Blog:

Jeneanne Rae of Business Week recently contributed a very well written and stated article titled Industrial Strength Innovation.

Below are a few selected quotes that reinforce some of my own experiences and beliefs for what businesses, across all industries, must do in order to remain competitive:

Smart companies who supply core industrial components—from paint to ball bearings to wood—are analyzing their customers' businesses to find new ways to add value. Instead of just supplying paint, PPG goes the distance to provide painted parts to its customers. Manufacturers such as Siemens and Johnson Controls (JCI) no longer sell heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment to customers, they sell conditioned air at negotiated rates they know they can meet because they're intimately familiar with the technical capabilities of their products.

If your company is simply selling or supplying products to a customer, then it's behind. If your product isn't being sold as part of a solution package that includes a service, information/transaction, and/or value-chain component, competitors are crafting an offering that will shift the basis of competition in your industry away from your product's core feature set towards a solutions-oriented value proposition.

Look at your products in the context in which they are used. The winners in this game will be customer-centric companies who will do whatever necessary to help their customers solve problems and make more money. Often this requires adding capabilities, services, and/or logistics to an offering.

One quote that rings especially true for me is this one:

One answer to this challenge is to develop solutions side by side with your best customers, trusted vendors, industry players, or even your competitors. Better research and analysis, more contact with customers, and measurement of customer satisfaction can help reverse this trend with the result being more empathy that can be poured into innovation efforts.