Zoom – The Latest Product to Become a Verb

Zoom – The Latest Product to Become a Verb

March 31, 2020 No Comments

In recent weeks Zoom has rapidly overtaken competitors to become the videoconferencing app of choice for business, government, and individual users as a result of the confluence between the Covid-19 pandemic and the massive spike in demand for an effective way of staying in touch with loved ones or conducting meetings from enforced social distancing or self-isolation in their homes. What explains Zoom’s success, and what risks must Zoom avoid if it is to solidify its leadership?

Read More
The Scaleup Journey: Crossing the Chasm in Style

The Scaleup Journey: Crossing the Chasm in Style

January 14, 2020 4 Comments

The strategy template for Crossing the Chasm “the right way” urges entrepreneurs and CEOs to pick a head bowling pin (or target market segment) and double-down on their bet in order to achieve dominant segment share within eight to twelve quarters. Easy to say, but very few companies manage to pull this off successfully. This real-life case shows that it can be achieved with spectacular results despite stiff obstacles here and there.

Read More
The Scaleup Journey: Dealing with Founder-CEO Burnout

The Scaleup Journey: Dealing with Founder-CEO Burnout

December 6, 2019 No Comments

Startups are taking longer these days to become successful scaleups, and one informal survey reveals that founder-CEOs are experiencing burnout at a disturbing rate. More to the point, it can be alarming to the board and employees — and extremely risky to morale and growth — when the CEO suddenly reveals that they are tapped out and are unable or unwilling to continue. What can CEOs and companies do to prevent burnout or minimize the risks to all concerned?

Read More
UK vs US Tech: Can the Tortoise Ever Catch the Hare?

UK vs US Tech: Can the Tortoise Ever Catch the Hare?

October 3, 2019 2 Comments

Digital tech in the UK is only a decade or so old as a full-blown industry. In contrast, the US tech industry is over seventy years old, dating from the first commercial activities of IBM, Burroughs, Univac and Intel in the 1950s and 60s, and the birth of the “independent” software sector in the U.S. over sixty years ago. Faced with this and other disadvantages, can today’s emerging digital tech companies in the UK ever beat or even equal the major US tech companies?

To torture a well-known metaphor, can the tortoise catch the hare in any meaningful dimension?

Read More
Scaling Up is Hard to Do

Scaling Up is Hard to Do

July 16, 2019 1 Comment

Which is harder to pull off successfully, starting up a tech business, or scaling it? Since more than 90% pf startups fail to survive even two years, it might be the former. But at least startups have decades of best practices and a strong ecosystem of angels, incubators, accelerators, and VC firm to call on. Unfortunately, scaling up still seems to be a more perilous journey than it should be. One reason for this, I believe, is premature scaling.

Read More
The Six Dimensions for Expanding Customer Engagement and TCV

The Six Dimensions for Expanding Customer Engagement and TCV

June 10, 2019 1 Comment

When corporate customers see compelling value in a given SaaS offering they are capable of increasing their adoption rapidly throughout their organization. In recent times this has happened with Box, Netsuite, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, Splunk, Workday, and other vendors’ software. What I don’t see happening often enough is tech executives or sales teams adopting an intentional strategy to help their major customers to expand and deepen their utilization of the product or service in question.

Read More