Make demand: enough about supply—it's demand's turn for top billing

Entrepreneur, Oct, 2002 by Mark Henricks

ARE UNSOLD PRODUCTS PILING UP ON YOUR SHELVES? ARE you shipping more goods from your factory but seeing no improvement in your bottom line? In The New Law of Demand and Supply (Currency Doubleday, $27.50), management consultant Rick Kash explains why you and many other business people are experiencing similar problems and, more important, what to do about it.

Nowadays, supply has outstripped demand in many products and services, Kash argues. It's more important than ever, therefore, to understand demand. Kash offers six principles for creating a demand-focused organization so you won't wind up with a warehouse full of products nobody wants.

The first principle is probably the most important. It calls for you to analyze demand forces and industry factors that influence your business. This is different from figuring out what sells. It means figuring out what drives people to buy. It includes looking at economic, cultural, social, demographic, technological and other factors, both past and present, and linking those forces to key industry factors such as regulation, technology, business cycles and distribution channels. It's not an easy exercise, but when you're finished, you'll have gone along way toward taking the focus off what you have to sell, and placing it on what's in demand.

Austin, Texas, writer MARK HENRICKS has covered business and technology for leading publications since 1981.