Celebrating the 6th year anniversary since we first launched Branded Customer Service in Asia, we once again invited our key clients to meet Dr Janelle Barlow in an exclusive breakfast last October 26, 2010 at the Dusit Thani Manila, Makati City. Janelle is the President of Branded Customer Service, and co-author of the book by the same name. Janelle is also Regional Partner for Management Strategies Asia and President of TMI US. She has been coming to Asia since 1985, working hand in hand with Management Strategies and our various clients.

The power breakfast was very successful, attended by over 50 executives from hospitality, banking, insurance, logistics, manufacturing, telecommunications, BPO and services industries. Many of these organizations are in the midst of developing their own branded culture within their organizations, as a means on creating a unique and differentiated brand through their people.

Please click on link for the feature on Dr Barlow and Branded Customer Service at the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Philippine Daily Inquirer - Business, Monday, November 8, 2010

With the safe harbor of Subic Bay as the backdrop, the team will undergo an exciting introduction to sailing under the supervision of professional skippers, learning the basics of navigating the vessel and working together to harness the wind. The teams are then tasked to complete a set course in the bay, relying only on each other and the skills practiced earlier. Depending on the available boats, we can generally accommodate an average of 8 crew on board. A skipper, facilitator and EMT will also be on board only to guide the team and ensure safety.

Philippine Daily Inquirer - Business, Monday, November 8, 2010

SERVICE WITH a smile. For generations,, this used to be the mantra of companies wanting to retain customers and win over new ones.

For many years, the main requirement for firms that offer services (and just about every corporation today is a service provider, one way or another) is to engage the client in a friendly, cheerful manner - one that says: We are happy to help you meet your needs.

Times have definitely changed since then.

According to management consultant Dr. Janelle Barlow, it is no longer enough for a company to just offer its clients "service with a smile," no matter how sincere that smile may be.

"It is no longer competitive to just offer good service," she says in an interview with the INQUIRER. "Nowadays, customers want to be engaged, and what they want to be engaged with is your brand."

Barlow, who has authored four bestselling management books, recently flew in from the United States to brief local executives about the changing landscape in the fields of branding and customer service and share her insights about how the companies can survive and thrive in the new business environment.

"The amount of competition has become so intense these days," she says, stressing that companies these days must not only be able to communicate to the public the availability of their products and services.

Instead, they must also be able to attract clients by reminding them why they need what the company is selling.

"A smile is cheap," she says. "You've got to draw them in with something that reinforces the reason why they came to you in the first place."

Before a firm would be able to do this, however, Barlow says that its owners or managers must first define their brand position (also known as a company's "value proposition").

In doing this, managers must remember that clients' purchasing decisions are made based on their perceived value of whatever they are buying. And given the wide array of choices available in most industries and sectors nowadays, many buyers are looking for more than just the plain vanilla product or service itself.

"They want to be engaged," she says. "They are paying for the experience."

While acknowledging that many buying decisions are based on rational factors, Barlow pointed out that these very same decisions often have emotional components attached to them that often determine which of the many choices available will the buyer patronize.

Thus, between two or more products or services available in the market - assuming that they have been "commoditized" by the cutthroat competition often present nowadays - a buyer will choose the one from a firm that gives him or her the most pleasant emotional experience.

Common sense, right?

The problem with many firms, however, is that many managers simple assume that anyone in the company (or anyone outside it hired for the purpose of engaging with clients, like outsourced call center services) are capable of giving clients theis "emotional high" they seek.

"The biggest mistake they make is to assume that anybody can do that service job," Barlow says. "Many of them are outsourcing it [and] they pay those people the lowest wages."

In the headlong rush to control costs, she points out that most firms pay less attention to training these frontliners and inculcating in them the company values needed from people who are out in the market representing what the company stands for.

So what should a service company do?

Barlow says the first step from any firm is to determine its brand, which in turn leads to defining the company's brand strategy.

Having done this, the company then needs to ask itself what expectations its clients have of them, and strive to meet these expectations.

