Welcome to Mission Excellence

Brief

When 3M took the decision to transform its business model in order to reflect the realities of how a 21st Century business needs to operate, it turned to Mission Excellence, a team of former Red Arrows, fighter pilots and training experts to challenge, support and introduce the necessary skills, in order for the whole UK sales population to embrace the strategic shift from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach. The two day sales conference which took place in Birmingham in May 2007 was the first time that the whole 3M UK sales force had come together for one event.

Challenges

Although Mission Excellence had had exposure to delivering inspiring and engaging interventions for 3M in the past, and therefore was familiar with the business and existing working practices, the challenge was to ensure that the team could recreate a similar impact with this programme. In order to overcome this challenge, 3M and Mission Excellence dedicated a significant amount of time towards analysing, planning and preparing, in order to provide a bespoke programme that not only incorporated new material which was focused and aligned with the business objectives set out from the beginning, but would also ensure that the delegates were engaged in the whole process.

Another challenge that the Mission Excellence team faced was how to address the question - how do you motivate people to improve something that already works well? As a mature and diversified technology business, 3M is very successful but in order to address this question, it was important for Mission Excellence to focus on continuously challenging the status quo and ensure that the delegates understood the reasons for change, and embraced the business strategies moving forward.

Solution

Two one day interventions were designed and delivered by the team at Mission Excellence – the first day specifically focused on the 100 sales managers who are responsible for developing and implementing plans, with the second day designed for the whole sales population which consisted of 400 people, who are responsible for the tactical execution of the plans.

Within the first day, the team delivered an interactive programme which was designed and developed around the concept of Mission Analysis, which provides senior managers and decision makers with advanced techniques to move from a complex problem to an appropriate solution. The outcomes include clarity in the desired end state and clear priorities for where effort and resource should be focused – i.e agreement on exactly what we are trying to achieve and an understanding of what will deliver decisive success. Focusing on upskilling sales managers, this bespoke programme combined problem-solving scenarios and interactive sessions to practice implementation of specific planning methodology, as well as challenging the sales managers’ way of thinking, and introducing related leadership concepts such as empowerment. It was vital that the Mission Excellence team challenged the managers and provided them with an opportunity to improve their understanding of their own operating environment – this type of external focus ensured that a true customer-centric approach could be progressed.

In order to contextualise the learning, on the first day, delegates were seated in their business units so that they could apply the methodology specifically to their own business and from the feedback provided, a majority of the delegates found the first day extremely thought provoking. Managers were also able to understand the importance of absolute clarity in the end state and, through the interactive sessions, the roadblocks which could prevent them from getting there. Furthermore, many of the managers felt that they had a much clearer understanding of their competitors and were able to understand the long term business strategies and how these strategies affect the individual business plans going forward.

The second day brought the entire sales population together in order to educate employees on the attitudes and skills required to execute the plan and move towards the model which puts the customer at the heart of everything 3M does. An opening presentation from the Mission Excellence team concentrated on how to do business in an externally-focused way, based around learning from the approach of the military – in particular, fighter operations, where the mission can only be achieved by matrixed cross-functional teams working cohesively with a total, external focus. Key elements included: working as cross-functional teams; clarity in common purpose; empowerment, agility and speed of decision-making; the power of common processes to make you more, not less flexible; communication across business functions to ensure that the right information gets to the right people, at the right time; and finally, an introduction to high performance teams, information management and planning processes.

An interactive team exercise followed the presentation where delegates had to develop a solution to a business problem and be able to demonstrate the difference between an internal and external approach. In order to encourage cross-business fertilisation, delegates were sat in regional units and were also asked for opinions on ways to improve customer-centric working through an open mike discussion that Mission Excellence facilitated. Outputs of this discussion included a call to action regarding database compliance and capture of all delegate opinion by Mission Excellence.

Verdict

Ian Beer, Event Organiser and Training Manager for the Industrial and Transportation business comments: “3M is a mature, diversified technology business with bright and highly experienced staff. We are, by any measure, difficult to impress. Let me make it clear then that Mission Excellence impressed us. Not only that - Mission Excellence took it much further by engaging its audience. This engagement is then underscored by the most remarkable credibility of their team. When they have this precious attention from their audience, it is their own discipline and methodology that ensures the right messages hit home.

There are several value add for us which are key. Initially our sales people are appreciative that they are working with the best. That is not only a nice have but it focuses their minds. However, the real value comes from the way that the ‘brief – plan – execute – debrief’ thinking has infiltrated our culture. The value of having Mission Excellence as part of our transformation to a customer-centric approach is clearer further, in the way that the team took on board the ethos and detail of our customer requirements then weave it into the interventions seamlessly. We have been able to push past previous sticking points and develop exactly what we need to in order for us to take the business forward. In short, the value is that we have moved the business forward and in the right direction, as a direct result of partnering with Mission Excellence.”

Doug Mitchell, Managing Director at 3M (UK) adds: “Mission Excellence ran a stimulating and thought provoking event which left us with a thirst for more.” As a result of this programme, Mission Excellence has already been approached to help reinforce and sustain the learning.