newsletter archive.
(Previously published under the title Extreme Profits
under ISSN 1925-8941)
Strategic competitiveness, the operations link
Every leader knows that strategy is important and, especially, that operations strategy is critical to an organization's success. Operations strategy allows an organization to better position itself in the marketplace by focusing on competitive priorities.
These "priorities" include cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. To be competitive, a company must be able to position itself on at least one of these competitive measures.
Customers, over-communication
Do you know your customers? Or, perhaps, a better question is: Who are your customers?
Organizations that provide goods and services (usually for money) to those external to their organization know their customer demographic. However, employees that do not deal with people outside their organization sometimes have difficulty defining their "customer."
What do you know? Profits in RIM
Do you think you know all you need to know to conduct a successful business? If you said, "yes," then you probably know what your customers think about your business. If you said, "no," then you need to find out what your customers are thinking. Organizations that fail to hear the voice of their customers are in a "knowledge disconnect" and this can seriously hurt their bottom line.
Leaning for customer value, taking care of business
Is the customer always right? Yes. Do customers buy your products or services because you have the best products or services? No. Customers buy your products or services because of their experience with buying your products or services. Let me tell you what I mean by using Starbucks as an example.