Yesterday, the people of Britain, (a small island off the coast of mainland Europe), my home, voted in a referendum to decide whether we should remain part of the European Union. The result was close:
Why are some firms capable of innovating again and again?
Innovation isn’t easy – but it is do or die. In this talk from Business of Software Europe 2015, Professor Jaideep Prabhu of Cambridge University takes you on a journey of innovation. He shares his views on what innovation is, how to do it and the challenges it brings, and then closes by commenting on the practical implications for management for fostering innovation.
Expect an hour of practical insight, which could lead to a lifetime of being at the top of your field.
A guest blog post from Dirk Paessler, Paessler AG, serial attendee at Business of Software Conference. Dirk considers six key business decisions that built Paessler AG to 160 people without external financing over the past 20 years.
Business of Software Europe was great (it’s not just us that say it, our attendees rated it with an NPS of 93). One said attendee, Mike from CurationWall, put together this excellent infographic summarising the event. He’s also brought together his thoughts on the top three talks from the event from his perspective in a well written, long form blog post – seen here.
A phrase I regularly hear is ‘we love to delight the customer’. But what does that mean? From a corporate point of view, it’s usually sales based – ‘we love to delight the customer’ = ‘we make people happy enough that they keep buying from us’. This counteracts the selfless act of delighting another human being – or, to remove the buzzword – unselfishly making another human happy for the sake of happiness.
With everyone apparently looking to ‘delight’ the customer, the companies that really mean it with true intentions still stand out from the pack. Amazon, Apple, and John Lewis (UK) are all examples of companies famed and loved for their customer service, a by product of which is customers come back again and again, or in the SaaS world… keep on subscribing.
I had a great experience that made me happy today. I wanted to share it quickly, because credit where it’s due and all that.
Get your idea heard on the Business of Software Stage. The BoS Lightning Talks 2016 are open for public application now.
In every successful technology businesses Jeff has worked in, the key challenge has been understanding how to scale technology and when to tackle the technical debt that inevitably accrues as a company runs ever faster and faster in pursuit of its business objectives. Jeff draws on his experience to help you understand what challenges emerge as a company moves from a Developer Centric environment to become more business focused.
How can you get the business people to have influence on a developer centric environment? How can you manage the challenges that marketing will present?! What principles can you apply to be aware of problems early? How do you trade Agile Practioners vs Architectural Astronauts in a fast growing business? What are the technical debt trade-offs, what problems can you buy yourself out of? What problems will kill you if you don’t move now?
You’re already selling ahead of your roadmap and your dev team is getting pretty big. In this talk, Trish Khoo outlines two approaches to keeping pace and quality high without hiring an army, drawing on a decade of software testing at Campaign Monitor, Google and Microsoft.
Gail delivered a talk for the ages at BoS USA 2012 with the “Long, Slow, SaaS Ramp of Death”.
At the tenth Business of Software USA, she returns to reflect on her time at Constant Contact with the talk “Lessons Learned in 17 years Building and Exiting a SaaS Business”. As someone who has been through growing a software company before – her experience is invaluable.
We have saved and shared some of the best notes, writeups and interviews with participants so you can get a little bit of the action. We will put the slides and videos of talks up in due course. Leave us your email address and we will let you know when they are live.
Last week we took over the Powerscourt Hotel, Ireland for the third BoS Europe Conference Europe. As ever, the speakers produced a great show for those in attendance, delivering thought provoking presentations with software businesses in mind.
The slides from most of the presentations are here – with thanks to the speakers for permission to share the slides with the wider BoS Community.
One of Gail Goodman’s legacies to the software industry has been proving you can build a profitable business in the SMB space. Today, SME/SMBs are a recognised and attractive market segment for software companies and significant amounts of venture funding is available to go after it.
Beyond this, Gail delivered a talk for the ages at BoS USA 2012 with the “Long, Slow, SaaS Ramp of Death”. At the tenth Business of Software USA, she returns to reflect on her time at Constant Contact with the talk “Lessons Learned in 17 years Building and Exiting a SaaS Business”.
Before the conference, you have the opportunity to ask Gail anything on growing great businesses. As someone who has been through growing a software company before – her experience is invaluable and available to you during the one hour hangout.
So I went out into the Dublin night and came across an orchestra of Ukulele players jammed into the tiny upstairs room of a bar, singing unbelievable harmonies while furiously strumming on their little guitars. Off the scale brilliance.
And that’s what I think about BoS…
It is a good job someone in the family has communication skills…
This is Violet being interviewed last week at Business of Software Conference Europe in Ireland by the rather wonderful Bill Thompson and Gareth Mitchell from the BBC’s Click programme. The producer, Ania Lichtarowicz is holding the mic and set everything up.
You can listen to her here and the final programme here. It features some people that are well known to regular BoS Conference attendees – Betsy Weber (Techsmith), Clarke Ching (Royal London), Iris Lapinski (Apps for Good), Joan Mulvihill (Irish Internet Association) and John McEvoy (Irish Men’s Sheds Association).
Rory Sutherland spoke at BoS Europe and recommended the following reading list for people interested in neuroscience and the Business of Software.
This is a guest blog post by Gareth Marlow, BoS speaker and attendee.
Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.
“What are you doing?” you ask.
“Can’t you see?” comes the impatient reply. “I’m sawing down this tree.”
“You look exhausted!” you exclaim. “How long have you been at it?”
“Over five hours,” he returns, “and I’m beat! This is hard work.”
“Well why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?” you inquire. “I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”
“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”
Alex Depledge is noted as a ‘Trailblazing Woman’ by the Huffington Post, and is a force of nature. Alongside her Co-Founder Jules, she built Hassle.com up to a sale in 2015 with an innovative solution to finding cleaners. At BoS 2015, she gave an honest account of what it is like to build a people orientated startup from the ground. Set aside some time and start taking notes – leave with the knowledge of what it’s like to grow a software business around its culture.
Nice piece in Irish Tech News, an interview with Peter Coppinger, speaking next week at Business of Software Conference Europe on three talks that helped shape his company.
This is a guest blog post by BoS Europe 2016 Attendee Sophia Matarazzo of IDR Solutions, reposted with permission, with the original post found here.
At IDR Solutions I have been waiting for this weekend. Why you may ask? Well this weekend welcomes the return of the Business of Software conference. Throughout the year there will be two conferences being held:
This will be my first time attending Business of Software and I am really looking forward to it.
As a taster of what the conference is going to be like, Mark Littlewood has been hosting various Q&A sessions on Google hang uts with some of the speakers who will be attending the conference.
The three reasons why I am most looking forward to attending this year’s conference are:
Amazing.
This study maps brain activity amongst subjects listening to stories. The electrical activity in the brain is mapped and shows that different locations in the brain are stimulated by different words. Perhaps not surprisingly, some words that relate to, for example, colour, map to areas of the brain near the parts of the brain that process vision.
Single words, can activate multiple regions. ‘Top’, for example, stimulates parts of the brain associated with – appearances, numbers and measurements, buildings and places.