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The only thing that matters to a company of any size is its product and customer experience. That's a load of crap. What is true for a small start-up is not ne
by swombat 17y ago
The only thing that matters to a company of any size is its product and customer experience.
That's a load of crap. What is true for a small start-up is not necessarily true for a huge behemoth.
There are many other components to the mechanisms for making money (which is what businesses are - human machines to make money), and although product development and customer services are very important in the early stages of a company, the focus shifts, later, to other areas (like sales or value chain optimisation). Those can make a much larger difference to the company's profits, once it is at scale, and so they deservedly get more attention at those scales.
This article represents a very narrow-minded, naive view of business. Perhaps you should work in a wider variety of companies before making such grand statements. Maybe read a book or two about corporations. I recommend "Management" by Peter Drucker as a (heavy, but excellent) starter.
- dcurtis 17y agoOf course those things matter, and they're part of the customer experience. Your marketing and sales strategy should be of the same quality as your product. Don't think of them separately. You're providing value with the product and convincing people to buy it with the sales and marketing strategy. Sure, the budget allocations shift back and forth, but both should always be above some minimum threshold of quality. If you think of your entire company as providing a "customer experience," then you only have one threshold, and everything is held to that standard. The companies I am angry at are the ones sacrificing product quality and value for sales and marketing. (And also companies that just ignorantly release crappy products and ignore their customers/employees.)
- sanj 17y agoBut if crappy products sell and don't sell any worse than better (and more expensive) products, then it is a mistake to invest effort into making them better. customer experience != maximizing value to shareholders I wish it were. I really do. But it isn't.
- dcurtis 17y agoCan you provide a real world example of where this is the case in a healthy market? I do not think this is true except in very poor market conditions like with monopolies or odd social situations.
- swombat 17y agoEnterprise sales. Though of course you'll argue it's not a healthy market.
- whatusername 17y agoUser Experience / Price / Design / Exclusivity / existing infrastructure / external pressure (see legal reqs, etc) A product / service can create value in all of those areas.. some are either mutually exclusive or at least practically so. To even use Apple as an example.. Great Operating system - unless you want a netbook. Or want to play games. Or create blu-ray disks. Put it this way - I'm sure you can make a better hamburger than mcdonalds. But I'm sure Ray Croc made a whole lot more money than most of the people on HN ever will.
- jnorthrop 17y agoMy brother was the brand manager for a dying food brand (well known national brand). The first thing he did when he was hired to improve the brand was to improve the quality of the food (better cuts of meat, fresher veggies, lower sodium, etc.). You know what happened? The customer complaint line was jammed with pissed people. He did a complete 180 and removed the higher quality items (the healthy stuff like vegetables), increased the quantity and sales started to climb. That is a clear case of people wanting crap... in fact demanding it instead of the better quality product. Note: Sorry for being vague about the brand but he is still there and might not want the full story public.
- michael_dorfman 17y agoThe key point of your story is that your brother's definition of "higher quality" didn't mesh with the customer's. That's a problem. If people were satisfied with the product, changing the ingredients is definitely going to add risk. I worked for a food manufacturer, once upon a time, and we did extensive triangle testing even when sourcing ingredients from a new vendor. People want quality. That doesn't mean their taste is the same as yours...
- auston 17y agoperfect example of a company that doesnt give a crap about their customer experience but cares deeply about efficient processes: Wal-Mart try asking someone at a walmart in a metro area where you can find car tarps or universal remotes...