Yet more Workman

Survive or Thrive? Who do you want to play with? "Life's too short to dance with ugly men/women!" This is not a dress rehearsal. Collaboration has predictable phases. dependent-->Independent-->Interdependent Longevity is normally determined by:

• purpose
• economic structure
• level of commitment and involvement
• consistency with shared goals
• adaptability

As conditions change, you either change performance...or you change players. One secret of longevity for any successful business is the Intelligent loss of sales. It is the role of the sales manager to increase the number of profitable customers who choose to do business with you. One secret of longevity for any successful collaboration is the INTELLIGENT loss of history.

It is all about the market!

• free markets are the best environment
• incentives matter
• there is no such thing as a free lunch
• decisions are always made at the margin
• transaction costs are obstacles to trade
• the "invisible hand" of market prices directs buyers and sellers toward activities that promote their general welfare
• too often, long term consequences, or the secondary effects, are ignored.

Competitive positioning: the law of two out of three. You can have any two: good, fast or cheap. It is some kind of cosmic law of business that says you can excel at only two of these at any time. Successful collaboration:

• information technology
• communications equipment
• medical consolidation
• aerospace and defense
• service providers-- 3PL; 4PL; 5PL
• retail driven channels
• big boxes - manufacturers

How do we grow together? Options?

• live with growing differences until you can't live with it anymore
• embrace channel alternatives: exclusive, selective, and intensive (introduced by Japanese manufacturers of hand tools-- how many places or options can I provide our customers?)
• you don't owe me nothin' -- the free market mentality
• set expectiations and priorities
• pricing secenarios; value determination; optimization
• information sharing-- create an industry model
• offshore is bigger than WE imagined...so what?
• your industry IS different, you CAN leverage that.

What does the Future look like? Not the present...

So here are some questions... Brand has moved beyond company and product to include channels, so you both need a larger voice in decisions that affect users. PULL marketing works. Do your primary partners look at your position in the market as growing, growable, or non-growable? Can you improve channel alignment more with market concentration or market expansion? Do you actively manage the economic relationship? Have you started demanding, developing and sharing pertinent market information? What are you doing about the "Differences"? Four deadly traps: 1. Continuing to react to events, rather than crating your own opportunities 2. Assuming 2007 will be business as usual. 3. Assuming your key partners will not make the changes necessary to improve their competitive position 4. Assuming you will not lose any of your best players, distributors or customers. Here's the punch line: Markets are changing and creating opportunity for those who lead the change-- and threats for those who don't Technology creates capacity and capability to innovate-- lower costs and improve customer experience... Executive leadership continues to be the driving force that causes the pain of innovation.