Most design firms, contractors and end-users view Adaptable Interiors and “demountable walls” as something between furniture and construction. This between status sits in a “no-man’s land” in terms of a market position. It is subject to the laws of “least resistance.” An interested prospect has to overcome numerous hurdles to adopt the AI concept, process and alien support structure. Each opportunity requires above and beyond effort and good fortune in order to complete a sale.
When caught in “no-mans” land there are three options; retreat, create a niche or establish a new market (a category). ACT Software, for example, created an electronic “Daytimer” in 1985 and birthed a new category called Customer Relationship Management or CRM. You can listen to that moment of innovation with ACT founder Pat Sullivan.
Market gurus; Reis & Trout and Michael Porter describe the challenge that an unclear category creates. The market behaves like the character Bill Murray played in Groundhogs Day. Each morning erases the past; no memory.
Each AI sales opportunity talks to a market with no memory – or worse – a residual negative impressions. Prospects typically view the AI solution as comparatively expensive and unattractive. The small core of AI advocates and positive case studies has yet to change these dominant perceptions or convert a real estate industry entrenched in 150 year old processes.
Creating a category for AI requires a multi-faceted marketing strategy to frame a larger context as part of an emerging market for adaptable, sustainable real estate through Integrated Design – High Performance Commercial Real Estate (HPCRE). AI become a natural sub-component for High Performance Work Space (HPWS).
The good news is that the industry as a whole cries out for radical change. Shifting the larger context is, to use biz slang – “very doable.”
Currently the many stakeholders have conflicting interests. Specialization adds to the fragmentation. The result is often a convoluted mess of blame shifting, cost overruns, scope creep, busted schedules and hundreds of compromises to the original vision.
Selling AI has always come up against an industry mindset unable, except on rare occasion, to change. Changing minds one project at a time is like putting a hand in the bucket and then pulling it out. The hand comes out wet but the change in the bucket is imperceptible.
The system’s industry experienced similar obstacles at its inception. Europe introduced Open Landscape in the early 1950s arriving in the US shortly thereafter. The idea remained obscure until Herman Miller took steps to change the mindsets of corporate America.
Robert Propst, hired by Herman Miller, embarked on a research based approach to understanding the workplace ten years before the concept reached its tipping point in 1968. Propst explored and described a new kind of work environment – a radical departure from the industrial mindset. The new reality was dominated by creating and managing information.
The power of this insight was simple; the inherent quality of information is change. If change is the new nature of work then there needs to be “A Facility Based on Change.” They repositioned open landscape and leveraged the idea of a panel based system called “Action Office.”
- Propst’s published research gave the market and Herman Miller’s sales force a simple and elegant tool describing how to plan and respond to the new realities of an information economy.
- Herman Miller’s creation of the Facility Management Institute at the University of Michigan created the profession of facility managers and laid the foundation for a new market.
- Herman Miller created “expert” spokespeople in the form of individuals like Dave Armstrong, Joe Schwartz and Tom Newhouse. These expert evangelists traveled the country demonstrating and promoting Action Office.
- Herman Miller designed mock-ups as a vital part of these road shows in order to translate concepts like vertical space, modular limited and process forwarding into tangible statements.
- Finally, this required a new kind of distribution channel in the form of trained and dedicated dealers. Haworth has an excellent opportunity to similarly reposition modular interior construction.
Success repositioning this category will open up a market with exponentially higher returns than contract furniture.
