Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Well, there are two broad possibilities on how to handle it:

1) you can treat the product as a cash cow. You put the minimal resources in to it (i.e. drop all R&D and development) and try to maximize any cash you can get out of it. Goal is to get as much money as possible from it before the product is totally obsolete.

2) the more glamorous (but often harder) route of trying to move the product back up the product life cycle. This generally requires inventing something new about the product. Examples would be going from an audio cassette to a video cassette, and again from standard video cassette to a digital video cassette.

There is actually a third option, but it only works in certain cases. You can consolidate the industry until you are the only one that sells it (or one of a very few), which gives you pricing power. Often, obsolete product will stick around for a long time, and a business can be made by selling them. I remember an example of this from my business school days about how there is 1 company that makes riding switches (used by equestrians to control horses). Since we moved away from horses some 50 to 100 years ago, these are not in nearly as much demand, but there is still enough business to keep the company going nicely.

Not knowing what product or category you're in, doesn't help.
But if the examples you gave are the kind of things you do, than you have a few choices.
The first is to be aware that you have a problem.
That alone prevents you from having a "Kodak Moment", which is the typical corporate arrogance of a firm that believes in its product alone, and doesn't listen to the market trends or the consumers preferences.
If you have a way to marry your product with new technology, that's good, try that.
If you think it is of no merit, dump the whole thing, but wait!
Your brand might have some equity that could be saved, and used for similar products in the same category.
Again, not knowing what you do is not giving a chance to be creative here...
Apple was set as a company that produced PC's. The PC as we remember it is all but dead for Apple, but music, phones and other digital gizmos are the rage for them, while still utilizing the great brand equity they have.
They are NOT the best phone company in the world, but they have the best brand among those who sell portable phones.
Makes sense?

Do you have a great reputation in this business?
After all your category could be defined as "payment methods", and if you think of it that way, your brand might have already gained reputaion in the business of payment methods.
Take it from there, you know your business better than me. PayPal is also a payment method...

Paper checks are many things: They enable people to purchase goods and services. They are a form of personalization/decoration. They help to create a proof of purchase/paper trail.

Zoom out to these macro-categories and find a nugget that resonates with your group. To make a paradigm shift, you need to stop looking at trees and look at the forests. Brainstorm combining the core pieces in new ways: plastic checks, electronic checks, decorator credit cards, etc.

Hello Lisa,

Interesting question. I think there is a close link between marketing and new product development. So I’d like to add a view from the product and technology perspective.

Have you ever heard of a thing called TRIZ? It’s a Russian acronym and it’s closest English translation would be “the Theory (and practice) to Resolve Inventive Situations”. Usually people perceive an inventive situation as a (very) difficult problem.

Such as the end of life of a product.

TRIZniks not only extracted generic patterns and algorithms to attack and solve such problems. They also worked out, why products stop making progress (unresolved conflicting requirements, exhausted resources), why the next generation products appear later than expected (lobby interests) and what the next (logical) step(s) in the products evolution should be.

TRIZ tried to establish a science of innovation – and they succeeded.

You can find a nice visual introduction into this rich topic at https://www.gnrtr.com , if you like. This site follows to a large extend the educational style of its creator, but I hope you’ll like it. They explain basic TRIZ concepts and illustrate by examples. I myself like the ring printer at

https://www.gnrtr.com/solutions/en/s105.html
.

TRIZ thinking gives overwhelming results, both in quality and quantity. E.g. it’s very easy to understand (from TRIZ basics) that the various payment methods are not even close to being exhausted (I’ll give a sketch at the end). In other words: there are many profound inventions ahead, which you’ll hardly find through a conventional brainstorming – and which you’ll love marketing.

If you want to match both customer requirements and TRIZ guidance you may want to consider contacting Pavel Livotov at https://www.tris-europe.com/ (which uses German language, unfortunately). He’s from St. Petersburg, based in Hannover and Zurich now, and he has the best focus on industrial application I’m aware of.

If on the other hand you want to map past, current and future of payment systems, including the paper check, you may want to contact Zion Bar El from Ideation at https://www.ideationtriz.com/ . In the middle of their body text there’s a link to Directed Evolution. DE does this mapping process systematically. Creating a map of inventions of past, present and future is no magic: it’s discipline, effort and guided imagination – and a lot of work.

The benefit from DE? You’ll always know, where your product is, where its competitors are, and what – in TRIZ words – will appear inevitably tomorrow.


Finally the sketch I promised.

