Great event - more to come in the days to follow.
All the morning keynotes were strong. The Tesla was cool!
The lunch today with Google, Yahoo and Microsoft talking about their respective acquisition strategies gets "Best of Show" in my book.
In terms of the panels and based only on how packed the room was:
Whats Hot? Social Networking and Mobile Applications
Whats Not? Cloud Computing and Managed Services
If you take the view that the masses lead to market crowding and valuations ahead of reality, go short on Social network and Mobile app's and bet the farm on Cloud Computing and Managed Services ;-)
The bottom line is, IMHO, there is absolutely no place like TiECon. The passion was palpable and once again, Saturday was absolutely packed!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Davos for the Working Class
I'm really looking forward to spending the next two days (both Friday and Saturday) at TiECon 2008. The opportunity to see new ideas is almost as compelling as the chance to reconnect with the many friends that will be at the event. Nowhere have I experienced the level of engaged intellect, excitement and general willingness to engage, share and learn that happens every year at this event.
Many people over the years have tried to lure me to TiECon but in '05 Manish Chandra won me over by asking me to help organize the conference program. Working in a volunteer setting with a group of people new to me , we organized very compelling panel discussions on "Building the Buzz" in '05 and on "Open Source - Show Me the Money" in '06. I've been hooked on TiECon ever since.
TiECon draws a great crowd of people. One of the real wonders of the event is that Saturday is often better attended than Friday as many entrepreneurs with day jobs turn up to join the fun. The format of keynotes and panels with good, long networking breaks creates a level of information exchange and interaction that is unmatched in my experience. I always leave with more than a couple new ideas and many interesting opportunities to follow up on.
Truly Davos for the working class!
Many people over the years have tried to lure me to TiECon but in '05 Manish Chandra won me over by asking me to help organize the conference program. Working in a volunteer setting with a group of people new to me , we organized very compelling panel discussions on "Building the Buzz" in '05 and on "Open Source - Show Me the Money" in '06. I've been hooked on TiECon ever since.
TiECon draws a great crowd of people. One of the real wonders of the event is that Saturday is often better attended than Friday as many entrepreneurs with day jobs turn up to join the fun. The format of keynotes and panels with good, long networking breaks creates a level of information exchange and interaction that is unmatched in my experience. I always leave with more than a couple new ideas and many interesting opportunities to follow up on.
Truly Davos for the working class!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Just Be The Ball, Be The Ball, Be The Ball (from Caddy Shack)
Just know your customer, know your customer, know your customer. Trite but true. The hard work comes in what you do about this. Is it an annual survey or do leading companies go a bit further?
I had the pleasure on Thursday of spending time with Michael Costuros and Andy Patrick of LiveBooks. These guys are building a great business helping professional photographers market their work on the web. Michael made the point that photography is deeply ingrained in their company's DNA, that most of their people are hobbiest and that in particular, their sales force comes entirely from the ranks of professional photographers.
I've just wrapped up a couple years working with Instill - the leading provider of spend intelligence to the food services industry. The solution involved translating billing data into a standard format for analysis. While the technology did a fantastic job of this, exceptions still required manual handling which meant recruiting folks directly from the food industry into technology jobs. Over the years, many of these folks at Instill had grown into mid and senior level positions in the company, with their food industry experience being a key factor in their success with the customer.
As a competitive sailer, I'm often spending time looking at gear (too much time my wife would say). My favorite location, Svendson Boat Yard has a good selection but goes well beyond this by staffing the store with folks that actually know their stuff. West Marine also used to do this though less so as their sales continue to decline (this rather obvious chicken or egg problem is left as an exercise for the student).
Just know your customer, know your customer, know your customer.
In all three examples, these leaders in very diverse industries understand that to serve, you need to first understand. They have gone well beyond the typical board room rhetoric and integrated an ability to know and serve their customer deeply into the DNA of their business. This is giving them a level of competitive advantage that is both powerful and highly defensible. The quality of your relationship with the customer has far more to do with winning and losing over the long term than other any single factor. It shows up in customer loyalty (net recommender scores), reduced churn and more repeat business. In the simplest terms, it makes you the company that customers want to do business with - which end the end, is competitive advantage define.
I had the pleasure on Thursday of spending time with Michael Costuros and Andy Patrick of LiveBooks. These guys are building a great business helping professional photographers market their work on the web. Michael made the point that photography is deeply ingrained in their company's DNA, that most of their people are hobbiest and that in particular, their sales force comes entirely from the ranks of professional photographers.
I've just wrapped up a couple years working with Instill - the leading provider of spend intelligence to the food services industry. The solution involved translating billing data into a standard format for analysis. While the technology did a fantastic job of this, exceptions still required manual handling which meant recruiting folks directly from the food industry into technology jobs. Over the years, many of these folks at Instill had grown into mid and senior level positions in the company, with their food industry experience being a key factor in their success with the customer.
As a competitive sailer, I'm often spending time looking at gear (too much time my wife would say). My favorite location, Svendson Boat Yard has a good selection but goes well beyond this by staffing the store with folks that actually know their stuff. West Marine also used to do this though less so as their sales continue to decline (this rather obvious chicken or egg problem is left as an exercise for the student).
Just know your customer, know your customer, know your customer.
In all three examples, these leaders in very diverse industries understand that to serve, you need to first understand. They have gone well beyond the typical board room rhetoric and integrated an ability to know and serve their customer deeply into the DNA of their business. This is giving them a level of competitive advantage that is both powerful and highly defensible. The quality of your relationship with the customer has far more to do with winning and losing over the long term than other any single factor. It shows up in customer loyalty (net recommender scores), reduced churn and more repeat business. In the simplest terms, it makes you the company that customers want to do business with - which end the end, is competitive advantage define.
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