Today, PSA BDP has the unique opportunity to offer new innovative solutions enabling a more agile, resilient and sustainable supply chain by combining the strengths of our employees with PSA’s impressive global infrastructure.
Our teams work closely with customers to unlock greater value while providing a uniquely elevated service experience. We place our customers as the central driver and focus of our business operations and understand that the customer’s perception is the most important insight, and their collective voices guide and further challenge the organization to continuously strive for new ways of solving complex problems.
To do this successfully, day in and day out, I see 3 key ingredients that are essential to meet (and exceed!) a customer’s perception:
1. The strength of its employees: working as a team
It’s all about creating high-performing teams, who are strongly connected to each other. Interconnected teams will make an impact, have a story to tell, and therefore the united promise to deliver and commit to service excellence.
Without having the right people selected for the right job and responsibility, you’ll never find the energy, drive or knowledge to delight your customer.
A well-performing team is also critical and must ask itself, ‘How can we differentiate from the competition?” A great team does this daily and doesn’t merely dream of having success but acts to be successful and applies this success to create disruptive solutions. The ‘character’ of your team is key. Strive for the ideal balance, knowing that each employee shares a style and specific behavioral characteristics. A team with the right character is an ideal breeding ground to learn, develop, inspire trust, and spark curiosity. Well-educated, confident, and curious team members come with the right questions, have their own voice, and can be your creative eye to develop the business further.
2. Shape your new future by driving change
The world and our customer base are constantly changing. In this fast-moving environment, survival depends on our ability to move with our customer needs. Be aware that change and continuous transformation are some of the most critical drivers to provide your company with the necessary oxygen to stay competitive, be resilient, ready for growth and all future challenges on your path. Compare it with a train that slowly but surely comes to a stand when you fail to take the initiative to embrace the future.
You can’t manage change alone. Without internal support, there is a realistic chance that your train reached the end station, with only you onboard and without achieving the goals. Be together in this, listen to the internal and external voice, communicate about your journey, scope, the different milestones and progress made. Via timely, clear, and no-nonsense communication and recognition, you will keep everyone on board.
Imagine the power if you cannot only meet expectations but also support and guide your customer to be ahead of the game, allowing them to differentiate from the competition.
3. Connect & align your organization structurally at all levels
This one is the most crucial, but without doubt, also the most challenging to realize. In the same regard as striving for the ideal balance in a team, it’s key that your organization is structurally connected and aligned.
If done at all echelons both vertically and horizontally, you will have a very solid foundation to exceed your customer’s expectations.
It all starts with a supportive company culture with a solid structural backbone guiding the organization and driving processes within. If such a company culture is supported by high-performing teams and well-defined, transparent processes that are all structurally aligned and connected at all echelons and working towards one common target, you have the ingredient that ultimately will drive the organization’s success. Without this support system, you’ll never manage to structurally align your telescope and microscope views, which is critical to getting all stakeholders aboard your train to success! Like a restaurant, you may have great food - but how will you eat without a proper setting, a table, and comfortable dining chairs?
An organization structurally connected at all levels, with energetic, confident and well-performing teams, where change, continuous transformation is deeply ingrained in the company culture, offers an ideal environment to unlock greater value, guides your customer to be ahead of the game, allowing them to differentiate from the competition. This is how you place your customers as the central driver and focus of your business!
