1. Strategy and Value Exchange: Self-centric focus will never build a customer-centric business
Is your org structure customer-centered?
Many companies organize their sales, marketing, and service departments by:
[1] products [2] regionsThey do this for efficiency or because such a structure is easier to manage.
Business is about the exchange of value between a company and its customers.
Customers don’t care if managing your company is easy for you.
The only strategy to build a customer-centric business is to design your org structure around customer segments.
The more employees are focused solely on one segment, the better.
Cutting back on staff or flattening your org chart might save you some money.
Being customer-centered will bring you greater profits.
2. Strategy-related terms: Goals are vertical, processes are horizontal
Goals separate, processes integrate
A typical strategy looks like a big goal cascaded down into subgoals.
But the further we cascade it, the harder it becomes to maintain the logical links between the subgoals.
IT writes code, HR boosts engagement, and logistics speeds up delivery—but customer service is still as reliable as hotel Wi-Fi.
Goal cascading can only take you so far.
Try this instead:
[1] Map your high-level processes [2] Identify the ones you need to develop to achieve your strategic goals [3] Create a plan to develop these processes [4] Ensure that all those involved in these processes work together to improve them3. Trend of the week: Flooded in data, thirsting for insights
What would you say if you found out that 68% of your money was going down the drain?
Data is the new oil, they say.
Yet Seagate’s ‘Rethink Data’ report reveals that 68% of data available to businesses remains unused.
Looks like we are much better at collecting data than at analyzing and using it.
Exploding Topics reports a new trend that can be a solution: data storytelling.
Data storytelling is the process of communicating insights from data using narration and visualization.
Tools like Tableau and Yellowfin offer data storytelling features.
Interest in data storytelling is predicted to see significant future growth.
According to Gartner, 75% of all data will be consumed through data storytelling by 2025.
Svyatoslav Biryulin
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Read also: To reap order, you must sow chaos
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