The Tough Guide to Corporate Survival for Executives

Corporate Innovation: Forecasting Product Demand and Changing Course

Executive Summary: Producing excellent products and offering exceptional service to please existing clients is essential, however, it does not guarantee the success of any organization. In the midst of turbulence, it is just as important to monitor the trends that impact your industry and organization. Often, executive teams are so busy "putting out fires" that they fail to notice a shift in demand for their products and services. By the time, a trend is spotted, the brand may be irreparably damaged or the competition may have been proactive enough to grab significant market share. Here are some cases that demonstrate how to avoid this.

 

 

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Corporate Innovation: Forecasting Changes in Client Demand & Changing Course

by Anne Thornley-Brown M.B.A. President

Executive Oasis International

 

Anne founded and manages the International  Business Team Building Alliance for Executives  on Linkedin. All executives from medium to large companies  are welcome to join the more than 140 executive members from over 30 countries.

 

 

To increase your organization's chances for success, it is not enough to ensure that your company produces excellent products and that existing clients love your brand. There are a myriad of other factors that can have an impact on whether your company thrives or dies. The key is to connect the dots.

Connecting the dots is not rocket science. It's a combination of art and science. It involves identifying and tracking the factors that have an impact on corporate performance so that you can spot emerging trends, chart your course, and stay ahead of the curve. Unfortunately, many executive teams are busy putting out fires or focusing on what is happening in their own industry. To spot threats and seize emerging opportunities, it is important to keep abreast of:

• economic and societal trends that have an impact on client demand for your products and services
• emerging techonology
• market trends
• strategies for client engagement

Today, we will focus on identifying and responding to changing client demand patterns for your products or services. If this article resonates with you, please add your comments. If you can think of examples of companies that seized opportunities as a result of being in tune to shift in product or service demand patterns, please share them

If you enjoy this exploration, please let me know. Add your comments, click the star to select this blog entry as a favourite, Stumbleupon it, and re-tweet it. That way I'll make a point of issuing The Tough Guide to Corporate Survival for Executives more often.

 

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Marketing Innovation: Managing Straegic Transitions in Response to Client Demand Pattern Shifts

Often companies get so focused on providing excellent products and exceptional client service to their traditional customer base that they miss emerging trends that have an impact on the demand for their products. Fortunately, there are a number of examples of companies that successfully managed strategic transitions and emerged stronger.

Company: (Canada Cycle & Motor Co. Ltd.) Industry: Bicycle Manufacturers

Founded in 1899 in Weston, Ontario, CCM® (Canada Cycle & Motor Co. Ltd.) went on to become the leading bicycle manufacturing company in Canada, representing an 85% market share. By 1905, when the automobile was emerging, bicycle sales started to decline. The company identified and seized an emerging market opportunity that was the result of the increasing popularity of ice hockey. It diversified and started to manufacture the CCM Automobile Skate In 1922. The Tackaberry hockey boot with CCM Prolite blade beacme the most well known skate in hoceky history. The company launched very efffective marketing campaigns using hockey legends. Within 30 years, it dominated the ice hockey skate market with a 90% market share. CCM® invented the tricycle. In 1983, Procycle Group Inc. bought CCM® Cycle. CCM is now a manufacturer of hockey gear and equipment including skates, pads, hockey sticks, protective gear, and helmets. The company's emphasis on quality and product innovation has allowed it to dominate the market.

It is the exclusive licensee of NHL and CHL. It continues to use famous hockey players in its marketing campaigns.

Due to the leadership of true visexecutaries, the company has been able to make a key strategic transition in response to changes in demand patterns for its original product line.

CCM Hockey History @ccmhockey

Procycle Group and other Canadian bicycle manufacturers face significant challenges from Asian competitors.

We firmly believe that the decrease in the number of employees at Procycle Inc. is the result of the insufficient protective measures implemented over the past decade, as well as the major influx of bicycles and bicycle frames into Canada, especially from Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, India, Vietnam or Malaysia, at prices that are too low. We are convinced that if we do not adopt global safeguard measures with respect to the importation of bicycles, assembled or unassembled, with a wheel diameter greater than 38.1 centimetres, and additional safeguard measures targeting painted and finished bicycle frames, assembled or unassembled, these products will be imported in such increased quantities and under such conditions as to be a principal cause of serious injury to domestic producers of similar and directly competitive goods, in particular Procycle Inc. and our members who work there.

