We’ve spent a lot of time explaining the disciplines involved with customer dynamics (cross-functional and cross-hierarchy), which resulted in the RoundMap® Customer Lifecycle. We believe the best way to get people genuinely committed to a common cause is when they are engaged with what the company aims to achieve, how it plans to achieve it, and what role each and everyone has to play in the execution of the chosen strategy.
The RoundMap® is a centerpiece ─ inviting all customer-facing employees to sit at a Customer RoundTable, discussing progress, barriers, threats, and opportunities ─ while it boils down to strategic orientation (Business Model Matrix™) and strategy execution (Customer Carousel™).
Before we can execute a strategy and measure its performance, we must first define it. To facilitate this, we’ve developed the RoundMap® Strategic Playbook, a collaborative tool designed to guide you in understanding the key aspects that underpin a successful business model and how you can contribute to them as part of our team.
![ROUNDMAP_Strategic_Playbook_2019-1[1]](https://roundmap.com/wp-content/uploads/ROUNDMAP_Strategic_Playbook_2019-11.jpg "Navigating Success: The RoundMap Strategic Playbook 1")
BLUE – Product Centricity (PC). Thus far the most popular and straightforward business model. If you read from left to right you’ll see how to plan and execute a typical product-centric business model. Obviously, Product Centricity is driven by product development. Its performance is measured by the share-of-market and the return-on-product.
GREEN – Customer Centricity (CC). A complimentary business model which requires an emphasis on sales (account-based marketing) to be able to grow customer (lifetime) value. While a product-centric business needs to focus on the supply chain (downstream), a customer-centric firm should focus on the value chain (highly integrated).
YELLOW – Resource Centricity (RC). This business model has been around for decades, however, digitalization removed most of the physical barriers, allowing firms to offer everything-as-a-service. While traditional car rental services had to rely on a central dispatch point, modern ride-hailing and ride-sharing services, driven by mobile and digital technology, do not.
RED – Network Centricity (NC). While traditional marketplaces go back thousands of years, the modern digital platforms broke the physical barrier, creating multi-sided marketspaces driven by collaborative value creation and delivery. Companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, TaskRabbit, and many others have already changed many of the industry structures and the end isn’t in sight.
Could we play two different tunes?
In most cases, we do not recommend deviating from the horizontal characteristics of each of the four Elementary Business Models unless you know what you are doing.
There is one exception: the value position. Contrary to other aspects, value disciplines are about how people outside your firm perceive your firm’s (relative) value position. You might want to use this to your advantage or even design experiences to create a favorable perception.
One of the most common errors I’ve seen is when firms apply a content strategy to help people make informed decisions (= customer-centric) while trying to maintain or grow market share (= product-centric). It’s crucial to align your strategies with your objectives. If your goal is to educate potential customers, that’s one thing. But if your objective is to find as many customers for your products as quickly as possible, a different strategy may be more appropriate.
