Larry Hochman – Embracing and Managing Change
Wednesday 19th March 2008
Key messages:
• Adapting to future trends
• Being proactive not reactive
• Creating a progressive culture
Larry Hochman is a globally recognised expert on the future trends of customer service, values, people and culture.
"The only true competitive advantage a business can have today is to understand what the future will look like sooner and more clearly than the competition - and to get there first." Larry Hochman
At this Master Class Larry encouraged businesses to think beyond their current situation and develop competitive advantage by adopting a progressive culture that incorporates proactive strategies. Larry explored how businesses can forecast future changes by spotting trends and suggested ways in which companies can take advantage of them.
Larry spent 10 years as a Director of British Airways and the loyalty company Air Miles. At Air Miles, Larry has helped create what is recognised as one of the UK's most progressive cultures and remarkable commercial successes, first as Director of Customer Service, then as Director of People and Culture, the only person in Britain to hold this title.
“Your startling appraisal of the way business is likely to change in the next few years was sobering and thought provoking, enabling our business managers to think outside the box and consider ways to adapt themselves to exploit any future opportunities.” Alan Wood, Chief Executive, Siemens UK
Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson is a professional coach, facilitator and academic with a focus on helping people deliver real improvement in their own and in their organisation’s performance.
Peter’s interactive session helped delegates to turn the expertise of the speakers into their own plans for effective change.
Best Practice Seminar – Successfully Managing Change
The Embracing and Managing Change Master Class provided you with the knowledge to be able to create a progressive culture within your organisation and adapt effectively to future trends.
How can I achieve this change and adapt to trends effectively within my business?
Delegates joined us for an extremely rewarding afternoon learning from individuals representing Beacon companies in the South West who have successfully incorporated a process of change into their business.
Best Practice speakers were:
Will Ashworth MD, Watergate Bay, Newquay
Vaughan Lindsay CEO, The Dartington Hall Trust, Totnes
Speakers shared their experiences, focusing on how and why they chose to place such importance on adapting to future trends and managing the process of change within their organisation. They also explored the practices adopted, the benefits gained from adapting to trends and changing practices/markets proactively rather than reactively and the challenges they have faced throughout the transition.
Beacon Companies are amongst the South West region’s top performing businesses. Companies are awarded Beacon status in recognition of their significant business achievements, openness to change, ambition for further growth and willingness to share knowledge and experience with other companies in the South West. For more information on Beacon South West please visit: www.beaconsw.org.
The Aspiring Managers Graduation Ceremony
The Aspiring Managers Programme embraces development and change and this Master Class was ideally suited to mark the progression of delegates onto the next stage of their career following the completion of a year-long programme.
Graduates of the programme were presented with certificates as recognition for their ongoing commitment to the programme and their achievements over the past 12 months.
This Master Class also gave Aspiring Managers and their managers the opportunities to talk to Larry Hochman about how to approach and deal with the concept of change in their businesses.
Left: Larry Hochman with Amy Morris (Aspiring Managers graduate) and Peter Henderson from Three Ways House Hotel, Gloucestershire.
Centre: Larry Hochman with Devon delegates who employ Aspiring Managers graduates (L-R) Fiona Moores from Alias Hotel Barcelona, Liz Hodges from The Globe Hotel and Nick Powe from Kents Cavern.
Right: Larry Hochman with Ben Whitmarsh (Aspiring Managers graduate) and Alan and Jackie Richmond from Splashdown Leisure Ltd.
Richard Wyatt-Haines Post Event Thoughts
Larry Hochman Delivering Change
Another great session yesterday and as one of the delegates said to me “These events only seem to get better.” What will we do next year?
Anyway, on this occasion we were blessed with inspirational thoughts from all our speakers regarding the ways in which we can make things happen on the ground and deliver the results to which we aspire.
The tone was set by Larry Hochman, the keynote speaker for the event. Larry’s pace and delivery were quite brilliant, but the content challenged everyone in the room and made us all consider our personal and individual roles in making change happen. So what were the key points?
Critically, Larry is of the view that it is about ‘me’. In other words it is our own personal responsibility to be the catalyst for change, to be a heartbeat that sustains change, and to be the leader that directs the change. Unless we personify in our words and actions the change that is required, we will not achieve the success we seek.
Larry identified some key principles against which we must transact:
• We must have the vision to see opportunities and the courage to act
• We have to do all this in an environment where globalisation is the norm, customers can communicate through ever widening range of channels and customers have the power through their control of information and choice.
• We have to build much greater levels of organisational adaptability
Therefore if we are going to succeed we have to build some key elements within our change programmes:
• We need to focus on customer needs
• Change must create value for the business and our customers
• Our relationship with our customers and our staff must be built around trust
• We must help employees understand their role
• We must develop talent so we can succeed tomorrow as well as today
Larry raised some issues that demand that we challenge ourselves over the following issues:
• Globalisation: what are the opportunities ?
• How do we maximise freedom and choice for our customers?
• How do we create a permeable organisation that benefits from deep knowledge of our customers?
• How do we become flexible, agile and responsive?
• How do we collaborate with our customers to give them voice and enable them to participate in our service?
• How do we build relationships and be loyal to our customers
• How do we build trust and do we talk enough about it?
Larry's slides are available to you on the website (see below), but in closing may I also thank Peter Jackson for enabling us all to see our role as performance coaches, and Will Ashworth of Watergate Bay Extreme Academy and Hotel, and Vaughan Lindsay from Dartington Hall Trust for showing us that substantive change and amazing results can indeed be achieved, even from challenging start points.
Larry Hochmans's Presentation
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