The buyer went with the new process! The seller went out of business.
Someday in the future, the business world will study the print equipment and services industry. The question is, will the course be in the chapters discussing industries destroyed by innovation, Or will the course describe an industry whose actors reinvented processes and continued through modern-day relevance?
One reason industries collapse is that they are too obsessed with their products and instead should be obsessed with the processes used in the product's deliverables.
Product manufacturers must focus on the buyer's desired outcome and how their product serves as the buyer's means to achieve those outcomes. Therefore, relevance is in the attention of the processes.
We have recently read where Ford has doubled the 2022 numbers of the electric F150 truck. Ford, as nearly all auto manufactures, are quickly modifying their product to adapt to new EV processes.
Unfortunately, all industries that face a process innovation also face new competitors positioned better to deliver the industry's innovation.
The EV is more about software than hardware. Therefore, manufacturing the vehicle's body is less relevant than the vehicle's software. As a result, the combustible engine and its dependency on parts and supplies are eliminated.
Apple and other software developers are disrupting the auto industry. Along with folks like Tesla and Carvana disrupting the distribution of the vehicles. Our friends at Tesla were always about disrupting the status quo processes of acquiring, driving, and maintaining an automobile.
Elon Musk gave birth to the process changes, which are and will completely redefine the automobile industry.
With its once vast parking lot landscape, the auto dealership is fading away as vehicle acquisition is executed in the landscape of the digital world.
In addition, the service centers built to replace parts and combustible tune-up engines are no longer needed, as the EV maintenance is now a software update in the car owner's garage.
The actors within the auto industry still have the deniers, still have the lazy executives hoping they can retire before the ongoing innovation consumes them, Still have the reunions where the status quo wallows in comfort, and still eliminates all painful conversations in favor of comfortable propaganda. Ironically, some still believe the seller is more important than the buyer.
The business print equipment supplies and service industry can learn so much from the current automobile industry. In both these industries, it will be the innovation of processes and how the product manufacturers, distributors, and dealers adapt to those processes, which will determine the the industry's continuance relevance.
The lessons to learn don't have to come from business history books if those seeking education can open their minds to the modern-day realities.
Status quo is the killer of all that will be invented.
Ray Stasieczko
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