20110102

The consumer decision journey

The consumer decision journey

Consumers are moving outside the purchasing funnel—changing the way they research and buy your products. If your marketing hasn’t changed in response, it should.

If marketing has one goal, it’s to reach consumers at the moments that most influence their decisions. That’s why consumer electronics companies make sure not only that customers see their televisions in stores but also that those televisions display vivid high-definition pictures. It’s why Amazon.com, a decade ago, began offering targeted product recommendations to consumers already logged in and ready to buy. And it explains P&G’s decision, long ago, to produce radio and then TV programs to reach the audiences most likely to buy its products—hence, the term “soap opera.”
Marketing has always sought those moments, or touch points, when consumers are open to influence. For years, touch points have been understood through the metaphor of a “funnel”—consumers start with a number of potential brands in mind (the wide end of the funnel), marketing is then directed at them as they methodically reduce that number and move through the funnel, and at the end they emerge with the one brand they chose to purchase (Exhibit 1). But today, the funnel concept fails to capture all the touch points and key buying factors resulting from the explosion of product choices and digital channels, coupled with the emergence of an increasingly discerning, well-informed consumer. A more sophisticated approach is required to help marketers navigate this environment, which is less linear and more complicated than the funnel suggests. We call this approach the consumer decision journey. Our thinking is applicable to any geographic market that has different kinds of media, Internet access, and wide product choice, including big cities in emerging markets such as China and India.
The consumer decision journey—an interactive
Consumers are changing the way they research and buy products. Here’s how marketers should respond.

Rediscovering the art of selling


Even after researching products on their own, many customers enter stores undecided about what to buy. For retailers, that’s an opportunity to improve off-line sales in an increasingly multichannel world.



retail online offline sales article, multichannel, retail service, Retail & Consumer Goods
Retailers as far back as the legendary pioneer Marshall Field once focused intensely on clinching sales once customers walked into stores. But recently, the industry has been missing opportunities to make sales. New technologies, extensive retailer Web sites, mobile-shopping tools, and in-store Internet kiosks have separated customers from sales associates. Content to let consumers research products independently, many retailers have been reducing in-store sales staff and eliminating commission-based models. This approach has resulted in lower costs, but it has also reduced incentives for those left on the floor to make sales.
Many retailers assume that customers walk into stores for purely transactional purposes: they know what they want and just need to buy it. Yet McKinsey research indicates that as many as 40 percent of customers remain open to persuasion once they enter a store,1 despite undertaking extensive product research, reading online reviews, and comparing prices on their own. Retailers that fail to have knowledgeable staff on hand to help customers make decisions, or even to create arresting in-store visual marketing materials, are losing sale after potential sale. More than ever, retailers need a sales-driven mind-set focused on having the right number of sales staff; ensuring those staff are knowledgeable, well-trained, and motivated to sell; and providing the right in-store experience for customers.


20110101

Top 100 Business Books of All Time

A List of the Top 100 Business Books of All Time By Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten

Thousands of business books are published every year- Here are the best of the best

After years of reading, evaluating, and selling business books, Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten are among the most respected experts on the category. Now they have chosen and reviewed the one hundred best business titles of all time-the ones that deliver the biggest payoff for today's busy readers.

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time puts each book in context so that readers can quickly find solutions to the problems they face, such as how best to spend The First 90 Days in a new job or how to take their company from Good to Great. Many of the choices are surprising-you'll find reviews of Moneyball and Orbiting the Giant Hairball, but not Jack Welch's memoir.

At the end of each review, Jack and Todd direct readers to other books both inside and outside The 100 Best. And sprinkled throughout are sidebars taking the reader beyond business books, suggesting movies, novels, and even children's books that offer equally relevant insights.

This guide will appeal to anyone, from entry-level to CEO, who wants to cut through the clutter and discover the brilliant books that are truly worth their investment of time and money.
 

Taking organizational redesigns from plan to practice: McKinsey Global Survey results


A recent McKinsey survey examines the reasons executives cite for successful and unsuccessful implementations, and in doing so, offers one set of explanations for why organizational transformations so rarely succeed.



organizational redesign survey results article, redesign survey, Organization
Organizations often redesign themselves to unlock latent value. They typically pay a great deal of attention to the form of the new design, but in our experience, much less to actually making the plan happen—even though only a successfully implemented redesign generates value. This survey asked why organizations redesigned, what challenges they faced, what tactics they used for implementation, and how the redesign and its delivery affected employee morale and shareholder value.