One way to apply TRIZ on-the-fly is trying so called lines of evolution. One trend in innovation is to go from a solid state, through a liquid state, through a chemical or thermal state to the electromagnetic state.

Sounds tough, doesn’t it?

Well, the paper check clearly is a solid state. (Let’s omit the liquid ink for the moment.) PayPal clearly is the electromagnetic state of a check (virtual money, using electronics, storing bits and bytes in electrical memory or on magnetic tape).

Are there intermediate states of a check according to this trend of evolution?

I.e. has anybody ever invented a liquid check (in the physical sense, not in the financial meaning)? Or a thermal check? Or a chemical check?

If not: why not?

What sounds strange and a crazy science fiction many times turns out as missed opportunities, because the underlying conflicting requirements were not resolved (i.e. through a change which satisfies both contradicting elements).

Recently a company detected such a gap, a missed evolutionary step. They now supply thin wires to the computer industry, which are self-insulating. Such thin wires are pressed on tiny metal spots, melt and fuse to make contact to microchips (that’s not new). With this invention such wires can now cross arbitrarily without making short-circuits (that was impossible before). This opens up a new dimension for engineering, new products to sell and market, and the company is growing at the moment.

Just a sketch to illustrate the benefits which hide in end-of-life products.


Hope you enjoyed reading.

Michael


P.S.: the thermal check does exist. Seal the deal with a hand shake. There are certainly thermal payment alternatives to discover. Once discovered, people find out what to do with it – and establish markets.

Hello Lisa,

I forgot to ask about your boundary conditions. What can you do about the paper check? Can you change it? Can you change the way it is used? Can you combine it with something else, e.g. another product or another service? Who is using the paper check and for which purpose? Are there special purposes, other than the obvious? What do the people, who still want to use it, value about it?

You asked "Do you consider product extensions first?". There is a strategy called "the towing bi-system". You combine a well matured system (e.g. the paper check) with a new and quite immature system (e.g. a service, which shall replace the existing paper check).

Because the old (and limited) system is well known and accepted it’s easy to accept the new one, too, even with its shortcomings (but it can perform much better once fully developed). This way the old one tows-in the new one, until the old one is completely replaced.

So this scenario needs the dying product before extinction.

Application of course depends on your situation.


Michael

Hi Lisa

great advice by experts. my 2 cents are.....

have you identified which are the usage instances of paper checque that are on the decline. is it

utility payment
insurance payment
rent payment
EMI payments

i dont know of your market, but you can create some new usage instances as listed below, which might continue to help you milk your existing business

1. usage of Checque for payments whereby there is no Credit Card POS. you can call this Card Checque. example is HouseRent, Plumber repair bill payment. usually these cases dont have POS machines to accept credit card, so one can use a checque to make the payments.

2. usage of Checque to make payment of taxi meter bill.

now, find out what are the payment methods that are on the rise intead of paper checque payment and in which type of usage instances. is it Credit Card, online payment method (similar to PayPal).

based on your findings, you can create your own Online Payment Method, since that seems to be catching up fast in the US. if possible you can also create your own brand of Credit Card (similar to Diner's Club).

hope this helps.

cheers!!

hi Lisa

sorry somehow the following points went missing while posting the reply above.

based on your study of current usage instance/scenario, you can design/develop some activities in cooperation with your client (financial institutions) to generate more usage.

1. it can be a promotion like usage of checque by users to make payments will provide them a certain percentage of "Cash Back" on the amount of the checque.

2. you can create a reward mechanism based on checque usage (similar to Credit Card/Loyalty reward schemes)

best of luck!

cheers!!

Lisa,

Ah, I did not realize that was your only business.

I bet you have some good things such as infrastructure, staff, knowledge, etc., that could be put to good use. Also, you have customers!

Do you have certain key customers you could talk with about what they need? Maybe even do a survey. I have a gut feeling that possible answers could be found with your client base.

Come up with good questions to ask. Get the answers and then talk about it internally. Go into it with ideas but also keep an open mind.

Hi Lisa,

hope you're having a great day but more importantly a wonderful life. Sounds like you're in a pretty interesting position. Unlike the the great explorer Cortez...who burnt his ships to motivate his soldiers to develop a fight to the death attitude your ships are already burnt. So here's the real question you're asking...

WHERE DO WE GO WHEN GOING BACK IS NOT A CHOICE...
When going back is not a choice Lisa you have to have the following.

1.) A WINNING Spirit.

2.) COURAGEOUS Leadership.

3.) BOLDNESS to FIGHT to the death.

4.) A PICTURE of the Future.

