It's hard to read anything about finance or international politics without bumping into the British exit from the European Union. Contrary to what some believed it certainly did have an immediate impact on financial markets and very likely will continue to have an impact long term. It may even have ignited a trend in the EU and elsewhere. Even though it might seem far away and irrelevant to your business (after all it's just international politics and global finance) it's not, and there might be valuable lessons for innovators.
The Big lesson is that bigger is not always better, as unelected officials made decisions from a distance it seems that they lost touch with their real customer, the British people! The citizens wanted a government that was more responsive to their input and to have a bigger voice in how they were governed. In other words, they wanted more product features that met their specific needs. In government as with business one size rarely fits all. Eliminating service options might be more efficient and cost effective but it may also cause us to underserve or lose key customers, since the one size product offering often doesn’t fit anyone very well. We can see this tendency in numerous industries and maybe none are more noticeable than banking. Studies have shown that small banks are far more effective at meeting niche needs than big, yet we have seen a massive consolidation of banks to where now there are just a few who get labeled “too big to fail”. This move is not about safer banking or serving the customer better. Tom Peters, the author of “the Pursuit of Wow” once said, big isn’t always bad, it’s just highly suspect.
Toyota fights big by acting small, they work extremely hard to increase manufacturing capabilities so they can offer more product features without losing efficiencies in order to satisfy more specific customer needs. The closer we get to customers the more detail we will see and understand about their needs and that is what enables, nimble adaptation and innovation. Stay close to your people (customers and employees) so they won’t vote a Brexit on you!
By: Kevin Minne
InnovationGrowthSystems.com
720-354-0291
The Big lesson is that bigger is not always better, as unelected officials made decisions from a distance it seems that they lost touch with their real customer, the British people! The citizens wanted a government that was more responsive to their input and to have a bigger voice in how they were governed. In other words, they wanted more product features that met their specific needs. In government as with business one size rarely fits all. Eliminating service options might be more efficient and cost effective but it may also cause us to underserve or lose key customers, since the one size product offering often doesn’t fit anyone very well. We can see this tendency in numerous industries and maybe none are more noticeable than banking. Studies have shown that small banks are far more effective at meeting niche needs than big, yet we have seen a massive consolidation of banks to where now there are just a few who get labeled “too big to fail”. This move is not about safer banking or serving the customer better. Tom Peters, the author of “the Pursuit of Wow” once said, big isn’t always bad, it’s just highly suspect.
Toyota fights big by acting small, they work extremely hard to increase manufacturing capabilities so they can offer more product features without losing efficiencies in order to satisfy more specific customer needs. The closer we get to customers the more detail we will see and understand about their needs and that is what enables, nimble adaptation and innovation. Stay close to your people (customers and employees) so they won’t vote a Brexit on you!
By: Kevin Minne
InnovationGrowthSystems.com
720-354-0291
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