Shifting focus to the most important reasons for organizational existence – Outcomes
Organizations, like individuals, are driven forward both by their needs and wants. It is the balance between needs and wants that ensures the success of an organization. KINDUZ as an organization, enables organizations and individuals to identify their wants and meet their needs.
In our initial discussions with CEOs, we always face the question, “how do we get things done?”. While the team has deep expertise in multiple industry frameworks and tools, along with proven intellectual property of KINDUZ, these are not what drives KINDUZ. Everything we do at KINDUZ, we do with a belief of delivering Exceptional Outcomes with True Intent to our customers. Most common examples of outcomes that CEOs are looking for include – improving profitability, increasing market share and building next generation of leaders.
KINDUZ defines ‘Outcomes’ as outputs, a process or a set of processes together deliver; Outputs that are seen as directly adding value by the Customer and/or an Organization to meet their needs and/or wants.
For a business, financial outcomes area a key measure of success. The Chairman/CEO of a company might not appreciate productivity improvement, unless it improves profitability and/or sales. In such a case profitability growth and sales growth should be treated as ‘End Outcomes’. Productivity improvement should be treated as an ‘Interim Outcome’.
For an actress, how the audiences perceive her is the key measure of success. The quality of the lipstick worn, the beauty of the dress, the quality of the make-up are of no use, if the audiences don’t perceive the combination of all of them well.
For a customer, their financial outcomes might be a key measure of success for them. The Chairman/CEO of a customer’s company might not appreciate the implementation of an ERP, unless it directly improves profitability and revenue of their organization.
Fewer people in the society and the industry have the passion, patience and perseverance to deliver ‘End Outcomes’. Today’s organizational silos only deliver ‘Interim Outcomes’ and are oblivious of the need to deliver ‘End Outcomes’.
At KINDUZ, we first understand the Outcomes that organizations want to achieve. We then work with the leadership to create a solution that will enable the delivery of that outcome. Whether the solution involves Lean, Six Sigma, TRIZ, Design thinking, or a completely new framework is something that is not be the primary focus. It is the delivery of the outcome that is the prime focus for everyone involved.
How can organizations build a focus on outcomes?
Becoming an outcome-focused organization means:
- Shift of attitude and thinking to Customer First – Ensure that customer needs, wants and perceptions are always given priority.
- Delivering enterprise wide impact vs. just doing it – Focus on improvements which deliver maximum impact and break all silos in the organization, while enabling just-do-its.
- Focus strategically and deliver tactically – Working towards a common goal aligns leadership goals to employee goals
- Answer the why? – Motivate your employees by providing them better context and align them to deliver organizational goals
Outcomes KINDUZ delivers
Outcomes are the most important goals ensuring the sustenance and growth of an organization. While prioritization can change from industry to industry, the most important outcomes remain the same across different industries. These include:
- Accelerated Cash flows
- Improved Profits
- Leaders of tomorrow and
- Increased Revenues
While most of these seemingly focus on financial aspect of an organization, they are core essentials for any organization to fulfil its promise to its stakeholders. All initiatives, be it innovation, continuous improvement or business excellence should deliver these four outcomes. For example, if organizations take pride in constant innovation without measuring its impact on profitability, the innovation is going to be a drain on the organization’s resources without moving the organization forward.
These outcomes are the foundation upon which other important outcomes such as Quality, Safety, Environmental Responsibility, Employee Satisfaction, Compliance, Social Responsibility, etc. are built.
How KINDUZ delivers outcomes (vs. just recommending solutions)
We often hear, “All consultants are the same. They observe the challenges and send recommendations and reports.”
While we believe that clear and concise reports are an important part of the communication process, implementation and sustainability of the recommended solutions is a far more significant step, which reports alone cannot deliver. It is very important to understand how recommendations get translated into tangible outcomes for the organization.
On paper solutions can be translated into outcomes by:
- Building internal capability within the organization
- Defined exit strategyfor the partner to ensure the solution is delivered by in-house teams
- Build motivation, accountability and ownershipwithin every employee of the organization to work towards outcomes
It is only through building internal capability and having an exit strategy for the consultant that organizations can ensure sustainability of the solution.
While this is a rigorous and demanding process, it can pave a sure shot way for organizations to achieve sustainable excellence in the long term. Agile wins should also be built into the process along with proper change management processes including rewards and taboos to ensure implementation of an outcomes based approach.
With the right partner – adviser partnership, achieving outcomes becomes part of the organization’s DNA.
