B2B Startup Growth Strategy

Great read over on TechCrunch.

The startup world has been very heavy with B2C or Business to the Customer companies such as UBER.  The B2B world is heating up as I've written about.

Similarities are easy to find but are there differences?

This article addresses the question of growth.  Well worth the read:

https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/16/how-should-b2b-startups-think-about-growth-not-like-b2c/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

The best growth strategy for your company ultimately depends on whether you’re in an incubation, iteration, or scale stage. One of the most common mistakes we see is a company acting like they’re in the scale phase when they’re actually in the iteration phase. As a result, many of them end up developing inefficient growth strategies that lead to exorbitant monthly ad spends, extraneous acquisition channels, hiring (and later firing) ineffective team members, and de-emphasizing critical customer feedback. There is often an intense pressure to grow, but believing your own hype before it’s real can kill early-stage ventures.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Digital Transformation for CIOs

Great little read over on CIO.com.

Is your legacy company in need of a digital transformation?

I have seen first-hand how many missed opportunities reside at legacy companies that don't understand digital having identified $1.6 M in annual revenue just sitting at the table for a recent client.  Is digital transformation on your IT roadmap?

Read this article:

https://www.cio.com/article/3256045/digital-transformation-trends.html

Here is one piece from the article:

Inevitably, when they talk trends, IT leaders discuss their efforts to modernize legacy systems and expand on data lakes to create one version of the truth. This enables them to mine insights that help deliver value and create better solutions for clients, they say. But certain trends have emerged along the way while others have started to fizzle.

Here is a look at what CIOs and other IT leaders and observers are seeing.

Need help in this area?  Give me a call or reach out to your favorite consulting team.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apple Wearables for Health

The Apple Watch is ... what?

Luxury?

That door closed pretty quickly.

Fitness?

Sure.  It does fine there.

What about a health device beyond just fitness?

What about all of those simple to use apple devices as health & wellness technology.

How about $300 billion worth of opportunity?

Here's a part of the story:

Apple Inc.’s health-care ambitions go beyond wearables like the Apple Watch, with the company poised to soon emerge as a leader in consumer health, according to Morgan Stanley.

The company’s health-care market opportunity ranges from at least $15 billion to a whopping $313 billion in revenue by 2027, according to estimates from a team of 14 analysts. The wide difference is appropriate given the early opportunity, they said.

Here is the full story:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-08/apple-s-health-opportunity-could-be-triple-smartphone-market?srnd=technology-vp

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  I read somewhere the medical industry is entirely unprepared for the deluge of data it is about to start receiving.  Patients coming in with a dozen metrics calculated daily for the last year since their previous annual checkup and the M.D. does ... what with that?  Exactly.  The Information Age is upon us and every aspect of our lives is being fundamentally changed.

Mobile Payments Update

I've been following mobile payments since I worked in the field a few years ago.  It is interesting in a few ways but mostly because I view it as a leading indicator of overall digital transformation.

Paper money will never die but we are increasingly likely to have our phones with us while having no paper money.

The reason retailers want it is for the digital relationship it enables with their customers.  After all, money isn't broken so what is the real driver of adoption?  Buy 10 coffees at Starbucks and get the 11th for free, that's what is driving adoption.

Here is an update on the state of mobile payment adoption:

https://www.clickz.com/mobile-payments-2019-beyond/222602/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

IoT Connected Experience In Stores

The in-store shopping experience is going to continue to be more interactive.  Digital relationships are a must for the store of the future, happening today.

I first really jumped at this with BLE, bluetooth, interactions with smart phones and then smart watches.  That is still ongoing but there is a real opportunity to do it a different way and it appears Kroger is teaming up with Microsoft to do just that.

Read the story here:

https://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/news/microsoft-kroger-to-test-connected-experience-grocery-stores-in-pilot/

Here is the blurb that should catch your eye:

Store associates will also be able to use the technology to speed up curbside pickup and Kroger will use the Edge technology to sell digital advertising space to consumer packaged goods brands, according to the release.

Thank to a few of the folks previously from MCX who pointed this piece out on LinkedIn.  You know who you are.  :-)

What we absolutely know is the impact the great recession, combined with ever-improving store brand generics is having on traditional consumer packaged goods. During a recession shoppers cut back.  They try out the store brand version of whatever CPG widget or food stuff they think suits them.  The quality of these has increased dramatically over the decades and the average consumer likes it, then never goes back to the more expensive "name brand" version.  CPGs are desperate to get customers back and they have huge advertising dollars to work with.  Enter the Edge technology system.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Not eCommerce but Experience Commerce

Every now and then someone coins a phrase that really captures something.

Bricks & Mobile really works well from my perspective.  A play on the traditional retail store enhanced with mobile.

