There Is A Time To Be Born And A Time To Die - Correct Timing Is Everything

By: Mike Teng
Submitted: 2007-01-17 15:36:26
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There is a time to be born and a time to die. Correct timing is everything The right timing is absolutely important. There is an old Chinese saying that for a business to flourish, you need to have the correct timing.

If a company ventures into a particular market too early in the product life cycle, perhaps at the introduction stage, it may not be able to reap the full benefits. The grounds may be hard and it has to invest substantial resources into developing the market. In the process, the early entrants may end up paying the high “tuition” fees as they will make all the mistakes. A case in point is the early pioneers of companies into China as most of them lost money because China’s business infrastructure was very backward then.

However, if the company enters the market too late, for instance at the saturation or decline stage in the product life cycle, it runs the risk of curtailing its future growth potential as competition will be very intense. Examples include the many dot.coms and telecom start-up companies. They seemed to make a lot of sense then – proven leaders with real assets and business plans. The timing was bad as the high tech stock collapsed in the early 2000s.

The best time to enter the market is during its growth stage. The ability to recognise this opportunity and take timely action is also important. Both IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation had better access to the technology than Bill Gates and Paul Allen. These giants recognise the opportunity but only limit their scope of their technology to serving their existing corporate customers with their existing and constantly upgraded products.

Consequently, both companies did not recognise the timing to take the actions and missed the PCs precursors – the dedicated electronic word processors that made Wang Computers successful. The latter missed the timing and did not see that personal computers could replace word processors by executing far more functions than wordprocessing. Microsoft saw the timing and opportunity.

No one at IBM, DEC or Wang Computers took much notice of the MITS Altair 8800: the “World’s First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models”. That headline in Popular Electronics magazine in January 1974inspired Gates and Allen to write a version of the well-known BASIC computer knowledge for the machine to run on. The rest is history. In the book, The Road Ahead, Bill Gates remarked: “Getting in on the first stages of the PC revolution looked like the opportunity of a lifetime, and we seized it.”

It is therefore important to identify the right timing and trend. One must however not mistake fad for trend. Trends are unstoppable and last much longer than fads. In the 1970s, it was the microwave technology, in the 1980s, the VCR and the 1990s, the PCs and the Internet. In the 2000s, we expect it to be the wellness technology to be sweeping the corporate world. The “corporate wellness” as well as “physical wellness” will also become the trendsetters. Therefore be prepared as Neil Peart said: “Luck comes when preparation meets opportunity.”

There is a season for everything. Timing is everything.

www.corporateturnaroundexpert.com

Dr Mike Teng (DBA, MBA, BEng, FIMechE, FIEE, CEng, PEng, FCMI, FCIM, SMCS) is the author of the best-selling business book “Corporate Turnaround: Nursing a sick company back to health”, in 2002. In 2006, he authored another book entitled, “Corporate Wellness: 101 Principles in Turnaround and Transformation.” Dr Teng is widely recognized as a turnaround CEO in Asia by the news media. He has 27 years of experience in corporate responsibilities in the Asia Pacific region. Of these, he held Chief Executive Officer’s positions for 17 years in multi-national, local and publicly listed companies. He led in the successful turnaround of several troubled companies. He is currently the Managing Director of a business advisory firm, Corporate Turnaround Centre Pte Ltd, (www.corporateturnaroundcentre.com)which assists companies on a fast track to financial performance. Dr Teng was the President of the Marketing Institute of Singapore (2000 – 2004), the national body representing some 5000 individual and corporate marketing professionals.

Article source: Expert Articles

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