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our guests today are nicholas eagle co
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and christian jewish nikola is a
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professor in the wharton school
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management department and christian is
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in the operations and information
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management department both of them are
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co directors of the mac institute for
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innovation management and we are going
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to be speaking with them today about the
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mutant new book called connected
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strategy building continuous customer
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relationships for competitive advantage
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by nicola and christian thank you so
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much for joining us today on knowledge
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at work oh thank you for having us
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always a pleasure to be here thank you
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Michael Thanks so to begin with you
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start your book with a really
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interesting story it's about Disney and
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it's Magic Band Service and Nick and I
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wonder if I could start with you can you
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share that story with our audience and
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what does it really reveal about the way
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in which companies have changed the way
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that they deal with customers yeah so
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usually right the connection you have
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with Disney was a ticket and you would
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hand over the ticket and you would enter
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the park and that was sort of the
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transaction that you had nowadays with
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the Magic Band about the Magic Man of
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course allows you to do as a customer is
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to have very easy very frictionless
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transactions right it opens up your
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hotel room it opens up the fast lane you
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can easily purchase things with it of
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course that sometimes makes also the
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bill rather magical at the end of its
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trip because it didn't even notice what
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you all were purchasing because it was
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so easy to do but so from the customer
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perspective it really makes it a very
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nice experience but now also from the
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side of Disney what it allows Disney to
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do is to really know where everyone is
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within the park and as a result I can
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direct you to for instance to a line of
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an attraction that is shorter or you can
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actually pre-program a particular
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itinerary and so that actually allows
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Disney to what they call jump start
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operations at the moment they open up
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the gates to the park so in some sense
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this is sort of why we call it kind of
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the magic of the Magic Band or the magic
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of the connected strategy is it makes
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customer happier while at the same time
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actually drives efficiency for the
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company it's a question what does this
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signify for the way in which companies
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relate to their customers how is how
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does this story give us insights into
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how
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that is changing really every company
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has to answer two questions right - what
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into how the what is like how do I
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delight the customer how do I provide a
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magical magical customer experience and
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that is the element that Nicolai just
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touched on when he talked about like
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opening your room wherever you are
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ordering meals having a memory book
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automatically created all of that is
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very exciting the drives of the
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willingness to pay at the same time the
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other part of the magic here is the
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whole question right usually when we as
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companies I'm an Operations professor
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when I hear all the marketing people
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talk about those customer experiences in
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the wall I'm just going to who's going
