The Real-Time Revolution: Transforming Your Organization to Value Customer Time

by Jerry Power, Thomas Ferratt

Overview

Time has become a precious commodity, so business leaders who can save their customers' time more effectively than competitors do will win their loyalty. This book shows how it's done.

Business survival requires valuing what customers value—and in our overworked and distraction-rich era, customers value their time above all else. Real-time companies beat their rivals by being faster and more responsive in meeting customer needs.  

To become a real-time company, as top scholars Jerry Power and Tom Ferratt explain, you need a real-time monitoring and response system. They offer detailed advice on how to put procedures in place that will collect data on how well products or services are saving customer time; identify strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities; and specify innovations needed to save even more customer time.

Where should leaders look to innovate? Powers and Ferratt say to search every step in the life of a product or service, from development to production to usage. And for each step, they identify four possible levers for innovation: the design of the products or services themselves, the process used to produce them, the data that can be gathered on their use, and the people who make or provide the product or service.

The book features dozens of examples of companies that are getting it right and the innovations they used to help their customers save time, all while helping themselves to a hefty slice of market share. This is a comprehensive, authoritative guide to thriving in a revolution that is sweeping every industry and sector.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523085651
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	857 KB

About the Author

Jerry Power is executive director of the Institute for Communications Technology Management and assistant professor of clinical marketing for the University of Southern California. He has over thirty years’ experience in strategic marketing and business analysis in the telecommunications industry. Jerry has written on the impact of technology on business models and practices, operational procedures, and users. He holds a master’s in computer science from Pennsylvania State University.
Thomas W. Ferratt is professor emeritus at Dayton University in Ohio. He is a nationally recognized academic, researcher, and consultant. He has written extensively in leading journals on a variety of IT-related topics. He holds a PhD from Ohio State University and has over forty years of academic experience.

Table of Contents

Foreword Jim Ellis ix

Foreword John Mittelstaedt xi

Preface xiii

Introduction Real Time and the Real-Time Revolution 1

Chapter 1 The Need to Become a Real-Time Organization 15

Chapter 2 The Real-Time Monitoring and Response (RTMR) System 31

Chapter 3 Levers for Becoming More Real Time-A Product/Service Life-Path Perspective 47

Chapter 4 Using the Product or Service Lever to Transform to a More Real-Time Organization 61

Chapter 5 Using the Process Lever to Transform to a More Real-Time Organization 77

Chapter 6 Using the Real-Time Data Lever to Transform to a More Real-Time Organization 93

Chapter 7 Using the Real-Time People Lever to Transform to a More Real-Time Organization 109

Chapter 8 Going beyond the Core Levers to Transform to a More Real-Time Organization 123

Conclusion Take the Next and Continuing Steps of the Real-Time Revolution 139

Notes 147

Acknowledgments 157

Index 163

About the Authors 171

Editorial Reviews

Great read! Valuable insights and advice on how organizations can be designed and managed to be effective in today’s rapidly changing, highly competitive world.”
—Edward E. Lawler III, Director, Center for Effective Organizations, and Distinguished Professor, University of Southern California

“What is the most valuable thing that you could give to a friend, a colleague, or a customer? For many, the answer to that question is time. If you are seeking a path to competitive advantage that does not require economic compromise, you must read this book. Your investment of just a few hours with this book will yield tremendous value to both you and your organization.” 
—Randall B. Dunham, Emeritus Professor of Management and International Business and Faculty Director, Executive Global Learning Experiences, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“In this book, Power and Ferratt have transformed the currency of companies from economics to time. With a growing repertoire of conflicting demands on customer attention in this digital age, the authors have got it right by making time the basis for competitive differentiation. This eminently readable book offers a useful framework in the form of a set of levers that can help leaders make the transformation happen!”
—Varun Grover, Distinguished Professor of Information Systems and David D. Glass Endowed Chair, University of Arkansas

“As firms look to digitally transform their experience, Power and Ferratt provide a fascinating new lens to think about transformation—the role of time. I am sure their book will be highly influential.”
—Munir Mandviwalla, Executive Director, Institute for Business and Information Technology, Temple University

