Business at the Speed of Now

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Business at the

Speed of Now

Fire Up Your People, Thrill Your

Customers, and Crush Your Competitors

John M. Bernard

Adapted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-118-05401-7

Introduction

In Business at the Speed of Now, management con-sultant John Bernard asserts that we are in the midst of the biggest economic shift in more than a century—the shift from an economy driven by mass production to an economy driven by mass customization. Mass pro -duction allowed companies to ship the same product to millions of customers. Today, mass customization is allowing companies to give all customers exactly what they want, when they want it. Due to this shift, Bernard believes that companies need to change the way they do business, and offers principles and prac -tices managers can use to help their organizations move faster, and be more productive and profitable.

Thriving in the Now: Prepare for Yes

Bernard maintains that traditional management systems will no longer work in today’s business environment. These systems prevent speed and cus

-tomization—both of which are critical in order to stay competitive. Business success demands a new man -agement system that enables every employee at every level to quickly solve problems and seize opportuni -ties.

The Internet has changed the world’s idea of “fast.” People can easily find any information they want with the click of a mouse, and because of this instant infor-mation, other expectations have changed. Customers now want everything instantly, and it is now possible to give customers an instant “yes” because of techno -logical advances. With the emergence of the Internet, the Era of Mass Production has yielded to the Era of Mass Customization, which makes it financially pos -sible to customize products for each customer. Bernard sites three game-changing drivers of this mass production to mass customization shift:

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1. Social media. Companies now have two-way con -versations with customers throughout each busi -ness day.

2. Cloud computing. This dramatically drives down the cost of computing.

3. Millennial mindset. The millennial generation is not accustomed to waiting for anything.

These drivers are dramatically changing the business landscape, and management systems must change accordingly. To start the shift to mass-customiza -tion management, managers must ensure that every employee embodies the following five elements:

1. Context. Employees understand where the com-pany is going.

2. Accountability. Employees understand the role that they play within the company.

3. Skills. Employees know the abilities they must possess.

4. Facts. Employees know the data they must access to make decisions.

5. Authority. Employees enjoy the freedom to act without fear of reprisal.

When employees have these five elements, they can make decisions and act quickly, and they will always act in accordance with the overall goals and direction of the company.

Making the Shift to Now:

Put an End to Then

The management system that evolved and thrived during the Era of Mass Production still reigns supreme, but most businesses have not shifted their management style to effectively suit mass customiza -tion.

Bernard describes the major differences between the

then management system and the now management system:

• The traditional, mass production model relied on centralized control and specialization. Mass cus -tomization demands decentralized, autonomous action.

• In the mass production world, creative thinking and new ideas are disruptive. They will clog the

Key Concepts

• The U.S. is undergoing the biggest economic shift in over a century from an economy driv -en by mass production to one driv-en by mass customization. Companies can give customers exactly what they want when they want it. • There are three major drivers of this econom

-ic shift: social media, cloud computing, and the millennial mind set.

• Management must give the employees on the front lines the tools, skills, information, and authority to say “yes” to customers.

• Context is key to working in the now. Em -ployees must be clear about direction, in-cluding mission, vision, values, key goals, and measures.

• The difference between a good company and a great one is the ability to deliver break -throughs. Breakthroughs might stem from one brilliant idea, but most result from care-ful planning and execution.

• Transparency is critical. Organizations need a system for analyzing progress that tells the truth about what is happening in the organi-zation.

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Information about the author and subject:

www.massingenuity.com

Information about this book and other business titles:

www.wiley.com

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system. In contrast, new ideas and creative think -ing are integral to the mass customization world. • In the mass customization world, every employee

needs to be able to act autonomously in the compa-ny’s best interests. Therefore, they need to under-stand the mission of the business and its goals. In the then world, this is not the case; workers just do their jobs and do not need to

understand the big picture. To move managers away from

then managing, Bernard high-lights “Seven Deadly Sins of Management” that will hinder progress in today’s business envi -ronment:

1. Lack of clear direction. If employees do not know the organization’s destination, they cannot act to help it get there.

2. No line of sight. People need to see how their work connects to the mission.

3. Unclear accountability. Employees need to know what others are counting on them to do.

4. Inconsistent language. Without a common vocabu -lary, employees waste time trying to understand each other.

Both Dell and Apple have access to the same technologies to

manage their customer interactions, so why the difference in the

customer’s experience? One of the companies implements yes

now, the other limps along with maybe someday.

About the Author

John M. Bernard is the founder and chairman

of Mass Ingenuity, a company that consults and teaches around the world and develops Web-based tools to support real-time management. He has worked for companies in many indus-tries, including high-tech, service, distribution, utilities, banking, insurance, manufacturing, health care, education, and government. Ber -nard is an expert on the subjects of best-practice management, social media inside the organi-zation, and the modern workforce. Bernard is also a top-rated speaker for The Conference Board.

