The Science of the Customer Experience

The new site featuring Customer Experience has gone live: http://www.cxrating.com

You can access and download the resources that will provide an overview of the value of becoming scientific about the Customer Experience. Meanwhile Customer Experience Mapping gets a kick in the pants as we integrate ABACUS (the BPGroup toolkit) to demonstrate a generic process across several channels.

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

I explore these more thoroughly in the book Outside In however for now let's take them in bite sized chunks.
•     Understand and applying Process diagnostics
•    Identify and aligning to Successful Customer Outcomes
•    Reframe where the process starts and ends
•    Rethink the business you are in



 
Let's start with...
1. Understand and applying Process diagnostics:
(These will be familiar to CPP people however a refresher is always nice)
Earlier we have mentioned Moments of Truth, those all important interactions with customers. Let’s 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 “Management and Statesmanship” (1975).
In 1989 Jan Carlson, the CEO of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) immortalized the phrase with his book ‘Moments of Truth’. He clearly linked all customer interaction as the Causes of Work for the airline and set about eradicating non value added MOT’s and then improving those he couldn’t remove. 
a)    Moments of Truth are a Process Diagnostic
b)    They occur ANYWHERE a customer “touches” 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 organisations 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 maximised.

Next let’s review Breakpoints. Breakpoints (BP’s) are the direct consequence of MOT’s 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 BP’s we can set about uncovering actions that would in turn remove them, or if not improve them. BP’s 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 MOT’s 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 “found”
b)    Business Rules can be operational, strategic or regulatory and they can be system-based or manual
c)    Business Rules control the “behavior” of the process and shape the “experience” 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 (BR’s) 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 ‘8 day storage’ rule was related to the length of time it takes ink to dry on parchment paper. This rule hadn’t 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.





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

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

• Identify and aligning to Successful Customer Outcomes

First Steps into Outside-In Thinking Part 4a) - The Successful Customer Outcome

There are a number of key supporting themes - the first is "Exclusive focus on Successful Customer Outcome (SCO)"

The approach, distilled from global leading companies, is Customer Expectation Management

Method (CEMMethod), has a set of principles and philosophy that ensures everything you do is aligned to and improves the SCO. CEMM helps an organization bring their processes, systems, strategy and people into ‘outside-in’ alignment.





Every company in business will have an SCO to a degree – they have to otherwise customers would not buy. OI is built on the philosophy that the better a company impacts its SCO the greater proportion of available business its going to win as a result. Further applying the thinking takes you to places (ie business opportunities) that competition has never been able to exploit and perhaps never thought about.

Apple are producing apps that people never thought they needed whereas Nokia who have built what they believe is technology superiority has had to re-think their approach to business amidst falling revenues and margins. Southwest are close to the era of the free flight ticket and enjoying consistent profitability whereas British Airways are going through possibly the worst business fortunes in its history.

OI is designed on the premise if a process or operation does NOT contribute to the Successful Customer Outcome – you don’t do it! On first analysis this may appear difficult to rationalise – most organisations have non-customer facing departments – how can the principle of the SCO still apply?

If you think about it, an airline is a business which are made up of the same commodity components – similar aeroplanes, customers with roughly the same wants/needs, airports with the ability to offer the same services (if they choose) – yet some operators are flying high and others are sinking towards government bailout or bankruptcy. Both SouthWest and BA will claim customer centricity but OI defines the important outcome components that are critical to business success and under this lens it becomes very clear that BA is left wanting.

First Steps into Outside-In Thinking Part 3 - What is OI in the context of the BP Group?

1. Outside-In is a philosophy and method of managing an organisation by understanding and

delivering Successful Customer Outcomes.

2. Outside-In Process optimizes value-delivery to customers. By fusing customer-driven process with customer-centric strategies, O-I creates successful customer outcomes (SCOs) – the foundation for achieving sustainable growth and profitability in an increasingly buyer-driven marketplace.(Customer ProcessOne Council, May 2010)

There are many accreditations in the process space. This BP Group community is sponsored by www.bpgroup.org which in turn advocates the Certified Process Professional qualification ( http://www.certifiedprocessprofessional.com ).

