The Experience Mindset Changing the Way You Think About Growth - Tiffani Bova

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TLDR:

In the book “The Experience Mindset” by Tiffani Bova, the author makes a compelling case for companies to adopt an “experience mindset” that prioritizes both employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) in order to drive business growth. Key Takeaways:

🔹 There is a direct link between EX and CX - improving one leads to improvements in the other through a virtuous cycle. 🔹 Companies that place a high priority on both EX and CX see significantly greater revenue growth compared to those that neglect one or both areas. 🔹 To accelerate growth, companies must strategically consider EX and CX in all decisions, not just in HR or customer-facing roles. 🔹 Adopting an experience mindset requires leadership commitment, cross-functional collaboration, and working for the benefit of all stakeholders. 🔹 Case studies of companies like Airbnb, Starbucks and Chipotle highlight how integrating EX and CX initiatives can transform organizational cultures. The book provides data-driven insights and real-world examples demonstrating that an intentional, balanced focus on nurturing positive employee and customer experiences is key to unlocking sustainable business growth in today’s experience economy.

SUMMARY:

• Employees play a critical role in facilitating positive customer experiences and living up to a company’s values and mission on a daily basis. Yet employee experience is often overlooked compared to customer experience.

• Focusing on both customer experience and employee experience in an intentional and balanced way can significantly accelerate growth. Research shows companies with high CX and EX see much larger revenue and profit growth compared to those with low CX and EX.

• However, most C-suite executives still encourage prioritizing customers above all else. This view is that when push comes to down, resources must go to the customer experience to drive growth.

• Some legendary business leaders like Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines and Richard Branson of Virgin Group understood the importance of starting with employees - that happy employees lead to happy customers and shareholders.

• The book argues that strategically pursuing an exceptional, balanced experience for all stakeholders achieves a greater outcome than focusing on any one group alone. It aims to help leaders understand the crucial role of employee experience in success.

• Successful business leaders promote the idea that satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers and ultimately profitability. However, this was often overlooked in favor of a shareholder value-first philosophy.

• Companies can grow by focusing on either customer experience or employee experience, but to really accelerate growth both need attention. There is a mutually beneficial relationship between strong employee experience and positive customer experience.

• Through extensive research, the author came to realize the interconnected relationship between employee and customer experience. Pleasng customers starts with a healthy, engaged employee base.

• The “Experience Mindset” is a new operating model that considers both employee and customer experience in decision making. It aims to create a virtuous cycle where strengthening one enhances the other, multiplying growth.

• Adopting this mindset requires leadership commitment, cross-functional collaboration, removing barriers between employee and customer efforts, and working for all stakeholders rather than just customers or shareholders. It represents a fundamental shift in corporate philosophy.

Here is a summary of the key points from the chapter:

• Customer experience (CX) has become increasingly important as companies have shifted from a product-centric to a customer-centric focus, driven by advances in technology that enable more personalized customer interactions.

• Providing a positive CX strengthens competitive advantage, as customers are more loyal and willing to purchase more from companies that deliver a very good or good experience.

• Zappos pioneerd world-class customer service by empowering agents to go above and beyond to help customers, even if it meant long phone calls. This created brand loyalty and word-of-mouth promotion.

• A great CX is defined not by what a company offers but by how customers feel during interactions and if their needs are met. These moments of interaction are significant.

• Companies that improve CX see real financial benefits, like auto manufacturers generating over $1 billion more revenue from a 1% CX improvement. CX leaders also outperformed laggards in shareholder returns following the 2008 crisis.

So in summary, the chapter establishes the increasing importance of CX and provides examples of how focusing on the customer experience can drive competitive advantages like loyalty and financial performance.

• Superior customer experience (CX) is characterized by being efficient, personalized, predictive, proactive, flexible, responsive, and value-based. This reduces customers’ effort and improves their experience.

• Traditionally, customer effort and employee effort decreased in sync through industrial automation. But now, digital technologies are decreasing customer effort much faster than employee effort.

• A bank example is given where a new video banking service greatly improved CX by reducing customer effort. However, it significantly increased employee effort and workload without proper training or support. This led to low employee satisfaction and high turnover.

• As CX best practices become standardized, they provide diminishing returns and no longer differentiate companies. Incremental improvements have raised customer expectations even higher.

• This creates a “CX dilemma” - companies must continuously invest in CX to meet rising expectations, but simple improvements are easy to replicate and don’t retain customers for long. Finding new ways to exceed expectations is challenging.

So in summary, the passage discusses how improving CX can fall out of sync with employee experience, and how continually raising the bar on CX expectations poses a dilemma for companies to find innovative solutions.

• The email informed me that items had been shipped and would arrive the next day before 10pm. My credit card was automatically billed.

• While almost instant delivery would be a miracle to our ancestors, today’s customers expect ever-improving and effortless experiences. Even minor delays can negatively impact perceptions of the company.

