Be Different or be dead

November 9, 2016

15 subjects that will make you successful after business school

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15 subjects that will make you successful after business school.

The gap is widening between school teachings and what is needed for organizations to thrive and survive in the new markets that are unfolding.

For the most part academics in business are following the same-old, same-old approach and falling short of creating ‘people products’ who will lead our organizations to be remarkable, compelling, indispensable and unforgettable.

They don’t teach that:

1. A business plan without flawless execution is worthless. Execution skills outrank planning in the real world;

2. Learning everything you can about customers on the run is more effective than periodic research;

3. It’s critical to understand customer secrets; their innermost wants and desires. What they ‘need’ is no longer helpful to standout in the competitive crowd;

4. Value packages that address the holistic requirements of a customer (lifestyle or business) should be the focus of marketing. Individual products and services should play a lesser role as their contribution to competitive advantage is limited;

5. Customers should be served not ‘serviced’. Computers are serviced, not people. Put your organization in their control;

6.  Individual customers need to be treated differently. The same treatment for all doesn’t work. One-size-fits-one is the new marketing;

7. The perfect solution to anything doesn’t exist - the business world is too complex to be formularized. Flawed solutions that excite people beats the theoretically pristine;

8. Imperfection rules - be imperfect fast. The more failures with a heathy dose of learning from them = more successes. Punish failure only if you want compliance, policy-pushers and order takers;

9. The frontline is the boss - people who control the customer experience are the really important ones, not the executives. Build your hierarchy to serve the frontline;

10. Screw-ups create loyalty - a successful service recovery from an OOPS! results in a more loyal customer than if the screw-up never happened;

11. The competition should receive less attention. Barriers to customer exit - preventing customers from leaving should be the focus. If you create loyal fans, you won’t have to worry about the hordes entering;

12. The most strategic phrase ever is ’I’m sorry’. The apology is at the heart of any mind-blowing service recovery and as a result loyalty building;

13. Internal service measurement is just as important as measuring customer perception. If you can’t dazzle your colleagues, chances are that you won’t be able to dazzle your customers;

14. Losing the sale is sometimes required to keep the customer relationship. Its not about the transaction, its about the long term relationship. If you can’t deal with a short term need your client has, suck it up. You need to find the solution elsewhere;

15. Storytelling breathes life into a vision or strategy. It fuels execution and should be considered an essential requisite of leadership.

Success for business school graduates depends on their ability to learn these vital principles as fast as they can.

Cheers,
Roy
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• Posted 11.9.16 at 11:19 am by Roy Osing
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