Thursday, July 01, 2010

Success on the second attempt

Many people are afraid to try something new. They are afraid of failure. They worry too much about what could go wrong and the consequence of failure. They are not willing to try. They prefer to have someone else to take the decision and the responsibility.

Sometimes, we have to fail before we can succeed. I wish to share this story. During the early 1980s, the insurance cooperative that I headed wanted to launch a new product, life annuity. We made detailed plans, trained the managers, employees and agents and set aside an advertising budget. They was a well publicised media launch for this product. A lot of effort was put in for two months. The sale of life annuity was NIL. It was a total failure.

There were many reasons for the failure. One key reason was the unwillingness of the public to buy a product where they can lose their capital on early death.

Three years later, we relaunched the life annuity product and modified it to provide a guaranteed period of payment. The payout was lower, compared to a life annuity that does not have any guarantee. On the relaunch, it was a big success and created a dominant market share of life annuity for the cooperative for two decades.

I am convinced that if we had not tried and failed on the first attempt, we would not have got the big sucess on the relaunch. I hope that this story will encourage you to be willing to take the plunge and try something new!

Tan Kin Lian
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3 comments:

Ronnie Eng said...

Despite all the market research, focus group meetings, risk management
and detailed planning, the acid test is still consumer reaction.

Being engrossed in our own pursuit and our own criteria of a "good" product, we sometimes do not see the perspective from someone who is completey detached from our world.

Facing failure is an everyday event.
Someone, somwhere will face failure.

It is the "how" that will change the way we see things and begin to build from the failure.
I prefer to answer "how" than to use "why"..the "whys" can create a loop that is never ending and yet not guide to seek the solution.

From the ashes, rises the phonenix

and I like this quote from Arnold Benett ( a writer during early 1900)It suggests that experience will lead us to appreciate many things that otherwise remains as is.

" There can be no knowledge without emoton. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours.To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul"

July 01, 2010 12:32 PM
Anonymous said...

I don't quite understand how Mr Tan's product failed so miserably during the first launch. Surely he did some market survey and had some assurance that the product was reasonable good before the first launch ?

In life, we must learn from 'other people's mistakes' rather than learning from 'our own mistakes'. It will take a very long time for us to be good in something, if we can only learn from our own mistakes. For example, if we need to learn from experience, then Singapore can never promote a scholar from the rank of 2nd Lt to Brigadier General by the age 40 (minus 5 yrs studying overseas for his first and second degree), because he had zero battlefield experience. PC

July 02, 2010 8:11 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...

Reply to 8:11 am
We did our market research and also studied the experience of other countries, before doing the first launch. There were uncertainty at that time, but there was no way to overcome that, except by a real trial.

Many people will not even try when they have the uncertainty. Your comment reflect the majority of people who want to be sure before they try.

July 02, 2010 8:49 AM

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