Article
‘Innovation’ is one of the most used buzzwords in
21st-Century management vocabularies. However, when most of us think of
‘Innovation’, what comes to our mind is sleek, user-friendly products such as
iPhone. People have a good idea of what technical innovation is, but innovation
in services, as in the case of professionals, is more hidden and unknown. Its
important to discuss what innovation means for a professional like Chartered
Accountant and how it helps him in serving his client better. Client-focussed
innovation will benefit both the client as well as the professional organisation.
Client will be benefited by more value-added services and the professional
organisation will effectively combat the increasing competition and help it in
client retention.
What do you mean by innovation in professional services ?
It is not a rocket science as people think it is. It is a
skill that can be learnt and taught. For me innovation is an original concept,
new or improved process or service. A new method or idea of doing things faster
and in a better manner, in other words, where there is a value addition.
Does a client need innovative solutions ?
A client is always in need for innovative, different ideas
which will make them distinctive in comparison to their competitors’. In today’s
world, where the client has a strong in-house team, they would be very well
equipped to handle day-to-day and routine matters. Further, the in-house team is
also capable of providing the routine, conventional and a standard solution
which a normal professional organisation would give. In such a case, the client
would start thinking : Why should we hire an external professional
organisation when it is going to provide us the same solutions at a higher cost ?
Clients need more than just standard solutions for which it is important for a
professional organisation to innovate on a continuous basis. If the professional
organisation does not realise this fact, it may lose out on such client. Here
comes the need for innovation in providing services.
How does a client and the professional
organisation benefit from innovation ?
Innovation could be radical in nature i.e., a
different solution/idea by means of which the client is benefited tremendously.
The client could benefit in terms of savings of tax or in terms of economics of
the project. For example, a professional organisation may provide an out-of-box
solution by which the client saves service tax and the entire
economics/commercial feasibility of the project may change in favour of the
client. Such kind of innovation gives a huge advantage to the client and his
competitors may be totally outplaced, if they do not take measures before their
market position is completely lost. By providing such solutions, the
professional organisation gets loyalty from its clients and it ensures that it
stays ahead of its competitors.
Innovation could be proactive in nature. Proactive innovation
means proactively searching for solutions to problems of the client. It starts
with asking the client right questions, defining a problem or opportunity which
the client is facing. The second step would be to gather or collate information
from various sources (including the client himself) to gain more knowledge of
the facts. This is the most important process of ‘creative’ thinking whereby new
ideas are generated by analysing the information. Thus, in this manner a new
solution is developed which will solve the problem on hand and adhere to client
needs. Thus, innovation in services cannot take place overnight. It is normally
a steady, hard-headed response to client needs and not the accidental insight or
idea. However, proactive thinking also means that identifying a problem which
the client is facing where the client is not aware of the potential problem and
the impact of such problem. In such a case, the professional organisation has to
proactively approach the client and has to warn him of the potential problem and
provide him an appropriate solution, without thinking whether the client pays
its fees for such advice or not. This pro-activeness would delight the client.
Sometimes it is possible that the problem which the client is
facing is being faced by all the companies which are in the client’s business.
In such a case, a combined solution can be sought by asking the client to join
hands with its competitors and make a joint representation to the government or
any other regulatory authority. This will ensure that the client is benefited,
as the representation will get more importance as it is made by all the players
in that particular industry and chances of it getting approved are enhanced.
Further, the client would suffer a lower cost as the cost is shared by all the
professional organisations and the client is also benefited as it comes into
limelight in front of all the industry players and would certainly generate
income from them in future.
Innovation could also be in the nature of incremental change.
Incremental change can be in the form of generating good, new ideas to support
existing services, service delivery or processes. In other words, a better way
or method of doing the same thing in a more efficient manner. Certainly, one
may think, how does incremental change benefit the client ? This type of
innovation certainly improves efficiency of the professional organisation and
ensures that the deliverables are faster. This gives the professional
organisation a competitive advantage and also leads to client satisfaction. Some
of the ways in which efficiency can be ensured is by providing short, clear and
practical advice. It should be remembered that client normally wants a quick
advice. Therefore, at times it is better to talk over the phone and discuss the
matter rather than sending out long emails which may take good amount of time.
