Business platforms help us understand the condition of our business model, its requirements, characteristics, competitive edge.

• S-V – Industry platform, where our enterprise competes using industry standard practices.
• S-IV – Market platform, where our multiple systems integrate with market systems.
• S-III – Single serial system platform, where we see the introduction of warranties as a competitive edge.
• S-II – Process implementation platform (of someone else’s system, like a franchisee).
• S-I – Product or service platform, where it’s all about the product.

Bob’s Burger was all about the product. Assuming Bob’s Burger is the best burger around, how do you beat Bob? You get more trucks, geographic expansion. And, geographic expansion (more trucks) comes with its own set of problems. The quality of the burger begins to suffer. Raw ingredients scream for a supply chain where there is none, several trucks run out of lettuce. One truck runs its griddle too hot, the burger tastes like shoe leather. Customers expecting Bob’s Truckburger to be as good as the original Bob’s Burger are disappointed. Worse, Bob is in no-man’s (no-person’s) land. Expansion costs money. The unit cost for more trucks and more people are driving up overhead. A little bit of success can create a whole lot of overhead. Bob is everywhere with his new trucks, and, he is struggling. Bob has plenty of revenue coming in, and, profitability is elusive.

How do you beat Bob’s Truckburgers? Move to the next level, the system level. Bob had trucks, but no system. Bob could have purchased a system from McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s. If Bob had, he would never run out of lettuce, because the supply chain would be a system with ordering min/max’s. The griddle in each truck would always be the same temperature, calibrated on a monthly basis. Every burger would always taste the same. This is scaling. Scaling requires a system. Scaling without a system is a disaster.

Outside the burger world, you will notice a business model with a system frequently offers a warranty, a promise. A warranty promise without a system is a disaster. A warranty promise with a system yields predictable results. And, for the first time, profitability emerges. If you want to improve your profit, improve your system.