Power has shifted dramatically to consumers from the firms that inhabit the supply chains that serve them.
Scale used to give market power that could be leveraged, but IT development has radically changed the location of the power towards the customer.
Scale now just gives the opportunity through scope and access to resources, but that is no longer enough without the one to one engagement with customers enabled by technology.
You do not have to be big to be intimate with a customer, you just have to understand them and react to their needs, thereby turning the old notion of a supply chain on its head, creating a “demand chain”.
StrategyAudit 