The conclusion of such teleconference could always be circulated later.
Why should there be innovation ?
Professional organisations can no longer remain static or arrogant as in the past, because the clients have become more informed and more demanding in these times of information boom. They now question the opinions, the approach and the manner and get satisfied only with a thorough response. Gone are the days when professional organisations were rewarded for simply providing excellent services. Clients also want their consultants to help them network and improve their businesses. They want services to be efficient, cost-effective, and technologically advanced. The professional organisation cannot take the client for granted and has to realise that the client is always in need for new and distinctive ideas. The professional organisation has to ensure that the client is satisfied with its service. Hence, it has to be innovative at all times.
How can the professional organisation innovate in order to provide client satisfaction ?
A professional organisation can innovate in a number of ways. In my opinion, the following are some of the ways in which a professional organisation can innovate and ensure client satisfaction:
- Ability to act as business advisors and not mere tax advisors or consultants. Professionals need to understand client’s business in detail and provide him a solution which meets his requirements, taking into consideration the practical difficulties which will be faced by the client in implementing the solution. The professional organisation should not only provide a technically correct answer, but also ensure that the same is implementable;
- Providing complete range of services from start to end. A client prefers a professional organisation that holds his hands from starting of the project till the project is completed. If the professional organisation is not an expert in that field, it can recommend the best person who could render such services and probably network with the best person;
- Examining existing problems of the client from a new perspectives and providing distinctive solutions;
- Providing client service by way of interactive websites where clients could post the queries. The website would also host data which would be useful to the client in his day-to-day business;
- Provide regular news updates on cases/ amendments, circulars, relevant to the client as well as a note on how such updates/amendments would impact the business of the client;
- Ability to identify and articulate areas or opportunities for the client that if improved/ adopted could yield a source of advantage of any kind to the client. e.g., advising the client that would give him a business advantage (even though it is not your scope to advise him on such areas);
- Ability to quickly respond to the client queries and understanding the fact that time lag on the part of professional organisation could have implications such as loss of business opportunity;
- Ability to take risk and actually spending time and cost in the innovation process, even taking into account the fact the innovation process may fail.
Clearly, fabulously successful enterprises such as Gillette razors and Coca-Cola have been applying innovation at the point where it matters most – the client’s/customer’s changing needs. In other words, innovation has to be something which has the end-objective of keeping the client happy. Generating ideas and being innovative are important contributors to business success.
A classic example of innovation could be a trans-formation of an enterprise which is willing to innovate and chunk old traditional ideas e.g., ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. The banking system in India as recently as in late 1990s was stuck in the rut of big and static PSU banks, the whole of the banking sector was ailing from syndrome of ‘Over-branched but underserviced’. In this scenario, these banks emerged and changed the entire landscape. Keeping the customer service as its prime focus, they embraced technology as its main aid and kept on innovating services to meet client satisfaction. The result is for everyone to marvel. This is a classic example of turnaround of the company by keeping the clients/customers happy.
To add value to our conventional practice of audit we can innovate, for example whilst reviewing:
- internal control procedures, advise the client on risk mitigation;
- financial cost, suggest alternative modes of financing to reduce costs;
- power costs, even bring in a business advisory team to suggest means for reducing cost, in other words, conduct a ‘power’ audit;
- consider compliance with environment laws as environment is becoming a major risk.
Another area is assisting and advising clients in the discharge of ‘social responsibility’. It is an area where we can innovate and be a catalyst. Let us accept that charity in today’s environment is big business. Let us assist business in carrying out philanthropic activities which are in the interest of business.
In my view, innovation is the need of the day and organisations including professional organisations should encourage innovations and have to ensure that their clients are continuously fed with more and more innovative solutions. IBM, for instance, has recently run a series of television commercials on innovation. The theme is the need to innovate because: “in today’s world your new idea on Monday is a commodity on Wednesday … “
I would conclude by stating:
“Innovate to survive by anticipating need, nay, creating need for those whom we serve.”