Source: Protecting the Canadian Bicycle-Manufacturing Industry

 

In response to these challenges, it is focusing on the high performance bicycle niche under the brand names Rocky Mountain, Miele Bicycles and Pro.Cycle. It also owns and markets a range of cardio equipment including treadmills, step machines, stationary bikes, and ellipticals.

 

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Forecasting Product Demand: Learning From the Past

At the turn of the 20th century, a company could have been the best manufacturer of saddles, riding boots and tack for horses but little could have prevented it's demise once the automobile became popular. The most viable survival strategies would have been to find a way to transition the technology and put it to new use or upgrade to serve the luxury niche market (e.g. equestrian sports). While most saddle and makers are a distant memory, others have made a very profitable transition.

A Company to Watch: Page Belting Company

Founded in 1868, Page Belting was an American manufacturer of flat leather harnesses for horses, buggies, stagecoaches, and industrial machinary. Page Belting was highly successful. They even have a testimonial letter from Buffalo Bill attesting to their excellence. The popularity of the automobie and the growth of electricity to power industrial equipment could have resulted in the demise of the company, Page Belting revitalized its original produced line and built on it to create new products and advanced materials. It diversified from a company specializing in leather belting and now offers a range of products including flat, round and link belts, leather specialties, washers, gaskets, conveyor belts and transmission, and hydraulics. In the 1950s, Page added synthetic material, polyurethane, to its offerings. The company also transformed its corporate culture.

"We knew we couldn't keep doing what we had been doing for decades. We needed to create new strategies, such as changing our attitudes toward our employees and consciously deciding to change our overall style of managing."

"We turned the corner on a prevailing defeatist attitude throughout our
workforce in less than a year. I truly expected it to take a lot
longer."

Mark Coen, President
Page Belting Company, Concord, NH

 

More about the History of Page Belting Company

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A Company to Watch: Hermès Paris originally Hermès Saddlery Company

Hermès Paris, a company from France that started in the same industry as Page Belting, has used a different corporate survival strategy. Founded in 1837, Hermès Saddlery specialized in the manufacture of saddles and halters. The Hermès trademark handbags evolved from the bag that Charles-Emile Hermès, the son of the founder, designed so that riders could carry their saddles.

 

 

Their current product mix is a blend of their traditional product line and the luxury good from scarves to perfume to high fashion for which the company is now more commonly known. They continue to manufacturer and market saddles, riding boots and gloves for the niche international showjumping market. It also played a key role in the development of Pessoa Saddles that have been used by 2 generations of show jumping legends in Brazil's Pessoa family.

 

 

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Forecasting Product Demand: Spotting the Future....Being Proactive

The clues to future corporate performance are all around us. Many executives are too busy focusing on the present to be visionary. That is why, during the last recession (2003 - 2004), my company designed Visexecutaries: Seizing Opportunities in Our Shifting Corporate Landscape. We have offered it in Asia, the Middle East and North America to encourage corporate leadership teams to become Visexecutaries - "visionary executives" who spot emerging trends, change their course and proactively seize market opportunities. Connecting the Dots is one of the many exercises from that session. Here is how it works.

 

Connecting the Dots: An Exercise

Banks have daily position reports to make decisions about commercial
accounts. After he took office, one of the first things President Obama
did was to ask for a daily report of key economic and financial
indicators.

1. Create a graph.
2. Use the x-axis for years.
3. Use the y-axis for level of profitability.
4. Chart your company's performance for the last 10 years. Place a dot above each year to represent the level of corporate performance.
5. Beside each dot, write the cause of the improvement or decline in corporate performance
6. Connect the dots.
7. Examine the factors that had an impact on corporate performance.

Presto! You've just identified a customized set of leading economic indicators for your organization. Monitor them on a daily, weekly or quarterly basis as appropriate. Spot the trends and use mind maps and other brainstorming tools to generate proactive strategies for managing emerging trends.

