How do Outside-In companies do that?

Michael Nakamoto (CPP Master) The Nature Conservancy, explains how recent shifts to Outside-In change how projects report success; its implications and consequently how TNC is achieving much better results for its customers.


Join The Nature Conservancy and learn more from progressive companies in Florida at the Annual PEX event during January in Orlando, Florida,  http://www.pexweek.com/

Moving Outside-In. 4 steps to redefining business processes forever.

From the desk of James Dodkins

Part 1 of 4: There are four distinctly Outside-In ways that you can rethink
process and in doing so achieve Triple Crown benefits.


Let's take them in bite sized chunks.
  1. €    Understand and applying Process diagnostics
  2. €    Identify and aligning to Successful Customer Outcomes
  3. €    Re-frame where the process starts and ends
  4. €    Rethink the business you are in

Let's start with...
1. Understand and applying Process diagnostics:

Earlier we have mentioned Moments of Truth, those all important interactions
with customers. Let¹s take that discussion further and include other closely
related techniques for uncovering the real nature of process ­ breakpoints
and business rules.

Firstly Moments of Truth (MOT) were first identified by Swedish management
guru Richard Normann (1946-2003) in his doctoral thesis ³ Management and
Statesmanship² (1975).
In 1989 Jan Carlson, the CEO of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) immortalized the
phrase with his book ŒMoments of Truth¹. He clearly linked all customer
interaction as the Causes of Work for the airline and set about eradicating
non value added MOT¹s and then improving those he couldn¹t remove.
a)    Moments of Truth are a Process Diagnostic
b)    They occur ANYWHERE a customer ³touches² a process
c)    They can be people-to-people, people-to-system, systems-to-people,
system-to-system, and people-to-product
d)    ANY interaction with a customer is a Moment of Truth
e)    Moments of Truth are both process Points of Failure and Causes of Work

Carlson transformed the fortunes of SAS with this straightforward insight ­
all work in our organizations is ultimately caused by the Moment of Truth.
Fix them and you fix everything else.
All Moments of Truth should be eradicated and those remaining improved. In
doing so the customer experience is improved, costs are reduced and
productivity maximized.

Next let¹s review Breakpoints. Breakpoints (BP¹s) are the direct consequence
of MOT¹s and are all the internal interactions that take place as we manage
the processes caused by the customer interactions.
a) Any place that a hand-off occurs in the process is a Break Point
b) Break Points can be person to person, person to system, system to person
or system to system
c) Break Points are both process Points of Failure and Causes of Work

By identifying BP¹s we can set about uncovering actions that would in turn
remove them, or if not improve them. BP¹s are especially evident were
internal customer supplier relationships have been established say between
Information Systems departments and Operations. Empirical research suggests
that for every Moment of Truth there are an average of 3 to 4 Breakpoints.
In other words a process with ten MOT¹s will typically yield 30-40
Breakpoints.
All Breakpoints should be eradicated and if not at the very least improved.
In doing so we get more done with less, red tape is reduced, control
improves and the cost of work comes down.

The third in our triad of useful Outside-In techniques is Business Rules.
Business Rules are points within a process where decisions are made.
a)    Some Business Rules are obvious while others must be ³found²
b)    Business Rules can be operational, strategic or regulatory and they
can be system-based or manual
c)    Business Rules control the ³behavior² of the process and shape the
³experience² of those who touch it
d)    Business Rules are highly prone to obsolescence
e)    We must find and make explicit the Business Rules in the process

Business Rules (BR¹s) are especially pernicious in that they are created for
specific reasons however over time their origin is forgotten but their
effect remains. For instance one Life insurance company had a delay of eight
days before issuing a policy once all the initial underwriting work was
complete. This has a serious impact on competitiveness as newcomers were
able to issue policies in days rather than weeks. After some investigation
it was discovered that the Œ8 day storage¹ rule was related to the length of
time it takes ink to dry on parchment paper. This rule hadn¹t surfaced until
the customer expectations changed. There are many examples of previously
useful rules evading 21st century logic and blocking the achievement of
successful customer outcomes. All Business Rules should be made explicit and
challenged in todays context.

Next time we'll take a look at the second way to radically redefine process:

Identify and aligning to Successful Customer Outcomes



The Nature Conservancy Annual get together of Over Achievers

Perhaps wiser and slightly more rounded (esp. me hidden in the back row) the crew resumed their annual jamboree in Arlington, Virgina. In the style of the event the irreverent photo at the afternoon break.