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to do the work and who's going to pay
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for that and the part of the magic here
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is also with the connected bent or was
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connected strategies in general is that
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we're changing the way that we work we
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can as Nikolai said we jumpstart
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operations we can basically do a better
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job at scheduling people we can automate
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some of the things and that allows us to
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provide these better customer
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experiences at lower fulfillment cost
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potentially and that is ultimately what
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shifts that frontier that trade-off that
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you always have between the customer
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delight and the fulfillment cost it
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shift that frontier out and that's where
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you gain competitive advantage from so
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let's sort of go a little bit deeper
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into what does this mean what what does
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this tell us about what a connected
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strategy actually is and and and why
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should companies be thinking about it
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so connected strategies really have two
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elements to them sort of on the one hand
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there is what we call the connected
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customer relationship and that is really
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rather than just sort of waiting for a
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customer to come to us with a particular
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need and then we may have something that
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you want or maybe not sort of a
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connection we call you know by what we
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have and that is quite often how firms
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still interact with their customers to
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really get a much deeper relationship
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with customers that allows us to
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anticipate potentially needs and to have
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a much more continuous relationship
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province of episodic interactions so
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that's one part of a connected strategy
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the second part of the connected
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strategy relates a bit what Christian
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was just talking about of how do we
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actually create these connected customer
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relationships at a very low cost or with
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high efficiency and that's second part
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what we call they connect the delivery
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model and they're sort of you know
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various pieces to each of these but this
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is
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the two key elements and really the
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connected delivery model is a lot about
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of how do we connect various players in
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our ecosystem to make really this
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relationship happen we'll come back in a
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bit to some of those elements but I
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would assume Christian that based on
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well think what I was saying
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that you need a fair amount of
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underpinning of technology in order to
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make these connections happen and I was
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wondering if you could talk a little bit
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about what are the some of the
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technologies that are involved in in the
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development of these connected
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strategies so I don't want to downplay
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the role of technologies here so clearly
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a lot of these things have only become
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possible with the arrival of connected
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technologies
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if you think back of the Disney bear
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Magic Band it started as a wearable
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device that people would have on the
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wrists from then many of the modern
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parks are basically getting the same
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user experience but by just leveraging
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your smartphone really if you think
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about it every one of us here has a
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Magic Band in that pocket and that is in
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many ways democratize the connected
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technology so it used to be something
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that only like wealthy well endowed
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firms could play was now every startup