 

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Parting Shot

Corporate survival and corporate success are about spotting the trends that have a impact on your business early enough to do something about it. Re-inventing yourself and your organization in response to our shifting corporate landscape is particularly important in the midst of turbulence. Successful companies know how to change their course and seize emerging opportunities to compensate for shifts or a decline in their traditional customer base.

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Next Steps

Take time to watch the videos and the websites of each of the companies that have been profiled. Try the Connecting the Dots exercise. The results will help you identify and stay on top of trends that are important to your business. They will also help you be more proactive in navigating the ups and downs of a turbulent economy and marketplace.

 

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Photo Credit: circulating

Photo Credit: Qiao-Da-Ye

 

 

 

Executive Corporate Meeting Re-Engineering Guide

Executive Summary:  Based on the way in which many companies continue to design corporate meetings and sales rallies, you'd never know that there is a growing volume of research about the best strategies to engage business audience. The order of the day continues to be a dreary and tedious pattern of passive disengagement with a series of long, boring presentations delivered by "talking heads". There is a better way. From strategic meetings management to virtual worlds technology, executives can eliminate meetings that are not required, streamline meeting content and deliver it with more impact.

 

 

 

Repairing A Broken Business Meeting Model

by Anne Thornley-Brown M.B.A. President

Executive Oasis International

Anne founded and manages the International  Business Team Building Alliance for Executives  on Linkedin. All executives from medium to large companies  are welcome to join the more than 140 executive members from over 30 countries.

 

 

 

Troubleshooting Corporate Meetings Before They Start

 

When a meeting is poorly designed, participants have a hard enough time staying awake yet alone deriving benefit from the content that is presented. So, how can we fix a corporate meeting model that is badly in need of repair? My advice is that it's time to re-engineer meetings and sales rallies. Before we tackle strategies for doing that, let's get to the root of the problem.

 

7 Signs That Your Corporate Meeting Design is in Need of Renovation

 

• Every time you get your team together, as the planning cycle continues, you have more and more content to cover.
• You end up with a jam packed agenda that's bursting at the seams with content.
• The set-up for your meetings resembles the opening photo.
• Your meetings are composed of wall to wall presentations that require participants to sit passively and listen.
• Your breakout sessions are also exercises in passive disengagement.
• You're always running behind schedule.
• The group is rowdy and difficult to engage during entertainment or recreational activities.

It's a symptom of a deeper problem.

A Corporate Meeting Model That Works

I have previously blogged about:

• Corporate Team Building: Back to Business...Back to Basics
• Setting a Realistic Timeframe for Team Building   [Part 2]

This model is based on a start time just after an early lunch (12:30) on Day 1. I recommended a minimum of 2 days plus a 3 hour orientation session to include:

• facilitated team building
• recreational team challenges
• debriefing
• business application exercises
• a half day business meeting with your own agenda items

It's a scaleable design that works for on-site meetings and off-site retreats. For off-sites, companies that require more meeting time to cover their own agenda items can easily add half a day without having to extend their hotel stay by another night.

The State of Corporate Meetings

Our team building firm regularly gets inquiries from companies that initially request a full day of interactive team building. This is doable with a very short simulation and very specific outcomes but it's a very tight timeframe. Often, the requested time slot is reduced to 1/2 a day and, ultimately, it shrinks to a 1 to 2 hour strictly recreational activity or after dinner entertainment. This business is, invariably, awarded to the lowest cost provider. By the time the participants get to dinner, they are exhausted and in bad humor. We have seen instances in which the participant attention span has been stretched to the limited and they have short attention spands even during the entertainment.

 The actual meeting ends up consisting of a series of dry presentations (i.e. back to back information dumps). I just had a chance to skim The Presenters' Jiffy Guide to Effective Knowledge Transfer. Dave Meier of the Centre for Accelerated Learning was kind enough to send me a copy of his new book. He captured it perfectly when he said that many companies still design meetings based on the following paradigm:

Incorrect Assumption: The more information we can stuff into people in the shortest time, the more knowledge they will have.

This pattern has been emerging in Toronto for some time now. We notice that it is also starting to happen with prospective clients in other parts of the world. Colleagues in the USA have confirmed that they are seeing a similar pattern. Why is this happening? Companies have indicated that they have WAY too much content to cover. The result? Team building gets the axe and they resort to information dumps.

