Leadership Challenges -

Be aware of a Leading Company

Business / Leadership

    An old Indian Fore lore goes like this, an Indian maharaja who would engage in a bizarre morning ritual every day, immediately after waking up, he would celebrate his own funeral, complete with music and flowers. All the while, he would chant, "I have lived fully, I have lived fully, I have lived fully."

At first I could not understand this when I first read this, I could not understand the purpose of this man's ritual. So I asked an old Indian sage to enlighten my thoughts on the story. His reply was this "Son, what this maharaja is doing is connecting to his mortality every day of his life so he will live each day as if it were his last. His ritual is a very wise one and reminds him of the fact that time slips through our hands like grains of sand and the time to live life greatly is not tomorrow but today."Unknown

In this issue one will be able to see what great companies in this world have much in common. They continue to succeed, to grow in revenues and profits, to adapt to change and opportunity, and to inordinately influence society and their industries.

These Great companies have the highest rates of return on assets and equity in their industries. These are the hallmarks, the guiding principles, of these companies, some Pointers given below.

VISION-
Great companies plan with very clear, measurable specific goals… and not just short-term, one year goals, but those of strategic vision.

To reiterate, they have a clear market vision. They know what business they're in. They know what customers want. They give customers what they want.

CUSTOMER ORIENTATION

Great companies believe, the customer is always right.

Top managers are all customer-oriented.

All top managers regularly make calls on customers.

Consequently, they are constantly segmenting their markets and executing the segment plans meticulously.

There is constant contact with customers. They always observe with clarity customer behaviour, changes in behaviour, and emerging customer needs. They do lots of listening.

The whole company serves the customer culture… not just the sales and marketing people, but production, financial, and research people as well.

They work hard to create customer franchises.

They seek lots of opinions, especially from current and lapsed customers, suppliers to their industry, and from their people.

MARKETING and SALES

There is a total company marketing orientation. Everyone in the company understands that marketing is the only renewing activity. Every employee values the customer.

Application case histories and successful customer incidents are constantly communicated throughout the sales forces.

The sales function is considered part of the marketing mix and is overseen by a marketing manager. These companies understand that selling or advertising is not marketing, rather a marketing function.

They do not get surprised by changes in the market. They usually influence the market.

They sell benefits, not features. They sell benefits, not technology.

They combine market data with intuitive marketing common sense.

They provide good, customized and consistent sales training.

They do not price products too low, rather they sell on price-to-value, not to cost.

They reserve opportunity money to take advantage of unplanned opportunities.

COMPETITION

There is a constant review of competitive activity. They realize that competitors are after their slice of the pie. Therefore, they invest more in marketing than their competitors.

MARKET SHARE

Achieving and keeping dominant market share is their priority. These companies fully understand that Leadership, strong market share is the fundamental common denominator of profitability.

They know that their No.1 market share status as a leaders almost always have No.1 profits, No.1 awareness, strongest customer franchise and loyalty, and highest prices. This allows them to invest more in market research, more in R&D, and more in gaining share advantage over their competitors.

They focus on market volume share more than market value share which would come naturally.

Understanding the importance of market share leadership requires a sharp awareness of what business the company is really in -- from a customer perspective -- and what that translates to for positioning and niches. That's why great marketing companies think about marketing strategy and execute that strategy relentlessly.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Manufacturing and marketing people meet often, once a week ... to discuss costs, forecasts, production, new products, new processes, etc.

R&D is rewarded for commercialized successes, not just technical ingenuity it's the nomenclature of the company. They reduce uncertainty with homework and research.

BRAND MANAGEMENT

They truly understand the importance of brand names, and constantly work to keep the brand names known and untarnished.

CHANNEL PARTNERS

They do not make decisions based on the short term shouts and pleas of the distributor or channel.

They see trade channels as partners, not customers.

QUALITY STANDARDS

They are maniacal about product quality, as quality is defined by their customers, not by manufacturing or quality assurance.

“There is no such thing as limits to growth, Because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, Imagination, and wonder.”

Roland Reagan