Venture Operations
The new venture is a partnership of four elements, the most important of which (Figure 13.1) is the customer. The foundation for success begins with satisfying the needs of the market and, in the view of many executives, also ends at that point. McKenna states that mar¬keting is critical because the market changes dramatically. For example, the majority of people using computers today did not know what a computer was, nor what it could do, just one decade ago. "These new customers don't know about the old rules, the old understandings, or the old ways of doing business—and they don't care. What they do care about is a company that is willing to adapt its products or services to fit their strategies."1
In this context the customer initiates the venture and sets in place the elements for the en¬terprise's strategic response, the marketing plan. It is the customer's strategic use of the product or service that begins the process. In turn these needs and the estimates of future sales (forecast) in terms of product/service type and volumes, become the inputs that prompt the operation to begin output system.
As a point of philosophical, perhaps strategic, attention is the use of the term "output" to refer to goods coming out of a manufacturing plant. To the production operator it is the final component of the process. In fact, it is but the beginning. The product or service becomes the input for the customer and a significant part of his or her personal life strategy. It is this sen¬sitivity that makes a company marketing oriented and consistent with McKenna's definitions.
The incoming sales orders are then communicated to the operating systems and admin¬istrative elements of the enterprise where the system gears up to deliver the goods. Each of these parts need to work harmoniously and smoothly with the customer and the market¬ing team, whether that is an agent representative or the entrepreneur. The operating side takes on the responsibility for assembling the resources to produce goods for the customer while the management control side assists in the planning, procurement and controlling as¬pects of the venture.