by Diane Senese
Diane Senese is a vice president and manager of the Business Information Center at Harris
Bank, part of the Bank of Montreal Group of Companies.
Often information professionals are in the enviable role of those who are indispensable to a corporation's strategy. But is some of our success based on an outdated model? Certain hallmarks of our tradition such as good service and professional image can seem confining to me now, but I find it rewarding to reflect on ways in which to re-imagine our roles. A new information era is emerging--one that is linked to experiencing knowledge rather than to receiving it. The time to revitalize our thinking and address the new challenge is now.
Do some of our defining traditions look tired? Answer yes and two come to mind: good service and professionalism. The service that we provide for our corporate customers has to be impeccable. Creative online searching, custom problem-solving, tailored information delivery: all of these invaluable contributions, once an information horizon, are now the minimum expectation. That is how far technology has upped the ante. So is the 'good service" model still an appropriate vision, or is it as safe and restraining as a seatbelt? Think of user surveys, long considered an essential evaluative tool and a linchpin of the good service model. Do they put you to sleep, too? Neighborhood dry cleaning establishments conduct satisfaction surveys now. They proudly announce successful results-more power to them-but if the service model is this mainstream, it is time for us to move on to something better. in no way can we let our services slip, of course. just as we have always striven to deliver research on time or early, we need to continue to do so now. But what was once the aspiration has become the ground rule. The concept itself has flattened out.
Professionalism can be another cliche. Not the integrity of our profession, mind you. That is more vital and its manifestations more tangible than ever. The technical and interpersonal demands of our roles ensure that. But paradoxically, as our professional growth expands into exciting and uncharted territory, the need to trumpet ourselves as professionals within our corporations shrinks to a surprising low. For isn't everyone a professional now? Think of the term's currency in today's workplace. The word "professional" has become the minimum status to confer on anyone doing a good job. Last summer when my older son was home from college and checking out a summer job at a car dealership, he recounted his interview with pride. When the owner asked him if he had ever washed cars before, my son answered thoughtfully, 'Well, I have for my family .. but not professionally."
A fair response, and for me, an instructive one. How many times have I explained to bankers that although they search the Internet, we do it professionally. I don't deny the statement's veracity, but I do question how people within corporations perceive it. in the business world we are professionals just as others are. The shift from hierarchical structures to team-based matrices has altered the way business thinks, and now everyone mixes, professionals all.
So in a team-based business culture where good service is a minimum and professionalism is a given, how do we, as information experts, continue to distinguish ourselves? We have an opportunity right now because a new landscape is emerging. The service economy, like a houseguest with good manners but too many vacation days, is leaving the scene. It is time for the "experience economy" says trend forecaster John Naisbitt in his Trend Letter. You studied the agrarian era, you remember the industrial era, you lived the service era, now get ready for the experience era. Naisbitt describes this changing landscape, citing the work of the consultant B. Joseph Pines II whom he says first developed this idea of the experience economy. Naisbitt goes on to tell us that companies now find they need to "repackage their products and services to deliver unique experiences." Are we prepared? Together our profession needs to create "the information experience."
An experience is something personally encountered. Hence the popularity of falling in love or riding a rollercoaster. To imagine ourselves creating information experiences requires that we think of customers individually and that we use adaptive methods of problem-solving. We once created excellent products like "company searches" and "M&A histories" and matched them with good service. Now we have to rise to another level, and it is a potentially chaotic one since it requires attentive interaction with people. John Naisbitt tells us that "in the experience economy .. services are linked together to form memorable events that personally engage the customer." Memorable events? is this strategy too fanciful for the information world and more appropriate for, say, resort hotels?
A corporate information center is not Disneyland, although some days find us in Adventure Land. The Banana Republic now sells much more than sportswear because the management realized that its customers did not want to just shop at The Banana Republic, but to 'live" The Banana Republic. So out came the leather sofas and bed sheets. Canadian Pacific Hotels' share of Canadian business travel rose significantly once the company began creating "guest experiences" by mapping together bits of customers' preferences and expectations. And Land's End hopes to boost retail sales by transforming its outlets into 'inlets' which will offer customers "the catalog experience". Savvy marketers everywhere are
selling experiences.
