Shelter Chieza Change Management
Every progressive company should have objectives that should be clearly spelt out. However the process of coming up with objectives can be tricky because managers often have to make choices between setting objectives that are targeted at production or the product. The priority for every manager must be towards realising an efficient production system.
Product focus
If you choose to focus on the product the objective will be to produce a high quality product with optimum performance.
The product must have potential to be improved over time.
It is essential to initially carry out a market research and determine the needs and wants of your target market.
Apple is a classic example which shows that you can create a product that people want regardless of the fact that it is not something that they need in their day to day life.
Their focus was on producing a product, which they believed was right and relevant to the market.
Similarly, the car industry cannot afford to be oblivious of this concept. There are obvious consequence in producing a vehicle that disregards what the customer feels is relevant.
General Motors did that and alas, they encountered stiff resistance from people.
Now they have learnt their lesson, they include the marketing, sales, designers at the initial stages of production.
NGOs also make use of this where they focus on a need that they then use to source funding or support.
The challenge they face is on staying relevant to get additional funding from donors. They often get into trouble when a need has been satisfied.
Production focus
As a company you have a choice to focus on the production of your product. If you have one of the most sought after products, you need to focus on production to ensure that you meet demand.
The Ford Motor Company tried it and it worked wonders and significantly increased their market share.
Customer focus
Some companies are pre-occupied with pleasing the customer. If there is any discussion on the product, it is always aligned to the customers.
Service organisations are good at this as they go an extra mile to do customer feedback surveys, customer service emails, Facebook, Twitters and blogs.
Selling focus
As an organisation you can decide to place more emphasis on engaging in massive promotions and discounts in order for your product to sell.
Your efforts are concentrated on pushing your product to the customer. The customer is given little choice to exercise their rights and wishes.
This is most common with products such funeral and insurance policies. Your organisation is selling what they have to the customer
Can organisations perceive differences between the three strategies? Sometimes business development managers develop products which they think will be appreciated by customers.
They tend to focus on the product and on perfecting it.
If for instance, there is a vision of building an essential product that customers might not have realised; listening to customer feedback might not be top priority.
Sometimes in engaging the customers, you are thwarting the overall vision of the product.
Hence some products are better being product oriented than customer oriented.
Till next week, may God richly bless you.
Shelter Chieza is an Advisor in management issues. She can be contacted at shelter.chieza@gmail.com