Tom Peters: Seven-step Path to Sustaining Success

From Tom Peters post - Seven-step Path to Sustaining Success

You take care of the people.
The people take care of the service.
The service takes care of the customer.
The customer takes care of the profit.
The profit takes care of the re-investment.
The re-investment takes care of the re-invention.
The re-invention takes care of the future.
(And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE.)

Q.E.D.

Tom Peters makes it simple for the rest of us!

Project Customers

All projects must end.  Hopefully, they end with the customer and sponsor being happy with the project's deliverables.  A key thing to plan for on every project is how the customer will be managed after project implementation.


Many organizations rely on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to help them manage their customers. CRM systems have evolved to be must have tools for many organizations, and all project managers should be familiar with their capabilities and limitations.   Also, since many CRM systems are hosted in the cloud, the startup costs can be very reasonable.


Wikipedia defines Customer Relationship Management as "a widely-implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.^[1] Customer relationship management describes a company-wide business strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other departments".


If you are interested in learning more about CRM systems, one company I have looked at is Hosted CRM from Sherweb.  If you have done business with them in the past, let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.


Also, make sure you check out these great customer service jobs from Jobboom, a supporter of this blog.

You Have Issues

Issues are going to happen on your projects. What is an issue you may ask? I define a project issue as “any event or circumstance that could alter the project schedule, budget, scope, quality or otherwise impact a project in a negative way”.

To manage issues properly you must log them, and ensure they are resolved quickly so they don’t negatively affect your project. Managing project issues is a very simple process; however we need to follow a few guidelines. Steps to take include:

Identify the Issue

This should always be done in writing. Any project team member can submit an issue to the project manager, however the project manager may choose to ignore the issue or even alter the project scope depending on circumstances.

Review the Issue

Review the issue with all concerned. Prioritize the issue and access any risks.

Log the Issue and assign ownership

When creating an issues log include at a minimum:

Write a clear and concise issue description 

Prioritize the issue based upon potential impact(s) to the project or deliverables 

Capture the date the issue was opened, date issue is expected to be resolved, and actual resolved date

Note the person responsible for resolving the issue (don’t make this a group or team. Always specify a person here.)

Have a notes column to log updates about the issue

Issue Monitoring

Request that issue owners update the issues log (or send you updates) at least weekly. Review the issues list with all core team members on a regular basis.

Issue Closure

When an issue is resolved, update the issues log with any pertinent information and close the issue.

A good issue management process will let the project sponsor know when and where issues are occurring. Additionally, an issues list is a great way to communicate to the project stakeholders about problems or concerns that are being addressed by the team. Many times an issue can cause a Scope Change Request to be generated if the issue isn’t properly managed.

In closing, conduct regular reviews of all open issues with the team and review progress towards resolving the issues. Manage issues daily, and work to resolve them quickly so they don’t become major problems on your project.