Here is a radical thought: take the one most important parameter you measure in your business and publish it. I don’t mean publish as in a press release. I mean make it available in real time, 24/7 to your customers, employees and competitors. Continue reading “Go Crazy About Your Company Goal”
Author: Gadi Shamia
Electric Cars and the Whole Product Lesson
While everyone in the tech industry was busy with who was briefed about Google OpenSocial, Shai Agassi launched his ambitious automotive business model. To me, both stories belong in “Advanced Business Strategies” class and show how much the high-tech industry has advanced over the last 15 years and turned to be a driving force and a thought leader for the entire global economy. Continue reading “Electric Cars and the Whole Product Lesson”
The next SaaS- Something as a Service
There is a new SaaS—“Something as a Service” every month. First came the term SaaS—Software as a Service. Marc Benioff coined PaaS—Platform as a Service. Amazon came along with HaaS– hardware as a Service, and Zoli brought the latest one: CaaS—Car as a Service, in response to Shai Agassi’s launch of better place project.
If we learn from history, almost every service started as a product one owned and maintained, which turned into a service over time. Adam and Eve were the first known couple, but shortly thereafter, the first prostitute emerged, offering the real first SaaS: “Spouse as a Service.”
Banks are no more than fancy language for VaaS: Vaults as a Service. With urbanization, people started moving from villages to big cities, only to meet the DaaS concept: “Dwelling as a Service,” a huge industry (house and apartment rentals) until these very days. Continue reading “The next SaaS- Something as a Service”
Leaders Go Out
Here is one more reason why startups innovate so much and create new categories time and again where the large enterprise guys do more of the same thing: Entrepreneurs spend most of their time looking outward, rather than looking and focusing on internal affairs. Continue reading “Leaders Go Out”
“I can’t afford it”- The SMB version
Seth Godin wrote a wonderful post about this infamous phrase: “I can’t afford it.” As always, I will try to add the SMB point of view on this notion: If you set your heart on selling to small and medium businesses, be ready to hear this phrase. A lot. It is not intentional: SMB owners or managers run on a smaller budget but often don’t have the support system of a large company to help them in making the right decision. As a result, they will give you the easiest answer: NO. One cannot go wrong by not spending… Here are some tactics (and mistakes) used by companies that are selling to SMBs: Continue reading ““I can’t afford it”- The SMB version”
Seven Reasons Why SaaS Would Be a Great Success
I am a great believer in SaaS (Software as a service) as a future leading delivery mechanism for small and medium businesses (SMBs). Although SaaS penetration into this space is slow, there are many reasons for SaaS to prevail. It may take a while, and it will require a leap of faith from the customers and hard work from the vendor side, but it will happen. 0.9 probability as my Gartner friends taught me to say…Here are the seven reasons why SaaS is better than the current delivery mechanisms (namely software on a CD). Continue reading “Seven Reasons Why SaaS Would Be a Great Success”
Apple Company Ethics
Seth Godin is writing about Apple’s grand move of firing 800 retail employees for double-dipping into their iPhone benefits. Seth thinks it is marketing and he is probably right. Apple sent a clear message of high ethics to other employees and to the market.
The bothersome question is the fact that Apple actually had to fire 800! employees to make this point. I could only think of two reasons for this massive misbehavior: The rules were not clear for Apple employees or that there is a low ethics atmosphere in Apple stores. Continue reading “Apple Company Ethics”
SMB—The Passion Business
Here is another important insight that will help vendors and entrepreneurs to better understand SMBs: most of them are passion driven. Now, it is not the same type of passion that drives C-level execs in the top floors of Fortune 500 companies. It is passion for what they do, the hobby that turned into a business. Understanding how SMBs are driven and what they do best will help you to better serve them. I know I am generalizing, but you will find it true in many cases, especially in smaller SMBs (owner operator). Continue reading “SMB—The Passion Business”
Seven reasons why SaaS is not main street in SMB
It was the week of Web 2.0, the annual conference that celebrates the new new new web. Tracking the news from the conference, it was clear that the new web still mainly targets consumers and individuals, and did not make any significant headway into the small- and mid-size business space (SMB). A quick scan of the tech news this week (all thanks to good old techcrunch) reveals that the industry is focused on photo editing, Internet TV, and web 2.0 mashups for your car. Even applications that are more business-oriented, like InterviewUp, are focused on the individuals (interviewees) and not on the interviewers. Continue reading “Seven reasons why SaaS is not main street in SMB”
What Windows Vista Failed To Do
I am no expert in operating systems and I would not attempt to review Windows Vista. If you are really interested in Vista, there is a whole blog dedicated to it. There is really only one reason why I regret using it (not that I had any choice, it came with my new laptop…): it is slow.
You see, products have jobs to do and each product has a “job zero” Continue reading “What Windows Vista Failed To Do”
Gadi Shamia 