Wim GE De Vos

Tag: Lightsaber

  • The importance of Demos

    wow-moment

    Most of what we sell is too hard to understand without a demo.

    If a picture is worth a thousand words,

    a demonstration is probably worth a million.*

    Steve Blank in The 4 steps to the epiphany.

    So let´s ask ourselves the following 6 questions:

    • Do you have a demo script?
    • Do you have a demo space?
    • Do you have a demo strategy?
    • Does your demo create a WOW moment?
    • Who does the demo?
    • How often do you demo?

    There is a direct correlation between:

    the amount of WOW moments you create

    &

    the growth of your business… *

    *YOU, once you got your demo-act together.

  • 2nd Wave 🌊 – being a start-up again…🚀

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    In the last couple of months many of us have been struggling for business survival. Now we are coming out of it we are at a crossroads.

    Option 1: Back to the future.

    Put all the bits and pieces into place just the way they were back in 2019. And hop back in the treadmill hoping that “this time my business will scale”. For the obvious reason that well,…that you picked things up where you left them middle of march.

    “Along the journey we commonly forget its goal” F. Nietsche

    But this is the low-probability-option to a scaleable business. Our businesses oftentimes had become an amalgam of different services and products trying to serve many different customers. And therein lies the reason for a very low Result/Work ratio…

    Or Option 2: Hack value before you hack growth

    This means going back to your customers and find out what they truly love 💙 about you, your company and what you have to offer. Find what it is they cherish and crave. And drop the rest. Listen, ask, interview. That is where the secret treasure is to be found 🏆.

    Find your core, your focus, your true north through customer discovery.

    This the focus 🎯 for your start-up. Cut the rest.

    note: you have a number of asymmetrical advantages in your pocket already: existing customers that trust you, services and products you sold and got paid for, a team of knowledge people, sorted out the messy stuff of operating a company,… all things that allow you to spend all time and attention during the next few weeks on finding what it is people love about your company.

    Hack Value before you hack growth…It is the starting point for success and scale as a start-up.

    Now is the time to decide if you want to re-create the business you had or become the business you always wanted to be.

    Choose wisely and embrace the consequences.

     

  • Predicting the future

    Predicting the future

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    Today there are more futurologists out there than the total sum of “self-declared expert” national football coaches, presidents of nations and health experts in virology together.

    There is a type of of futurologists I find interesting though.

    Enter the “The Builders” -> Predicting the future by creating it.

    Marc Andreessen & his VC squad wrote a challenging piece recently “It´s time to build“. Check it out.
    Triple AAA: Actionable – Ambitious – A-political.
    What will you build?

    Tim Sweeney & the gaming gang on the metaverse. “Fortnite and the metaverse”
    Going beyond the internet.
    How to escape the stronghold of Facebook, Google, Apple,…?

    Marc Cuban & his entrepreneurial posse on challenges and avenues for action. “What would you do as president“.
    Particularly interesting how Cuban mentions existing trends with transformative power.
    How do we amplify transformative trends for the better?

    Striking how all of them try to predict the future by asking questions, invite to action, look for perspective and see transformation as a way forward.

    Maybe, just maybe, we can learn from their approach?

    It will be harder for sure than sitting back and consuming what is fed to us.
    But it might just be more rewarding and have a real impact if we do…

    Small decisions with a BIG impact 🤜🏻.

     

  • Inside the 1st Wave: Back to basics & #2020BusinessChallenge

    Inside the 1st Wave: Back to basics & #2020BusinessChallenge

    For full Video drop – click here

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    With this video I wanted to follow up on all the ideas and suggestions I received from you as a reaction to my earlier post “small businesses – 3 Wave Storm coming“. 🙏🏻
    Share with you how we as small businesses can get through the first wave of this storm.
     
    I addition I want to propose a #2020businesschallenge to all #businessowners, #directors and #boardmembers:
    1. No layoffs
    2. zero-profit-year
    3. learning opportunity
     
    Looking forward to your feedback as always.
     
    If we work together – learn – be positive, we have the opportunity to come out of this as better people, businesses and as a society.
    This is an opportunity in disguise. #bettertogether
     
    #astoryaboutpeople #makewowthestandard #thenewnormal

  • Digital transformation – where to start

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    A recent survey of  directors, CEOs, and senior executives found that digital transformation (DT) risk is their #1 concern in 2019. Yet 70% of all DT initiatives do not reach their goals. (source Harvard Business Review)

    Digital transformation is a matter of survival for any business. But especially tricky for SME´s.

    Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Salesforce, IBM, SAP, but also thousands of specialised players like Xero, Slack, Bootcamp, Mailchimp,… are all promising you the world.

    So where do you start? How do you decide?

    • Look for the perfect “total solution provider”?
    • Build upon whatever software you already use?
    • Cloud or local packages?
    • Departmental approach (accounting, sales, production, shipping, IT, finance,…)

    The decision making process I propose is the following:

    Start with an in-depth business analysis. Where are we today?
    Then lay out your strategic vision for the business. Where are we going?

    And then a hybrid, personalised and phased approach will start to emerge.

    Some parts will be hosted locally (eg sensitive information), some parts will be hosted in either a private cloud (own infrastructure) or public cloud solutions (external suppliers).

    There is no Holy Grail of digital transformation. You are unique. So is the solution you need.

    So start with analysing where you are today and plotting where you want to be tomorrow. Not by selecting softwares or vendors.

    And I bet you will find that the digital transformation of your business will be hybrid, personal and phased.

    Some interesting reads are:

    ZDNet: Digital Transformation: making it work in the real world.
    Harvard Business Review: Digital Transormation is not about technology.
    Insead Knowledge: Setting the stage for Digital Transformation