What was considered impressive yesterday is an expectation today.

I recently heard a customer put this idea in more perspective:

“Look, we invest in technology because you only get a short window of time to make these investments while you’re in control and while it produces actual competitive advantage. Because eventually everyone adopts if it works and now you’re just trying to stay in the game. Or, you wait until your customers mandate something and nobody wants to be in that position.”

Did you catch that?

He was saying there are three sequential phases of possible outcomes when it comes to technology adoption:

– Allows you to expand margins more than competitors

– Allows you to match competitors’ margins

– Merely allows you to maintain market share when a partner in the supply chain demands an initiative in order to do so

This particular conversation was in regards to using predictive analytics to improve market forecasting. But the principle applies to *all* technology investments in all areas of the meat, milk & eggs business from purchasing to live to plant to sales operations.

Ironically, that customer I quoted above also said, “Companies who don’t invest in analytics and similar innovations on their own now will be forced to do so if they’re going to supply companies like Amazon or Alibaba or JD.com in the future.”

See the irony? Jeff Bezos recognizes that consumers are divinely discontent. But perhaps that’s because his organization is the most discontent customer of all.

And with Amazon moving into food (read: meat and poultry), the industry has to contend with an agitated customer the likes of which they’ve never faced.

Your customers are divinely discontent. 

Are you?

This article was originally published on Meatingplace.