The launch and take-off of a range of successful new products and services caused a small high-energy company to develop a different identity. The company started life as a theatrical production agency, mounting shows and booking entertainers on various international circuits. Then it diversified, notably in the design, manufacture, sale and hire of specialist clothes. Most of its business now derived from this latter source. People at all levels participated in several aspects of the business rather than over-specialised.
USING PRIORITIES The Management Board undertook Priorities to decide, or perhaps come to terms with the rather unplanned changes of direction and identity in which they were involved. They evolved priorities among the 6 main product and service lines which constituted the company business (Table 1).
Although each member eventually emerged acceptably consistent, they each went through considerable mental adjustments in completing the Priorities exercise. For they remained emotionally straitjacketed by their commitment to their initial business (theatrical production), which was declining relative to their more recent business endeavours in other directions. Although each run of Priorities was completed in 15 minutes or so, they found themselves recycling the exercises, with significant discussions between times. The process of arriving at a higher level of team agreement was achieved less by mutual conversion than by Board members gradually reorienting themselves to the new business situation in which they found themselves.
Only once they had worked out this agreed balance of goods and services produced and sold by the business, were they able to consistently decide priorities between the different functions by which the business ran (Table 2).
COMPANY PLANS The company thus evolved two sets of priorities – for product/service lines (Table 1) and for internal company functions (Table 2). Taken together, these priorities consitituted a business plan which established the priority constituted a business plan which established the priority of any one of the myriad product lines, services and projects which they handled daily. Thus priorities would have to be established between, for example, mounting a new show (Entertainment section), manufacturing a new line of children’s jokes (Novelty Goods), extending the range of costume hire using new agents (Costume hire), developing a new adult fashion line (Wholesale fashion), and costuming a television commercial (Media Creations).
A MARKETING DECISION The Managing and Marketing Directors addressed the specific issue of how to find a market for a new product line. (The first steps in their consideration are illustrated in Tables 3-4.)
Both Directors’ initial judgements between the 5 tactics for locating a market for the new product line were questionable (Tables 3 and 4). They were both significantly inconsistent and their priorities conflicted. Note that Priorities took their variable influence into account when calculating the combined priorities (Table 5).
As illustrated, they were both inconsistent in respect of the same 3 tactics. From their judgement analysis of options, Priorities validly inferred that they both evaluated research as significantly more effective in finding a market for their new product than either advertisement or contracted marketing (by between 5 and 6 points). This logically implied that they rated advertisement and contracted marketing as of more or less equal low priority (with about 1 point difference between them). However, when Priorities had them evaluate the relative effectiveness of advertisement and contracting out directly, they both evaluated advertisement as warranting significantly more priority (by 6 and 8 points respectively).
In fact, this indicated their ambivalence towards advertising, which they reluctantly recognized on close analysis as a practical necessity despite the results they had so often achieved by others tactics in their particular business. The two deciders revised their priorities by correcting their main inconsistencies (Tables 3 and 4).
The results pinpointed the need for the two deciders to
SUMMARY Priorities essentially served the purpose of redefining this firm’s goals, market orientation and identity, helping the mental-emotional adjustments to their changed situation with a more rational approach to their daily decisions. This rather general benefit tangibly increased profits, with the secondary effect of clarifying and improving the structure of work and organization.