Shift

Transform Motion into Progress in Business

Richard Lees, Azlan Raj

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781119810490
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Understand what's required to deliver top-of-the-line customer experiences

As organizations around the world do their best to deliver meaningful, effective, and efficient customer experiences, many are encountering difficulty translating their actions into progress. These businesses find that, despite a plethora of initiatives, programs, and plans, inclusive and excellent customer service remains stubbornly out of reach.

In Shift: Transform Motion into Progress in Business, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officers at Merkle and dentsu offer business leaders a practical and coherent approach to creating the consistently exceptional customer experience that would set their business apart from the competition.

The authors link three key themes—a clear vision with clear performance indicators, an aligned team, and a deep understanding of the marketplace—and outline their importance in the quest for the ideal client experience. They explain the importance of measuring progress through the eyes of the customer and ensuring that the measures that matter to customers are improving.

A necessary addition to the reading lists of innovation and business development professionals, Shift deserves a place on the bookshelves of managers, executives, and other business leaders attempting to set their organization apart from the competition.

Part One
Principal

Day is breaking over Silverstone race track on this July morning. It's the day of the British Grand Prix. The sun is shining and there are no clouds in sight, just as forecast. There is already a shimmer of a heat wave over the parts of the track that are being warmed by the sun's rays.

As the principal arrives at the track, they smile. They can go with their Plan A now that the conditions look fair.

Ahead of the race, the principal gathers their crew around them and gives them a final brief for the race. They explain the strategy, share any further information that they have gleaned from the reams of data generated during qualifying, and make sure everyone in their crew knows exactly what to do and when.

The principal talks with the lead race engineer and the driver separately. They are clear, concise, and focused. The goal is that chequered flag coming down on their driver. Everything they have done so far this weekend, and in the months leading up to this race, has been with this goal in mind. Throughout the season their strategy has evolved, taking each race as it comes, but there is always clarity over what the team is aiming for.

As the driver returns, suited up and ready to climb into their car, the principal takes a moment to soak up the scene. Everyone is in their place; everything is ready. The engine roars into life, the vibrations ripple through the air, and the smell of engine oil and fuel hangs heavy around the pit lane. The drivers start their slow procession to take up their positions on the grid, and the principal watches their car as it snakes along the track, warming up the tyres. A final glance around and a quick nod to the lead engineer shows the principal all they need to know: they're ready.

Every Formula 1 race team has a principal. This is the person who is responsible for communicating the team's vision and goals to the rest of the crew and leading for their constructor over the course of the race weekend, and indeed over the course of the entire Formula 1 season.

Principals set the direction for their respective team and clearly articulate the team's purpose, not only for each race, but across the season and indeed future seasons. They make sure that changes are made to the car to give the team the best chance of succeeding on race day. They oversee everything from the qualifiers that determine their starting position on the grid to the race itself. They set the strategy and make sure that this is communicated and executed by their crew, taking into account the external factors such as the track and conditions on race day. When there is an issue that affects operations, it is the principal who empowers the team, which will work to find the solution and chart a course out of any difficulties.

Being the team principal in Formula 1 is also an outward-facing role. Team principals will field many of the media's questions; they will take the criticism when the team doesn't perform as hoped; and they will also take the praise, although the best team principals make sure this is equally shared with the rest of the crew.

In addition to leading the way on race day, the principal is also the person who liaises with sponsors, hospitality, marketing, and many more. The principal joins all the dots to makes sure that the race crew can do its job to the best of its ability and present the team in the most positive light to the rest of the world.

There are clear parallels between being a principal and being a leader in any business. Within business, the principal is not just one person; a business can have multiple leaders at different levels in an organisation. In our context, the principal is any leader who defines direction or strategy. In the coming chapters, we're going to explore three key concepts that allow the leaders in any organisation to set the direction that the business will move in.

In Chapter 1, we look at the importance of selling the dream and vision, of clearly defining the purpose, and the importance of embedding that into a business' DNA from the start. Chapter 2 is all about measurement because creating the right measures is essential for driving the right behaviours and communicating the purpose that you're trying to achieve. You get what you measure, so you have to make sure that you're putting your focus in the right place. The final chapter in Part One is about prioritising your actions and making sure that you do the important things first. Don't try to boil the ocean.

All of these elements are a leader's responsibility, but we also want to be clear that when we talk about a leader, this doesn't have to just mean the leader of a company. It can be anyone who leads teams, leads on strategies, or provides thought leadership. Understanding the concepts we're exploring in Part One is important for leaders on every level within an organisation.

Leaders set the targets, but many businesses shoot for short-term targets because it is generally what shareholders want to see; however, this needs to be balanced with strategic focus on the bigger picture for longevity. This is all part of your culture; if you set short-term targets, people will have a short-term mindset. If you are only looking one step ahead of you as you walk, it's highly likely that you will walk towards a wall.

Focusing on the long-term goal, without breaking the journey into clear milestones to get there, is also far from ideal. If you are only focusing on the horizon, it's highly likely that you will fall down a hole. The key here is balance. Short-term targets are important to gain momentum and start to see progress. However, as we discuss in Chapter 1, you need to be able to keep one eye on this bigger picture to ensure your business and its programmes continuously evolve and adapt.

Chapter 1
The Peppered Moth: Why adaptation and evolution are essential in twenty-first-century business

“Being a fish out of water is tough, but that's how you evolve.”

– Kumail Nanjiani

We'd like to begin by transporting you back to nineteenth-century England. The Industrial Revolution is taking hold, and the factories in the country's industrial heartlands are burning coal and pumping out black smoke. The residue from this smoke coats everything from buildings to trees.

Enter the peppered moth. In the 1800s, naturalists observed that peppered moths had evolved to fit in with this changed environment. The peppered moth is often found on the trunk of the silver birch tree and, therefore, its natural colouration is pale with darker spots, to match the colour of the tree's bark and camouflage it from predators. In highly industrialised areas of England, however, these moths were becoming darker in colour.

The pale-coloured moths stood out too much on the now-blackened bark of the trees and were therefore much easier for predators to spot. As a result, the pale moths were being eaten leaving the darker-coloured moths to survive and breed. Meanwhile, in regions where there was considerably less industrialisation the peppered moths remained pale in colour. They had no need to change their camouflage because their trees were not being darkened by soot.

This is probably one of the best documented stories of “adapt or die.” Peppered moths in industrialised areas adapted and evolved because those that didn't died. It really was that simple. To this day, it's still widely considered to be one of the best examples of Darwinian evolutionary theory.

What does your business have in common with the humble peppered moth? It too has to adapt or it will die. In the business world, just as in nature, our environment is continuously changing and that means we can never stop adapting to match it. There are many organisations in the world today that are undergoing a period of transformation because they have fallen behind and they need to catch up. What we're talking about here is not only transforming to catch up, but making adaptation and evolution a core part of your business so that you never fall behind again (or ideally that you never fall behind in the first place).

As a leader, it is your responsibility to determine the vision, paint that picture, and state your organisation's purpose so that you never fall behind again. Think about the Formula 1 race team principal who is continuously evolving...

Table of contents

• COVER
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• FOREWORD
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION: ROCKING HORSES DON'T BELONG IN BOARDROOMS
• Part One: Principal
• Part Two: The Crew
• Part Three: The Season
• CONCLUSION
• EPILOGUE
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS
• INDEX
• END USER LICENSE AGREEMENTa