There are five levels of recognition:
• Certified Process Practitioner (CPP-Practitioner)
• Certified Process Professional (CPP-Professional)
• Certified Process Master (CPP-Master)
• Certified Process Advanced Master (CPP-AdvMaster) 

• Certified Process Champion (CPP-Champion) 

 

http://www.cemmethod.com

A significant part of that hands-on learning is focused on Outside-In and includes discussion of various methods such as CEMMethod

There is a rapidly developing cadre of people and organisations delivering Outside-In training, consultancy and advisory services with case studies, presentations and podcasts at http://www.oibpm.com

The Annual BP Group conferences have a strong flavour of Outside-In with notable organisations who are the pioneers of Outside-In present and delivering case studies, tutorials and workshops. Not least of which is Steve Towers book – Outside-In,
now in its fifth edition ( http://www.outsideinthesecret.com )

First Steps into Outside-In Thinking Part 1 - The Challenge

First published by the BP Group 3 years ago here's some of the mindset behind Outside In.

If we consider the challenges of succeeding in business in the 21st century, most major companies would come up with a similar list:

When they talk about their customers
> Competition is fierce, global and increasing.
> Customers have become rebellious, they realise they have the right to alternatives and they frequently exercise that right.
> Customers have high expectations, they demand more and unless that demand is met they will go elsewhere.
> Customers demand choice, comprehensive information and the best price.

When they talk about their operations
> Operations, structures and business flows are becoming ever more complex
> The process of change is becoming ever more complex as the obvious improvements are delivered and the focus is on looking for new improvements often with diminishing returns
> A significant proportion of change projects under-perform and do not achieve the desired outcome
> There are so many alternative methods to effecting change out there it is difficult to select which one makes most sense for my business

When they talk about their overall business performance
> I fundamentally believe I offer a superior product and/or service but I’m still struggling to make the returns I believe possible
> I strive to be a market leader, I believe we have the capability to be a market leader but the issues above prevent me from getting there
> It is difficult to markedly cut my costs without impacting my service levels
> The impact of the global recession has affected my business and our fortunes won’t markedly improve until the business environment improves.

There may be additional comments however this is typical of observations from companies all over the world. And it is getting worse.

It isn’t though we don’t have choice in improvement approaches. As of 2010 there were over 6000 improvement methodologies all geared to helping organisations improve performance. How do you decide which one works best? How do you ensure sustained business improvement when the average CEO in the 21st century lasts 3 years and each new regime brings fresh ideas but a lot of the same issues?

See more of the thinking, practice and qualify as a Certified Process Professional (CPP) www.bpgroup.org

PEX and BP Group Certified Process Professional (CPP) May 2-3, London

Just around the corner is PEX Europe in two weeks time.

In association with IQPC and the PEX network we are running a two day Certified Process Programme (CPP). Now in its 7th year the CPP qualification has spread far and wide with more than 25,000 certified across 92 countries. Places are in high demand so if you would like to attend book here and the PEX team will help get you in the room on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd May.

Upcoming BP Group Certified Process Professional (CPP) opportunities

Thinking about investing in your future? Needing to extend your Professional scope?
Here's the next 20+ Open classes delivered by the BP Group and the Certified Process Professional (CPP) program:

