Organization and resources
with performance measures relating to the customer’s satisfaction and with the business decisions driven increasingly by key account needs, then expect the organization to be turned upside down.
Turn the organization upside down Take one requirement – all functions must now share the same values of customer focus and customer satisfaction. How can they do this if the business is still organized in traditional hierarchies and silo-like functions? One option, if you intend turning it upside down anyway, is to start that way on paper – turn the organization upside down – quite literally, as in Figure 17.1. In traditional hierarchies, the management sits at the top and the people with customer contact sit lower down, often at the bottom. In a KAM hierarchy, the people with customer contact (whether sales people, customer service, distribution, or whoever) are placed right at the top, with the lines of management beneath. So what? The message is perhaps mainly symbolic, but well expressed by one new manager when he took over a major company that he felt was arrogant and distant from its customers. This was how he addressed his first meeting with the senior management team: ‘If in your job you don’t actually meet with customers, then you had better make damned sure you support someone who does.’ The symbolism continues – the KAM team is empowered to act on behalf of their customer. The task is then to turn the symbolism into action. The point being made with upside-down structure charts (or perhaps we should start to call them right-way-up charts) is that the management structure should exist to service those who service the customers. The same
Figure 17.1
If you can’t be rid of silos, at least turn them in the direction of the customer
Turning the organization upside down 187