CSM was a key player recently in a Service Excellence Network event on campus organised by OEE Consulting, which explored high performance in complex organisations.

The day began with an overview from Loughborough’s Director of Enterprise Development Jon Walker, who warned of the effort needed for high performers to avoid complacency and stay at the top.

Ally McDonald joined us to discuss the Student Union’s approach to preference-driven customer insight, challenging guests to consider how they would group their customers if demographics were completely excluded.

Their previous Performance Director, Andy Borrie, spoke about stakeholder engagement and how you can create apostles and disciples for your work: “If you get the values right, you will get the right sustainable outcomes by creating a critical mass of people who think the same way and self-regulate. If you’re always setting your standards from top down you’re not getting the core philosophy right.”

In particular, the OEE wanted to examine how the University has so effectively delivered against its objectives, managing the unique operational challenges of higher education and the delivery of a world-class high performance environment.

In overview Mark Palmer, Managing Director at OEE Consulting, discussed how a balance between inputs, drivers and outputs will provide good outcomes, warning against an over-reliance on outcomes only.

Professor Thorsten Gruber, CSM Director, introduced the work that the Centre and OEE Consulting have been producing in partnership, notably on effective design, implementation and maintenance of operating models, and has resulted in a framework known as Service Model Operating Skills or SOMS, accredited by the University. SOMS was developed in 2016 by SBE doctoral candidate and CSM member Rosamund Chester Buxton and former CSM member Dr Nicola Bateman.

The OEE along with CSM and the School of Business and Economics have launched a training course using this framework, which will enable organisations to consistently deliver business strategy and service proposition with less effort for their customers and lower cost for their own business. More information about the OEE’s Service Operations course can be found on its website. More information on SOMS can be found on our pages, or you may visit the SOMS website.