Country	Event	Starts	Level	Duration (days)
USA	San Francisco, USA, CPP Professional®, Masters® April 2013	Apr 8, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
India	Kolkata Certified Process Professional Masters®, April 2013	Apr 8, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Canada	TORONTO, Canada BP Group CPP Professional®, CPP Masters®, April 2013	Apr 8, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
USA	Chicago, USA, CPP Professional®, Masters® April 2013	Apr 15, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
USA	Atlanta USA, CPP Professional®, Masters® April 2013	Apr 22, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Kenya	Nairobi, Kenya - CPP Professional®, Masters® April 2013	Apr 22, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Australia	SYDNEY - Advanced Masters® & CPP Champion®, 22 April 2013	Apr 22, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
India	PUNE Certified Process Professional Masters®, April 2013	Apr 22, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
USA	NEW YORK CPP Professional®, Masters® April 2013	Apr 29, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
South Africa	CAPE TOWN, CPP Professional®, Masters® May 2013	May 6, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
South America	Sao Paulo, Brazil - CPP Professional®, Masters® May 2013	May 13, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
China	Beijing, China CPP Professional®, Masters® May 2013	May 20, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur CPP Professional®, Masters® MAY 2013	May 20, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
South America	Buenos Aires - CPP Professional®, Masters® May 2013	May 20, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
China	Hong Kong, China CPP Professional®, Masters® May 2013	May 27, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
UK	LONDON, UK CPP Professional®, Masters® June 2013	Jun 3, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
UAE	DUBAI, UAE CPP Professional® & CPP Masters® & CPP Champion®, June 2013	Jun 16, 2013	6-7-8	4
Australia	Brisbane CPP Professional® & CPP Masters®, July 2013	Jul 29, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Australia	SYDNEY, CPP Professional®, Masters®, August 2013	Aug 5, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Singapore	Singapore CPP Professional®, Masters® September 2013	Sep 2, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur CPP Professional®, Masters® Sept 2013	Sep 9, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Philipines	Jakarta CPP Professional®, Masters® September 2013	Sep 16, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
Australia	BRISBANE CPP Advanced Masters® & CPP Champion®, September 2013	Sep 16, 2013	6-7-8	4
Japan	TOKYO CPP Professional®, Masters® September 2013	Sep 23, 2013	1-2-3-4-5	5
South Africa	CAPE TOWN, CPP Advanced Masters® & CPP Champion®, 23-26 September 2013	Sep 23, 2013	6-7-8	4

Successful Customer Outcomes Posting Five

            What does a completed SCO Map look like? Here is one example:

If you understand SCO Maps in their original 2006 form you will also notice the improvedcapacity for iteration. In fact mature Outside In organizations will have undertaken two or perhaps three cycles of analysis to arrive at a completed understanding of customer needs.

In this example the one liner is “Improving Quality of Life”.

So circle back and prepare your own SCO Map (we also call the iterative diagram a SCO Revolution to explain the need for further refinement beyond the first cut).

Test it with colleagues and don’t be surprised if you find your understanding of customers needs is totally transformed for the better.

Successful Customer Outcomes Posting Four

5. And now we are ready to establish the real Successful Customer Outcome (SCO) as a set of statements of intent with SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound) objectives. There is no room for management weasel words such as fast, efficient, effective, timely and the like. Here we get specific and develop metrics that will tell us how well we are delivering the SCO. Having identified the Statements of Intent and the associated measures we are ready to summarize the complete SCO Map.

What is the one liner that describes this SCO?

6. The one liner may even sometimes be summarized as one word. Also we are now bordering on the territory of Strategy as the articulation of the SCO Map should link directly with the organization Mission and Vision. In mature Outside In organizations the SCO Maps link with customer categories and we develop a clear line of sight from every single task and activity right through to the organization objectives. That line of sight is a tangible and objective linkage that confirms everything we are doing is aligned with corporate goals and objectives.

Successful Customer Outcomes Posting Three

So you have the customer and their expectations understood.
What about the process the customer thinks they are involved with?

3. What Process does the Customer think they are involved with?
Challenge yourself with this one. It isn’t the process we, as an organisation, think the customer is involved with. You need to look at this Outside In.

If you, as a customer have twanged your car it isn’t the claims process, the assessment process or the evaluation process. It is much more likely to be “getting back on the road as soon as possible”. How much of what you are doing contributes to that? Are you busy processing claims, counting them, improving the efficiency of processing claims and minimizing the risk. Honestly the customer doesn’t give a stuff about that. They just want to be back on the road.

4. What do we do that Impacts Customer Success?
All the stuff we do as organizations in ensuring has been developed over time to minimize risk, improve effectiveness and delivery the required service at the lowest cost.  Along the way we have introduced rules and controls to ensure we deliver those objectives. Thinks about it in your company. Do you have checkers checking checkers? Are the unwieldy procedure manuals, written tot the latest so called Service Level Agreement standards? In our likelihood you will have things that directly impact customer success. Dumb rules, procedures from the past and checks and balances no longer required.

