The Leading Edge - Fall 2008 - (Page 7)

the core brands that drive growth and profitability. Rethink product design, ingredients and packaging. By working together, retailers can share their insight and experience into what consumers are attracted to and want. Cost implications of packaging and ingredient counts or new formulas all can be considered. Enhance the effectiveness of trade promotions spending. Again, if retailers and manufacturers are talking, manufacturers can learn which trade promotions worked and which ones didn’t based on point-of-sale data and studies of promotional events. Green for green City Harvest gets hit from both sides in challenging economic times. Currently, it helps more than 260,000 hungry New Yorkers find their next meal each week. But that number could grow as people struggle to make ends meet. On the other side, City Harvest, a nonprofit organization that relies on transportation to help feed those people, must battle the rising cost of fuel. Already a group whose motto is “waste not,” City Harvest searched for ways to save money and be environmentally conscious. This past summer, the organization began using three custom-built bicycles to pick up and deliver food around New York City. It also put four state-of-the-art, first-in-the-nation hybrid trucks into service. “These trucks are amazing,” says Melanie CroseGalis of City Harvest. “They keep the refrigerated part operating by storing energy from the engine—so no need to keep the truck idling to keep things cold. “Our drivers are now refueling every three to four days as opposed to every one to two days. The fuel savings allows us to pick up more food, more efficiently.” It’s all a game of ‘know’ S trategic growth consulting firm Jump Associates offers five tips to help companies grow success over the next year and beyond. 1. Know yourself. Play to your and the company’s strengths. In tough times, there is no margin for error—you can’t waste time, money or talent to become something your organization is not. Look at what you have and deploy it to your best advantage. 2. Know your customers. When times are hard, people stand by companies that go the extra mile to understand what is happening in their lives and help them find solutions to their problems. Develop or deepen your customer empathy through grassroots outreach and emotional insights research, as well as co-creating products and services with ordinary people. 3. Know your strategy. Constraints provide focus and increase creativity. Contrary to popular belief, the most successful innovations almost always come from negotiating competing constraints—not from blue-sky brainstorms. Uncertain market conditions call for strategies that provide both clear direction and room for experimentation. 4. Know what you don’t know. Build rapid learning and adaptation into your processes. Add innovation tools to your toolkit that support rapid testing, evaluation and adaptation such as discovery-driven planning, opportunity mapping and new product/service roadmaps, which are specifically geared for finding success in uncertain environments. 5. Know how to lead. Hard times call for courageous leadership. When times are tough, people can get scared. Companies can react instinctively and abruptly, trying to eliminate risk and variability. A leader with vision counters these tendencies by using uncertain conditions to drive big change. Devise unconventional organizational structures, incentive systems and metrics to keep your teams on track and help them succeed. Bring these successful practices the into core organization and guide the whole company’s direction. Survive and thrive Chang of Phoenix Marketing Communications says going green related to energy costs can be a great longterm savings. But there are short-term steps companies can take as well. She suggests companies review all their vendor contracts, from business services to software to office rental and equipment leasing. “You need to analyze whether it’s necessary and renegotiate terms, including pricing,” Chang says. It is possible to survive tough economic times in a way that ultimately can help the business thrive, she says. Brodsky agrees. “Downturns present opportunities for new business,” he says. “Remember—those who persevere, win.” e ThE LEadIng EdgE 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Leading Edge - Fall 2008

The Leading Edge - Fall 2008 Contents Sculpt Your Business to Survive and Thrive Protect Intellectual Property Outside the United States Complaints about Meetings? The Leading Edge Alliance Top 10 Misconceptions of Doing Business in Belgium In a Nutshell: Q&A

The Leading Edge - Fall 2008

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