Joe Pine, co-creator of the Experience Economy, Strategic Horizons LLP.
Sooner or later, a rival copies your best product, then your service, and eventually even your experience. The Joe Pine Transformation Economy keynote starts from that problem and offers a different answer: the greatest value a company can create is what its customers can become, which goes beyond anything it sells.
Pine (B. Joseph Pine II) co-created the Experience Economy and is a co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP. He is one of the customer experience speakers available through Aurum Speakers Bureau. This piece follows the ladder of value he describes, the ideas in his newest book, and what his keynote gives a leadership team.
The ladder of economic value
Pine’s model climbs four rungs:
Goods and services are where most companies compete, and where prices fall as offerings turn into commodities.
Experiences, the rung he and James H. Gilmore described in The Experience Economy, give customers time well spent.
Transformations sit at the top and give customers time well invested.
Each rung is harder to copy, and worth more to the customer who climbs it.
For a primer on the middle rung, see our explainer on why customer experience is important for a business.
What is the Transformation Economy?
The Transformation Economy (Harvard Business Review Press): the sequel from the author who defined the Experience Economy.
The Transformation Economy is Pine’s idea that the most valuable offering is a lasting change in the customer, such as better health, greater wealth, more wisdom, or a clearer purpose. His book argues, in the publisher’s words, that goods, services, and even memorable experiences no longer keep customers loyal, because people increasingly want to become better versions of themselves.
How does it differ from the Experience Economy?
In the Experience Economy, the staged experience is the offering. In the Transformation Economy, the experience becomes a means: the business guides the customer toward a change that matters to that person. The first earns attention, and the second earns durable loyalty.
Why does it matter for premium pricing?
A company can charge for results rather than for goods, services, or time, and results are far harder to commoditize. That is why the framework appeals to leaders in crowded categories who want a position competitors struggle to copy.
Who are your customers, and who do they want to become?
Pine starts with two questions: where are your customers today, and who do they aspire to be?
The answers tend to fall into four broad aspirations:
People want to become healthier, wealthier, wiser, or to find meaning.
Each aspiration is personal, which is why Pine argues that customization alone is not enough and brands need to treat each customer as an individual.
He also cautions that many offerings labeled as transformations are superficial, because real change reshapes identity and needs sustained support.
The customer is the product
His most memorable line is also his most demanding.
In an interview with Contagious, Pine put it this way: “With transformations, the customer is the product.”
The brand’s job becomes guiding the change, and profit follows from helping people reach their aspirations.
The same interview points to the Johnnie Walker Experience as an example, a visit designed to help people become whisky enthusiasts before they become customers.
Here is a preview of his Transformation Economy keynote:
Where transformation applies
Pine applies the idea across healthcare, finance, education, hospitality, tourism, retail, and B2B.
The publisher’s description of his book names Noom, Symplany, Hydrafacial, London Business School, and Johnnie Walker Whisky as cases, and his speaker profile adds Burning Man, the US Army, and Texas State Technical College.
A transformation is delivered by people, so the employee experience belongs in the same conversation. This is a topic Pine covers in his keynote on designing the employee experience, as well.
For a hospitality view of that idea, see our profile of Will Guidara’s employee-first model.
From mass customization to transformation
Pine’s books chart a path from individualizing goods to designing what customers become.
Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition (1993) came first, followed by The Experience Economy (1999, with Gilmore), which has been published in 15 languages and was named one of the 100 best business books of all time by 800ceoread, now Porchlight.
He later co-wrote Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (2007, with Gilmore) and Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier (with Kim Korn).
The Transformation Economy: Guiding Customers to Achieve Their Aspirations arrived from Harvard Business Review Press in February 2026.
Readers who enjoy this shelf will find more among our bestselling author speakers.
Three questions for your leadership team
If you would like to leave this read with actionables, try these three questions from Pine’s framework in your next strategy session.
Where are our customers today? Describe their starting point in their own words.
Who do they aspire to become? Name the change in health, wealth, wisdom, or purpose that your category can support.
What would it take to guide that change? Define the offering, the support behind it, and the result a customer would pay to receive.
The Joe Pine Transformation Economy keynote
Drawing on his Harvard Business Review Press book, Pine introduces the next stage of economic value, in which companies guide customers toward their aspirations.
He walks audiences through real cases and practical design tools, explains how to charge for outcomes rather than activities, and shows why the shift unlocks premium pricing, durable loyalty, and growth tied to purpose.
The session can run as a keynote or expand into a hands-on workshop. He tailors it to the audience’s strategic context and relies on vivid company stories, which suits leadership summits, strategy offsites, customer experience and marketing conferences, and industry events in retail, hospitality, travel, financial services, healthcare, technology, and education.
His other sessions cover winning customers in the Experience Economy, time as the new competitive currency, designing the employee experience, and the discipline of customering. Every topic is listed on his Joe Pine speaker profile.
To check Joe Pine’s availability for your event, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau and one of our founders will respond within 24 hours.
Booking Joe Pine
His fee depends on the event date, format, duration, and preparation required. To receive a quote, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau and one of our founders will respond within 24 hours. Yet, want to hear the best part?
Thanks to our commercial agreements with the speakers with whom we work, booking through Aurum Speakers Bureau involves no additional cost to you. We earn a commission directly from the speakers for promoting and managing their engagements. Our goal is to simplify your life and help organize your event without extra fees or complications. Contact us to learn more.
Joe Pine is also available for virtual keynotes and webinars as well as in-person sessions, and you can find more options among our virtual keynote speakers.
Experiences fade, but a change in who a customer is stays with them, which is the case Joe Pine makes to every leadership team.
To bring that perspective to your stage, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau and one of our founders will respond within 24 hours.
