Niche Development and the Adapting Mode
A. Niche Development Growth Phase
Developmental Objectives: Adapt innovation to smaller market niches willing to pay a premium for adaptation to their needs.
Typical Number of People Involved in Decision Making: 20 and up
Expertise Profile of Personnel: High expertise across organization.
Important Customer Class: Sophisticates
Characteristics of Customer Demands: Attractive “whole product,” comprehensive solutions, and low total cost of operation.
B. Management Style of Ideal Leader: Collaborating Visionary
C. Mode of Operation: Adapting
Product Strategy: Tailored to market niche. Consultative product development.
Preconditions for Using Adapting Mode -
a) Customers willing to pay a premium for products better suited to their needs, b) Personnel with a high level of expertise, c) Stable and efficient business, information, and communication infrastructures, d) Strong and effective formal feedback and evaluation systems.
Organizational Structure: Constellation of Niche-Focused Teams
Typical Themes: Listen to our customers. Cross-functional teamwork.
Cultural Priorities: Intimate knowledge of niches. Information bath and pervasive communication. Flexible strategies.
Important Controls: Loyalty-inspiring vision, cultural priorities, expertise of personnel, monitoring and feedback.
Typical Impact of Control Levers - Adapting Mode
Personal Control Levers, subtotal: 25%
0% - Hands-on Doing and Spending
5% - Direct Supervision
20% - Vision and Mission
Organizational: Hard Control Levers, subtotal: 25%
10% - Specific Goals and Objectives
5% - Organizational Hierarchy
10% - Formal Plans and Processes
Organizational: Soft Control Levers, subtotal: 50%
15% - Expertise of Personnel
20% - Cultural Priorities and Game Rules
15% - Formal Evaluation and Feedback
100%
Ideal Management Style: Collaborating Visionary (Carl Sagan, assisted by Nelson Mandela)
This management style can be thought of as a composite mix of two of the four decision-making and problem-solving approaches.
Dominant Approach: Carl Sagan
Elements that exemplify Sagan's decision-making and problem-solving approach:
<> Focus on future
<> Interpolate and extrapolate from a set of knowns to describe future possibilities
<> Hold a vivid qualitative image of ultimate goal
Backup Approach: Nelson Mandela
Elements that exemplify Mandela's decision-making and problem-solving approach:
<> Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they could be.
<> Genuine dialogue is the only path forward to meaningful collaboration and this will not happen in a climate of disrespect.
This mix of approaches describes the ideal leaders for this phase.
I suspect that Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com fits this management style.
“Watching his employees use a new social technology, Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com, had an epiphany. His company had developed Chatter, a Facebook inspired application for companies that allows users to keep track of their colleagues and customers and share information and ideas. The employees had been trying it out internally, not just within their own work groups but across the entire organization. As Benioff read the Chatter posts, he realized that many of the people who had critical customer knowledge and were adding the most value were not even known to the management team.
The view into top management from the rank and file was just as obscure, Benioff knew. For instance, the company’s annual management off-site was coming up, and he could tell from talking to employees that they wondered about what went on behind closed doors at that gathering. “They imagined we were dressing up in robes and chanting,” he says.
What could he do to bring the top tier of the company closer to the workforce? Benioff asked himself. And then it hit him: Let’s use Chatter to blow open the doors of the management off-site.
What greeted the 200 executives who attended that meeting was atypical. All 5,000 Salesforce.com employees had been invited to join them—virtually. Huge TV monitors placed throughout the meeting room displayed the special Chatter forum set up for the off-site. Every manager received an iPod Touch, and every table had an iPad, which attendees could use to post to the forum. A video service broadcast the meeting in real time to all employees, who could beam in and instantaneously express their views on Chatter, too.
The meeting began with the standard presentations. The managers watching them weren’t quite sure what to do. Nothing unusual happened at first. Finally, Benioff grabbed the iPad on his table and made a comment on Chatter, noting what he found interesting about what was being said and adding a joke to spice it up. Some in the room followed with a few comments, and then employees watching from their offices launched a few comments back. The snowball started rolling. “Suddenly, the meeting went from a select group participating to the entire company participating,” Benioff says.” (https://hbr.org/2011/07/are-you-a-collaborative-leader)