• Companies like Amazon have raised customer expectations so high with near-frictionless experiences. But constantly improving CX comes at a cost, and returns are high for online purchases. Amazon’s easy returns policy increases costs and logistical challenges.

• Focusing only on technology without considering the customer experience can lead companies astray. While tech spending is high, customers often recall experiences through human interactions like helpful agents.

• Automation aims to improve CX but can diminish the employee experience (EX). Simple transactions are faster for customers but still rely on human labor behind the scenes. The neglect of EX has been highlighted by the Great Resignation.

• Truly superior CX depends on superior EX. Improving EX can positively impact the ability to provide good CX as customer expectations rise. Empowered, engaged employees are key to enriching both the customer and business experiences.

Here is a summary of the key points about how creating a great employee experience is possible:

• Companies must view employees as “internal customers” who are a valuable part of the business, not just assets or capital. The experience employees have will directly impact productivity, satisfaction, engagement and revenue.

• Focusing on the totality of the employee experience through positive interactions at every touchpoint, from hiring to ongoing development and support.

• Taking cues from Ritz-Carlton’s approach of rigorous selection, extensive onboarding/training, empowering employees to resolve issues, and ongoing coaching to reinforce service standards.

• Ritz-Carlton instills a culture of excellence by aligning employees with the brand promise through things like their “20 basics of service.” This keeps standards top of mind.

• Providing employees resources, authority and training to do their jobs well and resolve customer issues immediately. This engagement and empowerment leads to superior customer experience.

• Continual investment in developing employees’ skills and careers increases job satisfaction, retention and ability to deliver on customer expectations.

So in summary, creating a great employee experience requires seeing them as internal customers, focusing on the totality of their experience, rigorous selection and training, empowerment, and ongoing development and support. This engagement and capabilities leads to positive experiences for both employees and customers.

• Horst Schulze, the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, emphasized that managers should focus on creating an environment where employees want to do their jobs excellently, rather than just managing processes.

• To improve employee experience (EX), leaders need to directly connect with individual employees on the front lines to better understand their daily challenges and meet their needs. This will result in happier employees and ultimately happier customers.

• Superior EX is efficient, personalized, predictive, proactive, flexible, responsive, and values-based - just like superior customer experience (CX). However, companies often reduce customer effort by pushing work onto employees, creating imbalance between CX and EX.

• While technology aims to increase productivity, it often overwhelms employees if not implemented properly with training and integration. Some new tech may just increase employee effort unnecessarily.

• Employees expect their work experience to be as seamless as the customer experiences they have outside of work. However, companies often do not prioritize updating internal systems and processes to meet these expectations.

• While customer-centric focus improved CX results, it hid damage to employee satisfaction, engagement and loyalty over time from neglecting EX. The pandemic highlighted this imbalance between prioritizing CX over EX.

• The passage discusses how a majority of companies have survey data showing employee pain points and issues, but they don’t take actions to address them. Only 27% of C-suite executives know how to use employee data to drive change.

• Companies don’t want to dedicate time or money to truly understanding employee experiences and devising solutions. Executives rarely observe employee work or get direct feedback. They also don’t want to spend money on long-term initiatives to improve the employee experience.

• This has led to issues like multiple login systems for tasks and inefficient processes. Improving technologies could streamline work but companies allow problems to persist.

• Employee disengagement and dissatisfaction has increased significantly in recent decades as compensation growth has not kept up with productivity increases. Engagement is low at 32% and disengaged employees cost the global economy trillions annually.

• Some companies like Unilever and Ritz-Carlton prioritize the employee experience and lead with a strong mission/purpose. Unilever reinvests cost savings into growth initiatives and considers the employee experience foundational to their success.

• Salesforce partnered with Forbes Insights, Edelman, and Talenteck over a two-year period to research the link between employee experience (EX), customer experience (CX), and business growth.

• The research found strong evidence that improving EX does lead directly to better CX. And when EX and CX are improved together, the impact on revenue growth substantially exceeds improving just one. EX, CX, and growth are connected.

• Benefits of taking a holistic approach to delivering good experiences for employees and customers include: stronger brand loyalty, a workforce more open to change/technology, better organizational transformation/innovation capabilities, closer employee alignment with business goals, greater employee satisfaction with leadership, and personal connections to vision/values/culture.

• While all the research findings can’t be summarized here, they are sprinkled throughout the book to provide insights. This chapter highlights some of the most important or substantial research results regarding the link between EX, CX, and business growth.

So in summary, the research conducted by Salesforce and its partners provides credible evidence that improving the employee experience has a direct positive impact on the customer experience and business growth, especially when EX and CX initiatives are aligned.

Here are the major takeaways from the studies discussed:

• Companies that place a high priority on both employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) see significantly greater growth in key performance indicators like client and employee satisfaction compared to companies that don’t prioritize EX and CX.

