Treacy, Wiersma and thoughts on Design Business

Where do you stand?

Treacy and Wiersma (see ref. below) suggest that to succeed in a marketplace, we should wholeheartedly embrace one of the three key competitive strategies (not forgetting to perform to an acceptable level in the other two).

Which are you? We've found it's been a stimulating question to be asking ourselves here in the Expology studio.  Design teams are often flexible in their nature - so flexible that we could have a self-perception of performing reasonably well in all of the competitive strategies.  However, if Treacy and Wiersma are correct, we'd best choose one strategy for more of our focus. 

And also interesting to push the question back to the clients when they're setting their brief for a brand experience, or a re-design of their visitor areas. We should  rarely be designing for 'who we are'...  better to design for 'who we aim to be' as a group or as an organisation. 

So here are the three options up for grabs. How are you approaching your own competitive strategy?

Operational Excellence?

Streamling of operations for cost reduction.  High-volume, standardized service without strong market differentiation. 

Ideal for markets where customers value cost over choice (public housing). Leaders in the area of OE are strongly centralized, with strong organizational discipline and nearly templated delivery of service. 

Examples of companies in other sectors who persue this competitive strategy include IKEA, McDonald’s and FedEx.

Customer Intimacy?

Offer a unique range of personalised services. Services bundled and tailored in response to differing customer needs. 

You need to cultivate deep customer knowledge as well as insights into their  business processes. Your design process and service is rarely going to be your client’s cheapest option, but is still regarded as “good enough” rather than “best possible”. 

Customer intimacy is achieved by adjusting your service delivery, around the needs of individual clients. This type of firm tend to have a flexible staffing structure, that allows freedom to adapt quickly according to client needs. Examples of companies in other sectors who pursue this type of strategy include IBM, Lexus, Virgin Atlantic and Amazon.

Product Leadership? 

Aim to build a culture that continuously offers “Best Possible” service to market. Product leaders achieve premium fees thanks to the experience they create for their customers.

Product leaders recognize that excellence in creativity, problem solving and teamwork is critical to their success. This reliance on expensive talent means that product leaders seek to leverage their expertise across geographical and organizational boundaries by mastering such disciplines as collaboration and knowledge management. 

Examples of these include Apple, BMW and Pfizer.

REFERENCE: Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersma (1997). The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.