If they have capacity constraints, they use Si2 specialists as an extended workbench to complete their tasks -virtually, rapidly and cost effectively, wherever they are in the world. An innovative smart platform enables access to expert practitioners and consultants as well as a growing Insights Library,
Leading industrial manufacturers have long seen the installed base as a business opportunity and as a way to moderate economic cycles. Faced with intensifying competition and limits to growth from product sales in developed markets, after-sales services provides ways to drive new revenue streams, improve margins and ward off competitors.
Today, services are an anchor business for many companies and have evolved from pure product support to encompass sophisticated offerings to help customers better manage or outsource industrial processes, including asset management, maintenance or parts of production and logistics.
Forward-looking companies have gone on to drive competitive advantage by bundling products and services into integrated solutions, delivering outcomes to customers demanding functionality and performance.
When outcome displaces the product from the centre of focus, transactional relationships with customers become more co-operative and longer term, as both sides work together to co-create value and share risks.
With customers locked-in and competitors locked-out, price pressures are moderated through value- based pricing. Currently, outcome-based services or performance contracting are viewed as a way to bend cost curves to improve performance in many industries, including healthcare, infrastructure, technical services, aerospace, defence as well as large machinery. Nevertheless, while customers have benefited from these business models, the same cannot always be said for suppliers.
Companies contemplating outcome-based services must overcome a number of hurdles, including assessing and managing risks as well as understanding how to measure value
With technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things enabling more productive service operations, there is now increasing evidence that digitization, is also sparking a ‘revolution’ in thinking, driving servitization and new business models. By enabling companies to collect and analyse data on an unprecedented scale and granularity, new services are being designed to improve products, process performance and customer experience.
Data is becoming a key new asset class, perhaps even more valuable than the underlying physical assets and processes. It is crucial for competitive advantage, and necessary for OEMs to avoid commoditisation of their products. Those with real vision are investing in new digital service platforms (“Anything-as-a-Service”), to drive disruptive growth and new customer demand while dramatically reducing costs.
Operating across many industries and all geographies, Si2 Partners is uniquely placed to deliver solutions to problems or work successfully on major business transformational issues, such as business building, operational improvement, change programs or new go-to-market initiatives.
Operating across many industries and all geographies, Si2 Partners is uniquely placed to deliver solutions to problems or work successfully on major business transformational issues, such as business building, operational improvement, change programs or new go-to-market initiatives. Si2 combines a deep understanding of service business, a unique blend of top management and consulting expertise and strong industry experience.
Each business and the context within which it operates are unique, requiring a bespoke approach. Si2 works with management teams to understand their views, requirements and objectives, while bringing industry insights, proven methodologies and services thought leadership to the table.
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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