jillridleysmith.com
So you've spotted a market opportunity! There is clear customer need which is under-served and you have a product for this untapped opportunity, hooray! You develop your tech, launch your product and eagerly wait for the orders to come rolling in ... but, the problem is, they don't. After your initial burst of enthusiasm, its… Continue reading Great Idea! So why no sales? ….
When I'm discussing their marketing strategy with entrepreneurs, I often refer to 'customer needs' but recently I was given reason to reflect on whether I've been using the terminology too narrowly - are decisions to purchase or consume driven solely by having products and services which customers want, or prefer, see benefit from, or achieve… Continue reading Beyond ‘Customer Needs’
The founder of the Private Equity firm I used to work for hugely favoured backing CEOs who had, at some point in their career, worked in sales. Why? Because he recognised being able to persuade people of an idea being a winning one is critical to entrepreneurial success. Entrepreneurs who are comfortable with selling… Continue reading Persuasion Pointers
There's no doubt its a tough job being a CEO, but it goes stratospheric when you have to manage a game-changing situation that has the potential to destroy or seriously damage the size and shape of your organisation. Take the challenge of access to capital for instance, as it is one of the top concerns… Continue reading Stress & the CEO: What role for the NED?
Every so often I get snared by popular TV and, shamefully, this month I've been glued to watching Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island. This extraordinary exposé of cringe-worthy team dynamics, painful character flaws and conflict has been riveting with the most entertainment undoubtedly coming from Iwan Thomas, former Olympic athlete, whose 'self-appointed' leadership caused pretty… Continue reading Avoiding and managing a “Iwan Thomas” in your workplace
The overall theme of the UK e-health conference (3 - 4 May 2017) was the use of data, IT and tech to transform health and care. It was great to see the energy and activity going on in this space and, undeniably, there is more emphasis and interest in health-tech in the NHS than ever before.… Continue reading The NHS can do more to help SME HealthTech
The allocation of equity in start-ups and scale-ups is fraught with issues and so I was interested to read Mike Moyer's book 'Slicing Pie' to find out his take on this thorny problem. Mike's philosophy that is "a person’s % share of the rewards should always equal that person’s % share of what’s put at risk… Continue reading Equity allocations. How do you keep it fair?
