Canvas Rebel: Meet Nora Osman
Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nora Osman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nora, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
In the world we live in, businesses exist to deliver products and services to customers. Every interaction is a moment of truth, and an opportunity for businesses to deliver value. More than ever, customers crave simplicity, speed, and savings. They value the “customer experience” above other traditional things. My mission with Norvana is to help companies prioritize delivering an optimal customer experience, turning those moments of truth from zero moments to hero moments. I believe the human is the key to every equation, whether on the inside (as an employee delivering on the mission) or on the outside (the customer receiving the product or service). Getting that right is our mission, and finding ways to deliver the “wow” is our calling.
Nora, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Norvana was born out of a mission to elevate the human experience, making things simple and right. Nora Osman made a career out of focusing on the people part of the people-process-technology equation, because it’s the most important part. She has cultivated a culture of empathy, kindness and celebrating individual strengths/diversity in every organization she’s led; this included commercial insurance, software manufacturing, healthcare insurance, financial services, hospitality, and healthcare/education services. Nora has raised the level of individual performance in her teams to an award-wining level, highlighting individual and team achievement in ways that created momentum, sustaining creativity and innovation. She helped design services, integrate technology and departments as part of mergers/acquisitions, and automate processes while digitally transforming core functions of the business. Nora delivered self-service portals, automated routines for security, onboarding, and resource delivery in multiple institutions. She led the charge to outsource specialized/marginal support areas while insourcing core support functions to optimize the customer experience. As part of cultural transformation, she started company-wide training programs (both onsite and virtual) and also had a 90+ monthly electronic bulletin designed to foster communication/awareness internally within the company. She also orchestrated annual week-long celebrations of National Customer Service Week, aimed to highlight this as a core area of importance in focusing on the ultimate goal, excellent customer service and experience. These and many other achievements during her 30-year career have set her apart from peers and elevated her status to a visionary leader with a magnetic communication style and a generous spirit. Nora continues to coach and mentor many growth-oriented career individuals and serves on boards to help organizations reimagine their business model. She also shares her knowledge and expertise by publishing several articles each month in different editorials.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I invested in my partner’s dream to own his own restaurant, and so helped initiate a new business in 2008. I personally didn’t have the experience in that field, but had strong creativity and financial discipline, in addition to a hardcore project management discipline. I quickly learned how to go from design to execution and had to manage many aspects of that business on a daily basis for 4 full years, during a financial crisis in the US. While continuing my personal leadership role at a large healthcare organization in NYC, I had to dedicate a significant amount of time on a weekly basis to the bookkeeping, vendor management, hiring of resources, menu design, and also preparation of food items on the dessert side. Over the 4 years, my partner and I learned of the different pivots a business owner makes, to try new ways to market the business, grow loyalty, and elevate the brand. We did expand the menu quite extensively, which was a move in the wrong direction as it also magnified food costs, food prep time and ultimately diluted the core cuisine specialty we started with. However, this exercise was a huge lesson in resilience. Planning, budgeting and executing a 12-hour business day (11am-11pm) for 7 days/week, with multiple staff shifts was a major exercise in patience and perseverance. We served the community with a big heart and gained a significant increase in clientele by the end of our tenure, however we knew it was not physically sustainable. Having clarity on the finances and the priorities in our lives helped us make the decision to close down the business and choose another path in our lives, exiting this business model with minimal financial losses over a tumultuous 4-year period. Many lessons learned!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
A shift away from focusing exclusively on my internal communications and turning to sharing my experiences externally made all the difference. A career coach planted the seed a few years back, challenging me to start writing about my experiences and sharing them in article format on Linkedin. I began a discipline of “Thoughtful Thursdays”, publishing an authentic article 2x a month, alternating with sharing thoughts or someone’s articles on the other 2x (alternating weekly). I learned the appropriate attention-grabbing headers, length, to properly hash tag and people tag in each article, and the ideal time to publish. Soon I started to get commentary on my articles, and many reposted or shared that they were inspired to share their own stories. Over time, these articles became part of my brand, one that spoke to my role and influence as a leader, as an expert in service management, customer experience, and digital transformation. This drew attention from many event planning institutions that saw me as a viable speaker, panelist or moderator. It also drew the attention of the Institute for Digital Transformation, having them invite me as a fellow. My articles got published at the institute as well as in other publications including CIO Review, CIO Application, Employee Experience, and the Institute for Digital Transformation. I also got interviewed for several podcasts and getting featured as a leader of significance (or one to watch for) in specific categories starting in 2021 and for the past 4 consecutive years.
