Rotman Management — Spring 2017

rotmanmagazine.ca / 93

Eric Almquist is a partner in Bain & Company’s Boston office and

leader of Bain’s global Customer Insights and Analytics capability.

Prior to joining Bain, he spent 24 years with Mercer Management

Consulting (now Oliver Wyman).

that their service is so good that it’s beginning to ring some
of the emotional bells further up the hierarchy, where it’s not
just about good functional service anymore. Consumers are
feeling an emotional bond with that company.

Describe how tools like ‘structured listening’, ideation
sessions and prototyping can be used to embrace the
elements of value.
Structured listening is a very active form of listening that
involves trying to get below the surface statements that
people tend to make. Once you do that kind of listening,
you use the findings as stimuli for ‘ideation sessions’. The
goal of those sessions is to try to identify where you can add
value, or improve upon the value being offered. Companies
can focus on improving on the elements of value they cur-
rently offer — or they can look at adding new elements to
their repertoire.
We typically do several rounds of ideation sessions,
using the pyramid with the 30 elements as a stimulus. We
ask people, essentially, to think about where they are pro-
viding value today, and which elements might be possible
for them to provide going forward.
For example, we recently worked with a bank and
helped them identify rewards as an element of value that
could be important for them. We went on to further explore
that concept with their customers, testing ideas of what the
rewards could be, and the levels of reward and status, and
so forth. Then we developed a prototype that appeared on a
smartphone — and showed the different elements of the re-
ward program, etc. We tested that quantitatively with con-
sumers, to optimize the features. Then, it went into market
testing and it is just being launched, as we speak. That’s a
typical process for us.

Going forward, will you look at how the elements of value
contribute to the bottom line?
Yes. We’ve already correlated our findings with both NPS
and growth, so we know that companies who are delivering
on multiple elements of value tend to grow much more dra-
matically than those who are not. Next, we will be working
on business-to-business elements of value. When compa-
nies are selling to other businesses, there may be multiple
decision-makers in those businesses, so we’re going to de-

velop a set of elements of value that will show, for example,

that what procurement professionals value can be quite

different from, say, a business unit head or a project leader.

There has been a resounding outcry for business-to-

business elements of value. We started with consumers

because they represent roughly 70 per cent of GDP; but

business-to-business is also very important. We believe our

model for B2B will be nuanced by different types of decision

makers, although many of the elements will be the same.

I’ll be happy to share our results with your readers when the

work is complete.

Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs

Self-

actualization:

achieving one’s

full potential, including

creative activities

Self-fulfillment

needs

Psychological

needs

Basic

needs

Esteem needs:

prestige and feeling

of accomplishment

Belongingness and love needs:

intimate relationships, friends

Safety needs:

security, safety

Physiological needs:

food, water, warmth, rest

FIGURE TWO