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Warren Buffett once observed this about economic downturns: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Well, the water’s receding and unless your company is at the absolute top of its industry, you’re probably more than a little worried about your level of “exposure.” Do you have what it takes to survive in these troubled times? It’s a scary question. But you can’t afford to spend too much time wallowing in anxiety and (to torture an analogy) scanning the shore for the nearest towel to cover your inadequacies.

If you play your cards right, you can reduce your pain during this downturn and come out stronger. People still need products—not just any products but the right products—and someone needs to provide them. No reason it can’t be you. But you need to get started making changes right away.

There are three steps you can take that will dramatically increase your chances of surviving—and even thriving—in our dismal economy:

Survival Strategy #1: Cut the waste. (And we’re not talking about reusing paper clips!) It’s time to reinvent the one function in your company that is more wasteful than any other. It’s your new product development, where the average company squanders over half its R&D resources on new product belly-flops. Can you think of any other function—production, accounting, HR—where this level of waste is tolerated?

Most companies don’t have enough R&D people to drive existing projects at a rapid pace. How would you like to “hire” dozens or hundreds more people who already know your company’s culture, customers, and technology… and can start work tomorrow? Don’t you think that would save your company? Well, you can do that: Just kill the dumb projects that are destined to be duds—really kill them, don’t just wound them—and set these people free to actually do some good for your company.

That sounds great, you may be thinking, but I don’t know which projects will be duds. Precisely! You don’t know. But your customers do! Instead of huddling with your colleagues around a conference room table to decide what your project portfolio should look like, let’s get a little crazy. Let’s ask customers what they want you to work on.

First ask customers what outcomes they want (which is much different from showing them your potential solutions). Then have them rate the importance and current satisfaction levels for each outcome. Do this with several customers in a market and you get the Market Satisfaction Gap for each outcome. A high Gap means customers are dissatisfied with an important outcome… and are eager for you to fix this.

Our clients have created Market Satisfaction Gaps in hundreds of markets, and they are usually surprised to learn what customers really want. But better to be surprised before development work begins than after the product is launched.

Survival Strategy #2: Harvest the “best practices” of other companies. It’s easier than you think. Simply by learning what works for other organizations, you can immediately increase your effectiveness in key customer-facing activities, such as pricing, sales management, and marketing communications. Have you ever left a company to work for another and discovered the new outfit had some pockets of mediocrity? Your new hires may be having the same experience. Instead of waiting for new employees to randomly cross-pollinate your organization with improved practices, you need to be much more proactive. You need to find, adapt, and drive these best practices into your business fast.

If that sounds overwhelming, I have two acronyms for you: APQC and ISBM. The American Productivity and Quality Center is one of the world’s leading benchmarking firms. Based in Houston, Texas, APQC has probably already benchmarked any area you can think of. Instead of forming a company benchmark team that will take three months just to frame their work, check them out at www.apqc.org.

But if—like most people—you tend to learn more from people than reports, find an organization to tap into. If you are a B2B provider (not consumer goods), you can’t do better than the Institute for the Study of Business Markets. Based at Penn State, the ISBM counts as its members over 100 leading researchers and 70 of the most advanced B2B firms. To check out a wealth of reports, consortia, workshops, and other learning opportunities, visit www.isbm.org. You might be surprised by how much “inside information” these thought leaders are willing to share.

These firms know that companies that simply “hoard their secrets” fall behind those that continually share and adapt. As Ralph Oliva, Executive Director of ISBM, puts it, “It’s really about how you implement new tools. Tiger Woods wouldn’t be worried if I used the same golf clubs as he did.”

Survival Strategy #3: Ask customers what they want. (Novel concept, huh?) The third and final tip can be practiced only by companies that provide products and services to other companies (not consumers, in other words). Solid research done by Huthwaite International indicates that the best way to sell a product is to ask customers what they want. In designing my new-to-the-world New Product Blueprinting process, I asked: If that’s true, why wait until the product is already developed? Let’s ask customers before it’s developed so we can a) develop a better product and b) engage them so they’ll be primed to buy.

This isn’t practical if you sell toothpaste to millions of people, but it works quite well if you’re a B2B provider and would like to influence your ten largest customers. I have developed a host of tools used to interview B2B customers in a very respectful, peer-to-peer fashion that leaves customers very engaged in your new product development. Of course, new products can take more than a year to develop… so how is this going to help you now… in the middle of an economic downturn? That’s the fun part—and one of the unforeseen, unintended consequences of his brand of B2B product development.

We were focused on long-term product development, but our clients began telling us that their newly learned interview techniques so impressed prospective customers, that it cast them in a new light. Imagine you are the customer: The last ten suppliers have tried to sell you something they already have, and here comes a supplier that listens to you to understand your needs. Who would you want to work with?

A marketing manager in Europe had been trying to start one new product project with a customer in the United Kingdom for years. At the end of his first New Product Blueprinting interview, he left the customer with six projects in hand. Customers are simply looking for suppliers who are competent and care… about them.

The bottom line? It’s time to put these three tips into practice and keep a cool head about you. Human nature being what it is, chances are good your less astute (and more fear-driven) competitors won’t.

When the tide goes out and the economy turns down, your competitors will be tempted to forego their long-term prospects in favor of short-term survival. You should hope nobody dissuades them. As Napoleon said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

And here’s the best news of all. Have you noticed that none of these three tips asks for near-term/long-term trade-off? In every case—reducing R&D waste, adapting new best practices, and engaging customers—you will reduce your short-term pain during the downturn and increase your long-term gain afterwards. So regardless of the tide, keep your swimsuit on and enjoy your swim.

