Special Session with Professor Frances Frei

Professor Frances Frei, emphasizing a point (photo courtesy of Harvard Business School (HBS)

Frances Frei

Professor Frances Frei is an engaging speaker who uses humor and live business experience to emphasize her points. Her book Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business provides valuable and practical insights on how organizations can build, improve and deliver reliable service excellence.

A Professor in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School and the Chair of the MBA Required Curriculum, she has received the HBS Student Association Faculty Award for teaching excellence on multiple occasions, as well as teaching awards from the Wharton School of Business and the University of Rochester.

Professor Frei serves on the Board of Directors and Board of Advisors of several private companies.


Uncommon Service

Her lecture revolved around the core aspects of her book and is anchored on what she referred to as the four truths of service excellence. These are:

Truth 1: You can't be good at everything

• To be good at something, you must be bad at something
• Know what your customers value most, in order to identify attributes that you need to be good at and attributes that you can be bad at

Truth 2: Someone has to pay for it

• Identify what can you do to reduce cost and improve service
• Make pricing more palatable to your customer

Truth 3: It's Not Your Employees Fault

• Set up your processes and systems to make your people excel in providing quality service
• Provide the requisite skills and motivation to make sure that they succeed

Truth 4: You Must Manage Your Customers

• Influence customers in order for them to enhance their experience

The beauty in Professor Frie's presentation is that she uses paradox to effectively bring home her point. What I have shared are the key points of her presentation.

I would recommend her book Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business for those who want to dig deeper and who would want to know more about customer service excellence. Her book contains relevant examples of how companies have built stronger businesses by practicing these principles.

Day 34 & 35: And The Gastronomic Feast Continues

Dinner with the best Finance professor in the world, Prof. Marc Bertoneche, at the Harvest Restaurant

Dining with Finance

Harvard Business School (HBS) Finance Professor Marc Bertoneche hosted a wonderful dinner at Harvest, the best fine-dining restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The metaphor is not entirely lost on me. You see, Professor Bertoneche, in my books is the best Finance Professor the world can possibly offer. His impeccable sense of humor combined with his mastery of financial tools, just makes the study of Finance very enjoyable and to a lot of the participants, myself included, significantly easier to understand. He has the ability to  explain complex financial topics such as M&A's and Options, in a manner that is easily understood by his students. I owe my new found love affair with Finance to him.

Lesson from Class

Leadership and Accountability

• In the world of global sourcing, employee programs, can sometimes take the back seat, often with catastrophic, if not fatal consequences
• The interests of the employees, country, contract manufacturer and the brand owner must align

Strategy

• Integrating an acquired company causes disruptions in the company's strategy
• Leaders need to integrate both company's strategies and operations, otherwise revenue and profit declines may follow
• The combined strategy must be consistent

Business , Government and International Economics

• Mexico is so dependent on the US market, that it is easily impacted by the developments in the US
• It is plagued with inefficient monopolies, cartels, unions and crime
• It also has a fragmented political system that impacts on long-term policy
• China's entry in the WTO has affected Mexico's competitiveness inside its main market, the US

That's all for the day.