Nick Frank, founding partner at Si2 Partners outlines why the importance of people and culture cannot be overlooked when looking to instil a culture of continuous improvement and innovation...
ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘service-innovation-and-design’ CATEGORY
Jan 04, 2017 • Features • Management • Nick Frank • Service Innovation and Design
Nick Frank, founding partner at Si2 Partners outlines why the importance of people and culture cannot be overlooked when looking to instil a culture of continuous improvement and innovation...
The mistake many leaders in industry make, is to believe that defining a clear vision and strategy with ruthless follow up is the only recipe for success. This may indeed initiate change, but rarely do the results last. Often3-4 years later, the business will be addressing the very same issues, but under a new management team.
In todays increasingly digitized world this challenge is particularly relevant for leaders of service businesses, who feel they must react to new technology to avoid being left behind by their competitors. Maximizing the potential of these capabilities does not come from the technology or even adopting innovation processes, it must start with our own people.
The problem is that in their urgency to achieve results, many leaders breeze over the communication, incentives and cultural engagement necessary to achieve the required emotional buy-in from employees.
Most managers will tell you, ensuring your people are engaged in what they are doing is the very lifeblood of a business.
Most managers will tell you, ensuring your people are engaged in what they are doing is the very lifeblood of a business. Some may use use fear, which gets things moving, but is only ever effective in the short term and does damage in the long term. Most agree that people have to be basically happy to sustain change over an extended time period. This ‘happiness’ is essentially influenced by the culture of the organisation, which evolves from the values displayed by leaders, their vision and the backing of stakeholders who own the business.
This is not new to experienced managers, yet so many focus on the well defined processes of moving from strategy to operational excellence. On reflection, profitable long-term profits are really generated by creating a culture that engages people to deliver excellent products or services that create customer value. This in turn drives customer loyalty, providing the opportunity to expand margins and increase profitability. This simple truth was re-confirmed to me in a recent workshop discussion, which included managers from Federal Express. They commented. ‘Our values drive us to start with our people and that the profits will come, never the other way round’
In todays world, where technology is rapidly changing the face of Field Service, many leaders would do well to focus more on the mind-set of their people that allows them to express themselves and have the confidence to try new ideas even if there is a risk of failure.
How can leaders inspire their teams to innovate and succeed?
We have seen successful leaders demonstrate five key attributes in creating a dynamic self learning organisation:
- Powerful story telling: One of the most powerful concepts leaders can use to turn dry strategy into an engaging vision is through story telling. Since the dawn of time, people have been captivated by stories. The role of leaders is to tell the story that inspires all the stakeholders in the ecosystem, not only employees, but also clients and shareholders.
- Walk the talk: Telling the story is not enough. Leaders have to live it and live to the values they espouse. Commitment is key to credibility!
- Common language: If story telling is the key to inspiration, creating a common language is the key to longevity. Language becomes a habit. It influences how people solve problems whether that be inside the organisation, or interacting with customers and partners. Creating a common language and view of the business is much more than words. It is creating a mind-set that influences how we articulate ourselves and conduct our everyday business.
- Relentless follow up: Changing culture is not an overnight process. It is often said that to integrate a new habit, one must repeat an activity 21 times. It is no different for developing culture within an organisation.
- Solution focused mindset: Discovering problems should be encouraged as they help bring clarity to our. However it is important not to dwell on the problem and who to blame. Solutions drive organisations forward!
- Think how many times something goes wrong in the business, which leads to significant shift in approach by senior management. To turn problems into opportunities, leaders need to be committed to creating self learning solution orientated organisations around them.
The message is not to wait until your CEO starts to talk about innovative self learning organisations. You can start ‘now’ developing a successful mind-set first for yourself and then your teams, that will allow you to take advantage of the amazing opportunities offered by the new technology’s around us.
Nick can be contacted on nick.frank@Si2partners.com. Si2 ON-Demand is a unique advisory and support service that enables top performing leaders to solve problems and get things done, quickly, easily and cost effectively.
Be social and share this feature
Nov 17, 2016 • Features • Astea • Future of FIeld Service • resources • white papers • White Papers & eBooks • Service Innovation and Design
Resource Type: White PaperPublished by: AsteaTitle: What is the next phase of service innovation
Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Astea
Title: What is the next phase of service innovation
Click here to download the white paper now
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here
Synopsis:
Click the links at the top or bottom of this feature to download this white paperInnovation causes company evolution and every year service is becoming more important to companies not only as a source of revenue but also as a key driver of customer loyalty...
It is no longer enough to merely deliver quality service in a timely manner. Customer demands and competitive pressures are driving service companies toward service innovation – developing new service offerings and service delivery mechanisms that their customers will find valuable.
To remain competitive, service organisations need to make investments in developing and designing new service products, tapping into new markets, and finding new ways to deliver service – making innovation part of the culture, from the executive suite to the field technicians.