But can we sell information experiences? We not only can, we must! The information
climate is changing; users are changing. How we adapt to these challenges will define our futures. one example occurs to me as a prototype of the changing mode. I can point to a user group in our bank which can be described as extremely successful and influential. The group deals with a specific market and has both primary and secondary sources at hand. The research that we had been doing for them over the last few years was excellent and well-received, but I felt that our group was a wallflower at the party How could we penetrate their world and work with them as partners? We did it by creating experiences.
No more anonymity. We assigned one researcher to work with the group so that a subject specialty could be developed. No more virtual. We walked their floor daily and talked with them. No more sighing. We accepted people's short attention spans as a given. No more group pitches. We created specialty databases for individuals. And as an overriding philosophy, we chose patience. We would patiently return to a person again and again until he or she was ready to talk about information. Identifying that readiness to communicate is critical because it is something that we cannot orchestrate. Educators call it "the teachable moment.' We have to follow the user's rhythms and take advantage of the teachable moment when it appears.
We can conceptualize the information experience in a variety of ways; in fact, its personal nature is its cornerstone. But two ideas can work across the board. The first is "the market of one," a methodology developed by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. The second is the challenge of adaptive work, a concept described by Ronald L. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie .
Since people experience things individually, the market of one is a vital part of our new roles. At one time we developed information services and products, like online company searches, and promoted them to groups. But 'the market of one' requires a different thinking. Rather than promoting a customized product to a large user base, we need to collaborate with individuals and establish two-way relationships based on learning. Peppers and Rogers call it "share of customer, not share of market." we must find the key people in the organization, engage them in dialog, learn from them, and create information experiences for them. Gain the "share of customer." In addition to compiling statistics of how many information requests come in, we should track the depth of our intellectual involvement with significant users.
Information centers have long been required to keep statistics showing share of market, but have good statistics kept everyone employed? This leftover from the service economy will be with us for a while (statistics are so tenacious), but how much longer will they be able to help us prove our worth? Let's look instead to key users and implement learning experiences focused on their needs. The feedback may be descriptive or anecdotal, but if a huge deal is being described, we want to be sure to be part of the story. Work with users one-to-one. Use technology to personalize information experiences; an e-mail is not quite the same as a handshake, but it does allow an opportunity for a personal touch that was not possible just a few years ago.
Along with developing "the market of one," look to ways of addressing adaptive challenges. Heifetz and Laurie tell us that "adaptive work is required when our deeply held beliefs are challenged, when the values that made us successful become less relevant, and when legitimate yet competing perspectives emerge."' Could there be a more telling description of how our information roles have changed in corporations? We no longer own information. While it is true that we still find the answers, the adaptive challenge we face is to ask the right questions.
Since adaptive work requires insight at both the big-picture and grass roots levels, information leadership requires a new level of personal involvement. Creating information experiences for senior executives may seem daunting, but we need to reach people at the top who are framing key organizational questions. Some executives are information innocent and welcome tutoring; those who are technologically savvy may prefer exchanging e-mails with your team's Gen-Xers, just to compare notes.
And since information experiences are singular and diverse, opportunities for adaptive work abound at the grassroots level. We must listen to users as never before so that we recognize the teachable moment amid the chaotic pressures of the contemporary workday. Rather than accept a defined role in the corporation, we should seek out creative opportunities with individuals to create a climate for collaboration and learning.
If we use one-to-one marketing and address adaptive challenges, we can enjoy a unique role in preparing our corporations for the experience economy. The information experiences we create for our users will add value to corporate life far beyond those of the existing norms of good service and professional roles. And the resulting synergies can powerfully highlight the contributions made by information professionals to a successful corporate strategy. 88
References
1. Naisbitt, John "Beyond the Service
Economy: The Experience Economy.", John Naisbitt's Trend Letter 15 (no.24) 1-4 (Dec 12, 1996).
2. Himelstein, Linda 'The World According to Gap.' Business Week 72-73 (Jan 27, 1997).
3. Stewart, Thomas A. "A Satisfied Customer Isn't Enough." Fortune 112-113 July 21, 1997).
4. Crawford, Nicole. "The Catalog Experience At a Store Near You." Catalog
Age 10 (Oct 15, 1996),
5. Peppers, Don and Martha Rogers, Ph.D/The One to One Future. Doubleday (1993, 1996).
6. Heifetz, Ronald A. and Donald L. Laurie "The Work of Leadership." Harvard Business Review 75 (no. 1): 124-134 Jan-Feb 1997).
7. Ibid. 124.
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