One of the issues raised time and time again is the disconnect between what some of us “know” we should do and the chains of existing legacy that continually wrap themselves around us when we actually try to go to a “new place.” It almost seems that many of the other people in the organization are actively resisting our desire to do the Right Things and that they do so through the use of legacy roadblocks.

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A lot has been said about leadership. The vast majority talk of those charismatic leaders, noted in history who led us through turmoil, war and strife. Great business leaders are also often noted for their ability to galvanize people and shape a collective future.

Figurehead leadership is the accepted way that we think of with names like Winston Churchill, JFK, Napoleon, Richard Branson, Bill Gates springing to mind. However as they say, this is only half the story when it comes to transformation and it may come as a surprise to many that Bennu Group research over the last two years of nearly 200 organizations across Europe and the US suggests that Business Process Management (BPM) reveals a different approach, which appears to be as effective and sometimes more enduring.

This approach is best summed up by borrowing from Nelson Mendalas book Long Walk to Freedom (more…)

Yes the evolution brought about by Customer Expectation Management (CEM) and Successful Customer Outcomes is well and truly underway. We have talked before about banks giving free money, airlines providing seats at no charge and PC suppliers handing kit to charities at no cost. These emergent strategies have now been articulated in an excellent book (FREE of course) - see the links below.

More so respected magazines such as WIRED are creating waves as they too present reasons and evidence of what the FREE business models implies for all of us, consumers, businesses and society in general. There are a range of books feeding this fire now and we provide several links that you may wish to pursue.

How could your company start giving away its products and services? What would your processes look like if your business started giving away its core product for free? (more…)

By Steve Towers & Terry Schurter

It’s a confusing world out there. At the last count there were over 6,000 improvement methodologies (Wikipedia) all geared to helping organizations get better at business. So at least there’s always been plenty of choice depending on your particular flavor of the month however one has to ask the question why so many and why do even the better ones fail to help our companies adapt and change? (more…)

My colleague Steve Towers first really galvanized our attention around this core issue that is stopping many of us from changing our focus from what we now know to be non-value added work to that of value-added work. How did he take us there? He did so by asking the question:

Are you Doing Things Right or are you Doing The Right Things?

The answer to that question takes us to a new place, a place where we must look critically at the work we do, challenging it to make sure it is indeed value-added. That seems quite simple but many of us have found that while we can take this kind of challenge as a mental exercise, moving it to action is a far different thing.

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