In the March/April 2024 issue of Car & Driver magazine, Jamie Kitman points out the gains and pains within the current four-wheel EV landscape. Kitman’s Upfront article, Alternating Current provides the painful reality of “piss poor planning” (my words, not his) within the hallowed walls of auto OEs, again. As history seems to always repeat itself, once again the lack of reality has bit auto manufacturers in the ass. When global governments started mandating zero-emissions by 2035, the OEs’ jealousy of Tesla gained unprecedented momentum.
As I spend a lot of time on planes, I have plenty of quiet time to read. I just knocked the dust off (again) a classic from Sergio Zyman, former Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Coca-Cola. Zyman is the guy who will be forever known as the New Coke architect (good or bad, usually bad). His book The End of Marketing As We Know It is an excellent read for any marketing or general business enthusiast.
Unconventional business strategies can ignite growth. Developing a culture that promotes and rewards creativity and innovation is critical in today’s turbulent global business environment. Moving faster than your competitors and developing creative strategies and products will force competitors to continuously react. As you continually surprise and disrupt the market, your organization will drive forward while competitors remain flat-footed. Stop relying on outdated and routine strategies. Reignite your organization with unconventional methodologies. Embrace discomfort and ambiguity. Connect disparate pieces of information. Rethink how you think.
To create an innovative ecosystem it must start at the top. It also requires every employee to develop new ideas for continuous improvement in all areas of the business. Leaders need to move past the status quo and find ways to improve the business while keep competitors guessing and customers loyal. Ignore fads, and focus on systematic and disciplined innovation to transform your employees and organization.
When people talk about Genghis Khan and the Mongols, the discussion typically focuses on the Mongols reputation as a ragtag band of nomadic warriors raping and pillaging across Asia and Europe. The reputation of the Mongols as ferocious killers have spurred countless stories of terror and destruction. Unfortunately, most of these stories were fiction. Interestingly, the Mongols were an amazing propaganda machine and created most of these false narratives to create fear and terror to ensure enemies surrendered before a fight was needed.
Beyond the Mongols legendary success as fearsome warriors, they were also amazing economic innovators. Genghis Khan was the masterful strategist and tactician, who created the Mongol empire. Khubilai Khan, his grandson, was the society builder. Khubilai Khan’s innovations have such direct influence on modern society it is amazing that it happened almost 1,000 years ago.
In an AutoNews article by Jennifer Vuong, the author interviewed Steve Kalafer who owns eight automotive dealerships in New Jersey. Kalafer discussed the current state of the automotive industry and issues he has experienced over the past 41 years. Key areas of concern Kalafer noted was the increasing amount of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) incentives and subprime loans.
Most of us have heard about the book The Art of War – or maybe it’s even on your bookshelf. Chinese General Sun Tzu is the reported author. I say reported because everything about him is not clearly identified in history – there is a lot of ambiguity of who he was – no one knows for sure who wrote the book, or who Sun Tzu really was. But for simplicity, Sun Tzu was a Chinese general who lived around 400 BC. His book has been used by military and business leaders for decades. The book should be an essential part of any business professional’s library.
When resources are scarce, the time to get creative and leverage non-traditional marketing strategies should excite marketing leaders and teams. The opportunity to do more with less and demonstrate to senior leaders the effectiveness of marketing, will lead to increased resources. Asymmetric marketing is an excellent method to “do more with less” and leverage speed and surprise to outmaneuver competitors, excite customers, and demonstrate the effectiveness of “guerilla marketing”.
Is your organization on auto-pilot? Does your company do the same thing year after year? Does your company announce new products at the same time, attend the same trade shows, use the same marketing tactics, engage with customers the same way you did in 1998, or use the same software that you bought from the 1990s? If your answer is yes to these questions, you need to wake up!
DMAIC is a data-driven, five step improvement cycle within the Six Sigma process. it is an excellent tool to identify root causes of problems and develop solutions. DMAIC stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. The goal is to improve processes or products to achieve the Six Sigma level of 3.4 defects per million.
