TechnoBrands

In this second installment of the series I want to first provide some background on the Sun Tzu references I am using. The first is “The Art of War” edited and with a forward by James Clavell, and the second is a highly respected translation titled “The Art of War Plus – The Ancient Chinese Revealed” by Gary Gagliardi. For a quick read of Sun Tzu strategy you may enjoy the James Clavell version (especially if you are fan of Clavell’s other work such as Shogun, Tai Pan and King Rat). It is easy to read and you will certainly get the essence of The Art of War. If you desire an in-depth analysis along with a reproduction of the original Chinese characters and their translation then the Gagliardi book is definitely worthwhile. There is also an excellent explanation of guidelines used to get from the Chinese characters to a readable English text, and of the context of the translation (interesting to note that this book won the 2003 Independent Publisher’s award in the category of Multicultural Non-Fiction – nice work Mr. Gagliardi).

Planning An Attack

“Supreme excellence lies in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The perfect victory is when a general tells the enemy “put down your weapons and submit”, to which the enemy responds by laying down their weapons without a shot being fired. Apple Inc. says to the world “here is an iPod – download songs from iTunes and be groovy” and the consuming public complies, and is satisfied paying $0.99 per song to fill up their new 2,000-plus song portable entertainment devices. Ka-ching!

The Apple iPod phenomenon is a great example of the battle being won without a shot being fired. Consider what it took to create the success of the iPod and iTunes (the two products resemble the Taoist “yin and yang” in their integration). Apple didn’t invent portability – you may recall the Sony Walkman (That is, if you remember cassette tapes. They were the technology craze just before CDs). Apple doesn’t even have any signed artists on staff (well, actually iTunes has started marketing some music that is exclusively available only on iTunes). I think the root of Apples success is that they took the time to understand what people are seeking to get from a portable music product. A simple extension of that understanding is determining what people are willing to pay for. Having this knowledge allowed Apple to then design a product (relatively quickly) which met the market needs and which empowered people with personal entertainment devices and the capability to easily find, download and categorize the soundtrack to their lives.

The Apple iPod phenomenon is pure marketing genius. It is also one of the best examples of what Sun Tzu teaches with respect to true victory without having to shed blood.

Positioning

“Learn from the history of successful battles. Your first actions should deny victory to the enemy.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I recently attended a gathering of product managers which was convened after the most recent slips in the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. The tone around the table was one of concern and uncertainty, but all were in agreement that the smartest money was being invested in market extension of existing products and not in new product development. Understanding the customer problem better, in order to uncover opportunities for product extension and re-packaging of existing products makes more sense in troubled economic times than taking a chance on development of a new product.

I’m not knocking new product development – one of the reasons I migrated to product management is because I’m passionate about products (especially technology-based products, and the cool things they do for people). The general wisdom I am hearing from colleagues, however, is that given a choice between developing something from scratch or investing in expanding the addressable market for a product that already exists, the smart thing to do is go with the existing product and try to squeeze more value out of it. If you are already on the path of doing a new product and you need to choose the best marketing approach in a tight economy, then be well advised to stick with the tried-and-true strategy of focusing on a niche market that is easy to access and which exhibits an obvious (and easily understood) pain point. Empower your sales force to go after the low hanging fruit – with a lack of readily available working capital you just can’t count on having enough asphalt available to keep paving the end of your runway. This doesn’t mean that you have to be sales driven, but you do have to be disciplined. Your sales resources can’t chase every opportunity for a sale, but enabling them with focus and a keen understanding of your market will lead your team to say no the wrong sales, and yes to a steadily growing backlog of good sales.

Getting back to product management basics will lay a foundation for defending your existing market position and will also allow you to recognize the right opportunities when they arise. The product manager must stay focused and resist being dragged into either creating the solution (that is the designers job) or closing the sale (that is the job of sales). The product manager must understand the customer and market problem, and must be able to communicate that problem clearly to the designers. In this way, the ranks of your product management army are most effective – all parts of the machine working together to create victory.