Ready, Set, Go... To Market

So your product department has designed a new product and you’re in charge of simply taking the product to market….. now what?

Here’s a simple cheat sheet of some critical milestones that you must be clear about before you launch the new product.

Who is your target market what are your unique customer personas?

A great product doesn’t fit perfectly in every market so being clear about who your ideal target market is will be crucial. It’s difficult to target every market as it will impact your ability to make money hence you want to be sure that you are targeting the markets you can win in and the markets that your research has identified have a strong connection to your product.

You must understand who your customers are, how they behave, and what they want to experience when they engage your product. The more you know about your customer the better you will be able to execute your go- to-market strategy.

What is your products story and what makes your product unique?

Being able to simply tell the story of why your product exists and being able to position it for your customers is critical as a product never just sells itself.

Now that you can explain why your product exists you need to be able to spell out some key features and benefits that your product will deliver to your target audience. It’s so important that these resonate for your customers from the perspective of what problems it’s solving for them and the benefits your product is creating for their lives.

What channels are you going to use to take your product to market?

Picking channels isn’t hard, the challenge in this step is ensuring that the channels you chose are all as integrated and connected with each other as possible. It is critically important that customer experience is aligned regardless of how your customer choses to engage your product.

What’s your budget?

We are now clear on who we are selling to and what channels we are going to use so it’s now time to build your budget. Establishing your product pricing has been your focus right up until you’ve tested it with potential customers so this step needs to ensure that you incorporate and estimate all the costs associated with your go-to-market strategy.

How are you going to market your product?

You are ready to go and all that’s left is to determine what marketing activities you will leverage to take your product to market. You will need to develop a unique marketing approach for each target market you’ve identified in the first stage of this process.

Leveraging your product story, the goal of your marketing approach is to create a unique voice for your product in each market that gives your product the competitive advantage it needs.

Now you’re ready, it’s time to go…………….to market!

Looking to build your own Go To Market strategy?

Let us help. To learn more about how to build a go-to-market strategy for your customers, contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Go To Who?

Recently a good friend approached me and shared this amazing idea they had to take a new product to market. They had built the concept, tested it and literally perfected the product to a point that it was time to go and share it with the masses. Easy right? Wrong…

I see this often, and whilst not wanting to dampen their enthusiasm because their product truly is remarkable my first question was, what’s your go to market strategy? Their response was reflective of something I’ve witnessed and heard so many times throughout my career, ‘Go to who?’

I have seen great products and ideas that are truly brilliant that only lack one small ingredient, a go to market plan.

Here’s a simple approach and more importantly thoughts and questions I would typically ask at the moment you are ready to go-to-market.

What is a go to market plan?

A go to market plan is a more of an immediate delivery plan. It’s a short term roadmap that is focused on taking the product, service or idea to the target audience in the most effective way.  

Why do I need a go to market Plan when I have a marketing plan?

A marketing plan typically has more of a long term focus compared to a go to market plan which is very short term orientated. So much success in any business in the long term is driven by the foundations and the approach to the very first steps hence it goes without saying that this part of the planning process is one of the most critical.

Typically creating something new generates so much excitement and enthusiasm and this positive energy can often lead us to miss some of the important elements and requirements that are needed when we think we are ready to go.  This is the point of the go to market plan; it  helps you create a short term check-list that will drive execution and delivery and give you a guide on what step comes next for your launch.  

The framework that a go to market plan creates will ensure you have specific goals and milestones that you can track in the early days to ensure you are on track and more importantly will help you to understand and address issues and challenges as they arise early in the journey before they set in and create challenges for the business down the line. 

A go to market strategy is as important to a start-up business as what it is to a mature seasoned company as the principles and pitfalls of delivery are exactly the same for whatever the maturity of the company.

How do I build a go to market plan? 

The process of building a go to market plan does not need to be complex and needs to be simple enough so that you can alter it as you learn more as you start learning and delivery.

Assemble the Data you need.

A great starting point for any go to market plan is to assemble as much data as is practical so as you can use this to validate the idea, service, product etc. with the appropriate facts.  This data can be obtained by research, industry reports, talking to experts in the appropriate area you are working in, competitors and by generally asking as many questions as possible prior to writing your go to market plan.

By using data to answer questions you will eliminate the temptation of answering all the questions yourself and this can be a risk as your ability to remain objective may be challenged because of your emotional attachment.

Assess the feasibility.

It’s imperative to establish as early as possible whether your initiative is feasible and is something that will create enough value in market to potential customers as well as delivering the commercial outcomes you require commercially.

Doing this will give you confidence that has been validated by fact (data) and more importantly will start to give you a broader perspective on some of the key success factors your plan will require. 

Asking questions throughout this phase are critical as they will help you to start validating the ‘value’ that is going to underpin the idea you are putting forward, this will continue to build confidence for you, your organisation and very importantly your investors.

Questions could be clustered by categories or themes:

What is the problem my idea/product is solving?

• What problem does the idea/product solve?

• Why is this problem so important to solve?

• What impact would solving this problem have?

• How does my idea/product help solve this product?

• How does solving the problem help the community more broadly?

Who specifically is your target audience?

• Who are you targeting, specifically?

• What are the characteristics of these targets? Are there similarities?

• Who will make the final decision in purchasing your offering? Are you aiming at targeting a specific level of decision maker (i.e. CFO), or are there multiple points of engagement?

• What pain could you resolve specifically to the potential decision maker b approaching them with your idea/product?

• Is there a broader community or industry body that could benefit from solving this problem and could potentially help you educate your target market to solve this problem? 

What is the demand for your idea/product? 

• Who is already in market trying to solve the same problem that you’ve identified?

• What do your target market think of these alternatives? These alternatives are going to be your competitors so understanding their strengths and weaknesses will be critical to articulating how you are different.

• What would your target market need from your idea/product so as to have their problem completely resolved?

• What barriers exist that would stop your idea/product being used by your target market?

Does your idea/product need any technology for it to work?

