Business901 » Value Stream Mapping

Start with Journey Mapping vs Value Stream Mapping

business901 — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:30:24 +0000

Value Stream Mapping is a process most consider an exercise for finding and removing waste. It is a foundational Lean Tool that typically gets introduced early in a Lean Transformation. A Systems2win Excel template is depicted below:

In Sales and Marketing you will utilize a Value Stream Mapping process on a project by project basis but it is typically limited to an internal process. It is a difficult correlation for customer facing experiences. The preferred method of mapping the customer experience is through a journey map. I prefer two styles, one a basic Excel Template that is very similar to a typical Swim Lane chart commonly used in Lean.

From Smart Cities – A guide to using Customer Journey Mapping

Another is circular method demonstrated by the Lego Wheel. Lego uses tool called a ‘customer experience wheel’ to map an existing experience. “We understand what is and what is not important to the customer in that experience and then we design a ‘wow’ experience to improve it.” Though I like the wheel better I have not found a program that could make it easy for me to draw and distribute.

The advantage of creating this map utilizing the Excel template is that you can easily add notes and drill down further down into a process by adding columns and rows. Drawing in Excel is rather easy once you understand how, Become Proficient Drawing with Excel in 30 minutes!and remember you can do MATH, CHARTS and everything else you already know about Excel. If you want more information on how to create a journey map below is an excellent slide show describing the process. If you want to learn more about Value stream Mapping, drawing in Excel or Swim Lanes, I would recommend downloading the trail templates at Systems2win.com.

The Journey Mapping Guidance Cabinet Office[1]

View more presentations from Gerald Power

A good post on discussing some of the pros and cons of different types of Journey Maps can be found at Visualizing the customer experience using customer experience journey maps. You may also want to consider viewing the Lean Marketing Game presentation. It is based on extending the journey map through out your organization.

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Will Lean always internalize the customer?

business901 — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 03:20:00 +0000

I was in a recent LinkedIn discussion that referred to Sales and Marketing customer as being the internal organization and their role was to optimize the throughput of the observation. The sales and marketing role was further explained in the terms of takt time based on optimal production of the organization. The goal of sales is to keep the factory optimized?

I respectfully disagreed based on this reasoning.

You can (maybe) do that if you have excess demand. You can then try to improve efficiencies. However, most of us live in a world that supply exceeds demand. It is not about getting rid of waste. We have excess capacity. Tell me a company that won’t accept more prospects into their sales funnel or are refusing orders. In sales and marketing you have to drive revenue. I believe that the role of continuous improvement and Lean lies in this area versus the area of waste.

I have a problem understanding applying takt time in relation to sales and marketing. Theoretically, it sounds great but in actuality how does it apply with Takt Time= Net Available Time per Day / Customer Demand per Day. Who determines the acceptable and projected Takt Time for sales and marketing? Is customer demand determined by the capacity of the operations? Or is it by market share?

How can you have takt time without customer demand? Can an internal measurement be relevant to sales? If it is the measurement that we force sales to use, it is not a Lean process. We are pushing in lieu of pulling. Pull comes from the marketplace and is one of the principles of Lean. Holding sales and marketing to an internal measurement that has little if any meaning to the marketplace or the customer confuses me. The fundamental question could be what the marketplace demand is and what our percentage of that market is. That leads into the questions of retention and acquisition. Setting targets in those areas would drive the process of sales and marketing, innovation and hold operations accountable to a realistic level.

The metrics we have been traditional using are based on an economy with excess demand. Since we live an economy that has excess supply, fundamental beliefs must change. Sales and Marketing does need a process for improvement but it is one that must be created from the marketplace and I actually believe the principles of Lean are best suited for that journey.

Another wayward thought or the truth about Process Improvement in Marketing?

I came across a blog post by Brad Powers (a recent podcast guest) on the Harvard Business Review, How Marketing Can Lead Process Improvement. In reading the post the communication with customers seems to be orchestrated. As a result, the examples discussed seem archaic and more an extension of a command and control function than one of empowerment. It left me wondering if there are examples of sales and marketing teams that are being empowered.

