Listening to an early summer storm the other evening, I heard one of the longest sustained rolls of distant thunder I have ever heard. I am sure it lasted at least 20 seconds, and I was struck by how long it took to completely fade out. But it did. And before too long, there was another roll. This reminded me of another fading boom and one not far behind. I’m talking about the fading Baby Boom and the Millennial Generation that is rapidly becoming more influential.

Big in Size and Influence Information about the preferences, perceptions, purchasing power, and politics of the Baby Boom generation, born between 1942 and 1960, has been a staple of research and news reporting for over four decades. This is understandable in some ways, given the sheer size of this generation and their share of the total population. But this was also a generation archetype (Idealists) in a repeating cycle of four that was fundamentally different from the previous generation in some important ways¹. This, combined with their large numbers, resulted in a legacy of change as they moved through the decades of their lives.

Where are they now? One of the reasons you are starting to hear less about the Baby Boom Generation is that they are exiting the workforce. This started in the mid 2000’s when the oldest Baby Boomers were reaching their mid-60s. By 2020, when the youngest Baby Boomers, born in 1960, are 60 years old, most in that generation will have left the workplace, and those still working will represent a small minority of the workforce. One way to visualize this late stage of the Baby Boom generation “ripple” through the age brackets of the population is with a population pyramid of Michigan. The one at right shows the relative size of each 5 year increment age group in 2016. Baby Boomers are in the horizontal bars near the top (oldest age increments) of the pyramid.

Millennials: The New “Prime Time” Generation The second generation to follow the Baby Boom, the Millennials (born 1982-2004), is another large generation. And like the Baby Boom, their archetype (Civic) is one that has tended to usher in a lot of change, for different reasons and in different ways, but change none-the-less. This is part of the reason why there is an increasing amount of news about the preferences, perceptions, purchasing power, and politics of this generation, even as the news about the Baby Boomers fades away.

So What? Whether you are a business, a non-profit organization, or a government agency, the differences among the generations are driving, and will drive, changes in both your customer base and your employee and volunteer pools. Social scientists, businesses, marketers, and political parties are finding out, or already know, about the differences between Baby Boomers and Millennials, as well as The Silent Generation (born 1925-1942), Generation X (born 1961 – 1981), and Generation Z (born 2005-??). What do you know about these generations? More importantly, how has, or could, that knowledge influence your strategies and practices? What could it mean to your marketing (messages, channels), your portfolio of services and products (key quality characteristics, preferences), and HR strategy (recruitment & retention, rewards & recognition)?

Where to Start? I have a short “Primer” Presentation on Generations: Their Impact on The Market and The Workplace. I can also provide you with data on the generational composition of your market or service area and your employees and volunteers. More importantly, I can help you use this information to fine tune your strategies and policies. Contact me to set up a free initial consultation about how understanding Generations can help your organization.

Jeff

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¹ As described by authors William Strauss and Neil Howe in their books Generations (1991) and The Fourth Turning (1997), and in their consultancy.

In Focus Groups, we are usually asking questions about a current product or service or one that is in development. However, they can be an effective tool for learning more about what unmet needs and wants your customers may have. Going further, they can help you and your customers begin to identify needs and wants they will have, in the future. Think for a moment how valuable it would be to understand emerging and even future customer needs now, giving you the lead time you need for product development, refinement, and introduction to market. Want to stay ahead of the customer need curve? Here’s how Focus Groups can help.

The Right Tool: A Focus Group is a unique and powerful Listening Post. There are many other Listening Posts (ways to hear from customers), such as surveys, interviews, comment cards, and advisory panels. Each has strengths and weaknesses and so each works best in different situations. Some are designed for qualitative research while others work well for quantitative research. Focus Groups are designed for obtaining qualitative information and are unique in the nature and depth of information they can provide. By working with a small group of people (as opposed to interviewing just one at a time), it is possible to facilitate a dialogue among participants where they react to and build on each other comments. This leads to a deeper level of insight and more detailed articulation of thoughts and ideas on a given topic. You can read more about Focus Groups and other Listening Posts on my web site.

The Right Questions: The key element of a Focus Group is the prepared set of questions that will be asked by the Moderator. The research goal behind most Focus Groups is to obtain customer knowledge about a current service or product, and they can be helpful at all stages of a service or product life cycle. In the design stage, they can help you learn more about key customer requirements and drivers of satisfaction. During product refinement, they can provide feedback about the appeal of a prototype or specific design features. As you approach service introduction or product launch, they can be invaluable in the design and finalization of marketing strategies and campaigns, focusing on key messaging and perceptions regarding both mediums and message. With existing services and products, they are often used to gain a deeper understanding of what customers like the most, what disappoints them, and what else they would like to see, and why. In short, the research objectives drive the nature of the questions.

This opens up another possibility that I have started to see incorporated into the research objectives, and therefore the line of questioning, in more and more Focus Groups. That is, to find out what customers may want next. Asking customers several open-ended questions about what other products or services would be of interest, and how the sponsoring organization could be of more help to them, is not without challenges. It can take time to get the group into a productive conversation and not all ideas may prove that helpful. However, a good dialogue invariably leads to the identification at least several possibilities, sometimes to the surprise and delight of the participants themselves as they begin to clarify and articulate a true want or need that they may not have thought much about until that moment.

The Right Answer: This kind of information can be the beginning, not the end, of new service or product development. It would be important to add other kinds of research and information to the Focus Group findings, all part of the innovation and product/service development process. However, beginning that process with customer knowledge, obtained directly from customers, is always a good place to start. Keeping a continued focus on these early customer thoughts and then adding research and development will lead to a service or product that is designed to meet an emerging customer need.

