A Tool for Analysis of Global R&D Organizations BACKGROUND Creating the right organization and control system for R&D is always a difficult task even when confined to only one geographical location. Managing numerous R&D units spread all over the world increases the complexity dramatically. How well corporations coordinate their global R&D is one of the...Read More

Every product will eventually reach the end of its lifecycle. Some marketers use end of lifecycle as an excuse for there own lack of ability to address challenges of a competitive environment. Most products are not at the end of their life but need repeated rejuvenation. These rejuvenations are not really new lifecycles just product...Read More

You might argue that some industries really are commodity industries if they sell sand, iron ore or oil. I would argue that any business that succeeds for any period of time is surely differentiating itself in ways that are valued by its customers and therefore even if their products are highly commoditized their product offer...Read More

Inspired by Guy Kawasaki’s talent for identifying the “untruths” of the business world I thought I would try my hand at a few. The first on is the illusion of price erosion. Prices do not erode! What erodes is a company’s ability to be more successful than their competitors at satisfying customers. So called price...Read More

Some years ago I joined the management team of a new division that had been created in the company I worked in at that time. The head of that division gathered his new management team for our first off-site meeting so that we could ”team build”. Our new boss opened this meeting by saying that...Read More

Many years ago in College one of the assignments we were asked to do was to prepare a ”Kleine Credo” or little belief system. The assignment was to write a short essay of no more than 1-2 pages describing our personal religious beliefs. It wasn’t a strange assignment since I was in a class on...Read More

I was asked to speak to a group of marketing graduate students about how I used market research in my work as a product manager. As I recall I spent most of the lecture showing examples of various research we had done and how that research had helped us make necessary decisions. During this presentation...Read More

I ran across Stan DeVaughn’s blog entry from February 27, 2006 with the title ”Marketing and Branding are high-tech wrecks” and can simply say that I couldn’t have put it better myself. So many high-tech companies once founded upon their discovery of a ”real” need over time seem to lose the ability to think outside...Read More

A strong understanding of your customer’s behaviours and attitudes as they relate to the products and services you sell is one of the keys to successful segmentation and the success of your business. Many large companies (with large resources) develop sophisticated processes for segmenting customers based on behaviours including quantitative and qualitative research, data mining...Read More

At first glance it is tempting to conclude that people in large parts of the developed world have become less religious. The question is, however, if we haven’t simply changed religions. Could it be that we are just as religious as ever but the focus of our worship is different, our ceremonies and rituals are...Read More