Meaning Matters – Adapt or Die

In 2001, the American Society of Association Executives Foundation published a seminal book on Exploring the Future. In it, authors Olson and Dighe reported on fourteen trends facing non profits, especially associations. Those trends represented seven strategic conversations that any enterprise benefits from engaging.

Charles Darwin is often attributed with the phrase, “Adapt or Die.” He was referring to the survival of the species but his comment applies to all organizations that are facing relevancy issues. And with today’s troubling economic times, those who survive will be the ones who are most effective and efficient in creating meaning for their customer communities.

Meaning matters. In the marketing world we know these words as customer value. However, there is a much richer interpretation of the words when looked at from a non-profit’s perspective – and an application of them that could mean increased customer loyalty and competitive positioning.

The competitive company will create more than just the traditional supply of products and services laden with various feature sets that are an attempt to beat out the competition. From a meaning matters perspective, the competitive company will create an opportunity for belonging and identity on behalf of the customer. Social networking sites are attempting to do this, some with more success than others. But when the formula is right, they become the enduring qualities that drive customer loyalty and create brand evangelists.

Meaning matters suggests we stop looking at our customers as transaction channels. It demands from us a perspective that treats customers as members of a community. Their payments to us are an act of investment into the community, and we then serve as stewards of those dollars. We take their investment and strive to make the community, and it’s value, richer and more meaningful to the members.

It’s a different perspective, but one that has been working for non profits and associations for more than a century now. And if you think there’s no money to be made by thinking this way – just consider the tens of billions of dollars raised every year by non profits, and the seven-figure incomes of their senior staff.

Meaning matters.

-- David Kinard, PCM

What are the Essential Characteristics of a Disruptive Product or Service?

I posed this question in an earlier blog (see September 30 post) and said I'd do more research on the subject. After asking the question to groups on LinkedIn, I found that two main sources of information were consistent: 1) check the wikipedia definition on the subject; and 2) Clayton Christensen basically is the father of the idea.

From the wiki definition:

A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a term describing a technological innovation, product, or service that uses a "disruptive" strategy, rather than an "evolutionary" or "sustaining" strategy, to overturn the existing dominant technologies or status quo products in a market. Disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into low-end and new-market disruptive innovations.

By contrast, a "revolutionary technology" introduces products with highly improved new features into the market. This is the innovation that most often replaces the incumbent [automobile - horse drawn vehicle]. In addition, a "sustaining technology or innovation" improves product performance of established products. Sustaining technologies are often incremental; however, they can also be radical or discontinuous.

Other than one angry commenter on LinkedIn (go figure), there were a few interesting comments. Particularly, I liked Jody Wilson's comment about Step - Stretch - Leap.

Surprisingly, however, what I didn't find (even after some serious googling) was a laundry list to check against if you wanted to build a disruptive product or service. What this confirmed for me is that the characteristic of disruptive is nothing that can be planned or programmed. Rather it is a whole combination of elements working together at the right time and in the right ways that produces a disruptive nature.

Ahh, the beauty of synergy -- where one plus one equals three or more.

-- David Kinard, PCM

Yeah, so?

People who know me know I believe in courageous conversations. Typically these happen in personal relationships when it takes courage to approach someone and talk about an uneasy subject. But the same is true for business situations. Those courageous conversations happen when creating strategy, thinking about the competition, or evaluating the power of your value proposition.

Posing the right questions gets to the root of issues and assumptions about ourselves and our competition. They are the "bare-naked truth" questions often avoided not because the questions are offensive or even complex, but because we don't have the answers we should. The quality of a question determines the quality of the response. When we ask easy questions of ourselves or our competition, or questions that can't be answered, the answer gives us exactly what we put into the question--easy answers or no answer at all.

What powerful questions do is give us a broader range of exploration. They lead us to examine possibilities and develop scenarios that can lead to competitive advantages. Powerful questions do not have to be complex or sophisticated. My favorite one is: "What would happen if we did nothing?" And another: "Why?" "What is this for?" and "So, what?" These questions cannot be answered easily or quickly; though beware the people who promise that they can. Questions like these require thoughtful consideration of all the possibilities. They allow the us to create different scenarios leading to innovation and leadership within the marketplace, which is what competitive intelligence and positioning is all about.