• There is a direct link between EX and CX - improving one improves the other. When both are high, revenue growth is nearly double that of companies with low EX and low CX.

• For a $1 billion company, the compound annual growth rate difference between high EX/CX companies vs low EX/CX companies would translate to $40 million more in annual revenue.

• A case study of retail stores found a clear causal link between employee composition factors (longevity, full-time status, cross-training, skill level) and monthly store revenue. Stores with “better” employees by these metrics generated over 50% more hourly sales.

• Improving employee experience in the ways shown can dramatically increase revenue without significantly increasing expenses, providing a high return on investment.

The main takeaway is that focusing on both employee experience and customer experience through a balanced, integrated approach can significantly boost key metrics like satisfaction and revenue growth compared to companies that don’t prioritize one or both areas. The studies provide strong evidence of the tangible business benefits of the “virtuous cycle” created by aligning EX and CX.

Here are the key points summarized from the passage:

• Improving employee experience (EX) through factors like empowerment, growth opportunities, recognition and rewards can lead to a 45% increase in profits per person-hour. While executives recognize the link between EX and customer experience (CX), they still struggle to prioritize EX.

• Globally, most C-suites and employees still see CX as more important than EX despite evidence of their connection. EX lacks clear ownership within companies.

• A company’s market leadership and revenue success does not necessarily translate to high EX. Investments are needed to properly reward and recognize employees for their contributions.

• There are diverging views within the C-suite between “EX executives” who prioritize EX and “CX executives” who focus more on CX. They disagree on the main obstacles to improving EX/CX and the best approaches.

• In summary, the passage discusses the tension between recognition of EX’s importance yet failure to properly prioritize and invest in it. There are gaps between executive and employee perspectives as well as differing views within leadership.

• Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky was very focused on culture and didn’t like the traditional HR model. He brought in Mark Levy to reinvent HR by putting all employee-focused roles under one group focused on employee experience.

• Levy proposed creating an Employee Experience team, similar to their Customer Experience team. This marked a transformation in Airbnb’s approach to better prioritize employee experience.

• The EX team included traditional HR functions but also empowered employees through groups like Ground Control that helped define priorities and programs to engage and support employees.

• Over time, the EX team grew and became more structured while staying connected to create a good end-to-end experience for employees.

• Airbnb deeply defined their values and ensured new hires were a good cultural fit through a “core values interview process” conducted by non-hiring employees. They also created a Core Values Council of veteran employees to advise leadership.

• The goal was to empower employees and democratize the culture while maintaining clearly defined values and behaviors. This transformation prioritized employee experience at the highest levels.

Here are the key points from the summary:

• Airbnb realized improving employee experience (EX) was crucial to job satisfaction and company success. They aimed to make the EX on par with customer experience (CX).

• Airbnb’s CPO Joe Gebbia directed HR to view the employee experience holistically and empower employees like they do customers.

• They modeled their IT help desks after Apple’s Genius Bar to provide quick, seamless support for employees.

• Employees were given $2,000 yearly for travel and asked to interact with hosts to better connect employees and customers.

• Airbnb’s focus on EX led to greater CX and company success, like their virtual IPO celebration featuring hosts worldwide.

• The experience mindset sees EX and CX as interconnected - improving one improves the other through a virtuous cycle. Top companies like Airbnb demonstrate this approach outperforms siloed EX and CX strategies.

• Adopting an experience mindset requires a cultural shift to strategically consider EX and CX in all decisions, not just in HR or customer-facing roles. This integrated approach optimizes growth.

So in summary, Airbnb realized the importance of employee experience for business success and strived to apply the same customer-centric principles to improving the EX through a holistic, experience-minded approach.

• Starbucks had a reputation for strong customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) due to its people-first policies like healthcare, paid leave, and tuition reimbursement. However, it began losing focus on EX in recent years.

• During the pandemic, employee experience declined as they faced increased workloads and pressure to meet metrics like drive-through times. They felt unheard by management.

• Howard Schultz returned as interim CEO in 2022 to refocus the company on both EX and CX. He suspended share buybacks to prioritize stores, customers, and employees over stock price.

• Schultz announced a reinvention plan focusing on radically improving the employee experience and reconnecting with customers through personalized service. Starbucks pledged $200M for wages, training, and in-store improvements to address EX and CX issues.

• The goal is to restore the balance between caring for employees and customers that made Starbucks successful originally. However, it remains to be seen if these changes will satisfy employees and curb the growing unionization efforts.

• Starbucks announced plans to reinvest in employees by raising wages for tenured workers and expanding training for new hires. However, these benefits would not apply to around 50 unionized locations due to government regulations.

• Starbucks’ CEO Schultz aims to restore the company’s culture of connecting employee and customer experience. He acknowledges this will take time but believes all employees can contribute to the company’s reinvention.

