Stages of economic development and business orientations: their impact on business education

As overall demand is exceeded by supply, both through an increase in manufacturers and more outputs through manufacturing efficiency, many firms will be forced to adopt the ‘Selling’ orientation, whereby resources are diverted to sales efforts in order to dispose of inventoried product and provide funds for further manufacturing efforts. At some stage (perhaps when the above strategies are assessed to be not working), a smart firm will consider adopting a ‘Marketing’ orientation, in which the organisation conducts market research to find out what the market wants and/or needs, and then (and only then!) produces both tangible and intangible market offerings (‘products’ in marketing terms) to specifically satisfy their needs and wants. This is not only a better longer-term approach to corporate survival and making profits but is also less risky (as one’s production output is potentially pre-sold, simply because it is made to satisfy pre-ordained or perceived customer expectations).