Art of implementing a set of strategy and tactics. Most difficult skill to master. It is key to deceive your competition as you are in the process of introducing your product.
What makes this skill so difficult is that you want to implement a straightforward plan which deceives the competition as it is implemented. You want to exploit an apparent misfortune to your advantage.
If you can cause the competition to think it is at no risk, it will relax its efforts, and make it possible for you to move ahead of them in the marketplace.
- U.S. DRAM manufacturers were confident that Japanese DRAM manufacturers would continue to lag behind them. They failed to realize that the Japanese companies had much higher yields due to their emphasis on understanding the factors affecting yields, and lower capital costs.
Coordination of the Elements of a Company
Development, finance, sales, manufacturing, and marketing must act in concert. If the development of a product is completed without the manufacturing being ready to produce it…
In planning any such effort, remember that the life blood of a company is money. If you mount a effort to penetrate a market and fund it inadequately, the effort will fail.
Move Quickly and Decisively
The trick is to strike a moving balance. If events require that you move quickly, select a key group of your company to implement a product and introduce to the market; this group can latter be reintegrated into the company.
- When IBM decided to bring a PC to market, it assembled a small team of people in Boca Raton, FL, with the mission to implement a product and bring it to market quickly. Almost needless to state, they were wildly successful.
Need for Good Market Intelligence
If you do not know the conditions of the market that you are trying to penetrate, you are unfit to direct such an effort. If you do not seek the advice of individuals that are familiar with local conditions, you will not be able to exploit to your advantage its market condition.
Basis of Marketing is Deception
Introduce a product or make a change when it is to your advantage. Create changes in the tactical situation in this manner.
Reward All Employees Who Participate
Divide up your sales force to best cover the entire market. As accounts are won, reward them with a share of the profits.
- Providing stock options and commissions are two examples of rewarding employees.
Importance of Good Communication
It is important that there be good communications between everyone in the company, and that actions be taken in coordination. Use newsletters, meetings, teleconferences, web pages, et cetera, to clearly communicate what is the direction being taken by the company. Use the appropriate method for communication, be it local or across the world, but communicate!
In particular, make certain that any intelligence about the market or competitors are promptly provided to the management of the company.
Market Timing
It is possible to cause a company to lose its spirit, and its CEO of his courage.
When a campaign starts, spirits are high. As it persists, spirits start to lower. This is the proper time to attack.
Wait for the competition to become disorderly and clamorous.
When the competition has overcommitted itself, is the time to attack.
Allow Competitors to Withdraw Gracefully
Do not threaten a competitor which is well ordered or firmly entrenched in the market.
In particular, do not engage in introducing a product into a market which your competitor is clearly superior.
Always leave your competitor a gracefully method for withdrawing from the market. By letting them withdraw, they will save you the task of competing with them at a latter date.
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