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The thrill of victory
One of the best things about my work is what my colleagues and I call the “hat trick”. In sports like cricket and hockey, a hat trick is accomplishing a feat three times in a contest. I’ll explain what a hat trick is in my world and why it’s thrilling to pull one off.
Our mission is to help clients enable their customers to enjoy richer, more satisfying service experiences.
A hat trick is when we not only help clients to better meet the needs of their target customers, but also enable them to increase customer loyalty and revenue. We do all this while also cutting service costs — sometimes up to 20%. Almost every assignment offers hat trick potential.
Generally, companies recognize the benefits of improving their customer touch points. But behind the touch points, and where we concentrate, is an elaborate ecosystem of people and information distributed across the company’s organizational, geographic, and technological boundaries.
Systems perspective
‘Service system’ refers to the dynamic interplay of people and information used to control customer touch points. I’m convinced that the service system is a company’s most powerful value-creation engine. High performing companies know that fine tuning service systems to meet the needs of target customers pays big dividends. We help them figure out how to do it quickly and efficiently.
Our systems perspective enables us to see a client’s business processes holistically rather than merely focusing on particular components.
Systems thinking has been around for a long time, but many companies are built around managing functions — a model of operations management that has its roots in the manufacturing era. Think of an auto plant where each functional unit adds a new component to the chassis as it moves along the assembly line in a linear fashion.
But today’s service processes don’t function like assembly lines. Instead, they operate concurrently and interdependently, transcending traditional organizational boundaries. Processes must not only operate together cohesively, they must also continually improve the way they function together.
The systems paradigm is universally applicable regardless of the company’s business model or size. It applies just as well to Fed-Ex and Amazon.com as it does to a family restaurant, though the scale and complexity of enterprise-grade service systems are obviously greater than those of smaller businesses.
In larger organizations, processes within the service system are like islands linked by bridges which are seldom joined in ways that are as simple or as seamless as they can be. In many cases, service systems include processes that are handled by partners that sit outside organizational and even geographical boundaries. That’s why it’s critical to see, and help others to see, the whole picture.
Four questions
How do we begin? To understand the structure and relationship of processes within a service system, we ask four basic questions:
- What is being done?
- Why is it being done?
- Who is doing it?
- How is it being done?
After asking stakeholders these questions and probing, we produce a visual map of the service system to enable stakeholders to see patterns in the value creation chain.
By depicting service systems visually, we can identify sources of untapped value and also spot activities that add little or no value. When the stakeholders see how processes work within a larger system, they can more readily see how people and information interact to create value.
It’s fascinating to watch a room full of stakeholders seeing a map of their service system for the first time. Most “process owners” find it instructive to see how they fit into the overall value-creation process. The mapping exercise helps everyone determine the direction and scope of changes that lead to creating more value — improving customer experiences while saving money.
No two problems are alike. But it’s nearly always possible to reduce complexity, and the savings can fund targeted service improvements.
In the end, the company becomes more competitive and profitable, their target customers enjoy a better experience and, of course, my team and I are thrilled. What’s not to love about a hat trick?
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As always, I’d appreciate learning your perspective on this subject.
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Want more info on this subject?
I recently re-read Peter Senge’s ’94 classic on systems thinking, The Fifth Discipline, and it’s remarkably applicable the challenges of our knowledge-based, global service economy. It’s still one of the most influential books on the subject.
I’d also suggest a current (2010) book, Systems Thinking for Curious Managers, by Russ Ackoff (“the dean” of systems thinking). I’d also recommend his insightful paper (PDF), On Why Few Organizations Adopt Systems Thinking.
Related:
I’d also suggest Roger Martin’s new book, The Design of Business which cites case studies of design-oriented strategic transformations made at P&G, RIM, Cirque du Soldier, etc.
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Tags: design thinking, fifth discipline, hat trick, peter senge, Service Systems, systems theory, systems thinking
