Time to Market - Vital Constituent of Competition - Admission/Application Essay Example

Just like time to market, the commercialization of a product or service is broken down into phases that constitute the commercialization plan, starting from the idea, production process, and through distribution and customer support. This essay will identify and discuss the concept of time to market with respect to the commercialization plan and value creation. Various types of time to market exist, out of which an organization can pick any for varied reasons. For instance, although most managers would opt for one that minimizes the time to market as much as possible, the ideal situation would be to choose one that is aligned with the organization’s strategy rather than a blind pursuit of speed. On the other hand, while working on a tight time schedule, a manager may opt to have a more heavily staffed project to speed up things but also be ready for the escalated project cost (Kotler & Keller, 2012).

Both the concept of time to market and commercialization are targeted towards value creation. The results of actions that grow the worth of products and services, as well as the business organization, define how effective the commercialization plan and value creation techniques are. For a business to be successful, value creation should go beyond the aspect of improving value for customers who buy products and services (Jobber, 2001). Most highly successful organizations are aware that the function of all businesses is to create value for buyers, investors, and employees. It is also understood that these three groups share inextricably linked interests.

The sustainable value will, therefore, not be achieved for a single group until it is created for all three. It then follows that the fundamental focus will be on ensuring value is created for the customers, which is only achievable by selecting, developing, and rewarding the correct employees who will, in turn, ensure consistent and attractive returns for the stakeholders.

One way of achieving the goals of value creation is by shortening the length of time to market, although critics will point out that shortening time to market will compromise the quality of products and services (Jobber, 2001). However, this is where the business organization will need to use commercialization as a strategy to develop a feasible business plan that will alleviate the effects of bypassing a development process due to time constraints (Kotler & Keller, 2012).

The business can expand on market opportunities by identifying the target market and precisely describing what the planned service or product will deliver based on its innovation, and what difficulty it will address among the customers. The business can also employ techniques and tools that may automate and reduce decision-making durations, as well as overlap and shorten activities. At the same time, the commercialization plan must anticipate possible success barriers and establish ways the product will be supplied, distributed, and reach the customers. This likens the commercialization plan to a funnel that has many ideas and suggestions regarding a product launch at the wide end. As it narrows down, most ideas are dropped based on feasibility, economic and consumer trends, costs, and logistics. Essentially, this makes commercialization one of the many entities in a product’s bigger feedback loop because before the final version is introduced into the market, several adjustments will have been undertaken in the process (Kahn, 2004).

In this sense, the duration of time to market should be used to develop strategies that ensure a constant flow of products and services offering compelling and unique benefits to a market segment. That way, real and long-term value will have been created, guaranteeing profitability and growth (Kotler & Keller, 2012). The strength of a company should be such that, for example, when investors purchase stock in, say, Company ABC, or customers sign up a partnership with Company ABC, the relationship is not based on a particularly successful product or service. Rather, the investors or customers should be seen to be expressing their confidence and belief that Company ABC will continue developing processes enabling it to capitalize on emerging technologies. The investors and customers, therefore, believe that Company ABC will be able to change market needs and create new, useful, and more profitable products or services.




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