The Manager's View

I have written blogs and articles on marketing strategies and identifying market opportunities for some time now. I like the idea of finding a starting place in underserved markets and building a business with significant upside. For medicine I think that the use of technology to deliver healthcare at a distance can provide quality healthcare for individuals in rural areas and perhaps significantly change availability of health care in third world countries. Clearly the most underserved markets are those living in poverty around the world. Almost half the world, over three billion people, lives on less than US$2.50 per day. http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats This is probably the most undesirable and underserved market in the world and the needs are extensive. I wonder though if it were possible to create products and services for this group, would it be possible to generate economic activity that would ultimately lead to higher income...

Often organizations will act based on moves by the competition, changes in the environment or new opportunities. These actions may not always be in keeping with the long-term objectives of the organization. In an earlier blog I gave the example of a young entrepreneur that had a business that installed Christmas lighting for homes for the holiday season. His long-term goal was to grow the lighting business to the point where the capabilities and reputation allowed him to be a major provider for concert and event lighting. Faced with the need for revenues in the off-season this entrepreneur thought that a possible extension for the business was home landscaping and yard services. While this would have met the short term cash needs of the organization it would might have led to a different focus and prevented the company from focusing on the goal of providing lighting services for concerts and similar events. One of the best ways to keep a business targeted is to ha...

In December I introduced a process for developing marketing strategies. http://gwrresearch.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-strategic-marketing-planning-tool.html The example given assumed that a newspaper organization developing a marketing strategy existed. The process in the example began with a situation analysis to identify the state of the market environment, potential market disruptions and potential market opportunities.   The example then used the information to develop strategies for price, place, product and promotion. These strategies were then placed in an Organizational Impact Chart to show the impact of the strategies on the organization’s workforce, cash requirements, operating procedures and capital equipment requirements.   The impact chart is shown below. Organizational Impact Chart PRODUCT - Focus on local and regional news coverage, develop products for conversion of print products including digital preprints, develop customize...