5. Poor issue transparency. Employees must feel safe raising issues, or problems will remain unsolved.

6. Insufficient resources. Employees will not get results without the right resources.

7. Inadequate tools/skills. Employees will not propel the company forward without the right tools and skills.

In the now management system, managers:

• Create context. Employees understand the overrid -ing goals and direction of the company.

• Train people in problem solving. Employees are pre-pared and have the tools they need to respond to problems.

• Get out of the way. Employees know they can act in-dependently without negative consequences. This system makes everyone happy; customers’ needs are addressed quickly, managers can focus on strate -gic, long-term projects rather than putting out fires, and front-line workers feel empowered and engaged.

Seizing the Now Opportunity:

Drive Growth with Yes

In the world of now, little ideas have big power. Com -panies can no longer afford to pass up any opportunity to improve a customer relationship or to streamline a process. In today’s economy, successful companies will have a system in place to respond to all the little employee ideas. They will not continue with the then, traditional system for managing employee ideas— a funnel where all the ideas have to go through one person or one department. In this system, only the “big” ideas will be implemented, but neglecting all those little ideas means neglecting big savings. In addition, Bernard says companies also have to become doing organizations, rather than trying orga-nizations:

• Doing organizations. These organizations succeed through structure and discipline. They act based

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on detailed, written plans, and every stakeholder is accountable for results.

• Trying organizations. These organizations operate informally. They vary approaches with each initia -tive, and base decisions on opinions.

To be a doing company that embraces and acts on all the little ideas and opportunities, the now management system must be in place. Bernard’s now management system is focused on three key elements:

1. Eliminate fear. Fear keeps employees from seizing opportunities and solving problems.

2. Reduce variation. In any process, the less variation, the more predictable the results, with less interven -tion.

3. Pursue constraints. Figure out the primary con-straints. The overall organization is only as capable as its weakest link.

Leveraging the Now Game Changers:

Gain the Speed You Need

Three major forces are changing the business land-scape today: social media, cloud computing, and the millennial mindset. But these forces can also enable action in any organization. Bernard encourages orga -nizations to use them to make the transition from then

to now.

Social media. Business/consumer communication is no longer one-sided. In the past, a business sent one message out to many customers. Today businesses have many back-and-forth interactions with many customers. Customers can instantly complain or offer feedback, and companies can instantly provide infor -mation about new products or special offers. In this way, social media is also a powerful transparency tool. With all these conversations, problem areas with both customers and employees are quickly visible. By exposing all the problems and challenges, social media can be used to change for the better.

Cloud computing. With this emerging computing model, companies will shift from running their appli -cations on physical computers to running them on the Internet. Organizations no longer need to pay for new computing equipment, or pay to host it, maintain it, or upgrade it. This greatly lowers the cost of technol-ogy, and allows companies to use it to increase speed and improve their businesses.

Millennial mindset. The millennial generation, born between the mid 1970s and 2004, is changing the workplace. This generation is optimistic, technology-savvy, and committed to social good. They also disdain authority, do not respond well to poor performance reviews, and demand work/life balance. Finally, they are very creative and inventive, and used to things moving at a very fast pace. As employees and custom -ers, this mindset must be addressed. Companies must work with the positive aspects of this generation, and work around the negatives.

Working in the Now

Business: Create the

Context for Speed

Context is key to working in the

now. Each employee needs to have clarity about direction, including mission, vision, values, key goals, and measures. With this, employees can make decisions and act quickly.

To develop context for employees, managers must first get everyone operating in the now mindset, which includes the following tenets:

• I use facts to find truth. Organizations must base decisions on facts, not assumptions.

• I serve my customers. Every employee needs to think, “whoever receives my work is my customer.”

• I improve my processes. Employees should not focus on job descriptions or departments, but on getting the work done effectively and efficiently.

• I count on people, people count on me. Positive peer pressure boosts production. When people know colleagues are counting on them, they will rise to the challenge.

• I keep score to maintain focus. Measuring results pro-vides feedback, motivation, and focus.

The constant development of new technologies, and the changes

they bring to the business world, render obsolete the stiff old

bureaucratic management systems that dictated business

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Bernard encourages managers to think of manage-ment as a system, or a set of interdependent processes. Once managers clarify the vision, they should focus on how to get there, defining the core processes (What routine work must be done well?) and the process measures (What will show that the routine work is being done well?).

Finally, managers should identify the subprocesses that support the core processes and assign an owner to every core process.

With this organized view of the purpose and pro -cesses of the organization, employees will have context. They will see how their work connects to the overriding business goals. Managers will also clearly see where the problem processes are, and be able to focus on those to continue working at the speed of

now.

