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.
You want your B2B customer teams out of the office
Delivering to B2B customers it’s hard to avoid having a geographically dispersed and remote workforce. Depending on the role of the employees, you actually want them out of the office and having face time in front of your customers
Winning
Looking at one of my favorite players, Maria Sharapova, in my favorite sport, Tennis, for inspiration on what it takes to be a winner.
Modern Day Heroes with Purpose and Passion
Most of what I follow on Twitter and LinkedIn are companies, news sources and industry info. Mixed in with this lot are a few of my modern day heroes. People I admire because of their successes and because they make a difference in the world they live in. The commonalities seem to be that they have a passion for their work, for sharing this passion with other people and positively impact the people around them.
Oops. How to deliver bad news.
One hard earned skill that I’ve developed from years of deploying bleeding edge technologies is the art of how to deliver bad news. I call it an art because this is often really difficult for a lot of people. People naturally want to be known for their successes, not the pot holes and speed bumps in the road. It takes a certain amount of confidence to admit that there is a problem and we have to address it.
