• The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; and third, common sense - Thomas A Edison - courtesy Bits & Pieces.
• Innovation is the art of identifying a resource and adding economic value - Peter F Drucker.
• A known devil is better than an unknown angel - Old Saying - Origin not known.
What makes a company great and successful? What differentiates the winners, the also rans and the losers? What differentiates the men from the boys? Why do companies with equally good products fail to capitalize, while others succeed? It does not matter whether you are selling an ordinary soap or selling a hitech product or a service. It has nothing to do with great creative advertising and visuals. It has nothing to do with endorsements by celebrities. It has nothing to do with TQM or Six Sigma quality because almost everybody who is a somebody in business is having such certifications these days. They do help in running a company efficiently. However, being efficient does not make one effective. The answer to all the questions above can be summarized in two terms - Innovation & Marketing. Successful companies make their products or services more exciting, noticeable and meaningful to their target audience. Intel, Nokia, Toyota, GE, Cisco, Walt Disney, DuPont, Caterpillar, John Deere, United Technologies, P&G, Unilever, Microsoft and Google are such companies to name a few.
Many companies believe that if they make reliable products, back it up with good marketing, advertising, after sales service and customer relations, they will sell because the market is huge. After all they are expecting only a share of the market. Not true at all. First having a large potential market does not mean that one will necessarily have a reasonable share of the market. There may be too many players. When the market is large, it does not mean all will be potential customers. Some may be loyal customers to somebody else. Some may not be interested in the product at all. Some may not be able to afford the product offered, which means they are not part of the market you are aiming at. Only a few may be interested because your USP or CVP is appealing and exciting to them.
We come to the main crux of the problem. One should be able to define the target market clearly and make the product or service appealing and exciting to them. We have to carve out a niche. This is one area where many fail. They try to be all things to all people. In a buffet spread, you will find people picking up things they are most familiar with. Very few experiment with unknown dishes. Successful companies will always be the target of not so successful followers. Success in any field always attracts admiration first, but jealousy, hostility and competition later. Competition will move in without a specific strategy because their target is not the customer. Their target is the market leader. They lose focus of their own market and customers.
In business, it is innovation and marketing that separates the men from the boys. The successful companies are highly focused and have long term vision. Vision has two components: Tunnel and Wide angle. Both are important. In human resources management, wide angle vision is important. However, in marketing, tunnel vision helps you to retain your focus. It helps, when you have your blinkers on in some situations. There is always light at the end of any tunnel, however long and unending it might appear to be. The customers must know what you are offering and in what way your products or services are better than the competition. For that you must get noticed, known and then accepted. However, that is not enough. If you want to maintain, grow and expand your market share, you need to be strong in both innovation and marketing. While almost all understand the term marketing, very few can explain what innovation means. The great management guru (Late) Dr. Peter F Drucker defines Innovation as the art of identifying a resource and adding economic value. It sounds very complicated but in reality is fairly simple. It needs hard work, stick-to-itiveness and common sense as mentioned by Thomas Edison.
© Copyright. May 8, 2008. All rights reserved.
Differentiating the men from the boys in business - Innovation & Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Madhavan T Gopalachary's Website.
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Madhavan T Gopalachary
(Visit Madhavan's Website)
Madhavan Gopalachary, nick name "madgopes"
(g pronounced as in go) given by IIT
classmates, is a Mechanical Engineer and
an alumnus of Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras having passed out
specializing in IC Engines &
Thermodynamics.
He has nearly 35 years of experience in
the Corporate World. He started off as a
trainee and handled sales, marketing,
manufacturing, product management, profit
center management, strategic planning and
corporate development including R & D in
various organizations and at various
levels before becoming a CEO. His last two
professional assignments were at CEO level
before embarking to start management
consultancy business on January 01, 1998.
He has worked for British, Swedish MNCs as
well as very large Indian business houses.
He has spent a large portion of his time
from June 1998 till date in East African
Countries practicing as an independent
Management Consultant.
More details can be obtained at the
following web sites:
mmg.name/
mtg.html
mmgconsu
lting.biz/
Madhavan's articles can be accessed at www.madgopes.com
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