If the answer is yes then you’ll need to:

• Establish whether you need to build the technology to drive the product? How much will it cost in both time and finances?

• Once you’ve built the technology how much will  it cost you ongoing?

• Is there an alternative to use someone else’s platform to build your idea/product/ If so what the cost? Is it more or less?

In addition to the above is there any other potential issues, legal obstacles or roadblocks that might need to be factored.

Develop a GTM Blueprint. 

Now that you have established through data and common sense that your idea/product is feasible it’s time to start building your actual plan. The blueprint is aimed at being step by step guide on how you are going to deliver your idea/product to market or to your target audience. You will leverage some of the learnings and insights you gained in the first few steps, however this is now the opportunity to get more detailed as you are now getting ready to launch.

What is your marketing strategy?

• Recap on who is your target market?

• How are your competitors reaching this market (i.e. Social media, search marketing, sales force etc)?

• Who are the customers you are going to target specifically?

• What are their personal goals, their issues and or pains?

• What are their beliefs, personal values, social status, digital competence, income levels, budgets etc?

• Are there any groups and or clusters that become apparent as a result of investigating your customers?

• What are your competitors doing to right now to serve these groups? What is and isn’t working with these competitor strategies?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses that your competitors have?

• How are your competitors communicating with customers through marketing, selling etc?

If you establish that you will have more than one type of customer it will be beneficial for you to create some simple customer personas so that your customer story/value proposition isn’t limiting your potential for reach and growth. Give these persona’s a name so that you can refine them and continue to be focused on understanding them when you are in market.

Map your customer journey.

This is the time to walk in the shoes of your customer from the moment they are exposed to your idea/product  right through all the steps ending in you actually purchasing and then continuing to engage with the company ongoing.

In this phase you are thinking about process, it needs to be as simple as possible. Consider this in the context of your customers and be sure that you can clearly answer the following questions in establishing this process:

• Is your customer aware that they have a problem? If they’re not how will you make them aware?

• Where will the customer need to look to find your product? Are there multiple places that they might look and how can you be sure your product is found?

• How can you stand out from your competitors when they find you?

• Once your customer has made the purchase how can you keep engaging them? Is there an opportunity to use your customer to become an advocate for your idea or product in the future?

Given the different channels and technologies available to customers there will be so many different ways in which they can engage and buy your idea or product.  Mapping every possible touchpoint in as many channels as possible will be critical in understanding the customer journey but will also be important at ensuring there are consistencies and synergies across the entire value stream.

Establish your pricing strategy.

This is typically a great time to engage your financial advisors as the key to long term success will depend on your idea/product being profitable.

Understanding the price point of your competitors, your customer personas, the different pricing strategies that may apply to different types of customer journeys will be essential when you are considering how to process your offering.

You will need to consider the following questions in establishing your pricing framework:

• Is there a one-time cost for your idea/product?

• Is there a cost associated with every time your customer engages your product?

• Is the service ongoing and will you charge a subscription fee?

• Are there multiple variations of your product that mean you might offer the basic elements for free or at a lower cost so as to grow sales?

• Will you offer discounts or promotions to help fund sales?

The value story and how to communicate it.

• What problem are you solving for your customers? How?

• How can you leverage the customers biggest problems to create a gravitation towards your offering? What makes your product stand out from all the others? What language or tone will you use to help you stand out?

• What channels do you ideally to use for communicating this message? (Note: you will need to include this in your commercial and pricing modelling)

• Check that your channels reach as many personas and prospects across the customer journey you mapped out in the earlier phase.

Acquiring customers seamlessly.

This is the opportunity to start converting your idea into sales and as such the first moment where you formally take the idea/product to market.

This seems like the easiest part of the journey however can be the most complex and confusing given the number of avenues and potential channels you have in your go-to-market strategy.

 This is the time to answer the following types of questions:

• Can your idea/product be sold exclusively online?

• Will you need a venue and/or salespeople to sell your idea/product? What type of training will your sales team/s need to sell your idea or product?

• Will you need to establish sales tools to help sell your product (website, software, technical applications, presentations, merchandisers etc)

• How will you measure and report on the various sales channel’s performance, effectiveness, cost?

• How will you talk to customers before and after a successful or unsuccessful conversation so as they remain ‘fans’ or ‘pipeline’ opportunities?

Managing customer service.

The goal of every new idea, product or organisations is to ensure your customers enjoy a magnificent experience. In order to ensure that this ambition is a reality for your idea/product you will need to consider:

• Will you need resources to manage this experience?

• Will you offer customers ongoing communication channels/services to engage with you?

• Will you need to consider producing materials that support your offering? How will you maintain and produce these?

The objective of any process is not to add complexity and this point where you believe you are ready to go it is imperative to ensure you have checked through as many possible scenarios so as you can be confident your idea or product has every chance of being successful.

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Looking to build your own Go To Market strategy? Let us help.

To learn more about how to build a go-to-market strategy for your customers, contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Retail Industry in Australia

Industry Report

Retail Industry in Australia

Consumer Goods Retailing in Australia: Revenues are forecast to grow marginally over the next five years by 1.4%, as consumer goods retailers will continue to face strong competition from pure-play online stores that stock similar items at low prices.

Department Stores in Australia: Revenues are forecast to decline over the next five years by 2.1%, as department store retailers will continue to face strong competition from online stores and the expansion of international retailers.

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CONSUMER GOODS RETAIL Overview

Subdivision revenue is forecast to grow 1.4% over the next five years to $161.2B. Increasing disposable incomes and improvement in the retail trading landscape are projected to support greater demand over the next two years as the economy recovers from COVID-19. Continued advances in technology will also drive demand for a range of technology-based goods. However, big-box retailers, international retail chains and department stores are anticipated to increase competition for specialised retailers.

