Abstract
Now that the general framework is in place, Chapter 3 outlines the components for translating strategy into Operations. Here we focus on the most abstract SPDM layer.
Now that the general framework is in place, Chapter 3 outlines the components for translating strategy into Operations. Here we focus on the most abstract SPDM layer.
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Notes
- 1.
Look, I will not tell you again much of what you already know about clients. No. I only want to mention new roles.
- 2.
Definition given in another previously written book (Muñoz-Seca and Riverola, 2004) but which I use constantly.
- 3.
We only love, what you call love, a few people; I always say less than you can count with both hands – depending on how many children you have, of course! (A colleague who has many comes to mind).
- 4.
My favorite example: for hotel breakfasts, do you prefer self-service or to be waited on? With self-service you work for the hotel, but you can serve yourself five plates full of fruit or whatever you like…is it worth it?
- 5.
A small device with four buttons and a readable screen for domestic use. It has a backlit LCD screen and a simple interface controlled by the four buttons on the front panel.
- 6.
And not a mere recipient.
- 7.
And if you do not know, there is a serious problem that goes beyond Operations.
- 8.
Washing and cutting is hygienic. Cutting the way the client wants is differential.
- 9.
I apologize for saying so again and will continue to apologize, for I will say so over and over.
- 10.
Let us not confuse price with being efficient. Being efficient is obligatory in any form of competition.
- 11.
Or complicated, because it is complicated, although I have tried to simplify it.
- 12.
I do not know if you have undergone surgery. If so, you will remember that being alone and helpless on a gurney on your way to surgery is hard to bear. Friendly and comforting interaction is a service value.
- 13.
Ian Carlzon, President of Scandinavian Airlines in the 1980s, defined MMT as instants of interaction between the client and the realities of Operations.
- 14.
Try out this test. Ask your staff at what five moments the service is at stake. The answers will contain surprises, but you will find more surprises if you ask the client. There are many moments that come under the heading of when things are at stake, which are valued most by clients but the company is not aware of.
- 15.
And at times it is hard for them, too, but that is what they are CEOs for!
- 16.
I shall always use the masculine form for s/he.
- 17.
In which I have invested a lot of money in hours of training to give the client a complete service.
- 18.
From what I see of my European participants, there currently exists a similar situation, regardless of nationality.
- 19.
Easy in theory, devilishly hard in real life.
- 20.
Actually, we introduced them to the public 12 years ago, but I do so again because they are absolutely indispensable.
- 21.
Another job for the CEO. He may be helped out by giving him alternatives, but it is the CEO’s call!
- 22.
Can the reader guess who must do the prioritizing? Right, the CEO again.
- 23.
It is not worth assigning two points to every criterion, because that does not help prioritization. One must find trade-offs and know how to pick the really critical ones.
- 24.
An anecdote I always tell in class: How often has a 1% price difference for some product cost us dearly? Often, right? And we always blame the purchasing department. Well no, it is not their fault. There is clearly a lack of transparency and clarity in priority dimensions. If the response time and meeting deadlines are the two priority dimensions in the Promise, we cannot stray from any of them, even if it is to cut prices. The cut will be secondary. And who has spelled that out to purchases? Nobody, right? Well obviously they will continue to work on their prioritization, which is cost, and such mixed messages make inefficiency king and the P&L line suffer. The solution? Clarify the Promise’s priorities.
- 25.
For years I have wanted somebody to come up with a little app to use each company’s five Promise priorities as a screensaver. Nobody takes any notice of me, so perhaps this book will bring me more success.
- 26.
I have yet to meet a CEO who tells me his management team needs help in clarifying priorities. They all tell me that the team is perfectly “in tune,” and then when the prioritization project is done, there is a lot of cussing. Assume nothing, clarify and give prioritization a numerical value. That helps a great deal for everyone to get it, loud and clear.
- 27.
Faced with accidents (what may be spared without ceasing to be the same thing), essence designates the feature – or features – that is essentially worthwhile and may not be spared without getting annihilated and ceasing to be.
- 28.
My personal opinion. You may translate it into something else. Who must translate, however, is the Mayo CEO. He is the one who counts.
- 29.
And if it does not sink in quickly, ask yourself why. Maybe the essence is not consistent with real-life service.
- 30.
Yes, I agree totally, it is corny but it gets through! Everybody remembers it, and as I believe that the concept to be conveyed is very important, I have been calling it flame red for many years.
- 31.
Yes, I agree, I am an optimist. To believe that managers think things through every day is almost utopian. They do act, but thinking through? Well maybe.
- 32.
Really great, isn’t it?
Bibliography
Chesbrough, H. W. (2011). “Bringing Open Innovation to Services”, MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter, 52(2), pp. 85–90.
Fitzsimmons, J. A. (1985). “Consumer Participation and Productivity in Service Operations”, Interfaces, 15(3), pp. 60–67.
Frei, F. X. (2006). “Breaking the Trade Off: Between Efficiency and Service”, Harvard Business Review, 84(11), pp. 92–101.
Muñoz-Seca, B. and Riverola, J. (2004). Problem Driven Management. Achieving improvement in operations through knowledge management, London-New York, Editorial Palgrave-Macmillan.
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Muñoz-Seca, B. (2017). The Promise, Essence and Flame Red. In: How to Make Things Happen. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54786-2_3
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