Staple Yourself to an Order (HBR Classic)

It's fashionable to talk of being "customer oriented." But regardless of how companies attempt to flatten their organizations or empower frontline workers, the simple truth is that every customer's experience is determined by the order management cycle (OMC): the 10 steps, from planning to postsales service, that define a company's business system. Every time the order is handled, the customer is handled. And every time the order sits unattended, the customer sits unattended. To find the gaps in an OMC--those places where a customer's order is dropped or shunted to the wrong department--managers should try what authors Benson Shapiro, V. Kasturi Rangan, and John Sviokla did in their research. They "stapled" themselves to an order in the 18 companies they studied, literally following it through every stage of the OMC. Based on this practical approach, the authors point out potential gaps throughout the OMC. For example, marketing and production battles can erupt even during order planning, and some of the fiercest fighting can break out during scheduling, when the sales force may want quick turnarounds that are unrealistic for manufacturing. Most companies don't see the OMC as a whole system, especially because each phase may require a bewildering overlap of functional responsibilities. However, when managers take the time to track each step of the OMC, they'll come into contact with customer service representatives, production schedulers, shipping clerks, and other critically important people. In this article, first published in 1992, the authors contend that managers who "staple themselves to an order" will not only move horizontally across their own organizations, charting gaps and building information bridges; they'll also see the company from the customer's perspective.

• Process analysis
• Operations strategy
• Competitive advantage
• Customer service