Don't Let Your Organisation Be The Next To Suffer

Are we now seeing what we’ve been talking about for a while? Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen huge IT failings from four retail giants in Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Greggs and McDonald’s, and as I’m writing this there is news breaking of Barclays experiencing similar issues.

It’s too early to speculate on how quality has been viewed in these organisations in the run up to these issues, but the media coverage and financial loss has been huge, that’s for sure. 

I’ve written blogs in the past about the warning signs for businesses. We saw a real slowdown in decision making last year, as major organisations aimed to guide themselves through the financial crisis by cost-cutting through technology – A real shift to what we’d seen in years prior to this, when the main focus had been on growth and post-covid recovery.

As a business, Roq knew that then wasn’t the time to cut back on quality, and the events of this weekend prove that now is not that time either.

Don’t let history repeat itself

If we look back at recent history, within technology, I strongly urge decision-makers to really think carefully about making the same mistakes, such as:

• Huge corner cutting on processes and best practices

• waves of decisions to move towards cheap labour

• a one-supplier-to-kick mentality

All these key types of  decisions were made back in the financial crisis of 2008/09. I know, I lived and breathed it and that is when we started Roq.

And for the last 14 years, we have been helping organisations rescue themselves from these bad decisions; using their own war wounds and scars to play back to help them towards a righteous path.

And that is my message in this article. For any C-suite decision makers, now is not the time to cut back on quality, particularly in technology. Consumer expectations remain high – in fact higher, as they are generally paying more for a service/product. They expect the experience to be better, from supply chain to delivery; from manufacture to consumption. 

According to Zendesk CX Trends 2023 report, 80% of customers say they’d switch to a competitor after more than one bad experience.

More Quality than quantity

The industry is on an amazing trajectory, with advancements moving at a great pace. So, now is the time for smart decision-making. Now is the time to focus on expectation setting internally that investment needs to be made, but quantity may need to be reduced. Whether you are driving operational efficiencies through M&A, or technology consolidation, don’t compromise on the target operating model.

There needs to be an operating model from which organisations can build back and flourish, so consider things like:

• Keep technical debt to a minimum

• Drive efficiencies through quality process and people, not cheap and inconsistent methods 

• Keep team morale high, by initiatives that drive creativity and innovation, not redundancy

Learn from the mistakes of others

I think it’s clear to see that from a small investment in quality, the issues we’ve seen arise in the last few days may have been avoided. Now is the time to invest in quality, don’t let your organisation be the next to suffer.

I understand it’s not easy, and I am fortunate that I don’t have FTSE pressure driving our behaviours, but leaders need to be strong in the toughest of times.

The cost of poor decisions and quality not at the heart of any solutions – no matter its intention (driving revenue, cutting costs, meeting legislation) – will ultimately be an expensive mistake. The expense might not be felt in this budget cycle but certainly will take a proportion of future budgets to resolve or replace. And that may put you at a competitive disadvantage in future years.

I don’t normally like to make my posts as serious as this. I am by no means a leading economic authority. However, I have been around the block a few times, feeling an economic pinch first-hand on about five times during my 25-year career.

I have seen so many organisations recklessly make significant decisions, with less than a 12-month impact assessment done. All I encourage is for decision-makers to think of the baton you are handing over in the next 12-18 months. Take the bold step, to focus on the things that you know are right and that leaves the organisation in a much better place. Nobody really cares that you only did 10 strategic initiatives this year, if they are all done well. But they will care if you try 20 on a shoestring and leave a legacy of disaster.

As always, happy to have any conversations on the topic. It’s close to my heart.