CUSTOMERS ARE WISER

The months rolled by this year but not without teaching me a very significant lesson about customers. Several organizations think they know what their customers want, but the truth of the matter is that only the customers can specify their most invaluable choices. When a company that has a functionality to manufacture a seemingly high level product in the proficiency of their machines and just decides to produce for the market without considering market acceptability, the management had just chose to risk shareholders fund. There is no doubt that customers can decide to buy from the competitor because they know exactly what they want to buy. And this reason may be based on several sentiments from price, quality, to any other thing that the organization might have overlooked.

Recently, the global market continued to witness some customer restraints in the volume of purchases from retail outlets. This means a reflective reduction to the bulk sales. This recent reduction in consumers willing ability to spend money means that more customers will not buy on impulse. Customers buy based on sentimental attraction, though an average customer may deny the fact. This sentiment must be sustained for any wise organization to continue to increase profits. A product that is fascinating enough to make the buyer part with his money is the trick. However, we can only know this product by first knowing the customer. I know of a company that wants to decide for the customer, but have continued to experience massive drop in sales. Apparently too stubborn to yield to the realities of the voice of customer (VOC), but willing to sustain more profit flight.

This economic era of careful spending stipulates that serious management teams should take focussed and drastic to invest more on decoding the customers' dynamic needs through more research and analysis. In a situation where a company is stuck and does not know where to start, rendering excellent service is the first step to getting into each customer's mind. It allows for a business romance that encourages the customer to exude his innate requirements. Only after this revelation and discovery of such hidden necessity can a product manager boast of successfully meeting a need. Getting to the fantabulous discovery does not mean resting or staying longer than necessary in the euphoria of such achievement. It calls for continued review and improvement by following up the more with the customer to harvest more of similar requirements.

The Role Of Intermediaries In B2b in E-Marketplaces

INTRODUCTION
Transactions between two companies or businesses conducted over the internet, extranet, intranet or other networks are referred to as B2B. Efraim Turban (2008:219). This type of transactions takes place in e-marketplaces which can be private, public or consortia. They allow for a situation where one or many businesses are able to supply or purchase goods and services from another set of one or many businesses. In the case of an organization that does not previously have an e-marketplace, auctions can take place through the use of intermediaries whose job it is to attract many potential buyers to the auction site in the case of a sell side or many potential sellers to the auction site in case of a buy-side.

ROLE OF INTERMEDIARIES IN B2B
Intermediaries in B2B refers to electronic middlemen as mentioned by Kourgiantakis and Petrakis (2007), they are necessary to facilitate online trades between buyers and sellers who are businesses. Nilsson and Lundqvist (2006:7) reported that according to Murtaza, Gupta and Carrol (2004), B2B transactions are projected to exceed $16 trillion in the US alone. They also claimed that Lu and Anthony (2003) estimated that there are 4000 e-marketplaces worldwide. The e-marketplaces can be described as an online market where buyers and sellers exchange goods and services. Though this type of market is different from an offline arrangement as seen in auctions or our traditional "brick and mortar stores" it makes use of intermediaries just like in the traditional markets. The intermediaries stand in between the two parties involved in the transaction ensuring that a double coincidence of want occurs. Such coincidence of wants can either be "many-to-one" or "one-to- many" i.e the buyer side and the seller side respectively. The significance of using intermediaries in B2B transactions cannot be overemphasized; they assist in the following areas

·         Businesses are able to concentrate their resources on their core activities instead of uncoordinated and multiple searches for other businesses to transact with

·         The supply chain is shortened, reducing the number of weeks and months involved to conclude a transaction; businesses are able to do more in a short period.

·         Huge reduction in cost in procurement and sales

·         The use intermediaries improves the online of experience of all the parties to a transaction through regularly updated means of collaboration

·         Use of intermediaries help in organizing suppliers and purchasers for easy and timely occurrence of transactions

BUY-SIDE AND SELL-SIDE INREMEDIARIES

The two types of intermediaries are used in private e-marketplaces, in the case of the buy-side; one buyer who buys from many sellers hires the intermediary and may maintain control of who is invited to participate in the auction. A similar situation is noticed in the case of a sell-side where one seller who sells to many buyers hires the intermediary and as such maintains the control of the whole event by deciding which buyer participates or not.