While this trend is forecast to encourage greater demand from bargain hunters, increasing price-based competition will put pressure on profit margins. The popularity of online shopping is forecast to continue increasing, negatively affecting traditional retailers. The number of subdivision establishments per enterprise is anticipated to rise, as smaller players exit the industry and major players expand strong brands. Industry employment numbers are projected to rise, with firms anticipated to offer improved customer service to better compete with online stores.

Online shopping and auction websites will continue to influence sales across individual product categories. Although price competitiveness is important, choice and convenience are also projected to drive consumers to shop online. In addition, the popularity of smartphones is expected to fuel demand for mobile ecommerce. Growth in the number of consumers opting to use mobile devices for transactions and payments is anticipated to boost online sales. Consumer demand for cosmetics and toiletries, computers and software, and pharmacy goods is projected to grow. Consumer electronics will likely benefit from new products entering the market as a result of constant technological advances.

Cosmetic and toiletry retailers benefit from consumers' ability to inspect and test products in-store, making them better able to compete against online-only retailers. Pharmacies are also projected to perform well. Giant one-stop shops will likely cater to diverse range of consumers, and niche operators will focus on servicing smaller markets. Businesses are anticipated to roll out new formats and concept stores over the period. Operators will focus on lowering the cost of doing business, driven by productivity improvements; enhanced technologies; improved distribution strategies; and more efficient product sourcing. In addition, wage costs are forecast to decline as firms increasingly employ part-time and casual workers.

Department Store RETAIL Overview

Due to rising competition, industry revenue is forecast to decline 2.1% over the five years through 2024-25, to $16.2B. intensifying competition from specialist retailers, online stores and international retailers is projected to constrain revenue growth. Aggressive store expansion strategies of major international clothing labels is also anticipated to present increasing competition.

Existing players are forecast to continue re-evaluating their store footprint and close underperforming stores. This decision will allow players to better reinforce their brand image and grow market share. High competition is anticipated to continue forcing operators to lower prices to attract customers. However, a strong focus on refining supply-chain efficiencies and inventory management is forecast to minimise profit declines.

Department stores are predicted to bypass wholesalers and source products directly from manufacturers in countries with lower manufacturing costs, allowing operators to streamline supply-chain processes and eliminate intermediary costs.

Retailers are forecast to continue investing in staff to differentiate themselves from online competitors, as companies focus on enhancing their customer experience, and making the stores an interactive and unique environment. This is anticipated to place upward pressure on average wages, however, the number of employees per store is forecast to decline, as technological developments reduce the industry's reliance on staff to complete manual tasks.

The increasing popularity of online shopping, especially on overseas websites, is forecast to intensify the competitive pressures. Ongoing cautious consumerism, which is driving the preference for online bargain hunting, is projected to support demand for the goods that foreign retailers sell.

The rapid store expansion of several international players is forecast to significantly change the clothing retail market. Industry operators are projected to face fierce competition from these companies as they have access to significantly larger supply chains that can give them higher quality brand positioning and allow them to offer lower prices.

Resetting your Go-To-Market Strategy during this Pandemic

There isn’t a business in the world, big or small that hasn’t been impacted by the COVID pandemic.

For some the impacts will have been catastrophic, for others they actually have been positive, but for all of us there has been a change and there will continue to be changes both good and bad that we must confront.

The reality is that regardless of where your business finds itself right at this moment, good or bad, you can’t just sit idle, you need to respond to the voice of your customers and to the messages the market is sending you.

The measures businesses on both sides of the impact equation have taken to protect staff, ensuring they are safely working from home, standing up processes that allow this to happen whilst continuing to serve customers, and most importantly ensuring that their mental wellbeing is front of mind has been critical in giving businesses the chance to reset.

Unfortunately, this reset in its own right won’t be enough to ensure that businesses survive or continue to thrive beyond this pandemic.  In order to achieve this your businesses will need to redefine it’s go-to-market strategy to (a) match the market conditions and opportunities right now and (b) to predict what market conditions might look like on the other side.

Here are some thoughts on where you might start and some of the activities that might help you pivot accordingly:

Stay close to your customers

In times of crisis we naturally retreat and seek to protect our own, our staff, our revenues which is natural. Our customers are being impacted as much as we ae and we must continue to engage them to understand what their situation is, not with a view to selling them but with a view to being genuinely customer centric and showing that value is real. Having this frame of reference will help you to continue to engage with your customers through this pandemic with the trust you’ve built over time, empathy and most importantly on their terms. Engaging customers now will only enhance your customer experience, focus on this as a personal activity, not  as a commercial one.

Be clear on the value you deliver to your customers

Now is not the time to sell aggressively, it’s the right time however to reaffirm the reason and purpose for why your company/product exists. Have your sales and marketing team remind you of this narrative, why your company and/or product exists? Remember you exist because there is a problem or a pain point that you are serving in the market that your customers can’t do without. In this current environment your goal is to be so closely connected to your customers that you understand their pain as it stands in this pandemic and more importantly how you and your team can help them solve them. Now more than ever, your customers are looking to be more than just buyers, they want to partner with people who are partners. There is no better time than now to re-assess your sales and GTM process and establish new targets and goals that are helping address the gaps to your customers problems.

Engage your local community

This pandemic has made life hard for every community, they are all suffering from the lack of connection with family, friends and the even the businesses they love. This is the time to support those businesses who are supporting their communities to get through this, do this because you care about these communities not because you are seeking better sales results or higher profits. This is an opportunity for us to be leaders in our actions, to show goodwill, compassion, lend support to our customers without expecting anything in return. Yours customers will become even greater beacons for your brand and or your product and they will become the community champions for you.

It’s clear that there is no definitive timeframe for how long this pandemic will go on, however it is imperative that you can’t just sit in hope.

Adapting your go-to-market strategy to the reality of this pandemic situation is an action that with deliver returns both now and also for the other side.

We are living with the reality in Australia that each state is responding to this pandemic slightly differently and as a consequence we need to ensure that our response is reflective of these variables and the fact that our customers realities and emotions will all be different.

