Waardeproposities: bied jij nog wel waar je klant om vraagt?

Tijdens een werkbezoek in Londen koos ik voor een verblijf in het citizenM hotel. De 'M' staat voor 'Mobile'. Hun gasten zijn dan ook niet zomaar toeristen, maar 'Mobile Citizen': mobiele wereldburgers. 

Ik stapte het hotel binnen in de London Bankside wijk en direct bij binnenkomst stonden 6 touch screen computers klaar voor het inchecken. Ik toetste mijn achternaam in en automatisch werd mijn boeking gevonden. Het scherm vroeg me een 'citizenM-Card' te pakken en deze voor de detector te houden. Et voilá: checked in! Met dezelfde kaart kan ik de lift gebruiken, mijn koffie, wijn of maaltijd afrekenen bij de bar en in 1 minuut uitchecken bij vertrek. 

In tegenstelling tot de meeste traditionele hotels bleek de lounge

gezellig druk. 'Lounge' is eigenlijk niet het juiste woord. De complete begane grond is eigenlijk één grote woonkamer, subtiel opgedeeld in drie delen door middel van kleuren en stijl. De 'citizens' praten hier bij, ontmoeten en werken hier, pluggen hun laptops in één van de vele stroompunten (geschikt voor zowel Europese, VS als VK stekkers), maken gebruik van de snelle gratis WiFi, delen presentaties op de diverse grote schermen die stijlvol zijn ingebouwd in boekenkasten, of ze lezen de gratis selectie aan kranten. In het midden van de ruimte is de 24/7 geopende hotel bar en ten slotte in de hoek enkele grote tafels met schermen, waar iedereen die binnenloopt kan inpluggen en werken. 

Wat is de pijn van de klant en waar wordt hij/zij blij van?

Eerder dit jaar ben ik in het nieuwste boek van Alexander Osterwalder gedoken: Waardepropositie Ontwerp. Een vervolg op zijn succesvolle boek over Business Model Generatie. In zijn recente boek gaat hij in op hoe organisaties producten en diensten af moeten stemmen op de klant; de pijn verzachten en verrassen met toegevoegde waarde. Toen ik op de website van CitizenM las: 'Absoluut geen broekenpers, liftjongens of stomme kussen-chocolaatjes', was ik eigenlijk al verkocht. Het bleek een uitstekende manier om echt te beleven hoe het is als een organisatie, in dit geval een hotel, het waardepropositie-denken succesvol implementeert.

Wat is hun waardepropositie dan? Wat verlangt een hotelgast nu werkelijk?

• een groot en lekker bed
• een krachtige regendouche
• gratis films op een breedbeeld televisie
• snel en gratis WiFi
• apparatuur kunnen inpluggen zonder adapters te hoeven kopen (of vergeten)
• een tablet om temperatuur,verlichting, televisie en de wekker te bedienen

En dat is het! Geen oubollige stoeltjes waar je toch niet op gaat zitten in de kamer. Geen bureau dat niet gebruikt wordt. Geen bijbels in de lade van je nachtkastje. Geen lichten waarvoor je je bed uit moet om ze uit te doen. Neem de pijnpunten weg bij je klant (in dit geval: wachten om in- en uit te checken, betalen voor WiFi, geen bereik, een lege bar), en verras hem of haar met extra's. Zoals ik bij CitizenM genoot van de heerlijke relaxte atmosfeer, mensen en gesprekken, mogelijkheden om nog wat werk te doen. 

Broekenpers

Het contrast was dan ook enorm toen ik twee dagen later incheckte in het (door mijn werk gereserveerde) Holiday Inn Kings Cross. Een lege hotelbar, WiFi met slecht bereik en steeds opnieuw verbinden voor 5 GBP per uur, in de rij staan bij de receptie en jawel..... een broekenpers (heeft iemand die ooit gebruikt?)! 

Alexander Osterwalder

Voor wie Osterwalder zelf bevlogen wil zien vertellen over zijn model voor waardepropositie-ontwerp is er op 29 september a.s. een Masterclass op Neyenrode. Klik hier voor meer informatie.

BLOG: My Trip to London pt. 5 - 'Battersea Power Station and Digital Pink Floyd Music'

It was Sunday morning 9AM, the last day of my personal time in London. With my running shoes on I stepped out of the Tube at Sloane Square and started running. With my Runkeeper App activated to track the route, I ran over the Chelsea-bridge across the Thames and entered the Battersea Park. Lot’s of fellow runners here and families taking a walk or playing cricket on this chilly Sunday morning. Probably few had the same goal as I had. Above the trees at the horizon I already saw them: the famous chimneys of Battersea Power Station. This typical Industrial Brick Cathedral was build in the 1930’s. With the passing of time, the building is now neglected and has been out-of-service for over 30 years. 

