The 3 Cs for conquering the sea of success

Model Name : 3Cs Model
Author: Kenichi Ohmae
Year : 1982
Purpose : Company growth, factors that contribute to the growth of a company, to successfully reach goals in the desired period, to ensure better customer relationship, to have a good command over competitive advantage.

What Is The 3C’s Model?

The infamous 3C’s model is basically what allows a company to have a look at the factors that can contribute towards its growth and get rid of disruptions on the path of success.

This model was put together by Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese organizational expert.

The primary objective behind the 3C’s model is to point out the ways through which a business strategist can ensure that their business is running successfully, for a longer term.

In this model, the three C’s are:

• Company
• Customers
• Competitors

Kenichi believed that by successfully integrating these three factors into a business, a continuous competitive advantage can be established.

How Does A Business Establish A Successful Competitive Advantage?

Every single business that has envisioned itself to become one of the top ones recognizes it’s one most important asset, AKA the customer, the one with needs and wants.

Once recognized, only then a company can deliver a product to cater to those needs and wants. By establishing a unique competitive advantage, a company can differentiate itself from its competitors by offering the customers what they don’t find anywhere else.

How Does The 3C’s Model Work?

According to the 3C model, at the time of communication, people opt the route of negotiation when it comes to making decisions. While coordinating, they deal with several conflicts, which is why they have to align their activities in such a way that keeps the company from going through any loss of communication and cooperation.

“Cooperation is the collaborative operation of members of the group that are working together simultaneously to carry out processes, as well as generating and manipulating cooperation objects.”

There is often a need for renegotiation and decision-making regarding undesirable or unforeseen situations which may appear during cooperation. Such occurrences necessitate a new round of communication, where coordination is required for restructuring the tasks which are to be carried out during cooperation.

In a nutshell, it will suffice to say that communication, cooperation, and coordination make a triangle by connecting with each other. When either of these factors encounters even the slightest bit of disruption, then the entire company suffers.

How To Use The 3C’s Model?

1. The Company – While setting a focus on the maximization of strengths, a corporation can induce competition that plays a critical part in reaching success. By focusing on a key functional area, a company can allow itself to make better decisions in improving itself. Other than that, making informed decisions is also considered a key factor that can cater to problems like capacity, cost structure, and significant strategic advantages. Maintaining a better corporation through effective communication can pave ways for the corporation to run towards a clearer goal. Also, doing so the company can also strengthen and progress while doing other functions as well.
2. The Customer – Being the basis for a corporation, taking care of the interests of its customers as well as of its stockholders or other parties can bring a great deal of positivity to the corporation. When a customer’s needs, wants, demands, buying incentives, decision-making abilities are considered as factors to form a strategy, then it becomes remarkably easy for a corporation to gain a positive outcome.
3. The Competition – Lastly, the competition, according to Ohmae are the strategies that can be formed by studying several functions such as purchasing, designing of the product, engineering, sales and most importantly, its maintenance. Furthermore, one more factor that is important to build a healthy competition is the image.

Example of Sony and Honda

Let’s take a quick example, Sony and Honda hit a milestone in sales every time. Why?

Because they have gained prominence in the minds of their customers by investing regularly in public relations and advertising. For smaller corporations, franchise concepts can be used to make the necessary investments that will add to future reputation.

Questions To Ask While Working With 3 C’s?

Whenever a new business is set to make its entry into the corporate realm, it never forgets to start with the application of the 3C’s.

Of course, it’s not necessary for a company to apply all of the three C’s at once; going one at a time can also bring a great deal of ease. A company could begin working at a fast, but if it has failed to analyze its most important contributor, which is the customer, then things might go not as planned.

After analyzing the customers, and finding out further about their needs, wants, demands, as well, finding out about the company’s competitors can lay a great start. Getting to know the customer’s perception is of great importance in the realm of marketing.

Therefore, after a company is done analyzing its consumer base, the following questions should be asked, in order to set a proper start for the company to run:

1. Where is the support needed? (Where?)
2. Which type of support is needed? (What?)
3. Who should each area be given separate support? (Why?)
4. And lastly, how to put together effective design support? (How?)

Application Of 3C’s Model

In A Nutshell

Kenichi Ohmae’s 3C’s model is considered as one of the best ones used to run businesses and to maintain them for a longer run. Thousands of large, well-established corporations as well as the newly set ones abide by this model and consider it a holy grail towards earning success.

The main agenda behind this model is to fulfill the requirements of all the customers and stakeholders that are a part of the organization, so they can taste success and achieve goals effortlessly.