A business is defined by the want the customer satisfies when he buys a product or a service from a business organization.
To satisfy the customer (means to satisfy a specific want of the customer) is the mission and purpose of every business.
The question "What is our business?" can be answered ony by looking at the business from the outside, from the view point of customer and market.
The purpose of a company has to be one of the wants of customers in the market.
The customer is not attached to any product, service or company. He wants to know wht the product or service will do for him tomorrow. He is interested in his own wants, his values and his desires and world as he sees it. Therefore any serious attempt to define "what our business is" must start with the customer, his wants, his situation, his behavior, his expectations, and his values.
Therefore a searching enquiry needs to carried out to answer questions such as:
Who is our customer and what his needs?
Where is the customer?
What does the customer buy?
Is it status? Comfort? Satisfaction of a physical need? An ego need? Security?
What is value to the customer?
Is it price? Function? Quality? Service? Economy of use? Durability? Styling? Convenience?
These questions plainly need to be posed and answered at the inception of a business and whenever it gets into trouble.
But even when the business is successful, the organization have to examine their business purpose as the definition may become obsolete in the context of changes in the products and markets. The periodical examination of purpose in the light of customer studies and research will help the organization to look ahead and anticipate the impact of changes in the environment.
At any point of time, the purpose stated by the company has to be the answer to the question "What should our business be?" This question is periodically answered by the top management as a part of its setting the strategy for the future period.
Reference
Strategy and Policy
Thompson and Strickland,
Business Publications, 1978
1 comment:
Hi,
I'm Alisha from Wowzio, and I'm excited to tell you about our new widget platform that helps bloggers increase readership by providing engaging widgets containing your blog's rich content. You can check out widgets customized for your blog here:
Wowzio Widgets for your Blog
I wanted to reach out to you to ask for your feedback on these widgets (feel free to install them on your blog, if you feel they are a good fit). I'm sorry for leaving this message via a comment, it's not at all our intent to spam you ( which is why i'm leaving this comment on an older post and you can always remove this comment ). Again, we would love to hear your feedback.
Thanks,
Alisha Wright
alisha.wright1@gmail.com
Post a Comment