In my early 20’s I discovered Pink Floyd music. One of their famous old albums, the 1977 ‘Animals', has the Battersea Power Station on its cover. Back than record companies were the empires in that industry that had the power over this ‘information’ (music). Granting access to this music would cost consumers a lot of money. Distribution was done only via record companies, and you as a customer where obliged to go to that store between 9 and 5 if you wanted some.

How disruptive was (and is) the digitization of information. The fact that records became data (MP3 files) meant that the whole record distribution model was superfluous overnight. I remember the first time I downloaded a Pink Floyd song using Napster, it was a miracle. Bits and bytes just streaming into my computer! Sony owned a lot of record companies and already had invented the WalkMan as a portable music player. A disruptive power out of a completely different industry however took over the music business: Apple with the launch of iPod (’10,000 songs in your pocket’) and the iTunes store.

And here I am running with my earplugs in, streaming the Animals album via Spotify over 4G wireless connection, paying € 8 a month for an ‘all-you-can-eat’ music business model 24/7. Sony is nowhere, EMI (the record company of Pink Floyd) has been diminished and was sold in 2011, record stores are closed. The Battersea Power Station looks like an old record company, disrupted by modern power supply and the roll-out of the ‘smart energy grid’. 

Has the digitization of information been disruptive for the staffing industry? Yes, of course. A vacancy is nothing more than a piece of information holding value for our candidates. For decades we made money out of that information, by distributing it via our own ‘record stores’, the branch offices. Having said that, the comparison falls short as we offer a lot more value than only distributing jobs. That’s why the upcoming of the job boards a decade ago proved to be not a threat but an opportunity. Now leading to completely centralized and digitized sourcing and recruiting.

Back to my running: it was time to stop my Runkeeper tracking. Enough about Pink Floyd for now. I’m heading back to the CitizenM to write the final blog in this series!

BLOG: My Trip to London pt. 4 - citizenM says: Death to the Trouser Press

The sun is setting in London, time to head to my hotel for the coming nights: citizenM. The ‘M’ stands for ‘Mobile’. People they are targeting are not tourists, but Mobile Citizen. So I entered the Hotel in Southwark London at 6 PM. Right next to the entrance, 6 touch screen computers are awaiting me. I pick one and enter my last name. It automatically finds my booking, asks me to pick a citizenM card, hold it in front of the detector et voilá. The checkin is done! With the same card I can use the elevator, buy my coffee or beer at the bar, and checkout in 10 seconds. 

Contrary to the traditional hotels, the lounge is buzzing with people and conversations. And ‘lounge’ is not the appropriate name for it. The whole ground flour is one living room, subtly divided in colour and style into three area’s. The ‘citizen’ are working, plugging in their laptops in the numerous connection points, using the very fast and free WiFi Internet, sharing presentations on several large TV’s that are nicely build into bookcases decorating the walls, or reading the free newspapers on the tables. In the middle is the hotel bar, and in the corner large tables with connection points as co-working space. 

I selected this hotel on purpose as its concept triggered me. In a (very) traditional industry, this new Dutch based hotel chain has created a successful innovative service operation, business model innovation and a concept where the value proposition for the customer has been leading in every decision. Starting in 2008 in Amsterdam, the chain has now 7 hotels. On the website I read a “absolutely no trouser presses, bellboys, or stupid pillow chocolates.” To be honest, my decision to book citizenM was already made at that instant. 

Their value proposition? What does a hotel guest really, and I mean really, want?

• an XL king-sized super-comfy bed
• a powerful rain shower
• free movies on a wide-screen television
• free and fast WiFi internet
• international plug system
• a tablet to control temperature, lights, television and the alarm clock

That’s it. No stupid seats that you never use, no desk that you never sit behind, no bibles in the drawer, no lights that you have to get out of bed for to turn them off. They took away my pain points as a customer (waiting for checking in and out, paying for Wifi and/or having a bad internet connection, no guest interaction), and brought a smile on my face with a nice warm atmosphere, a hotel bar buzzing with activity and opportunities to co-work.

After my day in London, I took a meal (self service, card swipe and paid), a beer, and sat in one of the living rooms. Lounge music was playing, the whole hotel bar was crowded and buzzing. A freelance architect sat next to me and offered me a drink and we were eating some nuts while discussing the CitizenM concept.

CitizenM says: luxury isn't a packet of nuts in a minibar, it’s a 24 hour real-bar

BLOG: My Trip to London pt. 3 - The Silicon Roundabout

At 2 PM I am walking through a narrow neglected street, just to be sure I held my laptop-bag a bit tighter to my body. In the Shoreditch borough, Bonhill street number 5. I am looking through the window, yes, this is The Campus, the domain of many startups in London. I had registered upfront via www.campuslondon.com and received a community-ID. After typing it in at the reception desk I receive my card and can go downstairs through narrow staircases and have access to the basement of the building. It is buzzing here with youngsters. 