Set up your most important decisions for success

Marcia W. Blenko, Michael C. Mankins and Paul Rogers of Bain Consulting contest that many companies struggle to make and execute key decisions. Bain's Decision Insights series describes a five-step process that can boost your organization’s decision effectiveness and improve its performance....


Download the PDF 



2011 BPM Trends


The Hottest BPM Trends You Must Embrace In 2011!

Clay Richardson
Information Management Blogs, December 27, 2010



As 2010 winds down, many business process professionals are finalizing plans to take their BPM initiatives to the next level in 2011. With so many different BPM trends and predictions floating around out there, I’m sure you’re scratching your head wondering which trends to adopt in 2011 and which trends to push off for another year.
My colleague Gene Leganza recently published an excellent report titled "The Top 15 Technology Trends EAs Should Watch." I was pleased to see several BPM-specific trends show up in the report’s “Top 15” list. For the second year in a row, the report highlighted social BPM as one of the top trends to watch. In addition, process data management — the combination of MDM and BPM — was highlighted as another top BPM-related trend.
I recommend reading the entire report, since Gene does an excellent job slicing the survey data to show how we selected and ranked the top 15 trends.

So, as you're finalizing your 2011 BPM plans, here are the hottest trends and capabilities I recommend adding to your road map:

McKinsley: Top Ten Newsletter

Top Ten Newsletter
Fourth Quarter 2010






In this, our final Top Ten Newsletter of 2010, we've rounded up the most popular articles among readers this year. Topics they were most interested in include decision-making biases, digital marketing, and management in uncertain times.
Global forces: An introduction graphic 1. STRATEGY
Global forces: An introduction
Five crucibles of change will restructure the world economy for the foreseeable future. Companies that understand them will stand the best chance of shaping it. A related video highlights the value of tracking global forces and how to build them into corporate strategy.
Clouds, big data, and smart assets: Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch graphic 2. BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY
Clouds, big data, and smart assets: Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch
Advancing technologies and their swift adoption are upending traditional business models. Senior executives need to think strategically about how to prepare their organizations for the challenging new environment. In a set of accompanying podcasts, leading experts offer their views on how these trends will evolve and change business models.
A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing graphic 3. MARKETING
A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing
Assessing its impact as well as its volume will help companies take better advantage of buzz. An accompanying podcast focuses on how marketers can use word of mouth to influence consumer behavior.
4. STRATEGY
The case for behavioral strategy
Left unchecked, subconscious biases will undermine strategic decision making. Learn how to counter them and improve corporate performance, and explore an accompanying interactive showing the biases most pertinent to business and the ways they can combine to create dysfunctional patterns in corporate cultures.


Plus, take this brief survey on how you make decisions, and we'll send you feedback on how your decision-making style compares with those of other respondents and on how to avoid any biases you may be prone to.
5. GOVERNANCE
Why good bosses tune in to their people
Know how to project power, counsels Stanford management professor Bob Sutton, since those you lead need to believe you have it for it to be effective. And to lock in your team’s loyalty, boldly defend their backs.
6. ORGANIZATION
How centered leaders achieve extraordinary results
Executives can thrive at work and in life by adopting a leadership model that revolves around finding their strengths and connecting with others.
7. CORPORATE FINANCE
Creating value: An interactive tutorial
In this video presentation, McKinsey partner Tim Koller explores the four guiding principles of corporate finance that all executives can use to home in on value creation when they make strategic decisions.
8. ORGANIZATION
Retaining key employees in times of change
Many companies throw financial incentives at senior executives and star performers during times of change. There is a better and less costly solution.
9. MARKETING
Unlocking the elusive potential of social networks
To realize the marketing potential of virtual activities, you have to make them truly useful for consumers.
10. ORGANIZATION
Boosting the productivity of knowledge workers
The key is identifying and addressing the barriers workers face in their daily interactions.

20101225

The ins and outs of Smart Pricing

How Much Should You Charge? Why 'Smart Pricing' Pays Off


Your company has developed a new product that you think will be a winner. 


A lot of money has been poured into research and development, analysis of the competition and advertising. 
But there is one key element you may have overlooked: 

What do you charge for the product? 

Wharton marketing professors Jagmohan Raju and John Zhang say companies frequently don't put anywhere near as much thought into pricing as they should. In their new book, Smart Pricing, Raju and Zhang argue that firms ought to engage in innovative pricing to achieve maximum profitability, and they show how companies like Google are doing just that.
 


The Art of Motivating Employees

Putting a Face to a Name: The Art of Motivating Employees
 
Could a simple five-minute interaction with another person dramatically increase your weekly productivity? 


