Leading Ideas for Innovation and Customer Focus

Executive Coaching & Team Alignment

Leading Ideas newsletter

Winter 2009

In this issue

Practical Ideas for Leading Innovation

Customer Conversations are Worth Their Weight In Gold

Team Dimensions Profile

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Kathleen Robinson

Kathleen Robinson is a management consultant and executive coach who specializes in helping leaders and their teams improve working relationships and achieve extraordinary results.

Since launching Robinson & Associates in 1987, Kathleen has successfully leveraged her knowledge and experience in leadership development, counseling psychology and business management to help clients identify and capitalize on opportunities for professional development, organization vitality and growth.

An integral part of Kathleen's success has been her ability to develop and manage collaborative relationships with other professionals. With her well-established network of trusted associates - management consultants, instructional designers, trainers and coaches - she is able to leverage a wide array of talent and expertise to deliver high quality development solutions for her customers.

Learn More...

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Our assessment-driven learning solutions help develop interpersonal skills such as communication, teambuilding, conflict management and time management. Solution-focused programs from Inscape, based on DiSCŽ and other recognized learning models, are used in thousands of organizations, large and small, including major government agencies and more than 135 of the Fortune 500.

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Greetings!

Welcome to 2009! Without a doubt, we have our work cut out for us this year, but really nothing we haven't seen before. Doing more with fewer resources, managing change at every level, staying close to our customers, finding new opportunities for business growth and development, and covering rising costs are all familiar refrains. While the intensity of these challenges may be stronger than in the past, I believe we've trained for these challenges and know how to face them.

In good times, it's relatively easy for organizations and individuals to grow and flourish. It's the tough times that really show us what we're made of! Like athletes who train every day to build the mindset, muscle, skill and endurance that will support them in facing career defining moments, as successful business professionals we are also ready to face the current challenges with the knowledge and skills that we've honed over our careers.

For the past twenty years, in my work with organizations across all sectors of our economy-for profit, non-profit, government, education-I can recommend two key strategies that are powerfully effective in guiding organizations through challenging times: innovation and customer focus. A commitment to innovation requires strong leadership, a culture that fosters "out of the box" thinking and strong teamwork. In this newsletter, our colleague Neil Love will share ten tips to help jump start your thinking and generate breakthrough opportunities for profitable growth.

The fundamental business strategy of being customer focused in our business practices and decision making is more important than ever. We all recognize that we're here to serve our customers and meet their needs. Yet it's easy to get away from that fundamental principle especially when we're under pressure to meet short term financial targets. Over time we lose touch with what our customers need and want from us unless we take the time to really listen to them. Our colleague, Linda Sharp, will offer some practical tips for conducting in-depth conversations with customers that uncover not only what customers want but generate even more profitable insights by finding out why they want it.

As we move into 2009, I'd like to propose a few "new year intentions" that that can help us lead ourselves to a brighter future.

Speak the truth. Tell it like it is-no posturing, no pretense or spin doctoring. Let others know what we need, what we see, what we care about. But let's try to avoid fear based language. Instead, let's focus our attention on what we want to create rather than on what's missing. We can be both positive in our messaging and truthful. Let's try to leave everyone feeling a bit better and stronger as a result of working with us.
Focus on helping others succeed. Zig Ziglar once said, "We can all have what we want in life as long as we make sure others are also getting what they want." The recent economic changes have clearly demonstrated our interconnectedness. We all got here together and we will emerge by working together and supporting each other.
Be the leaders we want to see in the world. Strong leadership is needed everywhere at every level, now more than ever. Skillful leaders focus on abundance, prosperity and positive action rather than on scarcity, deficits and negativity. All of us can commit to taking our leadership game to the next level by building and sustaining healthy working relationships, communicating more effectively, especially under pressure, and inspiring others to be their best.

As always, I am committed to supporting you in creating and implementing your prosperity vision for 2009 and look forward to exploring ways that we can work together for a brighter future.

Wishing you peace and prosperity,

Kathleen Robinson

"We can't win a game by focusing on the scoreboard. If we want to help generate economic momentum and achieve positive results, we have to focus on helping everyone on our team play their best game."

Practical Ideas for Leading Innovation
By Neil Love

"Innovation in this world is the best way to win -
arguably the only way to really win."
~ A.G. Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble

We've all heard the saying, "If we keep doing what we've done, we'll keep getting what we've got." Management research has shown over and over again that the best way to create sustainable value for our customers is through continuous innovation. We are currently facing some of the most formidable business challenges most of us have ever experienced. Tight credit markets, global competition, productivity losses, high unemployment, stock market losses---every day new stories of doom and gloom.

Think about it. Whatever we've done to get us in this position is likely not a recipe for success moving forward. If we keep doing the same things and operate the same way, we will not be adapting to the formidable challenges ahead in 2009 and the incredibly dynamic global markets we are facing. Worse yet, we will not be capitalizing on the untapped intelligence and experience that lies within our organizations.

