Speaking to a roomful of executives at Old Trafford today (second time in a week), I focussed on Time, Attention and Trust as they key things that they need to pay attention to. As the people responsible for deploying shared services in their organisations, I argued the case against the “dark forces” of too much process control and reporting.
Too often, initatives are deployed in businesses which fail. I know this as I’ve been there. I’ve made the mistakes, got the battles scars and the T-shirt. Making or breaking a new initiative is as much about the time and investment you make in people as it is the brain power you put into process re-engineering.
In life, we are battling with lack of time, low levels of attention and low levels of trust. It’s a conseqence of life, we’re working longer hours than ever before, life is not about work/life balance anymore, it’s about work/life blend. Breaking through into peoples thinking, is all important.
To win the hearts and minds of our customers, we have to stay relevant. To re-invent processes, bin others, test, refine and improve. Large scale, enterprise-wide initiatives can be years in deployment from original design. You have to wonder, whether they are still relevant, years later. Change takes time. Time is in short supply. What do we do?
Stay relevant. Build pictures of our customers. Add value. Intervene at optimum moments. Move up the value chain. Make ourselves indispensable. Listen on social media. Be clear about our benefits. Stay passionate. Connect people. Break conventions. Look outside our industries for inspiration.
