Adaptation and Collaboration

What business are you really in?

This is a question that ought to be asked at all organizations on a fairly regular basis.  Yet it is probably one that has been asked at some point in the past, answered, and then the answer is one that is perpetuated.  After all, it is good to be good at something right?

Yes. . .but the problem is that for too many companies, what they’re good at, unless it is considered and adapted, may not be what is needed in the market.  And so what they’re really good at is irrelevance.

Consider Honda.  Cars.  Motorcycles.  And don’t they make those off-road vehicles, too?  Yes, and then there are even lawn mowers.  Generators, also.

What all of these have in common is that they’re essentially engines that Honda designers and engineers have wrapped with various housings for various ends, and not all of those ends are named “Accord” and “Civic.”

According to Honda, it is the world’s largest engine manufacturer, having sold some 27-million engines of various size and configuration in 2010.

So what business is Honda in?  The answer is not singular, but plural.

Then there’s John Deere.

I like the way that company describes itself: “a world leader in providing advanced products and services and is committed to the success of customers whose work is linked to the land - those who cultivate, harvest, transform, enrich and build upon the land to meet the world's dramatically increasing need for food, fuel, shelter and
infrastructure.”

Yes, it makes tractors and combines and related equipment.  But that’s not what the company is all about.  There is a recognition that there needs to be a variety of implements and services to provide solutions to a wide range of customers.

Honda Power Equipment and John Deere recently announced that they’ve entered into a partnership relationship through which Honda products—lawnmowers, generators, tillers, water pumps and snowblowers—will be available at participating John Deere dealerships.  This isn’t an exclusive agreement.  Honda equipment is still going to be available elsewhere.

It is also, I think, a recognition that the executives at the two companies asked themselves about their businesses and concluded that a relationship would be of mutual benefit.

This comment from David Everitt, president of the Worldwide Agricultural and Turf Div. at Deere, is particularly telling: "Honda power equipment has earned a strong reputation for durability, quality and reliability—all which are important attributes to John Deere customers. For homeowners, our premium John Deere lawn tractors will continue to lead the way at our dealerships but will be complemented with the strong line of Honda power equipment products."

It is a recognition of complementarity and mutual benefit.

Honda knows who it is. Deere knows who it is.  And as a result, by creating a partnership, there will be leverage to what they can bring to the market.

Too often organizations are about protecting turf, not sharing it.  Clearly, this is an example of companies that not only know that is a changing world it is necessary to adapt, but that it is beneficial to work with others, others who might otherwise be a competitor.

Funny thing: Several years ago, I bought a John Deere walk-behind mower.  It was a choice between that and a Honda.  (The damn thing just won’t quit, by the way.)