The brand service guru stresses that it is crucial for the company to be able to deliver their products and services exactly at the level of expectations that the clients have of them. Too low and the clients will walk away in disgust. Too high and the clients will raise their own expectations ... and walk away disappointed if those expectations aren't met.

And even if the Philippines remains a relatively unsophisticated market compared to its western counterparts, Barlow stresses that it's never too early to start if they want to be ready once cutthroat competition hits local shores.

"If you can get this down now," she says, "if you can establish market share loyalty and dominance now, it's practically impossible to take away."

Barlow is represented locally by Management Strategies, an Asian-based management consulting company. It provides solutions aimed at maximizing individual and organizational performance through strategic alignment, competency building and team management.

Its list of clients include large multinational corporations found in countries like Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

They may be reached at +63(2)7508682 or online at www.mgtstrat-asia.com

Management Strategies served as a marketing partner of this year's Asia Organization Development Summit held last October 27-29, 2010 held in Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. This year's theme was Transforming Organization Towards Global Competitiveness and Sustainability.

It was by far the most widely attended AODN, with hundreds of participants from all over Asia, as well as some delegates from the Australia, US and Europe. The speakers also came from around the globe.

The highlight of Day 1 was a keynote presentation by Dr Chris Worley on his more recent studies and work around organizational transformation. Dr. Worley is the former program director of Pepperdine University’s MS Organization Development program and professor of organization theory. He is concurrently research scientist at the University of Southern California’s Center for Effective Organizations and co-author of the books Organization Development and Change, Strategic Change and the recently launched Built to Change. His keynote was followed by the presentation of results of a cross-cultural study on Transforming Asian Organizations, featuring research done in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and finally concurrent sessions on the various stories of transformation in various fields and industries.

On Day 2, our very own Cristina Alafriz, Marose Balao, Maita Beltran, Valerie Erana, Consy Montemayor, Joi Natividad and Chris Otero facilitated the field visits to the various organizations who generously toured us around their facilities and openly shared their inspiring stories of transformation.

Day 3 started with concurrent session on various development frameworks and learning topics in the morning, and concluded with a highly interactive symposia on Globalization and Sustainability: Challenges for Asian Organization in the afternoon. Interesting methodologies like rhythm circles and world cafe were used.

This sharing of ideas, presentation of recent research and overall enriching experience enabled us to gain deeper insight as to how we can better work with our own clients' journey through change and transformation in the Asian setting.

Team Role is defined as “A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way” - Dr. Meredith Belbin

The Belbin Team Role Profile identifies nine clusters of behavior, termed Team Roles. Each Team Role has its particular strengths and allowable weaknesses, and each has an important contribution to a team. Everyone has a different combination of team roles. There is no bad or good - just different styles. There is also no team role that has obvious advantages over another - except when particular situations call for specific roles to surface.

The benefit of understanding our team roles, both from our own view and the view of others, is that we can use this information for our advantage and the team’s advantage. Further, by understanding the team roles of our team mates, we can leverage on each others strengths and support each others weaknesses for a fully functioning team.

The Belbin Team Role Profiles involves an online self-assessment, as well as a unique 360-feedback system to provide independent evidence about an individual’s team roles. In addition to the individual reports, the Belbin assessment also has the capability to produce a team report to give a more measurable data of how individuals fit with each other in the team.

Building on the view that team-based management systems are the most effective delivery architecture for dynamic organizations, these Belbin Team Roles reports are used to provide reliable information on team performance and building blocks for performance improvement. Some common uses of the Belbin Team Roles information:

* Building awareness of individuals’ team role preferences
* Identifying best team membership combinations
* Assessing potential working partnerships
* Determining the Team Roles profiles of particular jobs
* Recruitment of suitable new team members
* Developing shared leadership skills in management teams
* Individual performance coaching
* Conflict management and resolution
* Career Counseling & Performance Upgrade Measurements
* Job Matching, Compatibility and Suitability