The death of your product or service could be inevitable but if you have a Winning Spirit your organization will turn it's lemons into lemonade.

I think what WMMA aka Randall the wise man told you was funny but I'm positive he was very serious. Please take him up on his advice.

During tough times a Winning Spirit makes all the difference. When you combine that with Courageous Leadership you can't be beat. The question becomes at your organization whose the Cortez? Whose the one employee that's got the Guts to stand up and challenge all the other troopers to get focused for the battle?

YOUR ANSWERS NOT OUTSIDE YOUR COMPANY BUT WITHIN YOUR RANKS...
You see it all the time when people are faced with their greatest life challenge they go outside of themselves but the real answers all always within us. And the same is true for your organization..."THINK WITHIN"...the answer is within...

THINK BUTTERFLY...THINK FROG...THINK METAMORPHOSIS...
Have you ever asked the question...Why does nature turn within whenever it metmorphosizes? Is it that nature knows the answer is "Within itself"...the answer is within the Cacoon? You know that's where the butterfly is!

YOUR ANSWERS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION LIKE THE BUTTERFLIES HIDDEN IN THE CATEPILLAR...
So Lisa the wisdom of where your organization needs to go right now and in the future is locked inside of the people in your organization like the Butterfly is locked inside of the Caterpillar. It's there deep inside of each member within your organization like the Frog is hidden in the Tadpole. No one said it's going to be easy but the answer to your companies problem is right amongst the ranks of your warriors. More than anything everyone from the leadership of your organization down to the mail room clerk has to be empowered to dig deep during this time and share their most daring advice to help transform your organization into what they must become. I believe this challenge you all are facing is not by chance or coincidence but it has been coming since the inception of your company and now it's time to DREAM BIG and make a bold & daring move. REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future. I'm only an email away from you if you need further guidance, direction or you'd just like to talk more about it. You see I love it when my customers are happy. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Lovingly Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

I have to disagree that the answers are entirely within the company. They are likely to be found by a combination of talking with the customers and thinking it through within the company.

Your customers (or some key customers) may very well want something you can offer them. From there you can expand out.

I also don't think it is will end up being a bold an daring move. It is just as likely to require a calculated risk. though keep an open mind as a bold and daring move may be required.

I have been through the product/service transition process and we found the answer in what a small group of our current customers wanted. From there, we expanded out. It was a calculated risk.

“When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit.”
Ayn Rand (Russian born American Writer).



Hi Lisa,

please remember that every great decision of any organization begins within the organization and that's why great organizations choose great leaders. I don't agree with the huge salaries some CEO's get paid but I can gaurantee that every great company I've been hired to work for has hired their CEO's based on what she or he invisions for the organization otherwise organizations would just hire their customers to lead their companies into the future. Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world...and your current circumstances are a reflection of that world. So in order to create new causes that will cause the kinds of effects you desire to see happen for your organization you must go within. Your organization began within somebody's mind and then projected itself outward...even if the outer circumstances or conditions to launch the business was the direct result of the founders observations ---that customers needed checks--- it was still predicated on the inward vision of the founder to conclude that the creation of checks for customers would draw a certain particular group of customers toward her or his business like a magnet.

Now what new observations from within the ranks of your organization will allow your organization to continue to attract customers like a powerful magnet toward your business? This is one of the many hundreds of questions you can bring back to your company today to get the ball rolling but the truth is someones got to grab the bull by the horns and SEE the NEW FUTURE of your organization with clear focus. You need a Visionary...someone within your ranks who can INVISION what that NEW FUTURE looks like for your company and those answers have got to come from within your organization.

Now please understand that my life experiences are completely different than all the other participants so my perspective will be completely different. As I tell all my seminar attendees please don't believe a word I'm saying...Test, Test, Test or as my mentor Mary Kay once said "Try it before you buy it". I hope every post has allowed you to see a little more clearly. Is there anything I can do for you Lisa?

Your Servant,

Deremiah *CPE

Lisa

Adding my voice to the chorus here...

1. You need to really understand what problem your product once solved. what were the customer's "pain points"?

2. Then analyse why it isn't solving that problem as well now as it did in the past. Has the problem gone away? Or have competitors overtaken your solution? Or has the pain lessened somehow?

3. Now reassess the problem you once solved well, and see whether there are even better ways to solve the problem than you or your competitors had previously envisaged.

4. Or, if the vector of the problem has changed, how has it changed, and what can you do to intercept it with an even better solution? How can you bring back the pain, then solve it with your product?

Hope that helps.

ChrisB