Lessons from the Samsung Galaxy Note 7....
On October 10 Samsung issues a statement that it is halting sales of the galaxy note 7 globally and encouraging consumers to return their galaxy Note 7 to where they bought it from. This means that the might flagship model of Samsung has failed and the company has suffered a loss of more than 1.3million dollars over this period, but what can you and I learn from it.
Do not let competition drive you – Samsung had a good market plan when they released the note 2, it took the market by storm in 2012 and Samsung was enthroned the king of Android phones. The note series became their flagship device, the plan was to roll out new model every 10months, but Apple stepped up its game, in the last quarter of 2014 apple took over 20% of the phone market to become the number 1 phone manufacture by market share with their flagship product (iPhone 6 and 6plus). Samsung had to react and that was when the issue started. Samsung altered their design in the Samsung not 5 to look alto like the iPhone 6 yet they could not get it back, then in the note 7 they almost got the thin look of the iPhone but they had to compress the batteries too much and that was their Bain. Thinning the batteries too much made them susceptible to explosions which has now cost them to market. Let competition inspire you but don’t let it drive you. If it drives you, you will forget what makes you unique in the first place instead you become a photocopy of them.
Do not let customers decide your product – Ford once said “if I had asked people what they wanted they would have said a better horse, instead I gave them a car”. Most times business will tell you to listen to the market, and that is all you should do LISTEN. Do not let them decide for you. The mistakes of the note 5 was that the battery was not lasting like the note 4. The customers asked for more batteries to match phones like Gionee (just kidding) and Samsung felt they could do it. So they compressed the battery more and we all know the end point. You can listen to customers but do not let them make the decisions.
Never try to reinvent the wheel on a large stage – This is so crucial in business, this is why people are always advised to start small and test run your ideas. The lithium ion battery has always been a curious case, there are documented cases of its explosion and fire in the past, NOKIA in 2009 recalled 46million phones because of this same issue, Sony laptops in 2005, and iPhone in 2015(customers complained of mild burns). So why try to thin the battery further on your flagship device, they should have tried this technology on a smaller phone like the J series or the x series and see it work before bringing it on the big stage. You can’t rehearse in the ring when the lights are on you.
Second impressions do not work, the world is unforgiving – in the history of the world only few companies have pulled of a recall and lived to tell the story. P&G and Mercedes, and these two companies who have successful had call backs and the product did not suffer much. Samsung called back the note 7 but still confidence and result could not lift the product, finally it was cancelled. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so nail it the first time.
Hope you have learnt a few things from this piece. We would in the next piece tell you, how we believe Samsung can get out of this fix.
On October 10 Samsung issues a statement that it is halting sales of the galaxy note 7 globally and encouraging consumers to return their galaxy Note 7 to where they bought it from. This means that the might flagship model of Samsung has failed and the company has suffered a loss of more than 1.3million dollars over this period, but what can you and I learn from it.
Do not let competition drive you – Samsung had a good market plan when they released the note 2, it took the market by storm in 2012 and Samsung was enthroned the king of Android phones. The note series became their flagship device, the plan was to roll out new model every 10months, but Apple stepped up its game, in the last quarter of 2014 apple took over 20% of the phone market to become the number 1 phone manufacture by market share with their flagship product (iPhone 6 and 6plus). Samsung had to react and that was when the issue started. Samsung altered their design in the Samsung not 5 to look alto like the iPhone 6 yet they could not get it back, then in the note 7 they almost got the thin look of the iPhone but they had to compress the batteries too much and that was their Bain. Thinning the batteries too much made them susceptible to explosions which has now cost them to market. Let competition inspire you but don’t let it drive you. If it drives you, you will forget what makes you unique in the first place instead you become a photocopy of them.
Do not let customers decide your product – Ford once said “if I had asked people what they wanted they would have said a better horse, instead I gave them a car”. Most times business will tell you to listen to the market, and that is all you should do LISTEN. Do not let them decide for you. The mistakes of the note 5 was that the battery was not lasting like the note 4. The customers asked for more batteries to match phones like Gionee (just kidding) and Samsung felt they could do it. So they compressed the battery more and we all know the end point. You can listen to customers but do not let them make the decisions.
Never try to reinvent the wheel on a large stage – This is so crucial in business, this is why people are always advised to start small and test run your ideas. The lithium ion battery has always been a curious case, there are documented cases of its explosion and fire in the past, NOKIA in 2009 recalled 46million phones because of this same issue, Sony laptops in 2005, and iPhone in 2015(customers complained of mild burns). So why try to thin the battery further on your flagship device, they should have tried this technology on a smaller phone like the J series or the x series and see it work before bringing it on the big stage. You can’t rehearse in the ring when the lights are on you.
Second impressions do not work, the world is unforgiving – in the history of the world only few companies have pulled of a recall and lived to tell the story. P&G and Mercedes, and these two companies who have successful had call backs and the product did not suffer much. Samsung called back the note 7 but still confidence and result could not lift the product, finally it was cancelled. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so nail it the first time.
Hope you have learnt a few things from this piece. We would in the next piece tell you, how we believe Samsung can get out of this fix.
