Market Effectiveness, a term used by Group50® Consulting, defines the business processes associated with serving customers. In every business, managing and optimizing these processes are critical to success. Manufacturing and distribution companies are especially challenged because there are many channels of distribution they must be effective at: Direct to Consumer (D2C), Bricks & Mortar and Business to Business (B2B). This article outlines (more…)

The concept of “system selling” is applicable to all products and services. System selling extends the lifecycle revenue of products and services. The wisdom of offering products and services that don’t stand alone, but which intimately fit into a greater system for the end user or client, continues to be sound and exploitable by marketers. It is a necessary element in OMNI channel strategies, product management and the Product Lifecycle Revenue Model. Why? (more…)

We have spoken to many senior leaders who are frustrated with their product development processes and who believe that despite their best efforts, most products move forward because of “gut feel” rather than a detailed and consistent market assessment. Developing solid rationale and requiring a business case that includes an appropriate market assessment should be a requirement for advancing a new product or service concept to market. The business case, and its market assessment section, (more…)

I was recently working with a division of a $1B company who was having problems with the introduction of a highly engineered product in a foreign country. They were struggling with manufacturing a complex component in a new product that was introducing a disruptive technology.

They recognized that this new product introduction was complex and that successfully introducing this product was the basis for their Market Effectiveness. They knew that that new product introduction programs typically generate their highest sales and profit margins in the fist 12 months after implementation. Disruptive product programs that are poorly implemented (more…)

Anti-Strategy causes a negative impact on Market Effectiveness and your customers know it.  Let’s start with a couple of definitions before we get into the meat of this article: Anti-Strategy: Conscientious employees trying to do the right things without the guiding principles of a clear strategy.

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It’s natural and often advisable to get excited about “the next big, new thing” and focus your energy and revenue growth emphasis accordingly. However, just as there is continuing truth to the old business axiom, “Your best revenue growth opportunities are often with current customers”, it’s also true that companies abandon “old platforms” too quickly.

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If you are like many leaders, you remember the great new ideas that were early springboards for your company’s success. For some reason, however, your new products and services “pool” seems to have dried up over the years. What happened? Have you become less creative? Has your organization grown complacent and removed from customers and how your products are used? Perhaps you’ve just been looking in the wrong places.

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An executive once asked “at what revenue level does it make sense to adopt mass customization to improve business execution?” From the perspective of manufacturing products, it is one thing to be a “customizer” and quite another to be a “mass customizer.” Here’s how business leaders need to think about this issue.

It is possible to produce customized products with inefficiencies that only grow as (more…)

I was recently speaking with a client about Make vs. Buy. We were discussing when the appropriate time was for doing that kind of analysis. The natural assumption is that world class organizations are doing that kind of analysis whenever a new product program or a major new contract is being worked on. It should be part of every analysis to provide continuous feedback to the Manufacturing organization and the business’s executives. Make vs. Buy analysis will tell you (more…)

Management of a project, regardless of the specific intent and outcome, can generally be accomplished using fairly universal tools and techniques with a significant amount of focus and discipline.

A team approach has been shown to gain ‘ownership’ in the project and a consistent and uniform means of communication allows participants and stakeholders to stay abreast of the project by providing feedback to the team and the project leader(s). As a business leader, you frequently find yourself faced with the dilemma of having to define, justify, and implement a significant project or program, that at its conception, is generally just a collection of ideas, proposals, ‘back of the envelope’ calculations or benefits.

To bring these together takes the focus of a (more…)