I’m writing this post on a Saturday, thinking about how hot it is outside (I’m in Madrid) and how comfortable it is to be at home. The idea of this post is, as always, to leave you with some reflection that can help and be useful in your daily life. As you know, my intention is always to contribute from experience, taking advantage of the many years I’ve spent in this world, haha. So, with that said, let’s begin. I hope you like it.
Here’s what it says:
Organizations and companies generally have a couple of main goals: to be profitable and competitive. Both conditions ensure their sustainability over time, which is no small thing. We all enjoy seeing our companies celebrate anniversaries, stay relevant, win projects, enter new markets, propose different products, etc. In my opinion, and after many years, everything comes down to having a clear first step. A simple one, nothing complicated, but one that requires a bit of humility and empathy. The magic formula is: “To sincerely understand the need we aim to satisfy.” It’s a crucial first step that makes the difference between one professional and another, between one company and another. That, combined with the ability to say “I don’t know” without feeling like your ego is dying inside. Nothing more dangerous than someone who, without understanding you or knowing, ventures to give you a diagnosis, advice, or worse, a treatment. I’m not even talking about selling you something. Scary.
Nowadays, there’s a lot of talk about digital transformation, organizational transformation, the evolution of various models, and we’ve even started hearing many “new concepts” like “Human Centric” or “Customer Centric.” It’s curious because as time goes by, we end up talking about the same things but with new and flashy names. Isn’t the goal of every company to think and focus on their customers, or isn’t it perhaps a necessity for organizations (still made up of humans) to think about the people who make them up and the ones they serve? …basic, right?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past hundred years, believe me, nothing around these ideas is new, and we’re not reinventing the wheel. A good friend used to say, “These are common-sense things, JuanMa. Unfortunately, it’s not the most common sense,” and we laughed a lot, a lot. We still do.
#LaGuiaESM is sponsored and supported by IZERTIS and Global Trust Association, and you can download it from here: laguiaesm.com
…technology changes, advances, evolves, but the need it seeks to satisfy remains fundamentally the same…In simple terms, we’ve gone from thinking of home automation, once famously cool about 15 years ago, as something super “amazing” because we could turn on lights or close house curtains remotely with an SMS (how archaic that sounds, right?), to being amazed by what is now called “Internet of Things” or as many like to call it: IoT. If you think about it for a moment, and speaking plainly, the only thing that has changed over the years is the technological medium, the technological capacity we have to do things, and of course, the name that with a good dose of marketing appears and positions itself as a trend, novelty, great salvation, and undoubtedly, a business opportunity. I know you’re thinking about AI right now (we’ll cover this another time, with someone who knows a lot, truly!). I imagine that by now you’ve had at least a couple of moments of “It’s true! I’ve been there!” or “It’s true! That’s happened to me,” and yes, I’ve had them too. It’s the advantage of getting older and staying consistent in your professional line. If you live long enough, it’s likely you’ll see the same things come around three or four times with different names and means. You’ll see it, and you’ll laugh with a self-sufficient look saying “…what are you going to tell me!”, haha. But let’s not forget humility, please. Now, if you look carefully at the essence of the matter, technology changes, advances, evolves, but the need it seeks to satisfy remains fundamentally the same, and it’s the same individuals, you and me, us, you all, them. Society, humanity, let’s say. Thus, my original approach of “understanding the need” before taking the next step does not contradict or seem incongruent, but rather the opposite.
Isn’t the goal of every company to think and focus on their customers, or isn’t it perhaps a necessity for organizations (still composed of humans) to think about the people that make them up and the ones they serve?Considering this scenario, I started drafting what I later called #LaGuiaESM. A logical model, with a simple yet powerful approach, which aims to start with a clear understanding of the need (the demand, the market, right?) and then move on to defining objectives that relate to those of the organization and the technological capabilities we have. From there, we define the core of the services we will provide to meet the needs we’ve identified in detail, supporting all this with a well-reasoned structure of processes that not only serve as a sequence of well-thought-out activities but also as a source of data (which we can then exploit for our benefit, of course…).
The magic formula is: “To sincerely understand the need we aim to satisfy”As I’ve mentioned many times, these activities will impact the organization, its culture, and its structure, and we will need to manage change, the transformation of the organization, which will also require some models to help manage these circumstances. Of course, #LaGuiaESM also addresses this; and last but not least, it’s time to offer our services to the market, to our clients (internal and external), to our partners, and even to our suppliers. What better time to talk about the business service center, where with the help of an ITSM/ESM solution, we can maximize all the work done previously. With the intervention of a powerful and functional technological solution, after applying #LaGuiaESM, I’m sure you’ll find yourself in that moment when they tell Daniel-san “Teach me to paint the fence,” and little Daniel discovers that “without intending to,” he has learned how to defend himself. I’m sure. Try it and see.
But let’s not forget humility, please.As I explained at the beginning, technology is a means, not an end, and what we first need to be clear about is the need we seek to satisfy and how we will do it before bringing technology into the equation. Why? Because you might end up erring on the side of excess or deficiency, and as I said in the first paragraph: “Organizations and companies have a couple of main goals: to be profitable and competitive.” Profitability is not achieved by investing in solutions that then do not serve the goal we had, nor does making such mistakes make us more competitive. Thank you very much for reading this far, and I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. Sending you a hug!!
#LaGuiaESM is sponsored and supported by IZERTIS and Global Trust Association, and you can download it from here: laguiaesm.com