How can companies develop, manage and refine products when markets, technologies and customer expectations are constantly changing? Who decides on product objectives and priorities? How are customer needs identified and assessed? And how can product management, sales, development and marketing work together effectively?

Simple examples often illustrate just how much the operating environment has changed. Just a few years ago, it was taken for granted that you would have to wait at home for hours for a meter reading service. Today, customers expect digital processes, self-service, transparency and as little friction as possible.

Such changes do not merely affect individual products. They transform business models, processes, roles and collaboration within organisations. Recognising these interconnections makes it clear which structures, decisions and working methods are necessary for companies to consistently develop products from the customer’s perspective and successfully position them in the market.

Medium-sized companies employ hundreds or even thousands of staff and have generally grown organically. This means that the requirements customers have placed on the sales department have been met – job done, then on to the next one.

In principle, it is good and right to respond to customer requirements. In product management within medium-sized companies, however, this is not enough in the long term.

If, at the start of the 19th century, you had asked coachmen what they wanted, they would almost certainly have asked for a faster horse. Nobody could even have dreamt that, just two hundred years later, there would be cars capable of accelerating from zero to a hundred in just under three seconds – let alone that vehicles could fly.

A hundred years ago, no one could have imagined speaking to other people in almost every corner of the world without them being in the immediate vicinity. And who could have imagined, in the last decade, speaking to our sockets to control our music systems, toasters or lights?

An example that was discussed some time ago at one of my management meetings: a global company had chosen Turkey as its next market for expansion. At the time, the market was recording double-digit growth rates and offered further potential.

Management therefore put together a dedicated expansion team. German engineers took on the technical tasks, whilst German sales staff worked their way up to decision-makers and established contacts with potential customers. The project’s CEO was also German. The aim: to set up their own factory in Adana.

The project did not materialise.

In hindsight, a multinational team would have been the better choice. This is because, when establishing business relationships across national borders, it is not only technical expertise and sales competence that play a role. Knowledge of the target market, cultural nuances and local decision-making processes is just as important.
Anyone wishing to establish an international presence must therefore think globally right from the outset when putting together their own team.

The concept of positioning was developed in the early 1970s, notably by Al Ries and Jack Trout, and later brought to the attention of a wider audience through their book “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind”. Since then, however, the market has changed fundamentally – and the pace of change continues to accelerate.

Today, buyers no longer compare offers by browsing a few catalogues or visiting trade fair stands, but do so in a matter of seconds via Google, comparison websites and, increasingly, AI-powered search assistants. What used to take weeks now happens before a sales representative even makes contact. At the same time, many offers are so similar in structure, language and presentation that they are virtually interchangeable.

For small and medium-sized B2B companies, this presents a twofold challenge: they are not only competing for visibility against larger providers, but also to be noticed at all in an increasingly automated pre-selection process.

You’ve just come back from a training course and have been given a whole range of new tools and methods – a new product management tool, a framework for better team meetings, a technique for handling difficult customer conversations. The participants are enthusiastic. And yet, in day-to-day working life, often nothing changes.
This is not an isolated case, but rather, according to estimates from transfer research, the norm: only around 10 to 15% of what is learnt in training is actually transferred into professional practice. The vast majority of seminars and training courses fail when it comes to so-called ‘learning transfer’ – not because the content is wrong, but because there is too little structure in place between the training room and day-to-day work to facilitate implementation.
The problem rarely lies with the quality of the training. It stems from the fact that learning and acting are two different things – and that nobody acts in isolation: your actions influence your environment, your peer group, your team and your family.
In systemic coaching, even a single changed reaction can trigger a lasting chain reaction. How your environment reacts to this can never be entirely predicted.

I recently presented my programme to an educational institution based in Hamburg. Although I have been working in the sector for over 20 years, it never ceases to amaze me that the targeted development of leaders remains a complete mystery to many institutions.

The institution was planning to focus its programme offering more strongly on executives, senior managers and company-wide programmes. The discussion was as interesting as it was insightful. The key question I was asked remains relevant to this day: “Ms Uensal, how do you ensure that the employees’ line managers are involved?”