Category: Outside-In

Great Outside In activity and quote from PEX Orlando

PEX Orlando 2013 is rolling forward in great style.

Neat sessions this morning about leadership in process transformation.

The panel included:

  • Dellroy Birch, CIO, Fortegra Financial,
  • Michelle Boutwell, SVP, IT Strategy and Planning, Citi,
  • Sam Garfield, Vice President – Enterprise PMO, Discovery Communications,
  • Laura Truax, Sr. Manager, Enterprise Excellence Lockheed Martin Systems and Training.
What stood out for me was Michelle Boutwell from Citi who encouraged delegates to take the Outside In perspective for business performance success.

There was then a furious visit by all attendees (400+) around the vendors stands for the Demo Drive, a great way to expose everyone to the latest automated solutions.

My highlight so far today was however Erika Westbays Outside In perspective of keynotes Jim Carrolls observation “three things that we must always be thinking about in our line of work as growing the business, improving the business and transforming the business.”

Erika puts this into a day to day pragmatic reality with her observation: “three things that we must always be thinking about in our line of work as growing the customer’s success, improving the customer’s success and transforming the customer’s success.”

I fully agree after all it is about getting the customer piece right BEFORE the business can succeed!

This afternoon there are track sessions on the themes Strategy, Change and Leadership / Value Creation / Sustainability / Training.

I particularly like the title “Continuous Process Improvement and Intelligent BPM” with Connie Moore of Forrester. That suggests to me there is an alternative BPM out there which isn’t smart 😉

Later are the Rewards session and cocktail party. More on that later!

Ciao for now, Steve

It is the Annual Conference at PEX Orlando :)

I will be joining this week several hundred other process professionals here in Orlando at the Hilton Bonnett Creek for the very latest networking and sharing of the best in Process transformation and Outside In. Three years ago I keynoted with this presentation which is still as relevant for all aspirant individuals and organizations seeking to step up their business performance.

If you want anymore like this let me know. If you are in Orlando this week let’s meet 🙂

On banks, customer onboarding and Outside In

Companies of different shapes and sizes face similar seismic challenges to their existing operations. Banks are a prime example of this need to shift towards Outside In thinking and practice.

In the current demanding environment, banks need to win new customers and seek – and realize – recurring revenues from new and existing customers.
Winning new business and retaining existing customers in a volatile market can be a massive challenge; however, providing an efficient, cost effective and differentiated customer service has become the key to any banks ability to not only survive, but to thrive.
A successful bank needs to tailor its service propositions to deliver sustainable margin-earning business across legacy functional and product silos.
The old industrialised approach based on selling a specific product to a segmented customer via a dedicated and discrete silo no longer meets 21st century customer needs. Fundamentally, banks now need to optimize the share of business that they win (and retain) from each customer. This in turn requires adopting a customer centric and service oriented mindset, and developing an unprecedented depth of customer insight to enhance the quality and consistency of the service provided.
However, the embedded structure, operational culture and processes of many banks mitigate against this objective. Experience shows that customers are increasingly disappointed by banks’ inability to operate effectively across silos and fail to understand specific customer needs. New capabilities are required to enable banks to take an increasingly ‘customer oriented’ view on how to serve their clients. The customer  service strategy of banks should progressively make customers lives easier, simpler and more successful.
Banks must become Outside In and see all their business operations in the context of achieving Successful Customer Outcomes. Those organizations who make customers lives easier and more successful are winning, and more importantly retaining customers trust and future business. Customers should therefore enjoy the total banking experience so they will stay with you and spend more. 
When was the last time you enjoyed a banking experience?

The 800-CEO-READ Bestsellers of 2012

December 31, 2012

The 800-CEO-READ Bestsellers of 2012

Filed under: Bestsellers — 800-CEO-READ @ 11:41 am

We move a whole lot of business books around the world from our humble offices here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Each and every month, we compile our sales numbers and release a bestseller list to recognize the books that are heading out to businesspeople, business schools, and entrepreneurs to help spread ideas, solve problems, promote change, and inspire leadership in the business community. We’ve now compiled those numbers for the entire year, giving weight to both total sales numbers and how long each book stayed on the list (and at what number) and are happy to announce
the bestsellers of 2012.




