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Customer Manufacturing Update |  |
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Dear Mitchell, Here is your October Customer Manufacturing Update. Many years ago, Ichiro Ishikawa taught that 90% of all business problems can be solved with the Seven Tools of Quality. We believe that is still true today. And if you can solve 90% of your problems, you are going to be far ahead of the competition. This month's Update focuses on another one of those tools, Control Charts.
If you have friends or colleagues who would
appreciate receiving this Update, feel free to
forward
a copy to them using the "Forward e-mail" link at the
bottom of the page.
There are many process improvement tools available to help companies manage and improve business processes. New ones are created regularly, and many are adapted or modified as a way to try to sell you something "new." There are seven tools of quality that work. Master them for the right circumstances and you are unlikely to need much of anything else. In this month's white paper, we look at how to use Control Charts as a tool to improve marketing/sales.
"The winners in downturns are the companies that
find ways to innovate in spite of everything." This quote
comes from Brian Walker, CEO of Herman Miller.
Many companies believe this is true because they
consider R&D an investment. Unfortunately, since
Marketing is considered an expense in most
companies, these same companies often cut their
Marketing spend in a downturn.
"...most of the impact of marketing is felt before the product is produced, not after." Studies by the PDMA and others have found, consistently, that appropriate Marketing input into new product development has more leverage to success than additional investment in R&D. So, if you believe that innovation in terms of new product/services is key to your success coming out of this downturn, and you want to optimize your opportunity for success, we recommend you re-look at your Marketing investment to make sure it is focused where you need it to be.
As you undoubtedly know, General Motors exited from
bankruptcy recently. The new company will focus
on "customers, cars and culture." As part of the
announcement they stated that "Top executives at the
new company will focus on business results, new
vehicles, brands and consumers."
In line with a focus on results, products, brands, and customers, demanding accountability from Marketing has gained attention in many companies for a few years now. Metrics and dashboards have been the primary action taken by Marketing to respond to this pressure. (What better way to convince people you are "accountable" then with a cool, and expensive, dashboard which displays metrics of what you can measure rather than what you should measure.) We are BIG fans of metrics and accountability when done correctly. However, it is too easy to get it wrong, even at the highest level. Fritz Henderson is taking over GM (that would be the "new" GM) and as Business Week put it in their June 29 issue, he "... has been careful not to criticize Wagoner" (his predecessor). To wit, apparently Wagoner was a "data geek" who used 10 metrics to measure his executives performance. That all by itself didn't sound too bad. Then Henderson is said to note that all were not particularly relevant and he has "...boiled it down to the five most vital for each department, with a much greater emphasis on sales and profits." Gee, you mean the prior metrics focused on something more important than that? There is an old expression most of us have heard: What gets measured, gets managed. Since sales and profits suffered at GM, it is any wonder the metrics didn't focus on those? Chris Oster, their so-called organizational czar put it this way: "We got a little crazy with metrics." You think? The first rule of metrics and measurement is to measure that which matters. This suggests that you have to understand, accept, and agree on what matters. Then you can decide what to measure and not go "a little crazy with metrics."
In Mitch's book, It's Not Rocket Science: Using
Marketing to Build a Sustainable Business
(2008),
he
tells a story about a flight from JFK to Boston (the Pan
Am Shuttle)
that had landed in Hartford due to weather in Boston
and been delayed four hours. The passengers were
not allowed off the plane to get alternate transportation
to Boston.
As he suggests in the book, we are not all writers for major publications so getting attention can be very difficult. But easier today than previously. Dave Carrol, a member of the music group Sons of Maxwell, traveled on United Airlines from Chicago to Omaha. He states that United Airlines mishandled his Taylor guitar (as viewed by several passengers) resulting in its destruction costing over $1500 to repair. He then spent one year trying to get United to make it right. They refused with all the usual excuses. While not a writer for the New York Times, Dave does have access to YouTube, as we all do. He created a video and posted it on YouTube. After getting 50,000 hits (he now has over 5 million views and a mention on CNN and Fox News) he got a call from United with an offer to "make it right." They also noted that his "... excellent video provides United with a unique learning opportunity that we would also like to use for training purposes..." We wish it were that easy for United to fix the root cause problem. Unfortunately, given one year and the countless people that Dave talked to, it is unlikely that United will fix this with training. We believe they think this was a just a PR problem and they looked for cover. Until they stop believing that passengers are an inconvenience to the efficient movement of airplanes, the root cause issue is likely to remain.
We appreciate any feedback you can provide to help us make sure these Updates give you value each month. Feel free to respond to this e-mail with any comments or suggestions for future topics or ways we can make these Customer Manufacturing Updates more valuable to you.
Thank you for your interest, and if we can provide
any
additional assistance in sales, marketing, strategy, or
innovation to help you increase your sales,
let us know.
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