The Business-Oriented CIO: A Guide to Market-Driven Management

Chapter 7. Service-Offering Management

We have company think, not consumer think.... What we make is not what they want.

—C. K. Prahalad

If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have told me, "a faster horse."

—Henry Ford

There is an old marketing tale about the pet supply company that introduces a new premium dog food. Despite its upscale image, sales are miserable, so the company hires a top-notch marketing consultant to help them. The company executives explain to the consultant that they conducted an extensive advertising campaign, ran nationwide store promotions, and even went as far as to gain celebrity endorsements, but the dog food still did not sell. The consultant then asked a single question, "But do the dogs like it?" The stunned executives looked at one another for anyone who had an answer. None did. There are many versions of this story, all of questionable veracity. Yet, within this tall tale is one of the most important lessons any purveyor of a product or service can learn: Make sure that the dogs like it.

THE PROBLEM

As has been stated in other chapters, customers question whether they are getting their money's worth from information technology (IT). They report dissatisfaction with the services IT offers, the way they are delivered, and the cost. For some, it is not so much that the technology is wrong or is not acceptably delivered and supported, but that it is just not exactly right. Solutions for user problems are there, but they do not do the job completely, ...