{"id":766,"date":"2011-04-25T09:43:44","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T16:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=766"},"modified":"2011-04-25T09:43:44","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T16:43:44","slug":"contribute-to-a-m-d-or-support-someone-who-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=766","title":{"rendered":"Contribute to A-M-D, or support someone who does."},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong><em>A<\/em><\/strong><em>.\u00a0 Accumulate or acquire (product line, breadth of services)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>M<\/em><\/strong><em>. Marketing or merchandising (expert and diligent use of resources) <\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>D<\/em><\/strong><em>. Distribution\u00a0 (adding channels and reinforcing relationships)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let me credit CEO Erik Hovanec (<a title=\"LeisureLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.leisurelink.com\">www.leisurelink.com<\/a>) for this one, whether he originated it or recast it from his past.\u00a0 As his chairman, I have watched him masterfully focus his\u00a0employees all toward a common theme aligned with the company\u2019s goals.\u00a0 The genius of this insight is that no employee is exempt, even those in accounting or human resources.\u00a0 Everyone supports the contribution to AMD in some way, or, according to Erik\u2019s challenge, should not be here breathing the air, taking valuable space and consuming scarce resources.<\/p>\n<p>People in R&amp;D, business development, purchasing or production all fit in to the \u201cA\u201d of the equation.\u00a0 Without constantly improving or increasing products to offer, a company today is quickly overtaken by its competition.\u00a0 Stagnant companies usually can trace their inability to gain market share upon the \u201cA\u201d area first, and management should pay particular attention to putting resources into this important focus of the company.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>[Email readers continue here&#8230;] <\/em><\/span>Without the \u201cM\u201d, effective marketing and or merchandising, sales people and distribution channels quickly dry of leads and must fight for attention beside better branded competitors.\u00a0 Marketing is the area least understood, often least funded, and perhaps one of the most important within any company.\u00a0 Even with the best products or service, companies fail for the want of good marketing.<\/p>\n<p>For many industries including those with Internet-based sales entities, you cannot have enough channels of distribution, the \u201cD\u201d in this insight.\u00a0 Some management will argue that channel conflict is one of the worst ways to lose the loyalty of distributor and direct sales resources.\u00a0 I\u2019d counter that a cohesive distribution strategy calls for a coordination between inside and outside distribution resources by management, not a competition for customers using inside resources to compete with outside distribution.\u00a0 There are many ways to allocate or split a product or service in the marketplace: by size of customer, geographic location, market segment, or even agreed-upon rules to protect open competition between the distribution groups.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, a company must create a unique brand to self-distribute in competition with other distribution resources.\u00a0 Many manufacturers have successfully created \u201cOEM\u201d labels for branded retailers wanting to distribute under the retailer brand, without disturbing other distribution channels.\u00a0 And many wholesalers have successfully created a new self-managed retail brand for direct distribution in competition with current retail distribution channels.<\/p>\n<p>Focusing your entire staff on a simple, understandable set of functions in support of the goal is a masterful way to increase productivity, create urgency and measure contribution of individuals to the common good.\u00a0 Remember: A-M-D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A.\u00a0 Accumulate or acquire (product line, breadth of services) M. Marketing or merchandising (expert and diligent use of resources) D. Distribution\u00a0 (adding channels and reinforcing relationships) Let me credit CEO Erik Hovanec (www.leisurelink.com) for this one, whether he originated it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=766\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growth","category-surrounding-yourself-with-talent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}