Six Blind Funeral Directors Describe Our Future
Chapter 1 The Theory of DeathCare
We are all familiar with the parable of the six blind men describing an elephant. As we struggle with imagining the future of funeral service a survey of trade journal articles and convention agendas can’t help but bring this parable to mind. One industry guru believes that price is the only thing people care about. Another believes that the future is in making arrangements online and still another believes ceremony is our salvation. Yet another believes it is all about cremation. And then there is pet cremation. And the list goes on, never answering the simple yet direct question posed in Blue Ocean Strategy:
What are the 3 universal value drivers today’s market finds most attractive?
Our focus on the activities of the process has made us blind to the essence of the market. The essence is where the solution lays.
My favorite author, Peter Drucker, once asked the question: “Why do successful industries run by capable people so often decline and just as often disappear?” His conclusion was interesting.
He believed that the answer did not lie in people doing wrong things or even making wrong decisions. His thought was that every successful industry is based on a theory. That theory defines the customer, the product and even the purpose of that product in narrow and manageable ways. In the beginning, the theory is relevant…it works. As time elapses, the theory becomes a paradigm. Unfortunately, society never stands still. So, as more time elapses the theory wears thin. But no one notices until the industry is either internally or externally disrupted. Then, rather than revisit the prevailing theory / paradigm, practitioners resist until resistance fails to work. Some companies like Procter and Gamble and, in our own profession, The Mount Pleasant Group, have cultures that equip them to adapt. But most simply get absorbed or fail. From buggy whips to computers there are endless examples.
I believe the conventional theory on which DeathCare is based (caskets, vehicles and unobtrusive servility) has worn very, very thin. It is dangerously close to becoming an anachronism. So much so, that in a few markets like Southern Florida it is no longer relevant. But a new theory has not yet emerged that shows significant promise.
As we wait for that new unifying theory I am also conflicted. I believe that efforts to resolve our challenges is causing some to throw babies out with the bathwater. I further believe there are babies in that bathwater and to abandon them without serious consideration makes no sense to me.
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