Great Positions in Good Industries – a simple, yet powerful concept, based on the idea that a great position allows you to gain share because you have critical mass in R&D, feet-on-the-street, and in the back office, and a good industry provides a tailwind for growth.Read more at location 75
The market research is very simple. Ask the people who work in each department to answer a few basic questions: • What are the first five priorities for this department? • What are the priorities, in order of importance, for the company? • How do you fit in them? The same questions can be asked of the team working directly for you, no matter what type of team you manage. The differing results obtained from this piece of research can be astounding and will reveal the level of alignment existing in your business.Read more at location 433
Furthermore, if the decisions were made by somebody not knowledgeable of the marketplace then surely we would soon become disconnected from it. Disconnection from the marketplace leads to decision-making based on financial and internal considerations alone, which does not lead to growth and prosperity.Read more at location 631
My visit with the European team was very timely. They were very frustrated and knew the business was steadily heading in the wrong direction but could not do much about it. They had no real authority and had to refer decisions to somebody who was a long way away and did not understand the real issues or the implications.Read more at location 633
A number of organizations are terrifically in love with their own processes; with these companies, there is an implicit belief that the function of the organization is to execute these processes.Read more at location 653
Productivity is one of the great pillars of success. But, when productivity is the sole pillar, it becomes a very disabling activity. It results in types of behavior that cause the fear of investment in the business, the automatic removal of cost without assessing the value created by the cost,Read more at location 658
Organizations that are not sales and marketing driven simply have a very inflated view of their knowledge of the market and are sometimes not even knowledgeable about their channels or their customer’s customer.Read more at location 665
In a control culture people work in an environment where they are not given any room for initiative; this is a common failure in the structure of many organizations. Over time, people learn to execute orders and have stopped thinking. It is a sad situation and a lot of energy can be released if it is turned around. Unfortunately, it always takes longer than expected to train and empower people to think for themselves and take ownership when they have no experience with ownership or thinking.Read more at location 685
Ultimately, however, any executive has one item to dispense and one item to manage; he dispenses his know-how and he manages his time. Incidentally, the same applies to the next level down and the level after that. So, in any operating mechanism, you need to come up with a system that is effective but very economical on the time of the leadership and of the organization.Read more at location 1110
As we move from issue to issue in each session (most topics require a focus of about 30 minutes, including a 15-minute prepared presentation), what unfolds is a panoramic exposure to the affairs of the company. An enormous amount of learning takes place as these issues are resolved and progressed.Read more at location 1218
In my role as a business leader, I do not require personal loyalty but I do require a high level of professionalism. I also expect that anyone who holds a particular viewpoint (contrary or not) is able to explain and perhaps document his or her reasoning, and argue the merits of his or her case succinctly. I do not measure employee loyalty by how much any one individual agrees with me, but rather by how hard he or she works to help generate good economic solutions that will further the company’s goals and vision. I understand,Read more at location 1370
For instance, our ability to establish data on daily inventory results in our factories and warehouses completing all inventory transactions on a daily basis, thus avoiding piling or postponing transactions for the future.Read more at location 1431
require major investments be aired at their infancy and again as cases are prepared and investigated. With all of our major projects, and with investments in particular, we systematically prepare a 90-day look ahead. In some instances, we may follow a risky situation as it progresses over the span of a year or more.Read more at location 1564
1. A good decision does not depend on the external or economic conditions of the moment. Its foundations are not ephemeral and can withstand tests on either side of economic expectation. In other words, it is a decision with a built-in margin for error as it allows for a degree of things to go awry. In practical terms this means I prefer to rely on strong trends, and undertake continuous market confirmation of these trends, rather than try to exploit a situation of special circumstances.Read more at location 1640
2. A good decision is directionally correct and does not aim up-front to be correct at the detail level.Read more at location 1645
3. A good decision, to the extent possible, is reversible.Read more at location 1648
4. A good decision has a number of beneficial by-products and I always aim to capture those, although I never count them into my financial evaluation.Read more at location 1650
5. A good decision balances the upside and downside risks; it avoids the situations where the downside can be catastrophic.Read more at location 1656
1. Fast-Cycle Application Product Development, which takes an expansive view of opportunities, focuses on the most profitable applications and brings them to market rapidly – usually within 12-24 months. 2. Large Molecule/Scale-Up, which seeks advantaged cost positions and long-term productivity, supported by strong intellectual property positions and the required capabilities to scale-up inventions from the laboratory to world-class production facilities. This process can take 5-8 years or more, but once the new products are in place, they can last a generation or more. 3. Technology Leadership, which emphasizes deploying the best scientific talent to identify and capitalize on process improvement opportunities and commercializing process technologies that improve customer economics.Read more at location 1702
Your decision about where you place your focus depends first on the way the business provides its products and services to customers and second on how these activities are supported by the decision flow up and down the organization. In particular, you need to: • Understand the dynamics of how customers are acquired and how new business is earned, or conversely lost. • Understand how the competition delivers these same products. • Assess and understand the internal organization needed to develop and deliver profitable and differentiated products. • Understand how decisions are made and how they flow at all levels in the organization to support the above activities.Read more at location 1747
generating alternatives—are spread throughout an organization, they have major impact on the amount of money we spend, as well as on the quality of projects and ideas we invest in. Generally speaking, the amount of capital required hitherto is significantly reduced as people readily discover more intelligent and less capital-intensive ways to achieve the same or better results.Read more at location 1883
As a rule and also by way of a shortcut in the analysis, the closer to the end customer you can influence the sale of a product, the stronger your long-term positionRead more at location 1917
In my experience, transforming a sagging sales force into a powerhouse is a long-term activity. Generally speaking, it requires at least two years of determined effort. You must develop the data and the tools, as well as implement the new direction before you begin realizing results. Even then, you are talking about a multiyear effort of continuous improvement. The reason the whole activity takes so long is that it involves many complex steps: you must first develop a market-map, then develop the marketing strategy, and finally determine the needed sales skills. After that, to achieve maximum effectiveness, you must retrain your sales force and assign new tasks to redeploy.Read more at location 1947
In most markets, market-share loss occurs because a competitor has entered the low end of the market. When this happens, companies that eventually fail are those willing to cede the low end under some notion that this is the only option to protect profitability.Read more at location 1981
Planning how you will protect the low end of your market and preparing for that time when a new entrant comes along should be a pivotal, perennial objective if you want to run a successful business. In addition, it will reveal opportunities you have with respect to your competitors and what action you must take to become the aggressor.Read more at location 1988
Allocate new resources into the new areas with the most promising potential as opposed to the areas of strength of the past. The organization will automatically lead you to do the latter, something you need to avoid.Read more at location 2012
You also need to pay attention to which customer you are asking the questions about. It generally pays to focus on the end customer, but also take into consideration whether there are enough benefits to any others involved such as distributors, OEMs and channel partners. There must be value for all, otherwise the initiative will not succeed.Read more at location 2474
4. To effect transformation, it is necessary to go beyond the normal plan and target activities into four groups: • Identify areas for disinvestment • Develop areas that give constant productivity • Improve the fundamentals in the business • Invest in game-changing movesRead more at location 2773
1. Establish Market Metrics: Share, Customer Preference and Satisfaction, Quality The most common areas to keep a continuous eye on are the areas of market share, customer preference and satisfaction, and quality of product compared to competition. These metrics are a requirement, although it may not be possible to establish them accurately in some industries.Read more at location 3235
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