They are all shortlisted finalists for this years Annual Process Excellence Awards. The team of judges has evaluated more than 200 submissions to produce the finalists who will now compete head to head at the BPGroup and Process Excellence 18th Annual Conference in London during April – http://bit.ly/BPG18_UK –
Atlantic Industries Ltd | BAA | Betfair | BP Lubricants | BSkyB | Cable & Wireless | Capgemini Polska Sp.z o.o. | Carphone Warehouse / Best Buy Europe | Citi | Computershare | DSM | Firstsource | Intelenet Global Services Pvt. Ltd | Irish Life Corporate Business | KuwaitPetroleum International | Lloyd’s Register | Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd | Network Rail | Procter & Gamble | RBS Insurance | RoyalBolton HospitalNHS Foundation Trust | RS Components UK | Schenker Arkas Transport & Trading | ScottishPower | Sellafield Ltd | Serco plc | Sutherland Global Services | Tesco | Virgin Media |
There are 8 Categories for the finalists including: Best BPM Program | Best BPM Project | Best BPO Program | Best Lean Transformation | Best Process Improvement Program | Best Process Improvement Project in Service & Transaction | Best Project Contributing to Innovation | Best Start Up Process Improvement Program
This years entries demonstrate the rapid evolution of process excellence and BPM towards Outside-In.
If you would like to review the conference, download the brochure and attend the event please visit http://bit.ly/BPG18_UK for the latest information.
If you are not in Europe and wish to attend the other 18th Annual Conferences we are live in:
Both organisations are VERY successful and represent the embodiment of Outside-In: Steve Jobs “the Customer Experience is the process”, and Jeff Bezos “..rather than ask what are we good at and what else we can do with that skill, you ask who are our customers? What do they really need? And then you say we’re going to give them that..”
In the light of recent product launches from Apple e.g. iPad2. So how do their business models compare?
Here is an excellent review of the difference and an indicator of who is going to win the race…
Are your processes reactive or proactive? Do you exercise control through process, or is the process managing you? What role does the customer play in your processes – passive onlooker or active participant? Do you have a plan for maturing your processes in order to significantly reduce costs, enhance service and grow revenues?
In the ground-breaking book “The principles of Scientific Management” (published in 1911) Frederick Winslow Taylor observed “The first step in gaining control over an Organisation is to know and understand the basic processes.” One hundred years later this has never been more important and is a central theme for progressive organisations i.e. getting and maintaining control of all activities and tasks that contribute to the delivery of a Successful Outcome.
1.Are your processes reactive or proactive? For those familiar with the ‘Moments of Truth’ concept (see here) we understand that all work is ultimately caused by customer interactions. Frequently negative and often unsatisfactory interactions create the work we see every day within our companies. If we examine the Moments of Truth we understand the very nature and shape of work that will result. Will the process be simple and create positive outcomes? Does the process appear convoluted with many checkpoints and possible errors? There is a secret known to leading companies such as Apple, Bestbuy and Google.
2.Who is in control – or is the process managing you? With all the talk in the process world of ‘process owner’ you could believe there was a science to identifying, managing and maturing processes. Is this so? Some would claim to have process repositories with well documented and indexed processes accessible at the touch of a button. Process ownership and records do not mean control. Consider this as an example. Customer Call Centre processes are to a very great extent initiated and pushed by customer interactions. We track calls, measure cycle times, identify waits, reduce talk time, optimise scripts and try to answer queries. All this activity is driven by customer behaviour. There is an illusion of control because we measure, some would say excessively, everything that moves. Gaining control of a process involves more that measures acted on retrospectively. True process control involves a series of specific and easy to apply techniques that transform and redefine the process landscape.
3.What role does the customer play in your process (and is it important)? “My job isn’t the customer. That is for the guys in sales and marketing and customer service and collections. I do the accounts/program/manage people/motivate/create strategy…” This is an accepted reality for many. It appears to be true that the customers do not figure directly in their work. However the only reason the job exists is to contribute to product or service bought by customers. Through that we collect revenue that ultimately results in profit for the share-holder. It is therefore logical to suggest that everything the organisation does should be explicitly linked to a Successful Customer Outcome. Accordingly you should be able to articulate what contribution any activity or task makes to the ultimate outcome. If you can understand the role of the customer in every process you can eradicate all that stuff that doesn’t contribute positively. There is a systematic way to do this with immediate positive results for the people, process, enterprise and customer.
