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Welcome to the Productivity Pulse.
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This is a special edition as we review our recent productivity forum with Sue and James.
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Hi both.
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Hello.
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Hey Simon.
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So we've had time to recover and reflect from uh what was an amazing day again in Birmingham in early September of this year.
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We're going to kind of run through it in agenda order, and then um James, I know you did the half-time reflections and kind of the post-reflections, and we'll uh we'll have a chat about um what we thought of the day.
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So Birmingham again, National Conference Centre, had about 160 all together with um prospects, clients, and the the partner lounge.
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We kicked off with Hannah from MRI who who set the the context.
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Sue, I know you're always a fan of that session at the start of the day.
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Yes, because she talked about what's happening with footfall on the high streets and other places that that people go shopping for for shopping centres and retail parts and all that sort of thing, and kind of how it was affecting both retail and hospitality, a bit of a look backwards, and then also some thoughts about what might happen in the busy branch.
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Excellent.
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And the theme was based around our benchmarking report, which we'll put uh a link to in the show notes.
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So if you've not seen a copy, you can download it.
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And one of the pillars is rethinking efficiency.
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So we opened with that.
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Uh James Graham did some operational security pieces, and then Ian from Heart of England Co-op talked around their simplification of stock journey before we moved into a panel.
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Yeah, that's right.
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And um, you know, uh Sue, you've got a quote, I think, about kind of from from the retail report about rethinking efficiency.
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You know, this isn't an opportunity um to save money anymore.
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What we're looking for is um to to reinvest in the things that the customers really find make a difference for them so you can grow.
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And that was I was I was surprised, particularly with Graham, who in in theory was talking about shrink.
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Actually, you know, there were lots of general themes there about this is about growth.
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It's not about um saving anymore, it's about investing in great customer experience, great employee experience, and and trying to grow your your business.
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And it's you know, there aren't fixed solutions for everyone.
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Graham talked about um being agile and challenging yourself and and thinking differently.
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And that came up a few times in in the panel as well, these ideas that if you do what you've always done the way you've always done it, you're going to get the same results.
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You know, it's it's really time if you want to invest in your customer experience and growth of your business.
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It's time to challenge yourself and and think differently, question the assumptions that that you're working around.
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And yeah, Graham's example was, you know, if you see um if you see shrink as a uh as a number, then then you manage that.
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But actually, it's about um you know, trying to understand root causes, not about trying to manage theft.
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Um, and that was an interesting way to rethink shrink for me.
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And I think that that change of thinking applied to a lot of things that that people spoke about on the panel as well.
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And say reflecting a great example that Ian shared, which was about the fact that we went in and did a study for them a while ago and measured how long things took in the in the stock world, and then we went back and re-measured, and during that time they'd done a lot of work on their stock simplification.
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And the biggest change that you could physically see was the fact that they'd massively reduced their stock levels in store, and it's something we've always talked about that it's much easier and simpler to be quicker and accurate when you're not dealing with piles and piles of brown boxes that you're having to move all the time.
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And he shared some data with us that was from our study that showed actually they've been able to really make significant speed changes in how long it takes them to do tasks because of the the difference in the stock holding that was in store.
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So it's a to say it's a simple change kind of underplays all the work that is required to make those sorts of changes happen.
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But it it sounds relatively simple.
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Reduce your stock, reduce how long everything takes.
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And it was a brilliant example of how that happened.
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Yeah, and then we we uh kind of had a short break, moved into one of the other pillars on our benchmark and report deploying technology pragmatically.
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Uh, we heard from Centre Parks, we heard from SSP and Sims Associates, and then Chris at uh our co-op around their journey with Workjam before we headed into a another panel.
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I think what shone through for
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me here was technology was almost the second part of it.
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It was all about the engagement and the the change process.
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James, I don't know if you had any different thoughts.
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No, I think I would I'd kind of echo what what you said.
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Like there's obviously a lot of tech discussed in these sessions.
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There was also a lot of tech available in in the partner lounge, but no one here was saying you should buy tech just for tech's sake or get the latest shiny thing.
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Everyone was really realistic about this.
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You need to start with the end in mind.
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You need to know what problem you're trying to solve and how you're trying to make people's lives better before you even start on your tech journey and then work to align your processes, your tech, and your and your people.
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And like like you said, that you know, in a lot of cases, IT doesn't fail because of the the tech, it fails because the people aren't engaged in it.
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And though those were really clear messages that came out.
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And so, you know, in theory, sessions about um deploying tech pragmatically could have been a bit dry, but actually they were really interesting and focused on kind of a a range of issues.
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And and something that that Jason from Sims said that I found really interesting is being pragmatic is not about lacking ambition.
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Um, it's about it's about doing things the right way.
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And I, you know, I I think that came out really clearly from the morning sessions, lots of great ideas.
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And two thoughts on that thoughts on that, Pete?
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Well, one of the things that we talk about in our report where we're talking about deploying technology pragmatically, is this uh theme that technology should amplify human capability and not complicate it.
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And I think that perhaps has been times in the past when technology has complicated things and uh it was great to hear so many retailers thinking about doing things in a way that is about simplification.
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And it's it's the hardest thing to make things simple, isn't it?
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You know, it's kind of easy to introduce new things without thinking about how it really fits, what difference it makes, what impact it has, how do you do it in a way that really works?
