Tag: Technology

Time and Technology

We live in a world where technology and science progress at an ever increasing rate.  It was probably millennia before man progressed to create the wheel. Life in the middle ages was not too different to life in Roman times. Yet today rarely a day goes by without a what once would have been considered a major scientific discovery.  Accelerating technological advancement has become the norm.  Progress affects commerce.  progress affect your business. So you have to be aware and plan for technological change.

There are plenty of examples of businesses ignoring technological change.  The big music retail chains ignored music streaming.  VHS rental became a thing of the past.  Kodak invented the digital camera sensor but then allowed others to develop the digital camera as they focused on film rolls.

Time affects many business resources: manpower, finance, raw materials, knowledge.  The trio of money, quality and time dominate.  To implement the quality demanded by those in the marketplace is often a factor of money and time.

Quality often relies on the available time to market and the technology needed to deliver that quality.  Technology includes the actual features of a product but the support functions used to produce that product.

You also have to consider the lifecycle of a market.  Over time markets develop, they often enter a technological stage.  This affects the consumers perception of the state of the market and your businesses position in that market.  Is your business seen as cutting edge or as old-fashioned?

However in some circumstances appearing old-fashioned can be seen as a benefit.  Take Fender guitars, they sell a lot of instruments which are still made on machines installed in the 1950s and which contain features like neck profiles and electronics which are all but identical to those of 50 years ago.  Many players of the electric guitar still prefer amplifiers which contain valve technology little changed since the early 20th century.

Technology also affects the level of automated support in the marketplace.  This isn’t just production line technology but secondary process technology such as raw material delivery technology, automated aftersales support technology and even automated marketing technology.

It can be industrial technology, like the creation of long-life egg powder for bulk bakers or 5 gigabyte memory cards for digital cameras. It can be workplace technology such as customer databases or production line automation.

There are four aspects to workplace technology:

  1.  Improving the speed of an activity
  2. Improving the precision of an activity
  3. Technology overcoming production limitations
  4. technology reducing costs and wastage

Time is important as it allows faster delivery of best value but it also creates pressures.  You need to be able to strategize faster, implement faster whilst meeting customer expectations faster.

That latter aspect requires careful market monitoring.  Consumer attitudes change over time.  Changing perceptions is fundamental to marketing.

Time can also be a competitive advantage.  Being first into a market, being ‘first there and best dressed’ has long been seen as an advantageous position with sustained market share.  However this view is dependent on a market being ready for the innovation and being both willing and able to assimilate it.

Reducing time required to complete a function can provide market flexibility.  Who hasn’t spent hours pouring over Gantt charts and production networks trying to match available resources to production deadlines?

There are four aspects to new product taxonomy:

  1.  Product renovation:  altering old products which are already in the market place, new designs, new features
  2. Creating copycat products: Products which use technology which exists in the marketplace but which is new to your business
  3. Commercialisation of in-house products – products which exist within your business (for business purposes) which are then marketed to the consumer market.
  4. True innovation: New products created from new emerging technologies.

Innovation implies increased complexity and thus increased risk.  You need to apply marketing functions to educate the market as to the benefits of the new technology

Time affects workplace technology.  You need to pace your time resource to meet market readiness.  You need to exploit technology to introduce innovation over complexity.  The technology may be complex but it needs to make things easier for the consumer.

In terms of marketing, time and technology need to be considered in both strategic and operational terms.

Strategically, time and technology need to be applied to sustain competitive advantage.  Operationally, time and technology need to be leveraged so as to enable first to market, to reduce costs, to develop better systems, etc.

In applying time and technology to your business, you need to be aware of the strategic advantage cycle:

  1. Observe your environment.
  2. Orientate your organisation to that environment
  3. Decide what you need to do to make that environment favourable to your organisation
  4. Act to implement your decision.

Your decision needs to advance and sustain a competitive advantage over your competitors.

Time and Technology

The hype relating to market disruptors is now somewhat reduced as compared to a couple of years ago but it is still the case that market disruption is a major component of many new businesses.

So what is meant by ‘disruptors’?

