Insight
Balancing the value of variety with the cost of complexity
Demand for variety and customization is exploding. Customers, channel partners, and consumers are being told again and again they can have anything they want. The growing variety takes many forms—expanded features, enhanced product quality and durability, higher performance, bundled services, dynamic pricing—the list goes on.
he increased competitive intensity appears everywhere. Boeing increased 787 production rates faster than any commercial widebody ever. No two 787s are exactly alike. Airbus is attempting to follow suit. Innovation is crossing traditional industry boundaries. Today, we see aerospace company SpaceX adopting higherrate manufacturing techniques perfected in automotive production. Audi, BMW, Ford, GM, and others are working on sensing and adaptive control technologies adapted from aerospace in pursuit of vehicle autonomy. As customers see the “art of the possible” elsewhere, they want more. The Internet has convinced us that we can have exactly what we want and it will be perfect just for us—if we will only take the time to find it.
One mandate for global businesses today is certain: Evolve or die.
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