There’s no better time than right now for your business to check in on your go-to-market approach, reaffirm or perhaps even reshape it so as to help you maintain the advantage you have or reignite the values as to why you exist.

Here’s to a post pandemic reality for your business that shines brighter than the reality of yesterday and today.

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Looking to build your own Go To Market strategy?

Let us help. To learn more about how to build a go-to-market strategy for your customers, contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Data Strategy

Data is a valuable resource but often businesses find it challenging to unlock that value, due to the sheer amount of data available - as well as the challenges which come with collecting, organising, interpreting and activating it.

Research shows that 54% of organisations still struggle to provide stakeholders with data that can inform their decisions.

A data strategy can assist businesses with overcoming these challenges and accessing the value of their data while efficiently using their resources.

DATA STRATEGY

• Unlocks the power of your data

• Helps you to harness the volume of data, which is always increasing

• Improves data management across the entire company

• Assists with efficient resource allocation

Decision-Ready Data

Decision-Ready Data is critical to informing business decisions and deciding on strategic direction. However, research shows that although organisations have been building analytics and insight capabilities, over 54% of organisations still struggle to provide stakeholders with data that can actually inform their decisions.

Common Data Quality Challenges include:

Accuracy, comprehensiveness, completeness, centralisation, source of truth.

Common People, Process & Technology Limitations include:

Process design, platform/technology, capacity, agility/execution speed, lack of automation, analytical capability, organisation alignment, prioritisation.

A data strategy can assist businesses with overcoming these challenges and access the value of their data while efficiently using their resources.

Importance of having a Data Strategy

1. Data Strategy Helps Unlock the Power of Data

2. Volume of Data Is Increasing - 90% of the data in the world became available in the last 3 years.

3. Data Strategy Improves Data Management Across the Entire Organisation

4. Data Strategy Helps You Use Resources Efficiently

Data strategy is a central, integrated concept that articulates how data will enable and inspire business strategy.

Essential Data Strategy Principles

Integrating Data and Eliminating Silos

• Makes data more accessible and fosters collaboration between different departments

• Helps people get data more efficiently and can enable new data-driven projects

Streamlining Data Collection and Sharing

• Having established procedures means you can collect more data more efficiently, and that the data you collect will likely be higher-quality

• It also keeps your information consistent and well-organised, which makes it easier to use and helps you derive value from it

Setting Clear Goals and Objectives for Data Management and Use

• Your goals will drive your data strategy and activities and help you improve how you handle data

Making Data More Visible and Accessible

• It’s crucial that you find a way to store data so people can quickly find and access the information they need without having to create copies of it themselves.

Making Data More Actionable and Easily Shared

• Putting your data in a consistent, usable format will reduce the number of steps employees need to take before they can use it and make it easy to share within the company

Establishing Clear Processes for Data Management – Data Governance Model

• Data governance refers to setting rules and standards for how individuals and groups within an organisation manage data. The goal of data governance is to make data easier to access, use and share to achieve broach broader business goals

• The key goals of a governance model should be clearly defined to ensure success:

  ⊹ Avoid siloed decision-making

  ⊹ Use synergies between business units to improve data assets

  ⊹ Provide business units with support and resources to prioritise data challenges resolution

  ⊹ Support the management of key initiatives across business units

Establishing Guidelines for Data Analysis and Application

• Define guidelines for how employees should analyse and use data

Cakes & Pastry Manufacturing in Australia

Industry Report

Cakes & Pastry Manufacturing in Australia

The industry is forecast to grow marginally over the next five years by 0.8% . Volatile input prices and strong external competition have been challenging for industry operators.

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OVERVIEW

Over the next five years, industry players are expected to face challenging operating conditions due to increasing competitive pressures and changing food consumption trends. In response, operators will have to innovate new products and meet changing dietary and lifestyle trends.

Health and nutritional concerns are anticipated to drive consumption choices, while trends in product convenience, durability and portability will also be important.

Operators will need to cultivate relationships with customers in alternative distribution channels, to offset many consumers moving away from traditional pre-packaged cakes and meat pies. These new markets, product line extensions and higher priced premium products will contribute to projected industry revenue growth.

Profit margins are forecasted to be constrained by Input costs, rising development costs associated with introducing innovative foods and Intensifying competition from instore supermarket bakeries and hot bread shops.

Higher spending on product innovation, advertising and marketing is anticipated to partially offset gains from production efficiencies. However, an increased focus on higher margin functional foods will likely help offset some of these pressures on profitability. Additionally, a focus on high-priced premium products will likely help operators deal with increasing competition from private-label products.

Imported products will represent another competitive threat, with imports forecast to account for just over one-third of domestic demand in 2025. 

Due to these trends, industry restructuring will likely continue over the next five years and key players could change hands.

Due to intensifying competition, both industry establishment and employment numbers are projected to decline over the next five years. 

This pandemic has changed the way we serve our customers for ever; or has it?

Is that the sound of the end of the night out at the movies? Will any of us ever dare dream of heading to the gym again? Listening to the doom and gloom in this unprecedented time would have us believe that we are witnessing the end of any type of physical engagement with products or services?

The question is that whilst at this moment, customer experience might be suspended do you care enough to start transforming your customers now so that you don’t disconnect in this period of hiatus?

Sometime in recent years it became the height of modernity to have strangers sleep in your bed when you weren’t there or to sit next to you as you drove from one city to another. It felt futuristic to mention that the gym you went to was because you had a membership that allowed you to go anywhere, anytime. It was cool to catch a movie with your partner, order the meal online and be wined and dined in-front of the big screen. This movement was called the sharing economy and it relied upon certain widely held assumptions, such as that it is fine to be near other people and that it is alright to touch what they have touched what they touched, it was also enabled by clever technology and customer experience strategies.

In this age of pandemic anxiety, these assumptions have all but evaporated. The sharing, or peer-to-peer, economy was meant to represent the commerce of the future, the perfect fusion of technology and reality. That destiny now looks shaky at best. What will happen to Fitness First, to the Gold class movie experience, dating apps? What will become of the start-ups enabling us to monetise our health, our travel, our spare time? And, beyond the brands themselves, what will happen to the people who were making some or all of their income from these platforms?

