strategy Archives - Page 4 of 10

Escape to Victory: from products 📦 to systems ☸️

January 8, 2020 by Wim GE De Vos Leave a Comment

escape commoditization.jpg — more on this from IMD here

The first objective of a company is to survive.

The second is to thrive.

To do both is to move from offering products📦 sales to systems☸️*.

And you better do it fast 🏃‍♀️…

*☸️Systems defined as:

bundle of products + services + knowledge
tailored solution to customers needs or desires
organisms that are designed, created, delivered, serviced and updated

If you sell products – Amazon wins (or aliexpress…)

If you are a brand franchise – the brand wins

If you sell systems – you win (and your customer too…).

Your choice.

Small decisions with a BIG impact 💥.

Note: You can SELF TEST your business using one of these useful checklists – Lightsabers.

Genesis: our customer segments 🍰

January 8, 2020 by Wim GE De Vos Leave a Comment

The Strategyzer model we use defines customer segments as follows:

Customer Segments are the different groups of people or organizations your enterprise aims to reach and serve. This includes users who might not generate revenues, but which are necessary for the business model to work
(e.g. users of Google’s free search engine are essential to their advertising-based business model, or doctors are usually an essential, but non revenue-generating part of a pharmaceutical company’s business model).

Questions to ask

For whom are we creating value?
Who are our most important customers, clients, or users?

Genesis customer segments:

Installers of Technology = IoT´s:

Our delivery channel partners. Specialised engineering companies dedicated to selling, designing, installing, delivering and servicing home technology to premium homes.
We see divide these into 2 groups and call them “Home Technology Architects”:

Apprentice IoT – on route to build a successful business
Mature IoT – established successful business

Premium Home Building Professionals:

Our specification channel partners. Professionals, already convinced about the need to include technology in premium homes of today and tomorrow. They are looking to learn how to integrate more technology in a simpler and more beautiful way into premium homes.
Note the niche we are looking to serve… only those focussed on premium homes & are looking to learn…focus.

Visionary architects – looking to learn how technology can serve their vision of the homes they design
Home builder – looking for technology that adds value to the homes they sell
Interior design contract division – looking for technology that serves the design of spaces they create

Map your customer segments with your value proposition and you start unraveling the mystery of your business…see image on the top for a first step (courtesy Strategyzer).

Next step then is to answer the following questions:

What change are you trying create?
Who are you trying to change?
(for more on the importance of this last question turn to the wizards Seth Godin and Steve Blank – obvious next question then becomes “What change do you want to create?”…)

Short questions with BIG answers…

extra context re. home building professionals – below an email sent to our supply partners a while back…

Dear Willie Wonka,

I would like to ask for some extra attention and time to deal with our request below. It concerns our future and success…

As our strategic partner I wanted to ask you for some input and help. Help in growing our business together. The second stage of our rocket 🚀… The so-called “specification channel” stage: ✏️

The “delivery channel”: ✅is established and organically grown further

This we have – about 300 established partners across France, Italy, Spain, Portugal.

These are our current “installation partners”, “dealers”, “integrators”, “installers of technology”.

(The people and companies you see at ISE who sell and install technology products)

Status: We have the trust and the ear of this channel. Based on this channel alone we are able to grow 30-50% under the current favourable market conditions. Our focus is on serving them by making their life simple and work on a project basis when and where we can.

The “specification channel”: ✏️

This is what we need to develop. There are thousands of these.

These are mainly “architects”, “contract divisions of design and build brands” and “technical design offices”.

They are hard to reach as this is one of the most over-marketed groups in the building industry.

Interesting read on how to reach this group here: How to market to architects. Some lighting companies and building component manufacturers do this quite well. Our industry however does not (yet)…

Status: We are reaching out to architects via trade shows ( eg: http://www.architectatwork.com/), Builder Program (https://www.builder-program.eu/) and via some of our installers. We offer to help architects to include (specify) technology in their high-end projects.

Request:

What architect-facing marketing materials do you have?
Do you have experience in marketing towards architects? If so, could you share best practices?
Are there any specific online activities you use to reach architects?
How do you handle architects requests for info? Can you elaborate?
Do you have a plan or strategy to market to architects?

In our opinion this “second stage of the rocket 🚀” is what is needed to keep growing and empower installers to sell premium systems. So we invite you to work with us to make this happen.

Thanks in advance and always happy to discuss over the phone or in person to take a deep dive on this.

Wim

Digital transformation – where to start

November 9, 2019 by Wim GE De Vos 1 Comment

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

3 Axes of B2B – Genesis Technologies

September 6, 2019 by Wim GE De Vos 1 Comment

The growth of Genesis Technologies is a to a large extent the result of a clear channel strategy. In our opinion B2B is both a science and an art.

For Genesis Technologies the 3 axes of B2B (channel strategy) are:

Profit 💰

Channel partners (installers of technology) are guaranteed to make more money by working with Genesis Technologies. Either by selling more or bigger systems, by being more efficient or by delivering higher quality systems.

Higher profits are the fuel ⛽️ that drive our partnerships 🚀.

Tribe 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Channel partners´ relationship with Genesis Technologies goes beyond a 1-to-1 simple service/supply mindset. Learning, service and caring happens between several nodes (true partners) in the network.

Learning happens collectively 🤝 and is accumulated 📈 within the tribal network. The network gets stronger 💪🏻 with every project, problem solved, lesson learned.

Respect 🙏🏻

Respect for channel partners´ decisions, work, history and future is essential on Genesis Technologies approach to partnerships. No 2 companies are identical. Even if dreams, objectives, ambitions often are shared.

Genesis Technologies´ story is about people 🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏽‍♀️. And partners are before anything that: people, people with dreams and a history.

So now I have revealed Genesis Technologies strategy “3 axes of B2b”. Open for competitors to copy, for supply partners to amplify and others to share.

Let´s make WOW the standard in whatever you do. Every time, every day.

Samsung The Wall 📺🤑💨 go-to-market strategy

August 15, 2019 by Wim GE De Vos Leave a Comment

Over a year ago Samsung asked to come up with a strategy on how to market their new “half a million USD TV” called “The Wall”. (Emoticons would describe the product concept at that stage as 📺 🤑 💨)

Samsung admitted to have no clue re. luxury markets, did not understand the dynamics of the custom install industry and for sure did not share the importance of long-term channel partners and influencers, …

The briefing I came up with was summarised to a large extent in the first pages of my report “The subtle art of entering the luxury yacht/home market as a technology company (In Europe)“. Download the report for free here.

Then exactly 1 year ago in the midst of my holidays – Samsung flew me over to their “LED experience centre” in Frankfurt. The meeting with Samsungs management lasted about 1 hour. Until it became clear to me that there was no point…

Why, you may ask? Well, the answer is higher up in the blog post 😉.

In the mean time, my fellow technology architects: let´s make WOW 🍾😲 the standard together 🤝.

Note: later meetings with other LED manufacturers (Barco, Hansen, Leyard, and now also Philips) have brought a series of challenges & opportunities to light that will positively impact large screen displays in the home.