In our daily personal interactions with businesses of all sizes we all experience sub-optimal business processes. How many times have you tried to buy an item of clothing only to find that the store doesn't have your size? Then when you ask the shop assistant, he responds that a new delivery is expected on Wednesday, but he doesn't know whether that particular item will be included. Check back on Wednesday? Familiar? Of course, we're all so used to these kinds of experiences that we accept them as normal.

From a business perspective, even if it's the norm, it's far from optimal, and the effects are significant: Customers feel that the organization doesn't value their business and that service is poor; products are replenished based on assumptions, leading to stock-outs, loss of revenue, and customer frustration; prices are fixed even when demand is fluctuating wildly, leading to revenue not being maximized; customers churn due to unresponsive organizations that fail to react when poor service is delivered.