Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

For us, the answer is not as easy as it might first seem….

(a)  Note that my question was NOT “what does Google know about Innovation?” – for surely they would know enough for several book’s worth of material.

(b)  I am more focused on us (a small-sized software company based in Milton, Brisbane) and wondering what WE can learn – provided we are not too dumb, distracted or egotistical to really hear the messages that were presented to us.

I’m writing this post 2 weeks after the Warren Centre’s “2009 Innovation Lecture”, featuring Lars Rasmussen of Google.

There were three of us who attended – myself, and two of our developers.  Paul has already posted his comments about what he gained from the lecture.

Given my focus is more on “Working ON, not IN, the business” (or at least I try for it to be), my interest was moreso in the lessons we could learn from the two projects (Google Maps and Google Wave) rather than the technology per-se.  For this reason, I found the obligatory product demo of the Wave mid-way through the presentation a little tedious, and would rather have heard more about Lars’ personal experiences of innovation during the two projects.

However, I was not totally disappointed – as the lecture was accompanied by some well-written notes (big copyright notice, so can’t scan here) and the synopsis also provided by the Warren Centre online.

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One of the benefits of working at Global-Roam is the strong emphasis we have on self-improvement. We do everything short of eating books and articles concerned with marketing, software development practices, and creativity. Very regularly we brainstorm, philosophize, furrow eyebrows and pull serious faces in an attempt improve some aspect of the company.

One day, the boss-man (aka Paul McArdle, or as telemarketers like to call him, Paul McArdie) was bulldozing his junkmail collection when he happened upon an advertisement for The Warren Centre’s 2009 Innovation Lecture (http://www.warren.usyd.edu.au/bulletin/NO58/ed58art1.htm). He was about to feed it through the woodchipper when he noticed that the guest speaker was Dr Lars Rasmussen of Google Maps fame.

He immediately emailed the rest of us to see who might be interested in attending. He already knew that interest would be unanimous and yet unfortunately the company coffers were not bottomless. With grave finality (and maybe a hint of sadistic glee) he announced that there would only be three tickets purchased, and that he himself would attend. The reaction to this news was immediate and the air was cold with a sense of hostility (and perhaps the onset of winter). Tempers flared, teeth gnashed and Paul appraised the scene from atop his desk, rubbing his chin. Animals. How could he dispense the tickets without creating dissent among those who would miss out? Should it be first-in best-dressed? Should they be doled out based upon performance? Organised cage matches? Or perhaps he could just throw the tickets into the crowd and let God sort it out..

Then the most obvious question struck me. “Hang on. Is this during work hours?”

“It starts at 6pm”.

“PPFFFFFFFT!”
Tears flowed as I tried to stem the flow of coffee from my nose. Before I could react, excuses were flying around the room like angry hornets.

Shane the Canadian chimed in: “It sounds pretty cool eh, but I’ve got to write another hilarious blog post. They don’t write themselves and I have too many NEM-Watches to sell eh.”

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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 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!

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We need to be innovative (but who doesn’t?).  We’ve had some successes in growing our company since 2000 in doing just that – though we’re just starting on the journey.

Given that this book has been feted in various circles as “the best thing since sliced cheese mousetraps”, we were keen to have a look

1) Binary Review

… however I was underwhelmed!

The Book	What we thought
“Blue Ocean Strategy” by W Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne	I don’t recommend it

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For a start, I must note that I was never personally involved in any of these specifically-tailored study projects.

Rather, my understanding of them has come primarily from the time I spent at Gladstone Power Station during the sale process in 1994, when I spent a number of months stuck in the Data Room, reviewing documents as part of the Due Diligence process.

My job, during that period, revolved around reviewing pretty much all the documentation held onsite, determining what could, and could not, be released for the bidders to peruse.  As such, I spent many hours pouring over documentation relating to many aspects of the station, and quizzing the 2 senior engineers in the room if I did not understand something.

Any errors in my understanding (of course) are due to my own stupidity, and not due to explanations provided by others… read more »