December 9, 2010

Twenty HUGE Subjects NOT Taught in Business Schools

This Article is a summary of a number of Articles I wrote on this topic over the past few weeks.I thought it might be helpful to summarize my points for you.

In addition, as I write this I a reading Set Godin’s latest book ‘Linchpin’ and the Chapter ‘Indoctrination: How We Got Here’. Seth’s thesis is that schools these days teach ‘Mediocre Compliance’. Learning rules. Applying the formula. Note-taking. Have good handwriting. Don’t challenge authority. All of which is aimed to produce, as he calls them, ‘a replaceable cog in a giant machine’. Terrific insight into a societal problem that I recognize and constantly oppose through my work.

The gap between school teachings and what is REALLY needed for organizations to thrive and survive in the new markets that are unfolding is WIDE and is getting WIDER. Approaching CHASM proportions in fact. And yet, I don’t see much change being done to address the issue. To not be too unkind, however, there are some pockets of positive change occurring - Queens School of Business in Toronoto, Canada for example - but for the most part academics in business are following the same-old, same-old and NOT creating ‘people products’ that will lead our organizations to be Remarkable, compelling, indispensable and DiFFERENT.

In Linchpin, Seth declares in his ‘New World of Work’ Chapter:“You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. BUT the only way to be indispensable is to be different.”

Taking his cue, then, here are the Twenty BE DiFFERENT Topics that absolutely MUST find their way into business school teachings:

1. EXECUTION
2. EXECUTION
3. EXECUTION
4. EXECUTION
5. EXECUTION - if you’re not shipping stuff, what are you doing?
6. Customer Learning - continuous process of going deep on what your fans are all about. Way beyond ho-hum market research.
7. Customer ‘Secrets’ - not just what they want, but what they covet in their lives.
8. Value-Based Holistic Offers (VBHO) - product focus loses. Easy to copy. Eventually ends up in a price war. VBHO’s package VALUE based on the customer secrets discovered. Makes you DiFFERENT, indispensable and followed.
9. Serving Customers Model - serve them don’t service them. Put your organization in their control. Inject Humanity back into what you do. Makes you amazing and ‘can’t live without’.
10. Vary the Treatment Principle - everyone is different and needs to be treated as such. One-service-policy-for-all won’t satisfy your most precious assets.
11. ‘Right’ solutions rarely exist - the business world is too complex to be ‘formulaized’. Teach flexibility, open-mindedness, Plan ‘B’ thinking.
12. Successful Failing - 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.
13. The ‘Customerized’ Organization - the frontline Rules! Build your hierarchy to serve them. Passionate, turned on frontliner followers will deliver fan loyalists.
14. Screw-ups build customer loyalty - a successful WOW service recovery results in a more loyal customer than if the screw-up never happened. Seems to me that anything that critical should be taught. OOPS. I forgot we teach people to NOT make mistakes…
15. Ignore the competition - focus on what you should be doing to dazzle your customers and prevent them from leaving rather than worry about the bad guys entering.
16. Delivery IS Strategic - if, you can’t ship, how much progress do you really make. Get it out the door!
17. Apologizing IS Strategic - at the heart of a mind-blowing service recovery is THE most strategic phrase ever…. ‘I’m Sorry’.
18. Internal Service Measurement IS Strategic - if you can’t dazzle on the inside, chances are that you won’t be able to do it on the outside.
19. Losing a Sale IS Strategic - 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 find the solution elsewhere.
20. Storytelling IS Strategic - storytelling breathes life into a vision or strategy. It appeals to our right brain emotional being which controls the drive to act. Storytelling is an Art. Teach it. Make it a plank in your strategy.

Cheers,
Roy

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Posted 12.9.10 at 07:00 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment