Friday 15 March 2013

Rallying cry for innovation - and faith

I've spoken about VRM - Vendor Relationship Management before on this blog and it's one of the topics that I feel is currently mis-understood and undervalued in terms of its future impact on customer relationships and loyalty.  Like many new things, people think it irrelevant, unworkable or simply solving a problem that doesn't exist.  It was great then to see today on the ProjectVRM mailing list, Doc Searls, author, journalist, blogger and VRM evangalist, discuss these challenges and to put them into context.

I've repeated the majority of Doc's post here for those without access to the ProjectVRM list:-

[..] Nobody is ever interested in a new category before it is given shape by applications people want once they see them. Personal computing, starting in '76, was positioned as "a way to do your checkbook and keep recipes." Really. None of the early hardware makers were especially successful, with the conditional exception of Apple, thanks to Visicalc. IBM took a look at Visicalc and introduced the PC in '82. But even then the PC succeeded in business in part because Attachmate and other companies sold micro-to-mainframe cards that turned $2500 PCs into $1000 IBM 3270  and DEC VT-100 and -200 "dumb terminals." But by then Visicalc had a foothold, as did Wordstar and DOS. Lotus 123 picked up where Visicalc left off, and a wave of applications followed. The Mac succeeded in part because of Quicken, which really did, finally, eight years after PCs were born, make balancing a checkbook easy. Quicken was an invention that mothered necessity, as were the rest of the early programs. Still, business dismissed PCs from '76 to '82, and ordinary people dismissed them until at least '84.

Likewise the Internet was nowhere until graphical browsers showed up. We forget that Bill Gates saw no way the Net could make money for itself, or anybody, until it was clear that Netscape's browsers and Web servers would threaten Microsoft to the core. That was in '95, when the Net's protocols, which we still use today, were up to decades old. Smartphones were Palm's idea, but not many people took advantage of the apps on them, because they were too hard to get and use. Once Apple showed how it could be done, the market exploded. That was more than a decade after Palm began. I remember an early VRM meeting at Berkman where Paul Trevithick said "Nothing that requires a user install will succeed." That was true, then. But not long after that, Apple made user-install easy, Google followed, and now all of us install apps with ease all the time. Yet it would be easy to say there was no appetite for the Internet in '93, or smartphones in '05. All we needed were inventions to mother necessity.

So, likewise, it's easy to say nobody cares about managing relationships with vendors, because, obviously, they don't. Or, do they?

What about the stacks of loyalty cards people keep on keychains, in their wallets and purses, or in the armrests of their cars? That's a crude form of management. What about clipping and carrying coupons, or spending hours or days adding up "points" from credit cards to trade in for miles on airlines? (I have a friend who is obsessed with doing that.) What about going over stacks of receipts and trying to match them up with credit card bills — arduously reviewing old calendars to see what we did and when, so we can minimize our tax hit? Is there no management in that?

Think of all the pain points any one of us deals with in relating to vendors — or anybody. All those pain points are potential business opportunities. Not all of them will be pursued, but none of them are worth dismissing because nobody seems interested in dealing with them now. As Henry Ford said, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they'd have said 'faster horses.'" To my Irish grandmother growing up in The Bronx, the biggest problems were horse manure piling up in the streets and the danger of fire from gas light. Neither problems were relieved by the industries of the time. Yet both horse-drawn wagons and gas light were obsoleted by new inventions. 

[..]Everybody manages data today already.

We do it with folders on our hard drives, with bookmarks and tabs in our browsers, with boxes in our mail programs, and with every online service that organizes files for us. Are all these in such a complete and final state that they are un-improvable? Or is there opportunity here for many kinds of new approaches? Again, it's easy to say "nobody is interested." But it's not wise to bet against relieving whatever causes people pain. Or what opens up new opportunity where almost nobody is looking.

[..]

And most of us don't care about advertising. (Though some do, and we respect that.)

Fixing advertising's problems, or pursuing its opportunities, is almost entirely a vendor-side issue. My own attitude toward advertising is kind of like Ford's toward horses and trains: those things will keep doing what they're best for, and we'll go invent something else. My guess is that, if VRM succeeds, it will help brand advertising and hurt adtech or alter it for the better. But VRM's purpose has nothing to do with any of that.

