International Process and Performance Institute

I haven’t talked to many who have positive things to say about 2009, except that it is finally behind us.  On the other hand, everyone seems to be highly optimistic about 2010.  I think there is every reason to believe this year will be full of opportunities.  However, I think the best opportunities will come from a different set of behaviors and tactics than we have been using to survive the last two years.

2009 was a year of honing our survival tactics. For many of us in the process business, it meant using our skills to “lean” operations and milk every opportunity to cut costs.  For many organizations those efforts have resulted in significant cost reductions, and in the end, the very survival of our companies.  It wasn’t easy, but survival is good.  Many companies did not fare as well.  I haven’t seen any hard numbers yet, but I don’t recall seeing or hearing about so many business failures as I did in 2009.  I’m very sorry for them all.

For the survivors, I would like to suggest the behaviors which helped us survive are not necessarily the ones to help us take advantage of the opportunity before us, for two reasons.  First, while you have been focused inward on your internal processes and cost cutting, your customers have most likely changed.  While you have had your attentions on reducing the drag on the trigger-pull, your target customer may have moved outside the crosshairs.  Very few of us have come through the last two years without a different view of the world, altered perspectives, modified values, or even a different idea of what we want and what is really important to us.  We have changed in some way and so has our customer.  We need to check in and try to understand what may have changed.

The second reason we may need to take a different approach is the reality that cost cutting and leaning our processes sometimes has the undesirable effect of pushing work and risk back on the customer, who is paying us to take it on.  Have you felt this yourself recently?  I have on a number of fronts. 

One instance was when I recently helped a friend with a problem he was experiencing with his laptop.  He had purchased the laptop only a month before from a retail outlet.  The laptop came with instructions on how to obtain technical support from the manufacturer (a company based in Texas that normally sells direct to the customer).  Upon validating the serial number of the laptop for warranty and service, the manufacturer’s technical support informed us that since the laptop had been purchased through a retail channel, they could not support it and we needed to call the retailer for support.  Humph, ok… We called the retailer, who told us they didn’t have the resources to help, and to call the manufacturer or they could send out someone who charged by the hour. 

I know the PC business is a tough business these days, but this company (like many others) has taken it to an extreme, which only serves to push back on and alienate the customer.  And while the customer defections may not start right away, they will eventually and with certainty.  Customers will not continue to suffer.  Without correction, they will defect. 

Our opportunity in the coming year (or even decade) is to look at our organizations and processes anew with an eye to making sure they are in alignment with our customers.  We need to think about what has changed for them; what do we need to do differently to better serve them, or what new challenges do they face that we could help them with?  We also need to look to see if we have changed in a negative way that affects them in ways that frustrate them.  How can we make them successful?  The only true business success comes with making our customers successful from their point of view (not ours). 

From the Directors, Advisors and volunteers at IPAPI, we wish you the best of success in 2010 and your best year ever!