ROUNDMAP™ is a growth-oriented, customer-focused, purpose-driven, and people-centric integrated business framework, mapping key aspects of business growth.
The framework offers business leaders, executive and non-executive board members, business consultants, as well as employees clear perspectives on the business at large, to help steer the company collectively in the desired direction during times of transformative change.
Let’s have a look at some of its components.
1.1 - ONE FRAMEWORK
Instead of taking a conventional top-down approach, we’ve built the entire Framework from re-thinking the business operation from the ground up. That is, from the customer interaction up to devising the corporate vision. Consequently, we were able to fix several flaws in organizational design, customer development, and strategic execution that may prove critical to your firm’s success.
It all started in 2014 by describing the stepping stones of the customer lifecycle, located at the base of the operation. We found that the bottom is the bedrock on which the integrated business is built, and as such, we call it The Ultimate Level of Truth™. After creating the Customer Lifecycle Map (or Customer Process Map), thereby mapping the Customer Dynamics, we soon realized that we also had to paint the bigger picture, incorporating aspects like Organizational Dynamics, Business Dynamics, and Market Dynamics, i.e., describe the entire value chain from an integral perspective.
This led to the creation of the Business Venture Roadmap and several lifecycles (Carousels). Finally, we had to connect the dots to make it coherent. We found nothing short of amazing: we could map four known leadership roles and four known management functions, align them with our four maturing lifecycles and four mastery components of the Roadmap, and connect them all the way down to the touchpoints of the customer life cycle.
For instance, one of four roles of leadership is to Create a Vision. To develop that vision, the firm needs to Discover what value to create in the future. By practicing Success Management, customer feedback can be captured and processed. Encouraging employees to share information with the top allows senior management to master the situation which we believe is critical to formulate the right responses. The best way for a leader to perform their part is to set up a series of roundtables and involve both staff and management to co-create the next vision of the future.
We intentionally designed ROUNDMAP™ as a wheel. One that revolves and evolves, propelled by an ongoing series of engagements with its stakeholders and reflections on and adaptations to its surroundings. The center constitutes the ‘engine’ that creates and delivers value to customers, while the amount of profit it is allowed to capture fuels its forward momentum ─ the progression toward growth.
Also, you’ll recognize the silos in the image below. Functional silos are a side-effect of performance management, and they have to beat. Birds of a feather flock together, as the saying goes: people with similar backgrounds are more likely to bond. The trick is to prevent the walls of the silos from becoming barriers that will interfere with the mission’s success.
1.2 - ROUNDMAP™ Framework - Business Lifecycle Map
ROUNDMAP™ Integrated Business Framework
The Framework can also be perceived as a dice. When perceived as a dice, the top (1) represents the Business Process Map, while the bottom of the dice (6) equals the Customer Process Map. The sides (2-5) of the dice are populated by the four Carousels.
1.3 - A TURN OF THE WHEEL
We all need to accept that the outcome of any business venture is mostly a ‘turn of the wheel’ ─ there is no general formula for success, no certainties, and no guarantees. ROUNDMAP™ is an integrated system to plan for growth, while acknowledging that each case is uniquely different.
If you want to develop the right vision, pick the right business model, select the right strategy, create the right products, persuade the right customers, deliver in the right way, while keeping the right customers closest, then all you need to do is to define what ‘being right’ is all about. Being right, often referred to a being successful, depends on knowledge, experience, know-how, commitment, focus, and an awful amount of downright luck.
However, if you follow the step-by-step guidelines provided by ROUNDMAP™ success is more likely to occur and failure can be averted early.
The Framework, if we perceive it from one particular angle, consists of 8 steps (8Ds):
- DISCOVER – Which customer jobs do/can we fulfill?
- DEFINE – What’s the most favorable business model to serve the customer?
- DESIGN – What’s our strategy: Where to play and how to win?
- DEVELOP – What is our product-for-hire for the customer’s Job-to-be-Done?
- DRAW – How can we get prospects to consider and trust our solution?
- DIRECT – How can we guide customers to make a favorable purchase decision?
- DELIVER – What’s the greatest experience we can provide to our customers?
- DELIGHT – Have we met customer expectations and fulfilled the need?
These 8 steps correlate with the 8 steps in the customer lifecycle.
