The Oliver Wight Class A Standard for Business Excellence, 7th Edition

6Managing Market Demand

Purpose

To deploy the Value Proposition to the marketplace to achieve Strategic Business Objectives. To ensure the market needs are understood with effective response from the organization and its partners. To deliver financial goals enabled though sustained Class A capability and performance.

Positioning

Market Demand Management encompasses how the business meets the needs, wants, and expectations of customers wherever they reside in the Value Chain.

Process maturity improves over time through education, committed leadership, expert guidance, and a focused effort to attain key business milestones.

Many companies begin their Class A improvement journey in a disconnected state, marked by functional silos, defensive behaviors, a disproportionate focus on the past, and a lack of clarity about the future. After embarking on the path to improvement, accountabilities are assigned, the elements and characteristics of the processes are implemented, and targeted measures drive improvement to enable process transformation.

Done well, a Class A Milestone is achieved at the top of Phase 1 of Business Maturity (see Foundation, Figure I.1). At this stage, formal Market Segmentation is defined, the consensus Demand Plan is based on multiple views, bias has been eliminated, and Demand Plan accuracy is improving. Volume, value, and margin are integrated and aligned, underpinned by assumptions, analytics, knowledge of vulnerability, and opportunity management supported ...