This White Paper published by Astea takes a look at best practices for companies looking to innovate their service and it covers:
- Where the best opportunities for service innovation exist
- How to institutionalise innovation with 'service innovation teams'
- What metrics to use to measure the ROI of innovation activities
Overview:
As service has grown in importance as a source of revenue and a key driver of customer loyalty, customer expectations of service delivery have increased. It is no longer enough to merely deliver quality service in a timely manner. Service organisations have to do more than simply keep costs low and maintain market share.
Customer demands and competitive pressures are driving service companies toward service innovation – developing new service offerings and service delivery mechanisms that their customers will find valuable.
This type of service innovation has become an increasingly vital component in a company’s competitive strategy. Executives recognise that focusing on cost control is not in line with long-term value creation. To grow, organisations need to reinvent customer relationships and embrace new technologies and business models.
Where is Service Innovation Needed?
In March 2016, The Service Council (TSC) conducted a survey on service innovation to gauge respondents’ perceptions of their own organisations.
When asked how innovative their entire organization was, the majority of respondents said their company was somewhat innovative (58%), while roughly one-third (31%) said their company was innovative. Asked specifically about their service organization, the responses were very close, with 23% responding “innovative,” 56% “somewhat innovative.” A slightly larger group said the service organization was not innovative (11% for service compared to 3% for the entire company).
Service companies can innovate on a number of levels: the service delivery process, customer management and communication, service design, new product/ service development, the client interface, and in their technological choices.
Institutionalise Innovation
According to The Service Council survey, just 31% of respondents have a service innovation team in place. For service organisations to thrive in a marketplace that puts greater value on innovation, that has to change.
Service organizations have to look at innovation on a strategic level, and at all the ways that the service team can innovate – from developing new services and process-oriented changes to focusing on external service delivery processes and finding more opportunities to provide service.
These companies need to develop a service innovation team focused on fostering such projects. The team should include input from supervisors and managers, frontline employees/technicians, VP-level service leaders, regional leaders, and C-level executives.
Measure Your Success
Those innovation investments can’t be made blindly, however. Establishing whether a given innovation provides a return on investment (ROI) requires metrics around those innovation activities and their results. In The Service Council survey, just 20% of respondents said they already had innovation metrics in place.
Measuring innovation is a combination of art and science, which makes those metrics difficult to develop. You have to find the right things to measure; every company has its own organizational culture, so every company must fine-tune what it measures to reinforce the goals, values, and norms that it finds critical for inspiring innovation and best practices.
Technology Enables Innovation
One key enabler of both new service products and new service delivery mechanisms has been technology. Digital technologies have driven radical change and disruption in the service sector.
These include customer self-service portals and mobile apps, mobile field service automation and work order management solutions, GPS-enabled fleet tracking/management systems, and automated dispatch and scheduling solutions.
Getting Started
Service organisations that want to improve these efforts should institutionalise innovation by establishing dedicated innovation teams and resources and develop metrics to measure the effect of innovation. Frontline employees should be involved, and customer needs and insights should be analysed to develop an innovation road map.
- Begin with customer insights
- Understand the funding mechanism
- Determine who will develop and deliver new innovative service products and models
- Track innovation activity
- Institutionalize innovation
Click here to download the white paper now
be social and share this feature
Nov 09, 2016 • Features • Astea • infographics • resources • infographic • Service Innovation and Design
Brand new infographic from Astea shows how field service organisations can work towards innovating their service delivery mechanisms...
Brand new infographic from Astea shows how field service organisations can work towards innovating their service delivery mechanisms...
Want to know more? Click here to download the companion white paper to this infographic now
Want to know more? Click here to download the companion white paper to this infographic now
Be social and share this infographic
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
Be social and share this feature
Apr 07, 2016 • Features • Management • Noventum • Events • Service Innovation and Design • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Why do customers choose your company? That's becoming a key question for many companies with recognition that Customer Experience Management (CEM) is increasingly important in manufacturing.
Why do customers choose your company? That's becoming a key question for many companies with recognition that Customer Experience Management (CEM) is increasingly important in manufacturing.
CEM has been identified as a key driver of customer loyalty and profitable growth, is a trending topic in the manufacturing industry. But for many manufacturers this is still a greenfield operation. So where do you stand and how do you get started?
Join Noventum's Service Innovation Project: “Why do customers choose your company? in Amsterdam on 19th and 20th April and gain the knowledge, practical tools and experience needed to successfully develop a best in class customer experience management model and increase your profitability, while improving customer satisfaction.
It does not matter whether you’re just getting started, or already well on your way, this Service Innovation Project is meant to help you move one step forward towards designing, selling and delivering high value services, which are also perceived as such.
Get best practice advice from the Service Innovation Project and benefit from the experience of many industry leaders.
