The Magic of Outside-In – evolving business for 21c.
Work is changing… are you?
Is your organisation segregated into functional specialisms (ala the Scottish pin factory) or has it embraced the challenges of the 21st century and realigned Outside-In and put the customer at the centre of everything you do? If you are still wandering WHY have a look at this excellent presentation… The Future Of Work
Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA – January 16-19, 2012: http://bit.ly/PEX2012
Achieving the ‘Triple Crown’ – increasing revenue, improving the customer experience and reducing costs
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – March 19-21, 2012 : http://bit.ly/BPMandCustomerCentricity
BPM SUMMIT 2012 – IT WEB ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Johannesburg, South Africa – April 17-18 : http://bit.ly/SouthAfricaBPM
BPGROUP CONFERENCE IN ASSOCIATION WITH IQPC – PEX 2012 Europe
London, England – April 23-27, 2012 : http://bit.ly/PEX2012_London
Gaining Customer Insight
- Identify the Issue/Opportunity and determine the Process to Review.
- Decide who is the Customer.
- Understand the Customers current expectations.
- Clarify the customers view of what is a successful outcome.
- Identify what it is the process currently does that impacts customer success (negatives and postives).
- Develop SMART Successful Customer Outcome Statements of Intent.
Successful Customer Outcomes & Process Excellence
The Future of Business Process Part 2: Outside-In, Lean Six Sigma, BPM and all that….
“Not everything old is bad and antiquated and not everything new is shiny and good. The real secret to success is to combine the best of both.”
Rene Carayol (left), Senior Executive & Former Board Member for Pepsi, Marks & Spencer, IPC Media & The Inland Revenue
Process has indeed come a long way from it humble routes amidst the early industrial revolution and Adam Smiths ‘Wealth of Nations’.
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One of the first people to describe process was Smith who in 1776 describes a new way for process in a Scottish pin factory. He outlines the production methods and created one of the first objective and measureable enterprise process designs. The consequence of ‘labour division’ in Smith’s example resulted in the same number of workers making 240 times as many pins as they had been before the introduction of his innovation.
Adam Smith participated in a revolution that transformed the planet. He lived at a time when the confluence of factors, political change, emergence of the New World, industrialization and a new optimism that the world could move from the shackles of the past.
In heralding a movement that developed into Scientific Management the foundation was laid that established a way of working that has survived and thrived for 200 years.
And yet now, more than ever, is a time to perhaps take a careful glance back to the past to guide the way for not only surviving the current economic turmoil but to also prepare us to thrive in the seismic shifts of the 21st century ‘new world’ order where the customer has become central to everything we do.
Leading global corporations are now evolving their tried and tested approaches into methods suited to the changed challenges of customer promiscuity, globalisation, IT innovation and the Prosumer. That is the essence of what we call Outside-In.
“The Customer Experience is the Process”
Outside-In can really be summarised in the statement that “the customer experience is the process”. We can no longer just look within our organisation boundary to create a sustainable competitive advantage. We have to extend our scope and embrace a broader view of optimising process by understanding, managing and developing customer expectations and the associated experience. We need to articulate Successful Customer Outcomes and let those guide our product and service development as we move beyond the limiting scope of silo pyramidal based left to right thinking.
In 2006 BP Group Research identified the ‘Evolution of Approaches’ and how steps can be taken to grow Lean Six Sigma’s influence and success into a strategic Outside-In toolkit. In fact the last 4 years are seeing the fruition of these advances with Best in Class 2009 & 2010 Award winners PolyOne, a dyed in the wool Lean outfit, advancing their stock price six fold in 18 months on the back of radical and innovative changes across its customer experience.
Some see Outside-In as the death knell for approaches such as for old style BPM, BPR, TQM and Lean Six Sigma. This is not so. This narrow and simplistic view does not acknowledge the stepping stones available to embrace the new customer centric order. In fact the foundations of our futures are always laid on the learnings of the past with those innovators who recognise the need to evolve leading that charge.
Victory will go to the brave who seize the moment and push forward their approaches into the brave new world of Outside-In. The sector leaders have set a precedent – can you embrace the challenge?
All the Best, Steve
If you wish to read and listen more on this theme the following references are useful.
Join the community discussing these issues, challenges and opportunities.
Community and social networking – Join the BP Group
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LinkedIn
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Outside-In The Secret of the 21st Centuries leading companies
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Book
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Interview Harvard Business Review with HBS
Professor Ranjay Gullati |
Video
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http://bit.ly/RanjayOutside-In
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Interview Wharton Business School with WBS Professor George Day
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Video
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http://bit.ly/WhartonGeorgeDay
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Interview Affecto University with Steve Towers
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Video
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http://bit.ly/SteveTowersOutside-In
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Interview by Megan James (IQPC)
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Video
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http://bit.ly/MeganJamesOutside-In
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Downloadable keynotes and slide shows
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Presentations
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http://www.slideshare.net/stowers/
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Professional – Certified Process Professional program
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Qualifications
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Don’t give customers what they think they want – Steve Towers
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Article
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Evolution of Process Excellence Approaches – BP Group
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Research
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Outside-In – Interview with Blog Radio’s Gienn Weiss
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Podcast
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The Best Performing companies Millward Optimoor
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Research
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UPCOMING CONFERENCES ON THE THEME OF PROCESS EXCELLENCE, ENTERPRISE BPM AND OUTSIDE-IN
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Resources
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Outside-In is a business imperative
- Competition is fierce and global.
- Customers have become rebellious.
- Customers are promiscuous
- Customers have expectations like never before.
- Customers demand choice, comprehensive information and the best price.
- Customer know more about your service and product than you do (the prosumer)
This is simply a collective delusion and is the root cause of why so many are failing the customer, the shareholder and their hardworking employees.
