[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2013\/11\/08\/ram-charan-b2b-ecommerce-interview\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2013\/11\/08\/ram-charan-b2b-ecommerce-interview\/","headline":"B2B e-commerce, change, and the customer: A conversation with Ram Charan","name":"B2B e-commerce, change, and the customer: A conversation with Ram Charan","description":"Ram Charan Charan has spent the last 35 years working with companies including General Electric, DuPont, Bank of America, Verizon, and more.","datePublished":"2013-11-08","dateModified":"2024-02-28","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/amy\/#Person","name":"Amy Hatch","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/amy\/","identifier":5,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/58a96e3922c3a3554b3ac5a72d5dcb06fcb90f2073da9af5ccd64f0ce10fb2fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/58a96e3922c3a3554b3ac5a72d5dcb06fcb90f2073da9af5ccd64f0ce10fb2fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Subscription-models-innovation.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Subscription-models-innovation.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2013\/11\/08\/ram-charan-b2b-ecommerce-interview\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/b2b\/","name":"B2B Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B2B_e-commerce"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},"Retail Trends, Data, News",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/trends-commerce\/","name":"Trends","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fad","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q787045"]}],"wordCount":1007,"keywords":["B2B","E-commerce"],"articleBody":"At the recent Game Plan B2B E-commerce Forum in Chicago, I had a chance to sit down with world-renowned author Ram Charan to get his take on the future of commerce for manufacturers and distributors.Charan, who delivered the keynote at Game Plan, has spent the last 35 years working with companies including General Electric, DuPont, Bank of America, Verizon, and more. His reputation for cutting through the complexity of doing business in today\u2019s fast-changing world.He shares his expertise through his books, articles in top business publications and, today, with The Future of Commerce. What follows is an edited transcript of a conversation with Charan that covers a wide-ranging exploration of what\u2019s happening in B2B today, but, in the end, focuses on what is most important\u2014the customer.Why has it taken the B2B marketplace so long to embrace e-commerce?Ram Charan: The change does not happen on its own. It\u2019s always driven by a catalyst, and that catalyst is almost always a human being or a group of human beings. The largest scale change in B2C is driven by Jeff Bezos. They can disagree, and we may have some other people, but the concept is the same. He has also been driving for B2B with Amazon Supply.Ram Charan: And so, until other people feel the pinch on them, they are not actively going after it. And that has to do with the management of each of these companies. When such a change comes, it levels the field for people. And that\u2019s how the biggest companies that do not change go over the cliff. That tells me the leadership matters. And the other reason is, if you have a chain, you need the synchronization of the whole chain.So you\u2019ve got a leadership in place that maybe doesn\u2019t see what\u2019s happening in their market, and you have folks beneath them who do see, who are trying to be agents of change. What advice would you give to people who are in a situation where they\u2019re working hard to be agents of change?Ram Charan: First and foremost is that they have to have credibility with top management. They don\u2019t go and say, \u201cYou guys are blowing it.\u201d You don\u2019t go and pontificate. What they need to do is first find a way to get them to commission a peer team to do benchmarking. So management commissions it. The second then is to take two or three or four senior people to go and see it themselves.\u00a0[Then] have them meet the customers of others. And then, see if you can talk to the CFO in some way, and then say, what\u2019s the risk? What are the analysts saying? Or what are the investors saying? But the most important part is the customers.So, how many brands are really capable of this kind of change?Ram Charan: The promise of a brand is through the eyes and experience of a customer set. And, if the brand delivers a promise that is different from others, then the brand will sustain. If customers [want commerce] online, and the brand doesn\u2019t deliver that, it\u2019s not going to sustain.So it\u2019ll get winnowed out on its own?Ram Charan: That\u2019s why the brands die\u2026Advertising is not brand-building. It can support, but it\u2019s not brand building. It\u2019s a consumer experience, and the consumer says, legitimately, that it is something unique or better than something else, and I prefer this experience.We don\u2019t see a lot of B2B brands embracing social media, but it seems like there\u2019s a missed opportunity there.Ram Charan: Huge. Huge opportunity\u2026social media causes transparency and\u2026everybody knows there\u2019s no substitute for word of mouth.Let\u2019s talk about Millennials for a minute, and how they\u2019re driving change inside of companies as they come on board as employees.Ram Charan: So we say Millennial are a fact of life, and their mental process is different from the bosses who are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. And we\u2019re going to see more of that conflict, unless senior people learn the new mindset and brand architecture of the Millenials\u2026People have to learn how to work with them.Are Amazon and Google a real threat to B2B e-commerce, or are they just going to put the pinch on brands?Ram Charan: If you don\u2019t have a platform. Most people cannot get a Google-type platform. It\u2019s very expensive. But\u2026 you [can] create a segment, get your search engine, put up the scale, and build a service.So they\u2019re not as big a game-changer as, perhaps, as the media has made them out to be?Ram Charan: No, no. They are a game changer. They are saying, \u201cWe look at the world. Where\u2019s the opportunity for us?\u201d They\u2019re going to create value and, if that means changing the game, it will change the game.What I\u2019m taking away from all of this is that the winners will be the brands that are open to and able to see the next wave of change that\u2019s coming, and also ride the current wave.Ram Charan: Plus, the eye on the customer.I think fear is a big factor. \u201cThis is the way we\u2019ve always done it, and this is the way we always have to do it, or we\u2019re going to fail.\u201d So, when you encounter a business that is mired in fear, paralyzed by fear, what would you share with them to help them move forward?Ram Charan: When there\u2019s a fear, visit the customer. Observe the customer. Get the truth. Look at the customers you don\u2019t know anything about. Business is risk-taking, but you must align with the customer.  What happens in Vegas …\u00a0creates connections + drives results.Join hundreds of customer experience experts at CX Connect Oct. 6-8. Register\u00a0HERE.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2013","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2013\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"11","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2013\/\/11\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"08","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2013\/\/11\/\/08\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"B2B e-commerce, change, and the customer: A conversation with Ram Charan","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2013\/11\/08\/ram-charan-b2b-ecommerce-interview\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]