“If you are a business leader seeking to keep up with the transformational power of technology to cope with the increasing demands of the environment and build an enterprise that can cope with rapid change, I urge you to read this book. This book will show you how to engage your customers and empower your employees so that you can join and lead the real-time revolution. A must-read!”
—Andrew H. Schwarz, Professor, Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems, Louisiana State University

“Jerry Power and Tom Ferratt have come up with a perspective on time and how it is viewed by customers that can raise useful questions relative to one’s own products and services. Their perspective emphasizes both the value of shortening duration as well as adding valued engagement while structuring interactions between organization and customer. I found it stimulating to apply these concepts to the enterprises where I am a participant.”
—Fred Niederman, Shaughnessy Endowed Professor, Saint Louis University

“In an era in which real-time response capabilities are increasingly essential for an organization’s digital transformation, this book is required reading for leaders who want to understand the levers that help organizations fully embrace the value of customer time.”
—Alexander Benlian, Professor and Dean, Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany

“If you are a business owner or a leader who has been baffled by how to differentiate in today’s digital world, this book helps unpack the mystery. Customers are looking for faster and easier, but we also need to recognize the individual needs and preferences of those customers. This book brings a practical approach to valuing your customers’ most important resource—time—recognizing that responsiveness and ‘real-time’ expectations continue to evolve.”  
—Mary Marcus, PhD, founder and Chief Innovator, OrganizationDynamic Inc.

“‘Time is of the essence’ is a saying that has held true for many years. This book highlights the urgent need to value our customers’ time. Highly relevant and action oriented, it is a must-read for all leaders striving to stay competitive in today’s marketplace.”
—Lynn Mangan, President, Clubessential

“In this very original and important work, Jerry Power and Tom Ferratt explain the profound significance of firms now being able to leverage ongoing real-time relationships with customers and thereby improve the quality of customer time. This is not just a matter of being fast. In a nuanced and practical fashion—armed with diverse examples—the book identifies a set of competencies required for capturing real-time advantage.”
—Mel Horwitch, former University Professor, Central European University (CEU), and former Dean, CEU Business School 
 
“Technology advancements are pushing the envelope of time management. As our digital world continues to rapidly advance, this book is essential for anyone associated with information or transformational technologies!”
—Steve Garske, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

“The Real-Time Revolution is both progressive and practical. Innovation is no longer enough. In a digital age with countless choices, organizations must compete for consumer time and align their operations to do so. This book is a playbook for Digital 2.0.”
—Ted Ross, Chief Information Officer, City of Los Angeles

“Time has become the currency of our lives. Power and Ferratt explore time as a customer-centric value for businesses. They persuasively argue—with real-world, real-time case studies across industries—that valuing customers’ time is the key battleground and marketplace differentiator. They provide a new framework for real-time organizations—those that value time from the perspective of the customer—which will deliver a better customer experience and ultimately greater success.”
—Heidi Taylor, Managing Director, Heidi Taylor Marketing, and author of B2B Marketing Strategy

“This book explains a paradigm shift that is impacting all business sectors as organizations transform themselves to place increased attention on the customer experience. Power and Ferratt challenge you to think across boundaries, both within and outside an organization. The Real-Time Monitoring and Response process provides a good tool for providing benefits using technologies like IoT. I highly recommend this book.”
—Vivek Chhabra, founder of 21iQLabs and former Vice President and General Manager, Mobile and Cellular IoT Business, Marvell

“One of the time-tested aphorisms in the business world speaks to the ‘time value of money.’ In The Real-Time Revolution, the focus is more on ‘the money value of time.’ Time may be money, but speed is profit: digital transformation is here, and the sooner companies embrace its inexorable impact, the sooner they will reap the benefits, as laid out in The Real-Time Revolution.”
—Steven Shepard, PhD, Shepard Communications Group, LLC, and author-see www.amazon.com/author/stevenshepard

“In an industry where quality-of-experience and quality-of-service are metrics for key progress indicators, Power and Ferratt highlight the urgency of transforming to a real-time company to meet and anticipate the needs of the customer. As we anticipate the fourth industrial revolution and the fusion of technologies, the book is an invaluable testament to the importance of time as a key market differentiator.”
—Ralf Jacob, President, Verizon Digital Media Services

From the Publisher