BUS 3500 March 17

March 3 was midterm exam so no class, and March 10 was spring break, no class again! But over spring break the reading of chapter 10 was due for the March 17 quiz and class... and I really enjoyed this chapter on product development and management. I could not help applying these teachings to my former and current jobs at USU in event management. The educational products we developed and marketed at the Shingo Prize as part of the business school were affected by the economy during the past several years, as customers weighed the advantages of further training and development of their people over the bottom line expenses and costs in the face of low sales and economic downturn. No amount of sales and marketing could change the fact that the money simply was not there for that type of investment. There is also the aspect of saturation - with only one basic product (Operational Excellence training) - at which point does the market become saturated - and in this economy, there are less new organizations with these needs than there are existing organizations downsizing or going out of business entirely. It's probably not a question of the product having achieved its end in the life cycle, but more of a temporary decline stage, brought on by economic conditions. In my current job though at University Conference Services, there is potential for new product development and growth, by introducing meeting services to the other various departments at the University. With reductions in budgets come staff cuts and emphasis on downsizing, and that is where we can come in, by offering our event management services as an "in-house outsource solution." Rather than pay an internal person in a small department to be a full time event organizer, it makes sense to partner with my department to do the job on an "as needed" basis - and I am seeing the potential for a product launch targeting departments in need of exactly that.