The Stockdale Paradox and Good Order Management, Huh? You may be wondering how these two things go together. Let me explain.
With all that’s going on in our world, and there is A LOT going on, I decided to re-read some old books. One that stood out to me is a book by Jim Collins, “Good to Great”. It has been a few years since I read it and there’s one story in particular I would like to share. The story is about a man. Not only is it applicable to what’s going on with the economy, viruses and business it has a practical application to what DataXstream’s core message is.
Who was James Stockdale?
A snippet from Jim Collins book, “Good to Great”. Admiral Jim Stockdale was the highest-ranking United States military office in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Tortured over twenty times during his eight-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1973, Stockdale lived out the war without any prisoner’s rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again. He shouldered the burden of command, doing everything he could to create conditions that would increase the number of prisoners who would survive unbroken, while fighting an internal war against his captors and their attempts to use the prisoners for propaganda. After his release, Stockdale became the first three-star officer in the history of the navy to wear both aviator wings and the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I’m limited in what I can write in a blog post, but I would encourage you to read more about this incredible man
What is the Stockdale Paradox?
Based on his experiences at the Hanoi Hilton Jim, Stockdale came up with a methodology that kept himself and others alive. Simply put It’s a faith combined with belief that you will prevail regardless of the difficulties or challenges, but at the same time you must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. A good use of the Stockdale Paradox is highlighted by the current events.
What is good Order Management?
There are three scenarios that define good order management:
- a prospect or customer walks into your distribution center or store.
- a prospect or customer calls your inside sales team or into your call center o
- a member of your field force visits with a prospect or customer
In all these scenarios your employees provide a quote or take an order. Now your CSRs or sales associates have been trained to meet the customers’ needs. This means understand who they are and what they want. They take the order, manage the complexity of the order, see what other goods or services the customer would like, process payment (or multiple payments) and wish them a good day. Good order management brings process maturity onto the scene, providing you with significantly more tools in your arsenal to handle complex selling processes. Good order management provides and enhances both the customer and employee experience
Marrying the Stockdale paradox with good order management
A strong case can be made that your front line people, those that interact directly with your customers are the most important people in your company. Their performance, their ability to meet and exceed customer and personal expectations rely heavily on their confidence and faith that their training, tools and “know how” will win the business. But they also are aware that competition, economic conditions and the culture of the company that employs them may have a negative impact. How can you marry the two? Like the Stockdale Paradox, hire, train and incent good people, provide them with the right tools and create a smart supportive culture. But, never underestimate the existence of your competition, the market or the reality of your culture.
Our core message
If you run SAP as your ERP, DataXstream an SAP Partner is armed with the industry know how and right tools to help you grow and succeed despite the realities of your current situation