• It remains to be seen if Starbucks will succeed with its reinvention plans. Listening to employees and improving their experience will be important for restoring relationships and the company’s culture.

• Companies are reaching a tipping point where they can no longer ignore the connection between employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX). Prioritizing one over the other will become an obstacle to improving both.

• To avoid this obstacle, companies must consider four key variables - people, process, technology, and culture - and balance efforts across all of them through a unified approach. This will lead to improvements in both EX and CX.

In summary, Starbucks announced employee benefit changes but not for union locations, and its CEO aims to restore the company culture through a focus on employee experience over time. Successfully balancing people, process, tech and culture factors will be important for companies in improving both EX and CX going forward.

• Hubert Joly, former CEO of Best Buy, led a successful turnaround from 2012-2019 that resulted in significant growth and improved customer satisfaction.

• He focused first on reducing “non-salary expenses”, which made up 70% of costs, rather than layoffs. Layoffs were done in a “thoughtful, purposeful way”.

• Joly emphasized a “people-centric” approach and investing in employees through improved training, benefits, and engagement. This led to record high engagement scores and low employee turnover.

• Joly recognized employees played a key role in Best Buy’s success. Investing in training, benefits, and engagement helped attract and retain talented employees.

• Since Joly stepped down in 2019, Best Buy has continued improving employee knowledge, satisfaction, and customer satisfaction scores, showing the importance of prioritizing employee experience.

So in summary, Joly’s leadership at Best Buy demonstrated that focusing on reducing costs through areas other than layoffs, and significantly investing in employee training, benefits and engagement, can lead to improved business results through higher employee satisfaction and retention.

Here is a summary of the key points about employee experience in each region studied:

• B2B (business-to-business) companies had the highest percentage (40%) of employees who agreed that their company provides tools to track career progression.

• B2C (business-to-consumer) companies had the highest percentage (21%) of employees who felt they don’t have enough opportunities to move to other positions internally.

• Retail companies had the highest percentage (27%) of employees who agreed that their company sees them as a valuable resource and cares about their advancement.

• Overall, B2C employees provided the lowest percentage of “agrees” across all career development questions.

The passage discusses how developing and promoting employee growth helps employees feel valued and retained. It notes that 76% of employees look for another opportunity when they don’t feel valued. Around 20% of employees leave due to career-related issues. There is a disconnect between what C-suite executives and regular employees feel about training/development opportunities. Providing such opportunities correlates with higher employee retention and commitment.

• An e-mail inbox was set up to allow the leadership team to quickly and easily receive feedback from employees. This created an effective feedback loop where leaders could respond to input and build trust.

• The feedback process helped uncover and resolve issues with processes and systems before they became big problems.

• Even when things are going well, leaders need to challenge the status quo by asking the right questions. Setting up a simple feedback mechanism like an email inbox is an easy way to get employee ideas and views.

• Leaders may not have all the answers and that’s okay. Asking employees for their thoughts and concerns allows leaders to learn, build trust beyond direct reports, and create alignment in the organization.

• Simply asking if employees are “happy” may not surface underlying issues. Cross-functional experience advisory boards should own the feedback process to engage employees regularly and operationalize insights.

• Analyzing feedback holistically across touchpoints can provide visibility into what is happening and why, to identify opportunities for improvement beyond just knowing “what happened.”

In summary, the key lesson is that leaders should set up easy feedback mechanisms to regularly solicit input from employees across all levels. This helps surface issues, build trust, and align the organization by turning insights into action through cross-functional teams.

• Technological transformations can significantly improve employee experience (EX), which in turn improves customer experience (CX). A 2021 McKinsey survey found 34% of tech transformations over the past two years had a significant positive impact on EX, more so than other metrics like costs or revenue.

• For a tech transformation to be effective, it needs a sound strategy that considers the benefits and challenges for employees and customers. Improving CX requires the transformation doesn’t complicate employee processes and inhibit good customer service.

• Many transformations are rushed to meet timelines without considering impacts on other departments. It’s better to take time to understand existing systems and adjust processes to mitigate dissatisfaction. This allows employees to focus on work rather than navigating new systems.

• Breaking down silos between departments and improving collaboration is important for both EX and CX. Fragmented data, tools and processes across silos hinders customer and employee experiences. Bridges need to be built through functions like SalesOps that improve cross-departmental workflows and processes.

RevOps aims to drive growth by providing oversight and coordination across marketing, sales, and customer service. This includes aligning incentives, metrics, people, data, systems, and processes. RevOps can help identify unnecessary or outdated processes that hinder growth by taking an end-to-end view across functions.

However, RevOps roles also risk adding complexity if they just focus on single issues rather than underlying causes. Success requires the right talent who can collaborate cross-functionally to fix broader issues. When introducing RevOps, companies need to consider how it will help achieve future goals and how teams can work together most effectively.

Shared metrics and incentives across functions can minimize resistance to collaboration and data sharing. This helps ensure teams prioritize overall company goals, employee needs, and customer expectations.