Reality Check: A cocktail reception and after dinner entertainment will not fix a bad meeting design.

Pinpointing Root Causes of Problem Meetings

Here are some possible causes of the swelling meeting agenda:

• There are serious communication stopgaps and bottlenecks preventing team members from getting the information they need.
  An information dump once or twice a year is not going to fix that. You need a cross-functional team to diagnose what is blocking the information flow and propose solutions. Tools like flow charts can be of great assistance
• You're meeting too infrequently and content is piling up.
  You need to meet more frequently or arrange for virtual meetings in between your face-to-face sessions so that each agenda is not packed with content.
• Your processes are just too complex.
  Torturing employees and forcing them to sit passively through long presentations isn't going to fix that. It's time to troubleshoot and streamline your processes.
• You're using the wrong medium.
  All information does not have to be delivered face-to-face. Virtual meetings, blogs, independent study modules, intranets, interactive content, and pre-recorded material accessible in Second Life may be more appropriate than a face to face meeting. If there is a need to deliver content that requires interaction between meeting participants, why bring them together?

Here are some examples of virtual platforms that can be used to deliver content before or during meetings and sales rallies. Interfaces can be animated, true to life or a combination.

Virtual Meeting

Virtual Trade Show

Cisco Systems Pioneers Virtual Sales Meeting

• Cisco Systems' Virtual Sales Meeting
• Cisco Systems Scales Virtual Sales Meeting to 17,000

The Bottom Line Work on improving communication and processes. Use another platform to deliver some content ahead of time and trim your meeting agenda. Carve out more time for interactive content, team building, think tanks, brainstorming, and networking.

Strategic Meetings Management

Sometimes the root of the problem is that companies are investing too much time and money in meetings that are not really necessary. The result is that there is not enough time or budget for meetings that are pivotal.

• Consider a Strategic Meetings Management Programme
  This will help you get a handle on what your company is investing in meetings, set a meeting management policy, eliminate meetings that are not necessary, and allocate more time and budget to key face-to-face meetings.

(c) NBTAStrategic Meetings Management Model

Strategic Meetings Management Videos

 

Planning

Sourcing

Measuring Value and R.O.I.

Putting Your Corporate Meeting Budget on a Diet

Is budget is still a concern? Here are some strategies to trim your budget to free up resources to invest in an extra day at the hotel, professional facilitators, or consulting by a professional meeting planner to help you improve your meeting.

• Free up more budget by opting for double occupancy rooms.
  Let's face it, people won't be spending a lot of time in their rooms.
• Arrange for local participants to stay at the hotel for only 1 night, the night of your social or gala.
• Book suites with living rooms so that each employee has a private bedroom at a fraction of the cost of single occupancy rooms.
• Plan your meeting with more lead time so that you can take advantage of cheaper airfare.
• Book your meeting for a time that is slightly off-season.
  If you stay in Niagara-on-the-Lake in July, it will be expensive. Opt for early November or April and the weather will still be comfortable and you'll save a lot of money. The same applies to mountain locations in Japan or Malaysia or Jamaica in May or September
• Stay near where you intent to play to cut down on travel costs.
• If you have to fly your team in from around the globe, select a more affordable location.
  Downtown Toronto will be expensive but move just north of Toronto to York Region and you'll be able to stretch your budget and still access everything that toronto has to offer. Malaysia (try Langkawi, Tioman Island, Cameron Highlands, Berjaya Hills), Thaliand, Canada (Halifax, Cape Breton Island), and, believe it or not, Las Vegas have been identified as some of the most cost effective destinations in the world. Make your plans early and you can save a lot of money on airfare and still provide your team with a truly unique experience. If your team is small, there are even properties at which you can have exclusive use if you book far enough in advance.
• Have an alcohol free meeting.
  Yes there'll be complaints but It won't kill employees if they do without alcohol for one meeting and it will make a significant differenct to your budget.
• Alternatively, serve wine with dinner for only 1 meal, the one you designate as your gala.
• Eliminate or shorten the cocktail reception. You can either have a cash bar or provide 1 drink ticket per person for the cocktail reception.