  1. From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership by Harry M Jansen Kraemer, Jossey-Bass
  2. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful (Revised) by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter, Hyperion Books
  3. New Power Base Selling: Master the Politics, Create Unexpected Value and Higher Margins, and Outsmart the Competition by Jim Holden & Ryan Kubacki, John Wiley & Sons
  4. Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business by Frances Frei & Anne Morriss, Harvard Business Review Press
  5. End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution by Brian Solis, John Wiley & Sons
  6. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick M Lencioni, Jossey-Bass
  7. Taking People with You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen by David Novak, Portfolio
  8. Stewardship: Lessons Learned from the Lost Culture of Wall Street by John Taft, John Wiley & Sons
  9. Relationship Economics: Transform Your Most Valuable Business Contacts Into Personal and Professional Success (Revised, Updated) by David Nour, John Wiley & Sons
  10. Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath, Gallup Press
  11. 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, & Jim Huling, Free Press
  12. Conversations That Win the Complex Sale: Using POWER MESSAGING to Create More Opportunities, Differentiate Your Solutions, and Close More Deals by Erik Peterson & Timothy Riesterer, McGraw-Hill
  13. Own Your Success: The Power to Choose Greatness and Make Every Day Victorious by Ben Newman, John Wiley & Sons
  14. Business of Being the Best: Inside the World of Go-Getters and Game Changers by Molly Fletcher with Justin Spizman, Jossey-Bass
  15. The $10 Trillion Prize: Captivating the Newly Affluent in China and India by By Michael J Silverstein, Abheek Singhi, Carol Liao, & David Michael, Harvard Business Review Press
  16. The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon, John Wiley & Sons
  17. Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World by Gail F. Goodman, John Wiley & Sons
  18. The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg, John David Mann, Portfolio
  19. Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins, Morten T. Hansen, HarperBusiness
  20. Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies by Jim Stengel, Crown Business
  21. The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin, The Penguin Press
  22. The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money by Carl Richards, Portfolio
  23. How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership by Marilyn Carlson Nelson with Deborah Cundy, McGraw-Hill
  24. Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–And Secretive–Company Really Works by Adam Lashinsky, Business Plus
  25. How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything (Expanded) by Dov Seidman, John Wiley & Sons

Customers and Outside In

Warming up for the PEX annual conference in Florida in a few weeks 🙂 It really is the BEST conference in North America and we’ll be reviewing the content shortly (see http://bit.ly/QMDwfN for a Preview)

Who inspires your thinking?

An interesting thought…. People passionate about process realize that everything is process. Even the way we think is a process. One of my inspirations is a guy called Richard Bandler (co founder of NLP). I caught this recent radio interview in the UK recently (13 mins long) that really captures the essence of thinking differently (and changing your process).
   
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlUVX5DnqQ8

BP GROUP SOAPBOX 3: Do We Need another Process Methodology?

The Soapbox series is designed to be provactive and let people air their views in a mutually respectful place. You may not agree, and all the better for it, so explain your perspective and share your commitment to transforming the planet!

BP GROUP SOAPBOX 2: Six Sigma caused the global recession.

In a slight digression we have unearthed some very emotive discussions. Has the agenda really shifted this much?

The Soapbox series is designed to be provactive and let people air their views in a mutually respectful place. You may not agree, and all the better for it, so explain your perspective and share your commitment to transforming the planet!

BPGroup Soapbox – Process is an Effect

In a slight digression we have unearthed some very emotive discussions. Has the agenda really shifted this much?

BP GROUP SOAPBOX 1: Process is an Effect

The Soapbox series is designed to be provactive and let people air their views in a mutually respectful place. You may not agree, and all the better for it, so explain your perspective and share your commitment to transforming the planet!