2010 SHRM Jacksonville Conference

Key Strategies for Running a Highly

Successful Business

John Spence

Global Economy?

National Economy?

For those who are prepared…

…chaos brings opportunity

Coach John Wooden

1. Vivid Vision

A clear, vivid, compelling and extremely well-communicated vision of where you are trying to take the organization.

Let’s get clear on the terms:

Vision: WHAT we want to be when we grow up.

Mission: WHY we are doing what we are doing.

Values: How we expect everyone to behave.

Guy Kawasaki

Your vision statement should

be like a mantra, a simple phrase that can be repeated over and over to keep everyone focused

on the goal.

Two good mantras…

“A computer on every desk.”

“We’re here to put a dent in the universe.”

A superior TEAM that delivers real value

through elegant SOLUTIONS for

their customers and looks for appropriate

GROWTH opportunities.

Example: HospitalOur VisionWorld - class patient care through clinical excellenceOur MissionTo provide exceptional patient care in a compassionate and nurturingenvironment supported by dedicated health care professionals whostrive to advance the care and treatment of the sick through advancedmedical research and discoveries.Our Core Values• Compassion• Safety• Professional excellence• Embracing diversity• Complete honesty and integrity• Innovation through knowledge sharing and teamwork

A compelling and delicious Vision

To be the restaurant of choice for Japanese cuisine in the Gainesville area.

A Zen Mission: Absolute Hospitality

Our corporate culture is about passionate

people who are focused and committed

to Absolute Hospitality so we may

become the very best in our industry.

Absolute Hospitality means taking care of

each other first, then our guests, then our

vendors, and lastly our shareholders. We

believe through Absolute Hospitality, we

can continue to achieve professional

success as well as personal success.

Values: The Credo

Always strive to be excellent by exemplifying the Bushido and treating all team members and guests with care, understanding, respect and fairness.

The key to an effective vision:

Over-communicate

2. Robust Communication

Honesty

Transparency

Courage

Vulnerability

The 4 key elements of robust communications

3. Best People

Talent

Anne MulcahyCEO of Xerox and the third most powerful woman in the world!

1. Build a network of great relationships with people who want to see you succeed.

2. You don’t have all of the answers, so ask for help and advice from the smartest people you can find.

3. Learn to be a learner.

4. Listen intently to your employees and to your customers.

Some really great advice…

Competence

RespectDistrust

Affection TRUST

HIGH

LOW

LOW HIGH

Concern

The 4 C’s of Trust

The mantra of excellent leaders

I am good at what I do… and I do it because I care about you.

4. Sense of Urgency

You must create a culture that…

• Rewards fast action-taking

• Punishes barriers

• Embraces change

• Encourages risk taking

• Accepts failure

• Empowers everyone…

4-Level Decision Making

1. You own it.

2. Ask for input… you own it.

3. Team decision… I own it.

4. My call… I own it.

5. Disciplined Execution

What Inhibits Execution?National Survey of 4,000 Senior Executives

4. Inability to work together (21%)

3. Company culture (23%)

2. Economic climate (29%)

1. Holding onto the past / unwillingness to CHANGE (35%)

In other words…

• In order to succeed you need a high-performance team that embraces a strong culture of disciplined execution and accountability while being nimble, agile and adaptable to changes in the marketplace.

Keys to Accountability

Very Clear Expectations Specific and Measurable GoalsNecessary Systems & SupportRobust CommunicationConsistent Tracking of

PerformanceTimely Performance ReviewsRefuse to Tolerate mediocrity

6. Extreme Customer Focus

VOC

A few good quotes…

• “We are not in the coffee business serving people… we are in the people business serving coffee.” Howard Schultz, CEO – Starbucks

• “We took our eye off the ball and it damn near put us out of business. We forgot that the customer pays ALL the bills. We are here to serve them, help them, support them. Not keeping that at the front of our minds almost cost us everything.” Lou Gerstner, CEO - IBM

• “The very future of our company hinges on our ability to understand and serve our customers better than any other firm. It is all about customer service, the products are actually secondary.” Jeff Immelt, CEO – GE

• “The only critic whose opinion counts, is the customer” – Mark Twain

Things have changed…

2008 2010

It used to be…

Good Cheap Fast

Now you MUST deliver…

• The highest quality…• At the lowest possible price…• Immediately --- or sooner…• All while giving consistently superior

customer service for an outstanding “Total Buying and Owning Experience.”

The Five Levels of Customer Service

I don’t really care

Why try harder

Good enough is good enough

That’s nice

WOW – you guys are awesome!!!!!

Fundamental Customer Expectations

• Reliability: The ability to provide what was promised, on time, dependably and accurately. (Honesty)

• Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy of employees, and their ability to convey trust and confidence. (Competence)

• Empathy: The degree of caring and individual attention provided to customers. (Concern)

• Responsiveness: The willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. (Attitude)

• Tangibles: The physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of the personnel. (Professionalism)

1 -10

• From a study of more than 3,000 companies, down to the top 101 companies that profit from customer care… here are the Top Six Factors that were the fundamental tactics used to build and manage extraordinary levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

They listen to, understand, and respond (often in unique and creative ways) to the evolving needs and constantly shifting expectations of their customers.

Own the VOC

1. Extreme Customer Focus

They establish a clear vision of what superior service is, communicate that vision to employees at all levels, and ensure that service quality is personally and positively important to everyone in the organization..

2. Shared Customer Service Credo

3. Process = Repeatable success

• They create systems, processes and protocols to ensure that service delivery is flawless… without stifling the creativity and initiative of their employees.

They establish concrete standards of service quality and regularly measure themselves against those standards, guarding against the “acceptable error” mindset by establishing as their goal 100% customer satisfaction performance.

4. Clear Standards + Accountability

Moments of Truth

Measure & Post Create A Dashboard of Key Indicators

MPS Margin Per Sale

Talent

Customer Service

Customer Retention

They hire the best people, train them carefully and extensively so they have the knowledge and skills to achieve the service standards, then empower them to work on behalf of the customers, whether inside or outside the organization.

5. Customer Focused Employees

They recognize and reward service accomplishments, sometimes individually, sometimes as a group effort, in particular celebrating the success of employees who go “one step beyond” for their customers.

Deal decisively with mediocrity

6. Reward and Celebrate Success

Zappos Sales in 1998 = 0 Sales in 2008 = 1.2 Billion Looking back, a big reason we hit our goal early

was that we decided to invest our time, money and resources into three key areas: customer service (which would build our brand and drive word-of-mouth), culture (which would lead to the formation of our core values), and employee training and development (which would eventually lead to the creation of our Pipeline Team).

Even today, our core belief is that our Brand, our Culture and our Pipeline are the only competitive advantages we will have in the long run. Everything else can and will be copied.

Tony Hsieh – CEO Zappos

Master the first five… and then focus them on number six!

THANK YOU

If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to send a note or call. My email address is: john@johnspence.com

Also, you might find value in the ideas I share in my blog. You can sign up for it at:www.johnspence.com/blog

Lastly, these slides have already been uploaded to:http://www.slideshare.net/johnspence

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