Читать книгу Digital Disciplines - Wiersema Fred - Страница 10

Solution leadership is a broad concept encompassing extensible, adaptable, smart digital products and services connected to cloud-based capabilities and an expansive partner ecosystem including social networks, which all together offer a unique, differentiated “product-service system” that can grow exponentially – in terms of features, customer adoption, and revenues – via network effects.

The original Apple iPod was a better product, thanks to its innovative click wheel, elegant design, and features such as random shuffle. It was also a better solution, thanks to iTunes and access to a near-infinite library of songs. The Apple iPhone was a better product, thanks to its innovative touchscreen, elegant design, and ease of use. It was a better solution, thanks to the App Store and the third-party app developer community. Thanks to network effects, more customers mean more apps, and more apps mean more customers. More of both mean more money: the Apple App Store crossed the $10 billion per year revenue threshold in 2013,10 and grew another 50 percent in 2014.11

Services are becoming smart, digital, and connected, too: Pandora, TiVo, Netflix, and Shazam are connected services, driven by the cloud. Amazon.com is a connected retail service. But it isn't just virtual services: Domino's pizzerias are connected; the water and electric and cable utility services have points of presence such as smart meters and set-top boxes that are connected; Staples in-store copiers are connected; Uber transportation services are connected; FedEx and UPS delivery services are connected; and so on.

Products and services aren't limited to handheld devices or web applications running on PCs. BMW Group has driven past treating cars as standalone products and now views them as smart, digitalized12 solutions that tie to a global cloud of data centers, offering solutions ranging from entertainment to real-time traffic information, access to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and services such as Pandora and Yelp. Nike has sprinted past the idea of athletic shoes as just products, and now sees them as integrated with cloud-based activity trackers, digital coaching services, and social networks such as Facebook. GE sells aircraft engines and wind turbines, but is flying high by tying them back to engineers and customers who are fed enormous amounts of data to maximize performance and improve designs. Chapter 10 will delve into Nike's approach to solution leadership through the Nike+ flexible partner ecosystem, and Chapter 17 will examine GE in more depth.