Just calling something continuous improvement does not mean that it is. Continuous improvement is not a series of pilot tests and deployment. Rather it is empowering your workforce to practice it every day. In modern organizations it is the practice and the power of continuous improvement that is driving results. Factory workers, Software Programmers and Health Care professionals, to name just a few are being empowered as problem solvers and knowledge workers. I would think that the sales and marketing structure should be leading the way versus being the laggards.

There is not a more important function in sales and marketing than the ability to share and create knowledge with your customer. In the 3 examples given in Brad’s post, I see the key terms optimize, experiments, research versus words like cooperation, co-create, community and surprisingly “value”. I see that heads of marketing need to spend time with employees rather that interact with customers. What’s wrong with spending time directly with customers?

There are companies doing this. A good example is many of the gaming companies that interact regularly with their players. They are highly influenced by the top players and not only seek their opinions but join in and play with them. The players I have discussed this with are amazed at the access they have to top management. Other examples include SalesForce, BMW, Lego, Kraft and P & G.

A customer does not realize any value from your product/service till he uses it. When you view your product/service as an enabler of value creation versus the center of value than you can see how increasing knowledge flows between you and your customer is at the center of sales and marketing. Value is an input to your company not an output. There is only one person that determines the value of your organization and that is the customer. I think many continuous improvement methodologies have hijacked the term customer. It is not an internal person. The customer is the person that purchases and uses the product.

When viewing Lean and PDCA as a knowledge creation vehicle versus a waste reduction tool, Lean becomes applicable to sales and marketing. Without this understanding, I see little hope for Lean in the sales and marketing process.

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Lean Sales and Marketing, the Value Stream Manager

business901 — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 02:45:00 +0000

Overview: The Value Stream Manager is responsible for maximizing return on investment (ROI) through his particular value stream of customer identification, customer value, customer acquisition, customer retention and customer monitoring (Value Stream Mapping Customer Value). He translates this value stream and assigns it in conjunction with the team coordinator to particular teams similar to how a typical sales manager would to his salespeople. The VSM and the team coordinator will routinely evaluate the outcomes to determine best fit. The VSM may work with multiple teams for his value stream. The VSM has profit and loss responsibility for the product/service. The VSM represents the Voice of the Market, which may be thousands of individual clients, distributors, brokers and agents. As with Scrum’s product owner, the VSM has the final authority.

Again building on familiar ground you may want to equate this position to the Product Owner in Scrum, the Champion in a Six Sigma Project, Product Manager in Marketing or the Value Stream Manager in Lean. The short summary of their responsibilities: They assume the business interest of the product, service or value stream. They are the product/service owners and are held accountable for the commercial success of the product/service.

In Lean Sales and Marketing, the Value Stream Manager is held accountable for their Value Stream that is described in the 5Cs of Driving Market Share; Customer Identification, Customer Value, Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention and Customer Monitoring. In addition, the VSM has profit and loss responsibility for the product. Different than a Product Owner in Scrum, the VSM does represent the needs of the client in a project but is typically in contact with the client through the project team. The lean sales team actually performs the activities with the customer.

The VSM interacts with the team offering the priorities and reviewing the results with the Team Coordinator at each control point. It is important to note that as in Scrum there are two important principles. During iterations, the sales team has complete autonomy and should only be interacted with through the team coordinator. The other similarity is that the VSM is the one and only one person who has the final authority.

The VSM will prioritize the backlog or the iterations in the marketing value stream. These needs are best expressed or written in the form of User Stories. Depending on the size and complexity of the organization, the Sales Team, the Team Coordinator and the Value Stream Manager may meet to discuss an iteration or an entire marketing cycle. During the meeting the user stories are prioritized and discussed by all involved in the process. The sales team then takes these stories and breaks them down into activities and create single, multiple iterations that may be completed in a linear or parallel fashion. When these stories are completed, a control gate review occurs where the results are accepted or rejected by the Value Stream Manager. The VSM, the Team and the Team Coordinator discuss improvements, the next stage or coordinate a handoff to another Team. This process should have a very strong focus on where the customer is in their decision making process and what the best way is to support them at this time.

