Roads to Resilience

reception area where most of the interaction between guests and staff takes place because “you get to know the staff and all the guests and really get connected rather than get sucked into your computer” (GM Holiday Inn, IHG). This demonstrates the desire to deliver the IHG goal to create ‘Great Hotels Guests Love’. The case studies provide many other examples of customer focus, based on the recognition that their customers do not settle for second best and resilient organisations need to meet customer expectations in a competitive market. Virgin Atlantic recognises the importance of a brand proposition that is inspiring both to staff and customers. This has led to a passion throughout Virgin Atlantic to focus more strongly on the customer than the competition and a desire to be extraordinary at everything the company does. Leaders at the case study organisations have moved to build trust, respect and shared values in internal and external relationships and networks . This means ensuring that people feel happy, safe and unburdened by bureaucracy and politics at work. As the Managing Director of AIG commented: “ You are in charge of the safety and security of your people, and only when you are comfortable with that can you start doing your business as a manager ” (Managing Director, UK, AIG). Employees and especially the front-line staff probably know and understand the risks the organisation faces far better than anyone at the top and (when trusted and empowered) can provide the organisation with the wisdom and judgement required to solve problems. Leaders at every level take time to understand the operational aspects of the business. For example, in a Holiday Inn, a manager talked about constantly leading through example in the front line (including clearing tables and cleaning). This is an illustration of the fact that engaged leadership plays a significant role in the development of relationships and networks . It ensures the delivery of all of the components of the resilience principle, especially shared purpose, open communication and customer focus. Leaders at Jaguar Land Rover also value the importance of walking the shop floor, since it allows them to understand the situation from the perspective of those who have to deal with practical challenges on a daily basis. It also gives them a good opportunity to directly update people on developments in other parts of the organisation. Another important aspect of relationships is the interaction with customers and the case study organisations recognise the benefits of obtaining customer feedback as part of the governance process. The flatter structure in place in many of the case study organisations results in a more Leadership and governance

Haven Power is customer-focused and prides itself on the speed with which it develops new products and its openness to customers: “We’re very much customer centric, focus on the customer, [and] if customers want to talk to directors they get to talk to directors” (Operations Director, Haven Power). Some of the case study organisations have customer loyalty schemes as part of delivering a customer-orientated approach. These schemes demonstrate the importance of the customer and the desire to increase customer loyalty to the brand. Customer satisfaction surveys are also undertaken by some of the case studies and/or the information obtained from third- party surveys is used to enhance customer service. At the operational level, the organisations studied have taken steps to ensure that organisational values and behaviours are consistent across their businesses. Jaguar Land Rover has done this by introducing a high-performance behavioural framework. This aligns individual performance objectives via functional and corporate scorecards to the vision of the organisation. Individuals are measured and rewarded based on both the achievement of objectives and on exhibiting the right behaviours to achieve them. This ensures that short-term gains are not achieved to the detriment of longer-term business success. The purpose of the framework is to support individuals becoming responsible business owners, by providing a clear and common understanding of the Jaguar Land Rover vision. This guides how people and functions within the organisation relate to one another and the behavioural boundaries within which they are free to act, innovate and improvise. This engenders a strong sense of empowerment, the desire to continually do better and the flexibility of mind to deal with uncertainty. In the case of IHG, the vast majority of employees are not directly employed by the company. Therefore, IHG relies on franchisees and other business partners to hire the right people, train them and adhere to the ‘Winning Ways’ guidance. This is a set of guiding principles that encapsulate a risk-aware culture. IHG comments that guidelines and training are essential, but to manage risk effectively “you’ve got to have the right culture, otherwise you’re never going to embed anything. Nobody’s going to do the training, nobody’s going to put it on their personal agenda and talk about it, the networks aren’t going to happen, the network is where your culture lives” (SVP Head of Global Risk Management, IHG). This approach at IHG influences the behaviour of managers. For example, one hotel manager moved her office to the Strategy, tactics and operations

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Section 4: Resilience Principle No 3: ‘Relationships and Networks’