Friday, August 16, 2013

Solving Puzzles.

Quote from the movie Dead Poets Society: "As she pieced the puzzle together..."

In my simplistic view doing business is closely related to solving a big jigsaw puzzle.




Generate  the ideal balance!

The client want's the puzzle to be complete and show an specific predetermined image.

Marketeers are the fist to act, they have to be sure the same picture is set as goal, and all the jigsaw puzzle pieces are identified. Identification of these pieces is then communicated back to the sales and technical department to determine if these pieces can be made, and at what price.

Followed by continues good communication back and forward with the client and all departments should result in each piece to be specified and a project plan being made. From the plan a quote can be generated, one that a client could accept to raise an order.

When the balance is disturbed.

In real live sometimes steps are skipped; usually one of the skipped steps is linked to communication with the client, or between departments. The obvious result is that not all players have the same image as goal.

This results in puzzle pieces that are in no relation to the puzzle that a client want's to solve. Trying to bang puzzle pieces together that do not fit; or placed at a wrong location altogether. And the once 'solved' puzzle doesn't show a picture that is in line with the original image, or even looks like the adjusted image at the point where the order was raised. In the worst case it will all fall apart.

And here the relation to jigsaw puzzles comes back. Pieces only fit if when shapes are correct and the displayed image on these pieces align. The puzzle is only ready when all the pieces are place. And if you have a puzzle with one or more pieces missing it will usually be thrown away.

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