While venture design, product development, and growth development are equally as important as customer development, we perceive the customer lifecycle as the Ultimate Level of Truth™. Because if the frontline fails to create and satisfy customers, everything else is futile. And it is for this reason that we created the Customer Lifecycle Map: it is the bedrock on top of which the entire business venture needs to be built on.
Introducing CHANGE CIRCLES™ ─ Among others, ROUNDMAP™ seeks to cross the mental and functional silos to radically improve horizontal collaboration. Seated at a customer roundtable, frontline employees are invited to discuss general customer affairs, such as the customer activation process and the onboarding process, while being encouraged to openly share customer data and feedback, and to bring to light which unmet customer needs could be fulfilled. Management and leadership, on the other hand, are invited at a business roundtable to discuss general business affairs, incorporating the outcomes of the customer roundtable, to understand the gaps and constraints, to redefine focus, set the priorities, consider which initiatives to support, and so on. This will allow management to make better informed decisions, quickly and effectively, while the frontline focuses on designing and delivering exceptional experiences that customers love to come back for.
1.4 - STEERING WHEEL ANALOGY
1.5 - COMPONENTS OF THE FRAMEWORK
To explain the relationships between the various models of the framework, we’ll discuss each part separately.
1.6 - COMPONENTS EXPLAINED
The Business Venture Design process is the startingpoint of the ROUNDMAP™. We call it the Business Roadmap. It is a map to discover, design, develop, and direct new business ventures. It incorporates the Business Model Matrix™ to help choose the primary business model and its descendants, such as the value position and the marketing strategy. It also encourages to describe the firm’s vision, mission, purpose, and values.
To thrive, the business enterprise needs the capabilities and resources to deliver differentiating value, that is perceived relevant to a group of customers, at a price, with a level of quality, continuity, and integrity.
The first cycle is the Business Carousel™, i.e., the business lifecycle. It describes the steps of how a business venture comes to be, following a process called Customer Development, from its rise up until its demise. It is greatly determined by the corporate vision while driving the business strategy.
A vision isn’t merely a picture of the company in the future. It is a destination, allowing the firm to attract the right people and resources, to align the team, to determine its progress, and to prioritize actions while providing meaning to the day-to-day activities. However, a vision should not be set in stone: it is meant to evolve over time.
To thrive, the business enterprise needs to focus on creating and delivering value that is desired by a group of customers while the business venture needs to remain both feasible as well as viable.
The second cycle of the ROUNDMAP™ framework is the Product Carousel™, i.e., the product lifecycle. It is greatly determined by the corporate strategy (the products that allow the business to grow) while driving the purpose of the business (to serve a group of customers with products they want at a price they are willing to pay).
To thrive, the business enterprise needs products and services that differentiate from the competition while continuously looking out for new ways to improve quality, consistency, and productivity.
The third cycle of the ROUNDMAP™ framework is the Customer Carousel™, i.e., the customer lifecycle. It is driven by purpose while detemining the corporate mission (the operational aspects of the business).
Purpose provides meaning to whatever is being pursued by the organization. Aspects like storytelling, brand identity, loyalty, and impact require the purpose to be both inspirational as well as identifiable, so customers are drawn to it and feel compelled by it.
To thrive, the business enterprise needs to focus on satifying a sizable group of customers by delivering value that is distinctive, relevant and significant to them while aiming for increased customer loyalty.
The fourth cycle is the Growth Carousel™, i.e., the growth strategy. It is driven by the vision and determining the mission. Growth depends on achieving customer satifaction, as well as creating a perception of future value to drive long-term engagement.
Mission comes from the Latin verb ‘mittere’, meaning ‘to send’. While defining the vision is a leadership affair, the mission is the responsibility of management. Beware: without a vision, managers won’t be able to ‘send’ anyone in the right direction. Customer engagement can be crucial to the success of the business enterprise.
Growth is an evolutionary process, following mechanisms of change and variation while being exposed to market forces. Based on third-party models such as SWOT, PEST, and Porter’s Five Forces, the company needs to collect customer feedback and perform regular market analyses to develop its growth strategy.
To thrive, the business enterprise needs to grow by either selling more units, enhancing its products, extending its portfolio, increasing its share of the market, changing its pricing strategy, or otherwise.
