See the customer as an individual - understand enterprise performance
After decades of investment in Customer Relationship and Performance Management, why do organizations still produce such modest results? Why do they still take actions that reduce customer experience and destroy brand perceptions? Why is any payback so hard to measure?
Knowledge and learning organizations know differently. They continually work on value to customers. They know how their culture drives strategy execution. They see customers and employees as individuals, whose shifting needs and behaviors actuallydetermine the brand. They thrive on innovation and complexity. They stay ahead of the market.
Selected Gilford Group articles and speeches
Robert Angel has been writing about customer-oriented Thought Leadership ideas for many years, especially about customer knowledge, innovation, behavior, communication, and results - to keep core businesses viable and ahead of the competition. In July 2009, he was honored by Canadian Business Press with a Kenneth R. Wilson Award in the category of 'best merchandising/marketing article 2008' for his October 2008 CAmagazine article on how a professional firm should manage its marketing strategy and be "Positioned to Win" . For lively and instructive reading and performance results, here is a selection of incisive writing to click on - about customer thought leadership in action: Marketing, Innovation, Enterprise Performance Strategy, and more:
Marketing and Innovation
Angel writes regularly for the Ivey Business Journal, one of the premier business management publications in North America:
"Social Networking: the Value Proposition" (May/June 2011) relates how early-adopter organizations measure social networking results -- and are changing marketing fundamentally
"Social Networking: The View from the C-Suite" (July/August 2009) explains how corporate social media works - and is changing how marketing works
"Manufacturing's Search for Competitive Differentiation" (September/October 2008) describes how five Canadian manufacturers' marketing strategies are helping to keep them competitive in an industry that has been so unrewarding for many Canadian firms
"Linking Strategy with Execution in Support Functions" (March/April 2008) explains how support functions like marketing, HR, IT, and finance need to go beyond execution to consider the value that executing effectively delivers to the organization
"Putting an Innovation Culture into Practice" - (January/February 2006) addresses innovation as a matter of competitive survival - you cannot expect to manage your way to creativity - however, good management sets some of the preconditions for it
"Sustaining Profitable Customer Relationships Requires Real Leadership" (November/December 2004) asks why it is so hard to sustain customer relationships. Poor technology choice or poor project implementation are often blamed - customer service culture transformation is rarely considered
"A New Dawn for CRM: This Time It's B2B" (July-August 2003) sets out some customer relationship steps that business-to-business managers can apply, drawing on valuable lessons from B2C marketers
Angel also writes regularly for CAmagazine, winning a 2008 "Kenneth R. Wilson Canadian Press" award for his article, "Positioned to Win":
"Positioned to Win" (October 2008) discusses how a professional firm should manage its marketing strategy
"Relationship Results" (January/February 2002) is about how many companies invested substantial technology dollars in customer relationship management, but few investments improved customer relationships as much as expected
"What the Customer Wants" (December 1999) describes advances in database technology are enabling banks to measure customer value at the root, one account at a time.
From 2005-8, Angel chaired the annual MarcusEvans Travel Industry Marketing Conferences, the leading conference for international travel industry executives, and gave the keynote presentation:
"Business and Premium Air Travel" (Madrid, Spain, 2007) examined how legacy, low cost, and business-class-only airlines are meeting increasing demand for upscale travel.