Also, if you are flying employees in from various locations, why not extend the meeting by half a day or a day. Arrange for early arrivals and late departures. Bring participants who are flying from very far in a night earlier so that they can start the day refreshed. Get a meeting package for your first day. Start your meeting early in the morning on Day 1 and finishing when the rooms are available. Instead of cutting out early, finish later on the last day or earmark that slot for city tours and excursions. If your content is interactive and engaging, the time will go by quickly and employees will leave the meeting energized instead of exhausted. Alternatively, arrange for employees from out of town to stay in town for an extra night. It's relatively cheap to add an extra night if you've already paid travel costs. You can off-set the costs by having local employees reduce the number of nights they stay at the hotel.

Streamlining Your Content

Even if you plan to deliver everything using internal resources, it may be of benefit to engage one of the following resources for half a day to assist you with your planning and meeting design:

• an internal or external accelerated learning specialist to review your content and suggest interactive delivery strategies
• a team building specialist to suggest delivery options that can cover content and, at the same time provide opportunities for teamwork
• a professional meeting planner to review, logistics and flow and ensure that key messaging is incorporated at every opportunity
• a professional event planner to help you select cost effective and interesting venues and hotels

I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to toot my own horn and point out that our firm provides all of those services. Select appropriate methods for delivering content that does not require face-to-face delivery. Determine alternatives to Powerpoint presentations for the remaining content. An internal or external learning and development specialist would be the best person to assist you in selecting delivery methods that are appropriate for the content. Here are some ideas to hand-off to your internal facilitators if they don't have this expertise:

• Accelerated Learning Techniques
  Turn down your sound there is music.
  We've done your brainstorming for you.

Before the Meeting

Preparation

 

• Incorporate learning style surveys or HBDI Inventories into your planning
  This will make it possible to tailor your approach to content delivery to the group.
• Be sure to incorporate strategies that cater to a variety of learning styles in the design of your meeting. Currently, most designs cater to analytical and structured learners only.
• Extend meeting beyond its 4 walls.
  Use Second Life or similar platform to include virtual attendees who were not able to travel to attend the meeting.
• Remember that the environment counts. Park people in a drab meeting room with no windows and seat them in rows and you're guaranteed to have a snooze fest. (See opening photo.)

 

Presentation

 

• Re-engineer the design of your conference agenda to make provide more interactive content
• Every 20 to 30 minutes, break presentations with a group exercises, an exercise in pairs or trios, a case study completed in small groups, or some type of mini-break.
  Participants can't engage and absorb new material if they're dozing off
• Instead of sticking with standard 1 hour time slots that force presenters to do an information dump at breakneck speed, provide a variety of time slots including 2 hours and half a day.
• Cater to diverse learning styles through a variety of presentation formats.
• Expand your breaks to 30 minutes to build in more opportunity for networking and give facilitators more time to do set-up for interactive sessions.
• Provide quiet informal spaces for discussions, networking and impromptu meetings.

 

Performance

 

• Move away from theory and give participants an opportunity to work in small groups, debrief what they have learned and develop a plan to determine how to use what they have learned when they return to work.
• Provide USB drive with notes and worksheets that participants can use to apply once they get back to work.
• Video tape the most important sessions
• Use virtual worlds technology Provide Youtube style videos through a section of your intranet devoted to the meeting. This will make it easy for participants to review meeting content.

 

Re-Engineered Corporate Meeting Design:

 

Preparation:

 

• Participant profiles sent out before meeting to assist with planning, crowdsourcing agenda
• Learning styles inventories sent out before the meeting to assist with selection of delivery methods and formation of teams for team building if required.

 

Day 1

Start time is after an lunch.

