Managers are increasingly finding that “Doing what you always did will no longer get you what you always got.” Customers, business partners, and others are demanding better, faster, cheaper.  Working harder will not suffice; change is needed. Yet, the requisite resources to undertake large-scale initiatives to produce these results do not exist. 

A solution: look for meaningful, smaller changes that will affect the way separate units – departments, functions, businesses - interact with each other. Relatively small steps can yield huge dividends: improve financial results (accelerate revenues, reduce expenses), enhance reputation (higher customer satisfaction and other quality metrics, raise internal perception), and strengthen management (tighter internal controls and linkages to the organization’s strategy).

These laser-focused enhancements enable an organization to realize benefits quickly. As these efforts unfold, synergies result, making the sum of the pieces greater than the total.  At the same time, a quality culture forms; credibility and excitement build for ideas that require a larger investment of resources.

Leadership Roles

To ensure that these initiatives are successful, leaders need to create a culture that promotes teamwork and interdepartmental cooperation. Metrics and rewards must reinforce this objective. Employees need to be compensated for doing what is right for the organization. 

For example, I asked one department to add a person at a cost of $50,000 to save $2 million in taxes; however, because taxes were held at corporate and expenses were kept at the business level, I was turned down – right decision for the department, wrong decision for the corporation and its shareholders. The solution was relatively simple: move the operating expenses to corporate, while having the additional person report to the business.

On a tactical level, start the idea generation process by taking a page from New York City’s former mayor Ed Koch. Ask Customers, Business Partners, and others, “How are we doing?”, e.g., where the service/function/product excels, is mediocre, and needs improvement. Actively listen to this feedback. Notice what is not said – sometimes it is more informative than what people say.

Once the interviews are complete, turn the data into intelligence.  Look at activities and hand-offs between silos.  Engage business partners in this analysis. Work with them to identify 3-5 low cost, relatively easy-to-implement initiatives. Implement them. Assess the efficacy of these changes. Ask again “How are we doing?” Share what changes you made and how they link to the feedback you received. The goodwill engendered will produce additional insights and provide the fodder to make other improvements.

The individual who leads these efforts must be a creative problem solver. His/her consultative selling and ability to work with people at all levels  are critical to the project’s success. Other participants must perceive – and perception is reality – that this leader is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. 

For the data gathering phase, strong interview skills are needed.  The individual must be capable of extracting intelligence from qualitative and quantitative information. For the implementation stage, strong project management skills are essential.  Other requirements depend on the business situation.

Real Life Case Studies

By taking this problem-solving approach, I have enjoyed many successes.  Let me share two of them.

Challenge: Get it right the first time
At a financial institution, additional corporate checking accounts were rarely opened correctly the first time. Customer Service complained that they did not get the information they needed. Client satisfaction was low. In response, I created a two-sided laminate delineating what information was needed to open an additional account or maintain an account. Customers knew what account attributes to request; staff knew what questions to ask. Costs involved: 2 days of my time and $1,000 to produce the laminates.  The benefits: Re-work was eliminated and customer satisfaction increased.

Challenge: Collect Revenue for Services Agreed to
At an E-commerce venture, Customer Service representatives were offering to put accounts “inactive” rather than close them, for a service charge of one month’s subscription fee.  However, billing did not charge for this fee, since the legal agreement did not provide for it. To rectify this omission, working with in-house counsel, we revised the documentation to cover this additional offering. Projected revenue increase: $.5 – $1.0 million. Costs involved: 3 days total of my/in-house legal’s time. (Documents were maintained in a print on-demand warehouse so there were no reproduction costs).

Work smarter, not harder. Well thought out, small-scale initiatives can help produce significant contributions to becoming better, faster, and cheaper.  A bi-product is a reputation for quality and excellence – a win/win for everyone.

Charlotte Nad consults with leaders and senior managers on business and organizational effectiveness.