“Well, Mrs. Claus, that just about wraps up another year, and it was a good year, too, don’t you think?” Santa sighed as he settled into his favorite recliner. They sipped their mugs of hot cocoa as they relaxed in front of the roaring fire on the open hearth of their North Pole home.
This was Santa’s favorite time of the season—well, next to spreading holiday cheer, of course—sitting back and reflecting on how the season went and starting the planning process for next year. Santa’s operation had sure grown over the years. Every year it seemed to take more and more planning to pull it off with the excellence the kids had come to expect. Santa always did his best thinking in front of a roaring fire with a hot drink in his hand.
“Yes,” Mrs. Claus chimed in, “it really was a good season. Some of those improvement initiatives we started last year really made a big difference.”
“What do you think made the biggest difference?” Santa asked.
Mrs. Claus replied, “Well, for me, that new LMS was key. Keeping track of all that data in spreadsheets and tables was killing me!”
Santa smiled. He knew that Mrs. Claus was the unsung hero of the North Pole’s operation. Without her keeping everything working smoothly, everything would grind to a halt.
“I agree,” Santa said. “That freed you up to focus more on the production side of things, which really helped.”
Mrs. Claus added, “Speaking of production, I also think that Role Excellence Profile (REP) we commissioned for the manufacturing elves really made a huge difference. I’d like to expand that to the distribution side. I think we should target at least a 10% improvement in throughput next season.”
Santa chuckled, “Agreed, but only 10%? We might need even more since our sales distribution channels are doing so much more. The recent focus on sales enablement really paid off.”
“Yes—almost too well! Omnichannel. Who knew that would make so much difference!” Mrs. Claus laughed along with Santa. She stared into the flames and sipped her cocoa. “So what are you thinking about for next year’s priorities? How bold do you want to go?”
“What did you have in mind?” Santa asked.
She replied, “You know, making sure we get the most efficient and effective ECM [Elven Capital Management] effort is really starting to become a significant strain. I wonder if there’s an organization with truly global scale and experience to take over the whole operation?”
Santa shook his head and looked at Mrs. Claus. “Great minds think alike. I was thinking of a BPO partner as well. We could put the REP work and the focus on outcomes together with the new focus on leadership and coaching. We would have to find a really great partner to work with. One who understands the operation and is willing to roll up their sleeves and work alongside us.”
Mrs. Claus nodded. “Of course, they’d also have to have some serious cold weather experience. Don’t you know someone at Alyeska? Maybe you could ask who they work with?”
“Great idea, I’ll call them first thing next week.”
They sat looking into the fire. Mrs. Claus got up and refilled their mugs. While she was out of earshot, Santa mused aloud, “She’ll think I’m crazy, but I wonder if that experiment FedEx and UPS are running with making only right turns would work with a sleigh? It might save some wear and tear on the reindeer. I could add it to the list of factors for the new sleigh routing software we’re considering…”
Wishing everyone a successful year ahead!