Author: Cam Wayland
We often get asked to audit channel programs and incentives, in order to diagnose why channel facing staff or partners are behaving in a certain manner. In many cases, the answer comes down to the way the reward system has been structured. Partners (like staff) will always look for the easiest way to achieve target, but how they go about it may not have been what the program developer intended.

When designing a channel engagement strategy, program or promotion, the two big questions are:

1. What are you rewarding (and why)?
2. What are the unintended consequences of the reward system?

Many companies pride themselves on their "Work Hard, Play Hard" attitude. But as I look around, all I seem to see is the "hard work" bit. The economic downturn has resulted in many companies and individuals having to work a lot harder just to achieve the same profits as last year. And for some companies, being first to arrive to work and last to leave is worn as a badge of honour.

But maybe the answer to improved productivity isn't simply putting in more hours. In this article, Margaret Heffernan suggests that the key to greater productivity is not to work harder, but rather to change the way we work.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-strategy/how-to-be-productive-stop-working/378?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

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Author: Cam Wayland
As channel consultants we are often asked to research and review the performance of a channel program, or group of partners, to help a vendor get greater insight into what is happening. What we often find is that the vendor’s perception of what is going on in the channel (versus the partner’s perception) are poles apart.

What causes this discrepancy? Why would a vendor not know what is going on with their partners or their market? The answer is usually related to the fact that their channel measurement systems are evaluating entirely different metrics to determine performance.   Read More

Author: Cam Wayland
Vendors often measure, profile and segment their partners based on sales performance. But rarely do they dig deeper to look beyond the numbers to what is driving the business. This paper looks at the concept of measuring channel trust and how it impacts on a partner’s performance and attitudes to the vendor.

The research for this paper was conducted by Professor Louis Stern at the Kellogg School of Management, Xerox Europe and then published by VIA International, a London based channel consulting company and alliance partner of Channel Dynamics.   Read More

Author: Cam Wayland
In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth.

After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise. Quality Management pioneer, Dr. Joseph Juran, working in the US in the 1930's and 40's described a universal principle he called the "vital few and trivial many". However, a lack of precision on Juran's part made it appear that he was applying Pareto's observations about economics to a broader body of work. As a result, the name Pareto's Principle, or Pareto's Law as it is sometimes called, stuck (probably because it sounded better than Juran's Principle).  Read More