Strategy from the Outside In

The premise of this book hits the mark! Congratulations to George Day and Christine Moorman for highlighting this all to common leadership mistake!

Strategy from the Outside In, by George S. Day and Christine Moorman examines influential strategy ideas (shareholder value, core competence, and six sigma) that have lured companies into a dangerous internal focus, viewing the world from the inside out. As a result, companies lose sight of the market which leads to poor results over the long run. Inside-out thinking distracts companies from the core purpose of a business: to create and serve customers. Fulfilling that purpose can be done only by approaching strategy from the outside in. In this refreshing look at creating enduring business value, Day and Moorman challenge companies to shift their perspective. They demonstrate that companies that adopt—and fight to keep—an outside-in view focused on customer value have grown revenue, profit, and shareholder value through both boom-and-bust business cycles.

http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Outside-Profiting-Customer-Value/dp/0071742298

Does this resonate? Unfortunately I'm guessing yes and I’m sure all Marketers can relate!

Vigorously Articulating Marketing Strategies

Part 2 of Strategy & Commitment

Came across this article in The Korea Times by Park Young-ryeol, Professor of business at Yonsei University in South Korea where he highlights BMW's commitment to a premium strategy. This is a perfect example of knowing what your brand stands for and having the courage to commit in spite of economic pressure.


http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2011/10/123_96718.html

If you haven't read part one you can find it below.

Strategy and Commitment

Attached is a link to an article about the importance and connection of strategy to a companies long term viability. Below is the introduction to the article that highlights my leadership philosophy and the power of focusing on the market and building a team to win from my most resent assignment as GM of the Franke Luxury Products Group.

Introduction

Most companies will find themselves out of step with customers at some point. Some will maintain the course. Others (the successful ones) will adapt to their environment and find new paths to success. This case follows such a company. Increasingly out of touch with its customers and silo-ed internally, Franke Kitchen Systems USA used the Market Responsiveness Index™ (MRI) tool to take a hard look in the mirror, own its shortcomings, and transform the way it does business.

https://www.box.net/shared/ndqn0zi9lv2kn3pvumk1

http://www.marketculture.com/testimonials.html

The Fog of Leadership

“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

Donald Rumsfeld, former United States Secretary of Defense on February 12, 2002.

In the political world many thought this was political speak for avoiding a tough question or simply amusing. It may have been one or the other or both but if you put it in the context of business leadership and really think about it…isn’t it the essence of the challenge? Knowing the difference and being honest enough to know when you don’t know is one of the biggest challenges for leaders.

What do you think?

Partnership is More than a Good Product...

What makes a manufacturer a good trade partner? Why do showrooms display and sell certain brands? Why do sales associates encourage or recommend manufacturers products? Why do designers and architects recommend a manufacturers product?

These questions are both simple and complex but are central to why we believe Franke has become a leader in the North American Kitchen industry. My personal belief is that large organizations or ones owned by investors often forget that people do business with people and relationships do matter. We believe a number of things are critical to making a relationship work:

1. Knowing who you are - and never wavering from that no matter what challenges you face
2. Providing solutions not just products
3. Doing what you say you are going to do
4. Knowing that value is Not price

These four points over simplify the Franke business plan but they are the basis for how we view our role in the supply chain. Knowing Who You Are – this is often the most difficult question and challenge for a company. What do we stand for? What are our goals? And how do we accomplish these goals? In the current economic environment it is very tempting to cut prices, stop investing, lay off staff, import products from low cost countries all in an attempt to be able to sell more. Yes we want more, just like you do, but we believe price and lower quality is a slippery slope – the race to be the cheapest and selling on price alone is a very difficult business model to sustain. It is also nearly impossible to be the “cheapest” and still be a good partner to the trade. There are lots of companies that can sell you something cheap but is it a product that you are proud to represent?, Are you comfortable that your customer will be happy? Will these companies help me and my customer if something goes wrong?

This is where Franke believes that Providing Solutions not Just Products is critical and something we pride ourselves in. A few things come to mind when I think about solutions. Our patented Integral ledge and the custom accessories for every sink that make our sinks the center of the kitchen not just a sink. A smooth silky finish on our Stainless Sinks and our exclusive Fireclay finishes that are second to none. We also believe our approach to providing integrated solutions for managing the water in the kitchen is unique. With our world renowned sinks as the foundation we integrate it all by providing faucets, filtration, heating and waste management solutions. All are from a trusted source that give the customer piece of mind in a solution minded approach.
That is where we believe Doing What You Say You Are Going to Do comes in. We believe in offering unique solutions and we invest in putting actions behind these words. Franke has had a long history of Investing in innovative products including the D bowl sink, the Vision sink, Orca and most recently the Peak sink family. We also believe that partnering with only the finest showrooms/dealers and not selling to everyone shows commitment. Our Reseller Agreement program reflects a commitment to selective distribution. One of the programs we are most proud of is our industry leading MAP (minimum advertised price) policy. This is probably the best example of our commitment to the independent designer/showroom/dealer and the value they provide. We believe having a trained staff, design and selection assistance, product displays and a walk in establishment are critical to providing service. We believe the partners who make those commitments to Franke should in turn be supported with an environment where that commitment is rewarded. Franke does not believe in overly distributing our product/brand and we only want to work with trade partners that value and share this customer-centric approach.

