« June 11, 2012 | Main | June 15, 2012 »
June 12, 2012
The Wonderful Twos: One employee per client project is rarely a good idea.
"Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967", Diane Arbus.
Customers need to know you are authentically and earnestly "there". One employee per project is rarely a good idea. Think in terms of twos. Have a second person (at least) for everything.
Two (2) Things about Thinking in Terms of Twos:
1. Staffing. If you are a services professional, any project you do for a customer, buyer or client should have at least two (2) professionals assigned to it. It doesn't matter how small or big the project is. As your co-workers are often traveling, in meetings or are otherwise unavailable, customers who call or e-mail deserve to have more than one member of your office 100% knowledgeable and current on any project. If it's a small matter, just don't charge for it. Trust us on this.*
2. Written Communications. Start this regime on both ends of your communications. Get both your staff and customers to buy into it. Invoices, letters, e-mails or Anything Written--to or from your office--should always be addressed to (customer end) and received by (your firm's end) two (2) human beings. In addition to the reasons given above in Item 1--i.e., for communications received by your office--writings by your firm TO your clients or to any of their agents should copy two (2) humans. Or you will be an Administrative Screw-Up. Reason: Main contact points for customers, buyers and clients also get busy and unavailable. So copy one other human who assists the contact, client rep, GC, in-house person or accounts payable folks whenever you can do it.
It's common sense. But if you are a professional services person--e.g., accountant, lawyer, actuary, mortgage broker, stock broker--you likely don't have any common sense. And you know that. Sorry, Jack, but (gulp) it's just true.
Again, trust us.
*If customers actually need to frequently call you to check on things, you are likely a Customer Service Screw-Up. The work is never about you. Buyers of professional services should rarely have questions. (Any question they have you can and should anticipate 99.5% of the time.) But if they DO have questions--about either an ongoing project or in particular a new matter they inquire about--have two (2) people ready to respond. Customers need to know you are authentically and earnestly "there".
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
HBR: In Praise of The Generalist. Just in time, too. "Domain expertise" was getting on everyone's nerves.
This appeared on June 4 in the Harvard Business Review and what we've been trying to tell you lately in any event: All Hail the Generalist, by Vikram Mansharamani. It begins:
We have become a society of specialists. Business thinkers point to "domain expertise" as an enduring source of advantage in today's competitive environment. The logic is straightforward: learn more about your function, acquire "expert" status, and you'll go further in your career.
But what if this approach is no longer valid? Corporations around the world have come to value expertise, and in so doing, have created a collection of individuals studying bark. There are many who have deeply studied its nooks, grooves, coloration, and texture. Few have developed the understanding that the bark is merely the outermost layer of a tree. Fewer still understand the tree is embedded in a forest.
Approximately 2,700 years ago, the Greek poet Archilochus wrote that "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Isaiah Berlin's 1953 essay "The Fox and the Hedgehog" contrasts hedgehogs that "relate everything to a single, central vision" with foxes who "pursue many ends connected...if at all, only in some de facto way." It's really a story of specialists vs. generalists.
Mansharamani, at Blair Academy, Blairstown, NJ, in 2011.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)