Now its not eCommerce but Experience Commerce.

Experiences win customers and retain them.

I agree.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Recently, I went on a health kick and stopped going to the [donut] shop entirely. When I finally returned, the woman who runs the shop said, “We thought you moved! It’s good to see you.” I made the decision right then to reinstate my once-a-week doughnut splurges. They were so happy to see me, they gave me my doughnut free, and I was utterly charmed by the interaction. It’s nice to feel seen, and if my business means that much to a sweet couple, then I want to make sure I spend my extra calories on them.

In the world of ecommerce, it can be a bit daunting to make sure customers feel as welcome as I do in that doughnut shop, but focusing on experiences, rather than sales, can mean more personal, and longer-lasting, relationships with customers.

Here is the full story:

https://www.clickz.com/experience-commerce-winning-customers/221080/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Is AR Poised to Break Out?

I love these predictive articles.

It is all complete nonsense, really, that someone will write one of these.  Usually they are forced to make a deadline and write about something.  This is like a stocking stuffer for writers.

But it's still fun to read these.

:-)

Will AR have a breakout year in 2019?  Sure.  Or no, no way.

Augmented Reality is one of the latest buzzes going around.  The iPhone X introduced it as a basic function by utilizing the face capture technology to create animated emojis in text messages.  Wow.  Cool.

No.  Not really.

So what's next?  Read on to find out:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/2019-the-year-ar-finally-goes-from-unsexy-to-cool/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0265 Physician Computer Systems

Best Reading of the Day

There is something for everyone in here if you have a passion for digital.  Systems. Platforms. Medical.  Product Management. Professional. Whatever your flavor this is a must read.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

The next time I saw Cameron was on the day of his operation. He lay on a stretcher outside the operating room, waiting to be wheeled in. A computer screen on a boom loomed over the bed, showing the safety checks I still had to do.

I shook Cameron’s hand and was introduced to his wife, who was in a chair beside him. They smiled nervously. It was his first time going under anesthesia. I told them about who would be on the surgical team with me and what was going to happen. I reached for the computer. But then I hesitated. I remembered when I’d turned my back on Cameron at our last encounter.

“Let’s go through these checks together,” I said.

I angled the screen toward the couple. Side by side, we confirmed that his medical history was up to date, that the correct surgical site was marked on his body, that I’d reviewed his medication allergies. His shoulders began to relax. His wife’s did, too.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

Here is the full story on the New Yorker (paywall enabled if you read more than a few articles each month):

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/why-doctors-hate-their-computers

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Artificial Intelligence and Creative Writing

I was blown away merely by the headline for this story.

Supposedly the "creative" jobs are safe from the coming robotic overlord dystopia (tongue in cheek of course).  Not any more.  Now AI can help write creative stories.

Wow.

Just.

Wow.

Read the full piece here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/technology/ai-is-beginning-to-assist-novelists.html

Happy ... Writing and Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS I have completed my first fiction book and self-published online so this one really grabbed my attention.

PPS One more. A.I. defeated a team of lawyers to create an error free contract in less time.
https://m.slashdot.org/story/347623

Journalism and Blockchain

If you don't have any idea what is happening in "Blockchain" you aren't alone.

Here is Wikipedia to help:

By storing data across its peer-to-peer network, the blockchain eliminates a number of risks that come with data being held centrally. The decentralized blockchain may use ad-hoc message passing and distributed networking.

Peer-to-peer blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability that computer crackers can exploit; likewise, it has no central point of failure.

And the full Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain

Here is a good little story about a huge publisher looking to blockchain tech for journalism.  Worth the read.

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/10/forbes-fix-journalism-blockchain/

Here is a snippet from the story:

Publishing giant Forbes is joining a blockchain-based journalism network to begin experimenting with publishing its content using decentralized tech.

In an announcement yesterday, Forbes revealed it has teamed up with blockchain-powered journalism platform, Civil, in an effort to gain more trust with readers. As part of the collaboration, Forbes will also publish content on the blockchain.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Doctors, AI, the Information Age, and You

Quick.

You have a situation.  There are a set of measurable indicators the most common of which are easy to take.  Various levels or markers of each measurement point to a likely culprit and solution. The size of the data set that must be factored in is enormous, well beyond the ability of the human mind to hold all at once.

How should this be handled?

If this isn't the perfect situation for computers and Artificial Intelligence I don't know what is.

Are we talking about Amazon.com and their amazing ability to mine datasets to sell more stuff to you?  Or are we talking about medicine?

I was an Emergency Room medic in another lifetime with the United States Air Force so I have some understanding of this.  I've been a believer for many years that we need far more computer algorithm medicine and far less human emotion involved.  I've seen it first hand.  That is the premise of this article. 