Thanks to Erika Westbay and her fantastic team for pulling such a cool experience together.

CPP Masters in Cary, North Carolina

Drum roll... a new batch of CPP Masters secured gold this week in North Carolina. Congratulations to all...

Finalists of the 2014 PEX Network Awards! (from our partners at PEX)



____________________________________________________________
We are delighted to announce the finalists of the 2014 PEX Network Awards!

The scope and quality of the awards entries this year was outstanding. Without further ado the trailblazers in Process Excellence and shortlisted entries are, drum roll.....
__________________________________________________________


BEST PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT (OVER 90 DAYS)
  • BOC Gases Ltd, Project OCTA - Optimisation of Cylinder Testing in Australia
  • Braskem, Improvement on CO Fractionator Tower Performance
  • Bristol Myers Squibb, Production Throughput and Changeover Optimization
  • Catalent Pharma Solutions, Deviation Reduction Programme
  • Genpact, Brokerage Account Opening Document Reject Rate Reduction
  • SingTel, Project Honeybee
  • Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Reducing Inpatient Chemotherapy Direct Admission Lead Time
BEST PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT (UNDER 90 DAYS)
  • Cap Gemini, S2P Optimization
  • Capital One, Enhancing Services for Customers with Disabilities
  • Catalent Pharma Solutions, Safety Analysis
  • Pitney Bowes, Inc., Back Office Customer Process Improvement
  • The Hunoval Law Firm, PLLC, Improving Legal Pleading Defects
BEST BPM PROJECT
  • Genpact, Piping Fabrication Optimization
  • SingTel, Project Super Mario
  • The Ottawa Hospital, Streamlining Inpatient Flow and Discharge Planning using BPM & Mobility: The Ottawa Hospital Experience
  • United States Postal Service, Full Time Union Official Fringe Benefit Processing
BEST "NEXT GENERATION" PROCESS EXCELLENCE PROJECT
  • AES Gener, Portfolio Optimization: Fuel Flexibility
  • BOC Gases Ltd, East Coast LNG Network
  • Cap Gemini, Creating Change Friendly Environment: Lean Model Office
  • SingTel, Brewing Amazing Experiences
  • Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Texas Health Dallas Flower Power Project
  • United States Postal Service, Time and Attendance Collection System (TACS) Shared Services Help Desk
BEST BUSINESS PROCESS EXCELLENCE IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (OVER 2 YEARS)
  • Genpact, Xcelerate 3.0
  • Intel, The Continuous Improvement Journey in the Human Resources Enterprise Services
  • Lincoln Financial Group, Ideas@Work
  • Phytel, Going from Good to Great
  • SingTel, Accelerating Transformation
  • The Nature Conservancy, Business Process Management Program The Nature Conservancy
BEST START UP BUSINESS PROCESS EXCELLENCE IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (UNDER 2 YEARS)
  • DPL Inc., APEX DPL Continuous Improvement
  • Magma Fincorp (Genpact), Magma Process Re-engineering
  • NorQuest College, Landmark Group Centre for Value Improvement
  • TXU Energy, Customer Quality (CQ) Program
  • United States Postal Service , VP Controller Organization Lean Six Sigma Deployment
  • Verizon, VLSS (Verizon Lean Six Sigma) for Process Excellence & Innovation
DEPLOYMENT LEADER OF THE YEAR
  • BOC Gases Ltd, Dr.Morgan Jones
  • Bridgewater Associates, Matthew Morgan
  • Catalent Pharma Solutions, Sridhar Krishnan
  • Conoco Phillips, Greg Bussing
  • DTE Energy, Robert Hemrick
  • Phytel, Jerry Green

Congratulations to all of the finalists and thank you to everyone that entered. We’re looking forward to celebrating the winning entries with you on Tuesday January 21 2014!

All the best,
The PEX Network Awards Team

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

From the desk of James Dodkins...

This week I'm going to pass the baton over to Ranjay Gulati.

He is the Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School,
and talks about 'Outside-In' in great detail.


Read this fantastic article here http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6201.html

A Christmas story with Westjet (the Canadian Outside-In company)

And how are your delivering for your customers this Christmas? Behold lead Outside-In company Westjet are really going that extra nine yards.



So what are you doing to bring a smile to your loyal customers?

Global Business Processes: the means to succeed in the 21st century.

What is a global process and what business benefit does it provide?

Companies with a worldwide presence face many challenges such as globalization, regional trading agreements and the uncertainty of the economic markets. These challenges require a coordinated approach which maximizes the benefits of a world-wide presence and at the same time provide a local focus. Global processes are the way to achieve this balance and include front end activities like customer acquisition or new business processing, support processes like information systems right the way through
to back end customer retention and financial management.

