BPM and Process Excellence is changing the world

Join the growing number of monthly readers following Steve Towers and his BPM column on the PEX network, BPM Leader and the BP Group – 8,600 strong now and growing.

Steve has consistently received great reviews by his clients and readers and it seems people are telling their colleagues to check these columns out. 

Steve is the founder and CEO of the BP Group (established in 1992), a Keynote speaker and workshop leader with the PEX Network, and featured author on the BPM Leaders blog.  He is the author of FIVE books on business process and performance transformation and is a member of the prestigious California based BPM Forum.

Because of his activities with the BP Group, leading international corporates, including Citi, Apple, Disney, Zara and many others, Steve can be found always at the pragmatic leading edge of what is going on in Advanced BPM and Outside-In.   He believes that his work with these organisations and his exposure to a broad range of situations through global leaders and their approaches provides insight into the problems and issues leading BPM professionals face every day. 

Steve says that these experiences have caused him to look at BPM in a remarkable way. As the catalyst for global transformation BPM and process excellence is the means to realign our organisations on behalf of its employees and customers to achieve spectacular results.
If you’d enjoy sharing some of the insights and the secrets of 21^st century organisation success you will enjoy his columns.

You can find Steve’s latest columns at on:

PEX Network:
http://bit.ly/SteveonPEXNetwork

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/default/contributors/794-steve-towers/

BPM Leaders:
http://bit.ly/SteveonBPMLeader

http://www.bpmleader.com/author/stowers/

Successful Customer Outcomes:
http://www.successfulcustomeroutcomes.net/

BP Community:
http://www.bpcommunity.blogspot.co.uk/

 
BPGroup:
http://www.bpgroup.org

The Bezos mandate - is it still working?

Back in the day (well 2002 to be precise) Jeff Bezos rallied Amazon with the following directive:

1) All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service interfaces.

2) Teams must communicate with each other through these interfaces.

3) There will be no other form of interprocess communication allowed: no direct linking, no direct reads of another team's data store, no shared-memory model, no back-doors whatsoever

4) It doesn't matter what technology they use

5) All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the ground up to be externalizable. That is to say, the team must plan and design to be able to expose the interface to developers in the outside world. No exceptions.

6) Anyone who doesn't do this will be fired.

Source: https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesvaVX

CPP Masters in UAE

The April program provided the latest batch of new Certified Process Professional Masters in Dubai.

Since 2007 more than 600 CPP Masters have progressed through CPP Levels 1-5. Some of the latest to qualify can be reviewed at www.oibpm.com

The latest courses for 2012-13 are now available at http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

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

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

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

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

Next week we'll start by reviewing the Customer Aspect
 

Join us at IT Web South Africa http://bit.ly/AfricaSixSigmaOnSteroids

Join us at PEX Week London http://bit.ly/PEXLondon2012

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

Motivation and the 21st century difference

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

Moments of Truth and dumb assed hotels

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

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

ɯoʇʇoq oʇ doʇ puɐ ʇɥƃıɹ oʇ ʇɟǝl ʇou sı plɹoʍ ǝɥʇ

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

What is your personal SCO?

Your Online Brand and why you should care

View more PowerPoint from aimee maree

Great illustraton of Outside-In thinking and practice.

Jeff Bezos provides his viewpoint..

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

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

Process Excellence in Africa - keynote presentation

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

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


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

Steve towers process excellence _africa_2012_cape_town

View more presentations from Steve Towers.

Reduce Costs - Improve Revenue - Enhance Service simultaneously

From the PEX Network event in Florida, January 2012. Ten minutes :)

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

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

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

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

The PEX Network hosted a great event in Florida last month (review very soon). I was asked to comment on some of the latest process evolution, especially in relation to moving Outside-In and the Customer Experience.
Here is that ten minute interview - see more on this theme at www.bpgroup.org and www.pexnetwork.com

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

How to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

1. Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn by Dan Schawbel
2. 5 LinkedIn tips on effective personal branding by Dan Schawbel
3. LinkedIn Strategies for Personal Branding by Debra Wheatman
4. Use Your LinkedIn Profile as a Resume by Alison Doyle
5. Creating a Presence w/ LinkedIn Groups by Efesa Origbo
6. The 10 LinkedIn™ Strategic Steps to Success by Nathan Kievman
7. How to use Linkedin to build a Powerful Personal Brand by Dr Amit Nagpal
8. LinkedIn Mistakes: Top 5 Ways to Kill Your Credibility INC Magazine Online, Geoffrey James
9. What McDonald’s Can Teach Us About Our LinkedIn Profiles by Nathan Kievman
10. Unlock the Secrets of LinkedIn INC Magazine Online, Marta Tabaka
11. Using LinkedIn for Competitive Intelligence Linked Intelligence, Scott Allen

Looking Outside-In

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

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

The Customer Experience is the process (Steve Jobs)

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

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

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

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

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

Can your people clearly articulate their contribution to the SCO?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who pays your salary? Yes it is the Customer.

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

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

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

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

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

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