Outsell’s Leadership Council
Outsell community meetings take place in person three time a year and monthly via video. Here’s what’s been bubbling to the top during our spring meetings. Members of Outsell’s Leadership Council (OLC) are always discussing the business issues that sharpen the saw and ensure their success. We discuss issues, solve key problems, and support key business decisions through the community and Outsell. Think of OLC as a concierge service for CEOs. We watch your back and ensure you outperform and Outsell and make sure you’re on topic with the topics of the day. Here’s what’s bubbled to the top during our latest meetings.
The topics covered include:
Topic 1: The Machine Age
This topic surfaced in many forms, demonstrating the multiple ways that the age of AI, robotics, and
automation is reshaping not just the information industry, but also society as a whole. One intriguing discussion looked at the issues of liability. What are the ethics of liability and who is responsible if and when algorithms take over? Human beings can usually articulate, however imperfectly, why they took the actions that they did. Simple rule-based computer programs leave a trail, but the latest cognitive systems cannot explain or justify their decisions. Why did the autonomous vehicle behave the way it did when its brakes failed? Who is responsible when it’s hacked? Will data companies need insurance coverage for forward forecasts or will the usual legalese in marketing and delivery footnotes suffice? Will they need to advise customers that they should not rely, for business purposes, on the expensive systems they have just purchased? On the same theme, we discussed the idea that the next generation UI is no UI — a theme discussed in our Outlook last year. Another topic surfaced regarding AI. You ask a question (increasingly in normal speech and natural language) and the system delivers an answer. The notion of search with answers displayed as long text strings or image is a radical change. Finally, another constant challenge of the machine age: data security. In London, a lunchtime speaker covered a range of cyber-security threats. It’s clearly on the minds of many, as data-driven businesses both become more prevalent and hackers ever more brazen and sophisticated.
Topic 2: Getting Sales Right
There’s a good reason why sales are a recurring topic at OLC meetings. Whatever our members’ businesses offer, it doesn’t sell itself. Members in at least two councils discussed consultative and solution selling, exchanging ideas about best practices, remuneration, and how much additional service they had to provide for free. Members who have invested heavily to build more sophisticated offerings expressed frustration that the sales force — despite the opportunity to earn more money — still clung to the simple days of selling individual products. Elsewhere, sales talk focused on finding the right people and the challenges of selling into larger organizations. Should you have a mixed sales force, those who know the products integrated with those who know the markets? How do you define the roles of specialists and account managers? When do you bring in the consultancy specialists? In response to these perennial questions, Outsell has strengthened the team supporting OLC members with Don Best, VP & Lead Analyst, whose focus is on the sales practice. If you’re interested in participating in his first project, a multi-client benchmarking study of sales performance, you can contact Don here.
Topic 3: Channels & Partnerships
The importance of developing channel strategy and channel management, especially in data-intensive businesses, is a topic closely related to sales, and it’s emerging much more strongly than in recent years. The use of indirect sales models and channels is on the rise, and that requires businesses to carefully analyze which markets they want to own and which they reach out to through channels — not to mention how they will make those decisions. It’s partly a function of data proliferation and the casting of an ever-wider net to find data to feed algorithms, particularly in financial markets. Collaborate by all means, but how long should you spend negotiating a pre-nuptial agreement before entering a partnership? Will you be able to re-use data you own in areas where you have chosen not to develop applications? What happens when the collaboration ends? Who owns what in the divorce? Members asked and answered these questions, sharing an array of practices and experiences.
Topic 4: Managing the Portfolio
More than in prior years, we are seeing leaders take a much more aggressive approach to portfolio management and reducing the mix of market alternatives. This is coming in the form of simplifying bundles, eliminating SKUs, streamlining pricing, and establishing methods for retiring products at end of their lifecycle. One council heard a fascinating case study about a comprehensive re-packaging of services on a new platform that was enabling the business to add value with much more related content and drive higher prices accordingly, while greatly simplifying administration. It was a predominant theme not heard this consistently across councils in prior years. We believe that’s a function of a trend to rationalizing portfolios over the past decade, and companies, now streamlined and strategically set, focusing hard on the product suite. Related to this was a strategy question that asked when to let a business go or let it die. If a market is facing long-term structural challenges, tactics will take you only so far. You can make the strategic decision to milk a cash cow and manage it tactically in the meantime, but you have to use the time and money that it gives you to build up the business that will replace it. Being able to make and implement those decisions requires that CEOs have the ability to take shareholders and other stakeholders with them, and one council in particular was very focused on the question of managing the board.
Topic 5: Investment
Facing rapid technological change and new dimensions of competition, leaders are having to secure investment funds where they can — another area where managing the board is crucial. Now is the time to scrape together retained profits, beg for understanding ownership, and seek re-investment, since the urgency around replacing failing infrastructure and creating relevant products and services has become the major condition for survival. Some of that investment may go toward technology, people, and a shot of adrenaline to the culture through acquisitions, particularly of early-stage businesses. Some may go into more traditional IT and product development spend. It’s critical to build up credibility in managing investment funds, delivering on time, and hitting the promised targets for new revenue or cost savings, but leaders are indicating the cycles for this are getting shorter.
Looking to solve a key problem? Contact us today or join us at Outsell’s Signature Event, October 4–5 at the Boston Harbor Hotel. Where deals get done, problems get solved, and minds expand.
See you soon.