How does a company create, implement, and manage global processes?
Co-ordination. Teams need to develop a common process approach which regardless of culture speaks the same language i.e. what is the successful customer outcome (SCO)? Figuring out how work gets done and achieves the SCO is key to global process success. Implementation needs a pragmatic approach which acknowledges cultural perspectives.

Bringing a strategic multi disciplinary team together led by qualified process leaders familiar with cultural and economic challenge is a starting point.
Rolling out that discipline and process approach through geographic teams provides a means to learn and exchange and grow key processes to maturity.

What are the most common challenges associated with global processes?
Getting everyone on the same page. Even the way we think and speak of processes is different and so developing a common way of looking at work is critical to a successful operation. For instance the Œcollecting the money process¹ has a very specific objective however each location may have different custom and practice ­ how do you ensure a uniform and yet different approach? The underpinning technology that supports a global
process can be common, however the business rules that we operate to make sure our endeavor is successful often need to be different.

What is the relationship between global processes and performance
improvement?

The relationship is absolute. In the 20th century we may have talked about standardization and conformity. Performance is now much more driven by the capability to act in the moment e.g. a US insurance company has the slogan Œthink global, act local¹ which provides both a degree of uniformity and empowers the people locally to act in the best interests of the business ­there and then.

Why should the average employee care about global processes?
It is the understanding that there is a framework and common structure torunning the business successfully that provides assurance that senior management knows what they are doing and are operating as a team. Process is the way we get work done. It is the way we deliver value to our customers.

It¹s the way we create profits for our shareholders. This can then be encapsulated in our rewards systems and provide a framework for success, both in process, people, systems and global strategy.

(From the desk of James Dodkins)

A New Order of Things

From the desk of James Dodkins
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 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../..compliance 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 400 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 the swine 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.




James Dodkins, Chief Customer Officer,
BP Group

Certi fied Process Professional (CPP-Professional) 2014 programme

Training and Certification with BP Group
Chennai – Amsterdam –Orlando – London – Bangalore - Dubai – Brisbane – Cape Town – Denver – Sydney - Singapore

This is gentle reminder about our upcoming 2014 CPP Professional Global Training. Classes book quickly so please reserve soon.
http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

Course Overview:

The CPP Professional qualification is an acknowledgement of the understanding and practical skill set associated with Outside In, Enterprise BPM and the effective implementation of the CEMMethod. The CPP Professional role is to guide and maximize the organization's efforts toward its operational and strategic goals while removing the impediments the industrial age artefacts that stand in their way.

CEMMethod is an advanced approach for undertaking process change and transformation.  In traditional approaches the emphasis has often been exclusively on efficiency and effectiveness and as a consequence businesses were struggling in terms of cost, quality and customer's satisfaction. The BP Groups CEMMethod is a process framework, which is now replacing traditional industrial age approaches of process change and transformation in order to deliver first and foremost Successful Customer Outcomes. Introduced in 2006 in the book Customer Expectation Management, the CEMMethod is the process industry's standard in designing, developing and delivering Outside In process transformation, as it overcomes the many shortcomings of traditional inside out thinking.


Benefits of Training & Certification:
Caters to high demand in industry for Managers and Senior Executives with Certified Process Professional qualifications and Experience.

All our Instructors are practical proven experienced professionals working with the BP Group which has over 20 years of direct hands-on experience with real world companies in Process and Business Transformation and Change consulting and training
  • Individual attention and group interactions over the CEMMethod, processes and tools
  • In this blended model of training you will get online and classroom training
  • Online reading course content, videos and support materials
  • All BP Group certified participants will also earn 10 PDU’s Certificates
This five-day advanced course, you will apply the advanced features of the CEMMethod across a range of case studies, including your own work (if you prefer) to completely re-envisage a process, reduce costs, enhance customer service, grow revenues and consolidate customer experience.

You will learn what it feels like to access some of the most advanced toolkits from the worlds leading organisations experiencing many of the challenges you're likely to face--while being coached by world leading Gurus actively involved with the application of CEMMethod at many organizations. This "learning by doing" style of instruction demands your open mind and active participation.

