Wim GE De Vos

Small businesses with a BIG impact

7 Questions to assess your business model

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To make sure you are going somewhere, you better start by knowing where you are.

In order to look at your business from all sides and then map where you are I strongly recommend to use the following checklist. It can be a harsh confrontation but truth brings insight if you face it head on.

This insight will help you to move beyond mere differentiation of products or services and craft superior business models instead. Just having a product or a service people want is simply not enough anymore.

Great value propositions need to be embedded in great business models. Start building yours today.

Growth strategy 2019 – Genesis, home technology architects

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write it down
on Wall street – watching the craze

For us at Genesis wanting to make an impact implies growth 🚀. And growth has many dimensions. Continuous learning, improvements, more resources, more responsibilities for stakeholders,…

And being serious about growth means to have a plan for growth. Such a plan needs to be written down, shared, discussed, reviewed and adapted as we progress along our journey.

As an exercise in transparency and example here you have Genesis Technologies operational growth plan for 2019. It has 4 pillars and they come in order of priority.

Grow Market Share

  • WOW our customer. We focus on simplifying matters and exceptional service to do so. You can see us apply #theARTof SIMPLE and #makeWOWthestandard every day.
  • Share the experience of what can be. Everyone passing by our VIPLounges gets a taste of what is possible in homes of today and tomorrow. From end-clients over to the FEDEX guy.
  • System design service. We compile knowledge and standardise best practices in designing world class systems. Only to share this again with our partners and guarantee superior systems to home owners.

Make our Partners Stronger

  • Training and support mechanisms. As we continue to build our knowledge and training resources our partners will benefit daily in delivering better systems and serving their clients.
  • Toolbox for success. Our PartnerZone platform is growing in terms of tools and features to make our partners more successful in their own business.
  • Marketing and sales. Genesis Technologies partners get free access to the VIPlounges.club network and benefits. This helps them sell more and better solutions.

Expand share of Project

  • Audio and Video. Has always been our passion and this is where we started out. Music is our religion and cinemas where we go to church…
  • Control and Comfort. Since a few years we have successfully added home control of AV, light, comfort,… to our portfolio.
  • Networked infrastructure. The true foundation of technology in the home. Control systems, AV distribution over IP, wireless. Everything has become network centric.
  • KNX lighting control. Light is the next frontier for us. We have a laser-focussed approach in this competitive market.

Develop new partners and channels

  • AV and CI expert installers. This is the market we all come from and believe in long term. Every day we still onboard new partners to grow together. Especially in larger markets like France and Italy.
  • KNX and HVAC engineering companies. Companies with a strong engineering foundation that offer complete solutions. All wanting to differentiate from electricians and retail electronic outlets.

So now 3 things can happen…

First, that our clients and suppliers perfectly understand why we do what we do every day of 2018. Second, that internally we as a team are focussed on executing our growth plan. Thirdly, that the competition will copy or sabotage us.

I´ll take my chances and will keep you informed on all 3 accounts 🏄‍♂️.

May the Force be with you.

Financial dashboard to pilot your spaceship.

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Lightsaber

As an entrepreneur you probably want to focus 100% on the 3 core components of your venture: Team – Product – Market*.

But while you need to focus on the ball, you can´t forget about the score… When you pilot a starcruiser, you need a dashboard…even as a Jedi.

This is why when it comes to finance I have made the choice to make beautiful what is boring. And simple what was complex. Simply by standardising on XERO for accounting and financial KPI´s*.

By doing so we (the whole company) have gained insight into “what the numbers tell us“. And we actually like to listen to the stories.

What a difference compared to how it was before when we had to wait until our accountant periodically told us how we were doing, flying on instinct, forcing myself to stare into the abyss of numbers,…

So when in doubt over which tools to help you succeed in business, I strongly recommend to only use simple and beautiful systems. It sound more obvious than it is because often you will face resistance from “rich feature sets” and “user customisation” who are soldiers of Complexity and the Dark Side. Your job is to make Simplicity win.

So repeat after me: Simple over Complex. The Force over the Dark Side. Always. Everywhere.

*more on these in future blogs.

Mentor or Hero?

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Real Super Hero
me being Tony Stark 💥

Loads of business “self-help” books go on about why you should look for a mentor. For advice, guidance, insights and a bit of help here and there. Not me.

I would say, go and pick some heroes first. Heroes are far more powerful in my view. Let me quickly explain why:

  • Heroes are in no short supply. They come in all colours and shapes. Finding a mentor mostly happens within the circle of people you meet and know.
  • Heroes are analysed, dissected and explained by others. Whereas mentors work mainly from self-analysis and their own framework of success.
  • Heroes work together well and can be changed out when needed. Mentors create a longer term dependency and the relationship is often exclusive.
  • Heroes cannot be used as an excuse (hear yourself say “hey, i failed because when studying Steve Jobs, Hubspot and Sesame Street I found out they got some of this shit wrong…”). Mentors are often brought in as a (fake) insurance policy for success. Which is both unrealistic and unfair.

But most of all, I feel it is a matter of attitude towards your future. Active or passive.

You pick your heroes and study them, learn to think and act like them. Approach this if it were some intensive continuous training exercise. This is how you interiorise a success-attitude. Or you find a mentor and ask for advice and guidance (so the mentors initiative and timescales). Mainly a receiving more passive approach.

Act as if you own your destiny. Pick and study your heroes well. And if a mentor crosses your path introduce him to your heroes.

Note: I am much more in favour of the concept of “mentor-ing“. A do-word as they say. Mentoring is a crucial activity for those who want to lead change and achieve a vision.
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