Whereas the team concerns itself around the Voice of the Customer (VOC), the VSM must look at both VOC and Voice of Market (VOM). Following the 5Cs of Driving Market Share outline, the VSM must:

Identify specific products/markets that offer organization best options for growth.
Create a value model for each of targeted product or market.
Clearly state the organization’s competitive value proposition.
Identify the direction needed to enhance that value proposition.
Monitor competitive value proposition.

The Value Stream Manager can be one person or an entire department. However, for the VSM to be effective, they have to have control over setting the priorities not only for the sales and marketing teams but many times for product development. Their decisions should be visible to the entire organization. As I like to put it, they hold the gold within the company: knowledge of both VOC and VOM. This visibility makes the role of VSM both demanding and a very rewarding one.

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Improve your Sales Cycle, Work on your Feedback Loops

business901 — Thu, 12 May 2011 03:06:00 +0000

When I start talking about speeding up the sales cycle the initial reaction is that the sales cycle is controlled by the customer and there is just not much we can do about that. I usually counter with, most companies understand that there is an average sales cycle time and if we just agree that there is than there is room for improvement.

My next discussion point is asking, can you describe the typical sales cycle based on the decision making criteria of your customer. At this point, I am again met with resistance saying that they are all different. I once again counter with let’s just take empirical view of a well-known market segment or even if we have to a well-known customer who we would consider “typical.” I do not do this too intentionally classify a customer as average or typical but to establish a base line on how we respond to our customers’ needs.

With that being said, I next ask what the average deviation from the sales cycle is there and if there are common decision making steps that get added or subtracted when this happens. That highlights the variability and creates awareness on how little active management of the process is going on. Further discussion generates reasons for excessive wait times by both parties and considerable rework that we call “fine tuning”.

Why change this? In my experience, the longer the process the more likely the criteria will change as a result of other influences rather than the actual need changing. The length of time does not necessarily equate to a better choice. The choice is based on the conditions, the influencers, the knowledge and if the problem increases substantially. The objective is not to have the customer buy your product.

The objective is for the customer to make the best informed and knowledgeable decision possible. The fundamental goals of your sales cycle should be one of discovery, learning and adaptability with a shared responsibility for a successful outcome. Your ability to generate the required knowledge effectively and efficiently in your customer decision making process will ultimately make you the preferred supplier. The question of course is how do you do that?

In most cases, unless you have already mapped your process (Value Stream Mapping), you will have cycle times that are highly variable and more than likely long. Developing a more consistent pattern with less variability will allow sales teams and customers to develop a higher degree of trust in each other.

One way of reducing cycle time is to create faster feedback loops. First, take one of the stages of the customer decision making process and break it down into multiple loops or cycles. Prioritize the loops and define the work that needs to be done within the first cycle through the use of a user story. The result of this is that you generate fast feedback by offering the customer smaller parcels of information to see if you are on the correct path or gain buy-in of a smaller step of the process.

Early customer feedback results in a better focus on the problem. As a result less work is done on superfluous tasks and more work is done on the required objectives. Little waste is generated because the feedback is so quick that obvious deviations are discarded.

Faster feedback can result in increased quality. There are number of reasons for this. Shorter cycles result in better fit since the feedback can be gathered and applied frequently. Also, faster feedback means that the team can minimize the work required to meet the objectives. Less rework is required (you are constantly tweaking) and this is very advantageous when compared to large time consuming proposals that are many times generated.

Another advantage of this process is that you only do the iterations that are you are comfortable doing. You don’t have to start every task in order. The flexibility of being able to put off some decisions to the last possible moment does not distract from the overall objective. By doing other cycles first, you will have increased knowledge of the cycle that will add better definition to the most difficult tasks.

