The missing link in the solutions business: Managing flows through business systems

Werner Ketelhöhn

European Management Journal, 1992, vol. 10, issue 1, 10-21

Abstract: To beat Japanese low-cost industrial suppliers, hardware vendors in the West have entered the solutions business to earn higher margins. But Werner Ketelhöhn urges caution. He recommends that corporations develop distinctive competences, adopting a double-edged product/market strategy for the long run. Corporations coming in to the business of marketing solutions to customer problems encounter new markets and higher risks. There is no panacea. Ketelhöhn advocates a new form of industrial organisation -- the 'hammock organisation', to cope with these problems. To come out on top in marketing solutions in the current decade, corporations must both offer solutions that really add value, and compete in hardware products by selling low-cost, high-quality commodity-type hardware.

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0263237392900397
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:10:y:1992:i:1:p:10-21

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/115/bibliographic

Access Statistics for this article

European Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Haenlein

More articles in European Management Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().