My friend Dean recently emailed me about his company, ZeroDragConsulting.com. Dean is quite an amazing guy…besides being extremely good at what he does, he is a triathlete. He knows and loves how to push himself to his limits and grow from it…that’s freakin’ cool.
He asked me a direct question about his business, but I thought that I’d answer in a general way as well…and publish on “ze pervaziv blog” (meant to be said with a Jacques Cousteau accent @;-).
Basically, the question was around the amount of “process” that start-ups need to grow. Here are 3 key summary considerations that I see and more detail follows (click read more):
1. The Design Process
2. The Process of the 5th Discipline
3. Balancing the Two
The Design ProcessMy perspective on “design” comes from two things: One, I studied industrial design at Georgia Tech with an undergrad thesis in HCI…two, I love design…my old blog (though currently down, the new is here) was about all things design…it is one of my passions…and I apply design principles to everything I do, every second, of every day. From an entrepreneurial perspective, I’ve started about 8 or so companies (most failed)...and worked as part of many start-ups and launched products at various companies (e.g. iXL, WebMD, Fibermarket, eSasa, Kinzan, Siebel, Oracle, Podshow/Mevio, MarketingCentral, Unica).
Entrepreneurs and intra-prenuers must be creative…they are doing something the world has never seen before and looking for feedback from the world (I am guessing this might also be the origin of hello world). If you are really following a true design process, feedback comes in two main forms: One is “I like that…I’ll give you money for it” and ...two is “I don’t like that…but I’ll tell you why.” This applies to the design of anything…a product, service offering, business, main entree, painting, song, sales pitch, call center script, etc.
Entrepreneurs have to design an entire business that surrounds their new product or service. To do so, they have to learn…and evolve fast. If you go to market with something that customers don’t respond to (with money), you are out of business. After you create, you have to learn AND change to grow. Creativity is critical to being an entrepreneur…I’ll call this the createlearnchangegrow model.
Having trained for a sprint triathlon with Dean a while back, I also know that the createlearnchangegrow model applies to the human body…to grow you don’t just do the same thing again and again…you cross-train, you push your limit to do more, you learn from others who have been there, etc. I just launched a project for The Atlanta Beat yesterday, and I asked Christa “what makes a woman pro soccer player tick?” She said something along the lines of “it’s about pushing yourself to be the best you can be…you are in a constant, hard-core state of wanting to improve and be your best.” Now, that is a super lesson for all entrepreneurs and product launch peeps.
Net/Net: Bringing something new to market requires a certain amount of flexibility while you iron out the kinks…or re-invent yourself on the fly…you have to have enough change built in to get it right…and not get crushed by process. When I met Rabble, I found out first-hand that Twitter did this…but that is a story for another time.
The Process of the 5th Discipline
My perspective on “process” comes from Siebel and Oracle. I spent about 6 at Siebel and 1 at Oracle. At Siebel, I ended up running a world-class, award winning marketing operations team…our processes and measurements were some of the best in the world. If you’ve been in the software business for any length of time, you probably know that the industry exists largely to automate things…to make processes better, faster, cheaper, and more measurable. Oracle asked me to lead a global implementation of Siebel CRM…strong process discipline is required to implement CRM on a global scale and get results. For example, in my few conversations with Judy, it was clear that she wanted to measure results to optimize them…and to get that…you need processes.
So, at some point…a start-up or even some new product/service launch wants to scale or grow. From a biological perspective, the strongest survive and replicate. You’ve figured out a formula, now you want to manufacture it. So, entrepreneurs also have to design a business that can grow, scale, replicate, etc. Once you know a large enough customer segment likes your product, you grow. Growth can be painful or not. Before Google, Siebel was the fastest company in the history of the world to grow from $0 to $1B. That is why I went there…I wanted to learn everything I could. My experience was that they largely lived the 5th Discipline and were very strong on developing feedback processes and measurements.
Again, in my training with Dean…I’d listen to my body…I could push myself to grow, but there was a limit. As well, I couldn’t just train once…I needed discipline to improve faster, to help my body heal faster, to grow more. This discipline is process…it is replication.
Net/Net: At some point, a start-up or new product launch has to replicate, grow, scale, etc. Processes, tools, measurements become very important to help with growing pains and ultimately improve ROI.
Balancing the TwoBalance the two is the key to success. For me, balance is part of every aspect of my life…I’ve tattooed a symbol for balance on my body twice (two times so that it is balanced out @;-)...cause I find that I need to always remind myself of this. If there is too much focus on either creativity and design versus process and scale, then things die. Now, some friction between the two is required…it’s even ok if it creates smoke or fire, but the friction needs to be managed so that it does not kill the business… alignment, timing, balance, lack of ego…these things allow frictionless-ness. As examples of problems…an entrepreneur can be the most amazing creative on the planet…someone who can evolve and flex effortlessly…and their lack of focus means they never focus on addressing a specific segment and growing revenues…or the entrepreneur could put too much process in place too early and miss the mark with their product or service while suffocating the business with unnecessary overhead.
Net/Net: Balance design and process. Design the balance into the process.Again, this is just one person’s perspective…so, I’d be quite curious what others think and appreciate any dialogue on this topic.
