Tag Archives: business thinking

June 26, 2013 · 10:08 am

Chief Customer Officers

How do you serve the needs of your customers when you don’t know what those needs entail?

English: A business ideally is continually see...

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Moreover, how does that situation get rectified when there is no one who is focused on discovering and voicing those needs?  “Oh,” you say.  “That doesn’t seem possible.  After all, we have entered a time when customers share their thoughts freely and the tools for engagement are widely available.”  I know – that was my response to the questions too, except I asked them after looking at a piece of research from the Economist Intelligence Unit, reported by Marketing Profs.  A little disturbing:

Only six in ten senior business leaders view their companies as customer-centric, and only 56% report a clear understanding of customers’ tastes and needs…only 19% of CMOs play a leading role in connecting customer-facing functions.  21% of the respondents believe it is a shared responsibility across multiple roles. A plurality, however, believe the CMO should represent the “voice of the customer.

Maybe that’s the problem – “marketing” officer is by definition focused on advancing the goals and messages of the organization.  Perhaps we should instead be calling someone the CCO – Chief Customer Officer.  Their job is to be focused on advancing the customer’s needs.  They can use research and social tools to discover what’s on customers’ minds and translate those insights into goals and tactics for the organization.

As it turns out, such a position does exist in some companies.  It’s relatively new but I think it’s an area that will become critical across most businesses over time.   I’m sure there will be the usual delays as corporate infighting takes place as the roles become redefined.  Too bad – it’s a missed opportunity.  I thought this bit from the MediaPost article was interesting:

Customer insight, data-driven analytical capabilities and social media expertise are among the CMO skills that respondents say are becoming increasingly important. These and other technical skills are critical because they help CMOs justify marketing investment based on facts, not assumption, enabling them to build credibility throughout the organization.

In a phrase, OMG.  So we want to get in touch with our customers so we can be more credible and so we can increase our marketing spend?  In my opinion, not so much although I do agree with the first part of the statement.  The best way to justify any expenditure is through results, and the best way to get those results is to be in lock step with your customers.  The CCO role can help make that happen. Do you agree?

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June 25, 2013 · 9:08 am

Finding Feasibility

Ever been a part of a feasibility study?  You know – a bunch of people have a bright idea and it’s good enough that there needs to be a serious investigation into whether it can be done or not.

The former York to Hull Railway - geograph.org...

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A team is put together (hopefully including those whose idea it was in the first place) and questions are drawn up.  In some ways those questions are like a mini business plan.  What’s the potential market for this idea?  What are the resources needed to bring it to life?  What sort of on-going support will it require?  Can it be done in a reasonable time frame or will it take so long that the potential evaporates?  And of course, what are the legal ramifications if we do what we’re proposing to do?

I want to focus on that last little bit because I think it’s illustrative of a broader point.  Lawyers are trained to protect their clients (which are, by the way, the companies for which they work  and not YOU, dummy).   To many of them, the status quo is a lovely place (assuming the company is not tied up in litigation).   That’s not really the best place, however, for many businesses.  In fact, in some businesses such as tech, the status quo is a death sentence.  When the feasibility of something new is brought up, I’ve worked with some lawyers who were fabulous at finding ways to say “no.”  The could spot a potential problem long before any of us could and they didn’t hesitate to cite those problems are reasons not to proceed.

Here is what they – and you – need to keep in mind:

Obstacles are huge and opportunities are small:  one often hides the other.

How many people underestimate what’s feasible since obstacles can be readily apparent but the opportunities hidden behind them get missed?  We need to do what the better lawyers (and executives) I’ve known always did:  spot the opportunity and find a way to remove the obstacle blocking your path.  Some feasibility efforts are the business equivalent of the blue screen of death:  the system has reached an issue it can’t handle and throws in the towel.

I’m a believer in almost anything being feasible as long as there is flexibility, some tolerance for risk, and a willingness to adjust as you learn.  People – and businesses – have done things a certain way for years and in most cases it’s working for them.  Trying something new or doing things in a new way might not seem feasible and it’s not if there is a predisposition towards allowing the obstacles to obscure the opportunity.  But I’ll bet you can tell me about a time when you tried to do something in a new way – you shut your eyes and didn’t see the obstacles but visualized the opportunity – and succeeded.  So tell me!

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June 21, 2013 · 8:52 am

Green Tea

Let’s contemplate green tea to begin our Foodie Friday Fun rant this week. Many folks – myself included – drink green tea because it’s chock full of really good stuff such as antioxidants. While it used to be that green tea was the specialty drink of Japanese and some Chinese restaurants, it really has become a mainstream drink here in the U.S. – 10 Billion servings a year by some estimates.

Good mornig,guys! Why don't you drink with me?

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Because of the popularity of the drink, Consumer Labs did some research on bottled green teas as well as loose tea used to brew at home.  Their research showed that brewed green tea can vary widely from one cup to the next even when prepared in the same way. Some bottled varieties appear to be little more than sugar-water, containing little of the good stuff that gives green tea its solid health reputation.  Overall, the tea in bottles was far less healthy than tea made fresh.  The bottles are more convenient but the product is of much lower quality.  This, of course, got me thinking about business.

There is always a trade-off between convenience and quality.  Look at “fast” food.  I think most of us know we’re giving up a lot – flavor for one thing – when we choose to save time and patronize a quick-service restaurant.   It’s the same when we  buy prepackaged  baked goods instead of  taking the time to find a bakery where things are fresh-made (or make them ourselves – even better!).

Thoreau put it well.  “The cost of a thing,” he wrote in Walden, “is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”   People choose the convenient product because in their minds they’re getting back a little time, a commodity that’s becoming quite rare for most folks.  The real secret to being successful in business is to strike that balance more in favor of quality while offering some cost-savings in terms of time.  The green tea example shows up it’s not even a money thing – people pay more for the less healthful tea in bottles because it’s ready, not because it’s better for them.  I’m not sure that’s even a conscious choice since the bottled teas position themselves as healthy in many cases.

How do you solve the time/quality/convenience equation?  The answer to that might just be the key to your success.

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