Monday Mornings with Madison

The “Many-Sizes-Many-Approaches” Business Model

One of the hardest things for businesses to understand is how their clients truly think and feel.  One of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs and managers make is to assume that customers want the same things that they want.  Typical thinking goes something like this:  “If I like X, then my customers must like X too.  If I really dislike Y, then I’ll bet my customers must really dislike Y too.”  This “Just Like Me” mentality seeps into sales techniques, marketing campaigns, operational procedures, customer service policies and more.  But, in truth, management is often totally out of touch and confused about what their clients want or need in order to be satisfied and remain loyal.  This “Just Like Me” thinking is like a poison that seeps into the water… it blends in and contaminates everything.  It makes a manager mistakenly believe that he knows what’s best for clients because everyone thinks and feels just like he does.

Why are business decision-makers so sure that – when it comes to their business model, operational practices and service delivery methods — they know definitively what all their customers like and want?  The truth is that what people like, want and value is as varied as there are scents in the olfactory spectrum (1 trillion).  And that is part of the problem since business people want / need to find the “one right answer” for how to service clients.  They are looking for a “One-Size-Fits-All” approach, and often the easiest solution is to say “I know best.”   But is a “One-Size-Fits-All” approach for servicing customers best? Is there an alternative?

Vive la Différence!

In France, there is a common expression: “Vive la différence!”…or “Long live the difference”.  It is generally used to acknowledge that people are different and those differences are to be celebrated.  However, business execs prefer uniformity and simplicity in order to make business run smoothly, and often don’t feel that people are really all that different.  Their wants and needs, and even their way of thinking, don’t vary all that much.  So how true is that?

Let’s start with gender.  Is there a difference in how men and women think?  While most people probably agree to a large extent that men and women think differently, they may not realize that male and female brains even process information differently at a neurological level.  It has been scientifically proven that men have better motor and spatial abilities than women, and more monomaniacal (intent concentration on a single subject or idea) patterns of thought while women have better memories, are more socially adept, and are better at dealing with several things at once.

As reported by the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Ragini Verma of the University of Pennsylvania and her team used diffusion tensor imaging to detect bundles of neural fibers in the brain, and saw where neural transmissions were going.  They applied the technique to 428 men and boys, and 521 women and girls. These two diagrams show the results.  This image shows the connection trends averaged from the sum of participants’ brains.

To understand the image, it helps to understand basic brain structure.  The two main parts of a human brain are the cerebrum, above and towards the front, which does the thinking, and the cerebellum, below and towards the back, which does the acting. Each is divided into right and left hemispheres. As the diagrams show, in males (on the left) the dominant connections in the cerebrum, marked in blue, are within hemispheres. In females (on the right diagram), the connections, marked in orange, are between hemispheres. The left and right sides of the cerebrum, in particular, are believed to be specialized for logical and intuitive thought respectively.  The cross-talk between them in women explains their better memories, social adeptness and ability to multitask, all of which benefit from the hemispheres collaborating. In men, by contrast, within-hemisphere links let them focus on things that do not need complex inputs from both hemispheres.

But, in the cerebellum (not visible because it is under the cerebrum), it is the other way around.  When it came to the cerebellum, the extra cross-links between hemispheres in men served to coordinate the activity of the whole body. That’s important because each half controls, by itself, only one half of the body. Hence men have better motor abilities and are better coordinated than women.  In women, those connections are within each hemisphere.

But the differences in people are not just arising from gender.  Nationality, economic level, cultural influences, education, generation/age, and a multitude of other variables also affect how people think, what they need and what they value.  And then there’s the ultimate unknown variable, genetics.  A large part of who we are is inherited from our family, and it affects our tastes and preferences.  Ultimately, any business wanting to cater to the specific needs of its clients will have to embrace a “Many-Sizes-Many-Approaches” business model.   That means managers will have to abandon the “Just Like Me” approach to decision-making and accept that many strategies will speak to clients who are “not at all like me.”

