Last month, I attended a workshop in Bangkok that was conducted by Dave Ulrich, a professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. Ulrich is dubbed the No. 1 most influential international thought leader in Human Resources (HR). He is considered the father of modern HR.
During the workshop, Ulrich presented an idea that I found particularly interesting. He stated that during the last twenty years almost every organization in the world, no matter whether small or big, private or public, has crafted a set of values. Ulrich mentioned that apart from the fact that a lot of organizations do not really live their values, there is one more issue. He said that most companies chose their values based on internal discussions with a focus on the internal organization while customers’ perspectives were neglected.
Therefore, Ulrich suggests that an organization should ask their target customers “Are these the values you want us to have?”. Like this, you can find out whether your company’s values really matter to your top customers.
Ulrich suggests you ask your target customers a second question: “What do we have to do to live these values better than our competitors?” The answers will help you to operationalize the values.
He also gave an example to illustrate how organizations sometimes misinterpret customers’ expectations. He said that about 80 % of business people don’t like it when on your arrival the bellboy of a hotel quickly grabs your bag from the car and takes it into the hotel and then to your room. Most business people would rather carry their own bag to control it, and to save time instead of waiting in the hotel room for the bag. I can relate to that example very well, because I think like the 80 % of business people stated above.
Therefore, if you have a dialogue with your customers about how to operationalize your values, you can be sure that you are doing the right things from a customer perspective.
And, although Ulrich didn’t mention that, I believe it brings you much closer to your customers, and it strengthens the relationship.
So consider starting a discussion with your key customers how they think about your values and how to best operationalize them.
