Name:
So You Need to Make More Money …
Description:
So You Need to Make More Money …
Thumbnail URL:
https://cadmoremediastorage.blob.core.windows.net/a48a58dd-3583-4531-bde7-e37a382bc763/videoscrubberimages/Scrubber_1.jpg
Duration:
T00H08M44S
Embed URL:
https://stream.cadmore.media/player/a48a58dd-3583-4531-bde7-e37a382bc763
Content URL:
https://cadmoreoriginalmedia.blob.core.windows.net/a48a58dd-3583-4531-bde7-e37a382bc763/Soc St Pause.mp4?sv=2019-02-02&sr=c&sig=VVON4EkTEFYFM4IoZd6pVeSW1Pt1XgCGWTR%2FREE%2F7Mg%3D&st=2025-05-11T09%3A22%3A03Z&se=2025-05-11T11%3A27%3A03Z&sp=r
Upload Date:
2022-04-28T00:00:00.0000000
Transcript:
Language: EN.
Segment:0 .
SIMON INGER: Hi, I'm Simon Inger, and I work as a consultant with Renew Consultants. I've spent over 30 years in scholarly communications. And over that time, I've been closely involved with four startup businesses, including Catchword, Accucoms, and Cadmore Media. I'm an inventor at heart. And I've always enjoyed being involved in new product and company launches, divising and working through the business planning and product development.
SIMON INGER: Today I'm delighted to be here at Society Street to spend a few minutes talking to you about some of the considerations around product creation to help you diversify your income sources. And I'll be back in today's third session, which is a fireside chat with a group of renowned product developers. One of the problems we frequently see within societies is that governance is always designed to thwart innovation.
SIMON INGER: Governance structures are rarely designed to accommodate risk, even on a relatively small scale. So societies have to work doubly hard to create an environment in which change and inventiveness is enabled and the staff and volunteers feel like they are in a safe environment for invention and innovation. That environment has to be capable of giving time and mind space to the ideas coming forward.
SIMON INGER: And everyone has to feel empowered to offer up ideas, however left field, without being shot down immediately. Phrases like, "Oh, we've tried that before," or, "That will never work because of some tiny detail" need to be banned from such an environment. Next thing, you're going to need an inventor, and maybe a facilitator who can help you unlock the inner optimism in the organization and bring out the best of everyone in a group of people who are given the time and space to think.
SIMON INGER: A few hours in a retreat-- maybe a virtual retreat-- repeated a few days later is usually enough. In our experience, the people closest to the society both understand the need and have potential solutions to many of the problems that are just waiting for a product to solve them. The skill is to bring them out. Hence the role of the facilitator.
SIMON INGER: To counterbalance the inventors in your group, you also need someone else on the team who can shape ideas into something workable, because the inventor will tend to ignore incidental details. In recent years, as consultants, we found ourselves increasingly working with societies to facilitate the invention of new products. The idea is to get ideas on the table. Allow ideas to grow a bit before testing them too hard.
SIMON INGER: It's OK if ideas subsequently get shot down. Don't discard them. Maybe they're good ideas for later. Your mission will help you define what to invent and where you can make money. When we work with societies, we try to drill down to a fundamental definition of its purpose. And that usually comes down to whether their goal is to primarily serve the science or the scientist.
SIMON INGER: This will have a significant impact on how you shape various product ideas, how much you seek to monetize them versus making them a community benefit. For example, if your goal is to promote the scientists, are there products that serves their best interests? It's also OK to create a product that is only tangential to your mission in order to make money, which itself funds other activities that serve your mission.
SIMON INGER: It allows you to be more objective about the product and perhaps make more money from it than you otherwise would. Later today, we have a use case from Bone and Joint Publishing which deals with some of these considerations. The next step is to identify the market-- not only who might use your product or service, but also who is likely to pay for it. In the world of publishing, there has always been a disconnect between the consumer and the purchaser.
SIMON INGER: There is a saying that journal publishing is like selling dog food. The person who pays is normally not the consumer. There are advantages and disadvantages to that argument. It's hard to make a sale in the first place. But once subscribed, then these arrangements tend to have a greater longevity. Another question, you will need to ask yourself is how connected you are to the market.
SIMON INGER: You will know the individuals in your subject, but if you're selling to their institutional library, how will you go about that? You may need a sales partner. A key consideration is pricing of your product. The price you pay for most things in life is usually a little more than you value it, whether it's an iPhone or a car.
SIMON INGER: This is because someone has given a great deal of thought to pricing it just above its value to maximize the money they get from it. It feels great if you buy something that you value more than you paid for it. However, there can be a real suspicion about the quality if it's too cheap. Price charged should have very little to do with the cost of creation, a lot more to do with the value to the buyer.
SIMON INGER: If value is less than cost, you're in big trouble, even if the price you're attempting to charge is greater than the cost. A few words about membership that are worth taking into account, even if this consideration is somewhat in the detail. You can create products that make money in their own right or products that are bolt-ons to an existing membership package.
SIMON INGER: Be careful not to provide more product for the same money unless you are desperate to shore up a declining membership. Even then, it's a slippery slope. Maybe part of your market would tolerate a price increase to incorporate the new product. Or maybe you add to the membership product to increase membership reach. This is where understanding the mission is important.
SIMON INGER: Right now, because of the pandemic, there is an opportunity for societies to rapidly grow their global reach, whether to satisfy a membership revenue target or because it's their mission to do so. Membership is a product. Community is not. If you are lucky, the community may form around your society. But that's not the same as it being represented by the membership.
SIMON INGER: Communities do things for each other without the involvement of their society. If your mission is to support the scientist, then you want to do things that get you closer to the community more than you want to monetize membership. You may need a much more flexible and maybe tiered approach to membership pricing, and especially the product options associated with membership.
SIMON INGER: They will need to be unbundled more. Necessity is the mother of invention. And every new product has to solve a problem to make people's lives better. It is often easier if it's a problem people know they have rather than one they don't appreciate they have. Is there a need in your space for a new education product, a new tool for your members to get key practical information on their mobile devices, a need for by-the-hour office space rental post pandemic as everyone downsizes their office needs, a way for early career scientists to gain recognition, or any one of a thousand new things that could be around the corner?
SIMON INGER: Societies have some key advantages, as well as some disadvantages, when it comes to new product development. One advantage is that societies should have access to the key experts in their field, which is both useful in product definition and especially in product creation. In addition, a well-connected society should have access to the ultimate consumer of the product, the researchers and practitioners in their field.
SIMON INGER: Lastly, many societies will have reserves large enough to support an investment, possibly without the need for short-term payback, than a less forward-thinking competitor may have. The pandemic has brought great change to everything. It's also part of the threat to society income. But turmoil and flux create the environment for inventiveness and change.
SIMON INGER: And if you can focus on it, there's not going to be a better time to make new opportunities. So with that, I'd like to wish you good luck and good fortune in your next product venture. Thank you very much for your time today. I do hope I've given you some useful pointers. Please feel free to reach out using the email address shown here for any questions or follow-up. This talk and, indeed, the entirety of today's event will remain on the Society Street site to view on demand.
SIMON INGER: Thanks very much for listening.
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