From Service Provider to BRM: Interview with Peter Lijnse
Peter Lijnse of Instrumental BRM discusses the inspiration behind shifting from Service Management Art to Instrumental BRM, along with the organization’s goals, priorities, and plans for the field of business relationship management.
Tell me about the thought process behind the shift from Service Management Art to Instrumental BRM. What inspired the shift?
I started Service Management Art ten years ago. In the first seven years, we mostly focused on Provider Side Governance and IT Service Management, but as the industry began to mature, we saw more and more organizations striving to go beyond the conformance nature of Service Governance.
These organizations presented high performance requirements that resulted in a backlash against the bureaucracy that is sometimes associated with IT Service Management. There was demand for agility, responsiveness, and a greater focus on value, which all shared one common thread within the organizations that were achieving these things: they all had improved relationships between the business and IT. Their governance models moved towards enabling collaborative value management and risk-taking, while reducing their focus on the self-limiting controls brought in to make services predictable and reliable.
Our strategic consulting practice always focused on bridging the gap between the business and IT and improving that relationship. With rising awareness of the Business Relationship Management discipline in the industry, we soon realized a new brand would make sense.
There are very few consulting and education companies purely focused on BRM, which is a shame, because we think it is instrumental (hence Instrumental BRM!) for a lot of organizations. Service Management Art still exists, with a complete focus on service provider education services and service governance aimed at helping organizations gain control of their provider organization. Instrumental BRM, on the other hand, will focus solely on consulting and education services for Business Relationship Management, as well as what we like to call “high-performance governance.”
Have you worked with anyone to make this shift happen? If so, who in particular? What has it been like working with them?
Instrumental BRM will focus solely on consulting and education services for Business Relationship Management, as well as what we like to call “high-performance governance.”
Our first step was to develop the strategy for the new brand and ensure that what we stand for would be clear. We’ve been working with JawDrop Marketing from the beginning as Service Management Art, and they’ve been key in the development of the marketing strategy for Instrumental BRM. Marketing has changed significantly over the past ten years that we’ve been in business, and JawDrop Marketing has always helped us drive towards the results we look for.
We had some real fun with the development of the name, and we’re still developing that further. Strategy never stops, marketing never stops, building relationships never stops.
What are some of your major short-term and long-term goals for Instrumental BRM? How do you think Instrumental BRM stands to impact the field of business relationship management?
The first thing we always focus on is the customer experience—we’re constantly improving our internal processes with a focus on our customers. We even changed our course and workshop materials so that it can provide the best learning experience. This is an ongoing effort, and we’re also building some new products to support both education and consulting.
Our tagline is “The power of working in concert,” which is what we work towards with teams. At the end of the day, though, BRM teams are the catalysts to make this happen.
Above all, our chief goal is to make BRM teams successful. Our consulting services are driven towards quick wins for an organization, which often means we’re working with teams and discussing how they can change their organizational behaviour to become a successful BRM team. Our tagline is “The power of working in concert,” which is what we work towards with teams. At the end of the day, though, BRM teams are the catalysts to make this happen.
Tell me more about the value you’re planning to bring BRMs through Instrumental BRM. What can people look forward to? What are you most looking forward to?
We have several key initiatives underway to further develop products and services that will provide value for BRMs and their teams. Some of these products will be completely new to this market, which we’re very excited about.
We’re also currently in the process of developing several workshops that can help BRM teams all over the world with quick wins on implementing and improving a BRM capability, changing behaviour, value management, etc. BRMConnect attendees have a lot to look forward to—we’re planning to launch two of these products in Banff! Additionally, our BRM Tips videos will continue after the summer to give BRMs new insight and approaches, and we will of course keep writing articles.
We’re also open for suggestions! If the BRM community has any specific topics for us to address, we’d be happy to write articles or give guidance! Please feel free to contact Instrumental BRM here.
Peter Lijnse is an experienced Business Relationship Management (BRM) executive coach and trainer. He helps organizations develop BRM capabilities and coaches executives on how to get the most of their BRM capability. Over the years, Peter has worked in various industries and is a sought-after speaker on Business Relationship Management. Peter has been involved with BRM Institute as an advisor and a member of the knowledge management team since the summer of 2013, and he received the Trailblazer Award from BRM Institute in 2015 and 2016.