The Systemic Effects of Customisation

Since the widespread adoption of information technology came into place in the late 90s, customisation has become a possibility for the masses; hence the term mass customisation. The underlying theory was, previously customisation is costly as manufacturers have to tailor their production lines to suit your preferences. The quantity of your purchases does not exceed those available to the mass market, the price you have to pay increases with the degree of customisation you require. Reason is because you need to compensate manufacturers for your smaller quantity purchases.

Anyone who have had the experience of printing name cards or brochures can attest to that. However, with the fall in prices of processing power, memory chips, and server space; now more than ever, manufacturers are able to customise their production to meet your needs at a much lower cost, hence the possibility of mass customisation. Somewhat an oxymoron, but its one of those geniuses of the "And"; as Jim Collins says it.

Mass customisation has come a long way since the late 90s, as now customisation has found its way into services as well. For example, in banking you can find services that is tailored to your needs even if you are not a privileged customer. Generally, consumers become happier as the services they now received are more aligned to their needs. Just looked at Dell and their level of sales when they first rocked the industry by allowing you to pay for what you need.

Even service providers are slowly but surely (either they are enlightened or they are being pressured to) are adopting a hybrid of the "Dell" model. For our firm, we undertake to conduct an initial assessment of the organisations we serve before deciding on our professional fees. From our knowledge, that may not be something every professional firm is prepared to do.

Even in the educational arena, the way to go is to allow educators to tailor the delivery of their programmes to the needs of the pupils. These needs go beyond just learning preferences and also into the relational aspect of the pupil and the educator. The idea behind it is that, if pupils have different learning preferences or styles, by customising the delivery of your programmes so that they can understand better, they will hence be more willing to learn because it connects with them. By engaging in differentiated learning, pupils learn better and if they learn better their results will improve, and with improved results spurned their level of interest further; henceforth the virtuous cycle.

In the not too distant future, when the school-going generation comes to expect differentiated learning as an industry practice, this will naturally impact on their outlook and expectations when they join the society as economically active citizens. With that, anything less than addressing their needs will be viewed as unpreferred or worse, unacceptable. What might now be a good-to-have will become a minimum expectation.

As a result, companies or individuals leading those companies will have to live up to that expectation or be termed anachronistic. Understanding this underlying phenomenon or trend is essential for those wants to not just survive but thrive in the new new economy, where the me-too culture will be magnified many times over.

So, if there is one skill or competency that one needs to have, non-negotiable, is the ability to relate to people. Because unless you are able to decipher their needs, as not everyone will tell you upfront, you will not able to customise your approach to suit them.

So, how may I help you today?