Category: Outside-In

The Focus has shifted from Inside-Out to Outside-In

I am frequently asked to summarise the difference between the inside-out industrial/information age mindset, and that of Outside-In (think Apple, Google, Zara, Zappos, Emirates etc.) thinking and practice. So here to answer that request (and from a section in my upcoming new book) is the overview.

Over the following weeks we will delve into each area and I will provide examples and case studies of each aspect of this Copernican shift.

The Focus has shifted from Inside-Out to Outside-In

Industrial/Information Age Customer Age

People Silo’s Multi functional
Specialist Multi skilled
Isolated Relationships
Awards – Time served Awards – Value Created
Autocratic Dynamic (to suit the needs)
Processes Doing things right Doing the right things and doing things right
Manufacturing mindset Customer Experience
Tasks/Activities and Outputs Outcomes and SCO’s
Stocks Flows
Products Services
Left to Right, Top to Bottom Customer Centric
IT Algorithmic Heuristic
Hierarchical Hyperlinked
Analytical Understanding
Ownership Access
Strategy Top Down Inclusive
Structured and Rigid eg 5 yr plans Agile and Adaptive
Tablets of stone Continual Alignment to SCO’s
Market/product focus Customer/expectation focus
Customers Uninformed Prosumer
Loyal Promiscuous
Forgiving Rebellious
Locked-In Demand Flexibility
Compliant and managed High Expectations and fickle
Single channel Multi channel
(c) 2012 Steve Towers

Next week we’ll start by reviewing the Customer Aspect
 

Join us at IT Web South Africa http://bit.ly/AfricaSixSigmaOnSteroids
Join us at PEX Week London http://bit.ly/PEXLondon2012

Join us at the CPP Master Class London http://londonmasters2012-estw.eventbrite.com 

Motivation and the 21st century difference

More on the shift to Outside-In described very effectively by Dan Pink discussing how inside-out motivational ideas (carrot and stick) have ceased to work.
Watch and then ask yourself the question – how does my company motivate me?

Moments of Truth and dumb assed hotels

Watch this entertaining expose of everthing wrong with international hotels frequented by fellow Road Warriors. Of course I am sure your business isn’t as half as dumb as some like the hotel trade? Or is it?

(let’s acknowldge a great spot by Samir Asaf CPP Master)

ɯoʇʇoq oʇ doʇ puɐ ʇɥƃıɹ oʇ ʇɟǝl ʇou sı plɹoʍ ǝɥʇ

There is a saying that the map is not the territory. And yet so many treat their representation of the world as fact and reality. When you draw a process and agree with others that is how it looks just because you may all agree doesn’t make it real. It is just a collective hallucination. It is an abstract of reality. Does your world always flow top to bottom and left to right, or is it more real than that?

Great illustraton of Outside-In thinking and practice.

Jeff Bezos provides his viewpoint..

.”I would hope people would say that Amazon is earth’s most customer-centric company, and that we work backwards from customers. Many companies sort of look at what their skills are and they work forward from their skills. They say this is what we’re good at, and this is what we’ll do. It’s a very different approach from saying here is what our customers need, and we will learn whatever skills we need.”

That really describes the dfference between inside-out thnking (examine your capabilities and figure out how to optimise them) to Outside-In – figure out the Customer needs and align everthing to deliver the Successful Customer Outcome.
http://bit.ly/AmazonOutsideIn

Process Excellence in Africa – keynote presentation

The second global Process Excellence conference completed this week in Cape Town, South Africa. The IQPC team are noted for their organisation and excellent speaker profiles and this event was a great example of the very latest thinking, in depth technical reviews and guidance for Process people throughout Africa.

Highly recommended for any conference the next in the global series Europe with London in April. You can review that event here: http://bit.ly/PEXLondon2012

The following is Steve Towers presentation which examines how some organisations seem to defy the recession and achieve ongoing success for their customers, employees and shareholders.
It looks like magic until you know the trick!

You have the Power to change the world (and that aint no cliche)

Helping people to see the possibilities and getting them there isn’t a part time task. 

In our training, coaching and consultancy we encourage Certified Process Professionals and CPP Masters to relate this message of transformation in a constructive practical way. It is what makes the difference when you are doing it in your organisations for real.
Part of my personal inspiration comes from someone who relates ideas phenomenally well, and gives us the means to do it ourselves.

That person – Nancy Duarte.
 
This ten minute video will, if you give yourself permission, change the way you relate your ideas and create success forever.

Getting the attention you deserve (it is a process about process)

Looking Outside-In

The BP Group is 20 years old in September. Over the last two decades people who have participated in our training and consultancy and have captured some of my comments. There are over 200, many clearly inspired by my heroes ‘giants’ in business and life. The list here are the ones most often referred back to me 🙂

How much do you need to know, to know you know, you know enough?

The Customer Experience is the process (Steve Jobs)

If things are changing faster outside than in, you will fail.

You don’t have a choice about where to start. You can only start where you are now!

Are you aligned to Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO’s)? Or are you just moving the chairs on the deck of the Titanic?

If you do not know who your customer is you do not know what you are doing.

Stop managing and measuring outputs. Start managing Customer Expectations and measuring the SCO.

Can your people clearly articulate their contribution to the SCO?

This is a once in a 600 year thing. The invention of the printing press (1436) and now Outside-In (1997).

Does your technology help with the SCO? If it doesn’t scrap it!

Technology is the emans to the end, not the end in itself. It is just the same with pen and paper.

To link process with performance we need to rethink what we mean by performance.

We shouldn’t keep looking back at the past to define the possibilities for the future.

Does your process start and end with the customer? If it doesn’t you are fixing the wrong thing.

Someone said the Chinese are coming. They are wrong. The Chinese have been and gone. This is what you are left with as a consequence!

Moving Outside-In isn’t a choice. It is a pre-requisite for success in the 21st century.

Are you measuring Activities and Tasks (Inside-Out), or Outputs and SCO’s (Outside-In)?

The only reason a process exists to is to help achieve a Successful Customer Outcome.

Can you connect every single task with the Successful Customer Outcome?

Who pays your salary? Yes it is the Customer.

Check your companys reports. How often is the customer mentioned? If they are not it shouldn’t surprise you that the business is failing.

If you aren’t managing Customer Outcomes you aren’t managing the most aspect of your business.

Look beyond the Output. How does it contribute to the Customer Outcome? If it doesn’t stop producing it.

The customer is not my job? Get Real. The customer is everyones job!

Evolving Outside-In is not a destination. It is a journey.

The process map is not real. It is a collective hallucination.