Is life as we know it, over?

Given we have moved beyond bunkering in to wondering what we should do to safeguard tomorrow?

The immediate future for most businesses will surely involve some kind of grey area between house arrest and a version of pre-pandemic freedom. Lockdowns and physical distancing will be escalated and de-escalated by the government like the gears in a car.

Some businesses might suffer greatly in full lockdown but then thrive when movement is even slightly freer if they chose to face into their reality now and see this as an opportunity to improve or transform to tomorrow. I believe that when we open up, demand will be robust because people will be overjoyed to be liberated and if they can afford it, will indulge.

Most expect there to be a post-pandemic behavioural shift. We can expect for example that there will be a new normal around physical distancing. Employees I’m certain will be eager to return to work, but there will need to be a rethink of the workplace and of engagement to incorporate working from home and working from the office.

We will most certainly go back to the gym, maybe even venture out to dinner or to the movies but that too will be different, it will be defined by a new normal one that business must create and start engaging their customers on today. It will be defined by those who have a clear strategy for speaking to their customers now, sharing with them their thoughts and listening to the hopes and dreams of those they serve.

In order to assess the future of your business, it’s worth reflecting on the customers you serve and what might change for them?

The truth is that the future is likely to change in terms of the way we engage, our customers priorities might shift or their needs may be slightly different?

Make no mistake, the value shift towards an even more customer centric and   social consciousness will only continue – and part of that is a big vote for the value your organisation places on the customer versus your own needs. The idea that this is the way we’ve done and it’s the way we’ll always do it was radically shifted forever when we pivoted to the sharing economy. Who would have ever dreamed that I could book my car as I was having my coffee and not worry about trying to hail a cab? By providing customers with communications and strategies on how your organisation intends to serve their needs post this pandemic is something you should be working on now.

It’s always been about the customer right, that’s what we all tell ourselves and now that in some industries we are in a position that we can’t serve them we’ve stopped leveraging the time we have to continue talking to them, or have we?

Whatever happens with this pandemic, however long it takes to get to a better place, the sheer force of the technologies that are available to everyone will ensure that those who have a clear line of sight of their customers will most definitely be ready to go again.

It’s conceivable that the new world order may be different, however be clear that most of the underlying principles around customer experience will remain the same.

If nothing else, make this the moment that belongs to someone else, the customers you serve?

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Looking to build your own Go To Market strategy?

Let us help. To learn more about how to build a go-to-market strategy for your customers, contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Strategy to Execution

According to Gartner’s research (Strategy Execution Change Model Survey in 2019), only 46% of Executives and Managers felt their efforts were aligned to strategy.

There are 4 key building blocks to guide the process of strategy to execution:

#1

Market & Industry Trends

#3

Build the Plan

#2

Company Strategy

#4

Manage Performance

STRATEGY BUILDING BLOCKS

The Key Initiatives UNPACKED

What & Why?

The first two building blocks are part of identifying the strategic plan – what and why?

1. Market and industry trends – this is where you begin to address the strategic questions; understand key trends for the market, industry, economy, people and workforce.

2. Company’s strategy – this is where you articulate your goals. Define your mission/purpose to explain the reason for your existence; your core values that your foundations are built upon; your vision of what you want to be; where you have a competitive advantage; your key areas of focus; long term objectives and financial outlook.

Who, Where, When & How?

The following two building blocks focus on implementing the strategy – who, where, when and how?

1. Build the plan – this is where you align the company’s ways of working to support the strategy. Identify your company goals; understand the required capability and how to build this within your organisation; determine the metrics that will measure your success; build a budget that supports your strategy; understand your regulatory obligations; identify any risks and build out your initiatives ensuring they complement your strategy.

2. Manage performance – in order to measure your success you need to undertake regular performance reviews; evaluate the performance of your key metrics and your initiative program of work so that you are able to respond/pivot if required in order to keep to your strategic objectives; monitor any risks, challenges, issues to ensure your execution plan remains on track.

Source: 2019 Gartner Strategy Execution Change Model Survey

Private Equity in Australia

Industry Report

Private Equity in Australia

Although Private Equity revenue is forecast to decline 3.5% in 2020-2021 due to COVID-19 disruptions, it is projected to grow 2.6% over the years through to 2025-26 to $725.3m.

Private equity firms are responsible for investment management in private companies. They may invest their own capital and/or raise funds from external investors to invest on their behalf. Generally an investment period is 4-5 years, during which they commit resources to maximising the company’s enterprise value, before selling it for a capital gain.

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OVERVIEW

Over the years, successful industry players have built their market share based on their reputation to raise larger pools of funds. Market share is based on the size of funds managed by each of its participants. Assets are more indicative of the investment power and size of a fund, and therefore better reflect the size of a private equity firm relative to its competitors.

The industry’s life cycle is in Growth phase. The industry is growing faster than the overall economy, increases in superannuation are flowing through to private equity, boosting funds under management; and sectors such as technology and health (candidates for early-stage investment) are growing.

The pressure for Private Equity firms to achieve profitable returns is critical, even more so in today’s economic environment. In order to be certain they can achieve consistent returns in the fund they must focus on purchasing the investment at the right price and focusing on accelerating value creation initiatives to ensure that they can sell at a significant increase in multiple.

Value Creation in the Private Equity Industry

Private Equity firms must have a clearly defined playbook which contains value creation initiatives to support the investment thesis. This provides an advantage in knowing what to pay and the level of risk. The playbook should be refreshed and prioritised for each investment. An asset’s full potential is realised through a holistic approach that explores optimising operational performance, enhancing strategic capabilities and effective capital management. The efficient use of capital is also a critical component of valuing an asset’s full potential. Capital deployment is an important foundation to support strategic and operational initiatives.