For more details please log on to:
http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

*******************************************************************************************************
Thanks & Warm Regards,


Rachel Smith | Business Development Manager | BP Group

Email:  rachel.smith@bpgroup.org

Tel No: 00 44 20  3286 4248



************************************************************************************************************
BP Group, New Bond House, 124 New Bond Street, London W1S 1DX
Offices in London – Houston – Denver - Bangalore – Sydney - Associates in 118 countries
Office: US: +1 303 800-0924 | UK: +44 20  3286 4248 | Fax: +44 20 7691 7664

SIngapore and PEX Asia Heads up for February 2014

Dear Colleague,

I am delighted to be working with PEX Asia on their 2014 summit.
The event is designed for process management professionals who want to be at the forefront of change, champion excellence in their organisation and collaborate on creating the next generation of process transformation strategies.

Process Excellence is being redefined in this digital age, transforming organisations and revolutionising how business is conducted globally. To be competitive your company needs to continually evolve and move beyond just Lean Six Sigma.

Process Excellence today draws on a raft of evolving methodologies including Lean, Six Sigma, Business Process Management, Enterprise Architecture, Total Quality Management and Statistical Process Controls to enable organisations to improve the way they operate and deliver. Notable organisations such as the Singapore Exchange, ANZ, Shell, Nokia and the BP Group will be sharing the different ways they have blended and harmonised approaches within their ranks to enable their teams to connect more swiftly to relevant information, improve workflow automation and meet the ever changing consumer and market needs.


Excitingly, as part of this year's event we have provided delegates with an exclusive opportunity to undertake our certification training programme.

This is designed as two in-depth workshops which will give you the essential skills to take on process change and lead with excellence.

Completing the course will also qualify you as a Certified Process Professional (CPP Levels 1 & 2).

The process professionals we researched with during production of PEX Asia identified their core challenges as how to core challenges as how to:

1. Differentiate their organisation by continually meeting and exceeding process quality and customer service
2. Capture, synthesise and align their client and business needs
3. Continuously improve workflow automation and project turnaround times
4. Swiftly adapt, evolve and improve global supply chain management in ever changing markets
5. Better manage multiple PEX projects

All within reduced timeframes and budgets and still meeting the expected outcomes from reporting executives and boards!

At the PEX ASIA 2014 you will find presenters, delegates, information and ideas which pose solutions to resolving these exact challenges. Using PEX to drive business growth, increase profitability and competitive advantage is more critical than ever.

This is your chance to revitalise, strengthen and accelerate your process strategies.
We hope that you will be able to join us in Singapore at our PEX Asia 2014

Please do take a moment to look through the brochure or go to our PEX Asia website for more details. I look forward to meeting you in February in Singapore!

Steve Towers
Lead Coach and Co-Founder
BP GROUP, UK


Proactive Outside-In companies (James Dodkins)

Part of the Process Miracle course

http://www.processmiracle.com/ -
FREE BPM course featuring the Secret Sauce <

I also want to touch on the hurdles these companies using OI as their route to customer-centricity faced or are facing. While achieving customer-centricity is a noble goal‹ even a necessity for many companies‹it's not easy. It requires transformational change.
On the flip side, sticking to incremental change doesn't get you there. Not even close.

Amazon.com may have achieved Jeff Bezos's dream of becoming the world's most
customer-centric company. And Amazon had the advantage of starting from
scratch with nothing preexisting in the way, except for a pervasive business
culture that believes companies went broke by trying to be too nice to
customers and became successful by rigorous cost control and a laser-like
focus. But Bezos understood the comfort level customers would feel with
Amazon sourcing whatever they need to buy (almost) instead of dealing with
scores of online merchants, including some not trustworthy. He also
understood that the best way to keep customers is by continually finding new
ways to offer them value. These were hardly popular concepts when he started
Amazon. And for straying from conventional "wisdom," Bezos and Amazon took a
pounding from pundits and analysts before proving them wrong.

Best Buy senior execs banked on their understanding of how customers really
wanted to buy electronics.

Best Buy made a major shift from a "cash and carry" electronics discounter
to a combined product/service provider that supports every facet of
customers enjoying high-tech electronics, with some appliances thrown in for
good measure. To get there, Best Buy had to re-staff the stores with better
trained, higher paid employees; bring in substantial new management
expertise, redesign stores from the ground up, go to store plans that flexed
with local demographics and take a huge financial risk on a then untested
concept of "higher touch" electronics retailing. Best Buy senior execs
banked on their understanding of how customers really wanted to buy
electronics. Customers rewarded them by leaving competitors in droves, until
the two primary U.S. competitors collapsed.

