This week’s post focuses on the closing comment of Chris O’Neil, MD of Goggle Canada, during a panel discussion on Innovation at Salesforce Company Tour: “Innovation is about getting people to learn quickly. That’s what fail fast is all about.” Thoughts on how innovative executives can foster a learn fast approach in their companies.
Publish, Search, Fulfill, Converse – Apps for the Customer Centric Enterprise
A report on the keynote conversation with JP Rangaswami, Chief Scientist @ Salesforce.com, at Mesh 13 in Toronto.
Business organization by customer focused layers
The traditional business model of separated teams, or silos, for marketing, sales, development and support simply is no longer working for B2B companies. This business model is prone to a waste in resources, duplication of efforts and poor internal communication. On the other hand, a product focused business model can lead to not recognizing opportunities for additional sales opportunities to an existing customer base. So what is the alternative? To borrow and adapt a quote from the 90’s – it’s about the customer stupid. Though these independent functions are still necessary, the best organization is to align business operations and teams with a focus on a customer segment.
When to Buy, Build or Partner
Buy, Build or Partner is a business decision point where a company determines the best action to take to fill a gap in their market solution. Within this model, a company will develop a solution and core competencies around identified market problems. The build decision is based on the parts of the solution that aligns with their strengths, the buy decision on utilities and add-ons, and partner decision for anything else.
BYOD & Enterprise Apps Stores – Business disrupting IT
With BYOD (bring your own device) becoming more and more prevalent in the business world, a new set of issues and opportunities are disrupting tradition IT departments. Business teams want choice in the tools they use to do their jobs and the devices they use them on. IT departments are concerned with security, consistency and manageability of business services. So how best to bridge the gap between these seemingly conflicting requirements?
Innovation – Start with Customer Pain Points
nnovation begins with listening to and understanding your customer pain points. Rather than focusing on trying to create first and then convince people they need what you are offering. If we create what they need, then it will be more easily adopted by the market.