Disruptors are entrepreneurs who aim to enter existing markets through leveraging the benefits of new technologies on that market.  So if you have a plan to deliver Pizza via an app, or to sell Books through a website, or to distribute music by digital download, then you are a disruptor.  Some of the biggest businesses in the world could be classed as market disruptors, Amazon, Deliveroo, Uber, AirB&B, Tesla, etc.

There are two aspects to market disruption:

  1. The technology
  2. Time.

In fact there is a triad of components to technological disruption; money, quality and time. The implementation of technology in the marketplace has to be a set quality (that demanded by target customers).  It takes money to ensure that quality; and it also takes time to develop that quality.

Recently, Dyson abandoned their project to develop an electric car.  The proposed vehicle was a disruption product.  It was reliant on experimental solid state battery technology. In announcing the project, James Dyson stated his plan to launch the new car in 2021. Many in the automotive sector believed that such a deadline was overly ambitious and that solid state rechargeable batteries would not be commercially ready until the middle of the next decade, at the earliest. Dyson’s 2021 deadline was clearly a rush to market, and that rush risked the product not meeting the expected quality.

This tale mirrors the Sinclair C5, the 1980’s electric recumbent tricycle.  People expected Clive Sinclair, the home computer pioneer, to produce a quality, useable transport solution. Instead they got a pedal car with low power and limited range.  One of the primary reasons for the C5’s failure was the new, experimental batteries designed by Sinclair, were not ready at the time of the C5’s launch.

Technology does not just mean product technology.  There is the technology needed to produce new products (e.g. new machinery such as 3D printers) and then there is technology for support functions – e.g. Artificial Intelligence being used for support calls.

Time to market is clearly a factor on the ability of a firm to have a hold on the development of a market.  The recent rise in the Tesla share price; the firm is now worth more than Volkswagen; signifies that, at least in the minds of city traders, that Elon Musk’s car firm has a technological lead.

Technology is also a measure of customers perception of your status in the market.  Often firms with the best technology are seen as market leaders (whether or not that perception is true).

When discussing time, there is time to market, but there is also the timing of market entry.  Often being first to market is a primary incentive, especially when intellectual property; such as patents and designs; is prominent.

Disruption through technology isn’t just the creation of software apps.

There is industrial technologies, such as the creation of long-life egg powder for cake mixes; or the creation of lightweight but toughened plastics for football boots; or the creation of high capacity memory chips for USB memory sticks and memory cards.

There is workplace technology.  This doesn’t just mean robots on the production line.  It is the application of scientific principles to marketing. For example, the development of graphene for flexible mobile phone screens.

There are four roles for workplace technology:

  1. Improving the speed of an activity;
  2. Improving the precision of an activity;
  3. Overcoming limitations
  4. Reducing Costs

All of these feed in to improving productivity.

Time is important because it is, in today’s world:

  • You need to meet customer expectations faster;
  • People expect ‘best value’ to be delivered faster.

it is a question of relative time, to absolute time.  Dyson’s 2021 deadline was an issue of absolute time.  he may have been better concentrating on relative time.  rather than setting an arbitrary deadline for his batteries to perform, he may have been better concentrating on ensuring his batteries were the most effective and efficient before those of competitors met those criteria.

Consumers attitudes also change over time; and changing consumer perceptions and attitudes is fundamental to marketing.

Rushing to market can be a big mistake.  Take Betamax video tapes as an example. Betamax format was first to market in the home video recorder market but VCR tapes became the market standard.

Being too late to market can also be an issue.  An example is Sony minidisc. This format was the first for digital downloading of music, and it was a better portable offer than compact disc as it was less prone to jumping.  However, Minidisc was launched just as MP3 players hit the market, which used memory chips which made the ‘disc’ bit of the technology redundant.

In 2003, Stalk and Hout wrote that time is the next competitive advantage.  This led to a humorous comment that marketing success was like going to a dance where success in getting a partner relied on being first there and being best dressed.

The best approach is to consider how relative time gives you a competitive advantage.

Rush to market and your technology may not be of the quality demanded by consumers.  It may not be perfected.  Alternatively, if you are a technological laggard, your competitors may beat you to the punch.