Are Jigsaw Puzzles Obsolete?

ARE JIGSAW PUZZLES OBSOLETE?

by Mike Manes

Think about it. Jigsaw puzzles are timeless toys and tools. We’ve all done them. Our parents and grandparents grew up with them and our children and grandchildren will, too. Leaders and managers regularly use jigsaw puzzles as a metaphor for planning, team building, and marketing, and as a universally understood and embraced symbol of fun, building, and problem solving.

Can such an established icon of our leisure, youth, and work ever become obsolete? The reality is that as a game or a toy, nothing’s changed. As a business tool, changes are coming.

In yesterday’s world, a business owner only had to complete a puzzle that was the organization. The finished picture was the vision and the mission. The spreading out of the pieces was the SWOT analysis — an understanding of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved. The border determined the shape and size of the puzzle. It included the budget, the commitment of leadership, the willingness and ability of the employees, and the marketplace opportunity. The pieces were the people and the functions that they performed. The leader put these pieces together.

Once the organizational puzzle was complete, the leader needed to superimpose it over a market segment (a street, neighborhood, community, etc.). The marketplace was one of 'mass.' Large groups of people with limited options were shopping in the place that was closest, most friendly, and convenient. If the business was reasonably efficient, effective in personal relationships, and close to the customer, it would probably succeed.

Markets were powerless. The masses bought whatever was sold. Consumers did very little comparison-shopping because their options were so limited. Manufacturers and distributors controlled most of the information.

Today the game has changed. Mass markets are no more. Power has shifted from the manufacturer/distributor to the consumer — a niche of one — who can shop from an unlimited number of sources.

We have a global economy, sophisticated consumers with options, technology that has unleashed information, and the most competitive marketplace in history.

Assembling the perfect picture of your organization today doesn’t guarantee success unless there’s a clearly defined marketplace that needs what you offer. To succeed today, you must define a marketplace before assembling an organization to serve it.

Leaders who try to use yesterday’s planning in tomorrow’s world feel as if they’re being strapped into a roller coaster with an organizational and marketplace puzzle and told to solve it before the ride ends. This can be done — although it’s highly stressful and risky.

To plan for tomorrow, you must redefine the planning process by changing the rules of the game. To rebuild your system, you need to fully understand the world of your customers and prospects. You must address the market before defining your operations.

Before you assemble your puzzle, you’ll need to place these 'marketing' pieces in it by answering these five questions.

1. Who is the customer/prospect? You’ll need a specific understanding of the organizations or individuals to whom you’re marketing. For businesses, this definition goes beyond SIC codes, gross revenues, and number of employees to include the culture of the organization, its vision and values, and the demographics of its staff.

Individuals are more than an age and economic matrix. They possess personalities, values, life stages, and lifestyles. You need to know more than what they buy — you must know why they buy.

2. What’s the want and need? Customers need and expect you to help them solve problems and capitalize on opportunities.
3. What product or service do you offer to meet this want and need? Create an inventory of commodities, products, and services to offer customers a positive buying experience — a solution to their problems and satisfaction of their needs.
4. At what price will this customer buy? Forget about totaling all of your costs and adding a profit margin. The only question to answer is 'How much is the market willing to pay?'
5. How can you profitably deliver the product or service at the price established? In today’s market, you’ll need to innovate your processes to 'come in' with the price and quality standard your customers require. If you can’t, it’s over!

Even if your picture fit together perfectly in the past, you’ll have to take it apart and remake it. If that isn’t challenging enough, you’ll need to add new pieces — those of the customer and the marketplace. In tomorrow’s world, you can’t just superimpose your puzzle on a market segment. You must build the marketplace into your picture.

As you add pieces to the puzzle, you’ll need to change the finished picture, reshape and refine some pieces and/or get rid of some of the existing pieces. A customer-driven market provides greater opportunities — provided the daily activities of your staff change. And change is never easy.

In yesterday’s world, your job was to manage change — to solve problems and capitalize on developing opportunities. The success stories of tomorrow will come from those organizations willing and able to become architects of change. As management guru Peter Drucker notes, 'The best way to predict the future is to create it.'

Managing change is about seizing the day — Carpe Diem. Being an architect of change means seizing the opportunities of the future — Carpe Mañana!

As you make your decision, remember this admonition:

'There is no more delicate a matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful of success, than to step up as a leader in the introduction of changes. For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new.'

Niccòlo Machiavelli

The Prince (1527)