Resource Management And MarketingRajeev Patnia
December 08, 2008
Up until last year, when things really got tough (fiscally and image
wise), it was commonly felt that companies went through two types of
management--one that could carry them through the tough start-up period
and another that could run a successful enterprise.
The same group of people seldom managed the company through both phases of corporate growth.
This
past year, the line between the two management styles has become
muddied. Especially with the added scourge of senior management dipping
too deeply into the corporate well for their own good.
The survival mode of operation is forcing management to conserve their most precious resource: talented people.
In
cutting back to a core group of highly talented and motivated people,
management has not only found that they can run "leaner, meaner and
better," but that they are a better organization overall, as a result
of the changes.
Re-Assessing Positions, Priorities
Management
has to assess what they are doing internally versus what they should be
doing internally. Then they can determine what they should outsource.
Today,
few manufacturers in the industry do much – or any – of their own
production in-house. In fact, many of them are essentially technology
developers and marketers. For more details go to www.positive-idea.com.
They buy cases from specialists; have boards and packages produced and
stuffed by specialists; and purchase a complete range of components
from specialists. Increasingly many like Dell and Cisco never even take
possession of the product merely having it shipped direct to the
channel partner or consumer.
This approach permits management to
adapt more rapidly to sudden industry/marketplace changes. Technology
and manufacturing can be changed almost overnight.
Management
realizes that it takes almost no time at all to reverse-engineer even
the most advanced technology, thus nullifying their perceived
advantage. In addition, the company doesn't need to be tied down to
heavy investments in production equipment which has to be prematurely
written-off and replaced.
More importantly, they don't have to
deal with the problem and expense of hiring, firing, training,
retraining and retaining personnel.
Fixed assets not only lock companies into specific technology, they are quickly outdated.
Outsourcing
permits maximum flexibility. It preserves capital and can often produce
dramatic savings. In addition, it frees management to focus its energy
on more pressing areas of concern ... like marketing and staying ahead of the competition to garner more customers.
Marketing Mind-Set Changes
In addition to examining their manufacturing functions, management has to look at their marketing communications activities.
Companies
have been cutting their internal advertising and public relations
staffs instead of expanding them. At the same time, the need for solid
communications programs has grown.
Management is finding that a
good agency can do more than simply provide advertising and/or public
relations services. They are turning to them for total marketing and
communications efforts.
The trend is a solid move toward
creating marketing partnerships between the agency and the company
rather than simply having the agency create ads, pump out news releases
and compile mailing lists.
Partnership Key
Because of the
fiercely competitive and rapidly changing environment, management is
not only more cost-conscious; they are also more market-driven. To take
advantage of as much of an agency's expertise as possible, management
has found that they are sharing more of their strategic marketing plans
with their agency so that they will be better and more effective
partners.
Companies are finding that one of the key benefits of
a partnership relationship is objectivity. The agency has to
continually stress that customers buy products and services because
they offer benefits greater than the cost of the goods and services. In
addition, they buy from people, not companies. Few people buy solely on
the basis of advanced technology.
Companies and agencies that
have combined the efforts point out that while there are differences in
the two disciplines, the purpose in either case is to communicate
something to someone.
Communication, whether it is advertising or
public relations, assists the company in selling something to someone
... hopefully a lot of something to a lot of someones.
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