Business Innovation in an On Demand World

When the Internet era was born, one of its more appealing qualities was the sense of individual empowerment and freedom it gave us all.  The chief factor enabling the Internet to empower users in this way is, I believe, the culture of standards that the Internet brought to the IT industry.  Before the Internet era, technology companies competed with each other to try to establish control points with their proprietary interfaces and protocols.  The Internet showed everybody how much more valuable IT becomes when you can connect and access everything regardless of vendors, and started the IT industry on a whole new strategy based on embracing open standards.

However, the rise of standards, along with the availability of increasingly powerful and affordable technologies, is misunderstood and even feared by many, who see it as a commoditizing influence on the IT industry.  This fear may be valid for vendors whose products and services are all pretty much the same, and who therefore have to compete primarily on price.  But, those same standards that can turn businesses into commodity providers with price as their chief competitive differentiation, can turn other businesses into successful innovators, who will leverage those standards to quickly and efficiently create differentiated offerings.  In other words, far from just commoditizing what businesses and individuals do, a standards-based Internet is unleashing vastly more customization and individuality. It is making its users feel empowered, distinctive -- special. 

The more standardized the underlying technologies and services available to a business, the more critical innovation becomes as a way for the business to avoid becoming just another commodity provider, and instead becoming a provider of genuinely high value offerings.  This is one of the biggest challenges every business faces, especially in the increasingly open, integrated and global world, which Tom Friedman has written about in his very successful book "The World is Flat", and which we in IBM have been calling the On Demand World.

Further adding to the challenges faced by businesses is the fact that continuing technology advances are  sparking a business process revolution that could affect us in the 21st century as profoundly as the Industrial Revolution affected previous generations.  Lots and lots of hard work and innovation lie ahead of us to foster such a business process revolution.  For one thing, we need a much deeper understanding of the business processes we want to improve and transform; for another, we need to evolve from today's labor-intensive and one-of-a-kind approach to building business solutions, and embrace methodologies based on science and engineering, using sophisticated tools and disciplined processes, much as happened during the Industrial Revolution. And, as was the case with the Industrial Revolution, we need to standardize those processes where differentiation brings little or no incremental value, so as to avoid the huge inefficiencies involved in re-inventing the same process over and over again.  We can then apply our energies to innovating around those processes and business models that bring true differentiation and value to the business. 

I think that standardizing these business processes will have exactly the same kind of impact -- vastly stimulating innovation -- that we are seeing from technology standards.  A truly innovative business can leverage the availability of increasingly standardized, low priced technologies and services to create a special and unique experience for everyone in the business, including employees, dealers, partners, and most important, customers.  What’s more, just as the Internet proved to be a highly democratic platform available to lots and lots of people, the availability of standard business processes in a competitive marketplace means that small and mid-size businesses can have access to many of the same advanced technologies and capabilities once available only to large companies, thus helping them better compete with those companies. The criterion for success won't be size or established position, but how capable you are of doing something truly special and innovative.

History has shown us that over time, all successful technologies and services become increasingly standardized and available to more and more people at lower and lower prices. But history has equally demonstrated that those same standards open up enormous new areas to people's innovative capacities. Becoming an On Demand Business -- extending your processes across your value net, becoming more responsive and flexible -- leaves you in a position to focus your talents and resources collaboratively on the real creation of new value -- and that, then, usually leads to new growth well into the future.

Comments

[Jeff Tash]

Because I post on Blogger, ITscout.blogspot.com, I'm unable to send you a TrackBack ping (without installing a 3rd-party add-on). So, this comment is a brute force ping to let you know you I referenced your blog.

[jeff paul internet business]

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Like most affiliate marketers, he started selling his 1st resale rights product in clickbank. However, the biggest difference is this guy managed to crack the clickbank code and earn 100,000,000 every single month by working at home! Are you thinking how good it can be if you can get his clickbank blueprint? here’ s the answer to your prayer!

[squid66]

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[Authority Networker]

Most people today aren’t very receptive on being ’sold’ on something. Traditional marketing methods don't work as well as they used to. People are tired of this method for business, and a new method is now available that will make everything easier and natural…it's called attraction marketing. In incorporating the attraction marketing formula into your business, you act as an educator as well as a seller while you develop ongoing relationships with clients. The results will be much more favorable then if you were to try to hard-sell everything.

Envelope Stuffing is the most established work-from-home scam, and it’s been going for decades now. Basically, once you pay your money and sign up to work from home, you’re sent a set of envelopes and ads just like the one you responded to. You might make some money if someone responds to your ad, but eventually there just won’t be a market for it any more. Anyway, work from home offers like this are illegal pyramid schemes. You won’t make any money putting letters in envelopes

[Inbound Call Center]

The BPOs in India face an enormous challenge in reducing attrition rate and this being a nascent industry needs to draw parallels.Before we proceed its important to understand the underlying reasons for high attrition rates, which are pretty steep and are around 40-50%. Currently it is about 35% in non-voice and 45% in voice call centers. About 80% of them look for better careers within the same industry.

[Jeff Paul Shortcut to internet]

In this era of competition differentiatio on qulaity , cost , effecciency and innovation is key to growth and success .