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee is betting heavily on artificial intelligence...
“If we look at what AI cannot do, there are really two main things,” Lee said on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher. “One is creative jobs. Jobs like scientists, storytellers, artists and so on. And the other are the compassionate people who really have created a human-to-human connection, trust.”

And what about the jobs that require low creativity and compassion?

“All those jobs will be taken by AI,” he said.

Here is the full article:

https://www.recode.net/2018/9/17/17867990/kai-fu-lee-ai-superpowers-book-artificial-intelligence-jobs-doctors-kara-swisher-decode-podcast

Will the IBM Watson doctors be there for your next medical appointment?  Not yet.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Brand Prep for Augmented Reality Advertising

Just when you thought you worked out your social media strategy and executed on your mobile plan now it is virtual reality or augmented reality.

Are you ready?

The fine folks over at ClickZ (you really should follow their work) have a great little article on the subject hot off the presses (for my younger readers that means they just wrote it).

Read on:

https://www.clickz.com/augmented-reality-ads-are-here-is-your-brand-ready/215659/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it’s moving augmented reality (AR) ads out of Messenger and into the News Feed. Early adopters like fashion retailer Michael Kors and beauty brands like Sephora are creating ads that allow Facebook users to virtually test products from the comfort of their couch.

The move means that even brands without huge marketing budgets should start thinking about how AR can fit into upcoming campaigns...

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0260 Strategy of Apple Pay

Best Reading of the Day

Mobile payments has been something very close to my professional activities for many years now. I've competed directly against Apple and their Apple Pay product.  Where are they headed now?

Here is a snippet from the piece:

There’s a reason everyone seems to be getting into mobile payments. Thanks to increasing smartphone usage and a push for faster, simpler, more secure financial transactions, mobile payments could become a $3.4 trillion industry by 2022. In the U.S. last year, eMarketer estimated it to be a $49 billion market already.

The consumer options are sundry: There’s Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay; PayPal, Venmo, Square, and Square Cash; bank-backed alternatives like Zelle and Chase Pay; and in-app options through things like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. As consumers abandon cash, checks, and even credit cards, everyone is jumping into mobile payments—but perhaps none with the zeal of Apple.

Here is the full story:

https://slate.com/technology/2018/07/apple-pay-can-apple-beat-paypal-venmo-in-mobile-payments-war.html

What do retailers think?

From the start the response was mixed.  Some feel any place their customer is at they want to be as well.  Another, however, stated their mix of credit to debit was such that if mobile pay, primarily funded with credit cards, caused that mix to flip it would be billions of dollars a year lost.  That is big time incentive to work in the space right (they are)?

This is one space with entrenched, well funded and organized interests, and tons of money at stake.  Apple won't see the players in this space fold like the music industry did.  I see this space continuing to be hyper-competitive for the foreseeable future.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

3D Printing Saves the Air Force Money

How do we the U.S. taxpayer end up paying $10,000 for a toilet seat?

Fraud.  Waste.  Government incompetence.

No.

How about when the aircraft that is still in service has a specially designed toilet seat and the company making those is no longer able to do so?  Special order 1 at a time as needed.  $10,000.00.

Hello 3D Printing.

Need a new, special, toilet seat to replace a broken one?  Print it.

Cost savings at nearly .... $10,000.00

Wow!

Read the full story here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Technological Disruption and the City Taxi

I am fascinated by all things related to the ongoing entry in to the Information Age. 

A bit more than 100 years ago the street lamps in major cities were powered by gas.  Every evening a fleet of trained individuals would pan out across the city igniting the city's gas street lamps.  Every morning they would extinguish them.  Along came electricity and quickly those jobs were all eliminated.  Great safety and cost savings improvement for the city and the inhabitants therein.  Terrible for the people who lost their job and had no skills for anything else.

Technological advances always result in disruption of the status quo.  Today is no different.

What do you know about how taxi services are regulated in our biggest cities?  Nothing?  Count me there too.

City managers long ago recognized the need to regulate the number of taxis in a city boundary so as to prevent overcrowding of taxis on the streets.  These managers, however, also saw an opportunity to make money regulating that task.  Enter the taxi medallion.

A taxi is required to have a taxi medallion to do business within city limits.  New York, Chicago, all of the big U.S. cities do this.  A finite number are created.  As you can imagine when demand outdraws supply the price goes up (ECON 101).  Owning your own taxi medallion was the gold standard and a dream realized for generations of middle America.  The price could go north of $1 USM.  Yes, million, for a taxi medallion so you can drive a cab in city limits. People would save for years and take out a loan the size of, or larger than, most home mortgages.