# # #

About the Book:

New Product Blueprinting: The Handbook for B2B Organic Growth (AIM Press, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-9801123-4-4, $35.00) is available at bookstores nationwide and from major online booksellers.

For more information, visit www.newproductblueprinting.com.

C. Hand

Common Knowledge just might be hindering you from improving your swing, causing you major frustration and higher scores.

There is a lot of well meaning golf instruction in the market place today that simply will not help your game; in fact a lot of what’s out there will hinder you as you try to improve your golf.

The focus of my new site, (http://www.GolfMyths.com), is simply to identify this mis-information and to let players know, not only what the myths are, but why these myths are not true and how they do damage to your golf game.

Controversial? Probably, but I think the positives of the information I am putting out at GolfMyths.com will far outweigh any industry fall-out that I might receive from those instructors with stepped-on toes.

When David Ledbetter or any other of a host of well-meaning golf instruction gurus tells his touring professional student to “delay the rotation of the left hip”, or to “increase the width of your swing at the top”, “or to “delay the release as long as possible”, or any other “flavor of the day” type golf tips, he or she is talking with someone who is a professional, who practices hours on end, and who has an unbelievably acute feel for his or her own golf swing. This person also plays golf for a living. This is a completely different scenario than trying to teach a low, mid, or high handicap player or a beginner. These types of tips can absolutely wreak havoc on your golf swing and you can visit www.GolfMyths.com, and I’ll tell you exactly why.

Golf is a difficult game to play at the highest levels, but, having said that, it is not a complicated game to play. Most modern day instruction is hard for me to understand and I’ve been teaching the game for 20 years. Having said that, in order to excel, you have to free your mind of complicated mechanical thoughts and learn to simply swing the golf club.

Until you change the way you think about playing the game, change the fundamental way you look at golf instruction, and realize that you have to forget mechanics, you’ll never play up to your full potential as a golfer.

“Forget mechanics”, you ask, “why that’s all I think about.” I can hear your mind racing now; “Start the club back online, turn don’t sway, pull down with the left hand to start the down swing, transfer my weight to my left foot, roll my wrists at impact, head behind the ball.” YIKES! How can you even take the club back with all these mechanical thoughts you’ve picked up over the years racing through your head?”

The answer to my question is ….you can’t! You simply cannot swing the club effectively with all that garbage running through your mind, distracting you from what’s most important.

It’s sad, but absolutely true that thousands of people quit the game we all love every year, most out of sheer frustration.

If you have fallen into this trap of believing that mechanical tips, swing analysis, and pounding golf ball after golf ball on the driving range are the answers to your problems, you are destined to be frustrated forever.

Golf should be fun not frustrating and when you learn to forget mechanics and start playing the game via feel and sight, it will be fun and you’ll shoot better scores. I guarantee it!

“How do I do that”, you ask?

First you have to be able to differentiate fact from fiction and that’s what I’m going to help you do at www.GolfMyths.com.

Next, you have to forget all the theories, mechanical thoughts, and myths and focus on what is important to your game.

That’s right, I said your game, not Tiger’s, not Phil’s, not Big John’s but yours. Focus on the things that are important for you to play better. Focus on your swing path and the moment of truth..Impact. Tie swing path and impact into your target and you’re well on your way to longer, straighter shots, and lower scores.

Ben Throckmorton
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/is-common-golf-knowledge-ruining-your-golf-swing-46921.html

A longer drive off the tee is something every golfer desires. Adding 10 or 20 or even more yards to your tee-shot can dramatically shave strokes off of your game and that is the focus of this short golf lesson.

Whether you’re playing golf for money as a professional, for bragging rights or just for fun, an extra ten to twenty yards with your driver can vastly improve your ability to score well.

You might be a long hitter already or you might be a player who doesn’t hit it long yet, but you can add at least 10 yards to your drive easily with a simple drill that anyone can learn to practice.

For those of you, who often grab your 3-Wood or use an iron off the tee because you’re afraid of going for the long ball, listen up. I understand your pain! It is extremely frustrating to try and hit a perfect driver only to be deep in the rough to left or the right of the fairway or who-the-heck knows where.

But before you give up on it and convince yourself that real golfers “Drive for show, and putt for dough” listen to what Greg Norman had to say about the subject:

In his book SHARK ATTACK he wrote, “Don’t ever sell me on that line. If you can’t put your tee-shot in play, the smoothest stroke in the world won’t help you enough. To my mind, the most important shot in golf is the drive”.

Alright then, let’s get started. Grab your driver and put on your normal grip.

Now release the last 3 fingers on each hand (for those of you slow learners like me, we’re talking about the pinky, ring and middle finger on each hand). You should now have only the index finger (pointer) and thumb of each hand on the club.

With your left thumb and pointer, start your swing by pushing the left side of the grip back, adding just a bit of shoulder and hip turn.

Notice how the driver head extends naturally back along the target line and the toe of the club is pointing up. Your swing will now be on line and on plane and will automatically give you the right feel and easily add more than 10 yards to your tee shots with greater accuracy.

Keep drilling this until you really get the feel for it. Start slow with the driver and practice with all of your clubs. Keep this slow pace and visualize what it is you are doing.

When done correctly, repeatedly and with focus, your body will remember what to do and you’ll be getting the clubface in proper position time and again.

Make sure to start with your hands and then add your shoulders and hips naturally.

Too much shoulders takes the clubhead back on a shallow plane, that’s why starting the club back with just your index finger and thumb, prevents you from manipulating the club off plane and helps the club extend back on that natural arc we’re all looking for in order to stay on plane.

I just know that if you spend a few minutes working on this you will reap the benefits pretty quickly and start adding 10, 20 or more yards to your driver with greater accuracy.

Thanks for reading, good luck and good golfing.

Fred Kaboot

Freddy Kaboot