Customer needs, wants, and expectations are changing rapidly, fueled by the emergence of e-commerce, the growing influence of millennials, mass customization, and other megatrends. For example, think about how the e-commerce innovator and giant, Amazon, is influencing expectations around price and availability. (For an appetizer on this subject, check out this short article recommended to me by my good friend and marketing whiz, Deidra McClelland). Rather than trying to keep up with customer interests, maybe it’s time to get ahead of them. If you would like to leverage Focus Groups to learn about what your customers will want next, or to fulfill other research objectives, contact me at your convenience.

Jeff

As the calendar year draws to a close in December, you’ll probably find yourself getting into review mode. If December is also the end of your fiscal year, the review will likely be pretty structured and include financials, operating measures, and organizational and personal objectives.  Even if it’s not the end of your fiscal year, you may very well find yourself in a reflective mood and engaged in some kind of informal assessment of 2017.  It’s the mood of the season.  What did we accomplish?  What have we learned?  What do we want to change in 2018?

Go with the Flow: Even though our schedule is especially tight during the holidays, December and January are excellent months to plan for and undertake a structured review of performance, for several reasons:

• For many organizations, it is the end of a fiscal year. For those with a July-June fiscal year, it is the half-way point. And for most of the rest with a fiscal year ending in September, it is the end of the first quarter, which is a great time to pause and assess how the new fiscal year has started. There is still time to make adjustments.
• Even if it is not the end of your fiscal year, it is the end of it for many other organizations. That means those organizations will be rolling out new initiatives and making subtle, or not so subtle, shifts in focus. The first quarter of the calendar year can be a period of significant change in your market and in your industry.
• In December, many associations and research organizations release “year in review” reports and “annual forecasts” for the new year, providing an annual spike in fresh industry and market information.

A Balanced Review: So the timing is right.  But what should you include in your year-end review?  Apart from the obvious financial and operating performance measures and objectives, most organizations readily take stock of accomplishments.  And that’s a good idea.  However, take a look at failures as well. What tactics were abandoned, becouse they did not turn out to be as important as originally thought, or they just weren’t feasible?  What strategies failed?  And most importantly, what did we learn from these failures?  Did you conduct any kind of Lessons Learned review?  If not, it’s probably not too late.  For many organizations, the knowledge gained from failure analysis sometimes leads to their most successful innovations.

The Bigger Picture: So in your review, include the usual performance measures, successes and failures, and one more focus: alignment.  Alignment has two components.  First, is your purpose (mission statement) and your desired future state (vision or goals) still aligning with the needs of your marketplace and customer and the direction of your industry?  Remember those “year in review” and “annual forecasts” publications I mentioned earlier?  And secondly, do you have alignment within your own organization, between the purpose (mission), desired future state (vision / goals), and the latest thinking around the Tactics that will get you there.  Tactics are the most fluid part of the Strategic Plan.  Taking it further, does your strategic direction still align with your financial health (how are we doing?), feedback from your customers (what are they telling you), and the culture you are creating (what values would be catalysts to your vision/goals)?

Looking Back to Move Forward: In all of your review, don’t lose sight of one of the main reasons for review: creating something better.  The clear perspective on where you are at, your current organizational status, will enable you to make better decisions about the scope, pace, and extent of change to undertake in the upcoming months.  Should you add tactics related to a particular goal?  Can you afford more infrastructure investment than you thought, or less?  Is there an emerging trend in your industry that you need to better leverage?  With a well-designed year-end review, you’ll know where you’ve been, but you will also know better where you can go.  Reviews, then, can be a critical component of readiness assessment.

If you would like help designing, preparing for, or facilitating a productive year-end review, contact me at your convenience.

A good friend and colleague of mine has the following quote at the end of his e-mail signature block:

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”     – Anotoine De Saint-Exupery

As a consultant specializing in Strategic Planning, you can well imagine how much I like this quote. It is a great endorsement of the value of a plan.  And while I would be among the first to espouse the benefits of having a good plan, a plan is just a beginning.

The End of the Beginning Some of you who have endured long and arduous Strategic Planning processes might be dismayed with this concept.  “You mean after all that work, we are just getting started?  I was ready to celebrate crossing the finish line.”  Don’t get me wrong.  Completing a well-developed Strategic Plan is definitely a milestone.  But it is still only a plan.  It will take deployment, execution, measurement, reviews, modification, and more execution and measurement to realize any of the Goals or Vision embodied in the Plan.

Things Change...Faster than Ever Some of that work involves implementing tactics as identified in the initial plan document.  However, we all know the pace of change is faster than ever.  So it stands to reason that some of those initial tactics may have a limited shelf life.  At any time, change in the industry, your market place, or in customer preferences may dictate that some of the original tactics be re-evaluated and/or others be added to your Plan.

Go Beyond the “Plan” When viewed this way, the finalization of a three year Strategic Plan document really is just the beginning of three years of work.  But without this work, it is doubtful anything will really change.  So, if you are starting off the New Year with a New Plan, congratulations.  But know that the real work, the work that will ultimately result in change, is just beginning.  If I were going to try to come up with a quote that captures this aspect of Strategic Planning, and pattern it after the one above, it might be something like “A Plan without implementation is just a proposal.”

If I can help take your plan beyond proposal to reality, with deployment, execution tools, measurement systems, a review process, or tactics, contact me at your convenience.

Jeff