This brings me to my final point. Value is Not Price and value is ultimately up to the customer. We strongly believe that there are enough customers that want stylish, innovative, quality products. We also believe that products that make kitchen work easier while maintaining a stylish aesthetic is desired by many. Finally, we believe that customers want service. Some would argue that good service has become so rare that those that are committed to it will be able to make it a competitive advantage.

That’s how Franke defines Value – stylish, quality product that has value added features and functions all provided by a team that puts the customer first. If we continue to work together – designer, showroom and Franke we will have a great story and point of differentiation that any customer would value!

Thanks and we hope you agree.

Charles Lawrence
General Manager
Luxury Products Group Franke Kitchen Systems

Differentiate or Die!

The folks at kaon Interactive recently published a whitepaper on this topic. It is an Old topic but my experience is that we often ignor the basics and focus on the flavor or trend of the month.

A few of the hightlights from the whitepaper include: Three Sources of Competitive Advantage: Cost Leadership, Market Focus & DIFFERENTIATION.

The Target Customer MUST know what is different about your product/service but more importantly the "why" that difference is important MUST be obvious

I Hope this simple refresher is helpful to someone.

Shared Vision, Values and Cultural DNA During Turbulent Times

My fellow board members and I recently returned from our CMO Council Board meeting and 2010 CMO Summit in San Jose. The theme of this years event was Synchronizing the "C-Suite".

It was an honor to share the stage with a distinguished and diverse group of world class marketers from many industries including:

• Steve Jones: Former CMO - Coca-Cola
• Perry Kamel: Founder and MD - Accenture
• Tony Pace: CMO - Subway
• Tom Ogle: CMO - Motorola
• Tony Wells: CMO - 24 Hour Fitness
• Steve Jones: CMO - Brand Ignition Group
• Jan Soderstrom: CMO - SunPower

Each of the following topics was kicked off by a Keynote Address with supporting contributions from several CMO's panelists with experience or passion for the topic.

• Synchronizing the "C-Suite"
• Giving the Back Office a Front Office View of the Market
• Making a Move to the Corner Office
• Leveraging Global Field Experience in Leading Cross-Culture Companies
• Driving market Intelligence Through Business Intelligence
• Provising The Frontline: marketing Supply Chains and Procurement Practices
• Corporate Incident Response: A New Measure of Business Performance

It was my pleasure to give a Keynote Address on the topic of: Shared Vision, Values and Cultural DNA During Transformational Times. My presentation focused on my belief that - CMO's are best positioned, best suited and it is their responsibility to drive Cultural Identity and Brand DNA within their organization!
I offered the following points for consideration:

• The board assumes this is being done
• The CEO/President is likely to busy or focused on other areas - it may also not be his natural orientation
• The Sales team is focused on getting orders - today, this month, this quarter...
• This subject is not on anyone else's radar (operations, engineering, finance, etc)

A few other points were made to emphasize the importance of leading this effort for the CMO.

Traditionally Marketing is defined in terms of the 4 P's that we are all taught in marketing 101 in undergraduate school. This is still true today but I contend that this External perspective is only half of the job of today's CMO. Yes consumer insight, competitor foresight and external forces vision are all critical to create the ideal marketing mix to win in the marketplace but...
If the Internal aspects of the CMO's job are ignored or not treated seriously all of the good work on external aspects of the CMO's efforts will be wasted. If their is not a Shared Vision and Company Culture that is consistent with the marketing program this will lead to execution failure that could ultimately damage the brand/company. A simple example is if marketing is promoting great service or world class supply chain performance and either the call center or shipping departments don't share the same vision or culture the customer will be disappointed. The call center is rude or gives bad information, the shipping department mishandles a shipment, it arrives late or damaged could all be simple breakdowns in cultural alignment. The point is that if the departments don't understand or don't care the company is not aligned. It is therefore the CMO's responsibility to immediately recognize the breakdown and begin the process of addressing it...until these issues are eliminated the CMO's job is not done!
The Internal responsibility to brand/culture is often overlooked and misunderstood. Your organization needs you - the CMO's that embrace this concept will break through and will lift their organization and themselves to brighter futures!

Selling Luxury in Challenging Times

I hope you find my recent interview with SuppyHouse Times interesting. We explore luxury marketing and how Franke is growing in challenging times.

http://http://digital.bnpmedia.com/publication/frame.php?i=49675&p=41&pn&ver=swf

105 Miles to beat Cancer!

One flat tire, one missed turn, 6.5 hours and 105 miles. The ACS Bile-a-Thon was a huge success with the Franke team raising $2,000 to contribute to the $1,500,000 raised by the other 4,000 riders.

This is a terrible disease that affects all of us in some way and it was an honor for me to help and inspire others to contribute while doing something I enjoy...riding my bike.