“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”(Peter Drucker)
This article proposes a conceptual framework for describing business organizations as complex systems, much like live organisms, whose parts function in an orchestrated manner for the sole purpose of creating customer value.
The impetus behind it was the growing realization that while most business publications focus on the tactical aspects of running a business (the “how” of the business), few tackle head-on are the foundational principles of strong business models (the “why” of a business).
In the prior article, Enterprise Process Map (Part 1 of 2), I promoted enterprise process maps as a tool to enhance operational clarity and create a shared view of a company’s capabilities. It is this shared perspective that accelerates business planning and improvement activities as the time to get everyone on the same page is vastly reduced. In lieu of such a foundational view, leaders setting strategy are essentially planning a road trip without awareness of the roads to the destination.
We are in a perfect storm for making great decisions and nothing less. There are converging forces that put a premium on better decisions in that organizations are being asked for more in a changing world. At the same time the number of assists that are available to boost better decision making are also emerging quickly. What are these forces and boosts to increase an organization's ability to make better at the minimum and great decisions at a maximum? The coming decision wars will be at the forefront of success going forward for organizations and individuals.
Forces Affecting Decisions:
Business Contexts Shifting Faster
A successful digital business initiative relies upon adopting agile principles, an enduring focus on improving customer experience and executing programs with a business process based view with enabling digital information technology.
Measuring what matters to customers and challenging the current operating model of the business are two important characteristics of digitally mature organizations.
Join Gregg Rock and our leading digital business experts as they discuss the critical skills needed in your digital transformation initiatives:
A September 2015 survey of 150 Operational Excellence (Op Ex) professionals found that 38% of respondents listed Customer Experience (CX) as their number one priority in Op Ex. That’s both good news and bad news. The good news is that nearly 4 out of 10 Op Ex professionals recognize that CSX is central to Op Ex success. The bad news is that 62% – don’t.
There’s no doubt that Op Ex success also relies on other factors such as leadership and culture. But if an organization doesn’t put customers first – they may find themselves optimizing to a decreasing share of the market. Op Ex professionals will recognize the importance of focusing on customer experience as it has been part of the lean movement since 1988.
Each quarter, the American Customer Satisfaction Index issues an update of overall U.S. customer satisfaction. The national ACSI score for the period 1994 through 2015, as depicted below, reflects an aggregate of customer satisfaction with companies that comprise a large cross-section of the economy.*
National ACSI Score
It’s worthwhile noting that the ACSI score for Q$ in 2015 is well below the baseline 1994 level. This is just one indication that customers’ expectations are outpacing the ability of organizations to deliver.
Author of Customer Focused Process Innovation: Linking Strategic Intent to Everyday Execution
For any organization to prosper, its leadership must drive bottom line results, expand the product offerings, and identify opportunities to better strategically position the organization. But all too often they look to trendy business practices or copy the competition. They don’t know the answers to basic questions: How do things really work and fit together in this organization? What does the customer really want from us? Who really does what and where do I fit in? How can I move the ball forward? Without these answers, the organization’s innovation capabilities are limited.
In the modern Digital world, Customer Experience is a critical factor for success in BPM. Organizations can apply Design Thinking framework to map the right emotional innovation factors and succeed in the BPM transformation.
Amplifying BPM with Customer Experience and Design Thinking
In this white paper, we’ll demonstrate how BPM can transform CX and provide the following benefits for your business:
BPM is an essential element of improving your Customer Experience. Find out how:
“Government managers must learn from what is working in the private sector and apply these best practices to deliver services better, faster, and at lower cost.” – Barack Obama (upon releasing Executive Order 13571--Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service)
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