The difference between the two intermediaries lies in the activities carried out by the two. While the buy-side intermediary is responsible for inviting many sellers who will sell to the single buyer, the sell-side intermediary is responsible for inviting many buyers who will be buying from the single seller. Any scenario different from "one to many" and "many to one" is referring to another type of B2B transaction that can either be:-

1.       Exchanges

2.       Supply chain improvements and collaborative commerce

Businesses always have buying and selling needs, its either the company wants to dispose of old assets or wants to buy raw materials for its business activities. Materials purchased in a B2B transaction can be described as direct (when it is useful in only one industry or production of one product) or indirect (when it is used to support production in general and not one particular product).

CONCLUSION
Intermediaries have great roles to play in transactions that occur between businesses, especially when the hiring business does not have its own e-marketplace, this makes it important for the sell-side to be able to identify an effective intermediary laden with the duty of inviting many buyers while the buy side identifies an effective intermediary as well to invite many sellers for the purpose of shortening the length of the supply chain. This arrangement has been found to reduce the cost of business procurements and asset disposals in many organizations. Turban et al (2008:222)

Cited References:

Daniel Nilsson and Krister Lundqvist (2006), "Understanding B2B e-hubs and the value they provide" Department of Business Administration, Lulea University of Technology.

Markos Kourgiantakis and Emmanuel Petrakis (2007), "Modelling B2B E-Marketplaces: The role of intermediaries" Department of Economics, University of Crete.

Efraim Turban, David King, Judy McKay, Peter Marshall, Jae Lee, Dennis Viehland, (2008) "Electronic Commerc - A Managerial Perspecive" ISBN 9780135135440 Int'l Ed. Pearson Education Ltd. london

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

I traded Fx consistently in the past and hope to still do it better in future. I am still a fan of the business of trading and investing in currencies but would in no wise rush into it without first internalising how best to get profitability. Profiting is the reason any man will want to venture into any form of trade. One good thing about the hobby is the required patience and persistence needed to excel. This is not an easy feat. My mentor Peter Bain advised severally that making the money in trickles is better than having a huge chunk of profit that would be lost in another risky move. How many of us believed that then. Oh yea, follow the masters or be ready to create your own path. So many traders had to learn in the school of hard knocks where taking some huge losses taught them how not to trade currencies. Really, it’s not bad to dare to be different but is it really worth it when you can follow the leading of others and then add something new you discovered while towing the existing golden lines of giants.

 

Similar situations exist now in the economy, every business seems to be complaining. From Financial to Manufacturing, customers are now more knowledgeable and would readily go to alternative sources. It used to be quality alone in the past; when well meaning individuals gun for supposedly superior goods but now things are more complicated with so many factors controlling the choice of buyers. Organizations now have more to think about than just creating the best product for their customers. Yes, the product must be good, but note that only quality will not deliver the big sales that will improve your company’s bottom line. I have seen that management are always in a hurry to sell or win customers. This should not be something that is done spontaneously without a prior strategic alignment to the driving policies and culture of such institutions. Total Quality management may be a better viewing of what is required. The components of TQM bring to mind the following essentialities:

·         Put customers first

·         Make Continuous Improvement

·         Aim for zero defects

·         Training and development

This ideology is also supported by the Kotler and Keller, 2008, they professed the four dimensions of “holistic marketing” to be:

·         Internal Marketing

o   Every member of the organisation must be involved

·         Integrated Marketing

o   Multiple means of creating, delivering and communicating value must be utilised

·         Relationship Marketing

o   Having multi-faceted relationship with customers, channel members and other marketing partners is important.

·         Performance Marketing

o   Understanding how the returns from marketing and other organizational activities contributes to business success

Achieving the holistic view of your business is not child’s play. The management team must drive this but not so much in a hurry. Otherwise, intermittent policy changes will be the end result. Rather than thinking in the short term, business decisions should be made with the strategic approach and in a way to carry every stakeholder along.

In the economy that we are seeing now, business owners need to study and follow the trend slowly but steadily to continue to stay in the business. Making rash decisions based on previous experiences alone without knowing the new developments that are now dictating the pace is a step at hurriedly winding up business activities.

Aderogba Adewusi (ASQ CMQ/OE)