• CEO presentation to set the stage for the meeting & Identify Business Objectives
• Table top exercises in which participants work in small group to identify related issues of concern to their team or department.
• Re-group into cross-functional teams
• Team Briefing by Team Building Facilitator (Optional)

 

Presentation:

 

Day 2 & 3

 

• Facilitated Business Team Building Simulation (Optional)
  1. Facilitated Business Exercises and Cases
  2. Intermittent Recreational activities and team challenges (Highly Recommended but Optional)
  3. Application: Debriefing of Team Building Simulation (Optional)

 

• Interactive Presentations and Breakout Sessions with Focus on Key Business Issues
• Short energizers interspersed throughout the session to keep the participants alert, engaged and, most of all, awake

 

Application:

 

• Business Application Exercises in Original Teams
• Business Meeting to Generate Solutions and Formulate an Implementation Plan
• Implementation and Follow-up

 

Parting Shot

 

The corporate meeting model is in need of repair. It is essential to pinpoint what your company is investing in meetings and set a meeting management policy. The key is to:

• identify which meetings are really essential
• scrap those that aren't neccesary
• replace content that doesn't require participant interaction with virtual alternatives.

Then, allocate enough time and budget to create interactive and upbeat experiences that engage participants during the face-to-face meetings that are essential. It's a lot better than investing time and money to put people to sleep.

Next Steps

 

The next time you are thinking about flying your team in from all over the world for a corporate meeting or sales rally...stop! If your company has fallen into a tedious business meeting model, spend some time reviewing the suggestions in this blog entry and consider a new approach. Identify content that doesn't require participant interaction. Work with internal or external specialist to generate alternative formats to present the content before or after your meeting. Re-engineer the content that remains.

I enourage you to post comments and questions. If you found this content to be of value please stumble upon it and share it on Twitter and with your Linkedin Groups.

Other Resources:

 

• Team Building Guide for Executives
• Business Team Building
• Building a Strategic Meetings Management Programme

For hand-off to your meeting planning team and internal learning and development professionals to assist in selecting interactive approaches to meeting content delivery.

• Spice of the Month Accelerated Learning Ezine
• Accelerated Learning Smorgasbord
  Turn down your sound there is music.
  Brainstorming with various presentation methods has been done for you.

 

Anne Thornley-Brown is the President of Executive Oasis International, a Toronto based consulting firm that offers meeting & strategy session design and facilitation, team building and incentive travel in Canada, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Photo Credit: spotrick

 

 

Corporate Paradigm Shift Part 2 - Breaking Down 3 More Barriers to Corporate Innovation

Executive Summary: Part 2 of our Breaking Down Barriers to Corporate Innovation series examines lessons from Eaton's, at one time Canada's leading department store chain that closed in 1999 and companies to watch  Royal Selangor in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia’s Hyperpanda, and Batelco in Bahrain. This segment stresses the importance of being alert to shifts in customer demographics, avoiding groupthink and “running with the herd”, and valuing lessons from the “school of hard knocks” more than theory.

Part 1: Corproate Paradigm Shift - Breaking Through 3 Barriers to Innovation explores what we can learn from companies to watch 3M and SC Johnson as well as the Jamaican reggae music industry.

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Breaking Down 3 More Barriers to Corporate Innovation

 

Photo Credit: robokow

In a turbulent market, clinging to old ways of doing things and a mindset that values theories about "what's supposed to work" more than "what works" has lead to the decline of many organizations. Let's examine 3 limiting paradigms that can become barriers to innovation:

• The Customer is Always Right
• Majority Rules
• Theory is the Answer

 

The Customer is Always Right

 

Is the customer always right? Sometimes this is true. If your customer base is shrinking, it's important to find out why this is happening. Do you need to improve your products and services? Is it time to change your business model? Maybe it is. However, sometimes a shrinking customer base is a sign of a major shift in the market, the need to re-think your offer and move beyond your traditional customer base. Blindly continuing to serve existing customers and rely on their input to shape your direction can actually lead to your organization’s demise.

 

As discussed in our last issue, it's important to connect the dots and learn from what's happening in other countries. It is also important to avoid the "New Knowledge is King Syndrome". There is a lot that we can learn from examining current and past business successes and failures.

 

The following story is well known to Canadians. It is a powerful example of what can happen when organizations cling to their traditional customer base and ignore signs that the "times are a changing".

 

The Death of Eaton's Department Stores: A Canadian Giant

In 1869, Irish immigrant Timothy Eaton, opened a new store in Toronto that would eventually grow to become Canada's most successful department store chain. By 1930, Eaton’s had captured a 60% share of the Canadian department store market. The Eaton’s catalogue and the annual Eaton’s Santa Claus parade became virtual Canadian institutions.

