Developing Plans by David Goldsmith

Author:David Goldsmith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BenBella Books

Order Qualifiers and Order Winners

Nearly thirty years ago, manufacturing strategist and London Business School professor Terry Hill27 introduced the terms Order Qualifiers and Order Winners to manufacturers.Whether you’re in manufacturing or not, you can use these concepts as universal tools to determine the right projects for your organization.

Hill defined Order Qualifiers as the basic characteristics that a company, product, or service need in order to compete in the marketplace. Order Qualifiers are typically no more than entry-level requirements you must meet in order to play in your arena and keep on par with your competitors—requirements that enable you to start up a new organization, launch a new project, or maintain status quo within an existing group or organization. However, Order Qualifiers are not stand-out features that motivate people—such as buyers, investors, volunteers, allies, etc.—to choose your organization or its offerings over the competition.

Hill’s Order Winners, on the other hand, are unique and distinguishing attributes that give organizations an edge over their competitors. They are specific characteristics that earn sales, memberships, grants, and other desired returns. Order Winners—typically determined by an industry or sector—can be patents, certifications, education, locations, compositions, designs, equipment, apps, or licenses, or they can be attributes like advanced-tread tires that prevent skidding better than traditional tires, employee-benefits plans that attract higher-caliber managers to an organization’s leadership team, or six-hour brochure-printing services as compared to competitors’ three-day turnaround times.

Every leader, from those in government to those in small business, must be sure they understand whether their offerings are Order Qualifiers or Order Winners. Take, for instance, how government and economic development officials in two separate cities—Effingham,27 Illinois, and Fort Wayne, Indiana—handled the same opportunity. Years ago, executives at the paint company Sherwin Williams entertained the option of either staying in Effingham or moving operations to Fort Wayne. Both cities provided Order Qualifiers, but officials in Effingham offered a $2.5 million economic incentives package and a $3 million break from the company’s landlord to tip the scales in their favor and win Sherwin Williams away from Fort Wayne. An important truth about Order Winners is that they are organic and ever changing, so you want to be a proactive game changer like Effingham.

But having Order Winners today doesn’t mean your work is done.

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