Tag Archives: Strategic management

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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June 19, 2013 · 11:34 am

Fins

I was listening to a podcast and someone used an analogy that resonated with me.

English: Apparently a 1960 Plymouth Fury, seen...

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They likened a new product to what the car companies did when they really didn’t have any new innovations to add to a new model so they added fins. The fins didn’t do anything but they gave the car a new look and made all the old cars look…old!

I suppose every business that produces ongoing lines of product – phone manufacturers, cars companies, TV makers, etc. – are under a fair amount of pressure to add features constantly so you’ll feel the need to update a perfectly good item for a newer model.  After all, if we used many products to the end of their useful lives, the economy would probably be in much worse shape.  I’m not sure, however, that simply “adding fins” in the figurative sense is the best route for most businesses.

If you’re going to produce something new, make it something new.  If the new stuff is not a reason to buy the product – and in my mind “fins” don’t do it – they need to make the product demonstrably better.  It should be something users will employ on a regular basis, and preferably they’re something unique.  Adding, say, a soda can cool zone to a car doesn’t, in my mind, fit the bill (yes, that’s a real thing).  Adding dozens of new features to Word, which Microsoft is notorious for doing, that 99% of users won’t use and are just clutter and confusion for a huge percentage is self-defeating.  In many ways, phone manufacturers are the worst.

I love to buy new stuff.  I won’t buy it, however, just for the sake of doing so.  I suspect most consumers think as I do.  I’m waiting for the day when the press release comes out saying “there’s nothing new this year – we made a great product that we hope you bought and we’re committed to making it better.  We’ll let you know when it really is.”  I’m buying the new model of whatever that is the day it’s released.  I won’t be buying something because the release reads “and now with fins!”

You?

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