Publications
Action-led strategy (2000)
Kick-starting rapid change using the customer experience
The need for business to respond to customer driven change is increasing. The pressure to change has never been more forceful than it is now, with customers demanding more and more from the companies they buy from. Partly because customers see good things provided by the competition, but also because best practice from other industries increases customer expectations. Either way, the business which ignores this dynamic puts its very survival at risk.
For the establishment giants, change is doubly challenging, firstly because of the sweeping nature and speed of the change required, and secondly because of the legacy of security and stability. These companies have been rewarded in the past with foundations built on hierarchical structures led by capable and risk-averse managers. Future rewards lie in innovative activity in a rapidly changing marketplace.
A practical solution can overcome this inertia disorder. Positive results have been achieved by working with the organization to make the change, taking the company in microcosm – and turning it around to bring the customer perspective to the fore. The 'middle-out' approach has been proven to work when the traditional textbook approach to customer-driven change has already failed.
The 'middle-out' approach can help to break the stalemate, and free the logjam of ideas and innovation which can result from too many decades of stability and relative success. Equally significantly, this approach can enable the establishment giant to transform its mindset and culture through the people involved in it, helping the company to become lighter on its feet and enabling it to meet the dynamic new entrants on equal terms.
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