Putting order into your sales cycle you will find that most of the time spent before is waiting on decisions or task that others are doing. Wait time is significantly reduced because of the smaller cycles are much easier to complete and easier handoffs are created which may simplify the task of others.

Working on the basics, makes a difference. To improve your football team, you need to work on blocking and tackling. To improve your sales cycle, you need to work on your feedback loops.

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How to develop a Survey to capture Voice of Market

business901 — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 03:22:00 +0000

This is an excerpt from the book Best in Market authored by Dr. Eric Reidenbach. The book incorporates the overall essence of Six Sigma in marketing today. It takes the DMAIC structure and applies it in a simple easy to read structure that will be beneficial to a Black Belt that may not be all that familiar with marketing and/or to a marketing team that has limited exposure to Six Sigma. It is a readable book that it is not filled with Six Sigma terminology and methodology that typically takes away from the message. The points that are made on value and quality through out the book and on how to acquire them through proper techniques will provide additional insights into your own marketing methods.

The previous value models were generated from survey information collected from buyers in the targeted product/market. It might be useful to take a few moments and review the process. The purpose of this review is not to make market researchers out of manufacturers but rather to make them better buyers or specifiers of market research information. Too many research companies sell off – the – shelf research to companies. Good research is driven by the information needs of the client, not the bottom line of the seller.

Step one: Asking the right questions

The first step in any survey design is to make sure you are asking the correct and relevant questions. This is where interviews or focus groups can be particularly helpful. Both of these techniques are best classified as “exploratory” in nature rather than definitive. They can be very useful in eliciting the right types of questions to ask in a survey.

Focus groups usually are comprised of about 8 to 12 individuals who are part of the targeted product/market. These individuals are asked to talk about their experiences, likes, dislikes, problems regarding the product in question. It is essential that this discussion should focus on how they define quality and value. This is where the more comprehensive definitions of quality and value come in. Relying on the interaction among the group can be very beneficial and revealing as one respondent will play off another. Your attention should be directed toward compiling a list of attributes that define quality and value. During this process it is essential that a level of granularity be achieved, since the more granular the information the more actionable it is.

For example, a respondent might say “quality of the product” is important. Your next set of questions should be what does quality mean? Can you give me an example of good quality? Can you give me an example of bad quality? If you were designing a product like this, how would insure that it is a quality product? Allowing these questions to be part of a group discussion can be very enlightening. In fact, I have found it quite useful to have a group of manufacturing executives behind the one way glass to listen and view the groups being conducted. They will learn a lot just from this exposure.

The tendency of the uninitiated research user is to rely too heavily on focus group information. Some people tend to take the information as gospel. Keep in mind that the responses come from just 8 to 12 individuals and do not reflect a statistical sample of actual buyers. In fact, it is probably wise to conduct at least two or more focus groups to corroborate the information. These sessions can be videotaped and replayed for other individuals in the company exposing them to how the market defines quality and value. They provide good discussion guides.

Step two: Questionnaire development

The actual form of the questionnaire will depend upon what data collection technique you are using. However, most types of questionnaires have some basic elements in common.

Once a list of quality and value attributes has been generated, they can be assembled into a questionnaire. The questionnaire has three basic sections: a screening section, a body, and a demographic section. The screening section contains questions that make sure you are reaching the proper person. Ask the wrong person the right questions and you run the risk of getting bad information.

The body of the questionnaire contains the attributes that you have generated from the focus groups. These should be randomly listed (as most professional survey companies do). These questions should be answered using a scale anchored by 1 = poor performance and 10 = excellent performance. There are other types of anchors but the real issue you are trying to assess is the performance of the different competitors.

Finally, any information that you want to collect regarding who is answering the questionnaire should go last. Typical demographics include age, gender, geographic location, size of company (revenues or employees), and any other information that will help you segment or target buyers. This information goes last so that in the case of a respondent dropping out you will still have the attribute information.

There are several other aspects of questionnaire development that are important and can and should be worked out with whoever is doing the research. Good competent research companies will be able to address these issues.

