Monthly Archives: February 2010
Most business managers go through the annual ritual of budgeting. We plan the next one or two years based on the actual results of the most recent year. We draw up a spreadsheet and plan line by line – sales revenues up 10% and costs held to a 5% increase means a modest improvement in profits.We should have learned by now that this is a sterile process. The past is a poor guide to the future and its innovations. In 1972 the Club of Rome published “The Limits to Growth.” It was a model that predicted what would happen to energy, food, population, environment, etc. It concluded that essential resources like oil would run out in the 1990s and that economic growth was unsustainable. It extrapolated the future based on the past. And it got it wrong precisely because the future is not like the past.Blocking out innovative ideasThe planning … Continue reading
Below is the latest blog I just received from Seth Godin. He (as he does most days) makes an important point especially for Service based companies and provides additional reasons why Service Design can be such a potent weapon for progressive companies.It’s not JUST the steak or the phone call or the insurance cover that your customers are buying when they look to buy something from you. It’s not JUST the all the elements that make up the customer journey and everything within it. The touch-points that deliver it, the spaces where engagement with customers occurs through channels such as in-store, call centre, postal mail, or online. The ‘moment’ within each touch-point where there is an interaction and your staff or systems engage with your customers.These are all crucially important and without it, your business will not thrive and grow new and recurring revenue streams. But how do you handle … Continue reading
There’s a simple reason why so many brainstorm sessions are a waste of time. The problem statement being pitched to participants is the wrong one. This is not surprising – especially when you consider how little time most facilitators put into preparing for a session. Here’s what happens: The person who calls the session is usually scrambling – overwhelmed, over-caffeinated, and running from one meeting to the next. Out of breath, they pitch the topic to the group, but the topic is either vague or secondary to a more essential challenge that remains unspoken.G.K. Chesterton, one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century, distilled the phenomenon down to 13 words. “It’s not that they can’t see the solution,” he said. “They can’t see the problem.”Then, of course, there’s also the phenomenon of perception bias. Pitch a challenge to an IT person, and it will be seen as … Continue reading
