Dr. Cait Murray
Strategic growth
Much has been mentioned in the press recently about a desire for a new political agenda to support growth. Tax breaks, an end to austerity and more support for all kinds of options depending on who is writing the article are all put forward as the ultimate solutions.
But is that really the answer?
Innovation, the creation of new things that can capture imagination, customer appeal or plain old necessity isn't always best served through making things easy.
This is a time of massive change. There is a need for acceptance that at a national level we have been spending beyond our means and that many of us have done that at a local and household level as well. Perhaps there will be new policies that will assist your company, your industry or your geographic area. Perhaps there won't.
Whilst the politicians and bankers decide, companies can't stand still.
There is a need to look hard at what your company does and what it could do, what skills you think your team has and the reality of what they can actually do. There are hidden gems in all organisations, ideas and knowledge that have remained hidden simply because no-one asked.
How well does what you offer fit the needs of the market place? Where is your market today and where will it be in the future? What are your competition doing? Do you agree with their strategies or do you think that your approach is better and provides an edge that customers and potential customers will respond to?
There are no guarantees that there will be hand-outs or beneficial policies to come. If your, or my, company is going to succeed it will be because you are offering something that world wants and you are letting the world know where and how to obtain it.
But is that really the answer?
Innovation, the creation of new things that can capture imagination, customer appeal or plain old necessity isn't always best served through making things easy.
This is a time of massive change. There is a need for acceptance that at a national level we have been spending beyond our means and that many of us have done that at a local and household level as well. Perhaps there will be new policies that will assist your company, your industry or your geographic area. Perhaps there won't.
Whilst the politicians and bankers decide, companies can't stand still.
There is a need to look hard at what your company does and what it could do, what skills you think your team has and the reality of what they can actually do. There are hidden gems in all organisations, ideas and knowledge that have remained hidden simply because no-one asked.
How well does what you offer fit the needs of the market place? Where is your market today and where will it be in the future? What are your competition doing? Do you agree with their strategies or do you think that your approach is better and provides an edge that customers and potential customers will respond to?
There are no guarantees that there will be hand-outs or beneficial policies to come. If your, or my, company is going to succeed it will be because you are offering something that world wants and you are letting the world know where and how to obtain it.
Dr. Cait Murray
When is the right time
Too early for Sales and Marketing?
When is the best time to launch sales and marketing activities for your company? For your organisation? For your new internal product development or management plan?
In my opinion, never too early. This should be the first thing you do after you have defined your business objectives. Nothing else is so important as the planning and execution of the communication about what you do and what you want to do.
Sales and marketing is everywhere and effects every decision that we make – consciously or subconsciously. In small organisations the understanding of the techniques and language of sales needs to be second nature. Not everyone will be a salesperson, but everyone needs to know how to communicate the business aspects of a technology and objectives of the company when required. And to top it all in a small organisation there isn't the opportunity to hide from the commercial front line.
In order to assess the chances of success of your company or your new potential product you need to understand the drivers and influences on the market or markets that you are thinking about. For SSC this is hard to define and to achieve – but very rewarding. Over the past year we have set ourselves the target of widening the appeal of what we do. Moving from mainly life sciences work to other destinations and also moving from working with companies who have high-value low volume products to companies with more mass appeal products and also ones which potentially are B2C rather than solely B2B.
We've had to go back to basics and educate ourselves on what is possible with the team we have and also look at identifying the gaps in knowledge and personnel between what we have and where we want to be. Setting milestones to guide our progress and being vigilant about referring to them, revising them when they prove erroneous, but never ignoring them – to do so risks running off on mental tangents that might be interesting but don't lead anywhere useful.
A new experience for me – I'm good at helping people identify this for their organisation but find that it is a really emotionally challenging experience to do it for myself and for my own company.
When is the best time to launch sales and marketing activities for your company? For your organisation? For your new internal product development or management plan?
In my opinion, never too early. This should be the first thing you do after you have defined your business objectives. Nothing else is so important as the planning and execution of the communication about what you do and what you want to do.
Sales and marketing is everywhere and effects every decision that we make – consciously or subconsciously. In small organisations the understanding of the techniques and language of sales needs to be second nature. Not everyone will be a salesperson, but everyone needs to know how to communicate the business aspects of a technology and objectives of the company when required. And to top it all in a small organisation there isn't the opportunity to hide from the commercial front line.
In order to assess the chances of success of your company or your new potential product you need to understand the drivers and influences on the market or markets that you are thinking about. For SSC this is hard to define and to achieve – but very rewarding. Over the past year we have set ourselves the target of widening the appeal of what we do. Moving from mainly life sciences work to other destinations and also moving from working with companies who have high-value low volume products to companies with more mass appeal products and also ones which potentially are B2C rather than solely B2B.
We've had to go back to basics and educate ourselves on what is possible with the team we have and also look at identifying the gaps in knowledge and personnel between what we have and where we want to be. Setting milestones to guide our progress and being vigilant about referring to them, revising them when they prove erroneous, but never ignoring them – to do so risks running off on mental tangents that might be interesting but don't lead anywhere useful.
A new experience for me – I'm good at helping people identify this for their organisation but find that it is a really emotionally challenging experience to do it for myself and for my own company.