This thinking stems from a time when the world turned more slowly and is more appropriate to the 1950’s then this centuries new business reality. To orientate to long term business and customer success we need to look at the enterprise from the Outside-In (OI) rather than inside-out. It is now about understanding customer needs (not wants) and eradicating all the things that do not contribute to achieving Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO’s).

Enterprise BPM & Outside-In Resources – videos, presentations and upcoming conferences
HARVARD PERSPECTIVE:
https://businessprocess.box.net/shared/zqb1z083ubWHARTON PERSPECTIVE:
https://businessprocess.box.net/shared/tshqkxkdqeFOLLOWING BLOG/ARTICLES:
http://www.successfulcustomeroutcomes.net/MANAGEMENT GURU’S:
http://linkd.in/ManagementGurusTHE STATE OF THE BPM INDUSTRY
http://bit.ly/BPM_StateoftheIndustrySTEVE TOWERS PRESENTATIONS:
http://www.slideshare.net/stowers/IQPC BUSINESS EXCELLENCE SUMMIT
Delhi, India, September 22-23: http://bit.ly/IndiaBPM
IQPC BPM LEADERS MEETING
Amsterdam – October 20-21: http://bit.ly/rhqLHP
Leaders Blog http://bit.ly/p6AIuI
IT WEB ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Johannesburg – October 12-13: http://bit.ly/SouthAfricaBPM
STRATEGY DRIVEN PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
London – December 5-8: http://bit.ly/StrategicTransformation
BPGROUP CONFERENCE IN ASSOCIATION WITH IQPC – PEX 2012
Lake Buena Vista, Florida – Jan 16-19: http://bit.ly/PEX2012
Are you in the shadow of a Scottish Pin Factory?
Yes it is YOUR organization chart.
It is also a legacy from the Industrial Revolution and notably Adam Smith’s book “The Wealth of Nations” (1776). Are you organizing yourself like a Scottish pin factory or more realistically for the second decade of the 21st century?
Someone who takes a sideways swipe at the ‘sub division of labor’ is Seth Godin.
Have a glance at his most excellent blog:
http://bit.ly/BPM_Org_Charts
The future of Business Process. What is your take?
Forrester leader Connie Moore has just posted the current trends, based on latest research with “10 major thought leaders at large global organizations” and include the following seven points:
- A major strategic alignment between business process transformation and customer experience
- Very little concern about technology issues — because they believe the technology will work well (and this is not what keeps them up at night even now)
- A major focus on standardizing processes across the globe so that work can easily flow to the lowest-cost labor at any given moment
- The belief that processes will run in the cloud (private or public) and that businesses will consume processes-as-a-platform
- A strong conviction that IT will largely vanish into the business
- The need for access to global talent pools driving some of the need for business process transformation
- The expectation that being dynamic and turning on a dime will be critically important
I certainly give the thumbs up to Forrester for this efforts, especially since the next couple of weeks sees a couple of Forrester hosted webinars to share their views. Interestingly now Gartner will have to respond otherwise they will see themselves as sidelined into little more than the technical aspects of BPM.
Go read Connie Moores blog at: http://bit.ly/BusinessProcess2020
Do you agree with the points Forrester is making? Contribute to the LinkedIn thread on this theme at:
BPM Leaders hosted by PEX:
Barcelona – October 3-7 – Certified Process Professional & Master: http://bit.ly/MastersInBarcelona
WITH IQPC – PEX 2010
Lake Buena Vista, Florida – Jan 16-19: http://bit.ly/PEX2012
A New Order of Things – Outside-In – Six steps to Success
There is no easy way to introduce a new order of things however there are some principles that can be followed based on this type of mind shift.
1, Objective and immediate.
The results we achieve with Outside-In are significant and substantive e.g. Triple Crown*. Accordingly any effort should first of all identify the clear tangible benefits.
2. Talk is cheap.
Fine words and phrases will not win hearts and minds without substance. Delivery is key, hence the ‘start where you are’ sentiment. In current projects (where support may be lacking) introduce the techniques within the CEMMethod(tm) by stealth.
Lift the heads of those around you to think of Moments of Truth, Break Points and Business Rules for instance. “Nothing new mate, just some stuff other guys have used within… Six Sigma../..Lean../..EA../..complaince etc. (delete as appropriate)”
3. Build support.
With (2) underway you will build support. That is the point to shift focus and begin the more practical discussion of where and how.
4. Go for broke.
If you are extremely lucky/persuasive and have the top team already onboard go for broke. Discover the worst most problematic issues and set to righting ’em. By fixing the Cause you will remove the Effect.
5. Move on.
It is a 4-500 year shift in mindset (Dee Hock, VISA founder).
It will ultimately transform the planet. The jury is in fact back and the results speak for themselves. So when all looks desolate and casting your pearls before swine is depressing, remind them that they are part of the problem and move on.
6. Make it so.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE it just feels that way when surrounded by flat-landers (doh).
Learn, exchange and do.
Join the worlds first and largest Outside-In community at: http://www.oibpm.com
Once on-board review the subgroups and join the specialist communities – you will
find friends and support as we transform the planet one person,one process, one organisation at a time!
PS. The Outside-In book published in 2010 reviews in detail this emerging trend.
Here is the hardback – http://amzn.to/Outside-In
Here is the eBook version – http://bit.ly/OutsideInApple Link with Steve Towers – http://bit.ly/LinkWithSteve
Follow Steve Towers on Twitter – http://twitter.com/#!/stowers
*Triple Crown: Jim Sinur (Gartner) coined this phrase. Through the delivery of advanced BPM you will simultaneously reduce costs, enhance service and grow revenues. In public sector/not for profits replace revenue growth with delievry of strategic objectives.