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can start providing these magical
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customer experiences so the technology
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in many ways without putting the the
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importance here under kind of painting a
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picture that technology is not important
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but I think the big questions that we
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see companies arresting was is the
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imagination of new business models right
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it's like what user experiences do you
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provide how do you use the technology to
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drive down to fulfillment costs that is
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the less of attending technological
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problem but ultimately a business model
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problem exactly
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so before we come to the business model
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I was wondering it I think it might be
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helpful to look at in addition to Disney
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one or two other examples of companies
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say in retail or publishing that may
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have views connected strategies yeah
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would you like to talk about I'll take
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one and then question can can take
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another one and well let me actually go
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to running shoes because I think this is
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sort of a wonderful example it's sort of
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it used to be that the only connection I
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have with Nike is every one and a half
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years when I would buy a pair of new
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shoes and of course then my connection
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was not with Nike right it was with
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footlocker or wherever I would purchase
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these shoes so I didn't nowadays
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by shoes anymore either by a shoe with a
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chip embedded that ship talks to my cell
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phone that cell phone connects me to my
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virtual running club right and all of a
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sudden Nike actually has a daily
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interaction with me they know when I use
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the product how I used the product and
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now what Nike can do is actually try to
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fulfill a deeper need that I have
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actually my need is not to run my actual
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need is I want to finish my first
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marathon right and now we have a very
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different value proposition as Nike
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right now I want to help you with that
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goal in your life rather than just you
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know that you run at the same time of
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course Nike cannot provide all the
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services that I need but they can maybe
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connect me to some of these services
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right so they don't have to backward
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integrate into becoming running coaches
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or you know connecting me to their
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employees but they can connect me to
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some other people who love to run or
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some some coaches if I need some
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professional advice right and so it's
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it's both kind of having right this
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deeper relationship now I know more
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about you now on the one hand I can
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create a much deeper relationship and
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help you achieve some deeper goals and
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at the same time I'm connecting you to
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some other parties that you were not
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connected previously and that again
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allows me kind of to create this
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customer experience at a relatively high
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efficiency one of the first use cases I
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got interested is was the world of
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connected health care so I have a
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secondary position at the School of
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Medicine I've done a fair bit of
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research with my friends Kevin volp and
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David Ashe over in the Pearlman school
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and so if you think about health care it
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has been really very episodic in the
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past that you get sick you get in the
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hospital and while you're in the four
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walls of the hospital the hospital does
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everything for you is taking care for
