But if you want to see the impact of the Web, they say, don't look on Wall Street or even in Silicon Valley. That is where the real business revolution is taking place. Over the past year, the two men have studied 30 companies with products that range from office furniture to footwear, from auto insurance to cement. In an interview with Fast Company, Bovet and Martha offered five value propositions that are reshaping the relationships between companies and their customers. The companies that win in this environment will be the ones with business designs that begin and end with customers.
Customers love choice, but they can be overwhelmed by too much of it.
Companies like Dell, Gateway, and Weyerhaeuser use choiceboards to manage demand and to balance demand with supply. Dell became famous for this approach long before the Web became as important as it is today. For years, Dell's telephone reps would find out right away if the company was running low on, say, a specific memory module. Whether buyers go online, call Gateway's toll-free order number, or walk into a Gateway Country store, they will encounter a choiceboard that offers controlled choices and that feeds information into Gateway's fulfillment infrastructure. Speed means instant gratification and high-velocity response.