The Knowledge Thirsty Customers

Customers now more than ever want what is new and innovative. The increase in technological awareness of customers created more needs for businesses to satisfy. More than ever, customers need to be connected, informed, entertained, and provided with "emotional" value.

There are numerous examples of ordinary products and goods that have been transformed to meet technological needs. In the auto industry, for example, manufacturers also realized they needed to deliver more in emotional value to consumers. Many automobile manufacturers have made substantial investments in making their cars more interesting to the buyer. Customers want a car that is "cooler" like the new Volkswagen Beetle with its bright colors and bud vase or one that has seats that can be removed for a quiet day in the wilderness.

Customers and consumers also want to have an input in the development of new products and services. Given the value of such input, many organizations adapted to receive and accommodate it. Consumers asked: Can this mobile phone show me email messages? Can I activate my home alarm from a distance? Can you prescribe this medicine for my condition? Although customer input was valuable in the industrial economy, in the knowledge economy customers look at knowledge as a commodity where the more they can get the better.

These differences between industrial and knowledge economies in the nature of the raw materials, the need for speedy innovation, the sophistication of customers and consumers, and the transformation of the role of the workforce have affected business management in the knowledge economy in many respects. But the real question is: Do these differences require the development of a new business management approach?