In previous work (my Zerotime book), I explored the idea of creating an organization that could be instantly responsive and came up with two models:

1. “Emergency Room” model, where you have to have one of everything, or at least very fast access to one of everything you might possibly need to satisfy a customer need. After all in an emergency room, being instantly reponsive means being able to respond to just about any issue that walks in the door (and that is a very expensive way to go).

2. “Disneyland” model, having grown up in southern California, I’m a big Disney fan. What i’ve noticed there is that their ‘vacations’ feel like they are instantly responsive…that is you can have an adventure going on roller coasters while I have another adventure meeting princesses. Everyone can have what feels like their own, made up, adventure….within bounds. They have set up a clear boundary within which they can be instantly responsive…but if you go outside those bounds, they can’t serve you at all (for example, you can’t go toDisneyland and have a visit to Venice…at least not yet…because it’s out of bounds for those parks). But it feels like Disney is instantly responsive because within bounds they can provide such a wide range of experiences that just about anything you’d ask of them they can provide. This model is much less expensive than the Emergency Room model for obvious reasons: they don’t have to provide everything…just those things within the boundaries.

Now, a few years ago, this was a very interesting idea to ponder. It meant that you could be instantly responsive to your customers by bounding what the possibilities might be, and going gangbusters within those boundaries (think about Dell…providing every customer with a computer custom-designed…as long as it was custom designed with the components Dell provided).

Today, however, the web2.0 technologies, and the thought of the next generation enterprise, changes the game once again. It seems as if saavy companies can not only build a company that gives the appearance of being instantly responsive, they can actually build in whatever service their customer wants with a mash up or by using web technologies. Today its more about knowing your customer so you know what to provide, than it is about building out a platform for execution. There are plenty of platforms that can help here.