Dominique Rossi-Chevrel, Chief Innovation Officer, IBM Services Europe, will share the secret on how IBM uses innovation as strategic CX driver to leverage customer insight and improve customer loyalty while Maarten Dekker, Service Director Benelux, Abbott Diagnostics will tell you about their daring vision and strategy which enabled them to achieve short term results.Other industry leaders and academic professionals on the agenda include:
- Thierry Rober, Head of Customer Loyalty, Bobst.
- Marcos Garcia de la Torre, EMEA Service Vice President, Voith Paper GmbH &Co.
- Lars Bruinsma, Independent Strategic Procurement Consultant, Marel
- Dr. Dominik Mahr, Scientific Director, Service Science Factory
Follow this link to get the full agenda. Or click here to learn more about Noventum’s Service Innovation Programme.
Be social and share this news.
Jun 22, 2015 • Features • Future of FIeld Service • China • IoT • Servitization • Service Innovation and Design
Andy Neely, Founding Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance, hears about the challenges and enablers of servitization, the importance the country puts on technology, and the growth of e-platforms...
I recently spent a week in China, visiting...
Andy Neely, Founding Director of the Cambridge Service Alliance, hears about the challenges and enablers of servitization, the importance the country puts on technology, and the growth of e-platforms...
I recently spent a week in China, visiting the Southern China University of Technology (Guangzhou) and Ceibs, the international business school in Shanghai. While at Ceibs I participated in the first seminar on “Servitization and Service Innovation”.
Attended by around 100 people, industrial speakers at the seminar included eCoal (an online coal purchasing platform), HP, Sevalo (a construction and mining equipment services business) and SKF from the world of industry, whilst Professors Marjorie Lyles (Indiana University), Chris Voss (Warwick Business School), Xiande Zhao (Ceibs) and I delivered academic presentations.
It was a great trip, fascinating in so many ways, and here are my thoughts on some of the themes that came out for me at the seminar.
The importance of technology to China.
All the speakers talked about the way technology is changing China’s approach to business. They talked about all the traditional topics - cloud computing, big data, mobile, the need for better security. But they also talked about Internet Plus, China’s equivalent to Germany’s Industrie 4.0 and the rest of the world’s Internet of Things.They recognise that as more and more devices are connected to the net, ever greater volumes of data will be created and these data can potentially deliver new and valuable business insights if analysed and interpreted correctly.
Platforms were also a major theme.Many of the firms that spoke, including many of those in the audience, were looking to create platforms, often to combine buying power and/or to utilize spare capacity.
eCoal, for example, has created a coal buying platform which allows it to drive significant cost savings by pooling purchasing across multiple organisations. HP claimed to be the world’s biggest retailer of paper. With their print on demand services, where you pay per page rather than for the printer, HP is forced to buy large volumes of paper. But with large volumes comes the opportunity to negotiate discounts for bulk purchasing.
Many firms were looking to create platforms, often to combine buying power and/or to utilize spare capacity.
One reason so many firms were interested in platforms was the massive success of China’s three stars of eBusiness - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (the Chinese refer to them as BAT). These three firms dominate China’s discussion of eBusiness and have all successfully created platforms, which in turn create multi-sided markets. Tencent, for example, offers users access to free online games, sells the eyeballs to advertisers, but also sells the players of games equipment upgrades.
A dominant question underlying many of the comments at the forum, was how do we create platforms that will allows us to capture multiple, complementary sources of revenue for our businesses.We also talked about challenges of servitizing. The fact that having a strong product heritage or brand sometimes makes it more difficult to offer services. Interestingly a number of the speakers referred back to the roots of their organisations, obviously a product of their firm’s history, but I wondered whether history also constrained their thinking about the future.
Services and solutions often cross multiple products and categories.
SKF asked some fantastic questions about servitization. How do we persuade our customers to buy solutions from us before we have proved their value? Who buys services and solutions? Procurement is typically not structured that way. It thinks about products and categories, yet services and solutions often cross multiple products and categories.And finally we talked about enablers of servitization. What would make the transition to services easier?
Through the course of the seminar I heard five key themes:
- Get inside the mind of your customer’s customer. Understand what is value to them, so you can better help your customer create value for their customer; to understand you need deep relationships - ask yourself are we really close enough to our customers;
- Seek to balance control and collaboration in the ecosystem - not everyone needs to control or create a ecosystem. Sometimes you have to accept you are part of one and the best you can do is seek to influence
- Think about creating win-win-win across the ecosystem to drive change;
- Learn from your experience, codify it and share it; and
- Think about solutions - SKF has created solutions factories where they can work with customers to solve their problems. Using your own ideas and technology collaboratively with the customer is a great way of getting inside their minds and building a deep relationship with them.
One of the great privileges of life as an academic is the opportunity to travel, to experience different countries and cultures. I never fail to be inspired when I go somewhere different and meet someone new. My latest trip to China was no exception.
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.
Leave a Reply