There are as many answers to this question as there are terrorist groups, and everyone from clerics to caustic cab drivers seems to have a confident opinion on the subject, as though the interior world of terrorists can be easily mined and mapped. But this confidence is often misplaced, given how little scholars actually know about terrorism and the people who are involved in it. It also betrays an epic obliviousness about just how difficult it is to access the internal, subjective desires and emotions that shape the outer world.
Instead of asking why people join terrorist groups and commit terrorist atrocities, a more worthwhile starting point for explanation is to ask how. This answer has evolved in recent years in line with advances in knowledge and moral sensibilities. In terrorism studies in the late s, it was not uncommon for scholars to conceive of pathology as a psychological abnormality or affliction rooted inside the individual. Since the s, this idea has fallen into disrepute, and the scholarly consensus now holds that the roots of terrorism lie not in the individual, but in the wider circumstances in which terrorists live and act.
It is perhaps best summarized by the renowned social psychologist Albert Bandura. Given appropriate social conditions, decent, ordinary people can be led to do extraordinarily cruel things. This consensus is also reflected in much liberal-left commentary about terrorism, especially of the jihadist variant.
Jihadist violence, from this perspective , is an inevitable reaction fueled by Muslim anger and vengeance; and Westernized jihadists, far from rejecting the civilized norms and ideals proclaimed by the West, are in fact alienated from a West that excludes, demeans, and harasses Muslims. The scholarly consensus on violence has a lot going for it. The magnitude of the opportunity was only matched by the magnitude of the assets.
And an amazing team has been responsible for rebuilding Yahoo! You may change your billing preferences at any time in the Customer Center or call Customer Service. You will be notified in advance of any changes in rate or terms. You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. Gavin Newsom withstood a recall election on Tuesday in a closely watched race that drew national attention and campaign visits from President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. What does the end of the war say about the America's role in the world and how leaders should address the next international crisis?
Hours after terrorist attack in Afghanistan took the lives of a dozen U. Search News Search web. News Home. Follow Us. Should the U. Instead, Merck has chosen research scientists in labs and universities around the world as its primary customer. Amazon devotes its resources to pleasing consumers, even if that means sellers or content providers sometimes feel shortchanged. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, many executives are reluctant to define their customers as narrowly as Merck has.
Consider the contrasting fortunes of Yahoo and Google. Yahoo began as a broad-based internet portal supported by proprietary editorial content.
To attract users, it hired journalists to write entertainment stories and created utilities such as Yahoo finance, Yahoo movies, and Yahoo sports.
Over time, Yahoo executives began to spread resources among many additional initiatives, including social networks, products, media, and advertising.
Then Google entered the field. From the outset, Google focused on users who appreciated technology and its ability to unlock new opportunities and applications. The aim throughout the business was to build the best technology in the world—whether in search, Android, or maps. With that sharply focused value proposition and business model, Google quickly leapfrogged Yahoo in the competitive marketplace.
This is certainly true at Amazon, which serves four very different types of customer: consumers, sellers, enterprises, and content providers. You might think that it considers all four customer groups to be equally important. This unwavering focus on consumers has created innovations such as prime free shipping, detailed product reviews including negative ones , look-inside-this-book, and the listing of lower-priced products from off-site competitors.
The framework lays out four steps: identifying the best primary customer for your business, creating processes to learn what that customer values, allocating resources accordingly, and building an interactive control process to monitor the assumptions that underlie your choice.
As the cases of Merck, Google, and Amazon illustrate, your most important customers are not those that generate the most revenue but those that can unlock the most value in your business.
For some businesses, the primary customer will be the end user or consumer of the product or service. For others, an intermediary such as a reseller or a broker will be the critical customer to which organizational resources should be devoted.
Identifying the best primary customer for your firm involves assessing each group of customers along three dimensions: perspective, capabilities, and profit potential.
It is the lens through which executives consider opportunities and strategic direction. And Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is a zealot about delivering a superior experience to shoppers. Capabilities refers to the embedded resources of the firm. Such capabilities, which are built up over time and are often difficult to copy, position a business to serve the needs of certain customers better than others.
Dell in its early years built a formidable low-cost logistics operation to support its direct-to-consumer sales model. Today, the company is attempting to change its primary customer by refocusing on CIOs of large enterprises. This pivot has proved difficult for Dell because CIOs look for a set of capabilities—integrated hardware, software, and services solutions—very different from what end consumers need.
Uncovering the full truth about their needs requires systematic research at multiple levels. Consider HBO.
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