4.Do you need to improve your processes and if so how do you? All work is process. Whether we have a structure or means of capturing activities and tasks it comes down to the same thing. Creating a picture of what is happening and then managing that picture to a better place than now. Is that part of your process world, and how do you approach it? Are all processes viewed as virtual productions lines trapped inside functional specialist silo’s. How many processes cut across the organisation and extend to the customer experience? Where does the process start and end? When the phone rings (reactive) or at your initiation (pro-active?). Developing a process maturity model aligned to your business can deliver quantifiable results quickly. After all you don’t want to leave it to chance.
We’ll discuss the ‘solutions’ in the next update. Meanwhile what is your view?See the latest at http://linkd.in/ProcessControl
The Secret of the 21st century leading companies
The title of the book[i] last year suggested that the ‘secret’ was a relentless focus on Outside-In thinking and practice. Let’s dig deeper and understand the essence of Outside-In, in other words let’s unfold what makes the secret so profound, practical and accessible by anyone who wishes to progress their roles and organisations to new levels of achievement.
1.Seek – Focus on what you do want, rather than on what you don’t
Outside-In approaches such as the CEMMethod® emphasize applying attention on what you need to be doing to deliver Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO). Clearly articulating the customer’s needs and aligning processes to achieving them delivers the Triple Crown – reduced costs, enhanced service and revenue growth. It is radically different compared to traditional improvement approaches that concentrate effort and resources to figuring out what you don’t want to be doing. There is also often the assumption with traditional approaches that the process is a given – it is there and should be fixed. Not so with Outside-In companies. If the process and all the associated activities and tasks do not contribute to the SCO then stop doing them. There is no need to optimise something that can be eradicated.
·How are you approaching performance improvement?
·Do you continue to search for things to stop doing?
·Can you refocus and identify the things you should be doing?
2.Shape – Identify the customers and staff you require and trust them
This is a big ask for many. “How on earth can we trust our customers?” “We could never trust our staff”. Ask yourself a more pertinent question – who on earth recruited those customers and staff in the first place? What was the criteria for that and what were you thinking about?
Making customer service key to your organisation will keep your employees motivated and your customers happy. Richard Branson
Outside-In companies believe in their people and the customer. They actively recruit customers by creating and managing customer expectations[ii]. In doing so less desirable customers can be actively managed away. Naturally you need the people within the organisation to deliver the means to the SCO and that is through the processes. If you develop trust and competency within your people they will shape the customer experience to deliver success. On the other hand if you assume your people are untrustworthy you establish a ‘checkers checking checkers’ mindset which is expensive, slow and ultimately provides a sub-optimal customer experience.
What steps could you immediately take to:
·recruit the customers you desire, and
·ensure your staff are motivated, engaged and trusted?
3.Execute – Progressively align everything to Successful Customer Outcomes
If you have a choice go for the biggest current challenge within the organisation. Within 45 days the process can be transformed to significantly reduce costs (typically 40-50%) and simultaneously improve service. In revenue generating processes turnover will begin to grow as service improves and turnaround times reduce. Train all your people in basic techniques so they can contribute directly from the ‘get-go’ (rather than exclusively rely on a cadre of colored belted statisticians).
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.. Martin Luther King Jr.
If your choice of starting point and actions are limited in scope do not be disheartened. Know that it is sufficient to take the first step and the staircase will unfold as you move forward. Fix the stuff you can as you do you will achieve results significantly better that traditional inside-out techniques. Within weeks you will produce the justification to move upstream and downstream from your starting point to eventually connect all processes.
Ultimately mature Outside-In companies embrace “the customer experience is the process” and the activities move beyond the boundaries of the organisation into the relationships and partnerships that deliver customer success. Working those relationships and building value through partners creates a differentiation way beyond the capabilities of traditional organisations.
As you start the journey:
·How could you grow your capability immediately?
·What steps can you take to begin the journey?
·Where should you focus those immediate resources?
