“The digital revolution and an altered perception of work in the younger generations are the latest developments to make life difficult for big businesses with steep, top-down hierarchies. That's why they call on us. We deal in Economies of Motivation®. The replacements for Economies of Scale, which set the tone in the previous century.” Emphatic words from Jaap Jan Smit of the Leadership Team at ParkLane Insight.
“We are in the throes of a digital revolution that has massive consequences for the corporate world. Many businesses are in transition and are having to reinvent themselves. They are in unknown territory, and there are no ordinance-survey maps to help them get a bearing. They often lack the right people or can't create the right conditions to initiate and safely deliver reforms. In situations like these, self-driving, team-friendly consultants are more than welcome. These very types - the Me inc.®’ers - are here in our organisation. They are more likely to forsake the beaten path, and to think outside the existing frameworks. Me inc.®’ers colour outside the lines, and for that reason they often come up with ideas and solutions that were never in the picture to begin with.”, says Jaap Jan Smit.
Many businesses are in transition and are having to reinvent themselves.
He points out that we don't know where the current data revolution will end. Big pyramid-style organisations are uncomfortable in this new context. They grew by focusing on profit efficiency through Economies of Scale. These are now obsolete, because the current times have different needs altogether and call for novel solutions.
WORK GIVES MEANING TO LIFE
“The most recent evolutions call even more desperately for us to think more about why and how we do a thing, than about the thing we do. That is largely to do with the fact that young people view jobs differently than they used to. We’ve gone from working to survive, to working as a means to give life meaning”, says Jaap Jan. He explains that TriFinance and TriHD slot beautifully into this altered mindset, because their purpose is to make people grow. They have an organisation model that is based entirely on this idea. “We're not some hulking battleship, but a mob of speedboats that zip about on the water with agility.” Jaap Jan points out. These speedboats are the enterprising business units - the Blue Chip Boutiques. “They allow consultants to grow with us faster than they would elsewhere, and they allow us to capitalise on market fluctuations.” The consultants also get support from company-wide, cross-connecting Expert Support Units. Thanks to the latter, TriFinance and TriHD get to draw on the advantages of a large company.
“Since we are set up as a flat-network organisation, where knowledge sharing is the rule, and since we encourage initiative, the consultants we use are in pole-position for companies in need of intelligent, pragmatic solutions. This is truer now than ever before due to ever more rapidly developing technological change”, explains Jaap Jan. “We combine our highly individual mindset and organisational method with an equally idiosyncratic mix of consultancy and skills deployment. We don't just put somebody onto the job, or write up voluminous reports, and then leave our Me inc.®’ers and clients out in the cold. We guide our professionals through the project - they get experienced mentors - and we help implement what we advise. That's our ‘Service Philosophy’: not some perfunctory secondment, not some theoretical advice. We combine know-how with pragmatic implementation of solutions hammered out with the client. We call it do-how.”
The most recent evolutions call even more desperately for us to start thinking more about why or how we do a thing, than about the thing we do.
COCREATION
As Jaap Jan sees it, this is part of the evolution away from the piping model, and towards the platform model. In the piping model a supplier offers a service or product. It's one-way traffic, like water flowing through a pipe. The consumer decides whether or not to buy.
In the platform model a creative role is set aside for all stakeholders. They all create value, some of which actually comes from their interaction. The first thing is to know exactly what the challenge and needs of the customer are. Then comes the search for the best solution. Only when the context is very precisely defined in cocreation, does the focus switch to pinpointing the best fitting consultant. Their ambition plays a determining role. Optimism for progress is a characteristic of TriHD, a subsidiary of ParkLane Insight.