By the 1990s, Eaton’s, which had been known as “The Store for Young Canada” during the 1940s and 1950s, was out of step with the youth market. Eaton’s continued to cater to its traditional customer base and offer products that were no longer in demand (example: men’s handkerchiefs when the market had shifted to Kleenex). Its market share declined to 10.6% by 1997. Eaton’s first filed for bankruptcy protection in 1997. T. Eaton Co. Limited went out of business in 1999. While The Eaton Centre still stands, Eaton's is no more.

EATON'S: The History and Legacy of a Canadian Institution

 

A Company to Watch: Royal Selangor: A Malaysian Success Story @royalselangor

In 1885, Yong Koon left the Chinese port of Swatow and sailed to Selangor where he started a pewter incense burner and candle holder business called Ngeok Foh (Jade Peace) for his Asian customers. In the late 19th century, with the arrrival of the British in Selangor and the formation of the Federated Malay States, Yong Koon expanded his business (by then Selangor Pewter) to cater to a new demographic. The company began to produce ashtrays, tankards, tea services, and other products that would appeal to British customers. By the 1970s, Selangor Pewter began exporting to rapidly growing markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. Exports to Europe and Japan began in the 1980s.

In 1992, Selangor Pewter received the royal endorsement of His Royal Highness The Sultan of Selangor and changed its name to Royal Selangor. The name change also represented a re-positioning to the upscale market.

Photo Credit: christyso

Today the company distributes over a thousand different tableware and gift items in 20 countries. It's products range from traditional tankards and elegant tea sets, to captivating photo frames and handsome desk accessories. According the Royal Selangor website, this is the key to its success.

"One of the reasons for Royal Selangor's success in the gift and tableware market is its commitment to innovative designs and excellent craftsmanship. Every year, the company comes up with new ranges, some of which have received international recognition."

 

Rather than clinging to its traditional customer base, Royal Selangor has kept its ear to the ground and shifted its offerings in response to changing demographics and emerging opportunities in the global marketplace. Through product innovation, it exquisitely designs each of its pieces to existing and new customers.

The company markets incudes in it’s marketing mix sponsorships of polo events, regattas and prestigious golf tournaments. It also gives its name to upscale establishments such as the Royal Selangor Polo Club and the Royal Selangor Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur. Its distribution channels include upscale retailers and shopping centres around the world and an online store. Its products are available for consumers and as customized premium items that corporations can offer for sales incentives.

 

Royal Selangor History

 

Lessons from Saudi Arabian Hypermarkets

 

Launched in 1981, Euromarche hypermarket was once the dominant player in the Saudi Arabian market. It offered an innovative concept by having a broad range of products from groceries to gift items, all under one roof. Could Saudi Arabia’s Euromarche have avoided the “not invented here syndrome” and learned important lessons from Eaton’s? Euromarche continued to serve its traditional customer base at 1 location. Its growth was soon out paced by Panda, a small supermarket that had been launched in Ryad in 1979.

A Company to Watch: Hyperpanda Hypermarket @hyperpanda

Photo Credit: jessamyn

 

Panda learned important lessons from American retailers, grew and transformed itself into Hyperpanda , a hypermarche with innovative designs along the lines of American stores. It featured 24 hour service and a much more broader in product offerings. Hyperpanda now has a network of 100 stores across Saudi Arabia it has expanded to Dubai.

Majority Rules

Groupthink and “running with the herd” are major barrier to innovation that can lead to serious errors in decision-making. A lot has already been written about the role that groupthink played in the Bay of Pigs, Challenger Disaster, and demise of Enron.

Consensus can be a barrier to innovation. Paying keen attention to the minority perspective can be a key business success factor. Those who express viewpoints that are in the minority are often trailblazers or individuals with specialized knowledge that is of value to their organization.

In his Chief Executive Magazine article Top 12 traits of today's CEO, Thomas J. Neff contrasted CEOs who made bold, decisive and, at times, unpopular moves to turn their organizations around with those who were unable to break with tradition and navigate badly needed strategic transitions.

