Leadership, Business and Innovation
“While corporate leaders may intellectually accept the need for innovation and promote their commitment to innovation at every opportunity, many really don't get it…Chief executives are doing surprisingly little to build innovation cultures in their companies. If they were, surely more than 10% of these leaders would say they were following ‘best practices’ in their industry in pursuit of innovation. Perhaps this is why only about 25% of the members of my network groups say their CEO has the right mindset and understanding of innovation to support the company's innovation success.” – Source: Copenhagen-based author Stefan Lindegaard, as quoted in Business Week magazine, March 3, 2010
Saturday, 10 April 2010
Are your competitors innovating for you?
“Despite the very real prospect of prolonged economic malaise, the financial services industry is at an amazing moment,” claims guest columnist Ryan Jacoby in a March 22 Business Week article. In spite of this being an “amazing moment,” Jacoby shares his view that “most big banks are terrible at innovating” and are letting this moment slip away.
“Consumers want new products and services to help them become more confident, educated caretakers of their own money. There's real opportunity here,” writes Jacoby. “Only, most big banks are letting startups figure out how to serve their customers better.”
Jacoby shares that big banks can reverse this trend by bringing greater creativity and innovation to such areas as customer experience, data use, and new product and service design.
“Consumers want new products and services to help them become more confident, educated caretakers of their own money. There's real opportunity here,” writes Jacoby. “Only, most big banks are letting startups figure out how to serve their customers better.”
Jacoby shares that big banks can reverse this trend by bringing greater creativity and innovation to such areas as customer experience, data use, and new product and service design.
Friday, 9 April 2010
Aging Workforce?
A study by The Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College, referenced in a recent issue of T+D magazine, finds that, “The top four (business) priorities ranked as ‘important’ or ‘very important’ among state agencies are: increasing productivity through increased efficiency (97.3%), management of workforce talent (95.3%), organizational ethics (93.5%), and cost leadership (89.8%).”
In addition, the study found that government offices actually “excel” in, “their awareness and assessment of the impact of the aging workforce on their organizations.” However, in comparison to the private sector, government offices, “have found it more difficult than the private sector to implement change.” The study determined that some state agencies’ negative perceptions of late-career employees include, “reluctance to travel and new technologies,” “burned out” and “difficult to train.”
In addition, the study found that government offices actually “excel” in, “their awareness and assessment of the impact of the aging workforce on their organizations.” However, in comparison to the private sector, government offices, “have found it more difficult than the private sector to implement change.” The study determined that some state agencies’ negative perceptions of late-career employees include, “reluctance to travel and new technologies,” “burned out” and “difficult to train.”
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Innovation Quotation
“Innovation is invention times impact. Invention is nice, but if it has no economic or social impact it is useless.”
– Source: Marco Iansiti, author and Harvard Business School professor
– Source: Marco Iansiti, author and Harvard Business School professor
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Leadership quotes
Words of Wisdom
"Good customer service costs less than bad customer service" Sally Gronow, Welsh Water.
"You cannot improve one thing by 1000% but you can improve 1000 things by 1%". Jan Carlzon.
" A diamond is just a piece of charcoal that handled stress exceptionally well" Anon
"For fast acting relief, try slowing down". Lily Tomlin
"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important" Bertrand Russell.
"A poor life this if full of care we have no time to stand and stare" William Henry Davies.
"If you think the cost of an over-satisfied customer is costly, think about the cost of an under-satisfied customer." Lisa Ford
"Good customer service costs less than bad customer service" Sally Gronow, Welsh Water.
"You cannot improve one thing by 1000% but you can improve 1000 things by 1%". Jan Carlzon.
" A diamond is just a piece of charcoal that handled stress exceptionally well" Anon
"For fast acting relief, try slowing down". Lily Tomlin
"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important" Bertrand Russell.
"A poor life this if full of care we have no time to stand and stare" William Henry Davies.
Monday, 29 March 2010
Motivating Staff
Motivating Staff
In a respected psychology paper published in 1943 and titled "A Theory of Human Motivation" Abraham Maslow defined his hierarchy of human needs. It is described in summary in this pyramid diagram with the most basic human needs at the bottom.
