1. A Moment of Truth By ”moment of truth” Jan Carlzon means the few seconds or minutes a customer contact may last, but that reflects the ”functionality” of the whole organisation. A customer-driven company is one that recognises that its only true asset is satisfied customers. A leader of such a company can’t be an isolated and autocratic decision-maker. Instead, he or she must be a visionary, a strategist, an informer, a teacher, and an inspirer.
2. The Vingresor and Linjeflyg Turnarounds
3. The SAS Turnaround: These two chapters tell the success stories of Jan Carlzon’s turnarounds at three Scandinavian travel companies.
4. Profession: Leader In the summer of 1981, the first year he became president of SAS, Jan Carlzon decided to take a two-week vacation during the summer. At his summer house, he immediately got disturbed by the phone ringing, and eventually he gave up and went back to the office. Next year he was interviewed by a newspaper on the subject ”taking it easy”. He agreed on one condition: that the article should be published one week before his vacation. In the interview Jan stated that he believed that responsibility should be delegated so that individual decisions are made at the point of responsibility, not far up the organisational chart. He stated, “If my phone doesn’t ring, that is proof that I have succeeded,” and then he went on four weeks’ vacation. And the telephone remained wonderfully silent!
5. Setting the Strategy First assess the business climate and determine the needs of your customers. Then, based on that knowledge, outline a business strategy to meet the customers’ needs within the context of the marketplace and organise your company to intelligently carry out that strategy.
6. Flattening the Pyramid An SAS office in Stuttgart was given three challenges/goals: 1) cut cost without sacrificing quality 2) increase efficiency 3) Give the organisation more flexibility. Werner Tarnowski, the man in charge, started with closing down one of the two offices (the workload was unevenly spread). He created one cross-functional team that was responsible for all SAS activities in Stuttgart (cargo, passenger sales, etc.). This led to better service because the organisation became more flexible (people with different professions now working as a team and stepping in for each other to solve customer demands immediately).
Jan admits one mistake when flattening the pyramid at SAS. They missed out on the middle managers that felt demoted in the new organisation when “the frontline people” became empowered. Their new servant leadership felt unusual, and they needed to learn new ways to handle this.
7. Taking Risks Here is a quote from this chapter that I really like: ”Wrong decisions should be used as the basis for training; right decisions should be used as the basis for praise and positive examples. A person who is admonished for his mistakes should be entitled to appeal his case without fear of retribution.”
8. Communicating In 1981, to prepare for many organisational changes, a booklet called “Let’s Get in There and Fight” was distributed to all employees of SAS (20,000 persons). The booklet was a tool to present the overall vision and strategy but, most importantly, set the expectations on the employees themselves. Communication, especially with employees, has always been a top priority for Jan Carlzon. During his first year he spent exactly half of his time ”out on the field” talking to SAS people. Another good quote: ”A leader’s ways are watched carefully and adopted by others in the organisation.”
Setting a good example is truly the most effective way of communication, and setting a poor one is disastrous!
9. Boards and Unions The trick here is to share the knowledge about where the company is and where it should be heading with the boards, unions and employees. For the vision to become reality, it must be their vision too.
10. Measuring Results One of the most basic mistakes that a service-orientated business can make is to promise one thing and measure another. You will always steer behaviour towards what you measure. If you measure “the wrong thing”, you will also get “the wrong behaviour”. ”.
11. Rewarding Employees Unfortunately, in many companies (especially in Sweden) the only thing that gets attention is a mistake. Rewarding employees can be done in a number of ways; some will be good and others will be bad (it’s the same thing as for measuring; see above), but in the end, the richest reward of them all is being proud of your work!
12. The second Wave How should you continue when you have reached all your goals? Is it then time to settle down? No, because ”Everyone wants a challenge!” I end this chapter with a final quote: ”A true leader is one who designs the cathedral and then shares the vision that inspires others to build it.