Step three: Fielding

Once the questionnaire has been developed and tested, it is fielded. This again is done by the research company and depending on the nature of the buyers can be handled by telephone, internet or mail. In some cases a personal interview format can be useful. Each format has its advantages and costs and should be discussed with the research company.

Step four: Analysis

When the data is collected and edited it is subject to an analysis. There are numerous ways of surfacing information. The models shown earlier were the result of a multiple analytic approach. First the items were factor analyzed which permits the surfacing of the CTQs. These are then regressed against a composite of value questions. The regression model generates a goodness of fit measure that tells you how good the independent variables (CTQs) are in explaining the dependent variable (value) and how important each element of the model is in capturing the meaning of value.

There are other ways of analyzing the data but any technique(s) chosen should identify and prioritize the drivers of value (quality, image and price) and should do the same for the CTQs. Clearly, the more focused the CTQs the more actionable the resulting information.

The model should also yield information that permits you to identify your competitive value proposition with that of your key competitors. This will require you to not only survey your customers but also those of your competitors.

Again, many types of analytics can be used but you will want to be able to break down the respondents into your customers and be able to identify other customers by brand or competitor. This is essential.

A complete discussion of data collection and the various types of analyses are beyond the scope of this book. Other books, such as Listening to the Voice of the Market: How to Increase Market Share and Satisfy Current Customers, delve into the research process in significantly greater detail.

Generating this kind of information is not cheap. But the returns from good market information are invaluable in becoming best in the market. And, being best in the market has its own longer lasting returns.

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Transferring your Value stream Map to a Kanban board

business901 — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 02:35:00 +0000

In this video, Alan Shalloway of Net Objectives describes the process of mapping a value stream to a Kanban board and why both are important in improving business-driven software development.

Alan does a nice job in the video simplifying the process of Value Stream Mapping for non-Lean organizations. He also converts the map to a Kanban board. He provides the information in the simplest of terms. And I say simple in the highest degree of respect. It is an art to accomplish that.

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Continuously improving thru PDCA

business901 — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 02:30:00 +0000

The Systems2win Company provides business process improvement tools and training to companies all over the globe. People are provided with easy-to-use fill-in-the-blanks Excel templates that come with self-help online training to improve the speed and reduce the cost of every step of your project. Dean was my guest on the podcast and we discussed how his company lives to their tag line. “Continuously improving tools for continuous improvement”. It is a unique discussion on how a small company practices PDCA.

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Download Podcast: Right Click and chose Save As: Systems2Win Podcast or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

Sytems2win will be exhibiting at the 23rd Annual Shingo Prize Conference, March 28 – April 1, 2011 – Northern Kentucky Convention Center located near Cincinnati, OH.

Systems2win templates were originally developed during 14 years of manufacturing systems consulting by the founder of Systems2win, Dean Ziegler. Systems2win templates and online training has been field proven, and continues to be continuously improved by hundreds of Systems2win software users.

Systems2win website: http://Systems2win.com
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Value Stream Mapping Customer Value

business901 — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:24:03 +0000

Value Stream Mapping Customer Value can be difficult to say the least. Even getting your organization to decide on what the Customer Value’s can be challenging. This PowerPoint/Video highlights the 5 Cs of Driving Market Share as the method of choice to determine your Customer’s Value Stream. It also introduces the term Voice of Market versus Voice of Customer.

I hope after watching the video, you picked up on several key points. One, that your organization cannot determine customer value your customer is the only one that can do that. The other point is that Customer value is the best leading indicator of future market share.

The 5Cs of Driving Market Share is a program developed by Dr. Eric Reidenbach of the Six Sigma Marketing Institute. You can find out more about Dr. Reidenbach and the 5Cs at http://drivingmarketshare.com. 5 Cs is also part of the Marketing with Lean Program Series.

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7 Habits, Getting Things Done and now, Personal Kanban

business901 — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 03:30:00 +0000

I started practicing and finding Personal Kanban an answer to many years of frustration in looking for a time management system that allowed me to manage it rather it managing me.

