GLOBAL THINKING AND ACTING

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

New ways of thinking and acting globally

The Internet has resulted in a completely different world where all of us are or rather can be if we wish so connected in the cyberspace and we are totally integrated on all fronts; the social, the business, the financials, the educational, the geographical the Internet is a new universe with no limits in time and space. Since I am in the business world, I will try to paint a small picture of how I have forced myself to get some insight in the digital new universe with many new rules, a cascade of new IT technical terms in the modern management language. Terms we have to understand completely, we need to identify the implications of the new management tools. However, some of them are just old wines in new bottles.

Today owners, top executives and daily management have to face the numerous challenges posed by globalization, the demands of the market, product development, and level of service delivery, business development, innovation, financial management, human resources development, and adaptability.

We need to understand and accept the new rules for International Business, the Internet forces companies to completely do a rethinking of their marketing strategy and renew all previous business models. In a certain way, we have all become partners in the intranet and extranet age. The Internet forces us to pay much more attention to rapid adjustments of strategies and tactics. In order to keep up with the competition we need to have fast access to all kinds of information needed to produce a new Business Design. A company needs to capitalize on the new opportunities offered by the increasing global integration. I use the term Business Design because I see the necessity for CEOs to establish a new business platform taking advantage of the possibilities to form a network of expertise that work globally.

You may have a producer in the Far East who wishes to penetrate new markets. The company I talk about is a great producer with a lot of solid business within South East Asia but now wanting to expand the business.  Previously it was costly and time-consuming to get complete and reliable market analysis and the changes in the markets took place over a longer period. Today the markets move fast. For many products and services they move so fast that often the time 8.o’clock AM for some is 3 weeks in the past for others. It is imperative to understand that marketing today is the key engine driving the business forwards based on vision, mission and strategies. The marketing function is more important than ever and consequently needs very qualified management. At the same time, it has become less expensive, much more efficient to obtain reliable market information and on top very fast.

In order to move swift the producer in the Far East may now considers some new avenues to meet the present challenges or in other words implement a new set of concepts. The key words are profitable global strategy and execution of it. The implementation of the new concepts necessitates alterations of the basic instruments for marketing management.

No strategy can be determined without a proper homework so to make it simple we will all work in a building of three storeys by the name of Knowledge Warehouse

The ground floor accommodates a team of expertise focusing on Customer Insight and Understanding in short CIU. Services compiling data and information from selected markets with all relevant details by using an advanced market research plan.

The second floor hosts a team of experts in analyzing and evaluating all data and information from the ground floor and present results, suggestions and alternatives for a global strategy to the Marketing Executive Team. I call the second floor team in short AAE.

The third floor accommodates a team of top qualified persons, responsible for the final decision on profitable strategies, but much more importantly overall responsibility for the execution of marketing strategies. I call the third floor team in short EMS.

A fact that can cause some concern is the negligence of the importance of the reliability and quality of step one. Do not try to make quick moves in order to save time or money. Do not make decisions based on impulses or a high degree of uncertainty. Today it is more important than ever to have a deep insight and understanding of the components in the decision process.  The need for qualified collection of relevant and reliable data is exceptionally high and the process will be time demanding since we work across borders and cross functionally. It is imperative with stringent working disciplines and an advanced market research plan. If the tasks on level 1 are not carried out in the best professional manner the result will be inadequate analysis and recommendations for the decision of a marketing strategy and then consequently a catastrophic execution as well as bad image, waste of time and money.

We often talk about ROI and that is understandable. We should focus more on the highest possible return of investments in activities from staff and services from networks as well. We all need to add value to our capabilities and work constantly to improve them. Other facts are that the introduction of the Internet has changed completely the sales and marketing parameters from “the good old days” since the transparency of the Net has made the consumers the kings of the game. A few years back when EU introduced rules to protect the consumers by laws of forcing companies to disclose relevant and important information about their products, the concept aimed at enabling consumers to compare products based on facts.

The speed by which the Internet moves has surpassed the set of regulations as mentioned making it possible for consumers to know from where the products are coming, who is the producer and what is the content of the product. So a few years back a consumer would have to pull down a product from the shelf then another one, compare the two, and then make the decision. Today he will get any kind of information of almost all products he is looking for and then decide. He does not need to move, he just sits behind the monitor and all he is looking for is just a click away.

In order to introduce advanced working methods we will take the 3-storey building a step further. We of course still need the same management tools, but we use a circular concept. We take advantage of The Round Table inspiration, let the 3 teams meet with regular intervals face to face and invite the customer to be the center, the guest of honor. We place him in the center, so we all can focus on him; he is the only one who can tell us about the benefits he is looking for and he plus the ones looking for same benefits form the market. The huge advantage by having a round table conference is that the decision makers are not sitting on the top of the building far away from the reality, the market place where all what the executive management is looking for is present. It is not on the top floor of the building.

This new world makes it increasingly difficult to maintain “old style business”. Previously products should have a long lifetime in order to cover high innovation costs for the producers. Here in 2009, close to 2010, we know that these rules have changed. Innovation must be fast because the consumer patterns and behaviors focus on updated features, some products like mobile phones have a very short lifetime because the markets require brand new advanced communication tools with sophisticated gadgets.

The producers act in a smart way. They will develop a basis model that covers the whole range of various consumer needs and then sell in maybe 50 different models each with specific benefits to meet market demands. In this way, the innovation costs are distributed on a massive amount of products and make the products pricewise competitive.

The producers must understand the consumers and the markets making Consumer Insight an extremely important discipline to manage. The modern consumer buys benefits and is less concerned about the product itself. Consequently, the use of advanced marketing tools is more necessary than ever making marketing management a primary managerial tool.

Chonburi 23rd October 2009

Want to read more look here