It’s all about the chemistry according to Pat DiPietro at this morning’s TEB
Taking questions from a somewhat surprised audience before he began his presentation, Pat DiPietro, Managing General Partner of Vengrowth Capital Partners, aimed to set the stage for his talk and ensure that he was speaking about what the audience wanted to hear. That was clever but putting Mary, a local high school student who was there to demo her team’s robotic entry for a regional competition, on the spot to ask a question in front of a room filled with senior execs seemed a bit uncomfortable for a moment. But when Pat exclaimed that Mary’s question was the best one of the day and he was going to stop the questions there, the room errupted in applause. Mary could breathe again and the presentation started to really roll. Mary’s question? “What are some tips to handle conflicts in a team? Ahhh. It’s all about the chemistry – according the Pat… and so we begin.
A few other questions were also on point such as “what are the top 2 things a start-up needs to know to really succeed” and “what’s more critical – getting a product out that may have a few glitches or waiting and polishing it to near perfection before you take it to your client.” Pat addressed all these and more in his 45 minute presentation at OCRI’s Technology Executive Breakfast (TEB) this morning. With eight start-ups in as many years under his belt and dozens more in his repretoire, it was sure to be a very informative and entertaining morning.
There are five things that must happen for any company– start-up or not — to be successful.
First of all, you must become a “category of one” in the mind of your customers. This entails effective marketing, value positioning, and doing everything you can to win the crucial “bake-off” – especially if you know you deserve to win. Pat used a great variety of examples that we could all relate to when he explained value positioning and the case of present mode of ops vs future mode of ops (PMO vs FMO). Citing his favourite business book and the evolution of the cable excavator to the back hoe as well as the FIDO phone that makes calls and sends texts to the I-Phone with 9,500 apps he demonstrated that the value of your product must meet and exceed the expectations of the target customer base. Winning the ever critical technology “bake-off” is a make or break it opportunity for your company. Pat’s experience with BelAir clearly showed how important it is to know your value and position it correctly and then how to rally the team to go back and fight to win.
Adapt and adapt again. Be prepared to fine tune and adjust your approach to make your interface work and increase the impact in order to produce a real solution for your customers.
Simplify the confusing functionality of your technology. Very few people need to know all the bells and whistles that make it work. The black box does more than you think – it can simplify the way you operate, simplify the installation of the application, present the solution to your customers in simple way, and transform into what everyone likes and appreciates – an easy button.
Scalability is key. Being a small company, a start-up or a company with a product but no scale inhibits your ability to compete on a global scale. There are ways around this. Find a strategic partner or a number of them that can increase your output in order to meet client demands or entice a big brother to take you on. It may takes some coaxing and baiting with evidence of business and significant returns because big brothers (or companies with scale but no product) don’t typically search out little brothers but the results can be big. Just ask BTI who teamed up with Fujistu in order to deploy massive quantities of product.
Execute. All great plans must be executed well if they are going to make a difference. First, the team must be in total alignment and then all efforts must be focussed. If the team can’t work together – they can never be aligned. You need agreement to align at all stages of the process which has three parts 1) Vision (where are we going), 2) Current Reality (where are we now) and 3) The Plan (how do we get there). It’s a tough job, but it is the CEO’s responsibility to get everyone to buy-into the alignment concept including the board, the team, the investors and the partners. Once you’ve established that everyone is on the same path, all your efforts, tactics, approaches must be in clear focus to be effective and efficient. Pat recalled his SiGe experience which showed how important it can be to have a leader with excellent technological skills coupled with fantastic people skills in order to rally the team and align the efforts. Product lines may need to change, approaches may be tweaked but when the alignment and focus is bang on and the chemistry among the players is solid you can pretty much count on improved performance. Just look at SiGe whose revenues increased from around $67 M in 2007 to almost $100 M in 2008.
As Pat wrapped up, he explained that he’s learned many more lessons than he could ever cover in a short presentation and that there is always more learning to do. No matter what business you’re in or what customer you are after, his five key pointers can always apply but admitted there could be more that work. Teamwork, alignment, chemistry, flexibility, he certainly covered all the bases and in direct response to Mary’s question he added that sometimes you just need to fire someone.
Great presentation! Looking forward to the next TEB.
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