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| Home - Industry Article - Jul 03 Issue |
The Zen of High Tech Marketing
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Development and IT managers have a similar issue. When Sue Smith, the VP of HR calls Herb, the IT guy because her email doesn’t work, how often does Herb spend time telling Sue all the reasons her system didn’t work? He tells Sue that the list-sever failed and that the IP address was inconsistent. Although Sue checked-out a long time before the end of the conversation, she generally says something like “thank you for sharing” as Herb leaves her office.
Since most people are wired to have difficulty remembering telephone numbers with more than seven digits, why should we expect the majority of our customers and even employees to understand all the complexities of our own domain? Operating at the wrong abstraction level either inside or outside of the company is like trying to design a machine where there are no standard sizes of nuts and bolts, or like ordering a steak in a restaurant where the chef has to go out and kill the steer each and every time. It’s just too much detail. You may feel that you’ve communicated effectively and openly, but chances are you’ve lost your audience.
At the executive team level, this ability to abstract was inferred by James Collins and Porras in their book “Built to Last” when they pointed out that successful teams have the ability to hold two strategies in their head at the same time. The first strategy is the long-term vision for where the company will go. The second is the short term reality of what must be done immediately. Some teams have a great vision but fail in short term execution. Some are great operators but lack the vision and passion. The truly excellent have this strange capability to manage to both.
Passion
Passion (pash’on) n. Intense emotional excitement, as rage, enthusiasm, lust, etc.
While the characteristic of abstraction deals with handling and communicating facts, the second characteristic is all about emotion. It’s the difference between the politician who is characterized as a ‘competent technocrat’ and the one that wins the election. Passion is that strange element that overlaps with charisma, defined not by looks or clothing (certainly in the high-tech business), but a strange combination of openness in personality, competence, willingness to take risk, and personal enthusiasm.
Passion shows up in the manager who is obviously enjoying what he or she does; the person who constructively argues and takes a stand but knows when to join the team. Passion is the executive who laughs at his or herself regularly. It’s the tech executive who went public in the bubble and made enough to retire several times over, but who continues to drive a new, struggling company because he just can’t stand to loose.
Over my years I’ve noticed that passion always trumps facts. Given two competent executives interviewing for a job, given equal skills the one who is passionate about the business will get the job. In a world where products are increasingly difficult to differentiate and where sales training has become a science it is likely that your sales competition will have a great product and will be quite competent. But given equality everywhere else, the most passionate salesperson will likely get the business.
Almost like no other place on earth, passion shows up at the doorsteps of the venture capital industry. Those who have never presented to a VC firm often believe that VCs are high-flying risk-takers. But keep in mind that most of the money to be invested comes from limited partners, not the general partners. Their incomes come, at least at a very attractive base level, from management fees. They aren’t mortgaging their primary residence and filling up their credit cards. In my own personal experience, Venture Capitalists are actually some of the most conservative folks I know.
Because of this tendency for risk-avoidance, VCs often lower risk by working only with folks they know, or folks known by folks they know. Lead investors are great at rigorous analysis and diligence and often market this ability as a differentiator. But the scary truth is that early-stage markets are un-predictable and early-stage business plans are largely exercises in consensual hallucination. The even scarier truth for all of us is that there are lots and lots of smart people in our businesses that would like a piece of it. They know the details and are “scary-smart,” so, even intelligence and raw capability may not be a differentiator. Communicating well at the right level of abstraction can certainly help persuade and keep you in the game. But all else being equal, when the venture partners refer to an “A” team versus a “B” team, they are referring to an intangible. The pedigree and experience may get the entrepreneurs through the door, but in my own experience it is often passion that wins the day, and passion that creates the emotion, as opposed to cold-hard-facts, that drive most venture investments.
Mike Tanner is a Managing Director at the Chasm Group, where he provides advisory and consulting services in the areas of new venture development, market development strategy, operational planning, portfolio investment strategy and market positioning. Mike holds board seats for Apexion and Savi Technology, and sits on the advisory boards of Entivity and Unicru. He can be reached for comment at: mtanner@chasmgroup.com
 
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