Fed-X has been an Outside-In company from the day the first Dassault Falcon
flew off from Memphis back in 1971, and it has reaped the rewards. But in
1998 Fed-X chose to break its own air courier business model by acquiring
the parent of both Roadway trucking and RPS (Roadway Parcel Express, formed
to compete against UPS). The customer problem the acquisition solved was
visible every day at hundreds of thousands of shipping docks­one pile of
small parcels for priority air shipping by Fed-X; a 2nd pile of small
parcels for routine ground shipping by UPS; and a 3rd pile of larger
shipments, including single packages over 60lbs., to be picked up by various
LTL (less-than-truckload) carriers that serviced varying city pairs.

For logistics managers this meant: multiple types of waybills and manifests
to complete; multiple tracking systems (or no tracking); angst and errors
from trying to price shipments to attach shipping charges to invoices; and
three different pick-up vans, often jockeying for space at a single loading
dock at the same time. But once Fed-X melded the three service into one,
logistics could have just one pile of shipments for ground and air,
including packages up to 150lbs.

UPS, a totally inside-out company at the time, never saw the opportunity,
despite seeing the three piles every day, because they were seeing the piles
from their point of view, not the customer's.

All these cases represent achieving customer-centricity through
transformational change from inside-out business practices­plus, overcoming
inertia and defying yet more conventional "wisdom." In the CRM space,
there's a pejorative term, "boiling the ocean," to describe asking companies
to change too much. Supposedly, attempting "excessive" change leads to
certain failure and death by firing squad. Yet any company striving to
achieve customer-centricity has to switch from the inside-out perspective to
Outside-In. And that takes "boiling the ocean."

Feeling the urgency for change will help some companies clear the hurdles.
Not feeling the urgency for change will cause others to take face plants on
the track‹or wither away at the starting blocks.

Reactive cases

UPS was forced Outside-In (or else it would have gone upside down) by
Fed-X's ground transportation acquisition. For an extraordinarily routinized
and standardized company, that meant adopting a new business model requiring
disruptive process change.

More recently, Sprint was on the slippery slope, put there by inside-out
thinking, including deplorable customer service. Its new CEO is taking an
Outside-In view of the business to try to dig out of the hole. Too late?
Maybe, maybe not. Forgiveness doesn't always come easy. Sometimes it doesn't
come at all.

And speaking of forgiveness, General Motors is struggling for life after
bankruptcy‹and trying to overcome an almost impermeable inside-out culture.
Getting to Outside-In is a prerequisite for winning back customer trust. So
far, reports coming out of GM have been mixed.

What are you waiting for?


Sure Outside-In takes work. But don't wait for an industry competitor to go
there first. Forced change is so much harder than proactive change. And
don't wait until it's too late and suffer the ultimate change. The
Outside-In train is leaving the station, likely populated by a competitor or
two or four. It's time you hopped on board for the journey to Outside-In.

CPP Masters in San Francisco.

It was a great pleasure visiting San Francisco for the 4th time this year and hosting the CPP Masters session at the Waterfront. We had a terrific time consolidating Outside In.
From l>r: Grace, Angela, Mark, Steve, Kandice, Jamie, Moosa, Nivesh

This was one of those sessions that transcends what we did in a few days. Moosa and Nivesh will return to Qatar, Jamie to Phoenix, Kandice to Denver (yay!), Steve to Singapore, Mark to the world of education,  Angela here in the Bay, and Grace to Washington DC.

Breakpoints 2013 - make every internal interaction a successful one

-->
-->
 
The Breakpoints Tool Kit provides the means to tackle internal bureaucracy and reduce/eliminate all those hand-offs that cause all that work.

Business Rules 2013 - Get those decision points under control




The purpose of the Business Rules Tool Kit is to give you an actionable approach to identifying and optimizing the process-based behavior in your organization, thereby Increasing Revenues and Enhancing Customer service.

Moments of Truth 2013 - Make every customer interaction a profitable one


Now in version 15. A set of guidance and templates to discover, develop and control Moments of Truth. https://www.dropbox.com/s/2v6ezd6ign36k9f/BPGMOT_2013.docx

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication (from James Dodkins)

James Dodkins, CCO BP Group
In 1996, Gilead introduced a "next phase" AIDS medication patients could
take in a single daily dose. The new drug, Atripla, vastly improved patient
quality of life. It vastly improved compliance. And it has given Gilead an
80% market share of medication prescribed to newly identified AIDS and HIV
positive patients, despite introduction of directly competing, single dose
products from larger competitors.

