Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to outline a set of principles which enable companies and managers to effectively handle people as a resource and allow them to turn teams into high performance teams.
Design/methodology/approach - The Alinghi sailing team's approach to establishing and managing a high performance team was explored by means of an ethnographic case study. The development, organization and leadership principles of the team were subjected to intense scrutiny. This was done by interviewing the key players in the different areas (sailing crew, design team and management) at different stages, by observation of the group at work and video analyses. To substantiate the findings from interviews and observations, workshops with team members and experts were organized.
Findings - The Swiss Alinghi sailing team was the undisputed winner of the famous America's Cup in 2003 and managed to defend it successfully in July 2007 - against strong competition. The principles implemented by team founder Ernesto Bertarelli also offer a valuable model for managers.
Originality/value - The study is a useful tool for companies and managers who wish to create and manage high performance teams.
Obwohl viele Unternehmen die Kundenzufriedenheit als Garant für den langfristigen Unternehmenserfolg sehen, ist ein direkter Zusammenhang zwischen diesen Größen bislang schwer nachweisbar. Schwierigkeiten bereitet insbesondere die Identifizierung „wertvoller“ Kunden bzw. Kundengruppen, deren Bedürfnisse und Erwartungen vorrangig zu bedienen sind. Letzten Endes geht es für Unternehmen darum, Kundenbeziehungen sowohl „wertstiftend“ im Sinne der Kunden als auch „wertbringend“ im Sinne des Anbieters so zu gestalten, dass der Sprung vom Kundschafts- hin zu einem echten Kundenwertmanagement vollzogen wird. Hierfür wurde ein spezielles Kundenwertmodell entwickelt, das bei DaimlerChrysler zur Anwendung kam und in diesem Beitrag eine detaillierte Erörterung erfährt.
In der Diskussion um den Erhalt bzw. die Steigerung des Unternehmenserfolgs erfahren die Produktqualität (Bedürfnisgerechtigkeit bzw. Zwecktauglichkeit) und die Kundenzufriedenheit ein große Aufmerksamkeit. So belegen zahlreiche empirische Untersuchungen, dass eine Verbesserung der Produktqualität die Zufriedenheit der Kunden erhöht (vgl. für einen Überblick Fomell/Johnson/Anderson/Everitt Bryant 1996, Anderson/ Sullivan 1993, Anderson/Fornell/Rust 1997). Da die Kundenzufriedenheit wiederum als die entscheidende Determinante des zukünftigen Unternehmenserfolgs gilt (vgl. Anderson/Fornell/Lehmann 1994; Rust/Zahorik/Keiningham 1995; Homburg/Rudolph 1997), liegt die Relevanz bedürfnisgerechter Leistungen für die Existenzsicherung des Anbieters auf der Hand. Die Gründe fair den vermuteten Zusammenhang zwischen Produktqualität, Kundenzufriedenheit und Unternehmenserfolg lassen sich mit Hilfe von Abbildung 1 verdeutlichen.
Customizing a product by choosing each of its attributes individually tends to be onerous for consumers, and the benefits of product customization may thus be offset by an increase in choice complexity. As a remedy for this dilemma, the current research introduces the customization via starting solutions (CvSS) architecture, which substantially reduces the complexity of product customization while preserving all of its advantages. Under CvSS, consumers first select one starting solution from a set of prespecified products, which they then refine to create their final customized product. Evidence from nine studies (three of which were conducted in field settings) across a wide range of product domains (shirts, cars, vacation packages, jewelry, and financial products) shows that the CvSS architecture results in substantial benefits relative to the standard attribute-by-attribute product customization format for both consumers (increased satisfaction with their product choices, reduced choice complexity, and enhanced mental simulation of product use) and firms (purchases of more feature-rich, and thus higher-priced, products).
Modern mass customization systems are increasingly becoming social and foster user interactions and discussions about self-designable products. However, recent research noted that a concise analysis of the psychological effects along consumers' decision process in virtual environments is needed. We applied an experimental research design within a virtual community and provide evidence that (1) consumers' preference formation is significantly affected by anticipated social evaluations in the pre-decisional phase, (2) systematic preference deviations occur within the core decisional phase due to deviant community feedback, and that (3) these deviations may not in- but rather decrease consumers' choice related post-decisional outcome measures.