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you really well spends tons and tons of
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resources at the moment that you get
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discharged they say goodbye and you're
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on your own right and then you're
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struggling with things such living a
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healthy lifestyle medication adherence
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other health choices and if you think
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about either post discharge or in the
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preventive space most of the health
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decisions that will impact our lives are
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happening outside the walls of the
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healthcare system and so the value
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proposition of connected healthcare is a
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sneaker I described it going from
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providing me a running shoe of towards
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making me a better athlete it's keep me
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healthy as opposed to just letting me
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see a doctor so that is the health care
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space
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another one who have done a bit of
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research we described it in the book and
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we see enormous potential for this so
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how would you know if you look now to
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business models that are being built
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around connected strategies could you
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talk a little bit about the business
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models and how it helps companies to
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create a sustainable competitive
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advantage all the too difficult
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questions so let's start maybe actually
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with the last one of the because I'm the
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strategy guy so I have to answer the
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question around sustainable competitive
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advantage right because it links back to
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what Christian was just saying kind of
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the good news about connected strategies
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is quite often the technologies that you
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need to create them are available you
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don't have to develop them right others
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have already developed them Google has
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developed Google Maps someone has
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developed 5g right and so I as a firm
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don't necessarily have to become a
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technology company so that's the good
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news
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the bad news is all my competitors have
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also access to the same technology all
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right and so I think what we are seeing
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is a lot of these ideas about deeper
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relationships personalization they'll
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become table stakes right everyone will
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do this and so that's why in some sense
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we feel this is actually a really
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important phenomenon because if you
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don't do it you certainly will have a
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disadvantage now the bad news is even if
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you do it you may not have an advantage
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because everyone else is also doing it
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right and so to us actually kind of the
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source of sustainable competitive
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advantage through connected strategies
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is really coming from what we will call
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the repeat loop that you're doing it
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again and again and again and if you
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really use the fact that I have now more
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interactions with you that I'm learning
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more about you and I learn more about
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people like you so I'm learning at both
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at the individual level and at the
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population level that kind of insight
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that I can gather that's probably more
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difficult to copy then it is kind of a
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particular technology that I put in
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place right so that's kind of on the on
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the sustainable competitive advantage
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front because that's I think really
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important I mean again since we are you
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know in the in the world of IPOs of uber
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and lyft right the question is not why
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is uber better than a cab company all
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right so rube is a nice example of a
