Integrativeness

15.05.16 03:08 PM By S.Swaminathan

We live in a complex world today where customers reach or talk or share their views about companies or the products they like, own or use or their experiences thro' a multitude of ways. The touch points, the IT systems and channels are quite fragmented. Each day there is a new one that comes-up and there are more new ones that will emerge too. And to provide expert solutions there will be many specialists who will there. Specialists by terminology, means they specialize in one thing and they may not know enough about the others. This creates "information islands" in companies & acts as a huge barrier to solve a customer's problem. Customers too are left confused or dissatisfied as disparate touch points complicate their interaction with companies, waste their time due to repeated or failed interactions & therefore delayed resolution of their problems.

But to configure an optimum solution, it needs "integrativeness" in individuals who bring this diverse set of data & knowledge together. It needs integrativeness in understanding, thinking and connecting the dots intelligently to identify patterns and solve the problem. No amount of technology or analytical insights or process can solve this problem.

For the sake of analogy, let's take status of healthcare today - There are hundreds of specialists like oncologists, gynecologists, cardiologists etc. The patient however wants to be diagnosed and cured. Period. The hospital provides an umbrella for the generalists and specialists to work together for a successful outcome - curing the patient- they want the best healthcare experience. The integrativeness is provided within the boundaries of the hospital where these expert doctors practice & thrive.

Integrativeness is increasingly going to become a source of competitive advantage for businesses & professionals to manage superior customer experience. Today, APIs-for example, are integrators between diverse systems, integrating internal data & external data is becoming the norm for superior analytical insights, real time business decisions & technology integration is becoming a reality.

The question people must ask themselves -"Do I practice integrativeness in the way I think & work?". They might not know enough about everything deeply but they must have integrativeness in their work flow thinking, accessibility & process to quickly connect diverse sets of only relevant data or resident knowledge in companies to quickly comprehend, develop insights and solve customers' problems.

Integrativeness can change the way customers are managed by companies and how solutions are effectively delivered for them. Integrativeness in individuals is about quickly identifying "match keys" for every problem and having a set of APIs in their brains to connect available knowledge assets within companies, accessing this across departments or specialist functions, succinctly creating powerful insights to deliver superior customer experience or solve a customer's problem like never before.

Because, they may not be experts in everything that they do, Integrativeness is the new normal around how people will need to learn & adapt at work. Else customers can see and feel the difference!

 

 

 

 

 

S.Swaminathan

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