The world is now more complex than before. It will even get more complicated as time goes.
Businesses that are unable to change their models of doing things will not survive. The customer of today has more choices to choose from, more information at his or her finger tips and always wants to maximise value for money.
In such an environment, there are still some businesses that are operating on a model that is not in tandem with the market changes.
They are stuck in the successes of the past. They treat their employees as machines. The executives can hardly read the market changes and learn in order to bring up new strategies.
They are too lost in self-praise and personal achievements while they are presiding on sinking ships.
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Progressive companies are changing their language, their level of cooperation and collaboration, their treatment of staff and their attitude towards customers.
Think of Cranium, one of the most successful firms in the world. Executives at Cranium do not just have titles for the sake of having them. They have titles that make sense to their colleagues.
It is reported that the business card of the chief finance officer for the company Jack Lawrence identified him as ‘Professor Profit’.
Even customers are looked upon differently and totally embraced in the philosophy of the company.
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Co-inventor of the Board Game Cranium Richard Tait says “Customers aren’t just customers, they are Craniacs – game players who share the passion and values that animate the company that makes the game.”
Tait further stresses how such treatment of customers made a difference. “I get emails from customers that say ‘proud to be a Craniac’, ‘I am a Craniac’. This really is a movement.”
It is imperative that you set a narrative that resonates well with your employees, that gives them a sense of purpose, belonging and reliability.
You have to set a corporate culture that is impregnable. When people meet your employees, do your employees share a positive language about your company? For a majority of organisations, the answer is no.
Learn from Cranium. At Cranium, every employee you meet talks about CHIFF which eventually became the nucleus of the company’s strategic vocabulary.
It stands for Clever, High Quality, Innovative, Friendly and Fun. All that the acronym does is explaining the games’ personality and performance – how they should look, how they should be built and how the product brochure should read.
Some corporate executives think that enhancing a brand identity through marketing is enough to be competitive on the market. That is absolutely wrong. Levitan teaches better on this when he says: “For us, the foundation of a brand is the psychological contract – the contract between a company and its employees and between those employees and their customers.”
Levitan adds: “Great consumer companies are built on genuine passion, plus a day-to-day commitment to execution. Employees won’t feel the passion, and can’t maintain the operating discipline, unless they feel good about what the company sells and the values it stands for.”
When employees resonate with your corporate culture, the outcome is superior customer service delivery.
Commerce Bank stands as an outstanding example in this regard. Commerce Bank proudly challenges: “You call us on the phone and we need to transfer you to another department, the agent does not just hit the button. He or she keeps you on the phone, gets the right person on the line with you, says, Joanne, I have Jim on the line, and here’s what he needs help with, ‘and only then does the agent click off. We call that a ‘warm transfer’.”
Certainly, some organisations that are losing customers just because they are losing touch with employees who eventually can hardly serve a customer to their best.
The more they remain stuck in the old ways of doing things, unable to redefine their business operation model, the more they will join the list of corporate dinosaurs that long ceased existing.
The current business environment is merciless and takes no prisoners. It is unforgiving and will take you off the market if your corporate culture remains archaic and unresponsive to current and future market needs.