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firm that has created write a product
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that customers like more and they can
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create the product at lower cost
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so that really disrupted that industry
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but that's not the critical question
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right the critical question is why super
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better than lyft right and that's a much
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harder question right so your firm's can
00:11:16
push out the frontier
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but if then other firms can find that
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same spot on that new frontier you still
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don't have an advantage yeah that leaves
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the question of the business model in
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particularly the revenue model some what
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kind of unanswered and let me try to
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tackle that in the old days when you
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wanted a product or service you would
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just pay a transaction price that you
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would want to have a toothbrush you want
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to see your dentist or their surprise
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for that and you would pay that price
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and you receive that service or that
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product if you think about connected
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devices if you think about a toothbrush
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for example that would be able to
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analyze your teeth to some diagnostic
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provide your feedback with your brushing
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behavior heck even alert your dentist
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when it sees a cavity you can basically
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provide different forms of revenue model
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right so suddenly the toothbrush could
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not be sold for just a price I could say
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like the toothbrush is basically
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available for free to consider the
00:12:06
consumer the consumer pays 10 cents per
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minute of brushing I could say leave the
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toothbrushes becoming available for free
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to the consumer it is paid by the dental
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insurance it is paid by the dentist I
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could make it pay for performance which
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is a big buzzword in terms of revenue
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models I could basically say like well
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the toothbrush is basically getting a
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fee per week or per month that my tooth
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my teeth are healthy and so it's
00:12:30
basically aligning the incentives in the
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value chain which previously was not
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possible because we just did not have
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the information about the performance
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usefulness and the value that the
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customer device out of our product or is
00:12:42
a service that's that's that's a very
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interesting way of thinking about it so
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thank you for walking me through that
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you see one of the things I found very
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interesting what you see in your book is
00:12:53
that connected strategies need to be
00:12:55
carefully designed and I was wondering
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if you could talk a little bit about the
00:13:00
connected strategy framework young--and
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and how that works
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sure so let me think about these
00:13:06
different connected customer experiences
00:13:08
we kind of sketched out can afford
00:13:09
different ways of how we see firms are
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connecting with customers and you know
00:13:14
before going there it's may be helpful
00:13:15
to really think about when you interact
00:13:17
with a customer there's a whole customer
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journey
00:13:19
customer has with you it's not just the
00:13:21
product or service that they like but
00:13:23
there are lots of other steps involved
00:13:24
right a customer needs to become aware
00:13:26
of their needs then a customer needs to
00:13:28
say okay how can I actually fulfill
00:13:30
these needs what are the options that
00:13:31
are out there what's the best option for
00:13:32
me all right so if you think about you
00:13:34
know I need to real say for retirement
00:13:37
right okay what are all the options out
00:13:39
there that I could right and what's the
00:13:40
best option for me so that's not an easy
00:13:41
problem all right then I have to go
00:13:43
about ordering this product I have to
00:13:45
pay for it I have to receive it then
00:13:47
finally I can experience it and then
00:13:49
instead of some after sale service maybe
00:13:51
support mine so there's a whole customer
00:13:53
journey so one particular or we call it
00:13:56
connected customer experience is what we
00:13:58
call respond to desire so here a
00:14:00
customer knows precisely what he or she
00:14:02
wants and they want sort of press that
00:14:04
order button and have kind of the rest
00:14:05
of this customer journey to be as
00:14:06
frictionless as possible then we have
00:14:09
curated offering which works a little
00:14:11
bit early in the customer journey here
00:14:13
I'm really trying to help you to
00:14:14
understand what are actually all the
00:14:15
options that are out there and what
00:14:16
might be the best option for you then
00:14:19
there is the coach behavior connected
