B2BiQ

Recorded onsite at OPEX Life Sciences, Joe Paris joins us and shares that his father used to say “if it wasn’t for the people problems, management would be great.” Joe says it’s not necessarily that the problem is the people, he thinks the problem is the expectations of both the manager and the employee. People in Continuous Improvement have to know what the goal is and the manager has to effectively communicate that goal. Certainly straightforward stuff, but Joe’s point here is that if you’re using fear to communicate a goal, you don’t know how to communicate that goal effectively- you’re using a shortcut which disincentives the team. Joe feels that we need to take Continuous Improvement beyond it’s present state…we have to build capacity and capability across the entirety of the organization.

Deborah Kops joins us and brings us back to industry pioneers who started to destroy organizations in order to put something more creative together. She’s skeptical of whether robots will be creative destruction due to the fact that she feels her colleagues are looking at automation as simply process improvement and removing cost as opposed to creating. Deborah say’s that you cannot create if you’re focused on cost. On cost, she notes that there are two types of CFO’s- control CFO’s and growth CFO’s- and a smart shared services executive always looks to report to a growth CFO due to the fact that Shared Service is about growth, not cost. Jumping off of the concept of liberation theology, Deborah sees automation as liberation technology. 

Recorded at the Chief Customer Officer Exchange, Hilary Hahn joins us and shares why employee experience, culture and creative strategies are all under her purview. The focus on customer experience is an inside out philosophy. For Frontier, customer experience is run as a think tank, an innovation hub through agents. Managing the employee experience is not easy with tight budgets while focusing on the bottom line. That said, by starting with the right foundation of specific guiding principles and remaining consistent with communication and engagement while setting standards of excellence around employees, a best outcome can be achieved. And in one case- an entire town has been completely transformed for the better through a public/private partnership. https://vimeo.com/205979308 for Kevin Caine: Real SuperAGENT https://vimeo.com/188016050/667993de72 for BELiEVEinWise

Claudiu Coltea joins us from the Chief Customer Officer Exchange and shares that for his organization, Customer Experience doesn’t have it’s own sandbox but the team makes other's sandbox' prettier. He says that the employee experience is a critical part of customer experience so his team collaborates with HR- working on integrating data sets. Beyond that, CX works in every product and business line and across the organization to provide a more seamless experience for the customer. Claude and his team have set partnerships and looked at pain points setting up this truly transitional time where they’re attempting to get ahead of the customer- getting to a proactive state where they make the customer journey spectacular.

Simen Munter joins us and discusses his background as both a navy diver and son of hotel owners. From the former he learned that most things seem scarier than they actually are and from the later, he learned if you’re an entrepreneur, it’s not a business- it’s a lifestyle. The hotel also informed Simen as to the importance of a customer. And the importance of being cost focused. He learned how hard it is to make money- something that he says is- tough to understand in a large corporation. In a shared services organization, when incentives are built around getting a bigger budget Simen suggests that the incentives are the wrong way around. Measure what’s best for the customer which is what’s best for the company. And on efficiency- Simen notes that if you’re not in the top 5%, your most likely not far from the bottom 5%.