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You know, you can just throw it out there and then you know it doesn't work.
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So it is really interesting to hear that real human side of technology, which is ultimately what happens.
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Yeah, it's about amplifying human capability.
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Yeah, and and even where, you know, I I I hate to bring it up because we we've gone seven minutes without discussing it, but you know, there's lots of chat about AI.
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Um, but even when people were talking about automating things and using AI, they were talking very strongly about keeping humans in the loop um and making sure that you know someone has eyes on it, someone has a a final say.
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Um yeah, so I'd I'd like to kind of echo what Sue said there as well.
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I thought that was really fascinating.
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We then headed into the partner lounge where everybody had some dedicated time to hear from all the the partners on the day before some lunch and a bit of networking.
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James, you then came back on stage with your half-time reflections.
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Is there anything we've we've not mentioned in the the first two sessions that you'd like to cover?
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Well, I started my half-time reflections with a bad joke about the food, but I mean the the food was excellent.
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I'll just repeat that here.
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That's um if you are if you are thinking about coming and worried about is the food going to be any good, don't worry, because it's really good.
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Um, but you know, the other thing that I picked up from the morning that we haven't um mentioned was uh data quality.
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Um lots of people talked when they were um talking about deploying technology pragmatically, how important it is to have good data going into any technology, but also that you can trust the data coming out of it, and then more importantly, that you can take action based on that data.
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And you know, with somebody who wears a data hat quite a lot of the time, you would expect me to say that, but it was really heartening to hear that, um, to hear that repeated.
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Perfect.
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So afternoon, we started off with managing capacity intelligently, and we heard from Green King, which was really interesting, bearing in mind what had happened in the summer with the the World Cup and and the weather before we entered another panel.
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Sue, you sat on that panel.
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What were your thoughts?
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Yeah, it's it's really interesting that how you keep that crystal clear focus on when is your peak times.
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So how you make the most of the opportunities that are there in a way that means you've still got all your work done, but actually you've really managed to free up time when it matters most.
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And we talked about the fact
that I mean it's an obvious thing, but it's when you're busiest, that's when most of your customers see you, and that's when you've brought your reputation.
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So whether you were thinking about we it was great because we talked about capacity in terms of hospitality, and there's obvious meals and occasion peaks within the hospitality industry.
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We also talked about you get those same peaks happening in retail slightly differently because they're often around whether it's Easter or Christmas or sunny weather or whatever it is.
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But you know, all businesses that are customer facing have to deal with those peaks, and as you get your resourcing tighter and tighter, doing a good job of that gets harder, and yet it's probably one of the most critical things that you can do.
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And James, and as an observer of that panel, what um what resonated with you?
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Well, I think um I think it links back to Hannah's presentation at the start of the day.
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Um peak is changing.
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Um there are more peaks now.
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Some for some businesses they're shorter, for some businesses they're they're longer, um, like Black Friday, Halloween, Christmas, back to school, all these things.
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Um, you know, it's a constant wave of different peaks.
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And I think um there were lots of great contributions in this panel.
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One of the underlying messages that I took out was about testing and learning and failing fast and how important it is when you are trying to make your business better to be agile and to enter everything with this kind of learning mindset of how can we improve improve the business overall.
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You know, we were looking at uh at phone shops, supermarkets, we were talking about hospitality businesses, but something they all had in common was if we've got some data that can help us make a decision, let's test it, learn what we can as quickly as possible.
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If it works, roll it out.
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If not, move on.
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Let's not get invested in bad ideas that aren't at work.
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And I I thought that came out really clearly from all of the panelists.
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Perfect.
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Um and then Sue, you shared a stage with Sarah Winglingham, X Dragon's Den, serial investor, for kind of 40 minutes.
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I think the audience found that really insightful.
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Yes, and I think Sarah was uh really impressed with what had been the panel content as well, because obviously that's that's a big part of the uh her business as well.
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And she was talking about one of the businesses that she runs where you know the good shift can you know almost double your money if you get it right versus uh versus getting it wrong.
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So yeah, she talks about a lot of her theme that businesses are facing today, and uh was great because she was so open to any questions, and we had some good ones from the from the floor as well.
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So yeah, really interesting to hear on and James, final reflections on the the day from you well I think uh Sue's conversation with Sarah Willingham on stage was a great example of the sort of thing that was happening all day.
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Two really fascinating people having brilliant conversations about stuff that can make a difference to their business.
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And every conversation I dipped into throughout the day, every person I met was there with the same the same aim.
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You know, how can I learn?
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How can I make my business better?
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And let's have a good conversation about it.
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And that was really every time I've been to the productivity forum, I've been amazed at competitors talking to each other, people sharing ideas, really just making the most of their time being present, turning off their emails and learning and improving their networks and learning how to make their businesses better.
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It's just, you know, uh it underpins everything.
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Um and yeah, it came through loud and strong this year.
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Perfect.
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So we will stop there just to announce that we have open registration for next year, 8th of September 2027, again in the National Conference Centre Birmingham.
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We we're used to it, people like it.
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I would say access is good.
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Um HS2 kind of making it a bit trickier this year, but hopefully some of that smoothed out for next year close to the airport, close to hotels, close to the uh the station as well.
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So we will put a link in for you to register.
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Thanks, Sue and James, for all your hard work leading up to it and on the day.
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And we will be back 8th September, twenty twenty seven, even bigger.