Dec
5
Hey All!
Well, Thanksgiving is behind us, and we are moving rapidly into the Christmas season. In my last post, I wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and, for those of you brave enough to go out on Black Friday, I wished you luck. I actually went out this year (thus ending a 5-year streak of avoiding Black Friday like the Black Plague). I went to Best Buy at 9:30 PM on Thanksgiving Day to see if I could get a ticket at 10:00 PM for the $200 Sharp 40″ 1080p flat-screen TV which was to go on sale at 12:00 AM. When I arrived, the police were putting an individual into a squad car (I was told that he had been selling counterfit tickets to those in line). I found my place in line (which was already behind the building). I met a very nice individual that would save my place as I went to check on the ticket situation two or three times. Needless to say, by 11:00 PM, it was not looking promising, so I left. I tell this story, because I attended a training last week at the American Management Association (AMA) called Successful Product Management. It was very eye-opening. Our instructor, Richard Treitel (if you click on his name you will find his consultancy page), brought a good deal of marketing and business acumen to the course, and was full of great examples. I learned quite a bit, including that the $200 television was a ploy to get me into the store so I would impulse buy many more items (which I kind of already knew), but, what was interesting is how many other companies actually make a habit out of this practice. Richard mentioned that HP sells most of their printers at a loss in order to get you to buy their ink cartridges. The class discussed some other classic examples of this such as the X-Box, Wii, and Playstation being sold at a loss to get the replacement part and game business; and Green Mountain Coffee, which owns Keurig, takes a loss on the Keurig machines in order to sell the coffee pods.
I am still trying to process everything I learned from the training, and come up with an action plan. I put together a small Power Point which summarizes the course, and which I will use to lead a lunch-and-learn at TransTech in the not too distant future.
One of the highlights of this course is that Richard was able to break down the content and make it applicable to different size companies. There was one statement that he made which was so spot-on that it made me laugh out loud (LOL for those of you in the internet generation). He said that the Product Manager’s role in a smaller company is primarily to assist the sales department with the items that they desperately need, but that they do not have the time or desire to do (i.e. trade shows, collateral, websites, etc.); however, as the company grows, the product manager moves more into assisting senior management with the items which they know are important, but which they no longer have time to focus upon (strategy, product development, market selection, pricing, e-mail blasts, direct mail, etc.). I laughed, because this is almost exactly where I find myself. I have been doing a good deal of the trade show, collateral, and website maintenance; but, more recently, I have been brought into the pricing and strategy discussions here at TransTech. A second, very applicable section of the product manager training was the discussion on products and product lines. There were a number of people in the room who had sole responsibility for one product. There were also those of us in the room that had responsibility for the companies’ range of products and all that entailed . . . which seemed a bit overwhelming to me. TransTech is more of a job shop, so I am still struggling with how to divide out our product lines. I actually like the division that is on the website, but I think that there are some tweaks we can make. So, right now, our division is as follows:
Industrial
- Delta Star Engineered Conductor Systems (Heavy Duty Conductor Bar Systems) – This includes V-Bar, C-Bar, H-Bar, HC-Bar, HJ-Bar, and Transductors
- Enclosed Conductor Systems – This includes REDI-BAR and AKAPP Multiconductor
- Current Collectors
- Electrified Rail Components – This includes Insulators, Trolley Wire, and Rail Components
Transit
- Pantographs and Pantograph Overhauls Services and Kits
- Conductor Rail (Third – 3rd – Rail)
- Overhead Catenary Systems (OCS)
- Carbon Collectors
- Shoe Gear
I think where I struggle with this break down is with Current Collectors, Electrified Rail Components, and Carbon Collectors. Current Collectors and Electrified Rail Components seem to have cross-application into the Transit division. Carbon Collectors seem to be a subset of Pantographs (i.e. you would not need Carbon Collectors unless you have a pantograph). I suppose the correct Product Manager view of this is that, if these remain as separate product lines, we need to focus on boosting sales and potential cross-applications, or we need to move them into one of the other product lines. This distinction is important, because I would like to see our product lines become more unified in the coming year. In other words, I think we need to update and sync our collateral. I also think that we need to have a strategy for each of these product lines which rolls into an overarching strategy for TransTech. This is not a critique. All of these items fall onto the Product Manager’s plate, and are therefore for me to accomplish. It is just a big plate. Once we really drill down into some of this stuff, it is extremely time consuming. I am currently working on a pricing project for one product within one product line, and it has taken a considerable amount of time. Thinking about doing that for all of our products is a bit daunting, but most of the folks in my class were encouraging and told me that it gets much faster once I’ve done it a few times. I could write a good deal more about this learning experience, but I need to get to a few other things today. I will say one other thing before moving on. The course was very valuable, and I would recommend it. I took this course at AMA’s Atlanta Center, which I found very conducive to learning. The AMA Atlanta Center seem to have a good sense of their purpose. It has a very professional feel, but it is not stodgy. It is also extremely conducive to learning. While the classrooms are professional, they are also well-equipped for educational purposes . . . and you’ve gotta love the Keurig Coffee machines stationed throughout the building. I appreciate the hard work of the staff, like Shawn and Barbara, who really took care of us. Thanks y’all!
On a personal note, it was my daughter’s first birthday this weekend. We had a lot of fun (my daughter smashed a cupcake into her face trying to get it into her mouth . . . by far and away, that is the most sugar we have ever let the child have, so she was in heaven)! I have not had a Facebook account for a few years now. I have not really missed it, but there were a few pictures that I definitely would have posted. I don’t think I’m ready to post any of my family just yet, but there is one picture that I want to share.
My wife is a very creative individual, and the theme was Winter Onederland! (does anyone remember the film That Thing You Do . . . and the trouble everyone had pronouncing “the Oneders”)? That’s beside the point. My wife designed a lot of snowmen type things, but this picture reminded me of some of the Calvin and Hobbes snowmen scenes:
Those were milk bottles designed to look like snowmen, and on the plates were mini donuts designed to look like snowmen heads. I just thought of it like one snowman army standing over the trophies of their recent snowman war. Okay . . . It is high time for me to be signing off now.
–12/5/11
