in associationwith
marketing
‘It’s not much fun being led by a person whose skill is to count money if there’s no money coming in’
even more. Again, Majgaard talks about Lego, where innovation is
deeply rooted in the company’s culture. “Innovation is put on a programme, it’s not incidental.
There are people who know that within the next 12 months we have to come up with so many new ideas. Some of them have to be described so we can understand if they’re good enough; do they need to be tweaked, or should we scrap them? That ongoing gate process so that you have ideas that you take to the next gate and the next gate, is a standard for companies like Lego and many other professional companies.” He is relatively positive about a greater general focus
on innovation. “I think innovation has been given better light, probably due to the crisis, probably due to the fact that we close down factories, so societies and politicians speak more now about innovation,” he says. “So, that side of the coin has probably been revitalised. Increasingly companies are where you cannot just com- municate, particularly one way communicating to suc- cess. That formula has gone. Majgaard is a strong critic of marketing focusing too
heavily on the pure communication ofmessages.However, he feels that social media has revitalised this whole area. “I’m not against communication – I’m a great believer
in it,” he says. “But what I dislike is where that’s the only thing marketing people care about. “But social media has basically revolutionised the way
you can have dialogue with customers and partners. The new media has made it more possible for companies to understand their customers, so if they have the culture to adapt to that, they will be much better off. And of course, the new social media do not lend themselves equally well to all kinds of industries. To toys and creative things that families love, social media is a blessing.” Finally, he points out that financial constraints have
resulted inmany companies having to cut costs and to put their focus on different areas. “You will see companies cut their advertising spending,
which may not be right. But sometimes they say we have to, because we don’t have the money.” As a result, there will be a greater emphasis on not
losing good customers, he says. “If you are looking out for new customers, there will be more focus on being more targeted – you don’t want the customers that you don’t make money on. And you’ll be more aware of that because of the crisis. I think selection focusing has increased or is about to increase. Focusing on customers and their actual needs, and identifying ways of providing these consumers with real value, are fundamental.”
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visitwww.sage.ie Spring 2011 Irish Director 53
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