How I started with Kanban:

Each year, I take one subject matter that I am going to concentrate on. I started doing it many years ago when a friend of mine told me he took one president every year and read about him. He is getting to an age now that he should be getting close to finishing.

In the latter part of 2009, I had become intrigued by Kanban and how I could use it for managing work flow and especially work in process. Trying to use a Value Stream Mapping process with sales and marketing people was a huge hurdle that I could not get over. The theory of the Kanban was closely related to Value Stream Mapping and through the use of post-it-notes I simply transferred a Value Stream to a Kanban board. I assigned numerous values from a budget perspective to the number of clients/prospects in a pipeline and so on. People seemed to understand that approach must better. As a result, I made Kanban my 2010 project of the year.

I have to admit, I did not get as far with it as I wanted. I was unable to attend a David Anderson workshop or pick-up a Lean Software Kanban client but I was able to learn a great deal about it and further engrained it into my Lean Marketing teachings. In fact, my next book, Marketing with PDCA has a chapter on Kanban.

However, these efforts led me into working with it on a personal level and that is how I became familiar with the Personal Kanban teachings of Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry co-authors of Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life. In fact, the podcast Kanban too simple To be Effective? with Jim Benson led to others.

David Anderson, author of the recent book, Kanban appeared on the Business901 podcast and added 50 minutes of Kanban discussion. David covered a lot of ground in this discussion and answered a lot of questions for me that his book raised. David is a thought leader in managing highly effective software teams. He is President of David J. Anderson & Associates, based in Seattle, Washington, a management consulting firm dedicated to improving leadership in the IT and software development sectors. Related Podcast: Kanban, could we call this podcast anything else?

Bandit Software is the maker of an electronic Kanban tools for Lean Software and Systems development teams called Lean Kit Kanban. Related Podcast: Lean Kanban lessons from a Software Developer

Eric Landes is an Agile Project Manager who has been using Kanban for software development since 2007. He has worked with Scrum, XP and other agile methods for over the past 5 years, and has been managing software projects for over 10 years. Eric has his own blog, Corporate Coder which can be found at http://EricLandes.com. He is also a frequent contributor to http://developer.com. Related Podcast: Scrum + Kanban = Agile Discussion with Landes

Though this was not directly related to Kanban, one of my favorite podcast all year was Creating Flow with Don Reinertsen. Don Reinertsen is president of Reinertsen & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in improving the product development process. I have followed Don’s writing for many years and recognize him as THE leading expert in the field of Flow. His writings are insightful, packed full of information and readable. When editing the podcast, I could not bring myself to cut hardly a word out of it.

Each and everyone gave me a deeper appreciation for Kanban and it has been a great experience. This Tuesday I will have Patty Beidlerman of Layers of Love discussing how she uses her Personal Kanban in her Nonprofit and in a grade school classroom. The following week, I will host Pascal Pinck and the discussion of his use of PK as a Strategic Collaborator.

P.S. Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life by Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry was just released.

Related Information:
Kanban Cadence
Marketing Kanban
Marketing Cycle

Claim Code: SSCK7TRJAC97

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Ask not what sales can do for you, ask what you can do for sales!

business901 — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 04:25:00 +0000

In what ways can Sales and Marketing impede lean thinking? I saw that question on LinkedIn and just had to join the conversation. My thoughts:

1^st Answer:

We should applaud Sales and Marketing in most organizations for the fact that they remained a silo. Most organizations create internal control points within the organization and call that pull, which I believe is incorrect.. I also hear quite frequently from Quality experts is not how to be a resource for S & M but how S & M can be a resource for them.

Can Lean be applied to Sales and Marketing? When most organizations look at doing this they consider how Sales and Marketing can make the organization more efficient. They consider them to be their Voice of the Customer for the organization and how they could level work flow, etc. If you want to Lean your Sales and Marketing, partner with the S&M Team and increase Face time with the customer and supply resources better or on demand when a customer/prospect needs them. Flatten your organization and trust your employees to be real resources not only for the S & M team but the customer.

