David Kemper

If business failing, ‘You’ve got to shoot the dog,’ marketing guru says

From Daily Planet Staff Reports

To succeed in today’s tough business climate, entrepreneurs increasingly must put their focus on innovation and working with others to achieve their goals, marketing expert David Kemper said Jan. 26 at the Renaissance Asheville Hotel.

When a product or business does not offer hope of future profit, “you’ve got to shoot the dog” without hestitation, Kemper asserted. “It’s not fun.” His colloquialism was in reference to the need to close a business or cancel a product or service, without letting sentiment stand in the way.

Kemper, president of KemperStrategy Inc., an Asheville-based consulting firm, addressed “Strategies for Success in 2010” during a program presented by the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council, part of regional development group Advantage West. He holds a master of business administration from Western Carolina University.

Also speaking was economist Ron Johnson, dean of business at WCU. (The story on Johnson’s address with a question-and-answer session appears elsewhere on this page.)

Kemper began by overviewing his view of the current economic crisis in the United States, lamenting that “we’ve borrowed (the equivalent of) a generation (of debt) over the last 20 years.”

Moreover, he noted that while the U.S. will graduate about 60,000 engineers this year, that total will be dwarfed by fast-rising economic competitors China and India.

Kemper said as other countries catch up to — and surpass — the U.S. in education and many other areas, America will be hard-pressed to remain the world’s leader.

To succeed in this difficult environment, he said entrepreneurs need to focus on innovation, quantifying/reducing risk, forming communities, featuring rapid cycle times and displaying humility.

Instead of focusing on the government’s unsustainable-spending policies, Kemper said, “I’m going to spend most of my time talking about innovation” because “we throw out our government every two years” any way.

As for innovation, he noted that one could sell a bedwarmer quilt for $75, or a “heritage” quilt for $1,500. Both offer warmth, but the latter also offers “a connection to the past.” Even more profitable, Kemper said, would be the sale of a “mounted” quilt, which is made to hang for display purposes, sells for $20,000 and “offers a connection with the infinite.”

“You’re all marketers, whether you know it or not,” he said. “Your job is to connect the money with the future ... You look for problems to solve and solve them to get connected with your customer.”

To that end, he suggested emphasizing execution, “keeping it simple” and using one’s core competitiveness.

He defined the kinds of innovation as “new to the world,“ new category products, product line extensions, product improvements, repositioning and cost reductions.

Regarding quantifying, he said key points include “what you can’t measure, you can’t manage,” analysis, risk reduction and “buyers don’t want low cost, they want low risk.”

Kemper said quantifying “is a great tool for looking at other forms of risk,” including measurement, manpower, materials, environment, machinery, methods and source of risk.

The audience laughed when, besides recommending that entrepreneurs work “in community,” Kemper quipped that “self-reliance is bankrupt, with all due respect to (Ralph Waldo) Emerson.”

Other aspects of working in community include collecting thinking/wisdom of the crowd, sharing, harboring a spiritual view that believes in a large “g” God of abundance, (as opposed to a small “g” god of scarcity, he said.

In addition, Kemper contended that working in community is important because most jobs today are temporary, with the tenure of a corporate chief executive officer averaging four years. He said that trend extends down the chain, noting, “We’re all temporary, these days.”

He said community includes organizational development and that this should include the lower-echelon workers. Kemper prompted more laughter from the audience when he joked, in reference to the latter individuals, asserting “the folks you work with — don’t forget the carbon units!”

Creating a personal brand also is important, Kemper said, noting that entrepreneurs “must bring expertise to the table” and the focus should be: “What is it I’m called to do? What is it I’m called to be really good at?” Also, he said that, in the tension of collective work, one must be a legitimate part of the team and “content is king.”

He added, “Content marketing is about taking the best information you have and giving it away ... It attracts business back to your business.”

Kemper also said “rapid cycle” is important in these challenging times, including planning, selling, launching and uncoupling.
Planning should include a one-year and three-year business plan and monthly strategic planning; while selling includes a focus on early adopters of new technology; and launching requires an uncanny sense of timing the market.

Regarding uncoupling, he said, sometimes “there’s a strategic advatage to getting out of Dodge.”

Successful entrepreneurs must be able to “look at a situation” and make an objective judgment on its possibilities, without letting sentiment get in the way.

Kemper then spoke of Theory U, as proposed by Otto Scharmer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His theory, involving openness in thought processes, advocates co-initiating with common intent, co-sensing, co-evolving and co-creating, among other practices to be successful as an entrepreneur, the consulting-marketing chief said.

As for humility, he said, one has to have the courage to face the truth, be open to the possibility that the best solution might be somebody else’s solution, let go and accept that the “best work comes through us, not from us.”

In closing, Kemper reiterated that, when necessary, “You’ve got to shoot the dog” when a business or product shows signs of failing — and one cannot let “squishy feelings” (of sentiment) get in the way of making money.