Strategy ⁽¹⁹⁾

Three books I find useful in launching into new markets  (updated since first posted in 2009)

I am not a big reader of sales, marketing and business books.  However, whenever I am working with someone who is interested in further developing their ability to sell and market, I find myself recommending the same three books.

The first is Rob Jolles book, Customer Centered Selling.  It is unlikely that you have heard of this book as Rob is a relatively minor author in the field of spin/consultitive/complex selling, but I find his presentation is by far the best.  He is a veteran salesman and sales trainer from Xerox.  For me, there were two world class Silicon Valley companies in the Eighties: the great engineers came from HP and the great salesmen came from Xerox.  While both have lost their shine in recent years, they were in their time factories for their respective talents.  Rob concisely communicates sales as a science and a process for large complex consultative sales.  Rob also does a great job of explaining why salesmen (real salesmen, not order takers) are a good thing for society.

Scaling Down Multi-Company Corporate Structures

The cost of getting software into the hands of customers is typically 2 to 4 times more than the cost of developing the software...

During the current economic downturn, governments have looked to stimulate the economy, and have shown particular emphasis on the small businesses that are seen as the engine for creating jobs.  One common stimulus has been to promote new software and other technology R&D efforts that create Intellectual Property (IP).  From my way of thinking, they have it wrong in their stimulus target.  Many small businesses are able to create software IP through "sweat equity", that is, labor that not directly compensated.  The cost of licenses and hardware need to create the software is usually very small and the typical small business entrepreneurs invest their time while remaining in their home offices close to family and friends.

Unfortunately, after making the sacrifice required to create the product, many of these entrepreneurs then face the very sad fact that this software development effort is usually only a quarter of the total cost of getting the product to the final consumer.  (Don't believe me?  Look at annual reports of software companies and software divisions of publicly traded companies to see where their costs are: R&D is typically 15-35% of total revenue.)  Continue reading...

There are 3 basic organizational structures-- each flawed in some way

In almost every political campaign, the opponent runs on the theme that they can successfully attack the huge waste, fraud, and abuse that exists everywhere in the government. Many will even have some facts showing how great this problem is, yet even after multiple successive new governments with this as a priority, the improvement is marginal at best.  This is not conspiracy, but the symptom of a very hard problem that does not have an easy answer.

In my business world, I see two similar paradoxical hard problems that the simple answer never provides a meaningful solution.  The first is sales cross-selling and the second is the re-use of designs (aka IPR management). Combine these two with the ever-present general corporate waste through communication barriers and you have the three justifications we typically see used for most every corporate reorganization.  You also have the reason why almost no reorganization can solve the hard problems.

"Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?"-- Steve Jobs, CEO Apple