| Greetings! Welcome to our September newsletter - we hope you will find this informative and useful. If there is anything else you would like to see or there are comments you would like to make, then please don't hesitate to get in touch.
In this series of newsletters we don't want to talk about ourselves and our achievements, but would rather try to help and inform you. We will, therefore, be looking at new ideas, or old ideas that have gained new importance (or perhaps even just caught our attention).
If there is anything you don't like please tell us. If you enjoy it then do please forward on to anyone who might find this useful too. Good ideas are for spreading.
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Fail Often, Fail Fast - A Great Way to Succeed
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This one rather flies in the face of traditional quality thinking - but really is worth looking into. Not least is the fact that it mentions failure repeatedly and says nothing of success. In fact there is a further version of this saying that adds "Fail Cheap" to the other two. So how does this work? One hint is given by Ian MacMillan and Alex van Putten in their book Unlocking Opportunities for Growth who write: "The trick
is to engineer into the project early indicators that convert the
uncertainty into more certain knowledge, quickly and cheaply, so that
you can redirect or shut down with minimum loss. In other words, fail
fast, fail cheap, and move on to the real winners."
One real challenge of striving for quality can be summed up in the phrase "Don't let the great be the enemy of the good." Striving for that high quality product can be very expensive. Particularly when you are aiming at a Go / No Go decision point. Ever increasing amounts of time and effort are spent in trying to get everything right for that one big moment.
Not only does this mean that you have spent a lot, but also fixing things that far down the line can be really costly. Then you have to think about whether you have lost sight of the original goal, the customers have move on or the competition has moved in!!
People involved in Agile approaches to software development will probably be unsurprised by these words, though we do encounter people who talk an Agile approach but still practice a Fail Big, Fail Slow approach.
Thomas Edison made a famous statement when it was suggested that he had failed to develop a storage battery after 10,000 attempts. He replied by saying that he had not failed, but found 10,000 ways that do not work. The actual number and words are somewhat in dispute - but you get the picture.
If you would like to know more about adopting a "Fail Fast" approach in your business contact us to find out more.
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Innovation Lock-In - Don't Get Caught Out |
There is a lot of pressure to innovate these days. Only the other day I was at a presentation on innovation by Nick Kirkland from CIO Connect and this set me thinking about the dangers of a lock-in.
Let's look at one example: Cloud Computing. It's a hot topic at the moment promising almost everything. Cost reduction, improved service and support from leading global organisations. It's trendy, it's innovative. Apart from a few hurdles (e.g. security) this should be an easy sell from a business case perspective.
One key fact to be wary of is the threat of being locked in to a supplier. In marketing and strategy terms a company likes to increase the "Cost of Switching" in its market (i.e. switching from itself to a competitor or alternative). At one level this can be simply contractual (e.g. 18 month mobile phone contract). However, in many cases the approach has to be more subtle.
One of the promoted benefits of Cloud Computing is you don't have to worry about (or even pay for) all the systems, data storage and related administration. Appealing on the one hand, but over time the only people who really understand what makes your systems tick, stick together and where all your data lives will be working for your supplier. How do you unpick all the data relationships and remake them in some new environment?
This is not an attack on Cloud Computing, which has great benefits to offer, but an example and a warning call to people in these difficult times. Just remember to think about that Cost of Switching. The more innovative the solution the higher the risk of it going wrong at some point. Therefore the greater the likelihood that you will need to try and unpick it all.
If you would like to discuss this idea or the impact of an innovation on your organisation don't hesitate to contact us.
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Credibility Curve - Earning your Customers' Respect
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Another great piece of Gartner analysis along with appropriate diagram that's worth a bit of studying. It's not new, but still highly relevant. It looks at the issue of an IS department / organisation and its credibility with its customers. This credibility journey is broken down into 5 stages: - Uncertainty
- Scepticism
- Acceptance
- Trust
- Respect
We won't be able to look into all the levels here though you can read some more here. Suffice it to say that this is a business-wide rather than just departmental issue and does not have to be restricted to IS departments only. If the IS organisation lacks credibility then the business is unlikely to be able to realise the full benefits available from IT. From a departmental standpoint it just serves to make every day more of a struggle. We believe this is a good, portable model. How credible is your department with its internal customers? How credible is your business with its external customers? What are the levers you can use to move your self up through the levels and earn the respect of your customers?
If you would like to find out more or discuss ways of improving your credibility with your customers then don't hesitate to contact us.
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Thanks for your time and we hope you have enjoyed reading this edition. If you have found it useful please tell your friends, if you have not, or would like to see anything else discussed then please tell us.
Until the next time.......
Yours Sincerely, 
Peter Stansbury
Managing Director
Stansburys Ltd
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Net Promoter Score - The Ultimate Question?
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Okay, this is hardly brand new - but given the current economic uncertainty - referrals and recommendations should be right up there on your business development agenda.
Fred Reicheld, a fellow at Bain and Co first wrote about this in 2003 in the Harvard Business Review. And then followed this up with a book The Ultimate Question.
An elegantly simple idea. Ask your customers one question:
"How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or
colleague?"
Based on their responses you can classify them into three groups:
Promoters (9-10)
Passives (7-8)
Detractors (0-6)
Firstly it is assumed that only those scoring a 9 or 10 would truly and actively promote your business. The actives are a mixture of happy and polite but unlikely to be active promoters or even offer you names if you ask.
There is also and extended and more mathematical approach. Subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters and you have a Net Promoter Score.
A score of 75% or above is considered quite high.
We love this - what better measure can their be of customer satisfaction? Turning it into a graded numerical scale also helps address the typical English Politeness when faced with a direct, closed question. They might say yes, but when you actually ask for a referral you are faced with an awkward situation.
Depending on your type of business you may be able to do this online or you might be doing it face to face.
Some people argue that this only really applies to retail businesses. In our view that might be true of the arithmetic Net Promoter Score. But even for a small service business the use of the question and scale can find out so much how about how your customers see you.
To find out more about applying the Net Promoter Score in your business don't hesitate to contact us.
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