Kick-Ass

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Journal Archive

Select A Category BrandingBusiness StrategiesConsumer Behavior / MarketsCreating New MarketsEmerging Business ModelsEntrepreneurship & Game of BusinessGo-to-Market StrategiesHigh-Tech Case StudiesInnovationLearningMarketingRandom IdeasStrategy as a ProcessTweetsValues and All things Good

Innovation

Value Chains Come and Go

The PC era came into an end when open took over. Dell, IBM, Microsoft all had market power. And then Open Source + white boxes came along. Now decentralization is driving innovation. No one owns web 2.0. Small teams of…
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We think we know… but we don’t

Product Managers and Marketing people often think we know our customers and what they want from us. But let me challenge that thinking. If we knew more about our customers or even our prospects, we might change what we product…
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Execute revenue growth, or not

I was just reading Double Digit Growth by Michael Treacy. Yes, during work hours. Call it my version of eating bon-bons. I needed a break. And his book is one of many in my recent pile of acquisitions. Recent being…
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Grow it .. bigger and wiser

If you were to purposely grow your smarts, you might: - Surround yourself with more creative people, or - Study more (content) ideas, or - Talk more at length debating with others, or - Get better educated, right? I’m going…
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Web 2.0 Investment Opportunities

At the web 2.0 conference here in San Francisco and will be doing a series of posts. I would guess 30% of the attendees are VC / Capital / Investment / Analyst types. And between them and the web start-ups,…
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Two types of Advisors: those that Critique and those that Create

Have you ever had the feeling that the people around you are there to tell you how something won’t work? Those are called critiques. Having a critique around as an advisor would be like being in the middle of the country and lost trying to get to NYC let’s say, and having someone come by to say, “this freeway won’t take you to there”. Okay, fair enough. But don’t just leave me there, dude. Tell me which one does!
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Alpha Dog: Strategies for Entrepreneurs

This last week, I was on a much, much (MUCH!) needed solo vacation. No client, staff, or family responsibilities. No email, no phones, no computer. Instead, I packed the normal trashy magazines so I could read about shoes and frivolity….
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Dash used Stealth just Right

Is there ever a good reason to not tell everything to everybody? Yes, there is. Surprise you that I would say that? In relationships, power is not the key to connection. So, don’t deceive or cajole in personal relationships, where…
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Reminder to Self: Networking is a Must

Okay, I normally don’t network. I’d rather be at home, in my pajamas with either a good book or my laptop. And networking itself has a bad rap. But I do believe that people can bring joy to our work…
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Don’t be the Dinosaur Brought down by Mosquitos

And disruptive as the idea of getting displaced by adjunct businesses is, know that parts of the value chain can be free and supplemented by the economics of another. Effectively, it’s become a ;mosquito world. Mosquitoes could surround the dinosaur’s revenue stream, draining it of its nutrients. We don’t have to go too far down the path to see the dinosaur being killed by mosquitoes that can survive and thrive on 10% (or less) of the dinosaur’s take.
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Adaptability & Change is a High Class Problem; 5 things to review

As a CEO of my own firm, and a change leader working with CMOs of world-class brands, the constant in my life is helping organizations to adapt to new situations and challenges. As Bryan Ward used to say, this is…
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Reserve seems key to Creating

I am sitting in Logan airport with a clean email inbox. First time in weeks, if not months, I think. I’ve been swimming pretty hard lately as there have been several client things really needing attention. But sitting here with…
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Hype vs. Real Emerging Models for High-Tech Industry

I’ve been home sick a lot lately. First a cold that needed steroids to knock out, later a stomach flu which the whole family bonded over, and now a fever my son and I are sharing. (Let that explain…
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Capturing Ideas = Yes!

Paper + Organization — ways to capture ideas… Love it! I’m always looking for new paper and organization books. When I give one to a friend, I’m saying something to the affect of, I care. Because ideas are like gems,…
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10 Ways to Convince Other Execs to Follow YOU!

At a speech last month at a women’s exec group, one audience member asked “how do I build a business case so I get heard”. Great question. In my day job, I help execs form business cases all the time,…
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Video, video — oh how you’ve changed

A brainiac Rubicon teammate, Bruce LaFetra did a commentary in our last newsletter on the changing drivers of digital video capture. The premise is that the 15 second shots of video capture on digital cameras made more sense to…
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Ecosystems now matter

I know I’m becoming more of an introvert. I now think about things that happened 2 weeks ago and assign meaning to them. Or does that mean, I’m pondering. Hmmm. Well, anyways, that’s the context to my writing about Software 2006…
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Great Product Management starts with…

One of the more common questions I hear from product management teams is based on figuring out why company A is successful and company B is not. Perhaps it’s that company A somehow does a better job of listening to…
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Hey what’s that in the corner?

I had another late night meeting last week, where my firm was involved in helping a company evaluate a decision to an upcoming product launch. Sorry for not being able to provide details; maybe one day. While we presented…
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Cinching creates more value

I’m always worried about the Valley companies that have too much funding, too much venture capital, too much valuation. In this day of American ‘more is better’ philosophy, you might think me contra-culture (or, worse, old-school) to even mention it….
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Finding the Core Value Proposition is Key

I recently got introduced to an up-n-coming PLM (product lifecycle management) software vendor who shall remain nameless. There are several notable vendors already in the PLM space including IBM, PTC, Borland, UGS (a division of EDS) , and about 40…
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Making a Better Widget isn’t a Competitive Strategy

During my day job, I help both start-ups and billion-dollar tech companies pick market niches and position themselves to compete successfully no matter what size. Most of them start with a competitive mindset that is something like “we make…
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