Have you considered what your organization’s order qualifiers and order winners are? Nearly 3 decades ago, London Business School professor Terry Hill introduced the concept to manufacturers, describing qualifiers as basic characteristics that an organization, product or service needs just to be able to compete and function in the marketplace. They do not cause you to stand out, but they’re essential. Then there are winners. Winners, as their name suggests, are those unique, distinguishing stand-out characteristics that give organizations, products, services, etc. the edge over competitors. For example, they prompt consumers or distributors to buy from one company over another.

Did you know that Jones International was the first full online accredited university? Do you care? Probably not. But their situation is worth noting for the lesson that it teaches. In the 1990′s when online was new and exciting, being the first meant something. Today, being online and first might be a winner only if the organization is developing new and different strategies and tactics to keep them as an industry/sector leader for other winning reasons.   When organization such as Phoenix University and other schools became online resources for education, the public began to see online education as a qualifier. For Jones to retain its winner status, it would have to develop new and innovative winners.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 8:52 am and is filed under Creating New Product and Services, Developing Plans, Innovating Everywhere, Sales and Sales Management, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.