Orchestration

Drucker's Prophecy: "Organizations Are Orchestras"

"The model for tomorrow's organization is the orchestra. Each of the 250 members is a specialist. You cannot play with just a tuba. It is the orchestra that plays. The orchestra plays because all 250 members have the same score." This phrase, widely known as a famous quote from P.F. Drucker's book 'The Post-Capitalist Society' (1993), brilliantly captures the essence of an orchestra-type organization—the polar opposite of a military-style organization dominated by a strong leader where information flows one-way from top to bottom. Orchestra-type organizations are founded on "responsibility and role." Because members are not only professionals but also share a clear vision and mission, and information circulates beyond organizational and hierarchical boundaries, autonomous organizational management becomes possible. Consequently, overall optimization is consistently achieved.

When considering how a company can provide customers with a rich experience (brand experience), doesn't the "organization as an orchestra" model offer highly valuable insights? This is because numerous touchpoints exist between customers and the brand throughout the customer journey, demanding consistent delivery of "delight" and "surprise" at every single one. The type of experience a brand offers its customers is typically articulated and committed to customers in the form of a brand vision, much like BMW's "Sheer Driving Pleasure." If we assume the brand vision is the "title" of the symphony performed by the orchestra, then the company's employees, each professionals in their respective roles, are the "orchestra members" performing that symphony.

Service Blueprint and Orchestration

To visualize the customer journey from the customer's perspective, it is first necessary to establish a virtual customer profile called a "persona." Next, using an approach akin to writing a drama where the persona is the protagonist, the "steps," "contact points," "customer actions," and "customer feelings" of the experience must be organized chronologically as a set. Focusing particularly on "customer feelings" inevitably reveals pain points—moments where customers feel disappointed or frustrated. New service plans are then created to resolve these pain points. Pain points are also marketing "challenges" that degrade the quality of the experience.

A single service plan may sometimes resolve multiple issues = pain points at once, while other cases may require separate, specialized service plans for each issue (which, from the company's perspective, can increase effort and cost). Furthermore, to implement the ideas from the created service plans, it is crucial not to forget to draw a service blueprint (see figure below), based on the concept that "the organization is an orchestra." The service blueprint is, in essence, the "score" for creating a rich experience. Pain points aren't always caused solely by issues at the service front; they are often triggered by poor back-end operations or deficiencies in IT systems. This means that not only sales (customer service) professionals and product/service development experts, but also information systems specialists and HR system experts will inevitably have a role to play, whether directly or indirectly. They often end up bearing one of the most critical responsibilities. Needless to say, the perspective of orchestration—achieving overall optimization—is paramount here.

For the reasons outlined above, when the author facilitates a client company's experience review and renewal, we request that the task force team members be selected from as broad a range of departments as possible. By designing service plans and blueprints from multiple perspectives, not only does the quality of the customer experience improve, but it also enables a 180-degree shift in focus from the company's perspective to the customer's. Furthermore, the shared time and space spent collaborating with members from different organizational frameworks and with varying interests greatly enhances the potential for permeating the brand's vision and mission, ultimately leading to a renewal of the corporate culture.

Service Blueprint
To deliver delight and surprise to customers, professionals from various fields collaborate to achieve overall optimization. Experience shows that pain points often originate in the back-end operations (the red-framed area).

 

The role of an advertising agency is to act as a "conductor"

Activities to instill corporate vision and mission among employees are generally called "internal branding," based on the understanding that employee behavior is also part of the brand. During Japan's Lost Decade following the bubble economy collapse, companies reviewed their brand vision and mission, using anniversary celebrations and management integration (including M&A) as opportunities to maintain top-line growth. These efforts involved top-down initiatives like posting internal posters, distributing creeds, and holding town hall meetings led by top management to make the company's intentions feel personally relevant to employees. While this approach itself isn't inherently bad, it carries the inherent risk that the activities themselves fade away as soon as top management changes or the executive overseeing them leaves due to a change in responsibilities, potentially rendering all previous investment futile.

In contrast, orchestration activities centered on the customer, following the "organization as an orchestra" concept, demand a strong commitment to sustainably maintain and develop the quality of the experience the brand (company) provides to customers. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, these activities transform employee awareness and behavior, rapidly renewing corporate culture towards a more agile and lean direction. Inevitably, the company's marketing processes will also shift towards meeting customer expectations, and the number and role of contact points – the touchpoints between the company and its brand – will undergo dramatic renewal. In this sense, it can be said that "orchestration is the strongest and most autonomous form of internal branding."

Finally, I'd like to briefly share my perspective on the role advertising agencies like Dentsu Inc. play in supporting client companies' internal branding activities.

An orchestra requires not only professional musicians but also a conductor who unifies the ensemble, hones them through rehearsals, and wields the baton with bold and brilliant precision during performances. In the realm of experience, the conductor corresponds to the "facilitator." The author believes the facilitator driving an experience renewal project must possess the following three qualities:

① Excellence in thought leadership and extensive facilitation experience

② Possesses knowledge and methods regarding experience

③ The ability to engage with corporate leadership and communicate in a shared language (from a business perspective)

While ① is not an overly high hurdle, simultaneously meeting ② and ③ is quite challenging. ② is an area where academics or employees in corporate UX/UI departments possess expertise, while ③ is more the domain of high-level personnel at business consulting firms. If any segment can meet the screening criteria for both ② and ③, the author believes Japanese advertising agencies possess this capability. This is because agencies like Dentsu Inc. not only maintain networks with a wide range of client company personnel across multiple levels but also provide one-stop services from strategy formulation to implementation. Furthermore, this series of processes hones both intelligence and muscle, resulting in many personnel possessing strong on-site capabilities—a core competency essential for orchestral conducting. The role of experienced senior management will be particularly crucial going forward. By acting as facilitators and playing the role of "conductors" in experience design, Japanese advertising agencies can evolve from being mere "advertising suppliers" for client companies to becoming "marketing innovators."

Experience holds the potential to rewrite the future blueprint of the advertising industry.