Connected Strategy: Building Continuous Customer Relationships for Competitive Advantage

by Nicolaj Siggelkow, Christian Terwiesch

Overview

Business Models for Transforming Customer Relationships

What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships--while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost?

This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity--involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions--mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency.

In this book, strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth examples from companies operating in industries such as healthcare, financial services, mobility, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and education, Connected Strategy identifies the four pathways--respond-to-desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution--for turning episodic interactions into continuous relationships. The authors show how each pathway creates a competitive advantage, then guide you through the critical decisions for creating and implementing your own connected strategies.

Whether you're trying to revitalize strategy in an established company or disrupt an industry as a startup, this book will help you:

• Reshape your connections with your customers
• Find new ways to connect with existing suppliers while also activating new sources of capacity
• Create the right revenue model
• Make the best technology choices to support your strategy

Integrating rich examples, how-to advice, and practical tools in the form of "workshop chapters" throughout, this book is the ultimate resource for creating competitive advantage through connected relationships with your customers and redefined connections in your industry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633697003
Publisher:	Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date:	05/21/2019
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	578,129
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Nicolaj Siggelkow is the David M. Knott Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as codirector of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management. His research, which focuses on the role interactions among a firm's activities play in creating and sustaining competitive advantage, has been published in leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Organization Science. He has won more than thirty teaching awards and leads many executive education programs on strategy at Wharton. He works with companies around the globe to help them create their distinctive strategies.

Christian Terwiesch is the Andrew M. Heller Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as codirector of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management and holds a faculty appointment in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. He has written several books and published extensively in many of the leading academic journals, ranging from Management Science to the New England Journal of Medicine. He is an award-winning teacher with extensive experience in MBA teaching, online courses, and executive education.

Author social media/website info:
Nicolaj Siggelkow: linkedin.com/in/nicolajsiggelkow, nicolajsiggelkow.com, twitter.com/nicsiggelkow
Christian Terwiesch: twitter.com/Terwiesch, terwiesch.com, linkedin.com/in/terwiesch
Connected Strategy website: connected-strategy.com

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Magic of Connected Strategy ix

1 The Connected Strategy Framework 1

Part 1 The Rewards of Connected Strategies

2 Breaking the Trade-off between Superior Customer Experience and Lowering Costs 21

3 Workshop 1: Using Connectivity to Provide Superior Customer Experiences at Lower Costs 49

Part 2 Creating Connected Customer Relationships

4 Recognize, Request, and Respond: Building Connected Customer Experiences 63

5 Repeat: Building Customer Relationships to Create Competitive Advantage 91

6 Workshop 2: Building Connected Customer Relationships 121

Part 3 Creating Connected Delivery Models

7 Designing Connection Architectures 147

8 Revenue Models for Connected Strategies 173

9 Technology Infrastructure for Connected Strategies 195

10 Workshop 3: Building Your Connected Delivery Model 217

Epilogue: Seizing the Connected Strategy Potential 235

Sources 239

Index 251

About the Authors and Acknowledgments 261

Editorial Reviews

"…enlightening and easy to read… The book is a worthwhile read for those looking to build new business models based on digital strategies. It is a useful resource for C-suite executives, strategic planners, consumer researchers, and others responsible for operations, marketing, consumer research, finance, and technology functions." — RTM (Research Technology Management)

Advance Praise for Connected Strategy:

Adam Grant, author, New York Times bestsellers Originals and Give and Take--
"In a connected world, companies live and die on their ability to create great customer experiences. In this book, two leading experts on strategy and innovation team up to explore how to create those experiences in a rapidly changing world. Their lively, practical book offers rich cases, evidence, and frameworks for gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage."

Reid Hoffman, cofounder, LinkedIn; Partner, Greylock Partners; and coauthor, Blitzscaling--
"This insightful book blends academic rigor with practical, step-by-step tools that can help you design innovative business models for the Networked Age. Connected Strategy shows how to leverage continuous connectivity and emerging AI to make deep relationships that benefit customers and businesses alike. Read this book if you want to build a business model of the future."

William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman, The Estee Lauder Companies--
"A timely and practical guide and a great resource for how to create deeper relationships with consumers. In today's increasingly competitive environment, connected strategies that seamlessly link consumers, companies, and suppliers will be the future in many industries."

William McNabb, former Chief Executive, The Vanguard Group--
"In their brilliant new book, Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch upend traditional thinking about how to build enduring customer relationships that create competitive advantage. What makes this book special--and a must-read--is the combination of a novel way of thinking about customer relationships with specific, practical advice on how to implement these ideas. I just ordered a stack of copies for my colleagues!"

Michael E. Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School--
"Siggelkow and Terwiesch's important book addresses the major transformation in how companies interact with customers in the Digital Age--a transformation that is reshaping almost every dimension on which companies compete. These changes have led to customer information sharing, collaborative marketing, the development of new kinds of products and services together with new support models, and new business models based on product usage instead of conventional purchasing. The book provides a rich, accessible, and actionable road map for understanding these important changes and their implications, which every company and its leadership team needs to understand and address."

From the Publisher