Not all companies are so
clueless. There are numerous
success stories. For products we
have the BMW Mini Cooper, the
ubiquitous iPod, and Amazon’s
Kindle. For websites there is a
long list of excellent services
coupled with great experience
and underlying smooth, efficient operations that instantly
deliver upon their promises:
Amazon, eBay, FedEx, Kayak,
UPS, and Netflix. For pure services we have luxury hotels
and low-cost business hotels
as well as stores such as IKEA.
Even Domino’s Pizza joins the
list: Order a pizza by telephone
and then you can follow its
progress on the website. You’ll
get not only an estimated wait
time, but also the name of the
pizza maker and then the name
of the delivery person. “I think
I get more enjoyment out of
watching pizza tracker than
eating the pizza,” said one blog-ger. Systems thinking transforms the antagonizing wait
for delivery of the food into an
enjoyable, personalized experience. In all of these instances,
the company has thought
through the entire experience,
ensuring that all the parts are
coherent, consistent, and pleasurable.
Photograph by Mathe w Wilson
The iPod story has been told
many times, but most of the
storytellers miss the point.
The iPod is a story of systems
thinking, so let me repeat the
essence for emphasis. It is not
about the iPod; it is about the
system. Apple was the first
company to license music for
downloading. It provides a
simple, easy to understand pricing scheme. It has a first-class
website that is not only easy to
use but fun as well. The pur-
• Systems thinking is apparent from the iPod’s clean, simple packaging to Apple’s overall
strategy for marketing their products and services.
chase, downloading the song to
the computer and thence to the
iPod, is handled well and effortlessly. And the iPod is indeed
well designed, well thought
out, a pleasure to look at, to
touch and hold, and to use.
Then there is the Digital Rights
Management system, invisible
to the user, but that both satis-fies legal issues and locks the
customer into lifelong servitude
to Apple (this part of the system is undergoing debate and
change). There is also the huge
number of third-party add-ons
that help increase the power
and pleasure of the unit while
bringing a very large, high-mar-gin income to Apple for licensing and royalties. Finally, the
“Genius Bar” of experts offering
service advice freely to Apple
customers who visit the Apple
stores transforms the usual
unpleasant service experience
into a pleasant exploration and
learning experience. There are
other excellent music players.
No one seems to understand
the systems thinking that has
made Apple so successful.
Amazon’s Kindle is my latest example of superb systems
thinking. This is Amazon.com’s
ePaper-based book reader. Now,
there are competing products
on the market which offer
superior features. Amazon
wins, however, because of its
systems thinking. No computer
is necessary for most transactions. When the Kindle arrives,
it is preloaded with the books
September + October 2009