Leveling demand is an act of understanding the marketplace. Hitting numbers is an act of poor management; (Sales Quotas lead to Waste, http://bit.ly/hJ2Doe). Maybe, the problem with leveling is that you are accepting pull from an internal control point versus the marketplace. This sounds a little pie in the sky but no more than the uncertainty that is built into production and sales forecast.

Variation is seldom understood within a company let alone in Sales and Marketing. This is an area that “efficiency” experts can help in the Sales and Marketing field. Manipulating and simplifying the data that they already have to help S & M respond to better qualified leads and understanding the customer desires is where they should be spending their time.

BTW: Pay attention to the word customer. The only true Customer is the person that uses the product or service.

2^nd Time Around:

I agree leveling is important but it exist because organizations don’t experience true pull. It is an internal control point that manages internal operations and your expectation is that it should manage Sales and marketing and customers also. That is why you can’t level anything. Customers just wait till the control point needs to adjust and react accordingly. End of month, end of quarter, etc. They just play the game by the cards that they are dealt.

Your points are all valid if you live in world of excess demand. However, the world I live in is one of more supply than demand. So if a customer doesn’t like me, he finds a product from someone else (my insignificant customer quote that Terry was waiting for(said in fun)). My quick take on the article that Frank mentions:.the article is in MADEinPA on page 6-7.

In the article the author mentions six points of marketing excellence and my reactions are on the right:

Segmentation – I think Community(Tribes)
Value Proposition – I think Value Conversations
Price to Premium – I think Partners
Master channel Selection – I think Agile
Product Development – I think Co-creation
Customer Loyalty – I think Value Creation

These are not all pie in the sky terms. These are terms and practices that are being used at Xerox, IBM, Cisco and even Wal-Mart to an extent. The funny thing is that it is all PDCA. If you look at Liker’s description of Toyota’s Vendor selection in The Toyota Way Fieldbook (blog post on this: The 7 step Lean Process of Marketing to Toyota ), it is a good foundation. You are also seeing an increase usage and books on Kata and Liker’s new book publishing in April that has similar thoughts.

Lean professes to be a continuous improvement methodology based on value streams and pull. I believe the evolution of these principles are based on the success that we will have in not whether we incorporate Sales and Marketing into lean but incorporating organizations into Sales and Marketing thru co-working, co-creation (practically on a one on one basis) with our customers. I think Lean, PDCA and Agile type methods are the best ways of achieving this.

BTW: Why Lean Marketing? Because it is the Future of Marketing …

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Start with A3 for Continuous Improvement in Sales and Marketing

business901 — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:30:00 +0000

Certainly in these days of information overload and web analytics we have more information than ever before to make our decisions with. I believe that this data is extremely important and needed to manage your company and your marketing. This data along with most financial data is all past tense. It tells a little of what will happen in the future or with our next marketing campaign per say. This data more importantly needs to be interpreted correctly and that relies on the basis of being a good problem solver.

Sales and Marketing has relied on their instincts. They think of themselves as the creative, free spirit and intuitional type. Most sales people and marketers are quite comfortable with, if not proud of their ability to analyze and solve problems. They generally do well at it or maybe they just adapt well to the outcomes that are driven by them.

The fact is that we error in our problem solving more often than we care to admit. We rely on trial and error as the most practical and effective means of problem solving. It has been that way since the beginning of time. Success is building on failures. You have to leave someone fail to learn. But how many of these are a result of bad luck or poor analysis?

The instinctive type approach is surprisingly rather closed to alternatives. As a result the outcome is frequently flawed or less effective than a structured approach. In The Thinker’s Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving book they outline six steps of problems with the intuitive approach to problem solving:

We commonly begin our analysis of a problem by formulating our
conclusions; we thus start at what should be the end of the analytic
process.
Our analysis usually focuses on the solution which we intuitively favor; we therefore give inadequate attention to alternative solutions.
The solution we intuitively favor is more often than not the first one that seems satisfactory.
We tend to confuse “discussing/thinking hard” about a problem
with “analyzing” it (these2 activities are not at all the same).
We focus on the substance (evidence, arguments, and
conclusions) and not on the process of our analysts.
Most people are functionally illiterate when it comes to structuring
their analysis.