Nothing in life is static---sustainable growth demands that we continuously change and re-invent our companies and ourselves to provide the highest possible value for our customers, employees and shareholders. If we aren't continuously looking for new ways to make it easier for our customers to do business with us, someone else will.

Breaking entrenched patterns of thinking and behaving is always a work in progress. It's easy to say, "We will be more innovative and provide more value to customers." However, doing it is another matter. How can leaders tap the innovation potential in their organizations to seize new opportunities for revenue and profit growth? Here are ten ideas to help you make it happen.

Innovation Success Tips For 2009

Aggressively Avoid Denial.

Create an Innovation Mindset.

Focus on Your Best Customers.

Harvest the Wisdom of Your Brightest.

Capture Lessons Learned.

Dive into the "White Space."

Knock Down the Silos.

Read "Blue Ocean Strategy."

Click here

Insist on Leadership.

Leverage Outside Resources.

We believe that the nimble, the innovative and the customer focused organizations will not only cope in this economic environment, but thrive. Innovate and thrive in 2009!

Neil Love, a senior associate with Robinson & Associates, works with executives to design and implement initiatives to improve performance and innovation in organizations and teams. He specializes in web based processes and programs that enable organizations to capture new revenue, reduce costs, and improve productivity in this tough economic climate.

"It's times like these when companies can shift positions in the marketplace...because we are in a period where everything is going to open and unfreeze.....Differentiate from the competition and thrive."
~ Michael Porter

Customer Conversations are Worth Their Weight In Gold
By Linda Sharp

The most important thing to remember during difficult economic conditions is to stay close to customers. Now more than ever, your customers, whether external or internal, need you to pay attention and show that you care. One of the best ways to do that is through the art of conversation. Over the past few years, we have seen many organizations rely increasingly on online survey methods to solicit feedback from their customers and employees. While relatively inexpensive and easy to use, technology cannot substitute for conversations. Surveys can give us plenty of data, but they are also static and often miss the real motivation and meaning behind the feedback. A focused conversation is how we find out what is really going on with customers and what they need to feel more satisfied and be more successful.

The advantage of a real-time conversation is two-fold: 1) it complements the customer feedback received from online surveys and other data gathering methods to make it more actionable and 2) it helps us deepen the customer relationship. Relationships are golden. When we have real relationships with our customers they are more likely to give us the benefit of the doubt, help us out when needed and stay with us when times are tough.

Focused customer conversations need thoughtful planning, careful listening and analyses, and good follow-through. When planning conversations with your internal or external customers, here are some tips to help you get what you need to build positive, productive relationships:

► Generate opportunities for frequent conversations. Rather than relying on annual (or even less frequent) customer satisfaction surveys, list the most critical interactions your organization has with customers throughout the year. Also, develop the questions you would like customers to answer and parse them out in focused conversations over the course of time as you engage in each of your critical interactions. Keep a record of those conversations so you can begin to see patterns or trends in the feedback.

► Coordinate research efforts across your organization. To better leverage your resources and avoid duplication of effort, we recommend that you plan and orchestrate the research your organization does with customers so that all departments can benefit from the insights gained. Develop research standards that managers and departments can agree to, including whom you should target, what questions are important, how you will analyze and distribute the feedback.

► Balance quantitative data with qualitative data. While it is easier and faster to analyze the quantitative data from surveys and conversations, it's the unstructured "comments" that often give us the breakthrough insights--but only if they are analyzed and acted upon. Be sure to give people a chance to share what's on their mind---even if it is "off script."

► Take action on the feedback you receive. According to a study referenced by Gartner Group, 95% of companies collected customer feedback, but few did anything with it. The study showed that only 50% alerted their staffs, 30% used the insight gained, only 10% made improvements, and a mere 5% told their customers of the change they made. When you ask for feedback, be prepared to act. Share the insights that you gained and your plans for changes you will make as a result of the feedback. Solutions may involve clarifying roles and responsibilities, redesigning work processes, skill building training for employees, developing new products or services, improving communication or partnering more closely with others. If you don't act, it could be worse than not asking in the first place.

► Ask Why-again and again. Most research questions focus on whom, what and how. Asking top priority customers to tell you "WHY" brings more nuance, meaning, and intelligence to the delivery of your products and services. Here are a few key areas of questioning that you will want to include in your conversations. Be sure to follow up their answers with "Why" to learn even more!

What customer outreach/communication efforts do your customers appreciate most during these challenging times?
How can you make it easier for your customers to do business with you?
What are your customers most concerned about? What opportunities or plans do they have for enhancing their offerings to their customers?
What do your customers need and want? What do they value enough in your offering to keep them from cutting back or taking their business elsewhere?

The answers to WHY will let you know where you stand with customers and will help you determine what to deliver in order to strengthen your relationships. These critical findings will also give you the nuance you need to differentiate your product/service in the marketplace. By committing to understanding WHY, you increase the likelihood customers will continue to do business with you. Even in challenging times.