Friday, June 24, 2005
Monkey business-sense
Economist has an interesting article on Monkey business-sense exploring human's irrational aversion to risks. The message I get from a provider perspective:
- if one over-promises and under-delivers, one runs the risk of loosing out in the long term;
- if one under-promises and over-delivers, one runs the risk of not getting the deal at all in the first place;
- if one delivers exactly as one promises, one still runs the risk of loosing out to (2) in the long term;
- To try to win a bid for the short term, pick over-promise and under-deliver;
- To delight the clients/consumers without actually putting in extra effort, pick under-promise and over-deliver;
- The most sustainable long term strategy, however, is deliver exactly as you promise.
