Ian Mash of Yeoman Consulting helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.
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When I’ve been looking at new product development or moving into new markets, I’ve always been struck by how quickly folk want to get down to the design phase. Frequently I’ve noticed that the main design input has been personal bias or copying the competition. An old marketing guru of mine tore me off a strip for just such a view when he asked me why I had chosen a particular design. When I answered that it was what I would have wanted had I been in the market he used the phrase
‘Beware the sample of one’.
Given the cost of new product development and the cost of failure if you don’t get it right, a little time and effort at the front end using proper customer segmentation and needs analysis will save a lot of red faces later on. It’s our job as management or marketing professionals to do this spadework up front. It doesn’t have to be rocket science.
Personally I like Kotler’s (Marketing Management, Analysis, planning and control) views of perhaps 3 axis segmentation e.g. gender, hair colour shoe size so that you can get to the segment of fair haired women who wear size 6 shoes for your better mousetrap. There are of course many others who write on segmentation, it’s up to you to choose.
This brings me onto my next thought. Often we are deluged with huge amounts of information or views from colleagues. As a manager it’s not easy to cut our way through, but I’ve seen an increasing trend from people of not wanting to listen to counter views and arguments because it takes up their time. This is a dangerous course and the time saved will be wasted in spades later when you re-appraise the position.
None of us are that good we can work in isolation.
I’ve always felt that advice is for listening to, but not necessarily taking
Consider the idea of writing a mail but not sending it until later, it’s useful to give yourself just a little time to consider what you know and what you don’t know. Sometimes this can be overnight, but if time is pressing, and it often is, it can be a walk to the coffee machine, just to get that processing time to make your own decision. You’ll find that decision is both easier to make and easier to communicate when you’ve taken this approach.
Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com
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