Daniel Burrus
The old Golden Rule in business was to find out what your customers wanted and to give it to them. Today, if you ask your customers what they want and you give it to them, you’d miss a huge opportunity. Their answers will never give you more than a fraction of the true potential. In addition, the answers they provide are the same answers they are telling your competitors when they ask. In other words, you and your competitors will take your customers’ answers and develop similar solutions that will result in high competition with low margins.
Our capabilities are changing far too rapidly for this old rule to be useful. Customers today don’t know what is technically possible because change is so fast. The things they might really want are things they don’t yet know are possible. For example, customers did not know they wanted an iPod, iPhone, or iPad until Apple gave it to them. The elderly were not asking for an iShoe that would help prevent them from falling. They had no idea such a thing was possible.
To survive and thrive, look at your customers’ visible future. Look at their Hard Trends that will happen. Look at what you’re certain about regarding their future. See what problems they are going to have and solve them before they happen so that by the time they’re just starting to experience the problem, you already have the solution.
Technology driven transformation will not wait, pause, or stand aside while you think about it. Blur—streak--gone! There are two critical truths about business in this new era that you cannot afford to ignore. We might call them corollaries to the Golden Rule:
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DANIEL BURRUS is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts, and is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous untapped opportunities. He is the author of six books including The New York Times best seller Flash Foresight.
Our capabilities are changing far too rapidly for this old rule to be useful. Customers today don’t know what is technically possible because change is so fast. The things they might really want are things they don’t yet know are possible. For example, customers did not know they wanted an iPod, iPhone, or iPad until Apple gave it to them. The elderly were not asking for an iShoe that would help prevent them from falling. They had no idea such a thing was possible.
To survive and thrive, look at your customers’ visible future. Look at their Hard Trends that will happen. Look at what you’re certain about regarding their future. See what problems they are going to have and solve them before they happen so that by the time they’re just starting to experience the problem, you already have the solution.
Technology driven transformation will not wait, pause, or stand aside while you think about it. Blur—streak--gone! There are two critical truths about business in this new era that you cannot afford to ignore. We might call them corollaries to the Golden Rule:
- If it can be done, it will be done.
- If you don’t do it, someone else will.
- If the Big Three automakers don’t make the cars people will both want and need in the future, Toyota will. And if Toyota doesn’t do it, Tesla or someone else will.
- If the Big Four record labels weren’t moving fast enough to embrace MP3 technology and the dematerialization of recorded music, Apple was only too happy to step in.
- Blockbuster didn’t move fast enough to make the home video rental business virtual, so Netflix did.
- In the last presidential election, Mitt Romney didn’t grasp the potential of social media fundraising and web-based voter interaction; Barack Obama’s people did.
- If the major television networks don’t embrace interactive, personalized, high-bandwidth IPTV, then someone else will. And a few years from now, perhaps the major television networks will not be ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, but YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, or someone else.
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DANIEL BURRUS is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts, and is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous untapped opportunities. He is the author of six books including The New York Times best seller Flash Foresight.
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Mike ClarkBusiness Designer & Architect
While I agree, you must not loose sight of the experiences customers desire. Even if your offering is innovative, and makes you stand out from the competition, you must ensure it is designed around the needs of people. In the design of your offering, you must determine what need it is fulfilling, and through research you can understand what experiences people might require. Also not forgetting how these experiences align themselves to the full customer lifecycle. If this is not understood the technology could be delivered at the wrong place, and time. Regardless if people do not know what they want, you must give them something, which fulfils a need they did not think they needed, but yet just works.
While I agree, you must not loose sight of the experiences customers desire. Even if your offering is innovative, and makes you stand out from the competition, you must ensure it is designed around the needs of people. In the design of your offering, you must determine what need it is fulfilling, and through research you can understand what experiences people might require. Also not forgetting how these experiences align themselves to the full customer lifecycle. If this is not understood the technology could be delivered at the wrong place, and time. Regardless if people do not know what they want, you must give them something, which fulfils a need they did not think they needed, but yet just works.
Georges KaramCoach Start to Finish process integration.
Good point... The issue that I have is there are many out there that can meet customer needs and wants but what they are providing is sub-par services which causes more issues to the customers and get them shy away from new technologies because of a trusted supplier/vendor that does not accept their own limitation and just want to make money. Knowing which products/ services that you excel at, and having a portfolio of other suppliers and their niche services, can help your customer at a much higher levels and longer terms. This way the customer will have a better feeling about adapting new technologies, because they higher success rate in their new venture. The car industry is a great example of many sub-par products that keep rolling out of the assembly line because the producers do not know their own limitations.
Good point... The issue that I have is there are many out there that can meet customer needs and wants but what they are providing is sub-par services which causes more issues to the customers and get them shy away from new technologies because of a trusted supplier/vendor that does not accept their own limitation and just want to make money. Knowing which products/ services that you excel at, and having a portfolio of other suppliers and their niche services, can help your customer at a much higher levels and longer terms. This way the customer will have a better feeling about adapting new technologies, because they higher success rate in their new venture. The car industry is a great example of many sub-par products that keep rolling out of the assembly line because the producers do not know their own limitations.
Mustafa RassiwalaSenior Director Product Management at ThreatMetrix
I strongly agree with the basic tenet of the article but feel it can be augmented with how best to "listen" to customers without asking them what they want. This is where you need to understand Clayton Christensen's studies on disruptive innovation and his path breaking research on "Job Framework". The basic questions one should be asking is: 1) What job do customers hire the product to do for them 2) What objectives do customers have in addressing the job? 3) In which circumstances do they most often encounter the problem? 4) What barriers limit the solution? 5) What solutions do customers consider today for the job? If you look at the examples in the article, its about new technologies solving the same jobs but in different vectors i.e. eliminating or reducing previous attributes and introducing new attributes to the product/service that were previously not present. 1) iPod is hired by consumers to carry 1000s of songs in their pocket 2) iPad is hired to provide entertainment and communication on the go by even a 2 year old 3) Telsa is hired to make a environment and wealth statement by consumers. 4) Netflix is hired to provide personalized entertainment from any location and at any time (streaming not the DVD mail-in) I think the Golden Rule of Business should be about understanding the jobs - which evolve and revolve around the same needs but have different circumstances, barriers, objectives. 4 days ago
I strongly agree with the basic tenet of the article but feel it can be augmented with how best to "listen" to customers without asking them what they want. This is where you need to understand Clayton Christensen's studies on disruptive innovation and his path breaking research on "Job Framework". The basic questions one should be asking is: 1) What job do customers hire the product to do for them 2) What objectives do customers have in addressing the job? 3) In which circumstances do they most often encounter the problem? 4) What barriers limit the solution? 5) What solutions do customers consider today for the job? If you look at the examples in the article, its about new technologies solving the same jobs but in different vectors i.e. eliminating or reducing previous attributes and introducing new attributes to the product/service that were previously not present. 1) iPod is hired by consumers to carry 1000s of songs in their pocket 2) iPad is hired to provide entertainment and communication on the go by even a 2 year old 3) Telsa is hired to make a environment and wealth statement by consumers. 4) Netflix is hired to provide personalized entertainment from any location and at any time (streaming not the DVD mail-in) I think the Golden Rule of Business should be about understanding the jobs - which evolve and revolve around the same needs but have different circumstances, barriers, objectives. 4 days ago