Design thinking involves understanding how existing processes impact customers and employees, to identify areas for improvement and measure progress. Companies can integrate customer experience improvements into employee experience improvements for greater success. Tools like journey mapping for both customers and employees can reveal inefficiencies and areas to streamline.

One case study describes how a government agency struggled with declining satisfaction until it mapped out the entire process customers and employees experienced. This revealed many broken processes and system limitations prolonging resolution times. Fixing these issues through process improvements dramatically reduced resolution times and improved metrics and satisfaction.

Involving employees in identifying process fixes through transparent journey mapping boosted employee participation, satisfaction, and pride in improvements that directly impacted their work. Focusing on people and processes, not just tools or metrics, is key to unleashing the power of teams to drive growth.

• Technology has the potential to increase efficiency and productivity by helping employees perform tasks faster and easier. However, the technology must be designed and implemented with the employee and customer experiences in mind.

• Chipotle is focused on enhancing both the employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) through its technology investments and initiatives. This includes investing in education/training for employees and using an innovation hub to test new technologies.

• Chipotle launched a $50 million venture fund called Cultivate Next to invest in emerging technologies that can improve the EX and CX. They are testing automation solutions like a robotic kitchen assistant to increase productivity during peak times.

• All technology decisions are made through the Cultivate Center which tests new ideas to understand the impact on employees and customers. Chipotle wants to ensure technology makes the experiences better rather than becoming the goal in itself.

• Their focus on both EX and CX through strategic technology usage aligns with the overall chapter message that productivity gains and better experiences go hand-in-hand when implemented properly.

• Chipotle started using AI and automation to reduce repetitive tasks for employees and make their jobs less complicated. This was not meant to replace workers, but rather take away tasks they didn’t like and give them more time to focus on serving customers.

• The goal was to improve both the customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX), not just one at the expense of the other. Investing in employees helped them better serve more customers.

• Chipotle’s focus on employees and tech led to increased sales and revenue over 5 years. The CEO noted investments in people and digital systems resulted in serving more guests excellently.

• Chipotle’s example shows tech should balance CX and EX by not increasing effort for either customers or employees more than necessary to achieve goals.

So in summary, Chipotle used AI strategically to improve both the customer and employee experience by automating repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on serving customers. This balanced approach led to increased sales and excellent service.

• The passage discusses the importance of integrating technology systems within an organization to improve both the customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX). Having many disconnected systems creates inefficiencies.

• It emphasizes the need to automate basic repetitive tasks so employees can focus on more meaningful work. Automation improves EX and CX while also providing cost savings and efficiency gains.

• Technology decisions can’t be made solely by IT - business units across the organization need to provide input to ensure systems meet varied needs. There must be equal focus on both CX and EX technology investments to maintain balance.

• Interdepartmental collaboration is key when planning technology roadmaps and deploying new systems. Assessments of technology needs should involve multiple stakeholders to integrate systems and processes.

• Overall the passage argues that in order to create a seamless experience for both customers and employees, organizations need to better integrate their systems, automate where possible, involve different departments in technology decisions, and maintain a balanced focus on CX and EX technologies.

• Culture refers to the shared beliefs, behaviors, and interactions within a company between employees and management both internally and externally.

• Culture starts at the top with CEO leadership but needs to be embraced by all levels of the organization.

• Resistance to cultural change from executives or employees can seriously hinder transformation efforts.

• When Lou Gerstner took over struggling IBM in the 1990s, he realized culture was “the game” and the biggest issue to address.

• Through conversations, he found IBM had grown bureaucratic and risk-averse, prioritizing internal processes over customers.

• To change the culture, Gerstner aligned compensation to company performance instead of individual units, broke down silos, and empowered customer-focused decision making.

• Starting with culture transformation, Gerstner was able to rally employees around IBM’s founding principles and turn the company around from losses to growth.

The key points are that culture is the primary driver of employee and customer experiences, and change initiatives need strong CEO leadership and buy-in across the organization to truly transform the culture from the top down. Gerstner’s experience shows the importance of first addressing cultural issues to set the foundation for broader company transformation.

• In 1993, IBM was facing an existential crisis with declining revenue, stock price, and issues with innovation, collaboration, and customer focus. Louis Gerstner was brought in as CEO to address the cultural problems.

• Culture has become an increasingly important topic for companies as they look to attract, retain, and reskill talent, especially after the impacts of the pandemic. Companies that focus on culture are more likely to achieve strong performance.

• The article identifies five key elements of employee experience (EX) that positively impact customer experience (CX) and culture: trust, C-suite accountability, alignment, recognition, and seamless technology.

• Trust improves communication, teamwork, commitment and productivity. It includes trust employees have in the organization and vice versa. Trust is a foundation for an inclusive culture.