One has to wonder about the role that groupthink played in the 2008 US sub-prime mortgage crisis and Wall Street meltdown. It would be disturbing if in all of these organizations, none of the executive team members were able to perceive that certain business practices were flawed. I would hope that even 1 executive attempted to sound the alarm and advocate a change in direction to avert the crisis. If you know of any examples, please share them in “Comments”.

Nine months before the Wall Street Meltdown, utility forecaster, Robert S. Conrad cautioned about the dangers of “running with the herd” and groupthink on Wall Street.

"Running with the herd certainly beats trying to run against it—and getting trampled in the process. But it comes with a cost: surrendering your own common sense for “group think” that often makes no real sense at all."

Running with the Herd by Roger S. Conrad

He explains more on this video.

Here are some other examples of how groupthink "running witth the herd" dynamics get played out on Wall Street:

Running with the Herd Leads you to the Slaughter House!

Theory is the Answer

Often companies rely on management and leadership theories to determine best practices. Andy Keson of Fibreglass Blog shared an interesting perspective in response to a blog about Groupthink:

“Groupthink is a bad disease that we have right now in the U.S. and the world. It seems to be tied to universities and the higher-education experience. I say this as a college graduate myself.

If we look closely at the Wall Street meltdown, Climategate, and the current U.S.government debt problems, I would highly suspect that many of the shared theories that got us here could be traced back to a handful of the same universities where the powerful people come from. If we have a group of professors that think alike, and they spread their groupthink to all of their students, and these alums hire each other into their organizations, we truly have built shared opinion, with tons of peer pressure to obey the consensus.”

Theories are developed by academics based on what’s supposed to happen and what’s supposed to work. Often, they have limited practical experience in the real business world. Theory will only take us so far. A better practice is to examine and glean lessons we can learn from companies that are facing challenges and corporate success stories. They can be found in every corner of the globe. We've looked at OSIM (Singapore), BMW Canada, 3M, SC Johnson, Royal Selangor (Malaysia), and Hyperpanda (Saudi Arabia).

Breaking Down Barriers to Corporate Innovation: The Pay-off

It isn't always easy. All companies encounter challenges of one type or another at some point in their history. When companies take the time to break through barriers to innovation, there is a pay-off. We can learn a lot from companies that are truly innovative and that, as a result, receive recognition form their peers. Here is a splendid example with a corporate success story from the Middle East.

Company to Watch: Batelco (Bahrain) @Batelco

I've had the pleasure of working with Batelco, a truly innovative Middle Eastern telecommunications firm that has grown rapidly. Batelco is Bahrain's leading telecommunications provider with operations and/or joint ventures in Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, and India. Batelco has had a highly profitable year and it was recently recognized as:

• Telcoms Company of the Year 2009 at the Arabian Business Achievement Awards 2009.
• NGN Operator of the Year at the 2nd Annual SAMENA Regional Awards 2009, held in Istanbul, Turkey.
• Batelco wins top honours at CommsMEA

Here Batelco's CEO Peter Kaliaropoulous speaks about the importance of innovation for success in the competitive wireless communications industry.

Arabian Business Interview with Batelco CEO [Video Footage Included]

 

Parting Shot

Providing exceptional customer service to existing clients is important. In a turbulent market, for corporate survival it can be even more important to scan the horizons, spot shifts in demographics and design innovative services, products and distribution channels to reach emerging market segments at home and abroad. To come up with truly innovative strategies, it is also beneficial to examine corporate successes and failures around the world.

We've looked at 6 barriers to innovation that it's important to break through for succces in a turbulent market. Breaking down barriers to innovation isn't easy but as we've seen from the examples provided, it can be done.

Next Steps

This week take your team through an exercise in which you have a look at demand patterns for your core products and services. If there have been some shifts, try to uncover what is causing them and examine relevant demographics that may provide a clue to new market opportunities.

In the New Year, take the time to hunt for news stories about business practice, new products and service models in your industry. The next time you go on an overseas business trip, extend your stay by half a day and take time for a factory tour. Whether it’s a Tour of the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre and Pewter Factory or School of Hard Knocks, the BohTea Plantation in Malasyia or a Toyota plant tour in Japan, some of the ideas you pick up may be just what you need to spark for your own innovation to fuel growth in 2010 and beyond.

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