Thomas Edison<\/b><\/p>\n
Early in his career, Thomas Edison invented a vote-recording machine for use in legislative chambers. By moving a switch to the right or left, an official could vote for or against a proposal without leaving his desk. The machine would replace the tedious business of marking ballots, counting them, etc.<\/p>\n
Elated with the prospects, Edison obtained a patent\u2014his first\u2014and headed for Washington. Eagerly he demonstrated his machine to the Chairman of Congressional Committees. This gentleman, while complimenting Edison on his ingenuity, promptly turned it down. \u201cFilibustering and delay in the tabulation of votes are often the only means we have for defeating bad or improper legislation.\u201d he told Edison.<\/p>\n
The young inventor was stunned. The invention was good; he knew it and the chairman knew it. Still, it wasn\u2019t wanted. Said Edison later: \u201cThere and then I made a vow that I would never again invent anything which was not wanted.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, pp. 11-12<\/p>\n
Meet Their Needs<\/b><\/p>\n
There is a story of a tool company that manufactured drill bits. Faced with financial losses, company executives gathered to discuss the problem: a declining demand for drill bits. The CEO challenged his men: \u201cHow can we revive the bit market?\u201d After an embarrassing silence, one member of the team dispelled the fog: \u201cSir, the market isn\u2019t for bits–it\u2019s for holes!\u201d The story, though apocryphal, does illustrate a basic but often overlooked truth: \u201cThe customer never buys a product. By definition, the customer buys the satisfaction of a want\u201d (in the words of Peter Drucker). To put it another way, there are no markets for products–only markets for what products can do. In contemporary industry, the Xerox Corp. shows this principle in action. Xerox successfully pioneered the copy-machine industry by leasing copiers at a \u201cper copy\u201d price rather than selling machines outright. They correctly saw the market was for copies, not machines.<\/p>\n
Four Implications: <\/p>\n
1. We must constantly evaluate customer needs; <\/p>\n
2. We must design products to meet specific needs; <\/p>\n
3. We must redesign products as needs change; <\/p>\n
4. We must delete products that no longer meet customer needs.<\/p>\n
Christianity Today, 4\u20134-86<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thomas Edison Early in his career, Thomas Edison invented a vote-recording machine for use in legislative chambers. By moving a switch to the right or left, an official could vote for or against a proposal without leaving his desk. The machine would replace the tedious business of marking ballots, counting them, etc. Elated with the … Continue reading “Needs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}