They have one thing in common: they all are sitting behind a MacBook Air and have a bottle of water. Some typing, most with headphones on, some calling (with their iPhones), others having discussions. Most guys wear beards, hoodies and jeans, a phew are dressed up a bit sharper. And the women seem to have asian blood in their veins mostly and make up for at least 40% of the people here. In the middle of the basement there’s a small café/counter for coffee or a croissant that you can pay for with Pounds or Bitcoins. In the background New Orders’ Blue Monday is playing. In a corner there’s a desk with testing devices, ranging from smartphones to several tablet sizes and laptops. Apparently apps can be tested here for cross device functionality.

The Campus was founded by ‘Google for entrepreneurs' and positions itself as ‘An Engine for Collaborative Innovation’. Working here is free when you are part of the community (by registering), WiFi is free and fast, and the café offers cheap drinks. 

The Campus is one of the many coworker spaces in this neighborhood. This Eastern part of London is, besides the Silicon Roundabout (referring of course to Silicon Valley) also known as ‘Tech City’. Starting with about 15 media and high-tech companies in 2008, this area now offers the homebase to a couple of hundred tech-based startups. Next to Google, some bigger established companies invested in this area: BT provides super fast broadband, Cisco is establishing an innovation centre, Intel has established a research lab and Amazon has opened a Digital Media Development Centre. 

Most startups here are focussing on the FinTech (Financial Technology) and EdTech (Educational Technology) sectors. And I found this a facinating contrast. The large shiny luxurious skyscrapers of HSBC, Morgan Chase and Credit Suisse in Canary Wharf on the one hand. And the cheap shabby basement with startups in East London on the other hand. The business models of the first are crumbling, while currency clouds, crowdsourcing, mobile banking and digital wallets are disrupting the financial markets.

To complete my journey in this inspiring borough, I drank a beer in hipster co-working place The Book Club. One of the slogans I saw here on the wall: “We are living in a transformational era for financial services. Our children will look back at these past decades and laugh at how we banked”. 

BLOG: My Trip to London pt. 2 - Stansted Airport without Humans

It was 9.40 AM when the plane touched the runway at Standsted Airport and taxied to the gate. After disembarking the plane, signing guided me to a driver-less mini-train. Passengers cued up before the doors, watching the countdown on screens to when the train would arrive and stop exactly at the designated door openings. The doors slid open and the train moved, while a sweet but cold digital woman’s voice told us the safety procedures and asking to keep our passports ready. 

Via escalators I arrived at the e-Passport gates located at the immigration checkpoint in the arrival hall. The gate number lit up of the available gate and I stepped forward. On screen I got instructions to put my passport on the scanner, while a camera, hidden behind a mirror, moved up to meet my length and clearly scan if I was really Radi Jaarsma. After a couple of seconds a green light flashed and the UK border opened itself for me in the form of sliding doors opening automatically. Meanwhile screens showed me at which bagage belt I could collect my overpriced extra hand luggage and after that I used my credit card and a touch screen to get my Standsted-Express ticket for a travel by train to London. I withdrew some pound notes from the ATM, grabbed a coffee from the coffee machine and the last thing I saw from Standsted Airport, where the automated gates on the train platform that opened in response to my ticket. 

Apart from my fellow travelers, there was no human interaction involved in this whole process from stepping out of the plane to stepping out of the train in London. It left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the white steel and spacious environment of Stansted Airport struck me as a cold mechanical atmosphere. On the other hand: my trip went very.. very smoothly. To be honest, the first human interaction that I had during that trip was in the train, when ordering a coffee (I need a lot of coffee in the morning). The guy was foreign and could not speak English very well, nor understand it. As an extra, he did not have change and when finally I overhauled him to use his credit-card terminal, it looked like it was the first time he saw that machine. After finding out that he was only allowed to use the credit card terminal for a minimum amount of 5 Pounds, I decided to treat two passengers in front of me for a coffee in order to get to that amount. 

This is what ManpowerGroup calls the Human Age. And almost as a paradox, a lot of tasks humans did the last decades are replaced by technology and robotics. All studies show that especially jobs that consist of some form of repetitive and routine tasks, are automated at a very rapid pace. Gartner calls this the ‘De-Routinization of Work’. And that is exactly what happened at Stansted. No more train drivers, ground services, immigration officers, ticket office agents and cafeteria staff.

The best contribution that people can bring to work, are not routinized processes that can be automated, but in the added values that are distinctively unique for us human beings: creativity, leadership, innovating, empathy, relationships, discovering. To put it more simply: the unique talents of people will flourish best in non-routine work. Helping workers to make that change is part of the ManpowerGroup ‘Dignitiy of Work’ statement.