Time is of the essence as they say in real estate.
I just wonder if we set the clocks back six months, i.e. February '00, and the level of marketing efforts were where they are today, whether we would be so unhappy generally. The point I'm driving at is I wonder if the whole operation at G* is six to nine months behind schedule, and that is really all, that in fact, if the whole plan is being executed in that delayed stage that everything will come out alright within six to nine months from now, demonstrating legitimacy in the base business, gaining investor confidence and therefore financing and that the business will flourish as planned except, of course, it took longer than expected.
Why the delay and no apparent attempts to address it by speeding up marketing and such is beyond me. I often wonder if in fact G* management is suffering from 'perfectitis' whereby everything has to be just so before going to launch product advertising, etc. While it is admirable to want to have the penulimate product out there, my experience has been get the thing 95% right, let the public use it and then aggressively address concerns in rapid fire newer models as you go. By not getting to the market strongly ahead of your competition, you lose the initiative, which can be hard to get back. In the most recent example Gilat truly eats G*'s lunch, China, Mexico and the Bass Hotel Group. These would have been nice accounts to have and would have legitimized BLS and G*. Here we still sit and wonder. |
