Code Halos: How the Digital Lives of People, Things, and Organizations are Changing the Rules of Business

Chapter ThreeThe Five Business Code Halos: Connecting Customers, Products, and Organizations

Code Halos are as much about products, services, employees, and entire organizations as they are about customers. We see five types of Code Halo solutions emerging.

• Customer Code Halos: the new basis of customer relationships.
• Product Code Halos: shifting value from widgets to digits.
• Employee Code Halos: allowing team members to connect and solve problems in new ways.
• Partner Code Halos: enabling ecosystem members to connect and form value webs for new levels of innovation and efficiency.
• Enterprise Code Halos: the new brand aggregators.

This chapter will review each of these five Code Halos in depth. You’ll likely recognize immediate applicability of at least one or two of them to your organization.

The Customer Code Halo: The Relationship Maker

We know that our personal Code Halos create a digital key that, when applied to the right lock, can open up incredible new experiences and enhanced value. An enterprise’s customer Code Halo—such as the profile a company has about you and other customers similar to you—is that lock.

Companies are able to capture and leverage consumer data to generate personalized customer experiences by using sophisticated algorithms that they apply to individualized code. For example, Amazon’s “Betterizer” system pioneered the customer Code Halo and led the way in designing the Amazon experience around the customer, rather than around the company.

Amazon’s ...