Profound statement, right? But think about it. Years ago we bought in to this concept-type thing called “brands”. It let us co-own a sticky, lovey connection with our customers. Then, we invested in state-of-the-art tech systems designed to automate daily drudgery and intangible complexities. This was so our people could spend their time really using their ‘brains’. What we called efficiency. Following this, we instituted a proliferation of KPIs to quantify absolutely everything we do. It was all supposed to work smoothly, efficiently, profitably. Except, somewhere along the way we lost the plot…
Brands have now got locked into departments. Systems have started dictating how we spend our time and energy. Swamped by the minutiae of maintaining the system, our people became ever more challenged to use what little additional time we could spare them to “innovate” across a variety of ever-hot topics. All the time, conflicting KPIs duke it out across departments, undermining and destabilizing cross-departmental problem-solving.
Is it any wonder we are now witness to plummeting customer satisfaction, employees suffering from perpetual change fatigue (and flagging morale), as well as formerly top-of-the-S&P companies simply vanishing into thin air? Sound vaguely familiar?
It’s time to regroup. Rethink. Repurpose.
LEARN MOREWe challenge established thinking and drive business and culture transformation. Seen through the lens of the consumer, we identify, create, and implement a true point of differentiation.
A brand is every touch point with which the client comes into contact over the entire span of a company’s existence. Our foundational belief is that the ideal customer journey is represented by three interlinked components: the consumer; who is guided by the business; which is lived by the company culture. This symbiotic relationship establishes and defines the perfect customer journey – placing the customer at the heart of everything.
At the core of every successful business transformation, is innovation. However, innovation is more than a great concept – it is the fine balance of preserving an idea whilst turning it into reality. Metaphorically speaking, we see a powerful concept as a rectangle representing four sharp corners. The sharper the corner, the stronger the concept. Far too often bureaucracy takes its toll on the corners, rounding these while the concept implements and resulting – as is so often the case – in a compromised idea which can be pronounced dead on arrival.
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– The Economist