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I Love It When You Dream... and Dream Big
Doc, Dreamers see what is and propose replacements. VRM is a replacement for a power mismatch of the vendor over the customer. I'm such a skeptic about most new visions... even tho' I rate high as a visionary on some business personality "quadrant". I think the big vendors seek to maintain their customer base by being excessively "in tune" with their customers (if they can justify the economics of it... i.e. being generous with returns, repairs and upgrades). VRM (as I interpret your vision) leads to a reduction in profit margin for the vendor and a corresponding reduction in the ability of the company to finance that feedback loop you so desparately seek. People seek the best possible terms on a purchase and that leads to a Costco model where the incentive is to maximize the effective savings on each transaction... VRM has the potential to apply Walmart or Costco like dynamics to the world of high service boutiques. In the end, the niche players get squeezed out of the market and a few large distributors are then able to create a barrier to entry and the effective prices of goods rises due to limited sources. Like Walmart scaling to begotiate at every level of the value chain... from labor terms in China to RFID tags on the widget moving past their automted check out system... It ain't pretty but it works so damned well. The "lowest prices" is a catch phrase for more than money saved... it's markets captured. Please keep dreaming about VRM and it's potential... I want to be wrong on this but I still believe everyone must enforce caveat emptor and maintain diligence over the forces at play in our markets. There are responses to this message:
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