Questions towards a demand driven orientation

For the distribution channels, some important questions would be:

- How to improve the performance of channels in terms of profit and traffic generation? - How to offer complete solutions? - How to build channel incentive programs? - How to reduce transactional costs with distributors? - How to participate in private label strategies? - How to improve the flows from the organization to the channel?

For the Government, some important questions would be:

- How to contribute more with the government (helping international agreements, improving regulation systems and controls)? - How to better use the available public resources (financing, research development institutes and others)?

For the competitors, some important questions would be:

- How to make the organization open to strategic alliances, joint ventures, collective actions in a proactive approach? - How to better participate in horizontal associations? - How to improve ethics and Standards of the industry?

For the non competitor companies, some important questions would be: - How to make the organization open to strategic alliances, joint ventures and other types of collective actions in a proactive approach?

- Is it structured for this? - How to stimulate benchmarking?

For the input suppliers, some important questions would be:

- How to monitor and stimulate supplier’s sustainability and security procedures? - How to improve cost and efficiency (value) of inputs? - How to lower transaction costs with suppliers? - How to innovate towards sustainable and renewable inputs?

For the service providers (financial institutions, certification, transport, insurance, communication, digital support and information technology) some important questions would be: - How to have the best value service providers linked to the organization? - Which services and how they need to be provided for the best functioning of the contractual networks? - How services are sensitive or affected to the final consumer buying decision process? - How to reduce transaction costs related to service providers relationships and contracts? - How to monitor and stimulate the service provider’s sustainability and security procedures?

I hope these questions can be useful for an internal workshop or even external interviews in the long and important process of making your company more demand driven.

The author is professor of strategic planning and food chains at the School of Economics and Business, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (www.favaneves.org) and international speaker. Author of 25 books published in 8 countries and in China, "The World on the Tongue".