“Your First Lean Principle Saved My Business…”

“Your First Lean Principle Saved My Business…”

 

I sent an email with that title to Professor Dan Jones last month. And I meant it

In March of last year, True North Excellence didn’t make a single penny.

Business dropped 100%.

We didn’t make a single penny in April, May, June, or July either. Yet by December, our order book was filled to bursting, and I had to turn people away from a fully booked course.

That didn’t happen by accident. It wasn’t a stroke of luck. It wasn’t because of some bright new idea that popped into my  head one tortured, sleepless night.

What saved my business, as I explained to giant of Lean, Professor Daniel T. Jones in an email, was his very first Lean principle.

It saved my business. What could it do for yours?

The First Principle of Lean – Understand Value From the Eyes of the Customer

 

The first principle of Lean is often the most overlooked. While businesses focus on flow, removing waste and seeking perfection, understanding what customers see as valuable is the first step on any Lean journey.

So, practicing what I preach, I asked a handful, then dozens, and then tens of dozens of past attendees, potential future attendees, manufacturing leaders, trainers and experts from all over the world 22 questions to determine the value they saw in my business.

And what they told me, from Illinois, to Birkinhead, to Guangzhu, was this:

“The need to develop our talent hasn’t gone away, but any virtual training and coaching must be as insightful, valuable and high quality as in-person training.”

An insight that saved my business.

The customers still saw value in what my business offered.

They just couldn’t access that value.

Listen, Think, Act.

There’s a Japanese word, Hansei, which roughly translates to deep personal reflection at a point of crisis. The Coronavirus pandemic was a point of crisis for my events-led business, as it was for many others.

By applying Dan’s first Lean principle, by listening to the voice of my customers, I was able to reflect on what we provide to you. To pick out the key learning points of my experience. To consider changes that I could make. To solve the problems that we faced.

A forced innovation cycle, informed by that first principle of Lean. First we listened. Then we thought. Then

we acted.

Listen to the voice of the customer.

Think about how best to answer that voice.

Act on putting this into practice.

Listening had shown me that demand for training and education was higher than ever.

Thought and self reflection gave me the space to innovate, to create a best-practice methodology that would allow us to develop talent online.

Then came the action. The action that filled our order book to bursting. That turned a nightmare 2020 into a dream beginning for 2021.

An action which helps me feel like my business is now protected by a Kevlar vest. That what could’ve killed True North Excellence will now only sting, bruise, and be shrugged off.

That Kevlar vest is called VTC. It saved my business.

Virtual Training & Coaching. VTC.

VTC applies the same value – application-based wisdom backed by real world best practice examples – but delivers it in a new way, combining online classes and personalised coaching with practical assignments and small group learning and networking.

And after delivering VTC for the first time in autumn, our first delegates agreed that it is an exceedingly effective way of developing talent. More effective, even, than in person chalk ‘n’ talk sessions in conference rooms and hotels.

You can learn about our VTC offering by clicking here, but the most important thing for you to do right now is ask yourself a question.

 Are you applying the principles of Lean to your business to turn the Coronavirus crisis into an opportunity for growth?

 Are you pulling on your Kevlar vest and preparing to meet new challenges head on, or are you still sitting in the corner wondering how this could all happen?

Take the time to reflect. Speak to your customers – both internal and external. Apply Lean principles. You could be amazed by where they take you.

Jon Tudor

 

PS – Dan did reply to my email with humility and insight, as expected