A recent study in the United States found that 42% of new businesses or ‘start-ups’ failed due to a lack of demand for their product. In other words, they failed, at least in part, because their owners developed a product (perhaps even a very high-quality product) for which there was no clear market. This same study found […]

A recent study in the United States found that 42% of new businesses or ‘start-ups’ failed due to a lack of demand for their product. In other words, they failed, at least in part, because their owners developed a product (perhaps even a very high-quality product) for which there was no clear market. This same study found that a further 18% of these businesses failed, at least in part, due to pricing. That is, their target market was not willing to pay what they were asking for the product. Both of these findings suggest that the businesses in question did not truly understand the market they were endeavouring to service. They had launched their business without the customer data required to identify what would and would not work, and the critical parameters for success – let alone achieve performance excellence. In the last article in this series, we talked about the need to target…