Successful Customer Outcomes Posting Two

So how can we construct a Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO)?
Download the flashcard at the end of this review.

There are six questions we should ask ourselves, stakeholders and customers.

At the most fundamental level:

1. Who is the customer?

Yes, as an organization, we have to make the choice. We can’t sit back and wait for customers to find us we need to find them. Who are they? What value can they add to our business? Do we actually have customers we do not want? It is an interesting discussion which should put us in charge of the choice. After all these days not everyone can be our customer!

2. What is the Customers Current Expectation?

Not a small question. Have you created an expectation – either consciously or worse, inadvertently. How can you find out? Ask the customer!

Now the qualification to this when the customer answers is… did you know that?

How much of what you are currently doing aligns with the customer expectation? 

Tomorrow we will explore the Process the Customer thinks they are involved with?

Advanced BPM and Customer Centricity (india and the rest of the world)

Just published from a recent interview in India:

Steve Towers is a business process and customer satisfaction expert and the author of "Outside In - The Secret of the 21st Century Leading Companies". 

In India, he advises the Tata group, Wipro and other BPOs on ways to organise their processes and people better to deliver customer outcomes successfully. Towers, a speaker at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum , took time off for a conversation with Goutam Das.

Q. Have organizations started to worry more about customer centricity these days? 
A. It is top of the pile in terms of themes. Customer centricity, however, is not always understood. We tend to talk about it from a technology-centric point of view - we tend to think of information technology and front-end systems. We talk about CRM (customer relationship management) systems and things like that. Organizations need to move beyond what we refer to as 'inside out' thinking. One of the reasons to move forward is that customers themselves has changed. They have become promiscuous - they are not as loyal as they used to be. They have also become very rebellious - highly choosy in terms of who they want a product from. This causes them to move very quickly versus the longer-term relationships of the past. All our organizations are collections of customers and their expectations have risen with the availability of technology, which gives them access to a lot more information. Those organizations that understand that have been able to look at customer centricity in a different way. We refer to that way as "outside in". 

Q. Explain your philosophy of 'outside in' and how companies have benefited from this. 
A. It means identifying what customer needs are and then working backwards to organise the company accordingly. Those organizations that are struggling - the Kodaks, the Nokias, RIM - they are still looking at the world inside out. Those who have been successful have seen the world outside in. They are aligning their business to deliver against customer needs, which can be created. Emirates Airlines creates that need by talking about the experience that they are going to give you once you arrive at the destination. Disney tells a very good story on the difference between wants and needs. They often say the customer does not know what they want. When you arrive at a Disney park, the first question a customer may ask is: "Where's the toilet?" 

The second most asked question is "What time is the Three O'clock Parade?" Customers are articulating a need within that question and the answer is in the context of that question. A woman with two small kids is not asking what time the parade is - she already knows the time - what she really needs to know is a place where she can go and stand with the kids, where there is a water fountain, an ice-cream vendor. She wants to be away from the hot sun. She hasn't articulated that but the organization understands that need. Disney works on the basis of needs, not wants. Similarly, Nokia was very successful 10 years back and went on building devices that customers wanted. Other organizations thought differently. Apple made an observation on how many interactions one needs to pull up a telephone number. In an inside out phone, that will be seven-eight key presses. Everyone of those key presses is a moment of truth. And you have to build functionality to support that moment of truth. More functionality means a more complex system. Apple redesigned the interface and there are three moments of truth instead of seven-eight. It is less expensive to do that and offers a better customer experience. That is a principle Nokia has missed. 

Q. Do Indian companies have an outside in perspective?
A. There are two kinds of organizations. One: those who are carrying on building efficiencies and effectiveness and use things like Lean (a methodology of eliminating waste in a company) and Six Sigma to remove waste. Eventually, you get to a point where you optimize processes and can't go any further. Other organizations say Lean and Six Sigma are fine but we want to challenge if a process actually deserves to exist. In India, there is a clear distinction between those organizations that are getting it and those that don't. 

