Unlike my past blog posts this is more of me just being reflective on the way the world has evolved over the past decade. People say the world has changed and I believe that the world has not changed but the medium has changed. Those who don’t understand the medium, well they believe the world has changed.

It is funny that these days traditional companies still view their service to their clients based on products and offerings and ignore the complete “experience”. Yes I know experience is a catch all term but in the context of this blog the term “experience” is the culmination of both product and services.

I will be the first to admit, this is not something new, but if you look around the Internet. You will think everyone has found this new talisman to profitability called “experience” or even better “Delighting your customers”. To me terms like “Delighting your customers” does not mean much, what is more valuable is what can you do for them that will make them look better in the eyes of their clients.  That is more meaningful, because you can focus on the kind of jobs you clients want to accomplish.

The web was founded on the principal to allow humankind to collaborate irrespective geographical and political boundaries (it took a while to get there) but it has not changed one thing our innate tendency to be social (matter of fact it has amplified it exponentially). Which is why the power of Web of equalizes the people who consume a service with the people who produce a service. Social computing has now allowed people to be more informed about a product and service and also understand what other people like them think about the “experience” before they commit to such a service themselves.

As most of you know I am very big Apple fan, the reason for that is Apple as a company does not do everything well, but the things that are part of my day to day routine, it does extremely well. Which is why I as a consumer will pay premium for that kind of service. Yes there is a market for a Samsung type client but that is not a demographic that belong too.

What is amazing is that most smaller companies and some big have figured out the engagement aspect of the web and have really created a fan following, where as the rest of the industry is still using the web as an online brochure for their company. In the future companies that will survive are the companies serve their clients well and use the web channel effectively to engage and build a community around them.

There are still companies that still believe that slow and steady wins the race. But unlike in Aesop’s Fables I imagine today’s world there is a big hare competing with 1000’s of tortoises and each tortoise covers piece of the track they are going to race in and they do it really well. By racing like that the hare has already lost the race before it even started because each slow tortoise is a specialist in a micro conversion (i.e. each segment) which all work together in the context of the macro conversion (i.e. win the race).

Companies of the future will all have passionate user base and community. They will have a 1000 tortoises racing and that will enable a more fluid and complete experience against the bigger hare (unless the hare come forward with a 1000’s hares themselves).They will value more what each of their peers has to say instead of “vendor speak”. They will focus and engaging rather just being consumers.

So the net is nothing has changed except the medium ….. and some are just figuring that out
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