"Airline Branding" Conference (London, England, 2006 & 2008) positioned for improving industry capacity and profits accompanied by clearer differentiation through customer segmentation
"Travel Industry Customer Demand" (Barcelona, Spain, 2006) described measuring passenger behaviour and tailoring the offering to individual customers as the prerequisite for a winning sales distribution strategy
"Value-driven Strategy" (Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2005) discussed convergence of CRM, Marketing and Sales
In addition, he has written on a range of other customer strategies, including:
"Marketers Speak!" (2008 Investment Funds Institute of Canada annual conference , April 2009) based on "the role of the CMO" research conducted for an AMA Marketing Roundtable on how strategy and execution need to work together and "Preparing for Future Strategic Practices" (FutureTakes, Spring/Summer 2008)
"Living the Brand" (May 2003) covers making your organization's values come alive with each customer, then tracking your results
"Contact Centre Marketing" - ICCM Contact Centre Conference (April 2004). Its a small world after all. This presentation at ICCM's Annual conference in Toronto reviews what to expect in contact centre marketing: customer touch points, consolidation, and converging technologies
"Dispelling the CRM Myth" - Canadian Underwriter, (September 2003). Research into the Canadian Property & Casualty industry shows how relationship approaches do make a difference to client satisfaction and the organization's financial performance
"Eight Business Disciplines" - Advantage Global Customer Initiatives Conference (July 2003). As well as chairing the Conference, Bob Angel made this presentation on Event Triggers and Customer-centric business disciplines
"Call Centre Marketing" - 2003 Marketing Spectrum Conference (October 2003) at Credit Union Central of Canada's Annual Marketing conference in Banff, Alberta explains how new technology and the growing sophistication of call centre management are getting this important marketing and service area on track
"Knowledge Management Culture Change"- IQPC Best Practices in Knowledge Management Conference (May 2003). This presentation is taken from the Master Class on Evaluating and Applying Effective Change Management Strategies to Roll-Out KM
"What Executives Want from Project Managers" - Project World (April 2003). This presentation, "What C-Level Executives Want from Project Managers", reviews effective project management initiatives and what distinguishes success versus failure
"No Speed Limits" - The Banker (May 2001). In the ultra-competitive online banking environment, this means supporting real-time actions with near-real-time analytics
"Relationships Defined" - The Corporate Executive Board, Council on Financial Competition (2001). Earning (and re-earning) customer loyalty in a Buyer's market - hard copy only
"CRM - The Upgrade" - The Canadian Banker (Q3 2000) available on request from info@gilfordgrp.com - move over Customer Relationship Management, and make way for Customer Relationship Marketing, which is driven not by what the bank has to sell but by what the individual customer actually needs to buy
"Turning Transactions into Relationships" - Canadian Marketing (June 2000) - managing your customer relationships runs counter to relationships spirit in the age of the networked economy
"Measuring Accurate Customer Value" - AMIFS (June 2000). Introducing profitability measurement and its business uses
Enterprise Performance Strategy
Angel has written on performance for CAmagazine on how it is underperforming, why surprisingly little has actually changed about industry practices since his initial 2005 research, and what to do about it :
"Follow the Leader" (October 2010), based on his May 2010 his latest performance management research, provides valuable insight into how performance management is operating today. For the Report on this groundbreaking research, email info@gilfordgrp.com . To read the article, please click on Follow the Leaders .
"How Performance Competitive Are You?" (October 2010) is a webinar for the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants that draws on his article in the October 2010 issue of CAmagazine
"Just Do It" (August 2007) reports on his 2007 performance management research, outlined in "Climbing the Maturity Curve" The research was also presented as at the Actuate Users Group Conference in Las Vegas (August 2007).
"Do Scorecards Add Up?" (May 2005) found most Canadian companies used performance management tools but few people thought they worked
Angel was raporteur from 2005 to 2007 at a series of Round Tables showing the widespread attention that leaders in all industries are giving to enterprise performance as a competitive necessity and how difficult it is to get results. His White Papers document roundtable comments on collaboration, innovation, and performance culture, viewed as prerequisites for performance that actually does make a difference:
"Manufacturing in Canada with a High Dollar" (2007)
"Manufacturing in the Global Market" (at Ivey School of Business) (2007)
"Business Process Revitalization in Financial Services"
"Collaboration: How Marketing Can Win the Trust of Customers" (American Marketing Association) (2007)
"Wealth Management: Advisors & Clients" (2006)
"Innovating the Supply Chain" (2006)
"The Changing Role of The Law Firm CIO" (2006)
"Speeding up the Supply Chain"
"Collaboration in Healthcare" (2006)
"Bridging the Gap" (December 2005) in Edge Magazine based on the November 2005 Manufacturing Roundtable at Ivey School of Business - what is the technology industry doing to bridge the manufacturing gap in productivity and innovation? A group of Ontario manufacturers and vendors gave their answers
His other writing on performance management includes:
"The Personal Dimension of Leadership" Report (March 2007) appeared in the Strategic Leadership Forum's Focus on Strategy based on a Thought Leaders presentation on leadership - James McSherry, EVP and Managing Director of Commercial Banking at CIBC draws important conclusions on leadership, innovation and performance.
