It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [65]
“Think about it, this is exactly what Pete did. First he chose to define his market as the buyer’s, since they are the ones who directly interact with him. They are the ones who, when Pete succeeds in improving their perception, can react almost immediately. Then he solved the major problems of the buyer. No wonder the buyer’s perception of value for Pete’s offering took a quantum leap.”
“Wait a minute,” Jim is on guard. “What you’re saying is that you have to know the client, you have to make sure that you address his needs.”
“Precisely.”
“I’m sorry, Alex,” he looks disappointed, “but this is lesson number one in business. Everybody is trying hard to find the real needs of their clients and address them better than the competition. I don’t see anything new in what you tell us.”
“No, Jim. Every company claims that that’s what they’re doing. But almost nobody is.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Jim is more careful now.
“Okay. Tell me, how do you think companies find the real needs of their clients?”
“I don’t know the details, but they do it. I know that they invest a lot in market surveys, for example.”
“Excellent example,” I agree. “Only four months ago we got such a survey on Pressure-Steam’s market. Our market research department gave us a two-hundred-page document, with lots and lots of data. I bet that every UDE the clients have, especially with us or our products, was listed in tables, diagrams and histograms. A lot of benchmarking, every cross-section that you can think of was there. But do you know what we’ve done with it?”
“Probably nothing,” he admits.
“Almost. We were impressed. We even launched some activities to try and address some of the UDEs, but it really didn’t tell us anything that we didn’t already know, or at least suspect.”
“So, what’s your point?”
“My point is that you’re right. Everyone is trying to address the UDEs of the client. But compare it to what Pete did. See the difference?”
I drink some beer and wait for them to catch up.
“There is a difference,” Jim admits. “And not a small one. But I can’t quite articulate it . . . . ”
“That’s just because you aren’t so used to our terminology. The difference is that everyone is trying to address the client’s UDEs. Pete is addressing the client’s core problem.”
“Yes, of course,” Brandon says. “I have always claimed that dealing with symptoms is ineffective. We should aim at the root causes.”
“Not enough.” I have to make sure they see how it really fits together. “Root causes are not enough for me. We should try to correct a core problem, one that is responsible not just for one or two UDEs, but for a whole gamut.”
“I see,” says Jim. “And you seem to have the perfect tool to do it. The Current Reality Tree. You demonstrated to us that you can start with a list of seemingly unconnected UDEs and end up with a core problem. What a demonstration. I’ll never forget it.”
Boy, Jim sure is sharp.
I try to summarize, “Remember your concern about finding out which changes in our offering would have a big impact on the clients? Now you see why I’m so sure we will be able to do it, Brandon?”
He still fudges, but his expression is more relaxed and confident.
“So let me see if I understand your suggestion,” Jim pushes on. “First, you’re going to survey the market to get the UDEs.”
“Jim, I don’t have to survey the market, I think surveys are a waste of time and money. My people know the market well enough to come up with a good representative list of UDEs, and even if they didn’t, just meeting with two or three clients surfaces enough UDEs. You don’t need to have every single UDE to write a good Current Reality Tree, a representative sample is usually enough to identify the core problem.”
“Right. So, you are going to take the UDEs