observed: value innovation @ yotel

If you missed them the first time around, three of the product marketing gospels are available together via a (paid) PDF download from the Harvard Business Review, which introduces them like this:

To spur new growth, stop competing the way your rivals do. Instead, rewrite the rules of the game and stake out new market spaces. Focus on satisfying consumers' most pressing needs in radical ways, asking what your customers really value. Then ask, "How would we provide that value if we forgot everything we know about our industry's traditions?" Combine the advantages of several industries' offerings to provide quantum leaps in value. And serve customers your industry has neglected.

"Value Innovation: The Strategic Logic of High Growth" by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne (HBR reprint R0407P) is the one I really want to call attention to, because you can see one of their examples in action today with Yotel (article, homepage). It's a beautiful illustration of value innovation in action.

You can almost hear Mauborgne and Kim's voices in your head when you read the folllowing from the aforementioned article from CNN.com:

...while easyHotel cuts costs by stripping away luxuries such as televisions, Yotel bosses say their creation will squeeze high-end amenities into rooms.

Each soundproof cabin will contain a sofa that converts into a double bed, a pull down desk, closet space, adjustable mood lighting, a shower, wireless Internet, an iPod connection and a flat-screen TV.

Check-in and check-out will be automated, but food and drinks will be available.

Now that's value innovation.