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One fine day we walked into an office conference room where all the Vice Presidents and others were gathered to discuss a new product line. The potential impact on the company would be enormous. We were looking at a brand new line, in a new market niche they had never sold before, in a retail channel not completely familiar to them. We put forth a great effort to get them to understand that every decision made now will affect the outcome later.
We were all in agreement to examine the best product mix, style and approach to producing an intelligent integrated line in a niche nobody had every coordinated in the past. The future looked very bright. Until the CEO came in wearing his beach shorts and rudely took over the meeting. Instead of listening to any of the presentation and asking questions he just started dictating what colors and looks he wanted to see in the line. He didn't care about research or what would work. He just wanted to go with his gut feeling. While Rivette Marketing Group had planned to deliver the entire line in a record six weeks time for initial review, and had constructed a flow chart to achieve that goal, the CEO decided he was going away and might not be in touch much.
So decisions were made in the best interest of the company. The line was crafted, revised, mixed, redesigned, and many schemes were examined. In the end the information became almost convoluted and people who had no real talent for getting the line finalized were given responsibility for the finished look. The line was passable but not the standard we desired nor what the consumer would expect according to research.
The CEO kept his hands off until the end when he threw out everything and started tinkering with it himself. After many revisions the line essentially ended up where it began, with much of the work appearing as RMG initially suggested. Now the story might end there except that while the line was being sampled and produced, the CEO made some other instinctual decisions which cost the company dearly.
His basic instincts, which were questionable at best, and lack of attention to anybody but himself, caused the company to close. A few hundred people were unemployed, a factory was idled and the entire firm, including other lines developed over several years of hard work, and the millions in income attendant with them - disappeared. Overnight, the company vanished into the ether the CEO created in the wake of his machinations. We tried to warn him but he ignored the advice.
And that his how even a great product can be killed at birth.
If you are ready to listen to someone other than yourself, call RMG for some honest answers to tough questions. Come see the world from another point of view and enjoy the ride, because our specific ideas create tangible results.