Atripla has dramatically grown Gilead's revenue, along with producing near
40% profit margins. Plus, manufacturing one medication is far less expensive
than making 17, matching revenue gains with cost reduction. But Gilead was
not finished. Since 2006, Gilead has introduced single dosage treatment for
hepatitis-B patients, who had to follow a similarly complex medication
schedule, and has initiated development of a similar medication for
hepatitis-C.

Achieving Customer-Centricity

Through Outside-In, Gilead has become a customer-centric company
specializing in quality of life and compliance as well as quality
efficacious treatments. However, a common first reaction might be, "How
obvious." And a second might be, "Nothing much to it."

Gilead did experience a blinding flash of the obvious. But untold numbers of
"obvious" solutions to major customer problems go unnoticed because
companies can't see through customer eyes­ or are afraid to do so.
Outside-In forces the issue by starting with the customer­ not the product or the
company or sales goals or profits.


"Nothing much to it?" Au contraire, there was a whole lot to it. Having
helped many a company through this type of transformative change, I can reel
off a list of likely barriers Gilead faced: reorganizing R&D to focus on
drug delivery, a very different discipline than traditional pharmaceutical
research; changing support staff roles; laying off manufacturing staff and
management; repositioning the company; and that's just for starters. What
Gilead achieved required transformational change, which stresses
organizations and often tests their resiliency? No surprise that so many
organizations limit themselves to incremental change.

What's new here?

As you've almost certainly recognized, some organizations have employed
Outside-In thinking since their inception, as has U.S. department store
chain Nordstrom's, or at least for many years. But two things have changed.

First, Outside-In today extends far beyond identifying opportunities. While
full scale OI starts by aligning strategy with customers,it continues by
next aligning process with strategies and then technology with process. In
that order. More specifically, following opportunity identification OI
determines "what" work has to be done by "who" in order to turn opportunity
into reality. This strategic step defines organizational change as well as
changes to workflow and information flow. Then OI defines "how" the work
should be done and the technology enablement required, the tactical side.
Not only does Outside-In expand the scope of customer-centric thinking to
include implementation; but it also stretches traditional boundaries of
process to include the "what" and the "who" plus technology support ­beyond
just addressing the "how." And that's why we call it "Outside-In Process."

The second change is the volume of Outside-In occurring. A number of
organizations have already completed the migration from "inside-out"
(company-centric) to Outside-In (customer-centric). Others are
opportunistically starting to migrate. And some laggards within their own
industries have moved or are moving defensively, to avoid the fate of
Circuit City, CompUSA, WAMU (Washington Mutual Bank), General Motors and
Northwest Airlines ­all notoriously inside-out companies insensitive to
customer needs.

More next week...

PEX Awards Florida January 2014


Entries will be accepted until Friday 8 November - there is still time to enter!

Due to unprecedented demand the deadline has been extended to 8 November.

Demonstrate how you used the power of process to transform your business and enter. The winners will be announced at PEX Week USA in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday 21 January 2014.
______________________________________________
>> Download your application kit

Enter each category for $100. Recognize your process excellence efforts and enter. All shortlisted finalists will be announced mid-December.

If you have any questions ahead of entering please don't hesitate to contact us on awards@iqpc.co.uk .


Celebrate your project and program excellence with PEX.

All the best,
The PEX Network Awards Team

P.S. Don't miss out. Enter before 8 November!

Links for those hungry for Outside-In and advanced business process transformation


http://www.successfulcustomeroutcomes.net - 283 articles on Advanced BPM

http://bpcommunity.blogspot.co.uk/
- 200+ articles on business process transformation

https://www.youtube.com/user/snoozers69
- Over 50 videos on the theme

http://www.slideshare.net/stowers/
- More than 70 presentations (downloadable)

http://www.bpgroup.org/
- 80+ courses leading to the Certified Process Professional qualification (CPP) all over the globe through 2013/14

http://www.oibpm.com/
- for all things and links Outside In

http://www.certifiedprocessprofessional.com/
- Professional qualifications since 1992

http://www.processmiracle.com/
- FREE course featuring the Secret Sauce

http://www.bpgroup.org/their-opinion.html
  - Testimonials about us

http://bit.ly/joinbpgroup
- 11,000 members networking with ideas

CEMMethod update (new version pending)

In January we updated the CEMMethod (it is now on its fifth version since 2006). Before year end we will introducing several new concepts and tools. If you would like that information please subscribe to the blog and I will include you in the previews.


Six customer imperatives for everyone


Many decades ago, as a trainee industrial engineer I was introduced to the works of Rudyard Kipling[1].

