1 BUSINESS ORIENTATIONS
PRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT
1.1 Business Orientation = what the business offers
The concept or theory of Business Orientations is based on the fact that business is the satisfaction and/or creation of customer needs. The concept defines and examines the basic forms or possibilities of meeting these needs.
What this concept says is that in business there are only 4 basic possibilities to satisfy or create a customer’s need:
1. Expert, 2. Product, 3. Self-Service and 4. Commodity. We call these 4 possibilities “The Business Orientations”.
The name of each Business Orientation reflects both means of satisfying or creating needs and the essence of what a business offers. They are basically the same. The reason not to use simply the term “Business Offers” is to differentiate between what the business offers in practice (a new car) and its meaning (a new product = satisfaction or creation of a need through the possibility called “Product”).
However, the term “Business Orientations” can be changed (Business Forms, Business Directions, Business Possibilities to satisfy needs etc.) but the names of individual orientations (1. Expert, 2. Product, 3. Self-Service, 4. Commodity) cannot be changed since they express the very essence of their meaning. It is also possible not to use any group term for them.
When shown together, the individual Business Orientations are listed in the following order:
1. Expert, 2. Product, 3. Self-Service, 4. Commodity.
The reason is that this order aligns with our natural perception scale, moving from the specific to the general up to the essential.
The Business Orientations stand above the division of the economy into sectors because they penetrate all sectors and business activities in the economy.
For instance, in the financial sector, one bank may tend to the Expert Orientation, while another bank is more Self-Service-oriented.
Business Orientations are the basis of all business in the same way as the 4 basic mathematical operations are the basis of all mathematics.
In relation to business activity and business science, the Business Orientations are what the four cardinal geographical points are to travelling and geography.
The practical use of Business Orientations is that they enable businesses to check where and what (type of business) they are. Business Orientations also help to observe and understand situations both in business sectors and in the business landscape as a whole.
Business Orientation: 1. Expert 2. Product 3. Self-Service 4. Commodity
Business Orientation’s offer: expert product self-service commodity
Of course, most businesses are generally in a dual position: primarily as a business that receives payments from its customers, and secondarily as a customer that pays others for their supplies. The subject of study in Business Orientations is the business in its primary role.
The concept of Business Orientations also applies only to situations where the business (typically a company) and the customer (typically an individual or the market) are different entities. If the business and the customer are identical, the concept does not apply; these cases typically involve a user interacting with other users through a (self-service) system, such as a private investor or a trader working for themselves on a stock exchange.
