Market Sensitivity

We strive to be sensitive to the needs of the marketplace...


Market sensitivity involves a constant focus on the needs and requirements of customers.

Market sensitivity demands intense customer contact at all levels of the business. We strive to be sensitive to the needs of the marketplace and to meet those needs.


ACTION POINT: Ask your customers what they like and want.

Weighing the Pros and Cons

...looking at a project in just narrow cash terms may mean you miss out on some of its other potential benefits,

The easiest way to do this is through a cost-benefit analysis -- simply comparing how much benefit the idea will bring against how much it will cost in terms of resources. That might give you an overall feel for one project over another, but a more useful approach in some form of "decision matrix" that helps you compare many different alternatives on a number of cost and benefit dimensions.

Sometimes, looking at a project in just narrow cash terms may mean you miss out on some of its other potential benefits, like entering a new market, or learning some new skills, that you could then use in future projects.

ACTION POINT: Consider all of the cost's and benefits for any innovation opportunity.

Choosing the Right Options

...it is important to select only the most promising ideas to pursue.

Using these ideas helps you see what your options are, and how the would help your organization. But you still need to decide which of these options to choose, and justify that decision. Each option you pursue views opportunity costs in time and money, so it is important to select only the most promising ideas to pursue.

So how do you decide on this? You could just run with the ideas that attract you and act on your hunches. That is a little like a gambler throwing the chips down randomly or backing a horse in a race because they have a "feeling" about it. Or you could use a more systematic approach. You can never make innovation a cast-iron certainty, because there is too much uncertainty involved--will technology work, is there a market, will the competition introduce something else before us? But you can convert the uncertainty into some form of calculated risk.

ACTION POINT: Use some for of check on innovation projects before you start on them. Will the reward you expect be worth the risk and cost of the project?

Plotting an Innovation Profile

This will give you a simple outline of where your strengths and opportunities lie in a given market.

Having identified the order qualifiers and order winners in your target market, use market research to plot them on a simple graph against their importance to consumers.

Then develop a scoring system for how ell you and your competitors meet those requirements, and add the lines. This will give you a simple outline of where your strengths and opportunities lie in a given market. In the example,(blue line represents what market wants) you (yellow line) are behind the competitor (green line), so you either close the gap, or exit from the market.

ACTION POINT: Make sure you base your analysis on the most recent market research.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

Immanuel--which means God is with us.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel -- which means, God with us."