1. Services, and relationships–with or without products and goods–are becoming the main event globally.
Whether you work for an international business law boutique, the phone company, or IBM, “products” or “goods” are still with us but increasingly have become part of the overall mix of providing solutions to clients and customers. Things traded you can touch and feel are no longer the main event.
See, for example, IBM’s website or anything written about IBM in recent years if you don’t believe me; they are no longer just a hardware, equipment or products giant–but a “services company”, and perhaps the world’s largest. IBM sells solutions. Selling and leasing IBM products are just part of those solutions. So IBM’s success or failure will depend on managing relationships and how its customers, clients and partners at all levels experience those services.