McGuire’s Law

This past semester, my book The Power of Mobility, was used in a senior level class taught at Baker University. The professor, Nan Hickman, asked for my permission to let the students ask questions of me. I received a number of insightful queries. Over the next week or so, I plan to use this space to answer some of those questions.

The first question is “If you went to talk to a business about using mobile apps versus pc-used apps for their business, what is the first thing you’d want to cover?”

When talking to businesses about capturing the power of mobility, I always put it in the context of the evolution of technology. Businesses need to realize that mobility enables stuff that simply wasn’t possible before – just as the Internet did and just as the PC did. There are applications that still make sense to reside in a data center, applications that still make sense to run on a desktop PC, those that still make sense to operate from inside a browser. But, now, it’s possible to have an application running on a mobile device.

And for some parts of a business, that possibility creates tremendous opportunities for driving efficiency, differentiation, or customer loyalty. If you can take a process or some information to new places, because of mobility, and by doing so create new value, then good business management requires pursuing that opportunity.

I often use Avis as an example. A long time ago, way before today’s mobile technologies were feasible, Avis took the simple process of returning rental cars, and by introducing a mobile application on a mobile device (and calling it Roaming Rapid Returns), they took the process to where the customer was, dramatically improving the customer experience, and forcing the entire industry to follow their lead. I then ask if there are similar opportunities in the industry being served by the business with whom I’m speaking.