Judging a Book by What is Under the Cover

What does this “different strokes for different folks” approach look like in practical terms?  Can a business or industry really tailor its products or services to serve all different kinds of needs?  Let’s consider how the book publishing industry has adjusted to a “different strokes for different folks” model.

From the time when books first began to be published en masse with the invention of the Gutenberg metal printing press in 1455 and the creation of paper mills, people read books that writers wrote.  Books varied in length, but, due to the cost of publishing, they adhered to certain parameters.  Novels, for example, could range from 50,000 to 300,000 words.  Of course, there were exceptions.  Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” was a whopping 587,287 words and “The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane was a mere 47,180 words, but the typical novel was (for 500 years) and has remained about 100,000 words or 300 pages.  In the 17th, 18th and even 19th centuries, most books were around that length.  Take it or leave it.

Then, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a new literary trend emerged called the Novella.  Novellas were shorter in length, ranging typically from 30,000 to 50,000 words.   However, there were Novellas as short as 17,500 words.  Length wasn’t the only distinguishing feature between a Novel and a Novella.  Novellas were generally restricted to a single, suspenseful event, situation, or conflict leading to an unexpected turning point, provoking a logical but surprising end.  They appealed to a different audience; to customers wanting a read that had fewer conflicts and could be read in a single sitting.  Anything shorter than a Novella was considered a “short story.”

However, this three-sizes-fits-all selection (Novel, Novella or Short Story) really did not meet the needs of all book-reading customers.  Most recently, a new type of book has emerged that’s even shorter than a Novella.  It is a Novelette.  Author James Patterson, who has published 152 books which have sold over 325 million copies worldwide, is coming out with a new line of these new books – called BookShots (like a shot of Espresso).  These Novelettes will be shorter, roughly 7,500 to 17,500 words, and more propulsive than Novels or Novellas.  They will also cost less, under five dollars, and can be easily read in a single sitting.

The goal of Patterson’s new line is to not only capture the readers who are drifting from the traditional Novel or Novella formats but also those who may have never adopted them. Specifically, the line is aimed at overcoming a growing challenge of diminishing attentions spans among today’s readers.  Indeed, according to a Pew Research Center survey, 27% of American adults indicated that they haven’t read a book in the past year.  This does not necessarily indicate that Americans aren’t consuming information. On the contrary, Americans are consuming more information than ever, just in many formats and from many sources.  Writers and publishers are simply adjusting their business model to further cater to their customers’ needs.

Of course, this is coupled with the expansion of genres to ensure that readers get exactly what they want.  Comedy.  Drama.  Non-fiction.  Realistic fiction.  Romance.  Satire.  Tragedy.  Horror.  Plus any mix of those genres and a wealth of subgenres, such as Historical-Fiction or Suspense/Thriller, which are now very common.  And, of course, with the invention of eReaders such as the Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook, customers can consume these books either in print or electronically and read them on eReaders, tablets and even smartphones.

What’s the point?  Publishers did not say “I like Fiction Novels that are 100,000 words in length, and therefore all of my customers must like Fiction Novels that are that length.”  (Well, perhaps some did but they probably went out of business.)  Savvy publishers looked at research, listened to customer feedback and adjusted literary lengths according to customer needs.  The publishing industry – from writers and editors to publishing houses — evolved as their customers’ needs became more varied.

People are different.  They think differently.  They have different needs and values.  What is right for some customers may not be right for others.  Businesses that adopt a “One-Size-Fits-All” approach to business may lose business as clients seek to get what they want exactly how they want it.  It is important for companies to adopt a “whatever it takes” attitude and empower staff to do whatever is needed to keep a customer happy.  The definition of five-star service is delivering a unique experience to every customer because every customer is unique.   Yes, vive la difference, not only in customers’ needs but also in the approaches that businesses take to meet those needs.

Quote of the Week

“We foster a climate where the employee can deliver what the customer wants. You cannot deliver what the customer wants by controlling the employee.” Horst Schulze, former President of Ritz Carlton Hotels

 

© 2016, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.

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