I have just returned from speaking at the Bathroom Manufacturers’ Association’s (BMA) annual conference earlier today. The managers and directors attending this year’s conference have been hit hard by the recession, but, in conversation, they remain quietly optimistic about the next 12 months.
Yvonne Orgill, the Executive Director, is a great leader of the association, and, working closely with her team over the past four years, has developed a strong and dynamic conference. Other speakers at today’s event included Richard Hytner from Saatchi & Saatchi, and design guru Wayne Hemmingway.
I really enjoyed my session, which was called “Strategies For Sustainable Success” and the questions raised by the audience have, as ever, provoked further thinking. Here are three of the questions:
- How do you really develop the organisational commitment to deliver strategies that raise the bar? (A theme that has also been taken up by Stefan Stern in the FT today)
- What are the best ways to developing and embedding customer service capabilities in manufacturing firms?
- What do larger companies need to do in order to be able to offer truly customised solutions to their customers, and how should they be organised to make it happen?
I will be thinking about these issues, and probably blogging on them, in the coming weeks.
© Stuart Cross 2009. All rights reserved.