BUSineSS AdviSOry | 10

The reality is it costs money to deliver consistent exceptional customer service, so if we promise that but quote to be the cheapest we are bound to under deliver and lose trust (and customers).

Once we are clear on our strategy to win, we can start to consider our operational activities, especially if there are ways to offer exceptional client service coupled with competitive pricing without negatively impacting on our promise. Linking operations to competitive advantage

DO LESS OF

STOP

A NEW OPERATING MODEL

DO MORE OF We find this process works best for clients when you have an independent third party in the room to facilitate the discussion and drive to action.

Contact Will Abbott for more information by emailing will.abbott@randall-payne.co.uk or call 01242 776000.

What to start doing, stop doing, do more of or less of?

A great tool that works for both our competitive advantage and our operations is the ERRC grid from Blue Ocean Strategy; Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne 2015, (I’ll admit this may be a slightly repurposed tool but we all like an innovative accountant). The grid is asking us to consider four things, which I paraphrase as Start, Stop, More, Less. In simple terms, if we want to win, what do we need to start doing, stop doing, do more of or less of?

We can apply this to our competitive advantage, take it down to our processes and then take it further down into the steps in each process. Every step in every process should be supporting our competitive advantage. Should we choose customer service as our competitive advantage both our processes and each step in those processes will be different to a business that plans to win on cost. Until we have clarified that strategy and everyone in the team understands their role, we are likely to be bloated and just wasting time and resource doing things our customers neither value nor appreciate.

Work this out though and you really will add value to your business and improve the work life balance of you and your team.

START

Bite-Sized Thinking

› Have a clear sustainable competitive advantage

› Ensure your operational activities fit with this

› Identify what to start doing, stop doing, do more of or less of › Every step in every process should be supporting our competitive advantage

To find out more about any of the topics discussed in this article, visit randall-payne.co.uk