In the fleet maintenance industry, as well as in other industries, businesses are being confronted by constant and continually changing pressures. These include new government regulations; a dearth of vehicle technicians; the accelerating pace of technology, new products and vehicles; generational changes of the workforce and customers; and economic uncertainty.
Moreover, the changes are happening at accelerating rates, and that makes dealing with change – which has never been easy – even more challenging.
Progress is impossible without change. What’s more, as Jack Walsh, former chairman and CEO of General Electric observed: “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”
To thrive nowadays, businesses have to navigate such aforementioned big shifts to create a sustainable and relevant operation. The problem, maintains consultant, speaker and author Dirk Beveridge (http://dirkbeveridge.com), is that most businesses “are very conservative, not very innovative and not very creative, and few companies are prepared or are preparing for the future.”
He was one of the keynote speakers at PPG’s 2015 Spring MVP Business Solutions Conference, held in Palm Desert, Calif., in late April. The theme of the conference was: Turning Industry Challenges into Extraordinary Business Opportunities.
Twice a year, PPG puts on a conference which focuses on helping companies involved in the collision repair industry improve their businesses and profitability.
Disruptions
This is the “age of disruption,” Beveridge says, and businesses need to learn to let go and lead change through creativity and innovation in order to remain relevant in the future. “Relevance is the new mandate.”
He defines innovation as: “leading customers to a better future for which they are willing to reward you.” The framework for innovation, he says, encompasses four elements: vision and culture, value propositions, business model and transformative leadership.
- Vision and Culture
“Vision – a future reality that you really believe is possible with committed effort – drives change and innovation, and without vision there is no innovation,” says Beveridge. “What you want to become is much more important than what you are today.”
He warns business managers and owners not to get “so consumed with the day-to-day activities that you leave no time for creating a vision.”
- Value Propositions
Compelling value propositions drive change and innovation, Beveridge says. Rather than remaining “trapped in a sea of sameness with a ‘me too’ mentality, businesses need to stand for something – and the bolder the better,” he counsels. That position should have such an impact on customers that it creates a “follow me” attitude.
- Business Model
According to Beveridge, effective business models also drive change and innovation. The goal is “to create well-designed experiences and complete solutions to customers’ problems.”
He recommends defining and prioritizing “touch points” with customers, and then establishing a standard for creating and delivering value for each of them. “Do the expected extraordinarily well.”
- Transformative Leadership
“Companies don’t change and transform, people do,” insists Beveridge. Transformative leaders are those that are so furious with the status quo that they take it upon themselves to create an environment to drive the change and innovation that is required to keep the business sustainable and relevant in these disruptive times.
“For innovation to catch fire, employees at every level of a company need to be empowered to think critically about how to improve their company, and then to take action on their ideas,” he continues. “They must understand that the ability to transform your business for the future resides within each of them.
“Decide to change and innovate and the how will reveal itself.”
