A specific tool that is adaptable - example of catalog development

It was Cesar Ritz, the French hotelier, who coined the phrase "Le client n'a jamais tort." However, not only has Mr. Ritz turned out to be wrong, so has the customer. When the customer owns their business, he or she may or may not be receptive to formal learning opportunities. Unfortunately for those that decline to participate, the conceptual change that can emerge from these experiences can have important impact on the survival of an enterprise.

My perspective about this was formed during the implosion of the printing industry. Two technological trends converged, beginning during the 1990s. First, technology brought a revolution in productivity. For instance, certain typesetting activities required three working days for a professional to complete at the start of my career. Now these processes can be undertaken by almost anyone and discharged very quickly, perhaps in less than a minute. Enormous increases in capacity developed in this marketplace during the late 1980s.

In addition, technology brought a new way of communicating, the internet. Beginning in 1995, this form of communication began to significantly reduce demand for printed material. The combination of increased capacity and decreased demand has been a real challenge for every segment of this industry.

Working as a consultant during those years, I saw many firms in my purview close. I had tried to help many of them stay in business, but I found that managers and owners were unable to embrace conceptual change. This experience has led me to consider development of self directed, internet based mindtools for executive use.

A basic framework for the tool would be the lowly spreadsheet, which could be adapted to model very specific work processes. In our current setting, I perceive another industry undergoing structural change, the import of consumer goods. I will propose a tool to facilitate critical thinking in that marketplace.

For quite a few years, importing has been very profitable. Wage arbitrage moved the manufacture of goods to the lowest cost markets, and subsidized energy facilitated globalization via movement of the merchandise. Once imported into the USA, goods could be sold at the customary price levels. WalMart is a household name that was built using this model, but many firms that wholesale adopted these systems.

Now structural changes are manifest that will make importing a very difficult business, as printing became in the 1990s. Specific factors include poor demand, a falling US Dollar, and increased energy costs, among others. From my perspective as a consultant, I hope to help client firms stay focused on their core competences, which in this segment would be sourcing the highest quality products at the lowest cost, and maintaining relationships with distribution networks inside the USA.

The specific task to be modeled in this case is the development of the wholesale importer's product catalog, which I consider to be a simple curriculum document. Our team has worked with X to produce their full line catalog. This type of project includes extensive custom product photography, layout, printing, binding and mailing. Staff at the client firm focus on product development and on their market, which is the professional clergy.

From the example, it should be clear that is document is a major undertaking, even though it has an unsophisticated curriculum structure. Because technology has brought document creation and production tools to the end user at the desktop, other firms in the wholesale import market have decided to implement their own internal systems for developing these books. This writer feels that this would be a poor allocation of resources, the equivalent of the home run hitter taking his eye off of the ball.

Implicit in my understanding of buying and selling are parallels to education. Buyers are given the task of learning about the marketplace to determine optimal solutions to enterprise requirements. Sellers present solutions, however there is considerable bias. In the segment being considered, the wholesaler's catalog is a means for the buyer to learn what is available. Comparisons are made between catalogs of different firms, and buyers reflect upon the options presented.

This mindtool will be a self directed means for the leader of marketing, possibly the owner, to evaluate how their curriculum should be developed. The spreadsheet will have a user interface that will gather all specifications of the project. In addition, information about "soft" costs and opportunity costs will be included in calculations to the extent that the user will provide them in good faith. The graphical display functions of the spreadsheet will be used to rerepresent information from the ledger entries.

The learning outcomes, if the experience is undertaken at all, would be completely user driven. A bias is that the mindtool may show the value of my curriculum development capability in the user's specific context.

This tool will be easy to use and computer based. It can be generalized and then applied to other models distinct from merchandise wholesaling. The model of alternate processes stimulates critical thinking as the user compares various possible alternatives.

Although cost structure is the primary approach taken in model development within the tool, outsourcing business process is not just about reduced expenditure. As the marketplace morphs, this can be perceived as a tool for strategic decisions. Adaptability will be key to ongoing operation in this segment, and conceptual change will support development of evolving business structures to meet new challenges.