90%
I’ll name three creative professions: architects, chefs, film directors. For each, how fast can you come up with a name? (My votes go to Frank Gehry, Gordon Ramsay and Steven Spielberg).
The image we form is often of the creative genius, spending time dreaming up amazing structures, or dishes, or scenes. Now, I can’t find a statistic on this, but I am coming to the belief that a very large percentage of professional services whose value propositions are based on creativity (and also insight and judgement) are not that at all.
They’re nearly all operations.
Architects spend very little time on creative design. Most of the hours they bill goes to documentation (and the 3Cs: compliance, coordination and client liaison). Chefs spend hardly any time creating new dishes: most of their time is spent procuring ingredients, organising staff, managing production and assuring quality. Film directors spend their days coordinating people and locations.
As a strategist, what this tells me is that you must have the intellectual and creative firepower to differentiate yourselves (the 10%), but you then need the 90% of operational excellence, to ensure that the buildings are sound, the meals are well prepared, and the audience goes wild.
Question: What operational factors make up the largest part of your success and therefore you must get them right?
Really, truly customer-focussed
I once had a GP who was never on time. And, not just a little bit. Sometimes an hour behind. She even managed to run late when I was her first patient for the day. She was apologetic, even charming but, knowing this, I’d take my laptop and work in the waiting room.
I got grumpier with every passing 15 minutes, as I thought, “Why is her time more valuable than mine? Isn’t it me who’s the customer here?”
Now, I’m sure she swears (and even believes) she’s ‘patient-focussed’, just as most companies swear they care about customers (as they remind us while we wait in the endless phone queue). But, sadly, this lack of customer focus permeates many industries, even my own. I’ve lost count of the proposals my clients have shown me from other consultants, which consist of a boilerplate presentation about their firm, a template description of a cherished methodology, some glowing testimonials, and a fee quotation bolted onto the back. It’s entirely ‘firm-focussed’, not customer-focussed.
By contrast, my proposals are in five parts, each written to order: my understanding of my client’s situation, a specific project objective and the value to my client when we succeed, my suitability to undertake the project, and a ground-up description of the method I suggest. Then fees (which are fixed, not variable). No more than 3 - 4 pages.
But clients love it. They tell me they feel that they’re reading a thoughtful — and accurate — interpretation of their brief. I wish I could have told my GP that I’d love her to customise her processes around people like me.
Question: What business practices do you have that are truly customer-focussed, not focussed on you, or your business?
Sameness
Those of you who’ve worked with me have likely ‘met’ (at least virtually) my marvellous assistant, Vanessa. Now, I’ve never met her face-to-face: she’s in Perth, I’m in Melbourne (some 3000km apart) so we rely on twice-weekly WIP (work in progress) meetings.
On many occasions, I could hear a faint buzzing noise in the background of our Zoom calls. It turns out it’s her neighbour’s lawnmower.
“Does he always mow Tuesdays and Thursdays at lunchtime?” I asked.
“No”, said Vanessa. “He mows every day. Sometimes twice a day. Then the whipper snipper starts. And, finally, the leaf blower”.
Now, I know that COVID has driven many of us to a ‘groundhog day’ existence, where each day feels like the one before. But, he’s doing this by choice. And, it got me wondering how varied is the amount of variety and novelty each person needs.
I happen to have a very low threshold for boredom, which is why I can’t swim lanes, or run laps. Nor do I accept work on a client project where I’m asked to roll out the same process repeatedly. I simply can’t do it twice without tinkering with it, sometimes reinventing it entirely.
Question: How do you keep your people at a level of task variety that suits them best?
I’m always grateful to see the little hearts light up, which tells me you’ve enjoyed reading, so please click below. Also, spread the love and tell at least one person in your network about 5MSM if you’re a regular reader.
In Melbourne, we’re at that peculiar time of the year where we take four days off in order to celebrate a 3-minute horserace on Tuesday. (I think there’s a life lesson somewhere in the fact that the Melbourne Cup ‘favourite’ has won only 23% of the 160 times the race has been run).
Whether you’re betting or not, have a great weekend and see you next Friday.
Andrew
Thanks Andrew! You always give me little Friday tasks and I love it!