As I begin to read over my classmate’s posts, I realize that their experiences are similar to mine and my teammate’s as we progress through the simulation.  They all seem to say what an experience that this has been thus far and I can attest that my team’s experiences are similar.  Kristen, I would have a tendency to believe that my teammates would concur with me that we concur with you regarding your statement of the importance of the marketing update report.  I believe that my team kept a constant eye on it at every move…not that it was easy watching every factor change and trying to keep up with those changes.

Push strategies and pull strategies seem to be the primary topic of the majority of posts.  Mindy, Kenny, Andrew, Justin…the list goes on and on of all of the people who mentioned the push/pull strategy.  Even I made mention of the push/pull strategy.  Now that we are all familiar with the push/pull strategy, I have a question.  Why do you think that the automobile industry was used as a primary example by the majority of people?  Just something to ponder…..

As I peruse the McKinsey Report Executive Summary (I hate to admit this, but if I was an executive, I personally would have trouble sitting down and digesting the entire 32 pages in one sitting…let alone the 168 page full report)  I see many  aspects of our class reflected within it.  Economic impacts, estimations, benefits, distributions….  A very interesting report chock full of information!

“Let’s face it, everyone is uncomfortable with change.” 

(Cohen, p.139)

In Cohen's book, he points out the fact that even though the Wright Brothers introduced a powered aircraft in 1903 and approached the United States Military with the idea, they waited four years before they opted to test it.  Maybe the concept finally got through to the military that other countries had already purchased a plane or two.  Or was it simply a resistance to change? 

To be honest, I can see how a resistance to change would come into play in this situation.  At the turn-of-the-century, yes I'm talking about into the 20th Century; it was probably a very difficult concept to imagine a metal tube with wings flying high above the earth.  I can see it now, as people go about their daily lives tending to the cattle and feeding the pigs, they suddenly hear an unfamiliar noise and wonder where it's coming from.  They can't quite figure it out until they look up in the sky and see a UFO, except that it is actually an IFO (identified flying object).  It would probably be similar to our concepts regarding flying saucers, Sasquatch, and alien abduction.  I don’t think that I would want to be one of the Wright Brother’s neighbors at the time because I would probably think that they were crazy. 

But looking at the target market that the Wright Brothers approached, I do believe that they were correct.  The market segment was correct, too.  The Wright Brothers definitely had a competitive advantage but a very small marketplace with a huge potential to grow.  But this was not a mass market, like in Pharmasim.  It was in a stage of preliminary development, but I don’t think that the Wright Brothers knew that quite yet, for that matter, I don’t think that the Competitive Advantage Matrix analysis existed, either.  The problem with the Wright Brothers target market was that the market, or the consumer, or the buyer (okay-let’s simplify this: the person who made the decisions) got it wrong…all wrong.    

On a side note:  How many people get the Smith Brother’s and the Wright Brother’s images mixed up in their mind?  The Smith Brothers made cough drops and the Wright Brothers made planes.  But using hindsight as a guide, imagine the potential of a product extension and growth opportunities!  A product linkage is already made subconsciously among many people but I will let you be the judge:  

 

Change is omnipresent, no matter where you are or what you are involved with.  It seems though, that change is more present within my life of recent.  As most of you know, we are rapidly approaching the arrival of a new bundle of joy.  Well, as most people can figure out, a ton of disposable diapers will be necessary in my house.

With both my mother and my mother in law currently assisting us and living with us, I am subjected to many stories. One of those stories included diapers. It was odd, that I almost felt like they were ganging up on me as they told me the story of cloth diapers.  It went kinda like this: A tradition of using pure cotton cloth, in order to protect a baby's sensitive skin, was in place.  Rather than simply open up the trash can and toss away the soiled cloth, they were rinsed out and reused.  Over and over and over and over again.

Now I am sure that I am not telling anyone here something that they don't already know, especially about cloth diapers relative to disposable diapers.  But, according to my mother and mother-in-law, the transition from cloth diapers to disposable diapers within each of their communities is still ongoing.  Is this a resistance to change?  Possibly.  Even though the disposable diaper is very popular within many cultures, many people are still highly uncomfortable with the use of disposable diapers.  As well, debates happen all of the time as to the naturalness of cotton in relationship to the types of materials that are used in disposable diapers.  But I for one, am extremely glad for the advent of the disposable diaper and as a household of two little ones (okay...you caught me jumping the gun, but I figured that I would include the newborn since I don't know when you will be reading this just like I don't know when she will be born) support the change to disposability.  And don’t expect me to abandon it anytime soon…