00:14:21
customer experience where we say okay
00:14:23
once in a while you are aware of your
00:14:24
needs but maybe once a while kind of a
00:14:26
tap on the shoulder kind of is helpful
00:14:28
right hey have you really taken your
00:14:29
medicine today or have you really walked
00:14:31
or have you you know done you exercise
00:14:33
and then sometimes actually I Zafar may
00:14:36
understand you need before you realize
00:14:38
that you had the need and if you've
00:14:40
given me permission I will just solve
00:14:41
the problem for you right so that's kind
00:14:43
of the idea about your printer's running
00:14:45
out of toner and your printer just
00:14:46
reorders the toner right and so all of a
00:14:48
sudden I never had to do this right
00:14:50
because my printer knew it was running
00:14:51
out of toner so it could do that so we
00:14:53
have these different kinds of customer
00:14:55
experiences that we can create so the
00:14:58
important design point kind of coming
00:15:00
back to the design question is really
00:15:01
that we do not think there's one size
00:15:04
fits all we certainly do not think that
00:15:06
automated execution is always the best
00:15:09
way of dealing with a particular
00:15:11
situation
00:15:12
customers will differ a lot in their
00:15:14
preferences of how much they want to do
00:15:17
things versus have the firm do for them
00:15:18
right some customers say well give me
00:15:21
some choices and I'll choose that's
00:15:22
exactly what I need
00:15:23
others say please just do it for me for
00:15:25
me even the same customer in different
00:15:27
situations will have different
00:15:28
preferences right and I think like
00:15:30
everything else you know we need to
00:15:31
understand do you like black do you
00:15:33
like red here we need to understand
00:15:35
right what kind of connected customer
00:15:37
experience are you comfortable with what
00:15:39
kind of customer experience would you
00:15:40
really value right and that's I think
00:15:42
we're kind of the design part comes in
00:15:44
that firms need to have probably a whole
00:15:46
range of different connected customer
00:15:48
experiences available for different
00:15:49
customers for different situations I
00:15:51
think that sounds right because a
00:15:53
behavior that some customers might
00:15:54
welcome because it takes the burden off
00:15:57
them some other customers might find
00:15:59
intrusive right yeah absolutely and the
00:16:02
same one Nicole I just articulated in
00:16:03
terms of these four different connected
00:16:05
relationships is true on the operational
00:16:07
on the fulfillments that if you think
00:16:09
about how are you going to fulfill the
00:16:11
demand how are you gonna what are you
00:16:13
can do to delight the customer you can
00:16:15
think about the Disney which basically
00:16:17
is pretty integrated from you go to a
00:16:20
theme park and they just control all of
00:16:22
that at the other extreme you can think
00:16:24
about platforms where you think about
00:16:27
again when they talked about uber and
00:16:28
lyft neither uber no lyft really employs
00:16:31
drivers and owns cars with very few
00:16:33
exceptions they basically act as market
00:16:36
makers and then at the very extreme of
00:16:38
if you think about peer-to-peer networks
00:16:40
such as a Wikipedia or PatientsLikeMe
00:16:42
it's not even clear who's providing the
00:16:45
service and who is benefiting the
00:16:46
service there's just a network and so
00:16:48
just like you have to be intentional
00:16:50
about what kind of relationship you
00:16:52
offer to your customer you have to be
00:16:53
intentional about how are you going to
00:16:55
do that and again that creates a little
00:16:57
framework that we call the connected
00:16:59
strategy matrix you have to basically
00:17:00
think about it's for different customer
00:17:03
relationships you have to think about
00:17:05
what we call five different connection
00:17:07
architectures and that gives you what is
00:17:09
basically a four by five like 20
00:17:11
different options it sounds like
00:17:13
intimidating but we found that a very
00:17:15
helpful tool for you to think about like
00:17:17
how else could I basically kind of
00:17:19
delight a particular market segment
00:17:21
where is there a potentially disruptive
00:17:23
threat emerging by a startup that I see
00:17:25
elsewhere and we find that mapping this
00:17:28
out maybe in describing this connected
00:17:29
strategy matrix is a very helpful
00:17:31
exercise the other thing I found really
00:17:34
interesting about the book is you have
00:17:36
this four four four step framework of
00:17:40
where customers can you recognize
00:17:43
request respond and repeat
00:17:46
and I was wondering can we take one or
00:17:48
two examples of how companies are using
00:17:50
this kind of a framework - yeah
00:17:51
absolutely so that really goes back kind
00:17:54
of a little bit to this customer journey
00:17:55
so we can really you think about it and
00:17:57
that in that context right so the first
00:17:59
thing is we have to kind of recognize a
00:18:01
customer need or we have to help the
00:18:03
customer recognize what needed is that
00:18:05
that they have this is whether the front
00:18:07
end of the of the customer journey then
00:18:10
there is okay now I know there is a need
00:18:11
now I need to figure out right what are
00:18:12
the right options what's the best option
00:18:14
and how do we actually order that all
00:18:16
right so that's the request part so I'm
00:18:17
taking that information about the
00:18:19
customer and translate it eventually
00:18:20
into an action right a order for a
00:18:23
particular solution right which requires
00:18:25
me to first understand it's the solution
00:18:26
that I want to order right and then
00:18:28
there comes the respond part so now I as
00:18:30
a firm get this information either from
00:18:32
you or I have deduced that is actually
00:18:34
the best option that you want well have
00:18:36
I actually this optional my shell Friday
00:18:38
am I actually able to get it to you in a
00:18:40
timely fashion in a way right so that's
00:18:42
kind of what we would call that
00:18:43
connected customer experience so I had
00:18:45
the recognizing requesting and
00:18:48
responding and then comes that last loop
00:18:50
that repeat loop right so now can I do
00:18:52
this again and again and again and can I
00:18:54
by doing this learn more about you learn
00:18:57
more about customers like you and become
00:18:59
better over time in those three other Rs
00:19:01
why the recognize request and respond
00:19:03
right and I think this is again sort of
00:19:05
if you can get on to that positive
00:19:07
feedback loop that sort of where the
00:19:08
sustainable advantage might come from
00:19:10
yeah I think Nicholas gave the examples
00:19:13
of the different customer relationships
00:19:15
earlier on I think recognize requests
00:19:17
respond repeat that applies both to an
00:19:20
uber were recognized really means that
00:19:22
I'm waiting there till the customer
00:19:25
presses a button on an app saying that I
00:19:27
want a car towards recognized being a
00:19:30
sensor that is implanted in your gut
00:19:31
