Optimizing Your Business Engine for Success

There are so many moving parts but when you pull it all together it just works. 

Finding an engineer to design and build the engine is only one part. 

The other less glamorous but equally important part is the sales ‘mechanic’. 

It takes a professional with experience to observe, experiment and instinctively ‘tune’ the engine so it continues to run but also improves over time.

Looking ‘under the bonnet’ of your own company, some key areas to consider:

1. Recurring Revenues 

2. Life Time Value (LTV) of Customers & Customer Retention

3. Industry and Market Customer acquisition trends

4. Optimal Sales Strategy, Resources, Org, Incentives & Culture 

5. Automating Sales processes for Scaling

6. Product Road Maps & Pricing Optimisation

7. Average Customer Value Trend

8. Average Number of Customer Trend

Essential Components of a Winning B2C Pitch

Getting under the Hood of a B2C pitch. 

As someone that cares that founders always put their best foot forward

This is some ideas for the micro detail I would want to see a pitch highlight for me: 

  1. GTM / Sales Strategy & Plan
  2. Actual Organic Customer Acquisition Numbers and Sources
  3. Customer Retention / Churn Numbers (Organic vs Paid)
  4. B2B2C Partnerships (and references)
  5. B2C Advertising Strategy and Plan
  6. Actual Paid Customer Acquisition Numbers and Sources

CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value) modeled against different credible scenarios (e.g., worst and best-case models using COVID data).

How B2B Tech Founders Can Secure Corporate Partnerships

Any corporate buyers want to add to this for the benefit of B2B tech founders? 

1. Mandate & Sponsor: Your corporate contact has the mandate within the organisation to engage with you (An internal sponsor/reference/referral is key).

2. Business Case: An approved business case to commercially engage with a high confidence in the project delivery.

A no or very low risk of internal reputation and P&L damage to sponsors. 

3. Accessibility: Founders to be hands-on and to lead and drive the project forward. Don’t handover to a junior ‘implementation team’.

4. Legal: All legal & compliance approvals. 

5. Internal Stakeholders: All key stakeholders aligned, especially if you need to be integrated into the busy IT schedule. Send regular project communication and updates on project milestones successes.

6. Procurement: Being prepared beforehand for a parallel procurement and supplier application process. 

7. Brand & PR: Is the solution going to be ‘white-labelled’ with the corporate brand? Deliver ‘internal’ PR messaging that is aligned to corporate strategy and quarterly objectives.

Master Your To-Do List with These 5 Categories

TLDR: Framework from book ‘Procrastinate on Purpose’ (combined with a bit of The General Patton Matrix).

Divide your To Do List into 5 categories:

1. Eliminate (tasks that are not urgent and not important) 

2. Automate (tasks that are repeated and can be eliminated/delegated by a rule) 

3. Delegate (tasks that are urgent but not important)- Note that it takes 15-minutes to delegate for every 1 minute of the task. 

4. Prioritise – Do first (urgent and important tasks) or Schedule (not urgent but important tasks)

5. Procrastinate – tasks you leave to ‘ripen’ (action) or ‘rot’ (eliminate)

Inbox Zero: Debunking Productivity Myths

Inbox zero and other productivity myths. 

A survey of 17,000 knowledge workers worldwide finds email lacking when it comes to effective workplace communication.

Three takeaways from this report below:

1. More email, more problems. Employees who receive the most email—more than 50 emails a day—are paying a steep price for their willingness to go head-to-head with their inbox. These “hyper-connectors” are more likely than moderate email users to say they struggle with essential workplace tasks, such as finding information needed to complete projects, meeting performance goals, and aligning with other teams. 

2. Managing messages vs. getting work done. Workers are stymied just trying to manage an avalanche of messages. Meanwhile, their actual to-do lists get longer and longer: 82% of hyper-connectors say they have three or more active projects each day and 58% attend three or more meetings each day. 

3. Same inbox, vastly different workplace. No one would argue that the workplace of today looks or feels the same as it did in 1971. Yet that’s the year an engineer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, fired off the first email. So it pays to ask: Are we equipping ourselves with the right tools for modern work?

Understanding LinkedIn QR Codes: A Complete Guide

They were invented there 🇯🇵 in 1994 by automotive company Denso Wave, a Toyota subsidiary. They needed a more accurate way to track vehicles and parts during the manufacturing process.

They are also big on LinkedIn,  Singapore 🇸🇬 and other Tech conferences. A hangover from COVID and physical business cards? 

A key feature missing though is a ‘notes’ functionality after scanning a persons LinkedIn QR code. 

That way you can remember the context  of the conversation or follow-up if needed post meeting. 

A quick hack is to message the individual straight after the meeting with agreed next steps or context and use the messages to do all your follow ups. 

To access your own LinkedIn QR code.

1. Click on the search bar window at the top of your mobile app screen. 

2. Click on the small code at the end of the window on the right. 

3. Show your code to the person who can point their phone’s camera to it and click on the link to open the profile. 

4. To save time you can save your QR as a favourite in your photos for quick access.

Understanding First Principles Thinking for Entrepreneurs

I am a strong believer in the role of First Principles Thinking and the importance of clear definitions. My background in science has shaped my understanding of the scientific method, which has been invaluable as an entrepreneur and more recently while advising startups and scale-ups.

For those who may not be familiar with the concept of First Principles Thinking, I drew some inspiration from a South African-born entrepreneur

Understanding Yin and Yang: The Balance of Life Forces

Yinyang (陰陽) describes the two complementary forces—yin and yang—that make up all aspects and phenomena of life.

It is a Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. 

Yin, Chinese for “female” or “moon,” represents darkness, femininity, passivity, and the earth. 

Yang (“sun” or “male”) represents light, masculinity, activity, and the heavens. 

The balance of yin and yang were seen to influence health and order within an individual, society, and the entire universe.

Fascinating to see philosophies in practice in day-to-day life. 

From Ubuntu to Yinyang. 

Without thoughts (or philosophies) we don’t get things… like startups, inspiring designs, brands, architecture or Yinyang chicken rice

Enhancing Customer Experience: Key Questions for Startups (A lesson from Amazon)

(@Startups take note of questions 3 and 4.)

1. “If we invest in it and it becomes successful it, will it move the needle for the customer?”

2. “Is it being well served today?”

3. “Do we have a differentiated approach?”

4. “Do we have competence and if not can we acquire it quickly?”

Amazon’s Customer Experience promise:

“Can Amazon improve the customer experience and make the customer’s life better?”

What is yours?