Informative and Inspiring articles for purpose minded companies

Marketing is Everything
This article reinforces the importance of taking a customer driven in the high tech business. Too often we focus on features not the value delivered to a customer. Written in 1991, this article is still one of the most relevant on how to treat customers in a rapidly changing world.

McKenna proposes six principles, which just don’t get old.  The two that constantly resonate with me are;
1. “Marketing is everything and everything is marketing,” which suggests that marketing is like quality, using recyclable materials, or having a strong Purpose. It is not a function but an all-pervasive way of doing business.
2. “Marketing moves from monologue to dialogue,” argues that advertising is obsolete, it is a dialogue between company and customer.

 

Creating Shared Value
By 2025 millennials will occupy a majority of the global workforce. 70% of these next generation leaders, state that a company’s commitment to the community and social impact initiatives will influence their decision of where to work. The article, written by the Michael E. Porter, father of modern business strategy, goes beyond sustainability, B Corp, Triple Bottom Line to suggest that companies without a sense of purpose can not acheive their full potential. Shared Value is a pracice that companies can leverage to tap into that purpose, be more competitive and be part of driving societal change.

Value Proposition Canvas reinvented
The traditional Value Proposition Canvas, in my opinion, does not do enough to encourage empathy with customers and examining the human experience. This canvas contains questions and sections that guide people into thinking through the end-customer experience.

Crossing the Chasm: How to Market, Sell And Improve Your Innovative New Product
This article does a fantastic job at helping to explain the market entry strategy needed at each phase of the product life cycle.  At the end of the article is a downloadable info-graphic which presents a cheat sheet on those strategies

 

 

Knowing a Winning Business Idea When You See One

If you believe in the importance of sustainability, before you start developing a product or service then this is a must read article. It will help you understand how to build the “product as a service” and the circular economy into every aspect of your new innovation. In this article, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne introduce “the buyer utility map,” which might be one of the most powerful segmentation tools that I have come across. It outlines all the levers companies can pull to deliver utility to customers as well as the different experiences customers can have of a product or service. In all, it creates a 36 cell matrix that let you see the utility proposition from existing products.

Without a sense of purpose, no company, either public or private, can achieve its full potential.

Larry Fink Chairman & CEO BlackRock

If you have an article you would like to include, or a comment, I would love to hear from you!