Why we do not standardize?

First of all, we have to discuss the first topic: why should we do system standardization?

Let me say two stories first.

The first story, at the doorstep of each KFC restaurant, is a white-bearded old man called Harlan Shady, the amiable old man who was the founder of KFC. In 1930 he developed a fried chicken containing eleven mysterious recipes (in fact there is no secret, controversial, but not discussed here).

Harlan.Sandless is a devoted person who studies food, and when he is in charge of the brand, KFC is actually doing some concessionary business in his native KFC (which should be the first to join).

By 1964, however, Harlan Sandra sold the KFC brand to John Brown and Jack Marshall for $ 2 million, and by that time the development of KFC had taken a turn for the better and the two individuals, one with commercial The concept of operations, another wealth of experience in capital operation, they began to create a management system, the system was later called "shop copier", open a new store, just as a copy of a document. It was this system that gave KFC a famous saying: Even overnight, managers of all the restaurants in the city all left and KFC restaurants would operate as usual. The reason is: The system that supports KFC operations is not dependent.

In the operation of these two individuals, KFC out of KFC, to the United States, and out of the United States to become an international brand.

The second story, a recent executive who just quit, told me about the bottleneck she had with her company. Her earlier company in the early stages of development, in order to rapidly expand the market, allowing branches to fight each other, as a result, the rapid expansion of the brand initially achieved, but when the brand sales to do a dozen billion, the problem came out, the points The company has formed a "vassal separatist" situation, the headquarters lost control of the branch.

In order to integrate resources and form a concerted effort, this brand took five years, want to branch management system, the results with little effect, can not rule out chaos. Five years of pain, but also continue to hurt.

These two stories illustrate the fact that the product or the market is just one leg of the enterprise. System standardization is the other leg of the enterprise. Only two legs can walk steadily, go fast and go far.

The second topic: Why do we not standardize the system?

Enterprises in the implementation of system standardization process, can be divided into five stages.

The first phase: Choose the right professional manager

Emphasis here is right, not emphasis on excellence. The professional manager, must have "suicide" and "suicide" ability. What is "suicide?" When you first came to the business, everything relied on you, but after two or three years you did not need you because everything was replaced by the system you created. So at this stage, it is important to select and make good use of professional managers.

The second stage: the organization of personal experience refined

The early implementation of system standardization in enterprises will sort out and refine the experiences of some "masters" in the enterprise and break them down into processes that can be duplicated and executable.

At this stage, many people will negatively cooperate and resist. Why? "To teach apprentices, starved master", we all have to protect their own interests, do not hand over their own "unique skills."

Therefore, at this period, we must first build a ladder-type development mechanism, when you cooperate with enterprises at some level to complete the experience refined, the enterprise will give you a higher level of appropriate training, so that you get growth and development, eliminating worries.

The third stage: system operation

At this time, the system has begun to play a role, when do what, which department to do, to what extent, how long to do, have processes and quantitative indicators.

At this stage, pay attention to the side effects of system operation. Once the enterprise is systematized, the substitutability of employees is very strong, there will be many companies do not take the employee seriously. Pipelined work with no confidence in the future will destroy the will of many employees. A factory with a ten-jump tragedy should belong to this situation.

So at this stage, the strength of corporate culture is reflected. Create a happy atmosphere and a sense of belonging, can largely offset the system side effects of standardization.

The fourth stage: perceptual behavior standardization

A few days ago saw an article on the Internet, an e-commerce brand to "customer experience" refined into employee assessment indicators, I am very admirable, and after this type of business focus on perceptual behavior will be more and more, I believe this type Enterprises will be better and better. As for how to "customer experience" refined into indicators, the online article did not say.

My earliest exposure to "customer experience" is at KFC, where perceptual behavior is effectively subdivided. For example, how to evaluate whether an employee is "friendly" or "friendlier" to a customer is a perceptual behavior that breaks down into two details: first, when you walked into a restaurant, did the restaurant staff you met say hello to you? The second is when you order, the service for your staff have not smiled at you.

At this stage, how to turn perceptual behavior into assessment details and how to avoid being mechanically executed after decomposition (such as smiles or wry smiles) are two key issues.

The fifth stage: the conflict between maturity and innovation.

When a business model is determined, it will gradually become more mature. After maturity, the work will be habituated, thinking power will decline, the enterprise is easy to become rigid.

Many businesses choose to import talent to import fresh blood to prevent the firm from curing and aging. This time there will be a new risk: the impact of new things on the original system.

As an example, I used to serve a company that is customer-oriented. The company once introduced an executive who came in and later ported the idea of ​​a faster-selling business. Once the company had a business philosophy Random, then reversed.

At this stage, if the DNA protecting the enterprise's own system is not weakened and dialectical absorption of new ideas, new ideas and new technologies on this basis can we solve the contradiction between maturity and innovation.

Finally make a summary:

Want to use the system standardization of the enterprise into a "factory", will fail;

Want to standardize the system to become a "school", will be successful;

Companies that can standardize their perceptual behavior will be excellent;

A company that can keep innovating at maturity will excel.