What gets measured gets done

If it’s not part of your KPIs it’s probably not worth measuring. Most of us have heard the phrase ‘what measures gets done’. Sounds simple right? But when it comes to measuring what matters, it gets a bit tricker.

There are many organisations that aren’t clear on what they should be measuring. An easy way to address this is by using my KPI scorecard – see the breakdown below.

Alignment to strategy

Ensure the metrics being measured align with your organisation’s strategy.  For example, if you’re measuring organic traffic to your website but your strategy is all about driving leads via performance advertising, then this should be your first focus. Every KPI should have a measurable lead indicator. Sure, you can measure outside of this, but put your KPI measurements first and ensure they are adequately resourced before looking at anything else.

Set targets

For each of the key metrics, set targets that are a stretch by achievable.  These targets should align to a financial year; end of year target and monthly profile to deliver the end of year metric. 

Look at your baseline for last fin year and then consider the environment you’re operating in now and what kind of % increase you think can realistically be achieved. Talk to the relevant experts in the business and ask them to help form a plausible growth scenario. 

Regular measurement

When selecting what data outputs you’ll be measuring, get picky.

There should be no more than 20 key metrics that a business reviews and measures each week. For metrics that aren’t performing; a detailed plan should be prepared for the next month to get the metric back on track.

Refresh your metrics

Sticking to the same strategy all year isn’t always realistic. The beauty of measuring strategic outcomes each month allows for real time business decisions. This informed angle, means you can confidently pivot when necessary. If this is the case, update your metrics to align with these changes. And don’t forget to clearly document these changes and communicate them to the wider team. Especially those who are managing measurement.

Top Tip

It’s important to note; while financial metrics are critical, non-financial metrics are also key drivers, working to align the overall vision and values of the organisation.

Stop your reporting

Once you’ve sorted your KPI scorecard, it’s time to take a step back. Most organisations have so much reporting that it doesn’t get reviewed or given the attention needed to make it valuable. This is a common problem and can also make the task of analysing data end up in the ‘too hard basket’.

So stop. Now that you have a clear idea of what you should be focussing on, everything else is just clutter. Put in place one weekly dashboard of the top 20 metrics that align to the business objectives.  Provide performance and commentary for how each of the metrics are tracking. If you have a clear view on these, you’re much better off than measuring more but not reporting accurately. 

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Need a starting point?

Whiteark can help. We have a network of experts with practical experience implementing metrics measurements that matter to organisations.

Whether it’s advice or hands-on assistance, the Whiteark team are your go-to for valuable data analysis.  Contact whiteark@whiteark.com.au or call +61 459 826 221 to discuss.

Get hooked on data

You don’t need to be a big fish to make the most of your data. You just have to start somewhere.

If you’ve read a few of my articles, you’ll know I’m passionate about the importance of data and analytics to drive good business decisions both strategic and operational.  Not everyone is doing this, which means there are lots of exciting opportunities for many businesses to unlock. 

Knowledge is power

The organisations that have mastered data analysis have reaped the benefits. Just look at the big players like Netflix and Amazon. Their ability to meet the viewing and buying needs of their many audiences has propelled them into household names. But you don’t need to be a big fish to make the most of your data. You just have to start somewhere.

The 80/20 rule

This rule is relevant for data, analytics and insights. You don’t need to have all the data and the data doesn’t need to be perfectly clean, but it’s imperative you use what you have to take a step in the right direction.

From my experience the following are practical steps to start enhancing your data, analytics and insights capability easily.

Practical steps you can use

Seek out the people in your organisation who are interested in data and analytics.

Normally you will find them in finance or IT.

Give these individuals or teams a specific question to answer each week.

For example – tell me more about the customers that are leaving us:

• Profile

• Demographics

• How long have they been a customer

• Claims history

• Payment/credit history

• Customer service complaints/customer experience scores 

Get them to present this to the relevant Executive.

Ask them to detail what they’ve learnt and what would they do differently.

Now it’s time to think about your data strategy

As you start to build momentum, write a list of all the strategic and operational questions you want to answer.  This should create a pipeline of questions that can be investigated leading to recommendations to the Executives on how these insights should change strategy and operations. 

The changes should then be tracked and monitored through your regular key metrics reporting to understand how these shifts have positively impacted business results.

Need a data champion to kick things off?

From finding the data champions within your business, to identifying the key data outputs best suited to help your business grow into a smarter, stronger operator, reach out to me. My expert experience, passion for data analytics and team of data and marketing professionals may be just the kick-start your company needs to grow with data.

Software Publishing in Australia

Industry Report

Software Publishing in Australia

The Software Publishing industry in Australia is expected to grow +9.4% in the years 2020-2025. Primary activities of Software Publishers: funding software development, developing computer software for mass production, distributing computer software and software marketing.

Note: this industry report only contains players that develop software locally in Australia

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OVERVIEW

With tech constantly evolving, the industry is expected to continue to grow. The demand for industry services is forecast to surge post the recovery of COVID-19 as businesses are likely to expand their remote working capabilities.

Businesses are anticipated to expand their current software solutions in-line with the growing reliance on cloud computing and other tech advances, placing increased pressure on businesses to upgrade their software to maintain efficient business operations.

Larger players' profit margins are likely to grow, as they build economies of scale and leverage their reputations to charge higher prices. Employment is forecast to increase as publishers require more staff to meet demands for developing and maintaining current and new applications. However, the number of businesses in the industry is anticipated to decline as rising regulations raise the industry's barriers to entry.

Trees that deliver outcomes

Driver trees help support growth and demonstrate how each business function can contribute to success.

It’s possible I am showing my age with this article, but I love driver trees!

Also known as KPI trees, every time I go into a business I build myself one of these. It helps to support growth and demonstrate how each business function can contribute to the success of the business.

Here’s a rundown.

What can a driver tree deliver?

Understanding the key drivers in the business results in the following benefits:

• A better P&L result

• A clear view of the metrics you need to measure

• Visibility of where material value is derived

• Understanding the sensitivity a lever movement has on P&L result.

