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Momentum IoT was named the winner at the 2019 CompassIntel Spring Awards in the category of Connected Solution Leadership: Fleet Tracking Management for IoT and M2M.

The awards are voted on by over 40 industry-leading press, editors, journalists, thought leaders and analysts who identify the best in three primary categories: Mobile & Wireless, IoT (Internet of Things), and Emerging Tech, along with CompassIntel.com selected “of the Year” awards.

“We’re excited to recognize the innovation that Momentum IoT has introduced to connecting assets with ease and simplicity,” says Stephanie Atkinson, CEO and Founder of Compass Intelligence.  “Momentum IoT has made fleet tracking affordable and achievable for small to medium sized businesses.”

Momentum IoT disrupted the fleet tracking model by utilizing a SaaS payment model, so there are no contracts or upfront fees to use the platform.  The tracker is cloud-based and does not require customization, so users can plug the device into their asset and view them on one screen.  Additionally, the company also offers a free trial of its products.

“We’re honored to receive this award,” says Justin Silva, CEO of Momentum IoT.  “We’ve set ourselves apart through the ease of use and ruggedness of our design coupled with providing the highest level of security available with no contracts.  We want to make telematics accessible to everyone and will continue to be a solutions-based leader in our field.”

Jan Van Veen, continues his latest exclusive Field Service News series exploring the winning habits of long lasting achievers by outlining how a compelling direction can accelerate change...

Following our introductory article about the 4 Winning Habits in the previous publication of Field Service News, I will now elaborate on the first winning habit: Direction:

A common mistake: Lack of clarity where the company is heading 

A couple of years ago, I spoke with the management team of an international manufacturer of medical devices. They were disappointed because their employees were not taking the initiative to educate themselves on “digital” and IT related topics and to develop the business.

They knew that technology would continue to shift the market dramatically.

They even had a vision: to transition from a device manufacturer to a healthcare IT service provider. Unfortunately, little happened. Employees were too busy with operational fire-fighting and the initiatives they did start had hardly any relation to the company’s future and little coherence between them.

An important reason for this failure was that their vision was not clear and concrete enough for the employees to act upon. They were still unclear about what an IT service provider even was. Which customer problems would they solve? What kind of offerings needed to be developed? What capabilities would they need to develop? And which competencies?

As business leaders, we often think that it’s obvious to our teams what changes are needed in the business and why. After all, we spend a lot of time discussing challenges, priorities and ongoing initiatives. We typically have clear financial objectives for the next few years and other qualitative objectives like “being #1 choice of the customer”.

However, many of us do not provide a clear and compelling picture of where we should be heading and why, or how our organisation should look in a couple of years. So, what is missing?

• There are too few emotional triggers to spur our teams to be highly passionate and motivated.
• Our teams lack insight into which initiatives make sense and how they can contribute. The quality and quantity of the initiatives is far from optimal and there is a lack of coherence between them.
• Our staff have too many reasons to fear the downside of upcoming changes, or at least be uncertain about them. This pushes people into a defensive mode, which is destructive for change and innovation.

The solution: Establish a clear and compelling direction to accelerate change

Our research clearly shows that winning and dynamic manufacturers have declared a clear and compelling direction which results in high momentum for continuous, easy change from the inside.

This makes them more successful today and in the future. Ideally, this direction consists of:

 

• A meaningful mission
• A bold and inspiring strategic intent
• A concrete picture of the future state of the business

Engage your people with a meaningful mission

A compelling and meaningful mission expresses passion for a cause and has the best of intentions. It declares how you will be relevant for society or your target customers and connects to heart and mind. It also gives a clear indication of how to evolve the business and why. An important benefit of a meaningful mission is that all employees become highly engaged and passionate – they are proud to be part of such an organisation.

Tesla’s original mission was to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible”. Although you could argue whether “sustainable energy” is unique and differentiating for Tesla, it does trigger a lot of passion and eagerness in their staff. It also gives strong direction to their strategy, initiatives and focus. It shouts that Tesla will lead the automotive industry of the future with new technology, infrastructure and products on a global scale. Tesla will be visible, dominant and disruptive.

Rally your people with a bold objective 

Most leading companies have a bold objective or strategic intent which rallies their employees. They touch emotions, pride and potentially even the sense of doing right. And they drive focus on initiatives to innovate the business.

Well known examples are:

 

• Amazon: Every book ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds.
• Google: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
• Microsoft: “A computer on every desk and in every home.”
• Twitter: To become “the pulse of the planet”.
• Nike: “Beat Adidas”
• •Even though he’s not a company, John F. Kennedy: “Land a man on the moon by the end of this decade and return him safely”.

Some important characteristics of a good strategic intent are:

 

• They are externally oriented,
• They are hard to achieve, but not impossible,
• They trigger the imagination of employees (and shareholders),
• They define a “bigger game”, in which there is a prize to win

It will require hard work and moving away from comfort zones. Every step the team takes closer to the objective will give them a sense of pride, of belonging and will motivate them to take the next steps.

Focus and coherence with a picture of future state

Too often our vision of how the future business will look is too high level and vague for most of our staff.

They remain unclear about where the company is heading. How will it look in 5 years? Which clients will they be targeting? What are those customers’ needs? What kind of solutions will they be offering? How will they fit in, if at all?