Previously, a business was either focused on growing market share (product-centric) or obtaining a larger share of the customer’s wallet (customer-centric). However, these two models did not account for (the rise of) the platform economy, servitization or the sharing economy. The framework was, therefore, incomplete. After matching a focus on Marketing to Product Centricity and Sales to Customer Centricity, we were able to identify Delivery with what we call Resource Centricity and Success with what we refer to as Network Centricity. This then became the Business Model Matrix™. More information can be found here
1.7 - CAROUSEL VERSUS LIFECYCLE
We prefer using the word ‘carousel’ over cycle because contrary to the perception of lifecycles, carousels mean a progression in both ways: forward and backward. Or as Don Draper so eloquently formulated it in the Mad Men series: “[Kodak’s slide projector] is a time machine. It goes backward and forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the Wheel. It’s called the Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around and back home again. To a place where we know we are loved.”
Touchpoint experiences are like slides in a slide projector; we can replay them from memory, and when we are touched, long for more. And since business growth depends greatly on return customers, brands need to create a place where customers feel they are loved and respected.
Tip: Please bear in mind that according to research by Daniel Kahneman it is not so much the first experience that counts most (and is remembered) but the peak and the last of all experiences.
1.8 - EVOLUTIONARY MODELS
Next to the Business Roadmap (further down) and the Customer Lifecycle Map (as shown on top of this page), the framework incorporates a series of evolutionary models, so-called Carousels. Why evolutionary? McKinsey’s Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, the authors of one of the Best Business Books of All Time, “In Search of Excellence” (1983), found that a truly adaptive organization reflects Darwinism. The concept is built on the principles of natural selection, random variations, and reproductive processes.
Because of the circular layout, the following models may appear the same; however, each has its own well-defined application:
1.9 - DIRECTING THE BUSINESS INTO THE FUTURE
Michael Porter described the Value Chain theory and explained how competitive advantages set businesses apart. Peter Drucker defined many aspects of business management in great detail. Ken Blanchard enhanced the world with his views on leadership. In contrast, we tried to bring it all together into one single framework, encapsulating the main business functions while revealing four primary business models. Whether this representation is 100% accurate might not be the right question to ask: We need an integrated framework if we want to direct the business sustainably into future, across the silos, cultures, and egos to help it survive this most complex and chaotic era.
1.10 - STEADY VERSUS TRANSIENT STATE
In systems theory, a system or a process is in a steady-state if the variables (called state variables) that define the system’s behavior or the process are unchanging in time. It is safe to say that no business can sustain itself in a steady-state, as change is constant.
As such, steady-state situation is predominantly the domain of specialists, people with a depth of expertise, and the ability to generate dots.
A business is 99,99% of its existence in a transient-state or a state of steady change. This is explained by the continuous generation, diffusion, accumulation, and substitution of innovations by economic agents as time moves on. This regular (and accelerating) phenomenon causes movement and crises in economic structures as measured by growth rates of countries, regions, sectors, and companies.
As such, transient-state is predominantly the domain of generalists, people with the breadth of perspective and the ability to connect the proverbial dots.
Volatile markets demand that businesses assume a transient state; however, it is not the most efficient or productive state. That’s why firms need to assume a seeming-steady-state (S3): it’s more cost-effective and productive to plan for stability than to plan for variability. However, stakeholder perception ─ that the firm ignores change and works toward a discontinuous future – may need to be managed.
Balancing between steady-change and stead-state is an art that requires both depth of expertise as well as a breadth of perspective. That’s why we set out to create the ROUNDMAP™ framework and cultivate Grandmastership™.
1.11 - THIRD-PARTY MODELS
Besides the framework and models we’ve created, we fully encourage you to use third-party models, systems, or frameworks such as:
- SWOT analysis,
- Ansoff’s Growth Strategy Matrix,
- BCG’s Growth-share matrix,
- Porter’s Value Chain theory,
- Porter’s Five Forces,
- Norton & Kaplan’s Balanced Scorecard,
- Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas,
- McKinsey’s Three Horizons of Growth model,
- McKinsey’s 7-S framework,
- GE-McKinsey Nine Box Matrix,
- PEST analysis,
- STP model,
- DOI model,
- PR Smith’s SOSTAC model,
- or any other you may prefer.
We don’t mean to deny, dismiss, or displace any of them: they’ve prevailed because they offer valuable insights.
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