New Normal

27.07.2020News From Ford

Gonca Sofuoğlu Temiz Müşteri Deneyimi Lideri

Greetings from Customer Experience Management!

Nowadays, I am doing a lot of reading and research. What does the customer want, how do their habits change? I am trying to find useful resources and information about my new task. As with you, the newest concept that I come across is the "New Normal". I have encountered it in so many places so that even this new concept is normalized. As the reading and researching side, we all expect a definition of the new normal to be made. Uncertainty again is the common point where everyone shares.

Nevertheless, I believe that we can overcome this uncertainty with awareness and consciousness. That is why reading and learning is so important. Of course, it is necessary to distinguish between the agenda and the popular agenda. I have never liked the popular agenda ever since. I tend to be somewhat cautious about things that are talked about a lot, books that are the subject of advertising, or people who suddenly shine. I have to say that my appetite is getting intense in catching up with the speed of information and following the trends (I excluded the word 'popular' on purpose). And I can feed this appetite of mine with the extreme support of the digital world and social media.

I especially enjoy reading and learning speeches about new concepts and discourses, different perspectives, and comments. I think this wide spectrum increases my awareness of the ecosystem I live in; it even creates opportunities that I can compare to get to know myself and to create ideas. There are several highlights in the materials I read about this new norm:

I cannot say it is quite new, a recently shining concept is remarkable: Resilience. The concept is very deep and when we think in the context of companies, different definitions can be made from many points. But it was the simplest one that attracted me. In an environment of uncertainty, it is the ability to adapt to events where everything transforms and can be described as traumatic, and more importantly to get out by strengthening. According to information shared in a seminar held by HBR, 'Resilience' is positioned as one of the new competencies that would be needed in the new normal. They even shared the description with a triangle.

Did it sound familiar? After our company renewed its vision description in 2015, our collaboration on Common Culture has played a decisive role in the path that we set off. At that time, it described the ideal working environment for Ford Otosan that we aimed to create in a relational context, and this emerged as the definition our -as a popular saying- "new normal". Since 2017, we have been taking steps to live, sustain, and internalize these principles and values every day together.

Our "making impossible possible" principle which is the core of our cultural principles and unique to our company, and the concept of "resilience", although not exactly being the same, are significantly valuable in defining the general "attitude" that supports this concept. The “making it possible” approach we show in any subject in this sense shows that we are in the right place regarding the acquisition of the resilience competence defined in each article I have read.

"Productivity" is another significant topic. Increasing population, rapidly depleting natural resources, climate change, income injustice, immigration, and finally the global pandemic… The solution to these and all similar problems is explained by the productivity approach that can be adapted to each problem. What attracts me most about this issue is that the productivity perspective has shifted from conventional physical investments to the use of intangible assets.

And that brings me to the "customer". No matter how much the script changes, this will always remain as the leading role. For this reason, understanding the customer has become especially important. The ecosystem we are in and the transformation process which includes some destructive changes that our industry has been experiencing for some time, make it exceedingly difficult to try to understand the automotive customer in particular. While it is already difficult enough to interpret the transformation process that has been manifesting in our sector for a while, the addition of a pandemic was not a situation that anyone expected or predicted.

The path is clear for those with a goal. As our company has made the correct description of the path we follow, it provides us a clean pathway even in this uncertain environment. It is only necessary to adapt in all respects, to be open to improve ourselves and to insist on keeping our customers at the center of our business.

Stay healthy with the new normal!