Today I've been pondering the inevitable consequences of disconnects and collaborations. I've been focusing on business innovations and value propositions, though the parallels to education are easily drawn. Here's how I've been contrasting the impacts of disconnects and collaborations.
When an enterprise disconnects it's sales teams from production, it's likely
- to lose customers by overselling and under-delivering
- to continue producing the same configurations that customers have complained about
- to give customers the impression they are neither listened to or respected
When an enterprise sets up the ongoing collaboration between sales and production, sales gains the insights to thrill the customers by under-selling and over-delivering, make changes in products that cause customers to become fans, as well as giving customers the experience of being responded to and perceived as valuable.
When an enterprise disconnects it's sales teams from the customers' contexts, it's likely
- to give customers reasons to walk away
- to become too pushy with sales tactics
- to presume the product is good for everyone regardless of their situations, uses and past experiences
When an enterprise nurtures the ongoing collaboration between sales and the customers' contexts, sales informs product development how to improve functionality, usability or economies, listens to customers about how the product works for them and learns how to customize service, component configurations or product selections to best serve individual users.
When an enterprise disconnects its product development from it's rivals, it's likely
- to copy what the rivals have done in violation of their copyrights
- to fail to differentiate it's offer from theirs
- to lose out in direct comparisons when quality appears inferior.
When an enterprise regards it's rivals as essential collaborators with its own product development, it will learn from advances made by rivals, get inspired to meet or beat the standards they set, as well as find more ways overlooked by rivals to better attract and serve new customers.
When an enterprise disconnects its production from the customers' contexts, it's likely
- to crank out flawed products,
- to feed a high rate of complaints, returns and refunds
- to imagine the customers are fools to spend money on junk that comes off the production line.
When an enterprise structures the ongoing collaboration between production and the customers, production cleans up its act, increases the rate of satisfaction, repeat business and word of mouth advertising, as well as imagining customers spending their money wisely to get high quality goods they use effectively in their unique situations.
Obviously it pays in many ways to collaborate. It costs in as many ways to disconnect the parties to a potentially valuable collaboration. But as I explored previously in
Collaboration comes and goes, it takes a particular state of mind to see the advantages to collaborating. When a sense of safety has vanished, collaborators look like dangerous enemies or traitors. The safety issues need to be handled before setting up collaborations.
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