Published July 21, 2015
By Jim Tompkins
CEO, Tompkins International
One of my favorite times of the day is early in the morning. For me it is all about starting the day with a Chocolate Chip Cookie – CCC.
Last week, as I was preparing a keynote address for a client’s Accelerated Solutions Workshop (ASW), I got up early and started my day with a different CCC – Customer, Competition, and Company. I found this to be an effective way to think about problems, challenges, and opportunities. As my thinking on this new CCC framework evolved, it became clear that this framework was applicable to almost all organizations. To really get your arms around how your company is performing, it is useful to structure your thinking as follows:
- CUSTOMER:
- Who are your customers? What categories of customers do you serve? What are the desires of your customers?
- Customers are very interested in Price, Selection, Convenience, and Experience. How are you meeting these expectations?
- What level of customization and personalization do your customers desire? Are you satisfying your customers’ desires?
- COMPETITION
- How does the value proposition of your competitors differ from yours? What are they doing and/or offering that you are not?
- What can you learn from our competition? How is their supply chain different from your supply chain?
- What results are being achieved by your competition? How do your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) compare to their KPI? From a benchmarking perspective, where have they met the mark and you have not?
- COMPANY
- How are you performing on your customer promises? How high is your customer satisfaction rate?
- What is the efficiency and effectiveness of your supply chain? Are there opportunities to reduce cost and/or improve performance?
- Is your company adaptable? Are you able to handle the peaks and the valleys? Are you sufficiently flexible and able to meet the needs of your customers?
By following this CCC framework you can be sure you are focusing your continuous improvement efforts on the areas of greatest opportunity and leveraging your supply chain for profitable growth. May you start every day with both a bite of a CCC and a thought about CCC.
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