Synergizing for Results(TM) Process Helps Agilent Technologies Align

Product Development, Marketing and Sales Roles To Optimize Collaboration

Situation

One of Agilent Technologies’ five main product groups. was engaged in a very competitive, technology-based market that required being on top of the changes in technology and the needs in the marketplace and bringing new products to market in a timely fashion.

Problem

There was a lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities between product development, the marketing functions and the field sales and service organization. This caused duplication of effort, conflicts and gaps of responsibilities in other situations. The result was inefficiency in bringing products to market and frustration across those responsible.

Solution

Using the elements of the Synergizing for Results (TM) Process, M.O. Partners' Associate Partner Ron Snyder and his team gathered the key people from all of the functions involved for a 2 day session. Prior to the session, each participant recorded their goals, roles, responsibilities and deliverables. In the session, representatives from each function presented their goals. These were discussed to identify misalignment. The group worked to re-align goals to create greater alignment.

Next, each function presented their view of their roles, responsibilities and deliverables in the form of graphical “Synergy Charts” to each function they interact with. The fact that each functions’ view is presented graphically, enabled all of the interdependent functions to observe the conflicts and gaps in responsibilities. This made it possible to resolve issues that had haunted the organization in the past.

For example, in the session, the two groups agreed on how to resolve the conflicts and gaps (illustrated in the table below). This made the interaction of Product Marketing and Outbound Marketing much more efficient. Further, it resolved what had been a source of frustration between the individuals responsible for each of the functions discussed.

Cross-functional Conflicts and Gaps that were resolved via

Synergizing for Results(TM)

Results

As a result of the 2-day session, the functions clarified roles, responsibilities and deliverables that had been unclear. This really streamlined and aligned the process from generating the market requirements to developing the product to all related Marketing functions and how the Field Sales and Service organization leveraged the marketing campaigns to succeed in the marketplace. The revisions also ensured that there was sufficient, timely feedback from the customer and marketplace to product marketing so that the product development efforts focused on developing capabilities the marketplace wanted and needed.

The results of this process contributed significantly to the organization’s ability to:

• Bring products to market in a more timely manner
• Ensure that new products have the capabilities that the market is looking for
• Penetrate new market segments more quickly and effectively
• Provide useful guidance to the sales force re the characteristics of the target market, their needs and how the new product meets those requirements
• Generate good leads for new products

* Synergizing for Results is a trademark of Breakthrough, Inc.

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