Imagine the amount of momentum for ongoing change and innovation your teams could have, if they all shared the same concrete picture of the company’s future.

Including:

 

• The key industry trends, such as technology, impact on clients, the changing power of competitors, and potential new entrants.
• Changing needs of clients and other market segments that have not yet been served.
• Shifts in key stakeholders, of the client organisations they’ll be working with.
• Change of value propositions and offerings.
• Change of organisational capabilities and people competencies.
• Change of required technology.

Benefits

Winning companies benefit by having a clear and compelling direction in place. They have created the foundation for proud, engaged and committed employees who want to walk the extra mile, get out of their comfort zone and make innovation happen.

Their employees develop the right initiatives and understand the initiatives of others. This is crucial for coherency and alignment in the organisation without needing to dictate ideas and decisions from the top.

And finally, their employees have much less fear and uncertainty about the personal impact on them of upcoming changes, and therefore are much more open to drive change.

The Essence

If you assume this is about better telling your staff what to do and getting them on board, you have already missed the point: It is about creating a constructive and forward-thinking environment where your staff take the right initiatives and bring them to practice. Changes come from the ‘bottom-up’. I believe this is the power of combining business innovation on one hand, and talent development and empowerment on the other.

Are you interested in learning more about these 4 winning habits, having access to practical examples, and understanding how to implement them? Then Follow our next articles over the coming months and join us for one of our half-day Boardroom Sessions in Birmingham,

Manchester, Germany or the Netherlands. Reserve your seat @ http://fs-ne.ws/tvds30eenO6

 

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Jan Van Veen guides us through the findings of the research his organisation have recently undertook to establish what drives momentum and continuous improvement amongst service organisations...

More and more manufacturing companies are recognising the huge potential in services and understand that pursuing these opportunities, is not easy.

Growing a solid service business, affects its business model, and therefore requires active support and buy-in, with the service department- from many stakeholders and the management board.

As a business leader, you are likely to recognize the following:

• Ongoing performance issues with few adequate and sustainable interventions.
• A slow execution of strategies and projects, with limited results.
• Too little attention for preparing future success in a rapidly changing corporate world.
• Lack of collaboration and alignment between departments.
• Lack of ‘buy-in’ for driving service business.
• Lack of members, within an organisation who understand the impact of IoT, Big Data, cognitive computing, and globalisation- failing to actively to collectively upon it.

In my experience, the biggest obstacle for companies is their ability to adapt to, and drive necessary change. Common approaches, such as change management and leadership, more communication and training, stronger business cases, and increasing the ‘sense of urgency’ has unfortunately made little difference.

But, just imagine how it would be if everyone in your company was eager and passionate about driving changes, adapting to them and seizing new opportunities. If colleagues from all departments joined forces and collectively got things done.

Imagine not needing to push, mould, or fight resistance.

What if your people were so engaged and committed that they naturally drive success and change? This may sound unrealistic, but what if you could actually achieve it?

This very idea inspired me to investigate into manufacturing companies. I delved into the ‘key success factors’ for quicker, easier, change and adaptation.

Not only was this for long-term business and service innovation, but also streamlined strategy execution, project implementation, and immediate intervention for performance related issues. My aim was to find the root cause for the lack of change, growth, and adaptability in businesses.

During the year 2016, I conducted research with a range of manufacturers.

Most of the 89 participants in the research were manufacturing and technology companies in the for B2B sector.

They ranged in size from 500 to over 10,000 employees, and into multi-billion US dollar annual revenues. They are typically driven to make significant changes by external influences such as Internet of Things, Big Data, algorithms, commoditisation, globalisation, and so on.

The Findings:

The results of the research indicated that most companies lacked ‘momentum’ for continuous change and adaptation.

Typical symptoms of this are:

• Inadequate levels of collaboration between departments and teams.
• Inadequate levels of coherence of initiatives and strategies across the organisation.
• Inadequate levels of engagement from employees.

The organisations still maintain the traditional ‘top-down’ plan and control management approach,Inadequate levels of engagement from employees which induces resistance to change, therefore reducing ‘momentum’.

The most successful companies withhold more momentum, and are more capable in adapting to, and driving change- making them thrive. Typically, they benefit from higher growth figures, stronger service businesses, better customer loyalty and higher people engagement.These companies have adopted stronger ‘sense and respond’ management practices, which prevent resistance towards change, from the existing status quo.

So, what is Momentum?

An organisation has Momentum when its people are fully engaged. They continuously drive change and sustainable growth in line with an overall strategy but without detailed centralised control. They have an emotional connection to a bigger purpose and feel confident to make interventions in products, services, business models and performance. They are sensitive to threats, opportunities and obstacles and quickly adapt to them. Above all, they are eager to work as one team and use change to generate energy, not burn it.

How to get more Momentum?

The research report provides an overview of the Momentum Framework, which is based on the best practices from the most successful companies.

This document describes the following topics of the Momentum Framework:

• The three Momentum Perspectives, driving the underlying philosophy and culture.
  • People drive change
  •  Capabilities drive performance
  • Future success lies beyond business as usual
• The Momentum Practices, consisting of the following three sections:
  • Compelling direction
  • Strategic dialogue on all levels and across all departments and teams
  • Continuous learning, as an organisation and individual

Are you interested in driving more Momentum for easier and efficient ongoing change, just like the industry leaders? Download your free report now @ www.moremomentum.eu/report

 

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