Excerpts A Troubled President The Numbers Do Not Add Up Sleepless Nights Torn in Half! The Military Understands Already Beyond the Value Chain Aspirations and Opportunities Emboldening Customers and Strengthening Their Capabilities Boxes and Lines Distrust Bigger than the Boxes Rethinking the Model

Excerpts #3 of Chapter 2 Excerpts: Next | Previous Emboldening Customers and Strengthening Their Capabilities "That's an interesting way to put it, Alan, because many of our customers don't have a clue as to how they can ever realize their aspirations. Often they don't know what kinds of resources are available outside their companies, and therefore it's hard for them to know what concrete steps they could take to seize on a market opportunity with their customers. Perhaps it's not just empowerment, but a process of emboldenment, helping our customers to become bolder in their aspirations," responds Vincent. "As you, Vincent and Alan, have been reflecting on aspirations, I've been thinking of our typical sales training courses," adds Carol. "We teach our people to identify customer needs and to identify customer problems, so we can provide our solutions. But we haven't been training our people to listen for aspirations or to understand the patterns of opportunities arising between our customers and their customers. You're stretching my thinking, but why not?" "And you're stretching mine as well," interjects Wesley. "In the past, engineering has teamed up with sales, better than in most companies, to identify needs and quickly engineer products. But how do we engineer aspirations?" Marjorie's face lights up. "You know, Wesley and Carol, when we think in terms of transactions, we're constantly looking at the customers from behind our products and services. But when we start to look at customer aspirations, then we need to think more about capabilities and competencies." "What do you mean?" asks Wesley. "I know there's more talk today about core competencies, but I've never really understood what's flame and what's smoke. What competencies and whose capabilities?" Marjorie continues, "Wesley, think about what Vincent is saying. Do our customers buy our products, or do they buy our capabilities and competencies?" "Of course they buy our products," quickly responds Wesley. "Wait a minute--don't our products evolve over time, Wesley? When a customer buys from us, isn't he or she buying a relationship, not just a specific product? Sure, I know that in many instances, depending on the product or service, it's a one-time transaction, but with the increased interest in quality and supplier relationships, companies are also buying quality relationships. Therefore, they want to believe that they can benefit from succeeding generations of products, don't they?" responds Marjorie. "Sure . . . that's true," admits Wesley. "But how do our customers know our competencies when we haven't really understood them ourselves? We've been so busy trying to re-engineer discrete processes that we haven't taken the time to sort our overall competencies." "Alan, you've put your finger on a more important reward system, the system by which our customers reward us for our competencies," comments Frank. "How can we use our competencies well if we don't know the competencies of our customers?" asks Marjorie. "Our sales strategy has been to look for the needs, the problems, and the weaknesses of our customers, so we can plug the breach with our wonderful products and services. How good are we at looking for their strengths, their core competencies and capabilities? Is this what you were suggesting, Alan, as you talked about emboldening our customers?" Excerpts: Next | Previous