BEE Partner, South Africa Economy Watch

These are but two examples of a process that was repeated throughout the entire company with stunningly positive results. However, the key to success in an exercise of this nature lies in the extent to which management rethinks the view it has of its business, as well as the extent to which it is prepared to bring its people into the process. In the above examples, subsequent organisational climate surveys indicated a greater feeling of achievement and job-fulfilment in this organisation. Job satisfaction improved, as did customer loyalty. Ceteris paribus, a contribution was being made to the maximisation of shareholder value and a win—win relationship created between these two elements of modern-day capitalism.

The age-old notion of ‘what business are we in?’ therefore does not go far enough in providing the right kind of behaviour in a company for it to be effective in today’s hyper-competitive climate. For this packaging company, it did little to provide the right kind of strategic thinking, until it was supported by the right kind of employee behaviour.

How an organisation and its employees see themselves is a much deeper and more insightful concept than simply defining the business. In much the same way as people’s behaviour is determined to a large extent by how they see themselves, so too will an organisation’s behaviour in the marketplace be governed by how it sees itself. This goes far beyond the development of a vision and mission statement. Before these can be developed, it is vital that the company knows how it sees itself. This will influence the future culture of the organisation, and even individual departments. Changing how it sees itself will bring it a wider and more meaningful strategic and competitive paradigm. For example, if it sees itself as a company that provides its customers with a strategic marketing capability that will assist them to achieve their objectives in the marketplac_e, it opens up a lot of potential for developing customer loyalty. I_tsinnovation will be more creative and will stand a better chance of success. One has to place one’s competitors in this context as well, and understand how they view business. Hence the argument for viewing the wider environment, and not just the marketplace, as the true battlefield.’

In today’s globalised environment, strategy needs to be formulated from the perspective of the customer. Customer care has now become strategic. The new breed of South African manager will have to b_eaware that, in order to be more successful than his or her competition, whether domestically or globally, he or she is going to have to be innovative from a value perspective. A number of other habits, which will have to be developed and practised if both manager and company are to become seriously competitive, will also have to be considered.

1. Think superiority, not excellence

The Olympic Games is probably the best example of global competition in microcosm. At the Olympics, we see thousands of athletes across many disciplines competing for gold, silver and bronze medals in their respective events. Think for a moment about the most glamorous event of them all, the 100 metres final. Every single athlete who lines up to participate in this event, whether for the men’s or women’s final, is of excellent calibre. They are all dedicated sprinters, train hard, both physically and mentally, and have a good genetic composition for such an activity. However, when they train, they do not train just to be excellent. They train to be superior to their opponents. In other words, they train to win. To be superior you have to be excellent, but being excellent does not guarantee superiority. One therefore has to think and train for superiority.

And so it has to be with the new breed of South African _manager. He or she has to think ‘superiority‘ as opposed to plain `excellence’. A case in point is BSH, the German household appliance _manufacturer, which is well represented in South Africa and competes with the likes of Whirlpool, LG, AEG and Defy. A few years ago, BSH management reckoned that the key to customer loyalty lay in the level of service provided to retailers and end-users alike. Research indicated that, although all players in the market (including BSH) were providing excellent service to retailers and end-users, two critical observations held the key to growing market share. Firstly, none of the players could provide excellent service on a consistent basis. Secondly, and more importantly, no one player had service superiority over the others. Using a strategic methodology I developed, called the CATSS (Coordinated Approach to Service Superiority) guideline,” BSH developed a service strategy aimed at creating superiority over its opposition. In 2004, research indicated that it was the top household appliance supplier in terms of customer service.

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