If people have not learned and understood problem solving techniques, they cannot formulate a reasonable conclusion. It is a guess and a reaction based simply on intuition.

Marketing with A3 is my attempt to bring a problem solving methodology to sales and marketing. The book itself will not spawn a lean transformation or a significant culture change within your company. It is a workbook, that I would use to introduce and guide me through the A3 process. It provides a background on A3, explanation of terms and many of the tools of A3, questions that will facilitate discussion of each step in the A3, blank forms and ten sample A3s for reference. The samples included are:

Direct Marketing Inbound and Outbound Calls
Training Program Outline
Sales Communication on a Promotion
Gap Analysis of an Annual Advertising Campaign
Churn Rate Gap Analysis
Increasing Consulting bookings
Gaining Control of Internal Costing structure
Business Plan Analysis for Industrial Segment
Increase in Workshop Attendance
Increase in ROI of present Marketing Activities

Sales and Marketing not only needs to improve but they must improve their problem solving skills. The book, Marketing with A3 is the introduction needed. It enables sales and marketing to use the Lean tool of A3 as a template/structured approach for their own efforts. It will also demonstrate meaningful and measurable results of your actions. You will enter meetings armed with facts and profound knowledge of your activities as a result engages in more meaningful conversations. It requires a different approach. The dialogue is sometimes not easy. But seldom is any improvement.

Using a structured approach, such as the Lean thinking tool of A3, the mind remains open, enabling one to examine each element of the decision or problem separately or systematically, and sufficiently, ensuring that all alternatives are considered. The outcome is almost always more comprehensive and more effective than the instinctive approach.

Why the Future of Marketing is Lean!

Begin the journey with an A3

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What Sales is All About!

business901 — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 10:30:00 +0000

This is supposed to be a parody but play it at your next sales meeting and see how many people relate to it!

From: taoofprogramming

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How long should your meeting be?

business901 — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 03:57:00 +0000

Have you always wondered why your problem solving meetings failed before they even started? How do you calculate the actual time that you need or do you just do it from experience or maybe just pick the time slot available?

Most Continuous Improvement, Lean experts know the answer but I am not sure that they translate it into action. If you are holding a Kaizen Event, Value Stream Mapping Session or just working on an A3, we know that 50% of the time should be spent on the planning side or the big “P” as in PDCA. The problem you have is do you really understand how to schedule that from a time perspective? Well a recent podcast guest of mine, Edward Muzio of Group Harmonics has a great tip on how to use the hourglass principle to help.

How to solve a problem in a group setting during a solution-oriented meeting. Referenced in Chapter 8 of Make Work Great. Amazon Link: Make Work Great: Super Charge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain Influence One Person at a Time

If you use Ed’s philosophy in scheduling, you see how that would improve your time management. Even during the meeting you can make adjustments, know when to take breaks and so on.

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Practical Approach to Innovation used by Disney

business901 — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 03:57:00 +0000

Innovation requires a balance between ideas and reality. In this segment Ed Muzio describes a method of keeping those two competing elements in balance to create new, innovative ideas. Ed uses an approach developed by Walt Disney and based on the roles of Dreamer, Realist and Critic. In the video are some great tips on how to put this into practice. I once read that Walt could play all the roles and many times when he walked into meetings everyone wondered which role he was going to take on. He also experimented with having separate rooms for each role. This approach should be considered when creating the future state during a Value Stream Mapping Session.

Ed Muzio, president and CEO of Group Harmonics was a guest on the Business901 podcast, Creating a Great Workplace. During the podcast, he discussed several more innovative ideas in transforming your workplace. He has just recently published a new book Make Work Great: Super Charge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain Influence One Person at a Time.

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