"Making Balanced Scorecards Work for You" (November 2005) in Perform Magazine describes how corporate America employs scorecards but only some obtain greater benefits from them, written for performancesoft's balanced scorecard clients
"Improving People Performance" ( October 2005) in Financial Executive Magazine explains how the CFO role is extending from balanced scorecards and budget metric setting into helping to define strategic business actions for continuous improvement - to realize organizational goals, the CFO must also enter the realm of people performance according to this article
"Staying Alive: Sustainable Business Performance" (Axentia's First Annual Conference, September 2005) discusses the CIO role as evolving from decisioning to performance management
"Bringing about Culture Change and Improving Organizational Performance" (Fulcrum Search Sciences, January 2005) links individual and organization scorecards bridge the performance gap by aligning individual goals and behavior to the goals of the organization, and vice versa, based on a presentation to The Strategic Leadership Forum in Toronto in November 2004
"Changing the Culture and Improving Performance" (Peter Heinemann's Newsletter, November 2004) describes how customer-centric culture change is getting increasing recognition in management circles, so much so that linking culture change to desired performance is emerging as one of the leading management topics for the coming years
Robert Angel has been a regular presenter at Federated Press conferences on HR metrics and Balanced Scorecards for several years, for example:
"Retention Metrics" (May 2010) sets out a program for sustained performance improvement (available on request at info@gilfordgrp.com )
"Managing Cultural Change" (2007) describes how organizational and individual scorecards make a high performance work, co-presented with Arie Benaich of Bank of Montreal
"Linking the Balanced Scorecard to Operational & Corporate Strategy" (2005) on the linkage between the operating departments that carry the goals and HR that needs to support them.
"ROI in Internal Communications" at the IQPC Conference (July 2007) on putting culture change in the context of the business case - and making the benefits actually materialize.
"rewarding employees" (November 2006) records comments as a regular panellist on Human Capital Institute webcasts
Financial Services Research
Angel has conducted research for a leading technology research firm into wealth management in insurance, GIC technology, and credit card lending processes - including "Customer Experience" (January 2008), "Mortgage Lending Processing" (October 2007) ,and "Canadian Life Insurers Go Mining in the Wealth Management Market" (January 2005). The research was based on interviews with executives in banks, mutual fund companies, brokerage houses, federal regulators, and the wealth management arms of leading life insurers. For further information please contact The Gilford Group.
Other articles and speeches
"Getting the Best from Employees" - read this October 2006 interview by Janis Foord Kirk in Toronto Star - in two consecutive "Career Monitor" articles The Toronto Star's well known careers columnist, Janis Foord Kirk, quotes Robert Angel on the need to get agreement on the job as to what strong performance is
"Health Care Performance" - SAS Institute Canada (December 2005) - at this SAS Health Care Seminar, a distinguished panel addressed some of the most pressing problems facing health care providers, in leadership, performance management, and service delivery outlined in a White Paper, "Best Practices for Ontario's Evolving Health Care System" available on request from info@gilfordgrp.com
BMO wins DWI 2003 Award for Customer Relationship Management - InformationWeek July 2003 article describes how Bank of Montreal won a Best Practices in Data Warehousing Award from The Data Warehousing Institute for its event triggers project in which The Gilford Group Limited played an important role
"KM in Canada" KM Magazine (June 2003) the leading knowledge management magazine, based in the UK, interviewed Bob Angel about KM in Canada
"Corporate Social Responsibility" - Canadian Association of Management Consultants GTA Newsletter (Winter 2003). This article summarizes Steven Cross' speech on what corporate responsibility is and what it might mean to business advisors, at the December 2002 CAMC GTA Chapter lunch
"Loyalty Rules!" - Focus on Strategy (December 2001). This article reports on the speech by Frederick Reichheld to the Strategic Leadership Forum's Research Breakfast Briefing in Toronto on October 31, 2001.
Read more about "Seeing the Customer as an Individual" by clicking here to view the Gilford Group whitepaper on how best-in-class organizations are implementing for relationship results.
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