Is the current industrial strife at British Airways indicative of a poorly managed change process ?
Change which is imposed rather than negotiated is rarely successful. In fact any change process needs to go through fundamental stages to succeed and the unrest at B.A would suggest that these key stages have been ignored.
Change is inevitable but its successful implementation requires real management skills.
I was recently asked “how do you deal with negative customer feedback ?”
If you are interested in your customers (as every business should be) no feedback should be considered ‘negative’ and all feedback welcomed.
Customer feedback is an excellent source of improvement and should be welcomed at every stage of the product development process.
Samples should be supplied to the customer as early as possible and any feedback should be used to fine tune product development.
Get close to your customers and welcome their feedback, no one will appreciate this more than the customer themselves.
This is one of the most common questions in the world of New Product Development and is often asked after the developer has spent thousands of dollars in development costs.
Here are some possible answers:-
1) Who says your product is “great” ? many companies develop new products because they think it’s a great idea – unfortunately no one else does. It may seem obvious but New Products have to meet a market demand in order to sell. Just because your design engineer thinks its a great idea doesn’t mean anyone else does.
2) Does anyone know about your great new product ? What is your Marketing and Advertising strategy. Unless your Innovation is publicised how will anybody find out about it ?
3) Is your product overpriced ? What is the nearest competitor selling at ?
4) Is it priced too low and perceived as cheap ? Ask yourself this question – When you buy a car do you buy the cheapest model available ?
5) What level of service and support do you offer with your product ? – Is the competition offering a better warranty or service.
All common sense but sense aint that common.
chris@projectsguru.co.uk
Innovation is the name of the game; especially in the competitive world of consumer electronics. The only way to remain competitive is to continue to produce new, relevant products which the customer wants.
Apple is a terrific example, before the release of the ipod Apple was a company on decline; despite the fact that it had the worlds best desk top computers for graphic design and desk top publishing they were too expensive for the home computer market which was cornered by IBM clones.
Then along came the ipod, the revolutionary pocket music player which was cool, trendy, affordable and desirable.
The rest is history and Apple also leads the field in Smartphones with their iconic iphone. Recently they have released their latest product, the touchscreen notebook – the ipad.
These are terrific examples of product Innovation in the highly competitive field of consumer electronics which show that a company which continues to innovate will continue to thrive.
There has been lots of recent talk from politicians, particularly The Conservative Party, about rejuvinating British Industry. Indeed James Dyson, the renowned inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner which bears his name, recently issued his Ingenious Britain report on the subject.
Such debate is welcome and well overdue. With manufacturing in the U.K shrinking to around 10% of GDP we urgently need a strategy which focuses on what we do best – Innovation.
There is no way we can compete with Far East manufacturers on cost (labor or Capital) but we can and do compete strongly when it comes to Innovative design and technology. This is partly due to our strong engineering history and professional project management skills. It is also down to our open and democratic culture which leads to a rigorous debate of ideas.
We have a wealth of scientific and engineering talent in the U.K which we can exploit to deliver new and innovative products to the worlds markets.
We need to rev up the Brain Machine.
chris@projectsguru.co.uk
According to the PMI definition :- ‘Project Manager – The person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objective’
So what makes a good project manager. According to PMI good project managers are:-
1) Task Focused
2) Able to manage deadlines
3) Politically aware
4) Able to compromise pragmatically
5) Good communicators
6) Able to inspire and motivate others.
We wouldn’t argue with any of the above but what do you think ?
chris@projectsguru.co.uk
In July 2009 Sun Danyong comitted suicide by throwing himself from his 12th flloor apartment. Sun’s apartment had been ransacked and he claimed in a text, immediately before his death, that he had been badly beaten.
Sun worked for the massive Taiwanese CEM Foxconn (Turnover |$10 billion) which manufactures Apples iconic iphone. He was rumoured to have been suspected in the theft of an iphone prototype. The incident sparked an Audit by Apple but to date no visible action has been taken.
This incident highlights the ethical dilemmas posed in Subcontracting. How do we deal with massive corporations which often dwarf our own ? How do we balance the need to reduce manufacturing cost with the need to deal with undemocratic regimes with questionable human rights records ?
Do we do business at any price ?
Like most dilemmas the answer lies with the consumer. Western consumers are increasingly conscious of the ethical and environmental impact of their actions, where does that food come from, what is involved in it’s manufacture ? Who benefits and who gets hurt ?
This conciousness will extend to all areas of consumption including electronic products and it is those companies which pursue an active, ethical and evironmental policy which will ultimately benefit.
chris@projectsguru.co.uk