Deviations During Research and Development

Deviations During Research and Development

The modern marketplace is chaotic and so is the modern day customer. Today they want one product; tomorrow they do not even dare to look at it. They change their tastes frequently; today they may like earth colors, and tomorrow all they want is black. Today they want compact cars, tomorrow they still want small cars but with big engines. It is the normal behavior of the modern marketplace and the modern day customer. Deviations and variations are frequent occurrences in the modern marketplace.

It is the business or organizations research and development that will identify such deviations in customer and customer behavior way ahead of the competition that will make a tremendous effect to the business or organizations operations. A case in point is the fast food industry that was primarily conceptualized due to the changing lifestyle: the fast paced life does not allow people time to cook and eat at home frequently. Later on however, researchers found a very marginal deviation, they noticed that children and teens had purchasing power “money from their parents, and they could decide when and where to eat. Marketers then were able to come up with food chains and menus that cater to their specific needs.

A deviation will need a correction. Research and development might be looking the wrong way, and deviations and variations in lifestyle, market behavior and taste will be warning signals to business or organization to make such timely correction. There are no magic formulas in research and development, but the one logical thing to do is that if you find a deviation, and then make the necessary correction.

Unpredictable Scenarios

Deviations may be small unusual movements in the marketplace, scenarios are major movements in the marketplace. Such movements if not easily identified will spell tragedy on business or organizations. It is well-planned and well-coordinated research and development that will forewarn us of such events, unpredictable scenarios. They can become predictable through the research and development program of the business or organization.

We live in a world of balance and this is probably where research and development should start watching. There is day but there is also night; there is success but there is also failure, there is much but there is also less, there is a storm but there is also calm, the list can actually go on. And one unpredictable scenario is what many term as the trend-countertrend scenario.

The driving force of modern business and our lives is telecommunications: mobile phones, computers, and gadgets and fancy equipment that allow us to communicate and to be reached. These things have helped us tremendously by making the world one big global village. So, what is unpredictable about it? It is the counter trend that it generates.

Strategic planning aided by a well-planned and well-coordinated research and development should take note of these things. Let us take a peek at some counter-trends, these are the opposites: people can be easily reached today but it also produces so much stress and they want to go to places where they can not be reached, the answer? One counter trend: resorts and vacation places that can not be reached. They have no phones, no computers, nothing.

Another counter trend: people have been working like mad to earn so much, but they become restless, overburdened and depressed, and they want to do something else. They want jobs overseas that may not be as rewarding financially but allows them to have a new environment and to rest. The truth is: there are so many job openings for westerners in Asia today than it was 10 years ago. Research and development indeed plays a vital role in strategic planning; it feeds the planners with the right stuff.