Better, Faster, Cheaper

The following is from Mount Union College website.

I met Sam Bowers at a TEC meeting in De Pere, WI in 2007. His innovative perspective was incredibly enlightening. The rise of social media has accelerated his predictions. I pinged Chris Brogan on Twitter yesterday when he was commenting about weak customer service at a bank. I told him opportunistic profiteering is dying. The collapse of the financial markets was inevitable because they were the most visible symbol of opportunistic profiteering.

The rise of social media coincides with the rise of the empowered buyer. We're burning our loyalty cards and we're not going to take it anymore!

As marketers, we need to pay attention:


According to Bowers, president and founder of the Service Sales Institute, we are moving from the industrial revolution into the second major phase in modern business known as a “technology revolution” which will alter and change the world.

“Today we are using more and more technology to produce more and more output at an ever greater quality,” said Bowers. “We are going to see better, faster and cheaper explode in the coming future of business.”

Bowers believes that because of the advancement in technology, robotics and computers, the way companies do business is changing because the customers themselves are becoming better and smarter buyers.

In addition, Bowers stressed marketing as the key in today’s business world because buyers are doing their own research. The Internet has supplied buyers and customers with enough information to make better decisions and to find comparable products at a lesser cost.

“Businesses are being faced with the ever increasing need to improve productivity while lowering costs,” said Bowers. “In a world where selling is disappearing, the most important business skill of the future is marketing.”

The old style of forming relationships and relying on a reputable sales staff to drive business decisions is becoming a thing of the past.

“Technology and the use of the web is altering the way companies bring products or services to the market and marketing is drawing potential buyers to the product or services,” said Bowers.

According to Bowers, e-commerce is the next step.

“Customers have access to better technology and more information and demand alternative sources,” Bowers added. “Customers are driving businesses to e-commerce. They are looking for evermore increasing sources that can give them what they want at the lowest possible price.”

Bowers concluded that the future is now and he challenged the students in attendance to stay up with technology

“Companies are going to rely on and need today’s students to move them into this new age of technology in order to survive,” said Bowers.

Bowers has also been president and chief operating officer of multiple divisions of a company he helped grow from $7 million to over $465 million, and an economics professor. He has spoken to thousands of chief executive officers and numerous associations as well as conducted hundreds of strategic planning and positioning meetings for corporations.

The Smith Lectureship in Business was established in 2001 by C. Richard Smith, a 1953graduate of Mount Union College. The purpose of this Lectureship is to bring business professionals to the Mount Union College campus to share their knowledge and experience with business students, faculty and others from the campus and local community.