Competition never sleeps

Summary : It is a basic principle of tactical awareness that the competition never sleeps. You must assume that they are always trying to find areas of competitive advantage and working to reverse any areas of competitive disadvantage. During the eighties, the ascent of Japan's semiconductor equipment industry was accompanied by high customer satisfaction with their tools and general dissatisfaction with tools made by western suppliers...

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Sell yourself, your com ...

When it comes to big ticket capital items, the customer is not just buying a product, they are making a long-term commitment with you and your company. If the product doesn’t work, their career will be on the l ... See more

Define and refine your ...

This seems obvious. It’s so obvious that it is a strategic error that many companies make. First, they over define what are their core strengths. Defining a core strength is simple: any core strength must diffe ... See more

Marketing should establ ...

Marketing should establish the customer’s problem before product development starts and engineering should develop the solution. Over the years, there have been a lot of introduction failures because the compan ... See more

Customers are not visio ...

It is a common mistake to attempt entrepreneurial market development using classic business school practices of surveying customers, sizing the market, planning development costs, and figuring out the ROI. It i ... See more

The company’s name is i ...

If you think you can lose a lot by misnaming your product, imagine what happens when you misname your company? Worse, it can have long term consequences. Apple rose above the crowd, when PCs were just called ... See more

It is an error to place ...

If you put marketing under sales it will become its slave, losing all vision. Under either, marketing will be driven to be totally tactical, its strategic role eliminated. Sales will focus marketing on the ad ... See more

Faster learning cycles: ...

Want to improve RoR (Return on R&D)? Faster learning cycles are probably the biggest reason why the best development teams regularly out-innovate their competitors. Faster learning cycles are far more important ... See more

Risk versus Uncertainty ...

Risk is when an outcome’s probability is known. Uncertainty is when an outcome’s probability is unknown. Know which is which before you weigh your decisions ... See more

SALES versus MARKETING

"SALES is persuading the Customer to WANT what we HAVE. MARKETING is being sure we HAVE what the Customer NEEDS, (now and in the future)." — Peter Hanley ... See more

Partnering only happens ...

The difference between partnering and purchasing is that partnering can only happen when both parties see their future as mutually interdependent. In contrast, purchasing can occur anytime the seller has a prod ... See more