29 Oct How macro and micro business objectives can be met with a focus on the purpose

A military man might talk about strategy and tactics. While an economist would see decisions on allocating scarce resources in macro and micro terms.

The big picture, the big idea, on the one hand; the small details, the day-to-day, on the other.

These concepts are familiar to every macro and micro business. Every business has its objective or purpose – a grand plan to meet a market or customer demand – alongside the culture and values, the operational processes and the minutiae of ways and means by which it strives daily to meet this broader objective.

We have experienced in recent times how these things can evolve. For example, our objective was once to try to add value for offices by printing information that could be shared. That was our purpose, and all the details of a day’s work at Ricoh were pointed towards that end.

Today, both the purpose and many of those little details have changed. We recognise that the way information is shared has changed. While we know that anything in print is possible today. Other media also have strengths and weaknesses. In turn, this means that both our main purpose and the myriad ways we go about achieving it are different. Armed with that experience, we are putting our knowledge and technology to work to help other organisations deal with similar evolutionary shifts, both in the macro or strategic sense of their overall purpose, and in the micro or tactical sense of how they go about reaching that purpose.

Purpose-focused

We have the breadth of experience to look at the big objective and help create a system that takes a business closer to realising its purpose. Also helping at a much smaller level: we can consider the purpose of every process, every document, every touchpoint in the business; we can find ways to do them better, and to maximise their contribution towards attaining the wider purpose.

It makes Ricoh an organisation that has a far more profound purpose of its own than simply selling things. Instead we are value adders. We help customers implement their own digital transformation. We can perform a consultative role, as well as a systems integration one, and we can help customers to prioritise the steps they need to take to achieve their purpose. That might only be, in the first instance, a small, tactical change, but this might help get buy-in and pave the way for greater change.

Greater understanding of our customers’ needs

A focus on purpose means that we need to first gain a great understanding of our customers’ businesses and their needs, both today and tomorrow. We need to understand their marketplaces, the changes that are taking place in those marketplaces, and the progress our customers have already made on their journey to the planned destination. Only then can we begin to understand the dynamics of each situation and plan accordingly.

Building long-lasting relationships

Our aim is to forge a strong marriage between our customers’ deep knowledge of their own businesses and our understanding of how digital technology can underpin their success. Through this marriage, new horizons will become apparent for our customers; new destinations to aim for, and better ways to get there. Macro and micro.

To help them, we must talk to our customers and ask the right questions. This will become part of a formal, targeted process, with clear objectives behind it. We will never be afraid to start small, because we have done so many times. Watching great things grow from it.

We will be focused on maximising the purpose of everything, at every level of their business, for this is how solution providers work.