Читать книгу Judgment Calls - Thomas H. Davenport - Страница 26

After the solicitation of multiple opinions, Burrill assembled a meeting of WGB family members, aiming for some collective decision making. Everything people had heard or thought was put on the table. Some of the informal advisers who had toured the house thought there just weren't as many boomer buyers as Burrill had counted on. Comments by younger families who'd been turned off by the first floor master were recalled.

Burrill's daughters, Erica and Vanessa, who handle sales and marketing for him, had also picked up signals from older couples. It seemed that while those target buyers might imagine they wanted a first floor master, when it came down to buying, they ended up purchasing what they were used to—especially when the trade-off sank in, that they would lose space on the first floor to entertain. “Half my first floor would be the master bedroom,” one buyer commented. Erica and Vanessa recalled several instances where they would have people who were very interested in the Oxford model and then decided to buy a second floor master from them—or worse, a second floor master from another builder. It led Burrill and his family to believe that as much as a first floor master is what buyers said they wanted, their buying habits reflected otherwise.

By the end of the meeting, the team had concluded that the floor plan was the problem, and had come up with ways to improve it. The specific changes to the house involved adding a bathroom to the second floor and expanding an area over the garage to accommodate it. That made it possible for parents with small children to have their bedroom on the second floor and then move downstairs at whatever point they chose. At any stage, the second “in-law” suite could be put to good use. Burrill also improved the view from the back of the house by changing some windows, and expanded the entertaining space by opening up the kitchen to the family room. The downside of making multiple changes at once is that you never know exactly what leads to a successful outcome. But Burrill had no time for academic experiments involving only one change.

The implementation of the agreed-upon changes by Burrill and WGB was also a lesson in organizational judgment. The prospect of reversing a decision that wasn't working out wasn't as painful as it would have been for many companies. This is because WGB practices what is called, in other industries, late configuration. Just as Benetton once used white yarn to produce sweaters, and only dyed them after retailers placed orders for specific colors, Burrill completes only the outsides of houses on landscaped lots for the spec houses he builds. This allows the buyer to specify interior details to their tastes, and WGB can complete the home after it's bought in as little as thirty-two days. The fact that the houses aren't fully completed also makes it feasible to alter the unfinished frame more substantially—as WGB needed to in the case of the house that wouldn't sell.