Saturday 3 October 2009

What Makes a Great Company!!!!

Fred Wilson the noted VC wrote on his blog ... Ten Characteristics of a Great Company I agree to a greater extent... This post is really worth a read... however I think there are few more things that really keep the great companies really great...yet I expand his thoughts....

Fred says 1) Great companies are constantly innovating and delighting their customers/users with new products and services.
That's the way to succeed, not in terms of just revenue but also in terms of product enrichment. For those of who are not in the CXO cadre, it may be different..because you never see the eagle eye view of things... But remember your Agile way of things? You bring small features like the Visual Dashboards , Firefox compatibility , a small glimpse of drag and drop in the dashboard.. and it changes the perspective of the usage of your product... I call it a Rabbit mode trick... these small things that you bring to your customers is in short term a carrot to attract them, in long run a way to engage them with you forever...

Fred says 2) Great companies are built to last and be independent and sustainable. Great companies don't sell out.
Its time that turns boys to Men...it applies to companies, Tough times show whether you are truly a great company or not... and that doesn't mean that if Yahoo gets bought by Microsoft in Future, yahoo is not a great company... remember the time they have sustained ;)


Fred says 3) Great companies make lots of money but leave even more money on the table for their users and partners.

Indeed... don't ever think of just getting just revenue from your customers... expose the Unique Value propositions to them... Free of Cost... Leave them Happy with surprises... I remember I read somewhere...
"When I see something available for Free and then I have to pay for it, it makes me Mad.... When I know I have to pay for something and then I get it for free or with some discounts it makes me Happy"

Fred says 4) Great companies don't look elsewhere for ideas. They develop their ideas internally and are copied by others.
Yes. I agree... whats the use in bringing in a twitter again? it deserves its own luxury and space...Generating a Idea that is Unique will always help us get where no where stands... rest would be a copier...

Fred says 5) Great companies infect their users/customers with their brand. They turn their users and customers into marketing/salesforces.
Hey didn't I say Twitter was 5 % marketed by company , 95 % marketed by its users? it doesn't just apply to products or companies... it also applies to individuals..

Fred says 6) Great companies are led by entrepreneurs who own a meaningful piece of the business. As such, they make decisions based on long term business needs and objectives not short term goals.
I am not sure if I fully agree on the first part of the statement.... Great companies are led and participated by Visionaries... and that's where they think of long term goals. You cant just call yourself a visionary if you have no view of future that is way ahead of where you stand...
It should be driven by Attitude , Approach , Strategy , Tactics and then Execution... Just vision is not enough....

Fred says 7) Great companies have a global mindset. They treat every person in the world as a potential customer/user.
Reminds me of my previous posts ....
Think Global , Act Local

Fred says 8) Great companies are attempting to change the world in addition to making money.
The change we talk here is about The Unique Value proposition that you would bring to every customers and change their lives and make it easier....

Fred says 9) Great companies are not reliant on any one person to deliver their value proposition.

If it is you are dead before you start. Because one person can make a mistake, A Team cant... you will have a opinion and if you are a great team... that opinion will help you avoid and recover.

Fred says 10) Great companies put the customer/user first above any other priority.
First, But Customer is not god...
Zuckerberg after the redesign of Facebook said "The most disruptive customers don't listen to their customers"

Sameer Says 11) Great companies are made by Great Teams..
Read my post 2 days ago....


Said that .... We have a potential to be the Great Company!!! Yes we do!!!. Lets evolve!!!!!!

0 comments:

Post a Comment