• Executing strategy and helping you prioritise

When building a driver tree, my advice is simple:

Don’t overcomplicate things – just keep it really simple. What drives value in the business? This is what you want all teams in the business to be focussed on.

Be clear on what this value is – P&L result, number of members, value to members?  Value is different for all companies, so defining this upfront is imperative as it will drive the overall levers.

Decide what levers will deliver your desired outcome – confirm can it be measured – if it can’t, it can’t be a lever.

Highlight levers that are easy to pivot on – no matter how well versed you are in business, no one has all the answers. So starting off with levers that are easy to change gives you an opportunity to test what works.

Highlight the levers that are difficult to change – get ahead of the eight ball and work out a strategy that will allow you to have some flex in this space if necessary.

Measurement is power – using the concept of measuring what matters that I spoke about last week will help your business choose levers that are easier to action, give you a clear understanding of what’s working and what’s not and, most importantly, can be embraced and developed by your team.

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If you’d like to us to share more detail on just how beneficial drivers trees can be to supporting your current strategy let us know and we will gladly send you a sample driver tree that you can manipulate in your context to help drive success.

Our team at Whiteark consists of a network of experts who work with businesses to map their value drivers and identify areas to drive an improved outcome.  Whether you’d like advice on building a driver tree, or for hands-on help, we’re here. Get in touch on whiteark@whiteark.com.au.

More data equals more opportunity?

A good data strategy will help you look at your business to identify outputs that will help you deliver.

More data, more opportunity
In 2020 we’re in an amazing position to understand our customers and business functions like never before. And it all comes down to the sheer volume of data at our fingertips.

It starts with strategy
Whether it’s via cash flow reporting or CRM segmentation, every organisation holds a significant amount of customer, member, consumer and employee data. But analysing this can seem like a giant task. Where to start? What’s important and what’s not? That’s where a data strategy comes into play.

Which data matters most?
A data strategy will look at your business objectives then explore data outputs that will help you achieve these. For example, if you’re moving away from a product led approach to a more customer focused organisation, data based on your key customer segments - which are growing, which are profitable and how to mobilise the organisation around this, will form the basis of your data strategy. If, on the other hand, your business strategy is focussed around transitioning from an office based salesforce to a mobile model, important data outputs could include facilities and cost driver analysis.

A clear focus cuts through data clutter
So to get it right, you need to start from the beginning. Once you can define your business strategy, you can define the data points you should be exploring and how to utilise this data to understand and then change the way you drive your business.

Data strategy health check
At a top level, you can get a clear idea if you’re using data effectively by answering the following questions. If you’re unsure, you may need a hand with your data strategy.

• What products/services are profitable?

• What customers are profitable?

• What customers are likely to leave you?

• What is the profitability of your business units?

An accurate understanding of these questions leads to:

• Improved customer experience

• A more tailored customer approach, ultimately results in higher revenue

• An ability to optimise the cost base

• Utilise your spend data to understand, forecast and optimise the costs in the organisation

• Increased productivity across the value chain

• Improve the sales and service approach to drive efficiency in key business processes.

Bringing in a data expert

Data is measurable and accountable, allowing you to optimise your strategy and operations through real insights and clear direction. It can just be a bit of a handful to determine what data you should be investigating and how. If you need advice on where to start reach out to Jo Hands or an expert from our data team on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Staying on Track & Leading Through Covid-19

On the surface working from home sounds pretty good. Not so much when it’s all day, every day.

Leading your team through COVID is a real challenge and requires the leader to demonstrate genuine compassion and ability to communicate.

Here are some simple tips from the Whiteark team that might help…..

How to turn Ground Hog Day into a normal(ish) day

On the surface working from home sounds pretty good. Not so much when it’s all day, every day. There’s no water cooler relief, no Friday lunches, no direct contact. This can take its toll. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways alleviate WFH fatigue. Here are my top picks. Not surprisingly – they’re all centred on communication.

Keep your team on track

Set priorities and expectations of roles and keep your team accountable. A robust performance appraisal process with measurable KPI’s will help – bear in mind these may need to be adjusted. Accountability keeps the momentum going and ensures your team feels purpose and doesn’t drift off into a WFH abyss.

Make yourself available

Frequent one-on-ones are extremely important. This helps your team feel valued and ensures they know that you know how hard they are working. It gives them a chance to gain your confidence and have a meaningful conversation that can’t be achieved via Slack, email or in a group meeting. Connections like this are so important when we’re operating in a vacuum.

Think carefully about team catch-ups

It’s a fine line balancing the need for open communication vs too much of it. What used to be an informal convo within your team’s pod, is now usually a formalised online catch up. This can cause meeting fatigue and get in the way of productivity. Try to think strategically about meetings. Could one meeting be a 15 minute extension of another? Could your weekly 1.5 hour WIP change to fortnightly with 15 minute morning stand-ups as a substitute?

What does your team need to know?

Right now, people are super sensitive about their job security, so it is important to create a sense of inclusiveness and transparency. As a business owner or executive manager you’re privy to regular business updates. It’s important any nonsensitive business movement is also shared with your teams. Whether they agree with the updates or not, it makes them feel connected to the business.

Stay true to your values and culture

Core values inform and reinforce your company’s culture, strategic direction, recruitment processes and how you interact with your customers and clients. In times of uncertainty it’s very important to identify and reinforce these values to your staff. This provides an anchor to work from and demonstrates the business is on track, strong and stable.

Culture club

For employees to successfully adapt to this new style of working, they need to feel valued within their role. This equals more than a regular check in. It’s also about the broader team culture. You want this to be supportive, empathetic, inclusive, collaborative, proactive and encouraging initiative. Use team forums to highlight employees who have done a great job. Try to give everyone an opportunity to shine. Spread the praise. Don’t forget about the wall flowers.

