12 Nov 09 Can I choose my customer?
We quite often talk about what the market for a product or a service is. And always asked to focus on the customer. Problem is that the market is always staring at you like a large gorilla in the middle (not corner) of the room. Will I want to say no to any part of the target market – NO!. So who is my customer? Specially when it comes to Web2.0 and e-commerce companies it is hard to define this in each stage of the company.
So my assertion is go and choose your customer. Learn from those you choose to learn from and give them the best of what you can. Build everything around these chosen ones as they will define what you make, how you make it, how you fund it, how you sell it etc. Ignore the rest for now. Too often founders think they do not have the power to choose. If you don’t choose you don’t focus and if you don’t focus you loose product and market strategy. And remember when your customers change (as you expand focus) you will need to change too. These changes will be in your – product, process, talent, business model and how you fund your business. So YES you can choose your customer and you should.
07 Nov 09 Lack of Leadership in Europe
The recent talk about President of Europe got me thinking. Europe consists of one of the richest countries in the world, with potential to possibly shape a lot of world events. Yet how many recognisable world leaders do we have? I am not just talking about political leadership but also business leaders.
The reason I am alluding to this is – I was annoyed by the mention that the president of Europe should be a less known figure. Well apart from 5 people in Europe guess we only have less known and and probably unknown figures who will have no influence and no way to take any issue forward with the huge and influential powers of US, China, Russia, India etc. Now why is it that Europe craves for unknowns. While I am no fan of Tony Blair, I am baffled about any other choice. Do we really want a leader who has never been in front of China, Russia and US to negotiate difficult issues. Does anyone think the likes of Belgian and Luxembourgian Prime Ministers can do much? Or as Angela Merkel suggests a Eastern European unknown leader.
I would like to take this political leadership issue further. Take for example the issue of the massacre of thousands of Bosnian men. Europe showed no leadership and turned its eye away from facts. It was only the US and UK which forced their way in and bombed Serbia to stop the Bosnian war. Why didn’t EU show leadership there? In it’s own backyard? Isn’t something seriously wrong?
This brings me to another point. We know a lot of business leaders in the US – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos etc … the list is long. I am not sure many even in Europe can come up with such a list of business leaders in the EU countries. Why is this the case even with EU having some world class companies. Is EU obsessed with being average? Is leadership or talking about it seen as a sin? Is talking about vision and inspiring others to follow suit seen as an affront? Is it any wonder that most businesses have role models in the US rather than in Europe? In my opinion this is a very serious issue that we need to look at in order to question why we do not yet have a silicon valley in Europe. Europe needs to stop being a least common denominator continent and more of a go getter only then can people at the bottom aspire bigger and better things.
Tags: Buusiness, Europe, Leadership, Politics, US
05 Nov 09 Useless Feedback
The world is Web2.0 business is full of a single most frustrating statement – I know how to build but how do I sell? While a lot can be said about putting the product in front of your customer and test test test. One aspect of such tests is forgotten more often than now – proper feedback and what to take from it.
Feedback from your potential customer is very important. Which is why we have a crazy number of market research companies and people spending a lot of time finishing and polishing business plans. There are a huge number of people sending out surveys – right from large brands to the tinniest of start ups. I have been flooded with some of these surveys lately and on a close inspection most of them make no sense at all. Almost all questions are about – Would you like this x feature in the product? Do you value x feature in the product? Which of the features is most important to you? etc etc … But the most important question – “Do you need or value this product or service?” rarely ever gets asked.
This reminds me of a survey from someone wanting to start a a Pizza store in Germany. All questions pertained to “What sausage would you like on your pizza?” And they went away excited at what people wanted and started the store only to see nobody buying the pizzas. Who would want a pizza with sausages anyway? So they asked the wrong questions. The first questions should have been – Would you like sausages in your pizza?
To top it all – the most stoopid surveys are for women – trying to gauge their likes and dislikes in technology products. Always starting from the wrong end of things (colour matching a favourite) and patronising. Now will you get a correct feedback with that? No wonder none of them understand women customers.
Tags: business, customer, Feedback, Market Research, Survey, technology
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