Thursday, November 28, 2013

Is Our Work Ever “Done”?

The business world moves at a furious pace. No sooner does a product launch, critics are already projecting when the the copycat products will appear and discussing the need for the next generation. This is the nature of the marketplace we live in today. Nothing is ever “done”.
This process of constant, never ending change began in the world of high technology. Software products would launch and then would be followed by new iterations as bugs were found, customers provided feedback and new solutions were discovered. We all became used to product names with numbers beside them – v2, v3, v4. We expect there will be more. We never expect our tech providers to declare a product “done.”
This concept of ongoing improvement has moved into other industries such as consumer products and all manner of services. It is a mindset of constant innovation.
This is a process we embraced early on at Rakuten. It’s not one that every company follows. Some employ a more Darwinian approach. Customer complaints can signal a quick end to a product or service at some companies. They will simply pull the product and move their resources into another. It is a bit of natural selection in the product marketplace.
But we take a different view. To us a customer complaint is instructive. It tells us what must be done in the next iteration – it is the roadmap to our next generation, our next version, our next effort. We embrace the notion that nothing is ever done in the marketplace today. The next innovation is always possible. We should be always be looking for it.
(Photo: Mike Baird, Flickr)

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