Drink

Prime, GE & Outcomes-as-a-ServiceA classic PM interview question goes “ Which is your favourite product and why? ”. A common twist on this “ Which is your favourite

non-tec

h product? ”. It checks whether the persons knowledge extends beyond the domain of screens and apps.

My answer to this has always been the HUL PureIt Water Purifier.

I saw it. Loved it. Bought it. Got my friends to buy it. And every time I see it, I feel awed by the neatness and simplicity of it.

For a lazy human who desires zero maintenance, PureIt is a godsend. It is super simple to setup and use. Tap water goes in, drinking water comes out. It relies on physical and chemical filtration so no electricity needed . No plug and play, just play. And the cost is low, at ₹3000 compared to electric ones ranging from ₹4000 - ₹9000.

There’s one small catch though, you have to replace the chemical filter called the “ Germkill kit ” every 1–2 years. Annoying! ** tilts head sideways and starts day-dreaming > “They should have a sensor that detects when the kit is expiring and then a little drone should fly in and replace the filter. That way I don’t have to bear even this minor inconvenience in my ultra-pampered lifestyle and acknowledge my adult responsibilities . I mean there’s so much to watch on Netflix, I can’t get distracted by these chores” Well, we now have something like that. Almost *.

Say hello to [Drink

Prime](https://www.drinkprime.in/) — a drinking water service. Remember how you don’t own CDs and Cassetes anymore? You just stream the music you want. The music service has replaced ownership with access . Drink

Prime does something similar for drinking water.

You sign-up on Drink

Prime and they install their water purifier in your home. You pay a deposit that is a fraction of the cost of a typical purifier. However, you’re not buying the device, instead your water usage is measured and you* pay-by-the-litre *for consumption.

Why is it better?

• Upfront costs for you as the consumer are much lower.- Value is delivered and earned continuously. If the purifier breaks down, your consumption stops, Drink

Prime will stop getting paid. There’s an incentive to keep the device working well, at least in theory.

It’s feel like a leap forward in the model. Us marketing folks have a cliched quote that goes

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.”* — Theodore Levitt It reminds us that the drill is incidental *, the hole and whatever you’re going to do with it are the actual needs. Drink

Prime doesn’t saddle you with ownership of the device, instead it charges for the thing you want — clean drinking water.

This reminded me of GE — who’s been experimenting with this at a massive scale for almost decade now. As GE was doing it’s “digital transformation”, folks there were thinking about how they can mash the power of the internet with GE expertise in industrial machines . They discovered the “* Outcome-as-a-service *”

• “ Another thing we learned was the need to sell outcomes as a service, rather than sell a product and a service contract. … We’re targeting around $120 million in value creation from fuel savings alone — with minimal changes to the plant’s existing hardware. ” — From ‘* GE’s transformation * ’: The GE model was selling industrial products and charging for servicing. The pitch was “ Hey! Take these state-of-art but expensive generators we’ve built . They’re ultra-efficient and will give you fuel savings in the long run *”

Some power company had to trust GE, incur massive capex for these generators, use experts to install them, operate them and service them for years. And then hope that GE’s claim is true.

Drill, hole, … At some point, some power company said “* Hey no! The government has cut our budget, come back next year * ” and someone in GE had a brainwave. If these generators are so efficient why can’t I sell these for cheaper and keep a share of the claimed fuel savings . This makes it way to easier to sell. For the buyer, massive capex is now transformed into tinier chunks of opex.

Conclusion

The bigger nugget here? The “ Outcome-as-a-service” business model. Connectivity and advanced sensors are now enabling us to measure all sorts of outcomes . This unlocks the super-power to pay when only when your desired outcomes are delivered. When the incentives are aligned, it doesn’t make sense to bait-and-switch . This is the evolution of the “as-a-service” trend that is now everywhere from software (Gmail) to transportation (Uber, Ola, etc.).

Of course, there are legitimate reasons to own things. Never forget that ownership is control. The flexibility of ride-hailing becomes the pain of being stranded when prices surge or cabs aren’t available. “ Your ” GMail account is free storage space from Google that could disappear any day they decide it’s not worth giving it to you . Sounds farfetched? In December 2019, You

Tube updated it policy allowing it terminate accounts that aren’t commercially viable. If you don’t generate ad dollars for us — we don’t want You or your Tube.

But for a world that defaulted to ownership, this is a welcome trend. Not because millennial hipsters prefer “experiences over ownership”, but because it drops the barriers to access and widens choices . As a consumer, it something to be excited about.