·Can you take a half day for everyone to learn three simple techniques that will produce a tangible measureable deliverable immediately?
This series of commentary is addressing the challenges faced by Certified Process Professionals® as they progress their organisations Outside-In.
We start with what is now a classic denial strategy and will progress over the coming weeks to review TEN (sometimes deliberate) misconceptions that seek to stop you on your journey to Successful Customer Outcomes.
‘The company has to get its own processes right first’.
In the context of Outside-In this is clearly a major mistake. As the Southwest Airlines and Apple examples demonstrate you fix the internal processes by understanding and acting on “the Customer Experience is the process”. In doing so eveything changes internally to better align to successful customer outcomes. That reduces complexity, removes costs, improves service and grows revenue.
Now if you brief is ‘in the box’ and does not yet extend to the Customer Experience the approach should be around optimisation through understanding the causes of work – moments of truth, breakpoints and business rules. Even though this is at best sub optimisation (recall the US banks Customer query process) it will take you to a much better place with significant performance improvements as you highlight and eradicate the ‘dumb stuff’.
Often times this has to be the starting point as, by definition, the way inside-out works is by the sub division of labour. You can only see the immediate walls around you and looking beyond maybe beyond your brief. Do not lose heart. Go with Optimisation (and if necessary stealth) as you introduce through existing projects the concepts of moments of truth, breakpoints and business rules. You will catch the eye of those responsible for the numbers as the changes you introduce go way beyond the traditional expectations.
Ciao, Steve
Next week… Changing the picture ‘My job doesn’t really involve the end customer. But I do have a mass of internal customers!’
BP Group updates and *NEW* WEBINAR series with CPP Master® Martina Beck-Friis
** FREE WEBINAR SERIES STARTS THIS WEEK** The CEMMethod® WEBINAR with Martina Beck-Friis – http://bit.ly/CEMMOverview
** Top DISCUSSION ** When you’re in a support department like IT, Finance, or HR who is your end customer, the rest of the organisation or customers outside…(Hussein Patel) – http://linkd.in/at8hcB
** Articles ** Outside-In is a business imperative (Steve Towers) – http://bit.ly/cbszHM
All the Best until next time, Steve Towers, BP Group Founder
BIG thanks to the BP Group Advisors, Managers & Sundowner Directors including: John Corr | Sunil Dutt Jha | Charles Bennett | David Mottershead | Erika Westbay | Janne Ohtonen | Nick Harvard | Stephane Haelterman | Paul Bailey | Martina Beck-Friss | Mark Barnett | Steve Melville | Stephen Nicholson | Marjolein Towler | Jennifer van Wyk | MichelineLogan |
MAJOR MILESTONE ACHIEVED 5,400 members on BP Group Linked-In BPGroup (est 1992. 43,000+ members | LinkedIn est. Oct 2008.) Reflecting the growth and interest in all things process
The BP Group are Sponsors of the Business Process Professional® pathway –
** News & Events** The CEMMethod® WEBINAR with Martina Beck-Friis (CPP Master®) and Steve Towers – http://bit.ly/CEMMOverview Enterprise Architecture CONNECTIONS subgroup exceed 340 in three months – http://linkd.in/EAandProcess
BP Group 18th Annual CONFERENCE Heads-up | Book your diary in Orlando Jan 17-21, 2010 – http://bit.ly/BPGroupUR18
** Top DISSCUSSIONS ** When you’re in a support department like IT, Finance, or HR who is your end customer, the rest of the organisation or customers outside… – http://linkd.in/at8hcB (Hussein)
BIG thanks to the BP Group Advisors, Managers & Sundowner Directors including: Dick Lee | John Corr | Sunil Dutt Jha | Charles Bennett | David Mottershead | Erika Westbay | Janne Ohtonen | Nick Harvard | Stephane Haelterman | Paul Bailey | Martina Beck-Friss | Mark Barnett | Steve Melville | Stephen Nicholson | Marjolein Towler | Jennifer van Wyk (South Africa) | See them at http:://www.oibpm.com |
The global programme grows capabilities from Certified Process Practitioner® through to Certified Process Master® – review the series at http://www.bp2010.com
