Check Your Operating Culture
The preponderance of brand performance rides on the effectiveness of operations. For that reason, operating culture must be treated as the brand’s foremost influence, and considerably more so than organizational culture.
As a result, it’s incumbent upon reputational-brand stewards to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their operational counterparts in architecting brand platforms and executing brand activities. At the same time, brand stewards should take into consideration the mechanisms that drive a brand-aligned operating culture and advocate for improvement as necessary.
The following questions address the main aspects that drive an integrated, cohesive, and aligned brand system, reflecting the overriding sway of operations. Knowing the answers to these questions will provide insight into your organization’s ability to live up to its brand commitments.
Does our organization operate according to an institution-wide methodology or operating system for continuous improvement (i.e., TQM, DMAIC, Lean/Six Sigma, Kaizen)? If not, how do we ensure predictable, repeatable operational performance in line with brand expectations?
Do we have established SOPs for the end-to-end processes that shape our critical touchpoints? If not, how do we maintain operational standards that directly impact our product/service performance and related interactions?
Does our operating system have a dedicated person or team overseeing its implementation and performance? If not, where does accountability rest for operational excellence?
Who does that person or team report to? If not a C-suite or otherwise top-ranking person, who will provide the appropriate authority to drive brand/operations alignment?
What are our metrics for operational progress and success (i.e., KPIs/OKRs)? More appropriately, do they effectively contribute to brand-affirming outcomes?
How are our team members integrated into the continuous improvement paradigm (i.e., incentives, recognition, advancement)? Are we effectively engaging our people in the brand mission?
Do we have easy, clearly articulated processes and criteria for rewarding employee involvement and improvement ideas? Are we properly appreciating the contributions of our people?
How many of our key processes currently are or will be automated? As much as we value our people, can we introduce greater consistency in our processes through technology solutions?
Have we mapped the touchstones of our most critical touchpoints? When we know what the ideal touchpoint experience should be, we better understand how our operations can align to support that experience.
Have these touchstones been incorporated as guideposts for the design of our processes and SOPs? It’s not enough to say “this is the way” we do things; we should also explain the “why” we do things.