Working on the Now Business:

Achieve Critical Breakthroughs

With a clear picture of where the company is going, and how it is going to get there, managers can then clearly see where things need to change. Is the company working as effectively and efficiently as it should? Does it need to develop new capabilities to compete? According to Bernard, the difference between a good company and a great one is the

ability to deliver breakthroughs. Bernard explores two ways to achieve breakthroughs in execu -tion: improving the performance of existing processes and devel -oping new capabilities:

• Performance breakthrough. This breakthrough is a step-function improvement in an existing work process.

• Capability breakthrough. This breakthrough is a completely new competency. For instance, adding online retailing to a brick-and-mortar store.

To jumpstart a process breakthrough, companies must ensure that everyone involved shares a common lan -guage: agreed-upon words, terms, logic, and formats. To do this, companies should choose one planning method and make it standard. Otherwise, employees waste a lot of time trying to explain themselves.

The planning toolset for a process breakthrough should:

• Communicate the plan. • Organize the work. • Ensure execution.

The Breakthrough Plan begins by outlining five ele -ments on a single page:

1. Objective. What will be accomplished?

2. Target. How will success be measured?

3. Situation. What are the problems to solve and what are the opportunities?

4. Strategies. How will the problems be solved and the opportunities be seized?

5. Subtargets. How will the success of the strategies be measured?

Next, a Breakthrough Workplan is created, which includes details that will organize, drive, and coor -dinate execution. The workplan contains the tasks to implement each strategy (assigning ownership for each task), sets a schedule, and describes other depen-dencies that may affect the task. Finally, organizations need a measurement tool to assess each strategy and mark progress toward the process breakthrough.

Organizations tackling capability breakthroughs rather than performance breakthroughs have a major change to face. They are not improving something; they are starting to do something they have never done before. There are seven phases for managing capability breakthroughs:

1. Define. This phase establishes the project’s charter and produces a shared understanding by all in-volved. It should identify the project sponsor, lead -er, participants, and resources.

2. Analyze. This phase details the project, the scope, and the resources in depth.

Employee engagement is not about people feeling all warm

and fuzzy; it is about people possessing the knowledge, skills,

and authority to act swiftly and skillfully without waiting for

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3. Design. This phase produces a detailed workplan with tasks and deliverables.

4. Build. In this phase, the team gets everything in place to implement the initiative, including pro -cesses and procedures documentation, job descrip-tions, performance measure scorecards, and train-ing manuals.

5. Implement. The organization implements the new process.

6. Evaluate. The team decides in this phase if the per-formance level fulfills original expectations. If not, they make adjustments.

7. Sustain. In this phase, the process becomes part of the business. The team creates a system for contin-uous monitoring.

Creating Now Transparency:

Close the Execution Gap

With this much change (from then to now), noth-ing will ever go as planned, maknoth-ing transparency essential. Organizations must anticipate problems. They need systems that monitor progress and tell the whole truth about what is happening in their organi-zations.

Now organizations live by the Seven Rules for Total Transparency, especially during reviews. The rules are:

1. Seek facts not blame. 2. Ask for and offer help. 3. Speak the truth, respectfully.

4. Think organizationally, act departmentally. 5. Engage fully.

6. Laugh and play. 7. Share leadership.

The Quarterly Target Review (QTR) is a useful tool for maintaining transparency. Through public forums for peer review and discussion, QTRs analyze prog -ress and help leaders decide whether to alter actions

or reallocate resources to stay on plan. The QTR pro-cess is as follows:

Before the Meeting

1. Establish a policy regarding corrective action. When performance falls short, when and how will own-ers of the initiatives make adjustments to keep the plan on track?

2. Gather information. Teams at various levels gather all relevant data about the performance of their fundamentals and breakthroughs.

3. Carefully prepare the content and agenda for the meet -ing. Ensure that everyone understands the impor -tance of a thorough review.

At the Meeting

4. Teams decide which performance issues, if any, should escalate to the next level.

5. Everyone talks openly and honestly about obsta -cles and opportunities.

As people begin to use QTRs, they will start to auto-matically use this type of disciplined thinking in their everyday work and decision making; they will react quickly and efficiently to opportunities and

problems.

Solving Problems Now:

Equip Everyone with the

Core Skill

In now organizations, quick and decisive problem solving is the norm, and every employee has the tools and authority to make decisions. To get to this point, organizations need a common language and toolset for solving problems. This way, all employees are on the same page and know what to do when a problem arises, no matter where they come from in the organi -zation. Bernard offers a Seven-Step Problem-Solving Method:

Step 1: Agree on the Problem. The team needs consensus on:

• The definition of the problem.

• Reasons for solving it as quickly as possible. • How to measure success.

