Who said So?



Who said So? - The questions revolutionary businesses ask that make them successful

                                                                                                                                  - by Michael Parker

“Couples will never marry online!” Most of us would immediately agree to this statement. The company “Shadi.com” asked, “Who said so?” Surprisingly in the covid-19 lockdown period Shadi.com has managed to have weddings from Home.

 "Who said So?" is a story of John, an uprising manager at the software company who finds himself in a pool of problems after getting a new assignment, which was several weeks delayed from the schedule. He nostalgically thinks how smooth everything used to be when he started working at this company; John also begins to have doubts in what he's doing. Fortunately, John has that Aladdin’s genie sort of father who pops up and tells him about groundbreaking management method- the Value-Centered management. 

Value-Centered management rejects most of the traditional views of business and replaces them with ways of emphasizing customer values, business culture and lean flows.

John hadn’t even competed his MBA when AXD solutions, an 800 pounds gorilla in the IT industry, came looking for him. Tim, the dad of John had been a midlevel executive with a major airline for more than 20 years. He had worked his way up through his company without the benefit of a degree. John had chosen to follow the footsteps of his father to enter the corporate world. 

John was looked upon as a star manager in his earlier days. But three years later in AXD solutions, he wasn’t the same. He lost the passion and was worried as his work was getting towards mediocrity.

While watching a horror movie on TV, a question creeped into his mind, “Why don’t these guys turn on the lights?” The answer he got to himself was, “May be they are afraid of what they will see”. John in a frozen state got the answer to the fading status of his work in the recent past.

John looks over at a drawing resting on the knees of his dad. To John it appears to be a crude drawing of a new house: One large rectangle, topped by three vertical pillars supporting the triangular roof. The picture was about “Value centered management”

Most business set their direction and tactical plans based on traditional business education. The work flow through organization charts, hierarchy in reporting, the MIS, the competition and the cooperation of the departments are always there. Are we forgetting the forest for the trees? Where should the highest focus be? Though the approach has been more or less same in the most of the companies, including the successful ones, it does not work for all the companies, all the time. Efficiency efforts have proven that an amazing 70% to 95% of the work within a company adds no value to the product or the service. The question Tim has is, “Who says the way we’ve always done things is the best way to do? Who said so?”

The complaint Tim had was that the tradition business had different knowledge sources segregated from each other, in departments. The organization gets stuck with people trying to jockey for position and prove their worth instead of actually getting results for customer. He added saying that in an attempt to make her or him noticed in the work culture, no body stays focused on customer.

The focus of VCM is in finding out and providing what the customer values. I need to spot the areas/reasons the customers would be unhappy with me when I was doing everything I could think to make them Happy. How many competing values should be there in an organization? The answer of course is ‘One’: What the customer values”

                                
The foundation elements:
1.    A visual work place: The work process or the objective should be spelled out and posted where       
     everyone can see, so that everyone knows what to do, how to do it, when to do it and where to do it.   
     Paste a SAFE –T poster and follow and ensure its consistency.
     S-Separate what is not needed. A-Arrange in order the potential abnormalities. F- Finish with                    inspection for potential abnormalities. E – Use standardization tools to ensure that everyone                      understands the rules. T- Test constantly to confirm that the system is working.
2.   Time management
3.  Cost reduction
4.  Reduction of non-value added activities
5.  Resources re-allocation.

How can I be sure to deliver what my customers value?
Simple! Spend time with the customers, allocate people of the same age to mix up with the clients to get the correct expectations. In larger organizations there can be a service team that stays on the top of the customer needs and taps resources to meet them.

Business Culture:
                                                       
Make the person leader of the work that she/he is troubled with. Give authority and the complaint gets solved in the best way.
 The seven commitments to have healthy culture
1.    Attitude control                         2. Identify and strengthen individual weaknesses.                                    3.   Positive thought process         4. Effective communication 
5.   High Tolerance level                6. Resilience
7.   Respect for authority: Commit to respect leaders, team members and the customers.

