Cam Mackey
Cam Mackey |
06/05/2013 |
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Developing and managing talent is a basic capability of any well-run business, let alone one with lofty growth targets. It’s an evergreen issue, and it’s enthusiastically discussed and debated in every single one of MAPI’s councils, whether the members are in charge of HR, running a business unit, or even running a tax department. It’s such an important topic that we’re holding a best practices roundtable on talent management as we speak in...
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Cam Mackey |
05/28/2013 |
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In a 2011 MAPI survey of chief procurement and sales officers, we saw some interesting statistics. Only 13% of sales executives felt that purchasing departments were interested in proposals that address total cost of ownership (TCO). On the flip side, only a third of procurement executives felt that sales reps were good at emphasizing total cost. Not encouraging numbers, but there is a growing understanding in the marketplace of the importance...
Categories: Marketing, Operational Improvement, Operations, Productivity, Purchasing, Sales
Cam Mackey |
05/07/2013 |
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Over at Fast Company, Austin Carr provides a detailed account of how the Doritos Locos Taco—the Taco Bell taco with a Doritos shell—came to be a top seller, and a product someone would drive 900 miles to try. Several of the lessons learned show the creativity and perseverance required in bringing a new product to market:
Respond to market shifts: The new product was born out a desire to introduce a new product for Taco Bell’s anniversary, to...
Categories: Marketing, Production, Sales, Supply Chain
Cam Mackey |
04/16/2013 |
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To be successful, organizations must find new ways for existing products to meet customer needs. A common failure point is poorly aligned product management, where there's a mismatch between what companies want from their product managers, and what they get. Too often, organizations are the ones to blame. Instead of having product managers who think strategically, have a strong market orientation, and can effectively manage a business, most...
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Cam Mackey |
03/28/2013 |
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Recently there's been a lot of talk about the "Industrial Internet," a term coined by GE to describe the network that harnesses the power of intelligent machines and big data to gain real-time insights into everything from production bottlenecks to pending maintenance issues. According to a recent GE report, Industrial Internet technologies could add $15 trillion to global GDP by 2030, thanks to gains in manufacturing productivity and the power...
Cam Mackey |
03/13/2013 |
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Are you planning to attend MAPI’s inaugural Executive Summit on May 15-17 in Chicago? Here are the top 10 reasons why you should join us:
Newly released MAPI/Deloitte research: Identifying best practices for growing manufacturing companies in uncertain economic times.
Senior executives only: Attendees are CEO and C-Suite leaders from the world’s best manufacturing companies, including Caterpillar, Eaton, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson,...
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Cam Mackey |
02/04/2013 |
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It’s an unfortunate reality of global business that most companies operating in emerging markets have to deal with corruption in one form or another. U.S. companies have to be concerned about their exposure to a multiplicity of anti-corruption/anti-bribery laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act, as well as any local laws in the countries in which they operate.
At the upcoming MAPI Executive Summit, two...
Categories: Anticorruption, FCPA
Cam Mackey |
01/29/2013 |
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Several organizations, including the U.S. Armed Forces, have reaped significant benefits from using servant leadership to create a culture that values serving first and leading second. In contrast to traditional top-down approaches, servant leaders share power, put the needs of others first, and help people develop so that they can perform at the highest level possible. Servant leadership emphasizes consensus, collaboration, and empowerment, and...
Cam Mackey |
10/01/2012 |
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According to research by consultant Booz, companies that directly engage their customers in innovation have superior results, including 300% higher operating income growth, 65% higher total shareholder return, and 200% higher return on assets. But what are some tactics that industrial companies can use to work more closely with customers throughout the innovation process? To answer that question, MAPI recently held a webinar looking at how...
Cam Mackey |
08/16/2012 |
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Engineering change orders are a reality of doing business. They might come about when a customer wants to customize a component, or when a design error is discovered. However they originate, companies want to minimize ECO cycle time, to get the newly modified product out the door as quickly as possible. For some industries (like cell phone case manufacturers) this speed-to-market is so critical that it can make or break a company.
During a...
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Cam Mackey |
08/01/2012 |
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Don’t believe the hype – social media isn’t just for Best Buy and Zappos. Industrial firms are embracing social media as a valuable tool to connect with customers, prospects, and fans of the brand. Here’s a sneak peak at the results of the MAPI Marketing Council’s annual State of B2B Social Media study, highlighting the four social media sites that are giving manufacturers the biggest bang for our buck:
YouTube – 90% of B2B manufacturers...