Be authentic, not perfect

While you’re expected to play a strong leadership role, you also need to empathise with your teams’ challenges. This means you might need to relax a little and expose some of your own vulnerabilities. When running your one-on-ones think about what it means to really listen and care. Answer questions and provide reassurance on work and/or personal issues.

Get your team smiling

This is so important. There are plenty of ways to crack a grin – team quizzes, virtual drinks, step challenges, exercise time-outs, cooking challenges – ask the team what works for them. Try different formats or a mix. Just make sure you have regular time booked each week, where the conversation has nothing to do with work. It’s about relaxing and connecting as a team.

The buck stops with you

As you can see there are many small ways you can make a big difference to your team’s experience while working from home. Not only do these practices help them perform as happy, high functioning, individuals, it will also create a strong, united group – and that’s exactly what you need to do your job.

What's your story?

Stories make your business relatable and more importantly make you stand out from the crowd.

Data alone can be overwhelming for some people being walked through presentations, reading articles, and listening to interviews. Stories instead, engage hearts and minds and allow watchers, readers and listeners to relax into the moment.

Every great sale starts with a great story

In today’s competitive market offering a standout product or service isn’t enough. Every one of your competitors are trying to make more noise than you. But it’s not always noise that cuts through. It’s your story. Stories teach us about life and help us appreciate others and their different perspectives. A great story humanises a brand, allowing customers to feel some kind of connection and understanding. But crafting that story can be hard, especially when you’re so immersed in the detail.

Here are some tangible actions and questions to help clarify what you do and why, and to ultimately tell your business’s story in a genuine and engaging way.

Why do you exist?

When you decided to start your business there was story that went with it. This could have been related to a commercial problem you wanted to solve or for some personal reason. Revisit ‘why’ you exist and remind every member of your team, your customers and whoever will listen. This will deliver a holistic view of the background to your passion and why your purpose matters so much.

Stories make your business relatable and more importantly articulate the problem your product or service is trying to solve for them. To be authentic the story must have context for the audience otherwise it becomes a sermon and you’re back to old school selling by telling.

Action: Write down why you started doing what you do and why it matters?

How does your story silence your competitors?

Your customers, like you, are exposed to many narratives and messages, so having a story that will elevate your company from the rest is so important. It gives you an edge and more importantly ensures your customers’ choice becomes an emotional one.

Action: Check that your marketing messages reinforce the story of why you do what you do. Create consistency across your social media, website and employee sales collateral. Your story should be everywhere!

Your staff are your story tellers

Ensuring your staff understand the reason why you exist is important. They also need to be clear on their role and importance in the story. Put simply, if they believe and connect your story’s meaning for themselves, their motivation will naturally resonate when they share that with customers.

Action: Ask your staff to share their pitch of your story? Is it compelling?

Customers that care are the best ones

Your story is a chance to create an emotional connection and perhaps even make customers feel good about a particular problem or opportunity they may have. If you want someone to trust you with their hard earned dollars you need to engage in a way that entices understanding and meaning.

Action: How does my story help customers feel good or solve a problem?

Stories drive choices

There’s a gap in the market when it comes to businesses sharing their own unique, organic, human stories to drive a connection with customers on an emotional level. This is one of the key reasons we started Whiteark.

Stories give us life and your brand deserves the most awesome story ever.

I hope you have some fun creating your story, there’s no time like now…

Digital Transformation. Are you ready?

You can’t afford to wait for this pandemic to be over, so what are you doing to future proof now.

People have an amazing capacity to forget. To revert to their old behaviours. And that might have been the case if COVID had come and gone quickly. But it’s not going anywhere, and we all know by now - this time it’s going to be different.

The question on everyone’s minds is not ‘when will this be over?’, it’s ‘what will the new normal look like?’

As business leaders, however, we don’t have the luxury of being able to sit on the sidelines and watch. We need to anticipate the market. Analyse data and look into the future. Of course nobody knows for sure what the ‘new normal’ will look like, but it doesn’t mean we can’t prepare nonetheless.

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

— Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

What’s apparent all around us, however, is that the already-fast digital transformation of organisations, has accelerated to a furious pace.

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B2B

In the B2B space adoption of zoom, teams, slack, trello, webex and other digital tools has gone through the roof. And in the background of all that, there are projects frantically going on to protect the security of a dispersed workforce, and to move instantly redundant legacy systems to the cloud.

B2C

In the B2C space the changes are even more obvious, and they happened immediately. If you didn’t have an effective online presence before, you’ve either been playing catch-up, or you’re already out of business. What people have been buying has changed too.

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McKinsey surveyed consumer sentiment and behaviour across 45 countries, and on 8th July published their results*. One of the consistent themes, worldwide, was a shift to more mindful shopping. In the US, for example, 31% of people surveyed are changing to less expensive products to save money, and 21% are researching the brand, and product before making a purchase.

And they’re not researching those brands standing in aisle 7 with a mask on. They’re at home, searching online and then getting their groceries delivered to the door.

And that kind of capability doesn’t just happen overnight. So the businesses that were prepared, and ready for the world to go digital have not only survived, they’ve thrived.

To gain a little insight into Australian organisations’ digital preparedness for COVID, we spoke to Rube Sayed, General Manager of a Sydney-based Managed IT Services company, Datcom Cloud.

“For some of our clients it was a seamless transition. They were already 100% in the cloud. Phone, apps, security all in place – and they just got on with it. For many, however, they had to rush through projects that would normally take a year or so, into months. We’ve had to expand our workforce by about 20% to deal with it all.”

— Jo Hands, Director Whiteark

So while you might need a crystal ball to know what’s going to happen in the future (in 2020 – who can tell) you certainly don’t need one to be prepared.

If there’s a digital transformation project you still haven’t gotten around to yet.

Don’t wait. Give me call, or reach out on LinkedIn. And I can help.

As the saying goes, you don’t just stumble across luck, it’s what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

So ask yourself, are you just ready? Or are you COVID-Ready…..

* McKinsey Ref: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/a-global-view-of-how-consumer-behavior-is-changing-amid-covid-19#