The growth strategies of focus and differentiation are often difficult to achieve in the talent management industry. In my last blog post, I argued that content may no longer be king in our industry, and the real differentiator is how well that content is delivered. Perhaps, then, delivery of services is the most likely capability to truly distinguish one firm from another.
The skill sets required for delivering consulting services versus delivering programs or products are vastly different. Truly great consultants must be articulate, attentive, organized, adaptable, decisive, interpersonally adept, good conflict managers, and so forth. Not that the delivery of more packaged goods doesn’t require its own set of unique skills, but these skills are different. For example, creating a program requires considerably stronger project management capabilities, instructional expertise, and facilitation skills. The ultimate judgment of success will rest largely on how end users react to the intervention or use of the program.
It would seem then that competitive advantage through delivery is akin to Tracey and Wiersema’s customer intimacy discipline described in their 1995 book, The Discipline of Market Leaders. We all know of excellent products and services that for some reason do not infiltrate the marketplace as should be expected, and others of considerably lesser value that outsell what appear to be more effective deliverables. While much of this success relies on a capable sales and marketing engine, a lot more has to do with exactly how well products and services are provided to the customer.
What is an example of when delivery of services trumped all else? When has a customer service experience been so strong that it overshadowed an obvious weakness in the rest of the business? On the other hand, what is an example of such poor delivery of services that a firm could not overcome the strengths of an industry leader? Please share in the comment section below.
Check out Steve’s full series, Managing and Growing Talent Management Firms.