Categories: Branding, Marketing, Social Media, Web & Internet
Cam Mackey |
07/25/2012 |
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Total cost of ownership analysis offers an “all-in” picture of the costs involved in buying, running, and disposing of a product over its full life cycle. When buying on TCO, a company might purchase a substantially more expensive part because it has lower maintenance costs and/or a longer expected life. According to a recent survey of nearly 70 senior operations and purchasing executives (MAPI members: click here for the full report), over a...
Categories: Operations, Pricing, Purchasing
Cam Mackey |
07/17/2012 |
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Competitive intelligence is a process that companies use to gather data on competitors, customers, and products. Every year, U.S. companies spend over $1 billion on their CI programs in an effort to generate actionable intelligence that will impact business decisions. According to a recent MAPI Council survey (excerpt available here), manufacturers are using CI to inform decisions around acquisition identification, competitive threat analysis,...
Cam Mackey |
06/18/2012 |
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MAPI recently hosted a webinar where renowned product management expert Greg DiCillo of Life Cycle Strategies helped members identify gaps in their product management organization, and suggested practical steps that executives can take to establish a culture of high-performance product management. Attendees learned:
5 attitudinal shifts every organization needs to make to unleash the power of its product managers
7 costly product...
Categories: Business Management, Innovation, Marketing, Pricing
Cam Mackey |
05/07/2012 |
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Innovation isn't really valuable unless someone is willing to pay for it. There are a variety of ways to measure the success of new products, but one of the most widely used is product vitality. This metric tracks revenue from new products as a percent of total revenues. But how long are products considered new? According to a MAPI Marketing Council survey, 48% of members use a 3 year time horizon, and 35% use a 5 year time horizon. Some...
Categories: Business Management, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Marketing, Research and Development, Sales
Cam Mackey |
04/27/2012 |
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Manufacturers are increasingly turning to aftermarket products and services to drive growth. While a construction firm, for example, might buy a front-end loader only once every decade, to keep it operational they’ll need immediate access to replacement parts and related services. According to a recent MAPI survey, aftermarket generates 30% of enterprise sales and 41% of enterprise profits. Deloitte has shown that service offerings can be...
Categories: Business Management, Corporate Strategy, Innovation, Marketing, Sales, Strategic Planning
Cam Mackey |
04/19/2012 |
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Caterpillar’s Kevin Espinosa recently led a webinar on how his company is using social media to engage with customers, end-users, and brand enthusiasts. Cat has a robust social media presence, with branded and non-branded social sites, dedicated forums and communities, content sharing sites, and blogs. Kevin talked about how they use each vehicle, and the metrics used to measure success.
He also shared tips on how to “create an army” of experts...
Categories: Marketing, Social Media
Cam Mackey |
04/18/2012 |
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For many industrial companies, forging a connection with customers, suppliers, and the communities they serve can be a challenge. Other than engineers, who really understands what a rotorseal is, or what inerting systems do? Compounding the problem, how can a diversified industrial communicate its value to the layperson, when it serves markets as diverse as aerospace, automotive, and construction? Perhaps it's simply a problem of perception, but...
Categories: Marketing, Social Media
Cam Mackey |
03/22/2012 |
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For those of you who haven’t checked the news for the last few days, Kraft recently announced that their snack foods business will be renamed Mondelēz (pronounced Mohn-dah-LEEZ). The decision has raised some eyebrows in the branding world, and generated no shortage of snarky comments from armchair marketing gurus. Sure, it’s not the most intuitive name to pronounce, but much of the criticism is unfair. This is a far cry from PwC’s ill-fated...
Categories: Branding, Business Management
Cam Mackey |
03/06/2012 |
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Many manufacturers are “product-driven” organizations, focusing on profitably producing the best products possible. But the smart money is on “experience-driven” firms that offer both OE and aftermarket products and services. They’re selling a solution, not just a component. The classic example is HP: their margins are razor-thin on printers, but they enjoy a recurring revenue stream from their highly profitable inks. In fact, Deloitte has...
Categories: Operational Improvement
Cam Mackey |
02/21/2012 |
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China is the world’s factory when it comes to counterfeit products: two-thirds of fake products seized last year by U.S. Customs originated in China. But Chinese consumers are growing increasingly wary of buying fakes for themselves. In fact, 95% of Chinese women between ages 28 and 35 would be “embarrassed” to carry a counterfeit handbag, according to a 2011 survey commissioned by China Market Research. That’s a seismic shift from the Chinese...
Categories: China