Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

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It is a loaded term – it means different things to different people (here’s the Wikipedia reference, for instance).

To me, it seems that there are two competing “innovation camps” which I sum up as follows: read more »

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Following my previous post (book review of “Tale of Two Systems” – but really a consideration of Agile & Lean Software Development) I have continued to read, and think (yeah, dangerous, I know).

The following two posts will be of interest:

1)  This post from the HBR Editor’s Blog titled “How do innovators think?” provides many good points (and some of the added comments at the bottom are great as well) but I want to cut to the chase and highlight the “5 Discovery Skills” included in the article:

Skill 1 = Associating – a cognitive skill that “allows creative people to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas”.  Like being able to find your way without needing a map.

Skill 2 = Questioning – like asking the “5 why’s”

Skill 3 = Observation, and (particularly) doing it really well – well enough to pick up nuances in behaviour, etc….

Skill 4 = Experimentation – try a lot of things and keep what works, as noted by Collins and Porras.

Skill 5 = Networking – the post notes that the key is that the networking is done with smart people who have little in common with them, but from whom they can learn.

2)  I read in the comments that someone has already made the link with Agile Software Development.  Here’s commentary by Bob MacNeal on his blog.

In particular with respect to Bob’s post, he has omitted the 3rd skill. I am not sure why he has done this, or if it is deliberate.

However one of the comments underneath sums it up when they note “To write great software you need to observe the detail that’s not included in the written version of the requirements.”  (my emphasis added, as I totally agree)

Given the challenges, opportunities and uncertainties our business faces, we need all 5 in spades!

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Ironically, I read this book back in September up in the Whitsundays (yes, home to the lucky bugger who’s got the best job in the world – at least for 6 months).

You see - in the book, Richard regales the reader of his prized Necker Island (in the Caribbean) and of the value it has represented to him and the group.  Might be a few more years, yet, before we can splurge on our own island!

1)  Binary Review

This book was a quick easy read.

The Book	What we thought
“Screw it, Let’s do it”by Richard Branson	.Upbeat, entertaining stories, with some good lessons

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As you would probably expect (the title’s a bit of a give-away) the book is all about such “simple” concepts as:

1)  Don’t plan to the nth degree – just get started and learn as you go (for me, this resonated with what I have been learning about Agile Software Development)

2)  Have fun along the way.

read more »

	Book: Adversity Quotient Author: Paul G. Stoltz Phd Binary Review: 1
Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way. If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books. Thus, benefits would return to you…

If I had $40 for every time I heard the words “I can’t do this, it’s too hard,” I would be a high school maths tutor. Which I was. For seven years. And my response to every single teenager who uttered those words at me was to tell them point blank that they were wrong. They could do it, and would one day find it easy. By the end of the first term of tutoring all bar two of my thirty or so students had shown a drastic improvement in their grades. Little did I realise but when I was instilling in these students the principles that are fundamental to having a high Adversity Quotient, which is the subject of Paul Stoltz’ book.

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For the second time this week (following from Scott Ginsberg’s session), Adam and I were entertained, and intellectually stimulated, by a seminar focused on helping business do better.

This event was titled “Leading and Enabling Innovation through ICT” and was  presented by Zernike Australia in conjunction with Australian Institute of Commercialisation (AIC), Brisbane Technology Park, and QUT.

The event was part of the “Innovation Series”.

1)  Some great content

After having the session kicked off by Rowan Gilmore (CEO of the AIC), we were then treated to some great ideas from three top speakers:

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Cheating a bit with the post date on this article, as I read this book quite a while ago now, so want to put it in context. Actually, the book’s very good, so there are a couple of us who have had a look.

Binary Review

Only time for the binary review at this stage:

The Book	What we thought
“Ready Fire Aim” by Michael Masterton	Read it quick!

This is an excellent book, in how it summarises the challenges that most business owners face (at least in the author’s personal experience) at various stages in their journey.  A core part of the value is that it points out where the entrepreneurial owner should be focusing their attention, each step of the way.

Certainly aligned with our experience (though the numbers are a little different).

Main details

This book contains loads of great content, which has been all logically arranged around what the book calls the “4 stages of Business Development”.

I’ve listed these below, but would strongly suggest you read the whole book in order that you can understand the framework, and benefit from the detail tactics suggested for use in all 4 stages.

Stage 1 = Infancy

During this stage, you (as an owner) take your business from an idea to actively running and generating a reasonable cash flow.

Main Problem = you don’t really know what you are doing
Main Challenge = making the first profitable sale
Main Opportunity = obtaining a critical mass of customers

During this idea, the core focus of the founder must be:
1)  Getting things done (whatever it takes)
2)  Sales.

At the end of this stage, you might have saturated the market with your initial product idea.

You may (or may not) be profitable, and your revenues might be something like $1 million.

Stage 2 = Childhood

During this stage, your business should go through a rapid growth spurt, as you conceptualise and implement other product ideas, using the cash flow generated by the initial product as leverage.

Main Problem = you may be break even, or making a loss
Main Challenge = creating additional valuable products quickly, to generate profits
Main Opportunity = increasing cash flow and becoming profitable

During this idea, the core focus of the founder must be in generating (and testing) new product ideas.

At the end of this stage, your team will have grown to the stage where you have new staff working with you who are 2 steps removed from the initial ideas from which the company was founded (in other words, they have no memory of why things are done the way they are).

In the book, it is predicted your revenues will have rapidly grown to something like $10 million (and perhaps 10% profit margin).

