Apr 22, 2009 | Demand chains, Strategy
Interdependence drives successful collaboration, and collaborative arrangements never survive without clear areas of interdependence.
When individual collaborators judge their actions in the context of the best outcome for the group, rather than their own short term best interests, you have a collaboration that is sufficiently robust to survive and add value.
In other words, interdependence emerges when an individuals best interests are best served by serving the best interests of the collaboration.
Inevitably, this involves some sacrifice of independence, sometimes hard to do, but usually very profitable.
Apr 21, 2009 | Strategy
Yesterday I got a telemarketing offer for a half price newspapers subscription, delivered to my door from one of the major dailies. Of course I signed up, beats walking to the newsagent and paying double!
The other major daily in Sydney is giving away free copies of its paper with any “value Meal” purchase at a major fast food restaurant.
There are few examples of such substantial value add at such a deep discount, is this canny marketing, or desperation?
The power of newspapers is in the value their distribution offers advertisers, but most people buy newspapers to be informed and entertained. The alternatives emerging over the last 5 years to be informed and entertained have profoundly altered the economics of newspapers.
The ABC seems to be grappling with the digital media, perhaps better than the commercial media, perhaps because it does not have to worry as much about the distribution and advertising revenue.
The business model of newspapers is going down the gurgler, could it be that these offers are the death throes, or are they just being nice, and saving me a walk.
Apr 20, 2009 | Marketing
SOW is a simple but powerful concept for both consumer and B2B markets.
How much of a customers spending on products you could supply, actually comes your way, Vs going to a competitor? how much of their “wallet” to you get? It is a great measure of the relative value of your offering to a customer against that of your competitors.
The key is to define the wallet, and fundamental to that is an understanding of the customers behavior, what they buy, from whom, via what channels, why they buy it, and what they buy it instead of.
Setting the parameters of a wallet for major or target customers is a task that should be central to any strategic effort to enhance performance. It is also a valuable exercise for the sales and marketing personnel, as it demands a critical examination of the customer, always a useful exercise.
Apr 19, 2009 | Strategy
Success always means making choices… which customer, which market, which price point, which channel, and so on.
The key is to actually make the choice after the appropriate analysis, and commit to it, whilst remaining sufficiently alert and agile to recognise early when the choice is sub-optimum, and make the necessary adjustments.
The danger is in not making a choice, rather than making the wrong choice.
Apr 18, 2009 | Demand chains
In the past, those who held the information held the power, no longer is it so clear cut.
Now, we have so many options opened up to us that the sharing of information is the new power, as information attracts activity, as light attracts a moth.
This is a huge change in the competitive landscape that has occurred so quickly that many have yet to twig, and therein lies a wealth of opportunity to restructure demand chains based on the availability a and transparency of information, rather than its proprietary ownership or location.
