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Waste due to form without function

In the days of the guilds, the quality of the performance was the focus of interest and the figurehead of the masters, the responsible manufacturers. In the last two hundred years specialties have evolved with the advancing division of labor. As a result, the focus has shifted – from the product to fulfilling a subtask. The actual products have receded into the background. The success of the individual areas is determined by the continuous refinement of the particular abilities:

  • The development is delivering more and more prototypes,
  • The production produces ever more at lower cost,
  • The sales department is always acquire new customer groups and
  • The marketing delivers ever new campaigns.

As a result, the business units lose sight of the actual services and act based on the look at their own value creation that always covers only partial aspects. This goes so far that start-ups market their business idea before the actual product is available, leading to major, unnecessary efforts that have no effect. And this, although it is generally known: Form follows function.

The venture depends above all on the most convenient offer for which the customer is ready to pay – be it goods or services. A description of the available features is crucial to ensure that the various tasks are performed with minimum effort. The following points are of great value to the overview of the articles and services.

  • The service core
    fulfills the wishes of the clients – an MP3 player plays music; a hotel night offers a hotel room, incl. room service and breakfast; a Swiss knife cuts, screws, drills, saws, lights, up to a total of 56 parts in one tool.
    The service core can be identified with the following questions: Which customer needs are satisfied? Which features are required? What is relevant to the clients?
  • The design
    of the products happens almost by itself due to their physicality. The material must be selected, shaped, provided with a surface and colored. Intangible services can also be designed. The dealing with customers, such as friendliness and empathy, the reliable activities, such as consulting, training, advertising, and catering or the administration of facilities consist of processes and employee behaviors, which also can be designed. Nowadays, design not only serves as a temptation to buy, but also influences the entire life cycle of a deliverable –
    for physical products: from economic production and warehousing, through ergonomics and a predetermined lifespan, durability and ease of maintenance, to disposal; for services: from planning, through development and operation, to the sun downing of an offer.
    These design aspects can be identified with the following questions: How do customers perceive the services? How does the design influence the customers – and the life cycle? What other advantages can be achieved with minimal effort?
  • The add-on services
    include further offers for the customers, which are available free of charge or for a fulfillment fee of the core tasks. This ranges from supplemental assistance in the use and maintenance of the services, through extensive accessories, to performance-related tips as well as platforms for exchanging ideas, e.g. with online communities.
    The following questions provide some ideas: What else do the customers want? Which add-ons can be offered right away with little effort? Do the supplemental services increase customer loyalty or even the sales?
  • The brand aspects
    are the unconscious forces of attraction that bind the customers of a product or service to the company. Established brands, the name or logo, the type of advertising and key images already evoke positive associations – e.g. the famous Marlboro man or the Mercedes star, the elaborate Apple trailers or the Mazda humming, all trigger in the best case positive feelings in the audience – and they become part of the brand with the purchase.
    The brand aspects can be determined with the following questions: How does the customer perceive the company? Do the products match the brand? Do we send messages that do not match our desired image? Which activities support the brand?

Bottom line: The points described the service core, the design, the add-on services and the brand aspects are essential components of the business activity. Nevertheless, these points of view are rather late or not at all formulated. They are the meat of the deliverables. These descriptions influence the perception of the customer’s and, at various points, the life cycle of the services. A lot of momentum gets lost when the developers, manufacturers, and sales people have a different understanding of the deliverables. Describe your product, because form without function wastes already scarce resources.

One value discipline at the expense of the others

It is not a question of feasibility, if you wish for your deliverables to have full customer intimacy, the best product AND the smartest procedures. On closer look even the desire as such is unrealistic. Who actually wants what? Usually the customers decide for one of the three sides. The company’s decision-makers are those, who want to convey their priorities to the employees. However, the shot goes backwards, if they go to max in all dimensions. With such a direction they miss their duty as a leader to decide. The usual saying is: Do one thing and don’t let the other. Nevertheless, a preferred value discipline must be selected, because it can only be implemented at the expense of others.

Of course, you can wish for the impossible. Nonetheless that doesn’t help anybody. Far from it. Maximizing all value disciplines at the same time can cost the company its life, because it will fail in any case. Those who now feel an objection arising, should definitely read on. Let’s take a look at the three dimensions.

  • Customer intimacy
    Jones, Smith, Williams – of course you know your customers. At least their name, address and, with the smart reporting system, also their sales. Customer intimacy only emerges when you respond to the personal needs of the customer, which leads to individual goods and services tailored to each customer.
    However, this is only possible at the expense of the best offers, which would deliver the latest technology and design, as well as through lean processes that would be characterized by standardization and restriction to the essential.
    The tailor-made suit is the result of the close interplay between tailor and customer.
  • Product leadership
    A world-renowned brand sets the benchmark for other suppliers in the respective business field. Therefore it is always necessary to include the latest technical and design options – before the competitors will. This fosters higher prices and the necessary hype with the appropriate marketing.
    However, this is at the expense of the wishes of individual customers, whose needs are shaped above all by their past experience, as well as at the expense of improved processes that would always lag behind innovations.
    Apple provided with the Macintosh a computer that was created by the ideas of the Apple programmers and the designers of Frogdesign out of the Black Forest, Germany.
  • Process leadership
    The procedures determine the quality of the execution of the real tasks. The focus here is on the interplay between the involved departments, the avoidance of unnecessary activities and the reliable repeatability of the work steps in order to be able to generate a large volume quickly and timely with the least possible use of means.
    However, this is at the expense of the wishes of individual customers, who could delay the entire procedure and at the expense of the latest state of goods and services.
    The food discounters, such as Aldi and Lidl, are able to offer the best prices through the prosaic sale directly off the pallet.

Bottom line: It is clear, of course, that the decision for one value discipline does not mean that the others can be completely disregarded. Customer intimacy does not take place, if the article does not provide a certain maturity and the customers cannot rely on the fact that the procedures lead to a fail-safe delivery. Product leadership without a sufficient understanding of the customers and consistent procedures damage the reputation of the products and services. Process leadership requires the consideration of the needs of the customers as well as deliverables, for which the customers are willing to pay. What is not possible is a top position in all three dimensions, because

  • Customer intimacy that excludes the for many people attractive products and standardized procedures,
  • Product leadership does not take into account the individual customer wishes and procedures, and
  • Process leadership does not succeed to satisfy every customer request and does not provide the most original product.

This is valid even if today the Internet improves the direct interaction with the customers, new services can be delivered faster to the people and workflows become more flexible in real time. The determined value discipline that defines success at the expense of the others is the difference that makes the difference.