Susan Boyle, a 47 year-old unemployed woman appeared as anything but a leading candidate for British Idol success. (Blockbuster American Idol and its British spin off are talent shows for amateur singing talents.) Prior to her appearance, Boyle had spent her adult life caring for aging parents in a small Scottish town. No wonder the judges and audience laughed as the overweight, seemingly backward woman walked onto the stage in a frumpy dress, with a 1950ish haircut and challenging accent, claiming she wanted a career as a singer. Boyle’s moving rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the Broadway Tony-award winning musical Les Miserables drew gasps then cheers and then a spontaneous standing ovation from the audience. With a voice which made Julie Andrews, star of Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, sound amateurish, Boyle’s try-out became You-Tube’s most watched video in 2009….
Toyota’s Once Unbeatable Business Model Now Anything But
Milk is bad for children’s bones. Superman became a serial murderer. Shocking, yes? But no less shocking than Toyota, the world-class manufacturing quality expert, recalling millions of cars across its product lines. Three generations after its founder created Toyota on a philosophy that built quality into every step, it turns out that Toyota’s quality has been steadily eroding. Today, Toyota’s quality issues are deep and systemic. After all, the company’s problems: Involve multiple components, vehicles and years of manufacture. Create dangerous safety issues – failing brakes and uncontrollable self-accelerating gas pedals. Were surfaced years ago yet are leading to recalls only under regulatory pressure. May not have had the attention of top management until after all hell broke loose. (Toyota’s CEO just recently committed to creating a senior level “quality committee” to look into the problem.) May not yet be truly resolved. While…
Market disruptions demand business model innovation
The 2008-2009 economic recession changed customer and business behaviors, not unlike how a hurricane reshapes the built and natural environment. If you are not incorporating recession-induced changes into your business model strategy, your market position will weaken. The Recession Has Changed Consumer Behavior – Forever A recent in-depth study of consumer attitudes and behaviors by Context-Based Research Group, an ethnographic research and consulting firm, adds to the growing evidence that consumers have changed for good. (Listen up B2B company leaders, because your customers will change along with these consumer changes.) Consumers, after living through needed financial downsizing or, for the wealthy, downplaying of wealth, have discovered there’s magic in less. According to the authors: “Our studies portray a society moving into an era where we measure the quality of our lives in social terms before economic ones. Forty-three percent of Americans believe the…