Your Independent Assessment Result

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Your Independent Assessment Results:

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Business/Case: Sample Case

Market Type Description:
The responses you gave to the assessment questions would indicate that your organization is presently operating in the Jungle Market.

General Description:

Jungle markets combine two of the most difficult marketing situations. On the one hand margins are under considerable pressure. On the other, companies have great difficulty positioning, monitoring, and controlling products and services. Products and services in a jungle market are expected to have both high quality and low cost; yet they remain complex and difficult to produce and distribute, not to mention the influence of competitive forces. Years ago this situation was to be avoided. The assumption was that such an environment usually meant the death of the product, service, or organization, unless the company was very well funded. Today, however, the jungle is the norm. What patents used to protect may now be in competition with a new "me-too" product that skirts the patent through clever use of technology. Ultimately, winners emerge and losers disappear.

In this market:
· Companies use considerable energy, trying to increase efficiency, reduce cost and waste, and find significant differentiation advantages in their products.
· Attention is focused on delivering products and services that are perceived as adding significant value to the customer, either in the product itself, or in its delivery (distribution), or both.
· Companies are concerned with finding and securing enough points of distribution to gain an advantage over their competitors. Often these are expensive and difficult to maintain, and resources are drained. Information technology is used to limit the energy drain.
· In a jungle environment each company hunts for an advantage along one (or more) of three generic paths: product-advantage (to differentiate its products and services effectively within the minds and hearts of customers); niche-advantage (to target a distinctly defined customer segment with dedicated attention to its specific needs for quality); and cost-advantage (to be the lowest cost producer in order to maintain profitability amidst eroding margins). (See Michael Porter, "Competitive Strategies: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors", The Free Press, 1980, pages 40-41.) That latter cost-advantage path, however, is more commonly chosen by those engaged in Battlefield markets.
· As most products become known, accepted, and used, they eventually drift out of this market environment.
· As the product becomes easier to bring to market, the players in the industry begin to consolidate in the struggle to profitably produce and/or deliver it.

Price:
· Price is continuously attacked by the competition and is constantly eroding without some distinctive quality innovation
· Internal costs escalate, putting further pressure on eroding profit margins.

Promotion:
· Marketing campaigns commonly attempt to distinguished real and perceived product and service quality differentiators.
· Campaigns targeted at uniquely defined customer niches succeed to the extent that they are in tune with their customers' needs.

Product:
· Products mature in this market over time. They must be surrounded with new products that support them continuously.
· The greatest need for marketing innovation exists in this market. It may be difficult to show differentiation, but it is absolutely essential for those companies who choose not to compete either on the basis of being the most efficient low-cost producer or in only limited market niches.

Place:
· Battles over distribution are epic in this market. It is essential to find an efficient, yet all encompassing system to support the products and services being delivered.

Market Characteristics:
· Your score indicates that you are in the most advantageous part of the Jungle Market.
· You have kept close contact with customers and their needs.
· You have strategies in place to compete on the basis of quality and attention to customer needs.
· You exhibit sufficient innovation to be able to charge significant prices and attain the needed margins for the R&D needed to spawn future growth.
· Your cost control methods are excellent. You are in a good position to move into any of the other market environments if the opportunity presents itself.

Responses that are incongruent with the majority of the responses within the market group of questions: (see your emailed results for a list of the questions)
· Question 14
· Question 19
· Question 27

Organization Type Description:
The responses you gave to the assessment questionnaire would indicate that your company is operating as a Ruler Organization.

General Description:

Rulers need to concentrate on fulfilling whatever demands are driving the market in order to respond to a Kingdom Market environment. Minimal external customer data are needed, except those that determine delivery goals. Little information about competitors is required, except when there are serious attempts to encroach on the market

In short, a ruler can function well almost entirely on internal ideas. The big issue usually involves figuring out ways to cope with demand. Since the demand is so great, quality is usually improved slowly, whenever sufficient time and resources are available. Many problems are simply solved financially - e.g., by hiring the most talented people, buying up competitors, etc.

These companies should be organized according to function, in order to fulfill demand as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. At all levels above line management, people should be expected to act more or less independently, though teams might be used for some specific activities, such as new product development. There normally is little sharing of costs or responsibilities and little cross-company development, since these are unnecessary (and, typically, difficult and costly). What interdependence there may be is initiated and supported by management decree. However, in such organizations it is difficult and expensive to achieve much interdependence across functional lines

LEADERSHIP:
· There is a definite vertical structure where "rank has its privilege."
· Hierarchical power is very strong; the focus is on control.
· Leaders use their power to motivate everyone to support the strategy.

SALES/MARKETING:
· Rulers concentrate on holding strong market positions that allow them to dictate the rules in the market.
· More organizational effort goes into fulfilling orders than into developing complex marketing strategies
· A primary goal is to deliver goods effectively.
· Market research teams track external forces and competition mainly to dominate them.

STRATEGY:
· Simply stated, market domination is the goal.
· Meet market demand for present and new products.
· Crush or buy the competition when a threat arises.

HUMAN RESOURCES/ORGANIZATION:
· The organizational culture is reflective of a traditional type of bureaucracy with many opportunities for somewhat independent leadership.
· The organization is built to support such strong functions as operations (manufacturing), sales, research and development, etc.
· The corporate culture honors organizational history.

FINANCE:
· Resources are used to hire and retain the best talent, to keep new products in the pipeline, or to buy up competitors.
· Maximizing profits is the focus.
· Accumulating cash is a strong goal.

Organization Characteristics:
· This sub group is connected vertically to Warriors, and horizontally to Pioneers.
· Your organization is internally and functionally driven, with systems that integrate the interests of all the functions.
· Strong hierarchies, having increasingly common interests, are evident within an established bureaucracy.
· Your firm is somewhat open to external market and product needs.
· Organizational flexibility is evident, making it possible either to defend existing markets and/or take advantage of new opportunities.
· Resources are adequate to defend market positions.
· Cost controls are becoming more important.

Responses that are incongruent with the majority of the responses within the organization group of questions: (see your emailed results for a list of the questions)
· Question 16

Market/Organization Analysis:

Your organization type DOES NOT match with the market type.

RULER TO JUNGLE

Yours is a Ruler organization attempting to operate in a Jungle market.

Of course, one way to accomplish a "Perfect Business Match" is to change your market to fit your organization's archetypal leadership style, organizational structure, and corporate culture. It may be difficult to try to move into Kingdom markets to match your current Ruler organizational archetype, but you might want to consider this alternative.

Should you choose to adapt to the Jungle market, however, shifting to a Hunter organization will require a shift in orientation. The strategic intent of rulers is to keep products so well protected that they are never subjected to the kind of competition found in the jungle. In all likelihood, your company is designed to protect its interests, not to launch an attack on the market. Operating in the jungle will be intensely foreign to your culture.

The central change your organization needs to make is to learn to fight for a share of the market rather than to protect your lock on much or all of it. Entirely new behaviors in production and operations will be required. Change also means expending significant resources on studying and selecting your customers, so that you can concentrate on certain markets where you have a chance to dominate.

You may require major downsizing to reduce costs. You will also need to respond to external demands much more quickly and effectively.

Magnitude of change implications:
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

A near fit exists between your organization and its market. While nothing revolutionary needs to be done, continuous improvement is important for keeping your organization efficient, competitive, and strategically focused. These improvement efforts should follow a carefully crafted plan to keep them on-focus and in the forefront of everyday organizational life.