Stage 3 = Adolescence

During this stage, you find that you (shudder as you) need to implement systems and processes in order that you can cope with the added complexities your business has presented itself with.

The book notes that this is difficult for most entrepreneurs, who probably started their own business as they were sick of “rules and regulations” in the first place.

Main Problem = your systems are strained, and customers are noticing
Main Challenge = turning the chaos into order
Main Opportunity = learning how to establish useful protocols and manage processes and procedures

During this idea, the core focus of the founder must be on getting the business to run with just 3 or 4 simple management reports.

At the end of this period, the author notes that revenues might be approaching $50 million (again, with a 10% profit margin).

Stage 4 = Maturity

During this stage, it may be that the systems that were put in place during the preceding are strangling the creativity of the business (e,g, you see an opportunity, and your Risk Manager says no)

Main Problem = sales slow down and may even stall
Main Challenge = becoming entrepreneurial again
Main Opportunity = getting the business to run itself

During this idea, the core focus of the founder must be working our where he/she fits.

More details

Might come later, when I have the time (but probably not).

You’re welcome to check back, though!

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The Information Industries Bureau (IIB) supported by the Australian Institute for Commercialisation (AIC), staged a one day seminar for executives of Queensland’s fastest growing ICT companies on Wednesday 11 June 2008 at Hillstone, St Lucia Golf Club.

The ‘Growth Options for ICT Entrepreneurs’ seminar was attended by about 90 invited guests who were informed and entertained by some of Australia’s most successful ICT entrepreneurs.

I was one of the attendees.  Will eventually get around to back-filling the details, in the meantime this page will be a part-finished place-holder.

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read more »

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Read this book back in 2007, and wish I had read it earlier – would have saved some heartache!

The post date for this article is not totally a lie – I presented this review at our first shareholders meeting (19th January 2008), which followed the renewal process we underwent in late 2007.

Binary Review

Certainly worth the read:

The Book	What we thought
“10 Rules for Strategic Innovators” by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble	Not perfect, but it’s worth a read

This book is not perfect, but was (when I read it) confirmation of some of the gut feelings I had about some of the things we had been doing wrong in our business.

The core points in the book:

The basic principles are as follows:

Principle 1)  There are two distinctly different types of company:

(a)  Company A type are established companies, where the outcomes for the next year can be thought of as “Current + X%”.  With this in mind, management can be focused in a particular way – all about efficiencies, etc…

(b)  In complete contrast, Company B type (the authors label them “Strategic Experiments”) have a very uncertain future.  Start-ups are one type, and spin-offs another.

Principle 2)  The book then delves into the world of Strategic Experiments (NewCo) launched within established businesses (CoreCo) and, after talking through a couple of case studies, concludes that NewCo must do the following three things:

(a)  Forget (e.g. find its own culture, which is best done if it is physically separate from CoreCo)

(b)  Borrow (e.g. borrow the core expertise of CoreCo, which is best done if it is close by CoreCo).

(c)  Learn quickly (by a process of stating hypothesis, testing, refining hypothesis, etc…)

Principle 3)  The book then makes a telling point – that performance appraisal in Strategic Experiments should be:

(a)  Focused on how quickly NewCo learns from the market response, then adjusts its theories in the light on new information –

(b)  Definitely NOT on how closely it meets its targets.

Having been through the process in the early years of the company of (very much so) being a “Strategic Experiment”, I would certainly have liked to have read this book beforehand – and, as a result, not been so obsessed with targets that were total guesses in any case.

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This book review was one of 3 book reviews I presented in our first shareholder’s meeting of 2008 (back in 19th January 2008).  Hence, I have used artistic licence with the post date to put this into context.

Binary Review

This book was originally published in 1991 but was revolutionary in explaining how to market (and plan the development of) innovative products (specifically high tech) :

The Book	What we thought
“Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey A Moore	An excellent book, that’s well worth reading

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I continue to refer back to this book, despite having read and re-read it.

The underlying premise:

The book starts with the typical bell-shaped curve of customer adoption of any particular product, but argues it is a little different for the high-tech industry – in that there is a chasm between the two distinct parts of the market:

The Early Market (being enthusiasts and visionaries); and

The Mainstream Market (being pragmatists, conservatives and visionaries).

To often, the author notes, tech companies are encouraged by some early successes with the early adopters, and hence scale up too soon, expecting the J-curve to arrive, only to find themselves walking in the wilderness, looking for a beachhead into the pragmatists.

The book presents a whole load of information that’s useful – the following is what I summarised for our management meeting in January 2008:

1)  Seed new technology with enthusiasts (i.e. give it to the geeks, who will test it out for you and find the bugs) so they can help you to educate the visionaries (e.g. who are business people who will risk something that is unproven in order to win big)

2)  Once you have captured the visionaries’ interest, do whatever it takes to delight them, as they will serve as reference customers for the pragmatists.

BEWARE the chasm in between - we need to cross by choosing a targeted beachhead

3)  Gain the bulk of your revenue by serving the pragmatists – by becoming the market leader, and establishing defacto standards.  At this stage, the “whole product” is important.

4)  Leverage success with the pragmatists to generate volume so that the products are reliable/cheap enough to satisfy the conservatives.

5)  Don’t waste your time trying to sell to the sceptics BUT listen to what they say, as they may have valid points!

Even though we operate in a relatively narrow vertical market, this logic aligns with what we have found in the past – and we’re looking to learn from this to make our business expansion easier in future.

Hope this helps you, too!