Page 42 - HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategic Marketing

MARKETING MYOPIA
Idea in Practice

We put our businesses at risk of smaller, newer companies that
obsolescence when we accept any are focusing on customer needs
of the following myths: rather than the products
Myth 1: An ever-expanding and themselves.
more affluent population will Myth 3: We can protect ourselves
ensure our growth. through mass production.
When markets are expanding, we Few of us can resist the prospect
often assume we don’t have to of the increased profits that come
think imaginatively about our busi- with steeply declining unit costs.
nesses. Instead, we seek to outdo But focusing on mass production
rivals simply by improving on what emphasizes our company’s
we’re already doing. The conse- needs—when we should be
quence: We increase the efficiency emphasizing our customers’.
of making our products, rather Myth 4: Technical research and
than boosting the value those development will ensure our
products deliver to customers.
growth.
Myth 2: There is no competitive
substitute for our industry’s When R&D produces breakthrough
major product. products, we may be tempted to
organize our companies around
Believing that our products have no the technology rather than the
rivals makes our companies vulner- consumer. Instead, we should
able to dramatic innovations from remain focused on satisfying
outside our industries—often by customer needs.

industry or a product or a cluster of know-how so narrowly as to
guarantee its premature senescence. When we mention “railroads,”
we should make sure we mean “transportation.” As transporters, the
railroads still have a good chance for very considerable growth. They
are not limited to the railroad business as such (though in my opin-
ion, rail transportation is potentially a much stronger transportation
medium than is generally believed).
What the railroads lack is not opportunity but some of the mana-
gerial imaginativeness and audacity that made them great. Even an
amateur like Jacques Barzun can see what is lacking when he says,
“I grieve to see the most advanced physical and social organization

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