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Design to Win: Achieving Consistency

Vodafone Power to you

SIOBHAN BROOKMAN HEAD OF NORTHERN EUROPE BID MANAGEMENT TEAM

It is important to understand what the main factors are that enable success, whether that is in a sporting environment, or in business.

Let’s consider a sporting analogy. First and foremost to be successful in any sport one needs to get to the peak of performance, develop and improve to the point where you know that everyone and everything is working as well as it possibly can, and then focus so that this performance becomes the norm and that you apply these ‘principles of success’ every time you go out. In other words you gain

consistency. Without this you may never improve your performance or win.

In business we face similar challenges. We need to clearly develop an understanding of ‘what excellence looks like’ and then apply these principles to everything we do.

In Vodafone , we often talk about achieving trust with our employees, our teams and with our customers.

So how do we do this? In my experience trust is built with consistency: consistency in our approach,

consistency in our standards and our process, and consistency in our delivery and support.

When we have built trust with each other, we can get things done faster and when we have built genuine trust with our customers, then we will see that they will be very reluctant to take the risk of engaging with one of our competitors.

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Are our processes fit for purpose?

We are in a climate and an industry where change is seen as ‘the new normal’. New products and services and the introduction of new technologies is growing exponentially and the area that will differentiate one company from another is the way in which these changes and the delivery and support

of these new services is proposed, delivered and supported in a consistently excellent way.

The drive for continuous improvement and consistency is recognised as essential if a business is to out-perform its competitors and gain recognition from the market.

An honest and detailed assessment of the current processes and the company’s capability to develop the areas of excellence that will set it apart are clearly the starting point, but there must also be a clear understanding and commitment to the development of consistent excellence.

Creating a centre of excellence

Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

If we are to provide leadership, evangelise, develop best practice, manage shared process, research new ways of doing things, and achieve global consistency, then the creation of centres of excellence are essential to drive consistency across global functions.

Many businesses face one fundamental challenge in creating a platform for success and that is that they often do not consider business processes as an

asset. When educating employees on ‘The Vodafone Way’ we use the analogy of Vodafone being a house or a home where we have a responsibility for maintaining and keeping that house in order.

Our processes are arguably the most important asset in the construction of that house, and as such should be managed, maintained and continuously improved to ensure that we protect the robustness and scalability.

Our processes are our roadmap, ‘where to go’, ‘how to get there’, ‘what to do’, ‘when to do it’.

With a clear roadmap we will not lose our way and we will ultimately reach our destination faster.

And, with forward planning, we may be able to see a faster route or one less complex that then can be repeated.

Achieving Consistency

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What are the best practices in achieving global consistency across our organisation?

We have established that there is a compelling need to maintain process consistency across global locations and the functions being supported, so now we need an approach to achieve this.

Typically, a centre of excellence is a group or team of experts who decide what the core processes are, which require change, and decide on those that are best practice and deliver proven results. It is these processes that will be rolled out to the wider community.

An IT team may be key to adapting tools to deliver the new processes.

To achieve a step change we must find a way of ‘fixing the plane while in flight’ giving consideration to what we can do to make it fly faster.

If we can achieve improved speed and efficiencies, only then can we consider reducing the cost and replicating the solutions.

So how do we do this? We:

1. Target a number of areas and we deploy a consistent approach.

2. Scope the target areas/processes. 3. Decide on which we can/should

change.

4. Redesign. 5. Test. 6. Deploy. 7. Measure.

Each project should never be longer than three months.

As this cycle evolves and is deployed, we will start to see significant performance gains every time a process is improved, and this is magnified as all the functions and geographies start sharing common processes.

Scope

Decide

Redesign

Test

Deploy

Measure

Continuous Process

Improvement

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Sharing common processes

There are many benefits to sharing common processes, just some of which we’ve noted here:

• Clear methodologies, processes and procedures = REDUCED COMPLEXITY

• Reduced training costs = IMPROVED EFFICIENCY

• Improved knowledge and skills = IMPROVED EFFECTIVENESS

• Resources can be swapped or relocated = MORE AGILITY

• If exposures are identified, they can be contained faster if all processes are consistent across the globe = IMPROVED QUALITY

• Accelerated deployment = FASTER REVENUE GENERATION

Continuous process improvement

It is a continuous cycle of process improvement that will help achieve consistency – consistency between individuals performing similar roles, as well as between similar projects and similar functions. That consistency enables better leverage of best practices across the organisation and allows better measurement and quality control.

If there are consistent rules, this will deliver consistency and drive out complexity. There are many challenges facing an attempt to implement standard processes. In a global organisation with regional hubs, cultural differences can be a significant challenge. Not just cultural differences but where there are different management chains and styles.

To overcome this we need to find a way of having the same processes, maintaining consistency, but allowing some regional deviation, if appropriate, to make the regional businesses successful. In these circumstances, deviation should be monitored, agreed, and controlled if consistency is to be achieved.

Achieving Consistency

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Reaching perfection

As our environment and business is always changing it is almost impossible to achieve perfection so the focus should always be on doing better and creating a culture of continuous improvement

“Our reach should always exceed our grasp.”

If we can demonstrate:

• Our processes are well defined, clear and documented • They are designed to be pro-active not reactive • Inter-dependent functions are aligned and engaged • We can measure them • They are repeatable • We monitor and analyse them

Then:

• We can make informed decisions to improve • Senior Management can enforce a disciplined culture • We can get 360° feedback on how effective they are

and gain an industry-wide recognition for excellence

To summarise, if we can embed a culture of consistency, discipline and focus, we can achieve operational excellence which will result in driving improvements in speed, quality, cost and flexibility and enhance our reputation in the market.

Let’s do it!