There is no secret ingredient.
In our world of change and business transformation, a well thought out process, implementation and communication plan is what most organisations need. This business transformation can take them from where they are to where they need to be without the smoke and mirrors. Business transformation is not about exclusivity around resources and methodology. It is more importantly the willingness to share and challenge information along the journey with your team. It’s about always learning and implementing new ideas along the way. Who knows your organisation better than you and the people around you?
You don’t need a wise man to come in delivering ‘services’ yet not sharing or transferring their knowledge. If you do, then when it comes to doing this again, you are now dependent upon an external party. Which is not particularly sustainable.
There are not many places in the Western world where the branding is not immediately attributed to its founder. Such as the 11 herbs and spices of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). This secret was established back in the 1930’s, and even today it continues to be one of the world’s best-kept trade secrets. The idea of having something ‘secret’ that no one else has, continues to be a common theme organisations use to separate their offerings from their competitors.
The true innovation that was undertaken by Harland Sanders’ Corbin of KFC fame, was not around the flavouring, but that he used the process of efficiency.
Process, not ingredient.
Harland was frustrated at the time it was taking to prepare his food using the traditional pan based method and looked for quicker ways. An attempt to use a deep fry method halved the prep time from 30 minutes to 15. However the resulting product was dry and unevenly cooked. Harland continued to experiment further and eventually adopted a new approach using a pressure cooker method. This not only reduced the time, now down to twelve minutes, it also produced tasty and moist chicken. The process helped build a global franchise and made a very successful business.
I also can’t leave this part of the story without thinking about the scene from Kung Fu Panda. It’s where Po and his Dad are having a deep and meaningful conversation about the secret ingredient of his secret ingredient soup. “The secret ingredient is nothing!”. Why do I think about this? Quite simply this is what I have found from working with many organisations around the globe. They profess to have the secret ingredient and very few, if any, actually do.
Business transformation can be as simple as changing a process instead of the ingredient.