Every brand tells a story inside and outside the organization. This story, costly constructed, breaks down with frequent and small daily actions. In the practice of management, we verify that the strength of the value chain has as its maximum resistance that provided by the weakest link.
Minimal actions contradict what is declared in both the vision and the mission.
If we graph the traceability of a value chain and its factual journey in any company process, on a lift we can show the technical aspect and, in parallel, the real value it has for those involved (internal and external customers).
For example.
- We improve a purchasing circuit by optimizing order times with time savings between the moment the need is triggered, the moment we issue the order and the shipment of the purchase order that we send to the supplier.
- We shorten product reception times and payment times.
- We improve production by avoiding shortages of raw materials or excess inventory.
These improvements require that they be communicated as a visible value proposition to both internal and external customers for it to be truly perceived. Organizations often sub-optimize communication and let the resonance of improvements depend on the interpretation of stakeholders.
A negative impact also occurs when improvements are overvalued and declared that are not weighted equally by customers and suppliers.
What happens when management problems have negative consequences that are silenced and are not addressed with assertive communications?
For example delays in:
- Deliveries of final product or provision of services
- Payments to suppliers
- Uninformed payment postponement
- Others.
Unprogrammed silence produces interpretations that subtract from the emotional capital gained or that could be gained with transparency. The brand suffers and hides behind declarations of excellence that in one way or another the stakeholders disqualify.
What happens to executives, employees, and purveyors when there is complicity in silence creating justifications instead of foundations?
Examples:
- The seller who promised a delivery invents a logistical, technical problem or other people’s errors.
- Treasury hides behind alleging vacation staff, an error in data loading, or assigns responsibility to the delay of another department.
Thus, a long chain can appear with several links that end up becoming infected with weakness because this custom becomes a culture and unilateral declarations of excellence are sustained, deprived of effective, real actions.
It begins to prevail as a de facto motivational argument for work: “I get paid every month” and/or “I have such or such benefits”. The relevance of participating in a purpose that values a real benefit to all stakeholders is being undermined.
It’s not free: The last mile «counts», in every sense. As in sports, the last play consecrates the winner.
PM
11-7-22 #branding #storytelling #influence #empowering #congruence #leadership
