Commercialization

If uncertainty can be managed, why does commercialization so often feel unpredictable?

The explanation is found less in the marketplace than in the way organizations organize their own efforts.

Product development

advances the innovation.

Marketing

builds awareness.

Sales

acquires customers.

Operations

delivers.

Finance

measures performance.

Each function may perform extremely well.

Even so, commercialization can remain fragmented because no single executive discipline is coordinating how those functions learn together.

Organizations understandably expect that strong performance within individual departments will accumulate into commercial success.

Sometimes it does.

Often the results are inconsistent.

Commercialization begins to appear unpredictable because leaders are trying to understand an integrated system by observing individual activities.

The patterns remain hidden.

Commercialization appears unpredictable. It is not. It is simply complex. And complexity can be managed.

Recognizing that complexity changes the executive conversation.

The next question becomes how organizations should manage it.