Daniel Price
TRM

Case study: businesses

In each triangle, the thick yellow shape is the value a business gives its customer and the thin pink shape is the price the customer pays. The corners are time, risk and cost.

Social media

TRM triangle for social media: the yellow value shape reaches almost to the time corner, while the pink price shape points only toward risk.

Value. Social media saves a huge amount of time keeping in touch (gossiping?) with friends and family. Before, that took lots of phone calls, get-togethers and endless coordination around them. Reaching all four hundred of your closest friends, on your own schedule, wasn’t possible.

Price. Risk. You and your data are no longer exposed only to your family, friends and colleagues. It’s now more available to anyone, anywhere. How risky depends on what you share and with whom.

Insurance

TRM triangle for insurance: the yellow value shape reaches far toward risk, while the small pink price shape points toward cost.

Value. Insurance exists to lower the risk of an unlikely event ruining your day. Anything likely is on the list of exclusions.

Price. Money, of course, spread across many customers.

Retail clothing

TRM triangle for retail clothing: the yellow value shape reaches far toward time with a little toward cost, while the pink price shape points toward cost.

Value. Assuming you need clothes, retail saves both time and money. Making your own clothes takes a long time. Retailers can also buy fabric in bulk, often cheaper than you can.

Interestingly, what about luxury retailers? There the value can be how long a garment lasts, how useful it is, or how quickly (time) it signals something about you to others. I’m a business professional: a suit. I love the outdoors: rugged wear. I’m a teenager: pajamas.

Price. Retail is simple. It’s money. Unless you’re trying to get Taylor Swift attire, and then it’s goodbye to time and money.

Real estate agent

TRM triangle for a real estate agent: the yellow value shape reaches far toward both time and risk and partway toward cost, while the small pink price shape points toward cost.

Value. Agents save you time by coordinating showings, communicating with buyers and sellers, and handling appraisals, closings, contractors and more. They reduce risk by watching for the things that can turn a dream home into a nightmare. And they can help you get more for your property, or buy one for less. The highest offer doesn’t always win.

Price. Like most industries, money.

Farming

TRM triangle for farming: a large yellow value shape reaches the time corner and most of the way to risk and cost, while a tiny pink price shape sits at the center.

Value. Being a consumer of farming is the greatest deal of all time. No time spent raising or harvesting. Almost no risk that food won’t be available: for every place struggling with harsh weather or pests, somewhere else is thriving. And no tools to buy so you can raise and harvest enough to feed yourself, only the ones that polish your food to taste even better.

Price. Two costs: money, and risk. The risk is whether you can trust the system that provides your food: that it’s safe to eat, and that the tuna really is tuna.