Still, business senses that we are on to something here, so we can't help talking about it, and, in some cases, getting invited to conclaves where advertising is a big issue.

For example, yesterday I attended one of those things here in New York. The word "intention" was used a lot. The context was using "big data" to "intuit" what customers "intend," without ever having to listen to what those customers want to say, directly, to the "brands" doing the advertising. So the talk was about "listening in" on "conversations" among "consumers" in "social spaces" so those consumers could be "delivered" a "better experience." It was the sound of one hand slapping, not two hands clapping. A few voices  from within the business were raised, saying "Are we listening to ourselves? Do we not realize that we're abusing people's privacy, and that this will have consequences?" As usual those voices were mostly not heard. But the wilderness from which those voices were raised is called the marketplace. 

Are those voices pointing toward actual requirements, as you suggest? Well, let's look at what the market is already doing.

Today the most popular browser extensions are ones that block advertising and turn off tracking. Governments (especially in Europe) want to switch off tracking altogether, because their citizens are tired of it. These are significant trends. Look up "privacy" on Google or Bing and see how many results you get, and the order in which they are prioritized. Is there no market for solutions here?

Personally, I don't want legislative relief. Anti-adtech laws today will protect yesterday from last Thursday with legal code that won't change for decades, or perhaps ever. On the whole that's not good in a vital and fast-changing marketplace. I'd rather come up with technic fixes that will take care of business without new laws. (Though perhaps with legal decisions based on standing laws. Those are likely to happen in any case.)

Finally, just because a glass is 1/Nth full doesn't mean that it's X/Nths empty, or can't be filled. Faith, St. Paul tells us, is "the evidence of things unseen." Without it we wouldn't have civilizations, or markets. There would be demand only for the hides of animals and sharpened rocks.

VRM isn't complicated. It's only about giving customers means toward two things: independence and engagement. To see how that can be done, one needs to stand on the side of the customer. So that's what we're doing. 

7 comments:

Alan Cruden said...

A really good post, and sorry for coming across it a month late, still better late than never. Agree with your comments, as a customer and service provider it makes sense to give control back to the customer. The companies that make that trusted secure connection to their customer moves the relationship up the buy/sell hierarchy where the relationship is about trust and advice not price and USP's

Unknown said...

louis vuitton outlet store, http://www.louisvuittonoutletstore.name/
dansko outlet
michael kors outlet, http://www.michaelkorsoutletonlinstore.us.com
coach outlet, http://www.coachhandbagsoutletonline.us.com/
coach outlet
tory burch outlet
air max 2014
hollister shirts
oakley sunglasses
salomon shoes
calvin klein underwear
ray ban,rayban,occhiali ray ban,ray-ban,ray ban occhiali,ray ban sunglasses
rayban sunglasses, http://www.raybansunglass.com.au/
roshe run men
cheap nfl jerseys, http://www.cheap-nfljersey.us.com/
toms outlet, http://www.tomsoutlet-stores.com/
replica watches
valentino outlet
ugg boots clearance,ugg australia,uggs on sale,ugg slippers,uggs boots,uggs outlet,ugg boots,ugg,uggs
cheap nfl jerseys
marc jacobs outlet
ralph lauren polo shirts
nike outlet store
mcm handbags
tiffany outlet, http://www.tiffany-outlet.us.com/
christian louboutin uk
chanel outlet
coach outlet canada
nike running shoes
nike trainers
2015910caihuali

Unknown said...

coach outlet online
giuseppe zanotti shoes
true religion jeans
ray-ban sunglasses
ferragamo shoes sale
michael kors outlet
lululemon outlet
ugg uk,ugg outlet,ugg boots outlet
tiffany outlet
rolex watches
coach outlet
ferragamo shoes
oakley sunglasses wholesale
lebron shoes
polo ralph lauren
louis vuitton outlet
fitflops sale clearance
toms shoes
swarovski crystal
tory burch outlet
michael kors outlet
fitflops clearance
ferragamo shoes
ray ban sunglasses
michael kors outlet online
beats headphones
michael kors outlet
kobe 9 elite
michael kors outlet store
longchamp handbags
michael kors uk
michael kors canada
cheap uggs
longchamp outlet
0727JIANXIANG

chenlina said...

chenlina20161021
air max sale
ray bans
hollister kids
christian louboutin pas cher
prada outlet
oakley sunglasses
canada goose outlet
ralph lauren uk
christian louboutin outlet
louis vuitton handbags

دريم هاوس said...

