Of Dogs, Cows, Stars & Question Marks...

I tried to explain this to someone today, in a discussion on education and why we don't adequately fund something so important to the health of individuals, our communities, our societies and the planet ...

This country (and the world, more or less) is run by a group of people who have shown us exactly what are their priorities... 

And they are not interested in children as the unique human beings it's our jobs to nurture into their fullest potential so that all of society can benefit from what they bring to the community...

Rather, these people see children as commodities, or components, that make up what is in effect a sophisticated inventory system of moving parts, required to keep the machine operating to the specifications determined by that small group...

If these people were really committed to our children as sacred aspects of the Life Force (as all living beings are), society's focus and spending would be entirely different... 

Our first spending priority would be to make sure that everyone has what they need to maximise their potential - physical, intellectual, psychological, spiritual etc... 

But we know that's not the case... 

After all, society seems to spend more money keeping its cars and video equipment running than it does keeping its children safe, well, fed and housed - we prize media and mobility more than we do other human beings...

And we also prove that in our willingness to put the pursuit and control of oil before our care about how many people we have to hurt/kill and how much money we have to spend to get that control...

Our kids are, in reality, units of economic production; we will spend a lot on those who will give us a good ROI (return on investment) and we'll spend the bare minimum on those who will not... 

It's the law of the capitalist market place...

The Boston Consulting Group's MATRIX says it all really.

Here you have "star" products, "cash cows", "question marks" and "dogs".

See the explanation of this principle and these terms below

And this is how this world looks at entire cultures, races, countries, systems, services, individuals...

Until we deal with this reality - denounce it and decide not to operate under that model any more - nothing will change...

And it's daunting to think how we might change it... 

Most people will say either that we really don't, or we don't want to, treat individuals that way...

I say we do; whenever did the oligarchs stop to think (let alone care) about how their decisions, actions, manipulations affected another living being (other than those in their own circles)?

Do they ever show signs that they think of their fellow human beings as equal, unique individuals who are born to the same rights and privileges as they themselves have?

I say they don't...

But when one thinks of how one is going to do the utmost to nurture to full potential the 7 billion people we have on the planet, solving this issue becomes seemingly overwhelming...

Which gives the oligarchs the permission and the capacity to keep raping us, our children and the planet...

* The BCG matrix, also called the BCG model, relates to marketing.

It's a portfolio planning model developed by Bruce Henderson of the Boston Consulting Group in the early 1970's.

It's used in product life cycle theory and to prioritize which products within company product mix get more funding and attention.

The BCG model is based on classification of products (and implicitly also company business units) into four categories based on combinations of market growth and market share relative to the largest competitor.

When should I use the BCG matrix model? 

Each product has its product life cycle, and each stage in product's life-cycle represents a different profile of risk and return. In general, a company should maintain a balanced portfolio of products. Having a balanced product portfolio includes both high-growth products as well as low-growth products.

A high-growth product is for example a new one that we are trying to get to some market. It takes some effort and resources to market it, to build distribution channels, and to build sales infrastructure, but it is a product that is expected to bring the gold in the future. An example of this product would be an iPod.

A low-growth product is, for example, an established product known by the market. Characteristics of this product do not change much, customers know what they are getting, and the price does not change much either. This product has only limited budget for marketing. The is the milking cow that brings in the constant flow of cash. An example of this product would be a regular Colgate toothpaste.

But the question is, how do we exactly find out what phase our product is in, and how do we classify what we sell? Furthermore, we also ask, where does each of our products fit into our product mix? Should we promote one product more than the other one? The BCG matrix can help with this.

The BCG matrix reaches further behind product mix. Knowing what we are selling helps managers to make decisions about what priorities to assign to not only products but also company departments and business units.   

What is the BCG matrix and how does the BCG model work? 
Placing products in the BCG matrix results in 4 categories in a portfolio of a company: 

BCG STARS (high growth, high market share)

- Stars are defined by having high market share in a growing market.
- Stars are the leaders in the business but still need a lot of support for promotion a placement.
- If market share is kept, Stars are likely to grow into cash cows. 

BCG QUESTION MARKS (high growth, low market share)

- These products are in growing markets but have low market share.
- Question marks are essentially new products where buyers have yet to discover them.
- The marketing strategy is to get markets to adopt these products.
- Question marks have high demands and low returns due to low market share.
- These products need to increase their market share quickly or they become dogs.
- The best way to handle Question marks is to either invest heavily in them to gain market share or to sell them. 

BCG CASH COWS (low growth, high market share)

- Cash cows are in a position of high market share in a mature market.
- If competitive advantage has been achieved, cash cows have high profit margins and generate a lot of cash flow.
- Because of the low growth, promotion and placement investments are low.
- Investments into supporting infrastructure can improve efficiency and increase cash flow more.
- Cash cows are the products that businesses strive for. 

BCG DOGS (low growth, low market share)

- Dogs are in low growth markets and have low market share.
- Dogs should be avoided and minimized.
- Expensive turn-around plans usually do not help.

 

So - what are you and your family,
your community, your school,
your neighbourhood, your state,
your country
to the oligarchs?

are you a STAR?

are you a CASH COW?

are you a QUESTION MARK?

or

are you a DOG?