Introduction: As promised
in our last issue, this issue describes Business
Values: Customers First™, a managerial science
innovation that improves
business profitability, customer loyalty and
employee engagement. It applies the principles
described in the previous newsletter (Healthcare
Values: Patient Safety First ©) to the business
environment.
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Executive Summary
Business Values: Customers
First® (BV:CF) is a
managerial science tactical innovation which mobilizes small and mid-size
companies to achieve and sustain extraordinary profitability, extreme
customer loyalty and first-rate employee engagement. BV:CF accomplishes
this by systematically integrating operations, quality and personnel functions
toward the top-priority goal of providing the most competitive product/service,
and by implementing Performance Outcomes Sustainability Coaching®.
BV:CF transforms businesses to the “next level” to address such challenges
as: emerging competition, industry standards mandate, improved profitability,
preparing for transition (start-up/sale/succession planning)and/or, to
fast-track strategically planned growth.
Fast-Track Second Generation Transformation
“First
Generation” business transformations
typically organize and communicate a company’s mission, goals,
strategies, and values – often referred
to as alignment. However, to continuously
impact the behavior of those managers and employees “closest
to the action” to sustain
most-excellent performance, “Second Generation”
integration is required. BV:CF orchestrates organizational integration
by standardizing,
measuring and performance-coaching those
“key values” which prevent errors, reduce process variation,
drive continuous improvement
and delight customers (communication
/ collaboration / customer-first / innovation / technical excellence).
BV:CF sustains integration
by developing associated behavioral standards
based on these values, which then serve as a foundation for the
company’s HR
continuum, employee selection through
performance evaluation. Since BV:CF implementation involves significant
leadership and
staff participation, change management
resistance is minimized and “deliverables” are customized
to best fit with an organization’s existing
language, processes and cultural strengths.
Performance
Outcomes Sustainability Coaching®
Throughout
BV:CF, the quintessential process innovation
which leads to quality and customer
satisfaction excellence is Performance Outcomes
Sustainability Coaching® (POS-Coaching).
POS-Coaching consists of structured supervisor
– employee dialogues (4-6 times per year)
which guide leaders to focus 50% of performance
management
time on behavioral standards and 50% on key
technical results. Thus, this specialized
coaching methodology integrates Quality/HR/Ops
by proactively
managing target-behaviors associated with
preventing errors, product/service variations
and people
dissatisfaction – while concomitantly holding
accountability for performance results. All
POS-Coaching
dialogues conclude with managers thanking
staff for their hard work, sharing company
updates
and asking staff for improvement suggestions
(since most major business catastrophes are
“system-based” and just “waiting to happen”).
In these regards, POS-Coaching develops ongoing
mutually supportive supervisor-staff relationships
which ultimately preclude mistakes, inform
improvement, increase employee morale and
enhance customer satisfaction.
Business Values:
Customers First® Decision
Map - (NOTE:
Decision Map tools are in the process
of being updated) The
attached decision map outlines the
major developmental steps for businesses
to evolve toward “next-level” functional
integration. The map’s first three
decision points (Strategic Plan, “Choice”
Provider/Employer and Mission Critical Values)
are essential
to “first-generation” alignment. “Second
generation” organizational integration
begins during decision step #4, at
which
point, key company values are correlated
with those generic organizational values
known to prevent errors, improve product/service
quality and optimize customer and employee
satisfaction (Communication, Collaboration,
Customer First, Innovation and Technical
Excellence). Step #4’s final deliverable
produces (with much leader and staff
input) a values-driven operationally
defined set of behavior measures which codify
a company’s
priority behavioral and technical competencies
(can’t manage that which you don’t measure).
Together, these values and associated behavioral
measures comprise the foundation upon which
BV:CF integrates and manages a business’
quality, personnel and operations functions,
forming the basis for accelerated “second generation”
transformational growth. Step #5 illustrates
how such behavioral and technical measures
inform and drive the organization’s entire
personnel continuum, from employee selection
and leadership development, through
formal employee evaluation incorporating
pay for performance (P4P).
Conclusion
In
short, Business Values: Customers First® is designed to help
businesses quickly achieve that most important
of all profit related strategic goals -
Performance Excellence Sustainability.
BV:CF’s integrated methodology, which superimposes
key behavioral competencies across technical
care/service priorities, provides the catalyst
and measurable infrastructure for sustainable
transformational change. The integration
of Quality Management, Human Resources
and Operations processes communicates a
powerful internally consistent message
organization-wide about the highest priorities of product/service
excellence and customer satisfaction. The
POS-Coaching process further inculcates
a culture
of excellence and continuous improvement,
while consistently managing
accountability for results. It should not
go unmentioned that BV:CF deliberately
addresses common transformational change-resistance
dynamics related to design, complexity and
work-place relationship issues with the
following basic tenets: - simplicity, customization and logical adequacy of design
- objective measurability
and fair performance evaluation
- integrated and internally consistent
Quality/HR/Ops infrastructure
- standardization and training of leadership competencies and processes
- 1:1 and team relationship-building through POS-Coaching.
In the final analysis, BV:CF addresses the business world’s biggest challenges,
sustaining product/service excellence, profitability and customer loyalty, by
systematically managing performance accountability….not only for what product/service
is provided but for how it is produced and delivered. Businesses today face
unprecedented financial and human-capital risks and are comprised of workforces
which are fiercely resistant to
change and layered improvement initiatives. Because BV:CF delivers a custom-designed
permanent and internally consistent “performance improvement-measurement-management”
system created with leadership and staff input, it will not be construed as
another “flavor of the month” change, but will instead be embraced by managers
and staff as “the order of every day, on behalf of each and every customer”...in
the best interest of the business...
and all company stakeholders.
- Business
Values: Customers First® System
Decision Map
(NOTE: Decision Map tools
are in the process of being updated)
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