realizing that you have not taken your
00:19:33
medication right the recognizer can be
00:19:35
fulfilled or done in very different ways
00:19:37
and we find that framework very helpful
00:19:40
to really distinguish between these four
00:19:42
different ways that we just described in
00:19:44
the book and we also make if we find
00:19:47
comfort and that's kind of being
00:19:49
confident that they are not like three
00:19:51
other user experiences that we forgot so
00:19:54
we break it up in the in the way that
00:19:55
we're fairly confident that those are
00:19:57
the four connected customer
00:19:58
relationships that are out
00:19:59
there and again they're broken up into
00:20:01
what the role what role the firm place
00:20:03
in this journey around recognize request
00:20:05
and respond so companies think about
00:20:09
developing and implementing these
00:20:11
customer journeys and connected
00:20:15
strategies what are some of the pitfalls
00:20:17
that they should be aware of in mindful
00:20:20
of do you think yeah so I think one
00:20:25
pitfall is kind of cushion already
00:20:26
alluded to this a little bit of focusing
00:20:28
on the technology yeah because that's
00:20:30
sort of did the most visible aspect
00:20:32
right oh you know the Magic Band how
00:20:34
cool is this why it is something that
00:20:35
you wear here and then we have the
00:20:36
pylons where you write and we need to
00:20:38
put the the the network in place and
00:20:41
that's clearly important but that's to
00:20:43
certain extent the easy part
00:20:45
of putting a connected strategy in place
00:20:47
so just sticking with that example for a
00:20:49
moment of the of the Magic Band because
00:20:51
we were able to talk to some of the
00:20:53
people at Disney who actually created
00:20:54
this for them right and they said really
00:20:56
the more difficult part was the
00:20:59
organizational part of implementing this
00:21:01
right because in order to create a
00:21:03
really sort of consistent customer
00:21:05
experience what has to happen right the
00:21:08
customer needs to feel like well I'm
00:21:10
obviously of dealing in some sense with
00:21:11
the same organization right whether I go
00:21:13
online and book whether I get to the
00:21:15
hotel but I get to the theme park and
00:21:17
the problem is that up to that point
00:21:20
really a customer had to work through
00:21:22
our organizational chart right oh this
00:21:25
is that problem wall now you have to
00:21:26
deal with our online division oh this
00:21:27
problem you deal with a theme-park
00:21:28
division oh this is the restaurant
00:21:30
division right and and so you as the
00:21:31
customer had to work through this and
00:21:33
one part of the organization didn't know
00:21:36
about that customer and the other part
00:21:37
of the organization right so you had
00:21:38
treated every time as if you were like
00:21:40
this different person even though you
00:21:42
were the same person right and so again
00:21:44
like customer centricity right is sort
00:21:45
of a a keyword and and every company
00:21:48
wants to do this and hardly any
00:21:50
company's actually organized around that
00:21:52
right because we organized by functions
00:21:54
and there are good reasons we organized
00:21:56
that way and that however makes it
00:21:57
really hard kind of right so for
00:21:59
instance to treat the customer as the
00:22:01
same customer whenever we see it whoever
00:22:04
within our organization sees that
00:22:05
customer or whatever store you go to or
00:22:08
whether you're online or on the phone or
00:22:09
whatever right but unless we get to that
00:22:12
point of record
00:22:13
hey that's the same customer who become
00:22:16
very hard to learn more and more about
00:22:18
that customer right to really accumulate
00:22:20
the learning and again so that's why
00:22:22
kind of these it sounds easy kind of
00:22:25
right and then we repeat and then we
00:22:26
learn but that's really the hard part
00:22:28
but and that's an again in part it's a
00:22:30
technology issue do we actually have the
00:22:31
IT systems in place that can talk to
00:22:33
each other and make that data exchange
00:22:35
feasible but quite often it's also an
00:22:37
organizational issue do even had the
00:22:38
incentives to send my data over there
00:22:40
because maybe now you know something
00:22:42
that he shouldn't know or kind of I am
00:22:43
you know I don't get promoted but he
00:22:44
does right and then so it's those issues
00:22:46
that are quite often actually quite
00:22:48
quite difficult
00:22:48
yeah weird add to that that a lot of the
00:22:53
technologies that we describe in the
00:22:54
book like curating offerings learning
00:22:56
from the repeat cycle customization in
00:22:59
general they're all very big data type
00:23:02
of applications and we're at Wharton we
00:23:05
are the school of big data data
00:23:06
analytics we believe in this methodology
00:23:08
but I think there's also a real
00:23:10
opportunity for small data here if you
00:23:12
think about the pain points about
00:23:14
products or services again Nikolai's
00:23:16
example earlier on about the running
00:23:18
shoe that the running shoe purchase it's
00:23:20
not just about the shoe it's about self
00:23:22
fulfillment it's a very emotional thing
00:23:24
if you think about pain points when it
00:23:26
comes to getting clinical care when it
00:23:29
comes to financial savings for
00:23:30
retirement those are very personal
00:23:33
things and these pain points other than
00:23:35
the products or services themselves this
00:23:37
whole customer journey is something that
00:23:39
management has to go out and study and
00:23:41
you find these insights really best by
00:23:44
interviewing people like going out there
00:23:45
yourself even as an executive level and
00:23:48
leveraging or what I call small data
00:23:51
contextual immersion we teaches in our
00:23:53
innovation and design courses so I'd
00:23:55
really being willing to do the
00:23:56
qualitative user research as opposed to
00:23:59
just relying on click streams and big
00:24:02
data so yeah so there's no piggyback
00:24:04
again on that that comment right sort of
00:24:06
the first pitfall is it's all about the
00:24:08
technology I think the second pitfall
00:24:09
it's all about the data right and so
00:24:12
kind of again where I think a lot of
00:24:14
firms currently are stuck in is this
00:24:16
notion okay it's data that's important
00:24:18
and it's relatively easy to gather data
00:24:20
so everyone is gathering a lot of data
00:24:22
now I have every click you've ever done
00:24:23
on my website but I have no idea what to
00:24:25
do with it
00:24:26
all right and this is exactly what what
00:24:28
Christian was saying I think quite often
00:24:29
probably the better way to do it is to
00:24:31
first ask what are the pain points we
00:24:32
want to resolve and then what kind of
00:24:34
data do I need to resolve these pain
00:24:36
points I think too often right now it's
00:24:39
like let's just collect everything and
00:24:40
then we kind of tried to figure out what
00:24:41
to do with it last couple of questions
00:24:44
as connectivity continues to increase
00:24:49
how do you see the future of connected
00:24:51
