(Dornfeld Management Group, Jan. 08, 2007)
There are many missed opportunities to engage and communicate with your customer regardless if you are a start-up, hospital, retailer, etcc… As noted in the previous blog there can be great upside when engaging in brainstorming and improving your product. But there can be a downside as well if you do value the time and feedback of your customer.
Article today by the Dornfeld Management Group taking a look at the impact of a new president on a consumer driven economy.
Listening to NPR the other day there was a passing comment regarding the relationship of the US economy to consumer confidence – about 2/3 of the US economy is directly connected to consumer spending. Not news in itself but with confidence in Bush at an all time low what could be the potential economic impact of Obama just winning the election. Some of the data is pretty surprising.
According to recent survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs, 8% of respondents said they are likely to increase holiday spending because of the election of Sen. Obama. Although it does not say how much the spending is likely to improve, a little back-of-the-napkin math can help put this into perspective.
In the 2007 there was about $70b in holiday spending and according to Mastercard about 40% ($28b) was spent online. If 8% of people spent just 5% more that translates into an additional $280m. If it is more like 8% of people spending 25% more the number jumps to $1.4b, or an overall increase of 2%.
There was a great article a few weeks ago in the Harvard Business Review by David I. Collis, Michael G. Rukstad titled (Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? ). The article highlights that “most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage to their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone else.” Read the rest of this entry »
