If you build it they will come...

I am a sports movie fan and the line, "If you build it, they will come" is from one of my all time favourite movies, A Field of Dreams. Well, it would appear that this applies to smart phone makers as well.

An expose on what went wrong at Blackberry was published recently by the Globe and Mail and it was noted that in early 2007 Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO at Blackberry(RIM at the time) took an Apple iPhone apart and was "shocked" at what he found inside. The iPhone had a fully capable internet browser...meaning "it would strain the networks of wireless companies". To this point carriers hadn't previously allowed this. This is one of the earliest failing points of Blackberry...they failed to understand what their customers wanted. People wanted full internet browsing in a small form factor. Apple understood that if they drove this feature into the market, the market would in turn drive the providers to upgrade their networks to make it happen. RIM/Blackberry worried too much about the wireless companies and not enough about the customer!

Apple built it and people came...in the end Apple's success has been and will continue to be built on listening to what customers want...an isn't that the root of nearly all start-ups?

What is PCT Management? In today's SMB space, it will in all likelihood mean the difference between success and failure...not varying degrees of success, but between staying open or closing down. My favourite Management Guru is Peter Drucker. Drucker has unfortunately passed away but his words still remain applicable in all areas of process management, change management and technology management. Three "Druckerisms" that all SMB leaders need to consider are as follows:

" Management is doing things; leadership is doing the right things."
" There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."
" So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work."

 Here is what I believe in:

Successful organizations understand the importance of picking the best people, of focusing on opportunities and not problems, of getting on the same side of the desk as their customer, of the need to understand their competitive advantages, and to continue to refine them. I believe that talented people are the essential ingredient of every successful enterprise.

Look at your organization...critique your team...honestly ask yourself if you are doing everything possible to ensure that they have the  means of moving your goals forward!!! Your survival depends on it.

JB