Q. How do you measure who is getting it right? 
A. It is winning the triple crown, which is simultaneously growing revenues, reducing costs and enhancing service. The triple crown can be directly linked to customer success. Instead of starting with resources a company has, then going to market strategy and then finding customers, you start with customers and their needs and then align everything in the organization to deliver that. In India, IndiGo (Airlines) is a prime example of looking at the world in a different way. Contrast IndiGo with Kingfisher - they talk about the customer being the king but the customer can't be king at the expense of your business. The reason customer is king is that we can grow shareholder value, can create profits and deliver service. Other examples of companies looking outside in are Tata Motors and the transformation of Jaguar. 

For more information see : http://www.bpgroup.org and http://www.advancedbpm.com
 

Process Outside In - vidblog

The BP Group compiles a bi monthly update of all things process which gets listed on the blog and syndicated all over. The latest can be Process Performance Update. However one of my close colleagues suggested I should produce the update as a travelog, where ever I am, whatever I am doing - just say it! - so here it is. Depending on your point of view it is either an informative light hearted look at process, or eight minutes of relevant pertinent stuff for business professionals. You choose ;-)

Videos/new BPM apps/presentation downloads/conference updates

In the Process/Performance basket this time we have Videos/new BPM apps/presentation downloads/conference updates

Greetings from Mumbai 
My travels this last few weeks have included USA, UK, UAE and now India. The team are also hot footing around South Africa, Australia, Kuala Lumpur, Europe and the US through this month.

Not only has it been the significant contrast in weather (snow/cold > sunny/hot) it is the somewhat different approaches being adopted towards Outside In. This week sees me at the India Leadership event hosted by NASSCOM. I will be meeting with the press and continuing to learn about what is making India so successful. My talk will be accessible later, if you want a copy let me know, http://bit.ly/IndiaLeadershipForum

On the subject of talks and videos have you reviewed the latest videos of the key tools and techniques? Here they are (and they are available to download and distribute!)

Business Process Management - what is it? http://youtu.be/NO54KXxTp9I

Moments of Truth - what are they? http://youtu.be/OT_2cqMtrUw

Breakpoints and Business Rules? http://youtu.be/_8KSN_McWIg

Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO's) http://youtu.be/u4keI_kmdxM

Voice of Customer? http://youtu.be/bTbHrxi1Vq4

And now drum roll > have you downloaded the BPM Certifcation app (IOS and Android)?

There are links to resources, videos. events, reviews and much more. It is only version 1 so let us know your thoughts and how we can make it better for the community.

Apple version: http://bit.ly/12EFNCC

Android version: http://bit.ly/X0X4iw


Recent presentations..
Access my recent keynote for some pertinent insights (or Outside In depending on your view point)

http://bit.ly/OutsideInSteveTowers

The associated slide show is embedded however you can download that from here.

http://www.slideshare.net/stowers/steve-towers-nasscom-bpo-summit-2012-opening-keynote


Topical articles -

Brad Power - Working successfully with physical fragmented teams http://lnkd.in/nAwERk

Chris Taylor - Business process failure goes viral http://lnkd.in/iuG4UG

Dr. Mohan K. - Rethinking the function of Business functions http://lnkd.in/fU3UmB

Reint Jan Holterman - 5 steps on the Path to Success with BPM http://lnkd.in/pp4ZWV
* And lastly for now have you reviewed the all new classes? new case studies and coaching from been there and done it experienced mentors*.

Review the coaches and their in depth practical hands on wisdom.

http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html



Considering training in Enterprise BPM/Outside In?If someone in your organization is considering certification do ask these questions of anyone offering the training:

1. Where have you done this?

2. What credentials can you claim in the community?

3. Who trained you originally in Outside In?

4. When did you start and who have you helped?

5. What references can you provide, at a CEO level for the successes you have achieved?

6. Are any of your people published, and if so what and when?

7. What is the size of your network?

8. Are your trainings and courses accredited, and if so by whom?

9. Are you helping to develop the community? If so how?

PS. Tell your colleagues they owe themselves the best to go with the most experienced, up to date, pragmatic, relevant and immediate training from the BP Group http://www.bpgroup.org

Ciao Steve

Virgins Crown Jewels - Outside In success

The empitomy of the Outside In company Virgin sweep the competitors aside with their proactive approach to customer service.