In the context of the Customer Age his sage wisdom lives on.
A renowned English writer (born in Mumbai) he influenced my life from that get go and here I pay homage to his life changing verse Six Honest Serving Men

1. Why What Who Where When How

Why do you want to measure your customer experience?  We want to understand the current state of our experience and see how it impacts the bottom line, revenue growth and shareholder value.

Why is that important?  We know that a great customer experiences leads to significantly enhanced customer lifetime value. Customers buy more, stay longer and become a part of your Awareness for future customers.

Why do you need a measurement for this? We need to get scientific about the customer experience. We need to understand where we should focus to profitably improve experiences, and to measure the ongoing evolution of Customer Experience Management.

Why is this important? Existing measures of Customer Experience are subjective and prone to bias, whether that is sample size, emotional influence or even the time of day. It is not realistic to base our future growth on a set of flaccid anecdotal measures.

2. Why What Who Where When How

What is the first step? We need get factual. What are the real measures? The hard noised objective and accessible metrics that move beyond the soft and fluffy emotional feedback.

What system do we need in place? Something that is repeatable and predictable. Certainly not the latest anecdotes from the customer service

What is the priority? To coin a phrase – where the rubber hits the road. In a very direct sense it is where the customer interactions are taking place and where the reality of the service and product offering happens. We need to measure the real interaction, less so the feelings created.


3. Why What Who Where When How

Who is the most important person in your organization? Who is the ultimate cause of all the work? The answer is the same – yes, the customer of course.

Who should lead the change to understand and develop the Customer Experience? Well that isn’t a bunch of guys doing strategy in their glass ivory towers remote to the business. Guess what. It is everyone of us, as ultimately we all walk in the customer shoes.


Who engages the organization for success? Vision is essential. Moving beyond the industrialized function specialist silos’ to the sunny uplands of customer awareness requires fortitude and leadership. It is certainly not for the feint of heart.


4. Why What Who Where When How

It is not top down, strategy driven. It isn’t even bottom up frontline informed. Where have those ideas come from? Yes the industrialized world of the 1700’s.  Wind forward to now. We are a bunch of able and skilled individuals aligned to successful customer outcomes (or we should be)

5. Why What Who Where When How
When? What are you waiting for? You do not really want to go down the road of Kodak, Nokia and Blackberry? Surely. The customers have changed. Have you? Or is the management team doing the same old same old? Light the fire. Make a noise. If you don’t you know all to well what will be next.

6. Why What Who Where When How

It is not top down, strategy driven. This is the easiest of all. It starts with you. The messages you relate. The language you use. The people you influence. Every conversation and internal exchange is an opportunity to win hearts and minds. Is it tough? Yes of course it is, however was anything ever worth doing easy? The choice is yours.



Globe trotting - certification and customer experience


Catch me if you can at:
Edmonton, Canada – w/c 7 October
Cape Town – w/c 14 October
Hong Kong – w/c 21 October
San Francisco – w/c 4 November
Singapore – w/c 11 November

A terrific mix of in-house accreditation and audit, consultancy and good plain old training. Government, Financial Services, Aerospace, Retail and Pharma.

Review the 2013 and 2014 Open sessions at: http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html
Or drop me a line at the office (37,000 feet).

Happy Hunting
Steve

Steve Towers, Founder & CEO
steve.towers@bpgroup.org        www.bpgroup.org
Cell:+44 7415 063868       Office:+44 203 3030 894        Fax:+44 20 7691 7664

Link with Steve: www.linkedin.com/in/stevetowers /

LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/joinbpgroup Twitter: http://twitter.com/stowers

BP Group, New Bond House, 124 New Bond Street, London W1S 1DX

Coaching & Professional qualifications since 1992





































 

Customer Interactions aka Moments of Truth (Part One) - develop, control, measure and manage

Customer Interactions (CI's) are taking place all the time. Are your CI's under control? Can you quantify them? and are they aligned to the Successful Customer Outcome? Some folks might think this is a mountain to climb and don't even bother to pay attention to those critical moments.

   Customer Interactions - (Click photo for full size)







































High Performance Organizations on the other hand know that engineering the CI's, designing them Outside-In and keeping them owned and controlled determines every aspect of the Customer Experience.

So let's take a journey together and start with the basics. If we look at healthcare and hospitals especially we all know the smallest things make the biggest difference. Hygiene for instance.


So what are the smallest things in your business that make that massive difference?


The Process Excellence Network annual US gathering

One for your diaries - Orlando, January 2014. The Annual get together for everyone process, performance and customer orientation.