Employment by itself provides part of the basic needs but engagement and motivation play a bigger role in supporting the higher level needs.
In more recent research Dr Gerald Graham conducted studies into levels of employee motivation and found that money was not the biggest motivator for people. (This may be different if there is a big discrepancy with market rates). The top 3 motivators were:
As can be seen these are within the reach of all managers and can be achieved without the expenditure of unreasonable amounts of time and effort.
Recommended Reading:
In a respected psychology paper published in 1943 and titled "A Theory of Human Motivation" Abraham Maslow defined his hierarchy of human needs. It is described in summary in this pyramid diagram with the most basic human needs at the bottom.
Employment by itself provides part of the basic needs but engagement and motivation play a bigger role in supporting the higher level needs.
In more recent research Dr Gerald Graham conducted studies into levels of employee motivation and found that money was not the biggest motivator for people. (This may be different if there is a big discrepancy with market rates). The top 3 motivators were:
- Personal thanks from their direct Manager.
- Written thanks from their manager.
- Promotion based upon merit/performance.
As can be seen these are within the reach of all managers and can be achieved without the expenditure of unreasonable amounts of time and effort.
Recommended Reading:
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Customer Service Leadership
Customer Service.
If you operate in an environment where you have no competition then you are different to most businesses today. Most of us do not have a unique product or are not still in the "first mover advantage" zone and have to compete on both price and service.
There are several common perceived wisdoms about customer dynamics such as "it takes 8 times more effort to get a new customer than to keep an existing one" and "a customer who has had a problem that has been handled well will become more loyal"
If a customer stays with you then their value to your business increases. Repeat business means that you can consider the lifetime value of a customer rather than the single transaction value. Supermarkets that make a virtue of their low prices offer loyalty cards to encourage customers to get in the habit of shopping with them each week.
Giving front line staff the authority to resolve customer issues and to offer discretionary compensation (up to defined levels) can really help in resolving customer issues before they escalate.
Being good at resolving customer issues and dealing with emergencies when they arise is a good skill but building-in reliability to avoid customer issues in the first place will have a more lasting impact on customer satisfaction.
If you operate in an environment where you have no competition then you are different to most businesses today. Most of us do not have a unique product or are not still in the "first mover advantage" zone and have to compete on both price and service.
There are several common perceived wisdoms about customer dynamics such as "it takes 8 times more effort to get a new customer than to keep an existing one" and "a customer who has had a problem that has been handled well will become more loyal"
If a customer stays with you then their value to your business increases. Repeat business means that you can consider the lifetime value of a customer rather than the single transaction value. Supermarkets that make a virtue of their low prices offer loyalty cards to encourage customers to get in the habit of shopping with them each week.
Giving front line staff the authority to resolve customer issues and to offer discretionary compensation (up to defined levels) can really help in resolving customer issues before they escalate.
Being good at resolving customer issues and dealing with emergencies when they arise is a good skill but building-in reliability to avoid customer issues in the first place will have a more lasting impact on customer satisfaction.
Customer Services Levels
Lisa Ford refers to Customer Service circles with the basic requirements in the centre and extra circles of added service, which can differentiate us from our competitors, in the outer circles.
Lisa Ford refers to Customer Service circles with the basic requirements in the centre and extra circles of added service, which can differentiate us from our competitors, in the outer circles.
Customer service levels need to be under regular review for the simple reason that customer expectations will change over time as the higher level of service become the norm and migrate into expected and generic.
1. Generic/Basic The minimum level
2. Expected. What customers have grown to expect.
3. Augmented More than, better than or faster than competition.
4. Potential Innovation, on line ordering, delivery tracking...
Customer service levels need to be under regular review for the simple reason that customer expectations will change over time as the higher level of service become the norm and migrate into expected and generic.
2. Expected. What customers have grown to expect.
3. Augmented More than, better than or faster than competition.
4. Potential Innovation, on line ordering, delivery tracking...
Customer service levels need to be under regular review for the simple reason that customer expectations will change over time as the higher level of service become the norm and migrate into expected and generic.
Recommended reading:
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