About time. And product. And being more deliberate.
“Hardball involves playing the edges, probing that narrow strip of territory—so rich in possibilities—between the places where society clearly says you can play the game of business and those where society clearly says you can’t.” An exerpt from the Harvard Business School’s The Hardball Manifesto. The article’s examples of Hardball companies – Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, …
Continue reading “Pushing the Envelope of Business Requires a Strong Identity”
2 minutes 36 seconds is the industry average for a McDonald’s drive-thru transaction. How does Steven Bigari keep his 12 franchises under half that? Outsourcing. All the drive-thru orders at his Missouri resturants are taken by a call center in Colorado Springs – increasing his capacity 15%. Brilliant. Original Article: New York Times, 18 July …
Government agencies are some of the most notorious change resistors. In 1999, the Mint started to change that reputation – receiving a customer satisfaction rating second only to Mercedes Benz. “In the old days, we shipped fewer than 50% of our orders within eight weeks. Today, if it takes two weeks for customers to receive …
Engagement at meetings and excitement about projects is down. A number of key people are leaving. The passion that sparked our initial conversations is waning. One of our clients is at a turning point with their organization. A number of never-been-tried-by-us suggestions were thrown around in a recent strategy session. Most of them immediately dismissed …
Continue reading “Repeating the Same Action and Expecting a New Result?”
Hotels are now leveraging their experience comforting weary travelers and giving their guests the opportunity to take the hotel experience home. Marginal Revolution points to a Forbes article documenting the Regency in Manhattan’s addition of price tags to their bath mats, pillows, and bath robes. In a related development, Selelect Comfort recently announced a partnership …
On-stage; where employees are likely to bump into customer. Off-stage; where they are not. It’s one of my favorite ideas from The Experience Economy is that of on-stage and off-stage. Preventing off-stage behavior from occuring on-stage is the key to a good customer experience. My wife has a recent example of where the two collided …
After a number of recent conversations with my good friend Chip, where he concisely and articulately restated my thoughts on entrepreneurship and quality of life, I’m directed to this section of Tom Peters’ website, where he declares – as only he can – how offshore outsourcing is not a new problem or something we should …