????許多人都記得小學時大人們常說人如其食。這句話顯然會讓很多人在多吃一塊甜甜圈之前三思一下，怕變成雖然美味、但圓嘟嘟的副食。但我們所買的東西呢？他們又到底表現出我們什么樣的問題呢？

????邁克爾?施拉格在《你希望客戶成為什么樣的人》（Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?）中表示，我們所選擇的產品，無論是智能手機，飲料，還是航空公司，都在我們身上留下了強有力的印記。無論我們是否意識到這一點，它們都在改造我們?！具@本76頁的電子書已經由哈佛商業出版社（Harvard Business Press）出版?！?/p>

????在后Siri時代，我們發現自己在同電話交談，而電話的另一頭沒有人。在星巴克（Starbucks），點杯咖啡已經成為一種語言體操，且在高峰時段常常也是超級耐心的等待行為。

????施拉格曾是《財富》雜志（Fortune ）的專欄作家，他同麻省理工學院斯隆管理學院（the MIT SloanSchool）數字商務中心（Center for Digital Business）的一位研究員認為，蘋果（Apple）、宏達電（HTC）和三星（Samsung）這類企業不僅僅在提供既是電腦又是電話的閃亮玻璃顯示屏。“他們的創新不僅讓顧客不同凡想，也改變了他們的行為。”

????施拉格說的有道理，但我覺得他有點過分吹捧這個觀點。在城市街道或辦公室走廊里，你肯定會看到一些可憐蟲搖搖晃晃地走著，臉都貼在手持設備的屏幕上了（呃，我這周肯定也是這樣的。）施拉格說的沒錯，現代屏幕文化激發了強迫行為；但事實上，在21世紀消費電子時代之前，人類就有強迫癥傾向了。

????施拉格讓自己的讀者來設計消費者可能想要使用的產品。他還懇求他們來決定，自己到底想要消費者成為什么樣的人，并將這種企業-消費者要求稱為大要求（The Ask）。

????施拉格寫道：“商業的真正目的是以有利可圖的方式改造消費者?！彼J為，從這個意義上說，產品不應該只是商品。相反，它們應該近似于藝術。這一觀點讓我想起了文學評論家劉易斯?海德經典之作《禮物》（The Gift）中的一段話：“最偉大的藝術提供圖像，讓我們借其想象我們的生活。”但海德認為，一旦這種藝術進入市場，就失去了令它如此強大的一些品質。

????許多人似乎都覺得iPad很神奇，但它真的幫助我們以一種新的方式想象我們的生活了嗎？這對任何企業來說都是個沉重的任務，蘋果也不例外。說到蘋果，史蒂夫?喬布斯也許是這種經營方式的開拓者。施拉格寫道：“喬布斯希望消費者像自己一樣，癡迷于數字技術的設計并注重細節。蘋果將自己的消費者培養成了設計鑒賞家?！?/p>

????Plenty of us remember hearing in grade school that we are what we eat. It certainly made many think twice before snagging that extra doughnut for fear of turning into a rotund -- albeit delicious -- elective food. But what about the things we buy? What exactly do they say about us?

????In Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?, a 76-page e-book from Harvard Business Press, Michael Schrage argues that the products we choose -- be they smartphones, beverages, or airlines -- leave powerful marks on us. They refashion us, whether we realize it or not.

????In a post-Siri world, we find ourselves talking to a telephone ... with no one on the other end of the line. In a Starbucks universe, ordering a cup of joe becomes an act of linguistic gymnastics and -- all too often, during rush hour -- supreme patience.

????According to Schrage, a former Fortune columnist and a research fellow at the MIT SloanSchool's Center for Digital Business, companies like Apple (AAPL), HTC, and Samsung are not merely offering shiny glass screens that double as computers and telephones. "Their innovations are training their customers to behave -- not just think -- different."

????Schrage has a point, but I think he oversells it. Walk down any city street or office hallway, and you'll surely spot at least a few poor saps tottering along with their faces glued to a handheld screen (I've certainly been one of them, err, this week.) While he's right that modern screen culture encourages compulsive behavior, the fact is that human obsessive tendencies predate 21st century consumer electronics.

????Schrage asks his audience of business readers to design products that customers might want to use. He also implores them to determine exactly who they want their customers to become, referring to this company-to-customer request as The Ask.

????"The real purpose of business is to profitably transform a customer," Schrage writes. In this sense, products shouldn't simply be commodities, he argues. Instead they should border on art. This idea recalls a passage in The Gift, a classic work by literary critic Lewis Hyde: "The greatest art offers us images by which to imagine our lives." But once that piece of art enters the market, Hyde argues, it loses some of the qualities that made it so powerful to begin with.

????An iPad might seem magical to many of us, but does it really help us re-imagine our lives in new ways? That's a hefty mandate for any company, even an Apple. Speaking of Apple, Steve Jobs was perhaps the grand poobah of this business approach. "Jobs wanted customers to become as design-obsessed and detail-oriented around digital technology as he was," Schrage writes. "Apple trained its customers to become design connoisseurs."