Changes in marketplace will force innovations

|tab|

The seeds of the future have been planted in the present; what harvest will they bear? Let's see if we can dig up the trends that will continue to grow and those that will die on the vine during 2000 in Springfield and surrounding communities.|ret||ret||tab|

Henry Ford christened the Industrial Age by laying down the foundations of mass production and made the Model T historically notable by offering it to his customers in any color they liked, as long as it was black. |ret||ret||tab|

This was acceptable at the time, due to the need in the American marketplace for better transportation and a lack of options. A better method of delivery for goods and services was needed during the horse-and-buggy days. And we all know what happened to the buggy manufacturers.|ret||ret||tab|

In the days of the AT&T monopoly, when the building blocks of the Information Age were laid, consumers were offered telephone service and could do anything you liked as long as it was to talk to someone else. But, then again, what else was there to do with it?|ret||ret||tab|

So, just as GM and Chrysler gave us options in the auto industry, the Internet has provided us with additional uses of the phone system. We now use our phones to e-mail, shop, do research and for entertainment. Are there any Springfield buggy manufacturing companies in this scenario? Look for big challenges to our communities' conventional wisdom as we christen a new millennium.|ret||ret||tab|

But similar to the fact that the Industrial Age was not just about making cars, the Internet is not just about computers. Remember? The Industrial Age was about a better method of delivery for goods and services. |ret||ret||tab|

The Information Age is also about a better method of delivery for goods and services, except the goods and services today are the information and communication themselves. In both cases, cars and computers are merely the most effective tools in our bag of resources to formulate solutions to manage our businesses in a changing, more competitive environment.|ret||ret||tab|

As the rapid pace of competitive pressure exerts influence on our strategic decision making, the need for immediate, comprehensive and accurate information about our businesses will be a critical issue in the year 2000 and well beyond. A better method of information delivery will definitely be a hot item.|ret||ret||tab|

These competitive pressures and a larger market focus have already, and will continue to, reshape the face of some of the services many of us use on a daily basis. For example, one of the largest locally owned Internet service providers (ISP) was recently purchased by a company billing itself as "the largest independent provider of Internet services in Missouri." You are now dealing with a regional company rather than a local company. This ISP is where many of our local businesses maintain a Web presence. Has this company's understanding of our local market changed?|ret||ret||tab|

Is this a good trend? Like it or not, it's here to stay. Should selection of services be judged on geographic location of ownership or on quality of service? Where is the best expertise in the latest emerging technologies? |ret||ret||tab|

The shortage of these much-needed skills will continue to present major challenges as new technologies become economically feasible in the Springfield market in 2000. Technologies such as Digital Subscriber Line and wide-area ATM networks will provide more effective communications to our small businesses that operate in a distributed environment. How do you decide which of these technologies is best for your business, and who will provide the technical support?|ret||ret||tab|

The available options to answer this question highlight the most pronounced, but mostly unnoticed, growth trend that during 2000 will begin to explode: the shift of our business management to highly specialized personnel outside, rather than inside, our companies.|ret||ret||tab|

Do you use any of the traditional services tax preparation, advertising and legal counsel which are being forced into redefining themselves due to changes in the marketplace? Have you noticed any legal advertising on television lately? Now, that's aggressive. Or has your ad agency offered you Web-page development?|ret||ret||tab|

Our business communities will see the introduction of countless additional options to be utilized in lieu of internal personnel, options such as human resource policy compliance and staffing services, OSHA and safety-program development, environmental regulatory compliance assistance, computer-aided product design, manufacturing plant layout and work-flow analysis, and, of course, the availability to train your employees in all of these specialties. You're now saying to yourself, "Yeah, so? These services have been available for some time now"?|ret||ret||tab|

Yes, they have, and I personally know people providing all of these services. But given their plans, what you have used so far barely scratches the surface. As we focus on becoming more customer-centric and becoming the best at what we do best, these types of services will be a way of life. In other words, our business management teams will not all be employees of one company. They will be from many companies, and the composition of personnel will depend upon the situation.|ret||ret||tab|

We will trim down and focus our businesses and develop business partnerships of a complementary nature, highlighting an ability to satisfy our customer's needs in an increasingly fragmenting, customer-driven market. The streamlining of our distribution channels will have manufacturers dealing more directly with their end-user customers, providing much more information about broader, more customized product selections. Wholesale and retail sales have been changed forever.|ret||ret||tab|

We compete in a global environment every day. So how will our local manufacturers manage their production schedules if more customized options to their products are offered as they respond to more complex customer demands? By doing what they do best producing and using specialists to assist them with the rest of the business management.|ret||ret||tab|

Inc. magazine didn't just pull names out of a hat in selecting the top 50 best small metro areas for starting and growing a business. These communities did it the hard way they earned it! And Springfield ranked 37th. |ret||ret||tab|

So, one last prediction I'd like to make with absolute certainty of its coming true: In today's marketplace, more than ever before, the customer is in the driver's seat and she's not driving a black Model T. |ret||ret||tab|

|bold_on|(Mike Banasik is the chairman of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Manufacturers Council.)|ret||ret||tab|

[[In-content Ad]]