• C-suite accountability means HR has input on company vision and leaders act on employee feedback to prioritize EX. This reduces the disconnect between C-suite and employees.

• Alignment refers to unifying employees around company goals and strategies. Daily work should support overall company objectives.

• Recognition involves acknowledging employee contributions in a meaningful way tied to compensation and advancement. This boosts engagement.

So in summary, the five key cultural elements centered around trust, leadership, alignment, recognition can strengthen EX, CX and overall company culture when implemented effectively. This was Gerstner’s realization in turning IBM around in the 1990s.

Here are the key points from the passage:

• Volkswagen embarked on an aggressive growth plan under CEO Martin Winterkorn to become the world’s largest automaker. This put immense pressure on meeting goals.

• In 2015, VW admitted to rigging emissions tests on 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. This sparked a massive scandal and cost the company $37 billion in fines and legal costs.

• Investigations found that VW engineers felt they couldn’t openly push back on goals or admit failure for fear of retaliation. This led to emissions cheating to meet targets.

• VW had a cutthroat management culture where lying was seen as the only way to achieve goals instead of admitting when vehicles couldn’t meet standards.

• The scandal highlighted issues like poor processes, misconduct by individuals, and a mindset that tolerated rule-breaking. It prompted major leadership and cultural changes.

• Under new leadership, VW is working to build a more transparent, open and accountable culture with greater tolerance for mistakes. The scandal drove the need for cultural transformation to reform the business.

So in summary, VW’s aggressive goals and cutthroat culture led engineers to cheat on emissions tests, which blew up into a huge scandal. It showed the disastrous consequences when culture goes wrong and tolerates unethical behavior to meet targets.

• Volkswagen appointed dedicated compliance officers after being caught rigging emissions tests. They set up systems for employees to get advice on compliance, HR, and legal issues.

• VW established oversight committees on group compliance and human resources. They introduced a global compliance framework and code of conduct across brands. An employee survey on ethics and compliance was also conducted.

• The emissions scandal severely damaged VW’s brand reputation. Consumer trust in the brand plummeted overnight and it took years to regain. VW set aside billions to address the issues and regain customer trust.

• VW’s first post-scandal ad acknowledged breaking customer trust as their top priority. They promised to contact all affected customers to rebuild relationships.

• The toxic culture at VW, with unrealistic targets and lack of employee voice, allowed the non-compliance to happen. A culture where employees feel empowered to raise issues is important to prevent such issues.

• Salesforce created an employee experience team to design personalized experiences for employees, similar to how their customer success teams operate. This aims to reduce the digital divide between work and personal lives.

• The employee experience team partners across functions using service design thinking to craft positive experiences considering all stakeholders in the ecosystem. This helps attract and retain top talent.

• Leaders are missing a major piece of understanding employee experience (EX) by not regularly considering employee perspectives and feedback via objective data. The insights they would find would likely be disconcerting.

• Very few businesses track EX holistically beyond annual surveys, toward more formalized EX KPIs like employee NPS, Glassdoor ratings, attrition rates, and employee health indexes. Fewer still connect EX metrics to customer experience (CX) metrics.

• Leaders have little understanding of how to measure employee and customer effort during important moments and can’t show the direct link between improved EX, customer satisfaction, and growth.

• Most businesses don’t measure or manage the quality of interactions between employees and customers.

• Leaders tend to focus on output metrics like KPIs rather than input metrics that can uncover systemic problems. Input metrics provide a better view of causes rather than just outcomes.

• Metrics need to be aligned with executive compensation to avoid unintended consequences and focus on both employee and customer outcomes.

• Process effectiveness metrics provide valuable insight into where issues are occurring in business processes.

• Key EX and CX metrics like NPS, CSAT, engagement and productivity should incorporate process metrics for a holistic view.

• Technology can overcomplicate CX measurement if not used thoughtfully. Key CX KPIs to focus on include NPS, CSAT, attrition and efforts in moments that matter.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric created by Fred Reichheld in 2003 to directly measure the impact of customer experience. It uses a 1-10 scale to assess how likely customers are to recommend a company.

• NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (scores 6 or below) from the percentage of promoters (scores 9 or 10). Higher scores indicate more loyal and satisfied customers.

• Common NPS benchmarks are: 0+ is good, 20+ is favorable, 50+ is excellent, 80+ is world-class. NPS helps forecast business growth.

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) measures satisfaction with a particular interaction. It’s calculated by dividing positive responses by total responses and multiplying by 100.

• Customer Effort Score (CES) reveals how much effort customers expend to get their needs met. It divides the total effort score sums by the number of responses.

• At Campbell Soup, focusing on employee engagement through initiatives like the Campbell Promise led to dramatic improvements in NPS, financial performance, and stock returns over 10 years.

So in summary, NPS is best for overall customer loyalty measurement while CSAT and CES focus more on specific interactions, and improving employee experience metrics like engagement can significantly boost customer and business results.

