On 5-6th December, 2014, SABRE and TCL group jointly held the first test lecture course before authentication on SABRE Simulation program. This program was held by TCL Multi-Media Group, directed by TCL Group-Leadership Development Course and empowered by SABRE Simulation. Most students of the program were product managers from Multi-Media industry with the purpose of strategy thinking transition from product orientation to market orientation. To ensure the wish, strategy, products, segmentation and positioning can be effectively conveyed and executed, as a core member, the strategy thinking of a product manager plays an important part in it. Thus, “Promoting the ability of product managers” is listed as a very important program.
The three-day courses are taught unitedly by Wareen, vice president of the Multi-Media Group, Yang Anming, finance general manager and Aaron, general manager of the subsidiary. It was also supported by the management of TCL. Xufang, vice president of the group also arrived and shared the further meaning behind “You will see it because of belief.” She also expressed earnest wishes to the product managers. All of the product managers were full of passion after hearing the inspiration of Ying’ma.
The students were divided into different groups. Each group will run the companies at business circumstance. They were asked to maximize the net benefits after six rounds’ decisions (equal to six years’ business running) using strategy planning. At the end, the students all felt not enough with the experience, so the teachers decided to add two more rounds’ simulation competition. Finally, Team 4 won the competition after six rounds’ simulation and was awarded with mystic gifts and bonus provided by teacher Anming.
Here includes some of this course’s modules:
1.Strategy Planning Procedure: Why do we need strategy? Because the recourse are limited, we have to put them to stages where have the most possibility to pay back. This module contains four steps: Marketing SWOT analysis, find the wish, orientate strategy, develop strategy and execute strategy. It points out that SWOT analysis is used for the prediction of the present situation, however, the management of segment, positioning and combination are for the future. Meanwhile, teacher Aaron analyzed the relationship between sustainable competition advantages and the market gap. He also gave a case indicating the wish of CSOT for further study.
2.Segmentation: Analysis of customer purchasing factors. Segmentation based on current situation of product is tactical. You will look for the best group of clients. Segmentation based on future trend of product is strategic. You will look for the most attractive targets and provide different service for the targets. The course will also analyze the actual combats using the segmentation tools. Using the simulation, the students will get to know the importance of focusing segmentation and have a further understand of the eight tools for segmentation.
3.Positioning: How to create different positioning based on the physical and perceptual attributes to attract different customers? The purpose of positioning is to help the enterprise stand out from the competitors in its segmentation market. Strategy for positioning is very important, especially for a product which is tend to be the same as the others. Competitive differentiator will help an enterprise gain higher market share and benefits. The course also discussed the procedure for a customer to trade-off and how to find your own differentiator compared with your competitors. In the end of the first day training, Warren, vice president of Multi-Media group, led the students review the strategy and do the summarizes and reconsiders based on the day’s actual business situation. He also guided the students how to use the content in their actual working situation.
4.The trace of combination strategy and the developing strategy of finance: Use the BCG matrix and its Inverse logarithm to plot the area of “question mark, super star, golden calf and skinny puppy” and the influence of the enterprise’s investment and return.
5.Strategy Combination: The course described the wish, strategy, tactics and implementation. How to infiltrate layer-by-layer and correlate the team in different districts or layers to execute the highest strategy decisions. They also do the analysis based on the marginal benefit curve of performance and inspiration. Meanwhile, teacher Anming shared the financial core of running an enterprise with the students in a very deep layer.
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After the program came to an end, the TCL organizers indicated that the students gave a high evaluation of both the content and the teachers of the training program. They said that taking part of this program brought them a lot in strategy planning procedure, strategy segmentation, positioning, product’s strategy combination, strategic integration and so on. What’s more, besides promoting their strategic systematic thinking ability, it also helped a lot for their future work.