IntouchCX reposted this
On a special trip to see Carlos Alcaraz prevail on the red clay, I watched Ford vs Ferrari and the iconic red folder scene. In the movie, the red folder details the racing program's status and must pass through various management levels before reaching Henry Ford II. Matt Damon’s character advises Ford to cut the layers and engage directly, removing the proverbial red tape. Reflecting on this, I felt confident that IntouchCX doesn't have these layers; we've scaled with our soul, right? Then, in typical fashion, I started worrying. My inner voice reminded me of conversations with the team saying, "we have too many layers," or clients saying, "we don't understand your layers." Meanwhile, I'm often told I shouldn't HAVE to do things like calling customers or analyzing program performance—rely on the layers, they say. So, what's the extreme of no layers? We have 30K employees in over 30 locations. Can they all report to one person? That seems impractical. The challenge is to have structure without feeling layered. As "layers, layers, layeeeeeers" echoed in my head, my thought was that you need structure and levels, but avoid "layers" as best you can. To do this, I believe you need leaders that care about and immerse themselves in what they do. They need to love the grind of being in the business, getting closer to the action as they grow, and focusing on what should be done, not what shouldn’t. IntouchCX is surrounded by such people. We make mistakes and are far from perfect, but we have a culture of action over reaction and a love for the grind. After Carlos beat Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals, he was asked about the difficult moments of the match. He said he loved the torture; and that you have to love those moments to win. This from a 21 year old. To scale with your soul, I think you must love the trenches, the grind and embrace the constant evolution of the industry.
Russ Parsons
3w
Well said Mitul! IntouchCX has many great leaders all leaning in.
Very large companies often let themselves get out of control by adding too many layers. Too often, the wrong type of person not qualified by profession gets into high levels. Just look at Boeing and the managerial misconduct of the past few years. Where is the direct influence on the uppermost layer(s) by senior engineers? Non existent!! The B747 was a great story where the lead engineer regularly met with the lead customer (Pan Am) top man and had the guts to say "No!" to him so that the project would be successful. Many people who have allowed the B737MAX to be released with the known single point of failure and other deficiencies need to spend forever in prison at the minimum.