What is a consumption chain?
A consumption chain is the full set of steps a customer goes through with a product, from finding it to disposing of it, with each step a chance to stand out. Ian MacMillan and Rita McGrath introduced the idea in Harvard Business Review in 1997. Their point was that a company can differentiate at any stage of the customer's experience, well beyond the product itself.
Why it matters to a revenue leader
In commercial services, the core work can look the same from one provider to the next, so the steps around it can decide the sale. How easily a facility manager can read a deficiency report and approve a repair quote can shape renewals as much as the inspection itself. A revenue leader who walks through those steps from the customer's side finds places to stand out that competitors may overlook.
Example
Fictitious numbersA fire protection company finds that deficiency repair quotes take an average of 11 days to reach customers, and many expire unapproved. It changes that step so technicians send a priced quote from the site the same day. Within two quarters, the share of quotes approved rises from 35 percent to 52 percent, and repair revenue per inspection rises with it.
"At which step after the sale do our customers wait longest, and what would it be worth to fix it?"
Sources
- Discovering New Points of Differentiation (Harvard Business Review, 1997) checked 9 Oct 2026