- Something produced.
- The end result of any activity.
- A completed thing that has exchange value within or outside of the activity.
- The end result of one persons job description that can be exchanged within the company.
Let’s look up the definition of the word.
The word product comes from the Latin productum which means “something produced.” The concept of the word then is a completed thing that is made or that is brought into being.
The above definitions expanded:
- Something produced. Yes, that is a definition of a product. In business or a company this is the only definition in common use. That is the article that the company makes, such as a toaster or a car. But there are two very important things left out of this definition. The first is that it must have exchange value. If an author writes a book yet never sells it it is not a product. If an inventor invents a gadget but people don’t find it has value and it never get sold it again is not product.
- The end result of any activity. Yes closer see number 1.
- A completed thing that has exchange value within or outside of the activity. Yes, this is the most complete answer. Anyone working in an organization is wearing a hat of some kind. There are functions the individual does when wearing his or her hat. The end result of those functions getting done should be an output that is valuable (earns that person a paycheck) and which can be exactly articulated. Let’s take a receptionist, for example, who performs the functions of receiving phone calls and routing them to their proper destinations within the company and who receives visitors coming to the company for a meeting, to apply for a job, make a delivery, etc. We see that she is the receipt-point for communications (phone calls and visitors) coming into the organization and that the receptionist has value to the degree that she courteously receives and swiftly routes those communications to their proper destination. So we articulate her “product” as COMMUNICATIONS COURTEOUSLY RECEIVED AND SWIFTLY ROUTED TO THEIR PROPER DESTINATIONS. This is what we expect the receptionist to produce and we train her to produce it. We do this with every single person wearing a hat in our organization.
- The end result of one persons job description that can be exchanged within the company.
The other part is that there are several products within every company that add up to the company’s valuable final product. And that each person in the company must produce a product that is exchangeable within the organization.
A finished high quality service or article in the hands of the consumer as an exchange for a valuable. (Blue Book)
A completed thing that has exchange value within or outside of the activity. Unless its exchangeable it’s not a product at all. Product is exchange, exchange is product. (Admin Dictionary)
EXAMPLE:
If you get out high quality products you will make money.