Enjoy the management presentation:

Looking at the world Outside-In

Outside-In wins the Triple Crown.

The headline claim of advanced process management approaches such as ‘Outside-In’ is winning the triple crown. What do we mean by that?

Triple Crown is the ability to simultaneously reduce costs, improve service and grow revenues as a direct consequence of implementing advanced process management. Outside-In shifts attention from ‘doing things right’ to ‘doing the right things’ and as a consequence much of the work taking place within an organisation becomes ‘dumb stuff’ when tested against the achievement of the successful customer outcome. This ‘dumb stuff’ can be eliminated and typically will result in cost reductions of 40-70% within three to six months of implementation across traditional processes.

What does the cost reduction include?

A large slice of reduction is in the potential effort to run a process – the people. It also includes considerable swathes of information technology, now no longer required to manage the significantly simplified ‘outside-in’ processes.  Saves are also available across the enterprise from reducing the need for ‘outsourcing’ that does not explicitly contribute to the delivery of successful outcomes. Progressive Outside-In companies such as Google, Apple, Gilead Sciences and Southwest airlines actively redeploy staff to the benefit of the bottom line – making more with less. Service improves and revenues grow.

Traditional inside-out companies have a massive opportunity

The size of the prize exceeds normal ‘inside-out’ expectations as many companies who measure efficiency and effectiveness struggle to realise single digit improvements against legacy processes. However when you look at processes through the ‘outside-in’ lens much of the previously assumed ‘must be here’ activity is no longer required.

Why is this so?

Work has grown over time and become complicated and separated into functional specialist areas supported by a multitude of IT systems undertaking specific tasks such as CRM, accounting, claims management and HR systems. In the context of Outside-In these activities can be challenged with the question “does this activity specifically contribute to the achievement of the SCO? “. If the answer to that question is ambiguous then applying relevant techniques creates a  realignment of work and releases significant cost previously disguised as necessary process.

Triple Crown plus

It gets better. The reality of processes in an Outside-In context means they are specifically contributing to the achievement of the SCO and correspondingly meet additional requirements such as compliance and regulation more effectively. Transparency of process – seeing who does what, where, when and why – is another by product of the new environment. So in addition to reducing costs, improving service and growing revenues we better meet regulatory requirements. The latter is especially important in the new business reality created following the recent recession and reshaping of industries such as banking.

If it is so good why aren’t we all doing Outside-In?

Large bureaucratic organisations typically suffer from senior management inertia, disbelief and arrogance.
The reality of successful Outside-In companies is plain to see as they become leaders of their business sectors. Their performance outstrips competitors by several magnitudes and they are often regarded as having some magic ingredient – you may have heard your management team say ‘ha yes they are quite different to us as our challenge is unique’.  The bottom line is that Outside-In companies utilise a range of tools and techniques that improve alignment to the successful customer outcome and these approaches go way beyond the industrial/information age mind-set.

A new way of working

Outside-in approaches create a completely new reality that reshapes how we manage and organise work so much so that functional pyramidal structures become artefacts of the past. A senior manager who may have spent considerable time clambering to the top of these rigid monolithic structures is directly threatened by the shift to Outside-In and may be understandably reluctant to embrace a new order of business that completely changes most things you have ever known.

How can you embrace Outside-In?

The shift in mind-set is underpinned by method and new techniques (CEMMethod™) appropriate to process alignment for successful customer outcomes. Several organisations offer support, training and coaching towards the new order and include emergent technologies that enhance our ability to better organise work. Direct training is available through the BP Group (www.bpgroup.org) where people are encouraged to qualify as licensed BP Group Certified Process Professionals®.
Associated Licensed partners and companies offering consultancy and technology support can be reviewed at www.oibpm.com
 
Join the community

You can read more in the latest book ‘Outside-In. The secret of the successful 21^st century companies’ at www.outsideinthesecret.com and join the global community through LinkedIn at http://bit.ly/joinbpgroup