One Secret Method To Protect Future Profits
[column width=”1/1″ last=”true” title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]
When I worked in IBM Marketing, we ran quarterly pulses on the market to ensure that our offerings were still relevant and on-point with our customers, partners and competitors. I’ve worked with companies that also do this to varying degrees, though not as masterfully. One report in particular focused on new product releases as well as mergers and acquisitions within our ecosystem of partners and competitors.
Markets and customer needs are always changing. Some markets are more fluid that others, but the value provided by each element, from origination through the middle market to the final customer sale, is constantly evolving. It is essential to monitor the market on a quarterly basis to signal possible strategy adjustments. Fortune 50 companies know that a disconnect can cost them tens of not hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues. You might not run a billion dollar business, but the disconnect could be just as catastrophic!
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you are in the retail clothing industry or the healthcare industry. Or say your company is currently earning revenue in virtual reality, augmented reality, or even 3D printing.
Apple is one of the first players who should be on your quarterly report. I find it very interesting that Apple invested almost half ($390M of $1 Billion) of it’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund in a Texas manufacturer called Finisar. Finisar manufactures the lasers that work with other sensors built into the new iPhone X to provide facial recognition. Obviously such a big investment positions Finisar as a pretty important vendor to Apple’s future.
Here are some questions that should be answered in your analysis:
Other than facial recognition, what could this technology be used for?
What have customers wanted that hasn’t been previously possible? This is the cornerstone question of testing the value of a new technology. Could this new technology turn the identified customer need into a reality?
For example, if you are in the clothing industry, you might be very interested in this announcement. Why? Customers have been increasingly shopping online, and clothing is still hit or miss with proper fit. Imagine being able to use Finisar’s technology to perfectly map out your customer’s proportions so that you can deliver the perfect fitting clothing? Imagine the inventory reduction costs. Imagine the repeat business you’d get from delighted customers whose clothes fit perfectly and that you were able to deliver at a greatly reduced overall cost. If you are a mass merchandiser, you can compete on the low end of the market by providing custom fit clothing for off-the-rack prices. If you are a custom designer, you can now charge more for even higher-touch products. Amazon is already moving in this direction with thier Echo Look device.
Healthcare should be interested. As the facial recognition technology is improved, it could be used to recognize skin abnormalities or even cancers.
Augmented reality is already being implemented around similar technologies in the gaming industry. Imagine you could use the phones camera + accelerometer + the 3D sensing that Finisar provides to create a very specific diagnostic tool for equipment that can overlay augmented reality diagrams and virtual instrumentation on the actual screen image.
What if you could combine robotics, 3D printing and machine learning with this new technology?
When planning your strategy and looking for opportunities for growth, you should always keep a running playbook of moves by the leaders such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, etc. Others are watching. Don’t get left behind. On the flipside, if it doesn’t provide tangible value to your customers, or the expense to implement doesn’t match the value it would provide to the customer, hold off for now and let others prove the market.
Clients rely on me to transform their businesses by accelerating growth and innovation.
© Mark Travis – All Rights Reserved http://www.travis-company.com
[/column]