• A tentative deadline.

Why does transparency matter? Because lies generate fear, and

nothing paralyzes people in an organization more than fear.

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• This statement should be blame-free and not sug-gest solutions.

Step 2: Map the Process. The team creates a process map, including all decision points, that defines how the work gets done, who is responsible for it, and identifies where any breakdown occurred.

Step 3: Find the Root Cause. The team should gather data to understand the process breakdown and com-plete a root cause analysis that lists all likely suspects.

Step 4: Develop Solutions. The team considers solu-tions, picks the best one, and then assesses its impact and completes an implementation plan.

Step 5: Implement the Fix. The team implements the solution, and then monitors it, making adjustments if necessary.

Step 6: Hold the Gain. The team installs a control that will prevent the root cause from occurring again, or ensures that if it does, it will receive prompt atten -tion. For example, the team might create a work aid that reminds people how to implement a process cor-rectly, or engineering might find a solution that makes it impossible for the error to reoccur.

Step 7: Reflect and Learn. The team discusses knowledge gained from the experience, and docu -ments lessons learned.

Enabling the Now Workforce:

Banish Fear, Build Trust

Many managers create environments where employ -ees are afraid to speak their minds, or they only say what they think the boss wants to hear. Fright-ened employees will not make decisions or, worse, will make bad ones. On the other hand, con-fident, well-trained employees make quick, sound decisions.

However, complete freedom is not the answer. Orga -nizations must strike a balance between order and freedom. Employees need to feel safe and trust their managers, and they need to feel like they can speak their minds.

There are seven key elements that balance order and freedom and help to build trust and confidence in employees:

1. Clear vision and goals. People want to contribute to a greater cause.

2. Line of sight to role. Employees can see how their roles contribute to the overall organization.

3. Full accountability. People want their performance to be measured.

4. Shared business language. This allows people to speak freely.

5. Maximum transparency. People feel safe when they know they can act without fear of making mistakes.

6. Resources to do the job. Employees have the informa -tion they need to make decisions.

7. Tools/skills to be effective. Employees have every -thing they need to do their jobs well.

Becoming a Now Leader:

Stop Bossing, Start Teaching

The most important management skill to help people do business at the speed of now is to shift from boss to teacher.

This shift includes moving:

• From no to yes. Now leaders do not prevent people from doing the wrong thing, but help them do the right thing. They create firm ground rules to es -tablish order, and provide language and methods people can use to solve problems on their own.

• From disconnection to full engagement. Employees need to understand and take pride in their role in accomplishing the organization’s greater goals.

• From know-it-all to fellow learner. Managers should act like fellow students, acknowledge when they do not know something, and apologize for acting like a know-it-all.

• From frozen layer to fear defroster. Now leaders en-courage employees to make their own decisions, and offer comfort and encouragement.

By asking the right questions and doing the right things, you

teach people a new way of thinking and acting, one that empow

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• From commander to inspirational guide. Managers should not tell people what to do, but inspire them to greatness. They should remind employees of their capabilities, reassure them that they have their backs, acknowledge that things will be chal-lenging at times, even difficult, and then watch them succeed.

Now leaders act the way they want their employees to act. Managers need to model the behavior they want to see across their organization.

Embracing Change Now:

Accelerate the Shift

Change is hard, and managers will need to inspire their employees to embrace and accelerate change. Bernard offers five tools managers need to drive any successful change effort:

1. Social good. Inspire people to welcome change. An emphasis on the social good motivates people.

2. Shared vision. Inspire people to want to work to-ward the change. The vision should come from the employees, not just management. This gives them hope because it describes the future.

3. Respected leaders. Find leaders who will teach and model desired behaviors. Managers should sur -round themselves with people who welcome and promote change, and who embrace the millennial mindset.

4. Personal change. Change hinges on employees mak-ing personal changes. It will be a journey, with ups and downs and setbacks along the way. Managers should prepare people for the journey.

5. Reinforcing actions. Positive reinforcement is critical.

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Features of the Book

Estimated Reading Time: 4–5 hours, 216 pages

Business at the Speed of Now is best read by

busi-ness leaders and managers striving to compete in the new Internet-driven economy. It would also appeal to anyone who needs to know more about how the world of business is changing in today’s economy. Bernard illustrates most points with one of more than

60 true case studies or stories drawn from his own experiences. He also highlights his points with clear and simple figures, diagrams, and tables.

Business at the Speed of Now gives readers prac -tical tips, advice, and steps to get their businesses moving faster now. It also provides sample work -plans and schedules, tactics to try, and steps to follow. One unique feature of the book is the NOW Speed -ometers at the end of each chapter. These are quizzes organizations can use to evaluate how well they are conducting business at the speed of now and where they fall short.

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