Why top managements must change their fundamental assumptions

Purpose Despite today’s profusion of customer-centric rhetoric, most business people still believe that the primary purpose of business is profits. But the most resilient and sustainably successful firms consistently select one primary purpose: enrich the lives of their customers. 10; Design\methodology\approach The article maps how the most valuable and fastest growing firms are paving the way for an era of customer-driven capitalism. Findings In the current digital age, an obsession with delivering value to customers is proving to be the key driving force for success. Practical\implications The goal of customer-value primacy is not a threat to other stakeholders. Originality\value Customer-driven leadership is a hallmark of successful management in the current context. Top management must institute and continuously support a value creation process that works backwards from the future. 10;

Leadership transformation reading list: insider guides to customer-centricity, Agile management and visionary innovation

Purpose The transition from shareholder value primacy to customer-centricity is a multi-dimensional challenge for leaders. Design/methodology/approach Five books that provide guidance.by insiders are suggested. Findings Nadella confronted culture on day one and announced that from then on, the culture would be one of collaboration and finding mutually profitable solutions. Instead of an “us vs. them,” paradigm, it would be “us with them.”

Changing the business narrative: a guide to successful experience offerings

Purpose In this article, we aim to increase understanding of the unique nature of experiences in comparison to services and explain how narrative change can enable organizations to fully participate in the experience economy. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon relevant experience design and experience economy literatures the paper outlines key differences between experiences and services. The narrative change process is then employed to provide managers specific guidelines for strategically reframing their value production paradigm to become more experience-centric. Findings rticulating key elements of an organization’s narrative such as characters and intended outcomes allows an organization to more intentionally change their narrative to align with the experience economy. Practical/implications The essential outcome of an experience is that participants do something for themselves ? for example, learn a new skill. Participation is integral to every experience transaction. Originality/value Although Pine, Gilmore, and others have detailed the differences between experiences and services, definitional disagreements and oversimplifications of these concepts still exist. This paper further differentiates these economic offerings. Additionally, this paper is the first to integrate the narrative change process into a discussion about experience strategy.

Open innovation: a growth powerhouse when integrated with dynamic digital technologies

Purpose The more recent emergence of advanced digital technologies and the acceleration of process digitization, combined with rising stakeholder expectations, have created an urgent imperative for organizations to embrace open innovation. Design/methodology/approach The analysis in this paper is based on a survey 2,379 executives representing 24 industries and 26 countries conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value. IBV researchers used descriptive statistics to understand innovation trends. To understand the role of open innovation for business performance IBV researchers segmented the sample based on two criteria: extent to which the organization sees open innovation as important for their growth strategy and the extent to which they are effective in advancing open innovation. Findings Ecosystems are key to success with open innovation, creating value opportunities within and across the value chains. 10; Practical/implications Open and interoperable technologies like hybrid cloud, APIs, blockchain and AI allow for many more ways to create value by unlocking hidden potential in existing relationships. Originality/value Open innovation drives growth; new research found that 84 percent of executives think open innovation is important for their future growth strategy.

How the leading Chinese real estate brokerage transformed into a digital platform business

Purpose In this article, we study how a Chinese real estate broker - Lianjia successfully transformed itself into Beike - China’s leading digital platform for housing transactions and services. We explain the motivation behind this platform transformation, how it turned out, and what are the lessons learned for other companies contemplating a platform transformation. Beike’s lessons are significant as they not only can help the companies achieve growth via platform transformation but also create social value by contributing to higher service quality in traditional service industries. Design/methodology/approach We draw upon comprehensive archival research into Beike, and our many years of ongoing research on platform strategy and business growth strategy. Findings This article provides important lessons for companies in traditional service industries on how to expand growth via digital platforms. We summarize four key lessons learned: 1) data is central to success in platform transformation; 2) industry knowledge and experience play an important role; 3) the right platform governance is critical in value creation; 4) harness the double powers of platform and digital transformation. Research limitations/implications More research on digital platforms and platform transformation in traditional service industries is needed to delve into the underlying factors and delineate the boundary conditions for specific details in this strategy and implementation. Practical implications This article is useful to business executives, academics, management consultants, and entrepreneurs interested in learning more about how to use digital platforms to achieve business growth and create economic and social value. In particular, Beike’s case offers inspiration and valuable lessons to companies in traditional service industries and helps them consider the factors that are important in the process of platform transformation. Social Implications This article on Beike provides an innovative solution to business leaders in traditional service industries grappling with a lack of professional standards and trust to use digital platforms to elevate service quality and create social value. Originality/value This article is unique and add value because Beike is a pioneer of using the digital platform to achieve growth and transform traditional service industries. Our study shows that platform transformation not only can help a company in a traditional industry achieve impressive growth but at the same time can create enormous social value by elevating the service quality of the whole industry.