A quick update (November)

Hello all,

I trust this email finds you well.  I have made a personal commitment to stay better connected to my friends and colleges (whom I don't get to see face to face enough).  To further that goal, what follows is a brief update on what I'm up to personally and professionally.

Insights and Reflections

We have witnessed the begining of another peaceful transition of leadership here in the United States.  The election was won primarly on a message of change.  As I thought about that topic, I was reminded two gurus:

Change is the only constant.
- Heraclitus, Greek philosopher

The second is John P. Kotter, leading thinker on managing large scale change at Harvard Business School.  He offers the following framework for our new president:

1. Establish a sense of urgency - this one took care of itself, financial markets, Iraq, .....
2. Form a powerful guiding coalition - bi-partisan cabinet choices will be very important
3. Create and communicate a vision - TBD
4. Empower others to act on this vision - TBD
5. Plan for and create short term wins - TBD
6. Institutionalize continual improvement - TBD

Professionally
Things at Acxiom are going well.  We are weathering the economic storm and I expect we will gain some market share as key companies consolidate and expand their positions.  The multi-channel marketing strategy practice that I lead has launched four new offerings:

 

1.  Multi-Channel Marketing Assessment  -  Provides a third party objective state of the union, prioritized set of recommendations, and a project plan for an organizations multi-channel marketing capabilities

2.  Media Performance Normative Database -  Provides a third party comparative benchmark of how an organization ranks on key media metrics such as cost per unit of media, response rate, and conversion rates

3.  Customer Centricity Migration Model -  Provides a guided organizational change management framework to migrate from a product centric orientation to a customer centric orientation

4.  Media Mix Optimization - Provides a econometric framework for evaluating future media investment options

 

Personally
Since my last update, James (my son) broke his arm on the trampoline.  At 2.5, it really doesn't slow him down that much... but it sure has been exciting for mom and dad!  Everything looks good for the baby on the way.  I will be in Cambridge, MA Jan 25-30th for my first class at M.I.T.

The November election marked one year since my brother was killed in Iraq.  The guys from Navy EODMU11 few the flag at half mast over Camp Kevin Bewley and FOB Speicher.  I've got pictures on my blog of both for those interested.  Let's hope that this election and the next year brings better times for all.

I'm on Twitter and post updates as I travel to different cities.  Keep and eye out and let's get together for coffee or lunch.

I have some new contact information:

email: jpbewley@post.harvard.edu
phone: 678-763-5841

twitter: http://twitter.com/jpbewley

 

Talk soon,

 

JPB

--
J Patrick Bewley
"Proud Heritage, Bold Future"
Check out my blog: http://www.jpatrickbewley.com
678-763-5841

Is Customer Centricity a Disruptive Innovation?

Over the last several years I have worked with many great companies on the development and implementation of Scientific Marketing Strategies. Repeatedly, while customer centric, one-to-one, multi-channel marketing strategies are long on promise, companies practical results often fall short of the goals that hope to achieve.

After much analysis of companies marketing programs and their ability to achieve break-thru results, I have began to think of customer centric marketing strategies thru the school of thought taught to me by my Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen.  

Professor Christensen describes the abundance of data across multiple industries in detail in his book the Innovator's Dilemma and Innovator's Solution.  In this body of research he identifies that incumbent companies almost never take advantage of disruptive technologies that create new business models.  Examples abound, but to name a few Western Union and Alexander Grahm Bell (the introduction of the telephone), the US Steel industry and the rise of the mini-mills, and more recently Xerox PARC and the development of the mouse and the graphical user interface (GUI).

When we think of disruptive technologies, we often think of new hardware and or software research and development... new engineering breakthroughs.  I pose this simple question for you to consider however; Is Customer Centricity a Disruptive Innovation?

I would argue (and back up with examples) that yes, Customer Centric business models are in fact a disruptive innovation.  As we design marketing strategies for clients these days, we structure the framework for change as we would a plan for disruptive innovation, also including the sage lessons learned in organizational change management pioneered by another Harvard leadership guru, John P. Kotter.

When a migration from a product centric orientation to a customer centric orientation is thought of as a disruptive innovation and managed thru a framework for organizational change, we see customers achieve up to 2x top line revenue growth and significant bottom line improvements over their direct peers.

Social Media and the distinction from industrial media

Social media are distinct from industrial media, such as newspapers, television, and film. While social media are relatively cheap tools that enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information, industrial media are relatively expensive tools that generally require significant financial capital to publish information (which often limits their use to commercial purposes)[3]. Examples of industrial media include a printing press or a government-granted spectrum license.
"Industrial media" are commonly referred to as "traditional" or "mass" media.

One characteristic shared by both social media and industrial media is the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or a television show may reach zero people or millions of people. "Reach" describes one of four properties which help describe the differences between social media and industrial media:

• Reach - both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and enable anyone to reach a global audience.
  
• Accessibility - the means of production for industrial media are typically exclusively controlled by for-profit enterprises; social media tools are generally available to anyone at little or no cost.
  
• Usability — industrial media production typically requires specialized skills and training. Most social media simplify those processes, or in some cases reinvent them, so anyone can operate the means of production.
  
• Recency — the time lag between communications produced by industrial media is relatively long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social media (which can be capable of virtually instantaneous responses; only the participants determine any delay in response).
  

In his 2006 book The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yochai Benkler analyzed many of these distinctions and their implications in terms of both economics and political liberty. However, Benkler, like many academics, uses the neologism Network Economy or "network information economy" to describe the underlying economic, social, and technological characteristics of what has come to be known as "social media."

What is disruptive technology?

A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a term describing a technological innovation, product, or service that uses a "disruptive" strategy, rather than an "evolutionary" or "sustaining" strategy, to overturn the existing dominant technologies or status quo products in a market. Disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into low-end and new-market disruptive innovations. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers who were ignored by established companies. It has been systematically shown to the research community that most disruptive innovations are in a minority compared to revolutionary innovations which introduce an innovation of higher performance to the market. Examples of true disruptive innovations, ie. innovations that are lower in performance and lower cost, succeeding are rare. Occasionally, a disruptive technology comes to dominate an existing market by either filling a role in a new market that the older technology could not fill (as cheaper, lower capacity but smaller-sized flash memory is doing for personal data storage in the 2000s) or by successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally displacing the market incumbents (as digital photography has largely replaced film photography).

By contrast, a "revolutionary technology" introduces products with highly improved new features into the market. This is the innovation that most often replaces the incumbent [automobile - horse drawn vehicle]. In addition, a "sustaining technology or innovation" improves product performance of established products. Sustaining technologies are often incremental; however, they can also be radical or discontinuous.

The final election results

Flag flies at half mast, IED Training Range at Camp Speicher Iraq

One year today, the flag at the IED Range at Camp Speicher Iraq flies at half mast in honor of Kevin R. Bewley. We never forget. Thanks to the guys from Navy EODMU11 for keeping the memory alive and sending along the picture.

A good first showing!

Crossing party lines!