Attitude control is not the hardest. The hardest one is strengthening our weaknesses, because we don’t want to see them. Discussing the personal problems of the team members in breaks is a part of good culture. Unhappy team member can lead to unhappy customer.

 Lean Management:
                                       
The term ‘Lean’ was made up by John Krafcik in his 1988 article, “triumph of Lean production system” He is the current CEO of Google’s self-driving car project Waymo.
Don’t work faster, Make the work move faster. Flow is one of the most critical pillars in the value centered Enterprise.
Traditional Management thinks           : Sales Price = Cost + Profit
Value centered Management thinks    : Sales Price - Cost = Profit.
The difference is that within a value centered Enterprise focused on flow, profit is created by lowering the costs. In service organizations it is done by eliminating barriers to productivity.

The seven blockages: 1. Overproviding 2. Unnecessary waiting 3. Unnecessary quantities 4. Unnecessary movements 5. Repeat works 6. Irrelevant works 7. Underutilized resources.

Finally a structure that puts customers where they belong, at the top:
                                       

The customer behavior changes over a period of time. If we can forecast and strategize a proper implementation, we will be the early bird and the early bird always has advantage even in this copy-cat economy.


Disclaimer
The above made summary of the book "Who said so?" by Mr. Parker is just an attempt to assemble the good points mentioned in the book. In doing so I have used my thoughts to land on a point that matches my experience and usefulness.

Vinay Wagh,
Bulls Eye

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Design your Thinking

Image
    Design your Thinking -   Pavan Soni (IIM Bangalore prof.)   It’s a book on the mindsets, toolsets and skillsets needed for creative problem solving.   The Prefrontal cortex of our brain is responsible for the cognitive functions like planning, decision making and controlling impulsive reactions. The Amygdala is primarily responsible for processing emotions like fear and aggression often triggering immediate reactions to perceived threats in the surrounding. The prefrontal cortex acts as a brake on amygdala’s emotional reactions. The book provides means and ways to fertilize the prefrontal cortex.   Although Design thinking is interesting, it is a bit challenging because it is a nonlinear thinking process and has iterative approach to problem solving. Nonlinear growth necessitates non-linear ways of thinking. It’s like Steve Jobs dictum, “Connecting the dots looking ahead” where we apply our knowledge, instincts and experiences knowingly or ...
Read more

What to do couple of days before CAT?

What to do couple of days before CAT? The answer is 'Nothing'.   It might not be easy for most of you all to do nothing in this tensed situation.   In that case, just   get a bit organized to have your moves planned or revised. Fine tune the approach needed for various sets of questions. If you've maintained the Delta-x notebook, build your confidence around the learnings   written in the book. If you have not maintained the book, does not matter. Spend some time finalizing your approaches. Approaches: The approaches I am writing below are just samples. If  you have realized in the mocks that they don't work with you, go ahead with the approach you've been following in the last few Mocks. Don't change your approach now! Verbal Ability:  Bulls Eye Approach: If your VA percentile is 80+ in the last three mocks, think of more than 2 RC attempts. Such student needs to travel through all the sets, stay for a minute or two on the set you've ...
Read more

What they don't teach you at Harvard Business School - Mark McCormack

What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School – Mark McCormack   In fairness to HBS, what they don’t teach you is how to read people and how to use that knowledge to get what you want. Mark makes the point that whether a person is selling or buying, hiring or getting hired, negotiating a contract or responding to someone else’s demands, they need to understand the other person’s true self. He emphasizes the skills and methods required to understand people in order to be effective in business.   The Seven-Step Plan to Reading People in Business   Step 1: Listen Aggressively Listen not just to  what  someone is saying, but  how  they are saying it. People often reveal more than they intend. Use pauses—slightly uncomfortable silences often lead people to say even more.   Step 2: Observe Aggressively Pay attention to clues. For example, dressing sense isn’t just about fashion. Wearing clothes inappropriate for the weather may show how much a pe...
Read more