Bringing together leading practitioners, solution providers and the latest exclusive case studies.

If there is one major event in your process, lean, sigma, bpm, customer, outside in diaries for 2014 get along to this one.

Successful Customer Outcomes - are you delivering (or are you part of the problem?)

Simply put everything an organization does, from the tasks and activities through to strategy should be explicitly linked with a Successful Customer Outcome.

Say you are in the Accident and Emergency at your local hospital? How much of what is actually happening is contributing to the well being of the patients? At a recent family crisis as a visitor I managed my stress by doing a time and motion study (sad I know). Over 48 hours I sampled activity and tasks, and albeit not scientific (it was hardly a controlled environment) it produced an interesting profile:

Sample size 256.

I would suggest an interesting stat in there is the time with the patient (7%).

If we assumed the objective of going through the process (the Successful Customer Outcome) is to make people better how much time is really spent doing that? How much time is spent on tasks and activities which may not directly contribute to that?

All our jobs involve us in tasks and activities which may not directly contribute to the SCO - how many of those could be released to spend more time achieving the desired outcome? It might not be 93% but it is one helluva a lot.In this example we would reduce costs, improve morale of overworked nurses and enhance the customer experience. Who wouldn't want that?

How can you do that?


There is no excuse for complexity.


There is no excuse for complexity. It is a consequence of muddled thinking and a lack of understanding of the true goal of the organization, which is creating Successful Customer Outcomes.

Complexity has developed as organizations have added new routes to market, new ways of delivering service, new enterprise IT systems and a myriad of improvement approaches. Each internal functional specialism has developed a mindset to optimize their part of the organization, sometimes at the expense of others. The unwieldy complexity that results has caused a reaction primarily aimed at the need to create order out of this chaos, as if accepting that complexity itself as a right to be. This is not so. Let us unravel the muddle of complexity once and for all.

All work in an organization is fundamentally created by the need to provide product or service to the customer. Everything else is a consequence of that need, which creates value for the shareholders and creates a livelihood for the work force. All else follows.

Furthermore all interactions in meeting the needs for customers are the cause of all work within an organization. These interactions, or Moments of Truth[i], create work in so far as we need to attend to a request internally.

In doing so we interact with our colleagues, systems and other internal processes, and create internal Moments of Truth, which can be referred to as Breakpoints[ii]. The way we deal with Moments of Truth and Breakpoints is underpinned by Business Rules[iii] which may be thought of as ‘decision points within processes’.

These three entities determine the shape of our organization, the internal landscape of how we do work. The resulting activities from Moments of Truth, Breakpoints and Business Rules create the very processes themselves. In fact process is simply an effect caused by the way we choose to interact and guide the customer to obtain our products or service.

Think about that – process is an effect. If that is the reality then the vast range of tools and techniques created in the last century, and sometimes before, are fixing an effect. It is like taking painkillers for discomfort and nothing more. If we are not getting to grips with the causes of the pain it will surely get worse and as we discover, stronger pain killers are then required.

That’s the rub. We have been systematically fixing the wrong things and is it any wonder that change doesn’t stick? Have you ever had that feeling that this is the same project challenge as before, just dusted off and here we go again? It is because we are not fixing the causes of work, and while we continue to ignore the causes the complexity worsens, costs increase and service suffers.

Einstein put it well when he said
“We can’t solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”

CPP Masters Advance release of 2014 program (book now at EARLY BIRD prices)

INFOGRAPHIC: Process Excellence State of the Industry 2013-2014 (from PEX)

  • Where are the hot new areas for process excellence?
  • What tools and approaches are companies using?
  • How can you maximize the results from your process excellence program?

We may be in San Francisco this week at the BPM Summit however our minds are turning to the Annual PEX Florida event in January in Orlando. As ever the PEX network are keeping their finger on the pulse and have produced this enormously useful Infographic.

Every two years, PEX Network undertakes
a State of the Industry research project to better understand general trends in how companies are approaching operational excellence.  This infographic summarizes the results of our 2013-2014 benchmarking survey.

Download this infographic to find out key trends in approaches, projects, budgets, and investment plans in process excellence for the year ahead.

And don't forget to stay tuned for the release of our State of the Industry report in the coming weeks!

For more information about PEX Week 2014 or to book your place please get in touch in one of of the following ways:

Visit: www.pexweek.com,
Call: +1 646 378 6026/ +44 (0) 207 036 1300
Email: enquire@pexnetwork.com