In addition to running one of our regular masterclasses for the public sector in how to sustain change and running a two day strategic planning programme with a 'running' client, I also had an evening meeting with a potential manufacturing client this week who said they felt they were 'best in class'.
When I explored this statement it appeared that they felt this way because they were profitable and because they had relatively low customer churn. They did not know how they matched to their competitors in terms of price, quality, options, flexibility etc. In addition, they had not done anything to improve their internal operations for a number of years because they were 'too busy' everyday to make the changes.
These were interesting responses - surely, you cannot be 'best in class' without knowing the details of who else is in the room? Also, being 'best' is only a moment in time and things move on. Being profitable today does not mean profitable tomorrow and being busy today and not focusing on tomorrow almost guarentees that profits will drop over time.
Perhaps it is counter-intuitive but the best time to improve what you are doing is when you are busy and profitable as this is the moment when you can be best without worrying about the worst!
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