Rethinking Our Self-Perception

How we think and talk about ourselves truly defines what we are.

If, for instance, you see your business as that of a widget manufacturer, then it's likely that's how you present your company and, by extension, how your customers perceive you. That may seem obvious, but that kind of perception can also hem you in. And it might mean that you miss opportunities that you are capable of tackling.

Step back and think of what it is that you're truly selling your customers. Sure, you manufacture widgets for sale to a discrete target audience. In fact, you are helping them solve their unique challenges. Maybe your most valuable skills lie in your understanding of a customer's challenge and how a particular widget you make might solve that for them. So that makes you a solutions-based company.

The value you bring your customers goes beyond merely filling orders with the widgets you make; it's making their lives simpler by solving their problems. Allow customers to see you in that light - rather than simply as a maker of the products they buy from you - and a whole new world of opportunity opens up.

This is not a new idea. It's what countless companies have done, most notably, IBM, which more than 15 years shifted its focus from a maker of computer hardware to a service-oriented consulting firm.

It all starts with your own self-perception.

Think about Ford Motor Company for a moment. One of America's oldest companies, Ford makes cars and trucks, right? Think again. Sure, their factories crank out products that enable us to haul people and goods from Point A to Point B. But the people at Ford have a new understanding of and appreciation for what they do and what they are.

They've started thinking of themselves as a software company, according executive vice president and president for Americas, Mark Fields.

Huh? What happened to the "motor heads" that shaped and defined Detroit the past 100-plus years? What about the steel and rubber that built that industry?

In the kind of insightful article for which the magazine is known, Fast Company reveals the new Ford that is being created around the notion of keeping drivers in touch via 21st century technology: Bluetooth, smart phones, MP3 players, GPS, etc.

Ford is doing it with its own "Sync" on-board Bluetooth platform built on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system that allows a driver - without taking his/her hands off the steering wheel - to use voice commands to make phone calls, select radio stations, or choose music (by genre, artist, or song title).

And that's just the beginning. Soon, Ford owners will be able to navigate to their destination, locate a nearby McDonald's restaurant or Exxon service station, get a local weather forecast, and more, all with voice commands as they speed down the Interstate. Your Ford's Sync system is designed to learn your voice, your unique phrasing, your musical tastes, and begin to anticipate your commands.

Initially, Ford was hoping merely to create an on-board communications system that would compete with GM's hugely successful OnStar. In fact, they've leapfrogged their cross-town rival. But it didn't really happen until they thought of themselves as more than a carmaker. And then their thinking expanded beyond the cubical confines of a typical passenger car.

Unlike GM's static OnStar system, Ford's Sync platform is designed to evolve symbiotically with the handheld devices owners carry with them in their Ford vehicles, as well as how their use of those devices evolves.

As the Fast Company article notes, this is a huge marketing advantage for Ford: "The great thing for Ford, of course, is that the more Ford improves a customer's favorite handheld device, the more likely it is that people will want to carry their handheld devices into a Ford."

Ford CEO Alan Mulally cleverly links these new doings with the founder's vision. "We're committed to this thing," he said. "Look, this is part of Henry's [Ford] vision. 'Opening the highways to all mankind.' I think this is the way to do it."

It boggles the imagination to think that a car company could expand its thinking from between the shoulders of a paved road to the limitless frontiers of computer software and the Internet.

Frankly, in these times of profound change, companies that don't likewise rethink what they are and what they do will soon be left in the dust as their competitors evolve with the changing world and speed ahead into the future.

Think what's possible if you similarly rethink what you do.