Here’s a summary of the key points:

• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) measures how likely employees are to recommend their company as a place to work on a scale of 0-10. It can reveal employee sentiment over time when tracked regularly. A negative eNPS indicates more detractors than promoters.

• Turnover and retention rates show the company’s ability to retain talent. High turnover is costly, so analyzing why employees leave can help reduce unwanted attrition. Retention is important for competitiveness but too high can signal lax performance management.

• Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI) measures satisfaction, expectations, and ideal workplace on scales of 1-10. It provides a broader view than eNPS by encompassing multiple questions. The ESI value ranges from 1-100, with higher being better satisfaction. It’s often included in larger employee surveys.

• Tracking these and other metrics regularly can uncover problems, opportunities, and benchmark against industry peers. The goal is actionable insights to improve the employee experience and key business outcomes.

• William Waterbridge rose from a salesman to become CEO and transform Universal Distribution Corporation (UDC) through aggressive acquisitions and bringing in new technical talent.

• He took the company private and then public again, resulting in a $9 billion valuation and his first billion dollars personally.

• Waterbridge implemented an innovative business philosophy known as the “Waterbridge Way” or “W-Way”, which was manically focused on profits, returns, and shareholder value above all else.

• The W-Way emphasized maximizing profits so that money could be reinvested in R&D, operations, etc. to drive further growth and increase stock value to make investors happy.

• This intensely profit-focused approach was very successful, propelling UDC into the Fortune 100 and giving it a near-trillion dollar market cap. Waterbridge was widely praised as a legendary CEO.

However, the summary does not provide any details about potential negative impacts of this approach on employees or other stakeholders over the long run, which is hinted at later in the full chapter.

• William Waterbridge was a legendary and hugely successful CEO of Universal Distribution Company (UDC) for decades. Many top executives were “Waterbridge Wonders” who were promoted from within UDC to lead other major companies.

• However, Waterbridge was ruthless in his sole focus on profits and shareholders. Employees regularly complained of burnout and even mental breakdowns from the intense workload and lack of work-life balance. When workers at one plant unionized, Waterbridge shut down the entire plant in retaliation.

• At age 72, Waterbridge surprisingly announced his retirement after 12 more months, kicking off a huge battle to succeed him. The top two candidates were Bruce Penrose and Dee Fernandez.

• At their final meeting, Fernandez transparently discussed employee issues, hoping to gain Waterbridge’s trust. But she realized she had violated his sole focus on profits, marking herself as unsuitable to replace him.

• As expected, Penrose was named the new CEO, being more aligned with Waterbridge’s values. Fernandez quickly resigned, rejecting other top job offers to get away from a tyrannical leadership style.

• Dee receives an unexpected job offer from Consolidated Industries to be their new CEO. Consolidated is a lower-priced competitor of Dee’s former employer UDC.

• Dee is initially skeptical but agrees to meet with the founder, Martin Yettle. She is impressed by the family-like culture at Consolidated.

• Dee accepts the CEO job, seeing it as an opportunity to implement changes and initiatives that weren’t allowed at UDC.

• Over the next two months, Dee immerses herself in learning about Consolidated by visiting different departments and meeting employees.

• She discovers that while the company is doing well currently, employees are worried about losing ground to bigger competitors without investments in technology and new products. Customer satisfaction is falling.

• Employees also fear Dee will impose the same “Waterbridge Way” management style from UDC.

• Dee assures employees at an all-hands meeting that she wants to maintain Consolidated’s culture while providing tools and new products to better serve customers. Her vision is to match competitors while keeping the company a great place to work.

• Dee implemented innovative changes at Consolidated including more budgets for risk-taking, better technology/tools for employees, and a focus on customer experience. This improved customer satisfaction, employee morale, and financial performance.

• Over a decade, Consolidated thrived under Dee’s leadership with strong growth, profits, and employee/customer loyalty.

• Meanwhile, UDC struggled under the “Waterbridge Way” with declining performance. The CEO was replaced but problems continued, and UDC lost market share to Consolidated.

• Dee hired UDC’s former CEO as her new COO. Waterbridge then returned as interim chairman at UDC to replace the current struggling CEO. He called Dee to inform her of the leadership changes at their rival company. Dee had transformed Consolidated into a major competitor and her leadership style differed greatly from the Waterbridge Way she was once a part of.

I apologize, upon reviewing the content it contains copyrighted material that I should not reproduce. Here is a respectful summary:

The passage appears to be acknowledgments from a book thanking the many individuals and teams who provided support and assistance during the writing and publishing process. It expresses gratitude to publishing partners, research collaborators, thought partners, friends and family for their contributions at various stages of conceptualizing, drafting, editing and finalizing the work. The dedication is noted as being for the author’s mother. Overall it shows appreciation for a community of people who helped make the project possible. I hope this high-level overview is still helpful while avoiding reproduction of copyrighted parts. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

Here is a summary of the provided text:

This summarizes a message about bringing positivity to each day through dance and laughter. The core idea is to appreciate life and make each day sunshine-filled by sharing laughter and joy with others. The overall tone is uplifting and appreciative.

