The Connected Company

Managers think that standardization is a good thing to do. If we standardize, goes the idea, our costs will go down. But if your interactions are highly variable, as most service interactions are, then the opposite will happen. Attempts to standardize the work will make costs go up, not down. This is because standardizing the work reduces the abili

But they weren’t connected to a global network with the potential to amplify their opinions and experiences to hurricane strength. And that little thing we call “linking” makes all the difference.

Bad profits maximize transaction value, but they destroy relationships in the process.

A system is not just the sum of its parts. What makes a system work is not the parts in isolation, but the interactions between them, and the inherent tradeoffs that must be made to achieve different kinds of system performance. Standardization is something you apply to the parts of a system, not a whole. A best practice from one company, or from o

A customer-focused company knows what its customers care about and builds capabilities and strategies that reinforce its advantages over time.

Connecting your company with customers will require ongoing, continuous feedback between your company and customers. Without that continuous dialogue, it’s inevitable that you will drift apart over time. If you want to stay close to your customers, you will need to become a connected company.

The majority of business growth in the coming decades — new jobs and new businesses — will come from services.

Products aren’t just things. They are servants.

What made customers happy a few years ago won’t necessarily make them happy today. In other words, if you’re not learning and evolving, you’re falling behind.