In some employment environments, the answer is yes, according to Wharton management professor Adam Grant. Grant has devoted significant chunks of his professional career to examining what motivates workers in settings that range from call centers and mail-order pharmacies to swimming pool lifeguard squads. In all these situations, Grant says, employees who know how their work has a meaningful, positive impact on others are not just happier than those who don't; they are vastly more productive, too. 





Are the most effective leaders introverts OR extraverts?

Analyzing Effective Leaders: Why Extraverts Are Not Always the Most Successful Bosses
 

Conventional wisdom tells us that leaders are the men and women who stand up, speak out, give orders, make plans and are generally the most dominant, outgoing people in a group. 

But that is not always the case, according to new research on leadership and group dynamics from Wharton management professor Adam Grant and two colleagues, who challenge the assumption that the most effective leaders are extraverts. 






What are the pitfalls of ranking employees?

Ranking Employees: Why Comparing Workers to Their Peers Can Often Backfire
 

What inspires an employee to work harder? 
More money, more often than not. 
But what about being benchmarked against peers, asks Wharton management professor Iwan Barankay in a new study titled, "Rankings and Social Tournaments: Evidence from a Field Experiment." 

With the help of a "crowd-sourcing" website, Barankay set out to discover not only whether workers are interested in how they rank against their peers, but also what happens to their performance if they find out how they placed. His conclusion may leave companies thinking twice about the best way to appraise staff performance. 




What it takes for Group Dynamics to kill innovative drive

How Group Dynamics May Be Killing Innovation
To come up with the next iPad or Amazon, the pacesetters of the future need solitary brainstorming time, according to new Wharton research. In a paper titled, "Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea," Wharton professors Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich argue that group dynamics are the enemy of businesses trying to develop one-of-a-kind new products, unique ways to save money or distinctive marketing strategies. 




20101220

Operating in the era of Peak Globalization

Peak Globalization

by Bruce Nussbaum  | 

We are living in an era of Peak Globalization as  the speed, scale, and disruption of globalization begin to blur  the costs/benefits  boundaries, and according to the author, the universal economic benefits of globalization are breaking down. 

Looking forward toward the next decade and beyond, we are seeing countries increasingly prize sovereignty over multi-lateralism, national interests over international cooperation, and local constituencies over global populations. 

What are the major forces at work producing this Peak Globalization moment?


DR Damigos;PhD - DRibm - Driving Revenue Streams: Five Strategies for Optimizing Service Channels

DR Damigos;PhD - DRibm - Driving Revenue Streams: Five Strategies for Optimizing Service Channels: "A new 1to1 Tips Global competition has ushered in a steady stream of new and unique products that consumers can cho..."

The power of pricing

The power of pricing

Transaction pricing is the key to surviving the current downturn—and to flourishing when conditions improve.


Excerpt


This McKinsey article proposes a simple but powerful tool—the pocket price waterfall, which shows how much revenue companies really keep from each of their transactions— that helps them diagnose and capture opportunities in transaction pricing.

The increase in the number of companies selling customized products and solutions or bundling service packages with each sale, for instance, means that assessing the profitability of transactions has become much more complex. The pocket price waterfall has evolved over time to take account of this transition.
Today, it is more critical than ever for managers to focus on transaction pricing. Moreover, at many companies, little cost-cutting juice can easily be extracted from operations. Pricing is therefore one of the few untapped levers to boost earnings, and companies that start now will be in a good position to profit fully from the next upturn...

Smart Decision-Making in the New Era of Financial Challenges

Oracle discusses how organisations can apply the principles of Monte Carlo modeling to Enterprise Performance Management and Business Intelligence applications.

Key points include:
  • The Road Ahead: Decision-Making in Times of Turmoil and Opportunity
  • The Perils of The Past: Basing Financial Decisions on “Best Story Wins”
  • How the Monte Carlo Method Drives Productive Risk-taking
  • “People Are Systematically Overconfident in Almost Everything They Do.”
  • The Value of Simulations: Predicting Worst-case Scenarios and Mitigating Outcomes



Download Now

Do Skills Shortages Threaten Corporate Growth and Innovation?

Global Skills Shortages Threaten Corporate Growth and Innovation

by CFO Innovation Asia Staff


Αccording to a new survey released by Deloitte and Forbes Insights, “Talent Edge 2020,” the quest for talent in global and emerging markets is the leading concern among 41% of the corporate executives and talent managers surveyed, and a slightly more pressing concern for companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (48%) than their counterparts in the Americas or Asia-Pacific countries (35% and 41%, respectively).

