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(The name of the company and certain situations are disguised due to confidentiality agreement. The actual client approved this case study)
You cannot set foot in any of the buildings on the Morton Computer, Software & Controls campus on the outskirts of Seattle, Washington without encountering these words: Vision Value Deliver. Colorful signs proclaiming the company mission hang in all of the 12 building on campus and some associates have taken to wearing large, yellow and green buttons, "Ask me about my examples of customer delight!" So what's the deal? The company's mission statement is straightforward enough: to promote internet communications through product, principle and people. And its promise is even simpler: to provide software and support for customer delight. But Morton works hard to ensure all associates internalize these principles.
The Vision Value Deliver initiative was one of three initiatives cascaded throughout the Morton worldwide campuses to create and renew competitive advantage. As a result of completing a week Business and Organizational Renewal, senior management gave each of the operations vice presidents the mandate to significantly improve the performance of the company and to prepare it for the future. The new mandate was to correct a downturn in outcomes and the intent to reposition Morton for an increasingly competitive market environment. Moravec and Associates, Align, Accelerate, Transformation framework was employed to deploy the vision, value deliver initiatives.
"We discuss our values and vision with employees constantly," says Vice President of Customer Delight Kalburgi Srinivas (alias Sid). "It's every person's responsibility to convey our message to customers through their actions, and each one of us either helps get it out, or we block it."
All associates - employees and managers undergo - a seven day familiarization orientation limited to 10 per class - to help them personalize the organizations philosophy and communicate it colleagues. The sessions spread over the first three months of employment also focus on new avenues for translating vision and values into customers delight, says Sid.
To reinforce customer delight with the software and support services, Morton has linked numerous recognition programs to delivery fulfillment. Employees acknowledged for exceptional service can select from numerous non-money rewards including; airline tickets, individual and family vacation, baby sitter, restaurant, theater, shopping, education, training and hotel vouchers. The awards change every two weeks and associates can get on-line to receive daily update on examples of new and reoccurring examples of customer delight practices - to internal and external customers.
Morton also unpredictably ties such "soft stuff" to hard-dollar rewards in support of software and support business initiatives. Periodically neutral consultants conduct unannounced random customer delight assessments of software and support associates rating each employee or self-directing team according to criteria tied into vision, values and deliver. The assessments are closely reviewed by management and affect employees' deliverables bonuses.
But Marketing Director Ingrid Johannessen insists the rewards aren't what fuel employees. "One of our associates received a call from a company IT specialist one late Friday afternoon. After a one hour telephone discussion the system remained down. The associate drove 60 miles to the customer's location to get "hands-on" the problem. By 3 am the next morning the problem was solved and the associate was on his way home. He didn't do that for recognition. He wanted to make a significant difference to one of our new clients and show them what we can do"
With 27,000 employees located in the North West USA, Ireland and Singapore, Johannessen believes that keeping all hearts on the common vision, values deliver will be even more challenging. "As our creditability grows with customers," she says, "our biggest challenge is keeping our promises alive with every new product and every support call."