A week ago I wrote a post on the ‘smile curve’ – an absurd academic theory that has R&D and Marketing creating value, while manufacturing does not.
This is that curve.
I countered with a curve that agrees with the R&D view, but flips manufacturing and marketing.
If for no other reason than a bit of comic relief on a Monday morning you should read some of the content on this site: The Creative Confessional, where advertising folks apparently whine about whatever is on their mind.
For instance, “Be honest. In a Super Bowl spot, we could put a black screen up for 29 seconds, then put a nice script with our brand name on it up for 1 second and still get away with it because the only thing that matters is that the consumer kinda remembers our brand sometime in the indeterminate future.”
In all fairness, there may well be a site for manufacturing folks to similarly demonstrate how bad their attitudes are, but since it is probably written in Mandarin I haven’t read it yet.
About Bill Waddell
I’ve got to disagree with you on this one. Manufacturing adds little to no value to the end product in the eyes of the customer. The majority of people just don’t care how (or where) their products are made, as long as they work as expected. In some respects, I think that most consumers actively avoid learning this type of information.
However, I think your curve reflects how management should approach the value chain. Some of the recent high-profile supply chain disasters show what can happen when a company only focuses on the so-called “value added” areas.
It all depends on your perspective.