Co-create with customers

"The strategy became a perfect tool for me and my organization. It created credibility, transparency, and confidence in the ability of us as managers to do what we said that we would do – and to follow up on our strategy. It was very visible for the entire organization.”

KRÆN BRINCK NIELSEN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, X-YACHTS

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Organizations must have the courage to let themselves be challenged by their surroundings and listen to the needs and desires of their customers, users, citizens, and stakeholders. And no, the yearly market analysis or customer or citizen satisfaction survey will not do. The strategies of the future will not be realized in closed spaces, they will only become viable through interaction with the outside world. That is why it is absolutely crucial that you as a chief executive help your organization in challenging itself whenever anyone in the organization starts to think that they know the citizens or customers better than the citizens or customers know themselves.

Strategies that only exist inside an organization are often out of step with reality and often fail when faced with reality. Therefore, you need to bring every mind into the game of developing and realizing your strategy. ‘Outside-in perspectives’ in which you see things from the customers’ and citizens’ perspective can function as efficient and necessary drivers of change, and you and your managers have to lead the way by insisting on inviting customers, users, and citizens into the strategic work. Customers, users, citizens, and partners can sometimes be experienced as being ‘difficult’ elements that shake your assumptions, but they are first and foremost invaluable participants in your strategic processes, which can contribute to a wider understanding of your new strategy and ensure that the entire organization feels responsible for it.

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LISTEN TO YOUR FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES

Visit the frontline yourself and listen to what customers, citizens, and users have to say. This creates motivation and dynamism in relation to your strategy realization process. When your frontline employees encounter customers, citizens, and other external stakeholders, new ideas and perspectives arise. The ‘outside-in perspective’ can also help strengthen the way you perform your core task insofar as managers and employees detect blind spots when engaging in dialogues with customers and citizens. In general, these dialogues can give you inspiration and ideas for how to adjust and change your current services and products. Or they might give rise to new services and products.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF CONFRONTATIONS

Besides doing a conventional stakeholder mapping, it is a great idea to involve different players and to involve critical as well as satisfied ones. A meeting with an actual customer, citizen, or user can be more important than any number of customer surveys, and both the appreciative and critical voices can inject focus and energy into your strategy realization.

Employees and managers might be afraid of inviting customers and citizens in, but when the first steps have been taken, these meetings often inspire a special kind of enthusiasm. A dialogue with your customers provides you with a better understanding of their needs and wishes and thus a better understanding of your core task and a stronger desire to realize a strategy that makes sense to the people that your organization exists to help or serve.