Opportunities

I happened to read an article on Opportunities by Erich Joachimsthaler in Times Of India.He is a founder of Vivaldi Partners , strategy & marketing innovation firm headquartered in New York City.

He says ' The more successful companies often don't seem to see the biggest opportunities in plain sight ' . He sights a very interesting example on Sony ,which was once the world leader in music players.

Sony had all the things needed to follow the MP3 opportunity but it still frittered away the opportunity. And there was Apple , a computer company that had nothing to do with music and revolutionised the MP3 space with iPod.

Erich has the following pointers for being opportunist

1. The correct starting point - Don't concentrate your energies at one single point instead try to look at ways around it. Sony was focused on the success of Walkman whereas Apple on other hand had a different strategy ' How do we create a music player better than that ? ' .

2. Missing the big picture - Don't get confined to your little worlds , step out and explore opportunities beyond your immediate responsibilities. Sony stumbled because the company was strictly organised in silos. Another example Gillete which had three divisions Duracell for batteries , Oral B for toothbrushes and Braun for high end devices but still failed to see the biggest opportunity in oral care market. It was P&G which entered the local care category with the wildest imagination called Crest ( spin brush ) . P&G didn't even have the technology to do the spinbrush.

3. Junk the notion of Competitive Advantage - Most companies want to create a product that is faster , better than the competitors product. The so called ' Competitive advantage ' is a suicidal game. Companies need to identify innovations & products that fit into customer's lives. Its all about creating a different consumer experience.

4. It's not just about needs , silly ! - Most companies operate from a need fulfilment paradigm : find a need and fulfill it. Most companies do surveys to find a need & create a product with an assumption that the consumers will buy the product but in the end it does not happen.

Erich talks about ' ecosystem of demand ' a more comprehensive understanding of demand and how it arises. Its not about demand itself but also how context shapes it. Think about it

You may drink a different beer when you are out with your friends in the evening , than when you are alone with your wife at home. Many times you don't buy something just because there is a need , but just out of a passion or desire.

I work in the Human resources department which deals with employee relations for more than 25000 people. With scale comes the complexity of your need vs demand.

Quite often we get caught in what the employee needs rather than the context. A simple example can be the employee benefits . Survey results indicate that 40 % of the payroll departments time is spent in benefits administration. Generally companies roll out employee benefits just because your competitor has introduced some.

So next time when your launching a new product / new scheme think about the context and not about the need !