SUSTAINABILITY
“ A couple of years ago I went to the Consumer Electronics Shows in Vegas and no matter which manufacturer I looked at , from 20 companies from China and from India that I ’ ve never heard of to Apple , Sony and Samsung , everyone ’ s products looked spectacular . All of a sudden , even the cheapest products looked incredibly stylish . Now , if you don ’ t look good , most consumers are not going to read the product specs to find out what ’ s inside . They ’ ll make a snap decision and if you don ’ t look good , you can ’ t fix it .”
Another trap that manufacturers have to avoid falling into is having too myopic a viewpoint . If you are Coca-Cola , don ’ t just look at Pepsi as your major competitor or you could fall off the pace . With so much choice out there now , every soft drink manufacturer is a competitor .
Blackberry is a prime example of a company which has suffered from being too tunnel-visioned in its approach . The Canadian smartphone provider did help to drive the boom in smartphone pervasion , but staunchly believed that consumers would never
“ You have to make sure that whatever product you go into , the benefit of your brand is still delivered ”
– Allen Adamson , Co-Founder at Metaforce
move away from using a keyboard .
The entire management team was convinced that the iPhone and touchscreens were a toy that kids would be playing with , but that any serious person typing out messages for business would never give up their keyboard . This undiversified view was why Apple and other competitors were able to steal a march and ratchet up their market share .
70 May 2018