strategy where do you think things are
00:24:53
going to go in the future he looks at me
00:24:57
and says am an innovation professor
00:25:01
studied computer science in the 1980s
00:25:03
and I'll tell you one anecdote from that
00:25:05
I had a class on computer networks it
00:25:08
was called back then a famous text book
00:25:10
by a guy called professor Tannenbaum and
00:25:13
it was the only subject I got a D in and
00:25:16
I remember sitting there and saying like
00:25:19
why would it make sense to connect two
00:25:21
computers to each other and so clearly I
00:25:24
bitterly fail as becoming a technology
00:25:27
visionary and I think the the evidence
00:25:30
on very smart people from the stories of
00:25:33
IBM and Microsoft they are full of bad
00:25:36
predictions technology for 10-15 years
00:25:39
is very hard to predict the one
00:25:41
prediction that I'm comfortable making
00:25:43
is we're going to be more connected and
00:25:45
or less connected I think that one is a
00:25:47
fairly safe prediction and therefore
00:25:49
it's the only prediction I'm willing to
00:25:50
make what does it imply yeah well I
00:25:55
think what again so the the general
00:25:59
thrust that we see is I think towards
00:26:01
personalization I don't mean I think
00:26:03
that is kind of a general thrusted and
00:26:04
we can do that now in a more
00:26:07
cost-effective way because I can learn
00:26:09
about you more cost-effectively I'm able
00:26:12
to respond to this in a more
00:26:13
cost-effective way and so that I think
00:26:15
is kind of a general trend we're going
00:26:17
to see right now the underlying
00:26:18
technologies will evolve right how do
00:26:20
you actually do that but I think that is
00:26:22
something that again kind of the
00:26:23
generation is growing up right now
00:26:25
they're getting used to that right and
00:26:26
so again it's sort of this notion of you
00:26:28
know Amazon knows everything about me or
00:26:31
it makes it really easy for me to order
00:26:32
and I now go to my doctor and I have to
00:26:34
fill out again all of these forms right
00:26:36
I mean Wow
00:26:37
why is that right and so I think that
00:26:39
expectation will rise similar probably
00:26:42
in our business leader in education that
00:26:43
the expectation of students will rise
00:26:45
about you know how customized is my
00:26:48
learning journey right and I think that
00:26:50
those things kind of will inevitably
00:26:52
happen in and partly in enabled through
00:26:55
the connectivity are enabled by data
00:26:57
analytics enabled by by data but
00:26:59
hopefully then also supported by a
00:27:01
deeper understanding kind of how to use
00:27:02
that data I think the other prediction
00:27:04
that we make in the book is one that it
00:27:07
sounds so much Nicola was describing
00:27:09
these four connected customer
00:27:11
relationships it sounds so much that
00:27:13
everything could be automated or
00:27:15
everything could be moved away from one
00:27:17
firm into market makers ultimately into
00:27:20
peer-to-peer networks there is not our
00:27:22
prediction that it's not our prediction
00:27:24
oftentimes if you ask yourself as a
00:27:26
consumer what you want as long as the
00:27:28
firm is reasonably responsive to your
00:27:30
needs and desires you totally find
00:27:32
making the purchasing decision yourself
00:27:34
and so we don't see everything drifting
00:27:37
towards this cloud network creators and
00:27:41
on the other end on the user experience
00:27:43
and the connected customer relationship
00:27:45
size not everything will be automated
00:27:47
for the consumer I have one final
00:27:50
question for both for each of you
00:27:52
actually and that is let's imagine that
00:27:55
I'm not here in this seat then in my
00:27:57
place there is a CEO of a company who
00:28:00
has just finished reading your book and
00:28:02
is convinced that connected strategy is
00:28:05
the way that he or she wants to take the
00:28:08
company and wants to do you each of you
00:28:11
to answer the question where do I begin
00:28:13
where do I start
00:28:15
getting things done so maybe you can
00:28:18
give some advice absolutely so the first
00:28:21
step you've already taken you've gotten
00:28:23
our book so that is that is already good
00:28:25
now actually what was quite a pleasure
00:28:29
for us to do in writing this book that
00:28:31
we were teaching at while we were
00:28:33
writing it and really our objective of
00:28:35
writing this book was to make it
00:28:37
actually as applicable as possible and
00:28:39
so I think what sets our book a little
00:28:41
bit apart is that we have these three
00:28:42
chapters in that which we call workshop
00:28:44
chapters where we really in some sense
00:28:45
take Bayat the CEO or take a manager by
00:28:48
the hand and say okay first think about
00:28:49
these questions then
00:28:50
all these questions fill up this
00:28:52
worksheet full of these worksheets right
00:28:53
and so kind of again that's what we're
00:28:55
trying to really to do in the book and
00:28:57
so I think it you know the first kinds
00:29:00
of questions would be for instance by
00:29:01
just a brainstorm a little bit of what
00:29:03
would it mean if I knew customer needs
00:29:05
before customer know them themselves
00:29:06
right what would this actually allow me
00:29:08
to do right there's this kind of
00:29:09
information but but then we kind of more
00:29:11
systematically would say okay I think a
00:29:13
very good starting point is indeed to
00:29:15
map out a customer journey you know to
00:29:16
think about the pain points to think
00:29:18
about willingness to pay drivers think
00:29:20
about what information currently flows
00:29:22
what information flows you need and you
00:29:24
know go from go from there but so yeah
00:29:26
yeah I saw there those workshop chapters
00:29:29
make it kind of more something gives you
00:29:32
something concrete to do we've broken
00:29:33
and up each chapter as like four or five
00:29:35
six seven steps that you can work on you
00:29:38
can fill out forms if you're still
00:29:40
struggling it is a heart and topic at
00:29:42
the same time very important for you on
00:29:44
our website connected to strategy comm
00:29:47
we have basically taking these
00:29:49
worksheets and we have case studies that
00:29:51
we worked with companies we worked with
00:29:53
some very smart MBA students to
00:29:55
basically avoid the situation that you
00:29:57
sit in front of an empty piece of paper
00:29:59
and don't know where to start
00:30:00
so who you have as a starting point
00:30:02
other companies who have gone through
00:30:03
that journey and it allows you to say
00:30:05
like well my company is different or
00:30:07
then let me change that part of the
00:30:08
worksheet but you don't have to start
00:30:09
from scratch with a workshop chapters
00:30:11
and our website connected strategy comm
00:30:13
you should be in good shape to make the
00:30:15
next step to collection thank you so
00:30:19
much for speaking with knowledge at work
00:30:20
of thank you for having us always a
00:30:22
pleasure thank you so much for more
00:30:26
insight from knowledge at Wharton please
00:30:28
visit knowledge Gordon
00:30:31
edu
00:30:34
[Music]