With the advent of UBER and Lyft the value of these medallions is plummeting.  No longer able to compete and dragged down by a massive loan now underwater we are seeing a dramatic rise in suicides among long-time city livery and taxi drivers.

Disruption comes with a cost.

Read more here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/shadow-uber-s-rise-taxi-driver-suicides-leave-cabbies-shaken-n879281

Interesting Reading.

J.W. Gant

Basics of eCommerce Personalization

Get your house in order first.

That should always be the rule to live by.

Low hanging fruit, etc.

However it is shocking to find basic advice along those lines is still necessary especially when its something new involved where we lack a basic comfort level with the subject.  The reactionary response is to seek help from outside to address this new "something".

Try looking inside first. 

Good little article:

https://www.clickz.com/5-first-party-data-strategies-personalization/213990/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Every brand understands—or should understand—the importance of data. And no data is more valuable than first-party shopper behavior data, which is derived directly from your customers. Since first-party data comes straight from the source, this eliminates any games of telephone, enabling marketers to better understand—and build stronger relationships with—their customers.

Clearly brick & mortar retailers want the same approach but it is far more challenging when dealing with in-store interactions.  This article's value is best seen by the online players or the omnichannel play for traditional retailers.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The In-Store Shopping Opportunity for Mobile Apps

When I was first imagining the mobile app I would build for regional supermarkets the biggest opportunity I saw was to help reinvent the in-store shopping experience.

Want to find a store?  Don't you already have a favorite supermarket picked out?  Doesn't google do that for you?

After you've been to the store?  What?  Recipes to cook the food you bought?  Sure, but there are a few resources for recipes available already right?

In the store?

Now you're cooking with butter!

(I love that saying)

Walmart is at it in a big way and it is worth following.  With resources I could only dream of they are reimagining the shopping experience.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

With a new mobile app experience, Walmart is hoping to change the way people shop at its brick-and-mortar stores. The multinational retail chain, which now has more than 11,600 stores under 59 banners and ecommerce websites in 11 countries, recently debuted a new mobile app experience that promises to get customers in and out of stores more quickly, reimagining in-person shopping.

Walmart’s new Store Assistant is an all-encompassing mobile app solution...

Here is the full article:

http://streetfightmag.com/2018/02/27/walmart-reimagines-in-store-shopping-experience-with-mobile-update/

Now imagine if none of the past were present and no stores existed today and you wanted to open a store.  What would you do .... today?  Mobile interactions?  Social media interactions?  You bet.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Target's Profits Down

Target is in a bit of a hard spot.

Amazon on one side.

Walmart on the other.

A changing industry heavy on digital technology, ecommerce, and changes in the store experience.

Not everyone is going to get it right and the legacy merchants are going to have to craft a new path forward.  Target's efforts resulted in a problem in its profit as it missed efforts.

Great analysis and an interesting look in to what is happening in retail in the United States today:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/target-s-turnaround-plan-weighs-on-profit-as-it-chases-amazon

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

What to do About Smartphone Addicts?

Is there a smartphone addict in your life?

Is it you?

Your significant other?

Children?

Co-workers?

Students?

What can you do about it?

Plenty.

Read more here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/02/05/this-millennial-discovered-a-surprisingly-simple-solution-to-smartphone-addiction-schools-love-it/?utm_term=.7e4c900d9068

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Ditch the phones.

He founded a company, Yondr, whose small, gray pouches swallow phones and lock them away from the fingers and eyes of their addicted owners. Since it started in 2014, hundreds of thousands of the neoprene pouches have been used across North America, Europe and Australia.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Optimizing for Smaller Audiences

Hello folks, I've had a crazy last 6 weeks but have been capturing some stories I marked to blog when I finally carved the time to catch up and get back to my usual rhythm.  Here's the first of several stories.

I've often thought about the practice of A/B testing, or split testing (the practice of providing part of your audience with one design and the rest with another to compare and contrast).  It is especially difficult when your audience is small.  As a statistically driven person I think in terms of scientific sample size when determining the accuracy of results.

Thank about it.  Is your A/B testing useful when you have 5-10 visitors regularly?  100?  10,000?  When your numbers are in the tens of millions or more then ... definitely, but what about the smaller fish in the sea?

Here you go:

https://getuplift.co/how-to-optimize-a-low-traffic-site-without-ab-testing-step-by-step/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Testing is not a matter of opening your testing tool and waiting for that little “Statistically Significant” marker. You need to reach your required sample size before concluding anything or else the insights will be invalid.

That’s where it gets difficult for low traffic sites.

Unless you’re detecting an incredibly large effect, you’ll need to run the test for months. The longer a test is running, the more vulnerable it is to sample pollution, which can rear its head in many ways.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant