Is Your Company's Reason for Being Increasing or Decreasing?

My wife heard a radio commercial from Best Buy this week, saying "If you buy your GPS at Best Buy, we'll teach you how to use it before you leave the store."

Brilliant!! At last, a reason to buy something at a retail store! Frankly, I've become seriously concerned about the future of retailing. The "big box" stores like Best Buy have only 2 things going for them -- they stock the products, so you can get them today, and you can see & touch the products (if they happen to be in stock).

That aside, why would you buy a commodity product like a GPS at a retail store? Online merchants stock infinitely more selection -- several dozen models times multiple vendors -- a universe of perhaps 100 different GPS models to choose from. And, depending on your perception of convenience, they bring them to your door! Personally, I like being able to research features, user comments, user ratings and price, then just order for front-porch delivery. All this for the lowest available price on the planet, usually free shipping on high-end items like GPS -- plus no sales tax!

So, Best Buy has figured out how to market an "augmented product" -- a commodity product (available anywhere, probably cheaper) augmented by the addition of a critical service -- that of helping you learn how to use it. And they've applied this idea to GPS, a product still in its early adoption curve and that's completely useless unless the buyer knows how to find his destination address. What a great plan -- a way to increase the reason for being of an electronics retail store, a business model whose reason for being has been steadily eroded by a decade of migration toward online channels.

Have you taken a look lately at augmented product opportunities in your business? What service could you offer to your customers to set yourself apart from other competitors? Look at things the customer has to do before, during or after he uses your product. Is it design? Is it inventory? Is it training? Is it field service? Or something else?

If you're in a service business, are there products your customer needs before, during or after you provide your service? Could you deliver those as an augmentation to the service you're now providing, and take a margin on them? You're there anyway and you have a relationship already.

The Internet has become the great disintermediator. It has evaporated the reason for being of many businesses, particularly those formerly occupied by agents, reps, distributors or retailers. If you're in one of those "middleman" channels, you're in the gunsights of the Internet, and your business is likely to be next. Mount your defense in advance by augmenting the product you provide with services your customer needs, thereby providing an indispensable combination and increasing his "switching costs" -- he has to find and coordinate more than one vendor to replace you.

So, just when I thought big box retailing was an endangered species, Best Buy came up with a way, in at least one product line, to increase its reason for being. Way to go, guys!

If you have examples of how you've augmented your products with services essential to your customers, please click on Comment below and share them with us.

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Terry Weaver


CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com
864 527-5917

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them

I came across an interesting quote that essentially sums up the value of membership in Chief Executive Boards International (CEBI):

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

- Albert Einstein

Einstein's point was that anyone's knowledge and understanding is limited to his own experience, training, education, and information sources. He was also making a case for the advancement of science and knowledge, which expands the inventory of possible solutions to any problem. And does so in surprising and sometimes unpredictable ways. Advancements in silicon technology enabled microelectronics which enabled implantable medical devices like pacemakers which enable people to live longer which extends their productive earning years which enables their children to go to college which enables those children to advance a yet unknown area of knowledge.

At every meeting of Chief Executive Boards International a member puts a problem on the table, asking for the experience, advice and counsel of the other CEOs and business owners at the meeting. And in almost every case, that member goes away with either a solution or a new set of ideas by which to pursue a solution.

And they're different ideas than the member came in the door with. What's the difference? Perspective. The other board members are rarely looking at the problem the same way the member is (and has been) looking at it. And they have knowledge, experience and viewpoints previously unknown to the member with the problem. Thus we're solving problems using a different kind of thinking than was used when they were created.

If you don't have an alternate source of significant perspective on your business and your life, Chief Executive Boards International might be a source of that. You might discover solutions to problems you've given up on. Or you might discover a valuable perspective on an opportunity that would never have occurred to you on your own.

Would that be valuable to you?


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Terry Weaver


CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com
864 527-5917

Meta-solutions -- Innovation Without Invention

At an industry conference in 1989 I heard a futurist say "Most of the great products of the future will not be based on breakthrough technology. Rather, they will be "meta-solutions" -- unique and innovative combinations of already-existing technologies, combined in new and different ways".

He went on to explain that the Greek prefix, "meta", describes something that's more comprehensive, transcending, and taken to a higher state of development. A meta-solution, then, would combine existing ideas, forms, technologies, etc. into a new, more feature/function-rich product.

Some examples --

1. Douglas DC-3 airplane -- It wasn't the fastest airplane available. It wasn't the highest-payload airplane available. It wasn't the longest range aircraft available. It was, simply, the Only fast, high-payload, long range airplane available. As such, it dominated the commercial aircraft industry for years. Thousands were used in WWII, as well. According to

www.Wikipedia.org, "It is generally regarded as one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made." Over 13,000 were built.
Side note (and worth remembering): After acquisition by McDonnell Aircraft, a military-style company, Douglas lost its way in the commercial market and has all but forfieted its position in the commercial aircraft business.

Parking Sonar on Cars, my personal favorite feature on my car. Sonar's not new, it's been around for decades, except on cars. It required cost reduction of transponders plus digital signal processing to become affordable.

GPS, my second personal favorite feature on my car, is a combination of a dozen or so technologies -- Satellites, digital mapping (the military has been doing in top-secret for decades), digital communication and signal processing, LCD displays, touch screens, etc. Clever meta-idea, putting all those together, eh? Next? Combined with wireless technology, a GPS dog-tracking collar is available (further cost and size reduction will be required for real market traction). Look for an implantable version in __ years (your prediction is as good as mine -- an invention in power will be necessary along the way).

Presentation Pilot Pro Wireless PowerPoint slide clicker by Interlink -- http://www.smklink.com/index.php?id=NDAw -- Absolutely nothing "new" here -- a classic meta-solution -- stamped aluminum top case, injection-molded bottom case, silicone molded buttons, surface mount printed wiring board, watch battery, laser pointer, etc. This meta-combination of materials and design is simply the best product in its class. Three killer features: It has a "dock" where you insert the USB receiver for storage. This disables all the buttons, so if they get pressed while the remote is in the projector case it doesn't run the battery down. Forward and reverse buttons are buffered -- no matter how long you hold the button, it just advances one slide. A disqualifying defect of at least one competitive product. And it has a "black" button -- invokes the windows command that switches a PowerPoint to "black" -- you can blank the screen, talk for awhile, and then come back.
It's RF, not IR, so it's not line-of-sight -- you can point it anywhere.

You can think of dozens of examples for yourself, more specific to your industry.

So, what's a meta-solution that your business could offer? A way of combining technologies, products, packaging, business processes or services in a way that no one else has yet considered or been successful with? Sometimes it's a couple of small "tweaks" to someone else's offering. Like #4 above -- a product that's head and shoulders above the dozen or so products intended for the same use.

This "non-inventive" innovation is faster and cheaper than waiting for a "brass ring" from your R&*D department, and becomes a springboard from which to launch additional innovations, improve margins, and grow your business.

These kinds of ideas surface at every meeting of Chief Executive Boards International. If you have an interest in ideas that will accelerate your business and provide you more fulfillment, more wealth and more time to enjoy it, contact me at: terryweaver@chiefexecutiveboards.com

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Terry Weaver

CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com
864 527-5917