One of the things we're noticing about work today is that the expectations of when projects need to be completed (NOW!!) and how long work is expected to take to get from brief to completion (NOW!). It's no longer enough to say, we'll need a week or we'll need some time. Economic pressures, business realities and the need to drive sales NOW!! have forced companies like ours (and anyone in a service business for that matter) to adapt. It's not warp speed. It's hyper-warp speed.
And one of the biggest mistake companies in the service business can make is to compare themselves to others in their business as a point of
reference.
"If every other company like ours takes a week, then we have a week." Wrong.
It's wrong because that's not what you're being compared against. The frame of reference has changed.
We recently ordered a USB power adapter for an iphone from the apple.ca web site. Cost us about $40.
We ordered it just after midnight on March 12. It arrived in our office on March 13. But what was more astounding was the rout it took to get here; Started in China, went to Hong Kong, then to Alaska, then to Newark, then to Mississauga and then to our office in downtown Toronto. In one day. And did we mention, the shipping was free?
Obviously, shipping a product from a warehouse is different than delivering an idea or a creative solution to a problem. But, as the rules of the game change and companies like FedEx, Amazon, Apple, Zappos and others continue to raise the bar, how will your company adapt to the new speed of business?
Comments