Comments on: Recovering from Organization-Centricity

By: Balaji M

Balaji M — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:57:26 +0000

Gerry,
Wonderful post. I really agree with you. And yes it is wonderful to have the Internet and have knowledge in your finger tips. There was a time when customers where explited by companies and now a days they themselves and propogating the idea of being customer centric knowing very well that if they don’t do it…customer will ignore you and go to someone better.
And yes I completely agree with Lewis that for a company to be successful every employee should pride themselves in representing the company. Necessarily it is not the company that the employees hate but rather the management. A company logo represents pride and trust where as in many a times the management does not represent what the company represents creating we-them relationship.

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:54:57 +0000

Gerry,
Unfortunately, you are right! I am a crusader for making every employee, bottom to top, a stakeholder in the business.

By: Gerry McGovern

Gerry McGovern — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:42:38 +0000

Lewis,
A funny thing I’ve found is that often employees don’t see themselves as being part of the “organization”. They see the organization as “management”.
And when we get an organization-centric intranet, we get something built from the organization chart. And most people don’t understand the organization chart very well, so they have a hard time navigating around and finding stuff they need.
But your general point is definitely true. Happy employees make for happy customers.

By: Maureen Rogers

Maureen Rogers — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:39:33 +0000

Seconding Lewis, good post. Thought I’d share an anecdote from the most organization-centered (note: not employee centered) place I ever worked. We had managed to squander $40M in our investors money – building all kinds of interesting techie things that we mostly forgot to sell. This was pre-dot.com, when $40M was a lot of money. Anyway, the investors finally wised-up and told the CEO that they weren’t going to put any more money in without putting a turnaround guy in with it. The CEO complained to our HR head (a good friend of mine), saying “Liz,the investors are trying to screw us!” As you can imagine, it was the investors who actually felt that they were the screwee.

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 13:47:50 +0000

Gerry,
Good post! I am not opposed to the we, because I believe and council that to be customer-centric a business must first be employee-centric.
Employees are the customer touch points, and if we want them to focus on customers first, we need to ensure that employees’ needs are met, from training, to respect and dignity, to job challenges, and, yes, to coffee.
To be outward thinking, we must be inward looking.