The Survey, also reveals potential critical shortfalls in research and development (R&D) skills and executive leadership. Nearly three-quarters of executives surveyed (72%) anticipate either a severe or a moderate shortage in R&D talent, while more than half of those same executives (56%) stated they expect the same magnitude of shortage among executive leadership.


Business Management Books

Business  Management Books

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries
Reflections on Leadership and Career Development: On the Couch with Manfred Kets de Vries
(Jossey-Bass, 2010)
Charlene Li
Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead
(Jossey-Bass, 2010)
Howard Kunreuther and Michael Useem, eds.,
Learning from Catastrophes: Strategies for Reaction and Response
(Wharton School Publishing, 2010)
Robert I. Sutton
Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best...and Learn from the Worst
(Business Plus, 2010)

How Learning Leads to Results

Matthew E. May, author of The Shibumi Strategy, introduces a passage on the critical role of a learning focus in innovation from The Other Side of Innovation, by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble.


Innovation as a Social Act

From s+b’s Best Business Books 2010: Three books explore new territory and illuminate the fundamental social principles that underlie the innovation process.


Highlights from 15 Years of s+b Book Reviews

A select shelf of books that not only expanded the corporate lexicon, but still have the power to change the way we see the world and do business.


Family Matters

Marshall Goldsmith, author of Mojo, introduces a passage on the difficulties of balancing work and family, from You Can’t Predict a Hero, by Joseph J. Grano Jr.

Helping the CIO Lead

Charlie Feld, the former CIO of Frito-Lay and a pioneer in his field, explains how IT can play a key role in developing corporate strategy.



Charles (“Charlie”) Feld began his career in information technology leadership at IBM in 1966, back in the days of the mainframe and whirring tape drives, when IT was separated from the rest of the business by the proverbial glass wall. Since then, he has seen vast changes in both the technology that underpins how businesses operate and in how IT and its relationship with the business are managed. He has contributed greatly to those changes, most notably as CIO of Frito-Lay Inc. in the 1980s, where he pioneered the use of wireless handheld devices that enabled delivery people to constantly update sales figures from the road. Today, he is a leading advocate of the evolution of IT from a provider of services to an enabler of overall strategy, especially when innovative uses of technology can transform the way a business operates.
Following his work at Frito-Lay, Feld developed a general framework for IT-enabled business transformation. This led to his founding of a consultancy called the Feld Group in 1992 (it was subsequently purchased by EDS in 2004, became part of Hewlett-Packard Company in 2008, and is now independent again). That framework, and its related management techniques, has been the basis of his approach ever since, and it forms the basis of his new book, Blind Spot: A Leader’s Guide to IT-Enabled Business Transformation (Olive Press, 2010). The Feld Group’s research arm, called the Center for IT Leadership, has championed a strategic role for IT in business transformation, and the role of the CIO as a leader in that transformation. This view of IT leadership is validated by experience at companies as diverse as BNSF Railway, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, WellPoint, and CBS.
Feld’s ideas have particular resonance today. As computing infrastructure and interface design continue to evolve, it is crucial for IT leaders to find a viable pattern for strong leadership, to build their own leadership capabilities, and ultimately, to ensure that their specialized knowledge is integrated with real-world experience in multiple aspects of the business.
Feld recently sat down with strategy+business to discuss a wide-ranging set of topics, including his transformation framework, the proper career path for CIOs, and how to encourage top executives to mentor the leaders of the future.


How To Make Great Leadership Decisions

How To Make Great Leadership Decisions

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
CEO Decisioning

Why do leaders fail?
They make bad decisions.
And in some cases they compound bad decision upon bad decision.

Excerpt

The truth is that even leaders who don’t fail make bad decisions from time-to-time. Those leaders who avoid making decisions solely for fear of making a bad decision, or conversely those that make decisions just for the sake of making a decision will likely not last long. The fact of the matter is that senior executives who rise to the C-suite do so largely based upon their ability to consistently make sound decisions.

Making sound decisions is a skill set that needs to be developed like any other. The first key in understanding how to make great decisions is learning how to synthesize the overwhelming amount incoming information leaders must deal with on a daily basis, while making the best decisions possible in a timely fashion. The key to dealing with the volumenous amounts of infomation is as simple as becoming discerning surrounding the filtering of various inputs.
Understanding that a hierarchy of knowledge exists is critically important when attempting to make prudent decisions. Put simply…not all inputs should weigh equally in one’s decisioning process. By developing a qualitative and quantitative filtering mechanism for your decisioning process you can make better decisions in a shorter period of time.

The hierarchy of knowledge is as follows:


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