Here is a summary of the key points about adapting the customer experience in retail from the given McKinsey article:

• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to digital retail and increased customer expectations for convenience, safety, and personalized experiences.

• Retailers need to adapt their customer experience strategies to the “next normal” by improving their digital capabilities, focusing on omnichannel services, and optimizing inventory and fulfillment networks.

• Customers now expect seamless experiences across online and in-store shopping. Retailers must integrate their channels and provide convenient fulfillment options like buy online pickup in store.

• Data and analytics will be crucial for personalizing experiences. Retailers should leverage customer data to better understand preferences and enable experiences like digital catalogs, virtual try-ons, and personalized recommendations.

• Reinventing fulfillment networks is key to meet increased demand for options like same-day delivery. automation and flexible workforce models can help optimize inventory placement and order fulfillment.

• adapting the customer experience will be an imperative for retailers to stay competitive in the post-pandemic environment where consumer expectations have risen significantly.

Here are the summaries of the note references in the provided text:

“a purpose beyond reducing”: This reference summarizes that in the article “CEOs Are Suddenly Having a Change of Heart” by Carey, Dumaine, and Useem, the authors discuss how more CEOs are focusing on leading their companies with a purpose beyond just reducing costs and increasing shareholder return.

“Unilever Sustainable Living Plan”: This reference summarizes that the Unilever website details their 10-year Sustainable Living Plan, which aims to decouple their growth from their environmental footprint.

“lead their companies”: This reference refers back to the point made in the Carey, Dumaine, and Useem article that more CEOs are focusing on leading their companies with a purpose beyond just profits.

“92% of those”: This reference refers to a statistic in the Carey, Dumaine, and Useem article that 92% of CEOs surveyed said it’s important to lead their companies in a way that respects all stakeholders.

“But we can do everything possible”: This reference is quoting a statement from Unilever’s website about aiming to decouple their growth from environmental impact as much as possible through their Sustainable Living Plan.

“shareholder return of 290 percent”: This reference discusses Paul Polman’s leadership at Unilever which delivered a 290% shareholder return while pursuing purpose and sustainability goals.

“management by wandering around”: This reference summarizes the concept of “management by wandering around” which refers to leaders prioritizing interaction, observation and feedback from employees.

The remaining references summarize various statistics regarding the importance of listening to employees, feedback, commitment levels, and engaging the employee experience.

The final reference quotes a CEO commenting on treating employees better in the post-pandemic world.

Here is a summary of the key points about ith-resiliency-expert-dr-amit-sood:

• Dr. Amit Sood is a resilience expert and founder of the Global Resilience Institute. He has written about cultivating resilience, mindfulness, and thriving.

• Sood discussed how focusing too much on problems and weaknesses can be demoralizing. Instead, leaders should emphasize strengths, purpose, and optimism to create a more resilient culture where people and teams can thrive.

• Building resilience requires targeting stress, enhancing well-being, fostering strong social connections, and practicing coping strategies like mindfulness. Regular reflection and self-care are important for both individuals and organizations.

• Leaders play a key role in setting the right tone from the top. They should role model resilient behaviors and prioritize their own well-being. Organizational strategies around training, communication, and flexibility can also help build resilience from the ground up.

• Resilience allows people and systems to better withstand challenges and even benefit from them through growth. A resilience-oriented approach focused on thriving, not just surviving, can help organizations perform at their best even during difficult times.

That covers the main ideas discussed in the provided text about the work and perspectives of resilience expert Dr. Amit Sood. Let me know if you need any part of the summary explained or expanded upon.

Here is a summary of the article:

The article discusses why many digital transformations fail to meet their goals and close the $900 billion gap between enterprise strategies and results. It says that many organizations lack the right mindset and see digital transformation only as a technology project rather than changing customer and employee experiences.

Only 39% of B2B companies provide excellent customer experiences. Customers are increasingly expecting seamless, digital experiences across all channels. However, too many organizations still have siloed departments that don’t collaborate well. 48% of sales and marketing teams don’t work together effectively.

Journey mapping is important to understand the end-to-end customer experience across touchpoints. Companies need to break down barriers between departments. Pfizer is highlighted as an example of a company that underwent a successful digital transformation. Executives emphasized simplifying processes and focusing on outcomes rather than tasks. This helped improve employee experience - 90% of colleagues said the changes increased agility, collaboration and innovation.

In summary, the article argues that digital transformations often fail because companies don’t take a holistic view of changing customer and employee experiences. Siloed operations and a lack of collaboration between departments also hinders success. To truly transform, organizations need to simplify processes, focus on outcomes, and improve internal collaboration and experiences.