For November’s editorial focus on all matters “strategy”, the author here is reprising one of his blogs from 2009. Now, as then, the need is great to strategically build more robust dimensions of business value.
For more than a generation the brass ring of American business culture has been to do it “cheaper, better and faster” than the competitor. This pursuit has played out in dozens of ways both big and small. Six Sigma, strands of globalization, Friedman’s “flat world” and even the debate about American immigration policy are tightly linked to this mother of all business ambitions. Marketing and business communication has done its part to establish this sentiment as a “common good” ideal. Alas, we may now be learning that like all things once thought wonderful, the lifespan of “better, cheaper, faster” (BCF) is waning. 
To be sure BCF has a rightful place in many parts of the American business economy. But it can’t singularly define what is successful or desirable for an entire economy—especially in the B2B sector. The monolithic thinking behind BCF production is fertile breeding ground for disengaging creativity, creating “comoditisized” products and services and eroding legitimate points of competitive distinction. Providing anything that might be deemed “value-added” (presumably the heartbeat of B2B operations) is increasingly difficult, clients become underwhelmed and vendors grouse about the loss of margin. Some type of dumb-downed or narrowly applicable end product or service is indeed produced more cheaply and rapidly than what preceded it, but questions mount about how “better,” or valuable, or even relevant it is!
It’s in the extreme vested interest of B2Bs to get off this merry-go-round and establish a new approach that signals the provision of client value. We advocate a shift from BCF to what we term “smarter, comprehensive and authentic” (SCA). These ideals self-define what makes (or at least can make) the B2B enterprise highly valued again by the client. To be SCA implies study, analysis and custom building client solutions in relevant day-to-day business contexts. It also implies a sincerity of purpose in arriving at these conclusions. It is real. And, it is really needed if B2Bs wish to again be widely viewed as helpful business partners.
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John Durante is marketing services director for WordWrite Communications.
