Vision, Commitment and Guts
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by Bill Brendler for Siebel MultiChannel Services
The top executive for a large manufacturing company delivered the following speech to his employees:
"To
become a global leader, we must streamline our existing processes and
gather intelligence necessary to understand our customers' needs. We must
allocate all our resources to fulfill our customers' requirements in real
time. We all need to work toward this goal if we want to compete in a
global marketplace. We will target those areas where it is believed improvements
can be made and create a vision of what we must become in the future.
We will be looking to all employees to help us set the vision for the
future. We must change if we are to be a global leader. To do nothing
is not an option. Changing the way we think, behave and do our jobs is
the key to our long-term success. This is only one of several change initiatives
within our company.
Our CRM technology is a tool that will enable us to gain access to information quickly, allowing the company to streamline processes that impact our customers. By using CRM as a tool it will enable us to change the way we do business with our customers and beat our competition. The key to success is enabling the employees who will ultimately use this system. I can assure you we will work toward ensuring this will happen"
With
this opening you might think the company is off to a great start, but
let's analyze what he said:
How do you rate his speech now? In fact, this executive really had very little knowledge about what CRM could do for his company and what it would take to achieve those benefits. He doesn't believe vision, commitment and courage are necessary for what is, in his mind, just another IT project. Because he lacked vision he couldn't articulate a strategy, he couldn't demonstrate commitment to what he didn't understand, and he certainly won't have the guts to really make the changes in technology and process that a CRM project will require.
Vision:
Do You See CRM as an IT Project or Your Next Strategic Move?
One of the most common barriers to implementing CRM effectively is finding
a top executive with the vision to sponsor the project. Today's executives
have to make some tough and risky decisions about their e-business strategy.
Many of these decisions seem like just another new IT project with which
they have little experience or involvement, so they delegate this decision
to the CIO. What they don't realize, especially with CRM, is that along
with a implementing a technology, they and their entire organization will
need to embed new processes, change they way they work, and change they
way the think. Is this a project you want the IT department to lead?
Commitment:
Would You Sacrifice Earnings for CRM Benefits?
Some companies
like Charles Schwab, bit the bullet and took an earnings hit when it redefined
its business strategy to include an online brokerage. For Schwab this
strategy paid off, but the company had to go through some dark earnings
periods before it emerged as the first online trading brokerage firm.
That decision took guts.
An executive must be prepared to make the investment in customers, people and processes if a CRM initiative has a chance. Few realize what it will take to change to a customer-centric organization. The key to making this happen requires the top leader to take personal responsibility for creating the vision and leading others in the implementation of the solution.
Guts:
Do you have the Courage to Change Yourself and Your Company
You motivate people by demonstrating courage. If leaders want people to
change the way they work, the leader must demonstrate the courage to change,
too. The top executive who gave the speech was really authorizing a "toe
in the water" strategy. In this case after he gave the speech he delegated
the responsibility for developing the CRM strategy and implementing it
to a person who had no real authority or power to be successful. The executive
team lulled this person into complacency, believing they'd addressed the
issue with delegation. What they had done was set up their delegate-and
the company-for failure. Yes, the implementation failed.
The
Solution
A "toe in the water" strategy will not work anymore. A vision of reinvention
has to come from the top person in the corporation. One of the world's
foremost experts on technology marketing and competitiveness, Regis McKenna,
describes the vision top executives must have to compete in the new economy.
"They must start thinking outside the box." He says, "We are all stuck
on rules." These corporate rules, theories, practices, and procedures
become institutionalized. They are never challenged or questioned, and
as a result they actually block ideas about new and better ways of doing
things. Regis describes this in his new book, Real Time. Top management's
thinking "is too often a captive of the past-of past leaders' approaches
to everything from organizational structure to the importance accorded
one or another management specialization to the way the outside world
is viewed and tackled."
The top executive's vision (if you call it vision) is often too inwardly directed. Regis says, "more attention needs to be paid to external forces of change" David Packard, the legendary cofounder of Hewlett Packard, once said that the development of new ideas is not limited by resources of technology but by the limits of the imagination. Many top executives have a limited imagination when it comes to new technology. Most of them don't realize that CRM is a new strategy that involves not only new technology, but new processes, new behaviors, even new people.
Yet they are expected to lead the charge, champion the cause, when they are sold a new technology like CRM that's supposed to reinvent their corporation. And, what usually happens when their corporation doesn't change or doesn't change for the better? They blame the technology. But the truth is most vendors don't involve the top executive in the sales process. As a result they don't understand the impact it will have on their organization. They especially don't understand that it will require a new vision for it to work. So what's the solution? The sales process has to start by teaching top executives how to reinvent their companies.
In the shift from products to services, specialized knowledge and human understanding rise to the forefront. Service is a speed and response business. Many top executives don't connect the things that have to change to make this happen successfully in their company. In Cisco's case, the top executive did make this connection. Part of the company's vision focuses on the incalculable benefits of collaboration between manufacturing, sales, distribution, marketing, engineering and service. Cisco redefined these relationships with their customers in mind. They significantly enhanced speed, superior service and competitive muscle.
In analyzing his speech, the executive must understand the consequences of a "toe in the water strategy." He needs to know that he's putting his company at risk in ways he doesn't even realize. What do you think? Should he have been given that opportunity? Absolutely. Will this enhance the chances of his company's CRM project succeeding? You bet!
If top executives chose a "toe in the water" strategy to reassure them they are moving forward their aggressive competitors will bite off their toes. It takes guts to get your company to market the fastest. It takes guts to be the first mover and to act quickly.
If we are to improve the success rate of CRM implementations we need to include up front the top executive in the sales process and make sure they understand these hard facts.
About Bill Brendler
Bill Brendler is President and Founder of Brendler Associates, Inc. [www.brendler.com]. He is an expert in the human challenges associated with implementing new technologies and improving customer loyalty.
Bill can be reached at (713) 838-9600 or [email protected]