افضل شركة تخزين اثاث بالرياض https://buff.ly/2GmP3DW  لكى تتم عمليه التخزين بالشكل المرغوب فيه لابد من اتباع مجموعه من الطرق والخطوات من أبرزها :
1-الاعتماد على مجموعه من المستودعات الكبيرة التى تكفى لعدد هائل من العملاء ؛فالمستودعات مكان شاسع لديه عدد كبير من الحجرات والأدوار التى تكفى للكثير من أجزاء العفش أو الاثاث بمختلف أشكاله ؛سواء الاثاث المنزلى أو الفندقى أو غيرها من أشكال الاثاث الأخرى .

2-العمل على تركيب مجموعه من أجهزة الانذار أو التنبيه التى تنذر بوجود أى مشكلات داخل المستودعات .

3-العمل على تركيب مجموعه من البوابات المحكمة التى تساعد على حمايه المخازن من التعرض للسرقات أو الحرائق.

4-العنايه بأعمال تنظيف المخازن والمستودعات من التعرض للشوائب والأدخنة والتلفيات الخطيرة .

5-القيام بأعمال رش الحشرات اعتمادا على مجموعه من المبيدات وأدوات الرش الحديثة للتخلص من كافه أشكال الحشرات من نمل وبق وصراصير وعته وغيرها من أشكال الحشرات الخطيرة الأخرى التى تتسبب فى تأكل وتلف الاثاث وأشكال المجالس بمختلف أشكالها.

5-أعمال تنظيف العفش
تتمكن شركة تنظيف شقق بالرياض من القيام بأعمال تنظيف العفش بجميع أشكاله والحصول على أفضل النتائج المميزة ؛فالشركة تعتمد على أفضل المنظفات الحديثة وأفضل المساحيق القوية وأجهزة البخار التى تساعد على اتمام أعمال تنظيف الاثاث والتخلص من البقع الداكنة التى تحتاج الى أعمال تفتيت سريعه .

1-أعمال تنظيف المجالس
تتمكن الشركة من القيام بأعمال تنظيف الانتريهات أو الكنب وغيرها من أشكال المجالس الأخرى ؛تلك المجالس تتعرض للشوائب والعوالق والأحبار ؛لذلك يتم الاعتماد على مجموعه من الأجهزة وخاصه أجهزة البخار التى تتمكن من تفتيت الدهون والرواسب بمختلف أشكالها .

2-أعمال تنظيف الكنب
تعتبر الكنب من أهم أشكال المجالس التى يتم الاعتماد عليها من أجل الراحة والحصول على قدر مميز من الراحة ؛لذلك فهى تحتاج الى أعمال تنظيف متكررة ويتم الاعتماد على المساحيق والمنظفات الحديثة وأفضل المعطرات التى تساعد على تنظيف الكنب من أى شوائب .

فقط نحن أفضل شركة تخزين عفش بالرياض أفضل شركة سعودية تتمكن من نقل العفش بأفضل الطرق الصحيحة والمميزة ؛فقط نحن الأفضل لا تدع الفرصه تفوتك ؛فنحن شركة لديها مكانة مميزة من بين الشركات الاخرى ؛فقط اتصل بأرقامنا .… اقرأ المزيد

المصدر: شركة تخزين اثاث بالرياض

yanmaneee said...

kyrie 5 spongebob
curry shoes
yeezy shoes
cheap jordans
kenzo clothing
kyrie irving shoes
yeezy boost 350
yeezy
supreme hoodie
kenzo

Anonymous said...

youtube.com/viewport_guide/video_on_1/ - Videodl.cc
youtube.com/viewport_guide/video_on_1/ youtube.com/viewport_guide/video_on_1/ youtube to mp3 converter android