Who has enough data about how they can improve their own businesses? Welcome to the world of Groove, a startup offering SaaS and ecommerce customer support. Groove are giving away two tickets to Business of Software 2014 for anyone who can help solve  this problem by taking part in their metrics survey.

This is not your average corporate video. It came to us with a short note from Scott Farquhar at Atlassian who spoke at 2013s Business of Software Conference in Boston.

Every time I see a picture that Betsy Weber at TechSmith has taken, I realise I will never be a photographer. It kind of hurts, but her pictures make up for it. Some lovely pictures from the best conference picture taker ever.

Avangate, the leading Customer Centric Commerce solution provider trusted by thousands of Software and Cloud Services companies to grow their business worldwide, today announced the recipients of its Business of Software Conference Scholarship. The three winners – InternAvenue, Mochadocs, and Weekdone – will receive free passes to the Business of Software conference and the opportunity to attend a networking dinner with software industry leaders held during the event.

This is my old laptop. It goes to some of the best conferences in the world.

This is my new laptop. If you want to cheer it up, feel free to bring me a sticker.

In similar vein, I saw Peldi earlier this summer and he wore a continuous cycle of StackExchange, Balsamiq, Red Gate and Business of Software T-shirts. People came up to him on the beach asking where they could download software from such incredible institutions.

My daughter asked him why he  wore the same T-shirts and he replied they were the only ones people had given him.

He isn’t the only technology influencer who is happy to war a nice promotional T-shirt so why not bring a couple along and find someone that will do your marketing for you on the other side of the world?

Selected social media and pictures from Business of Software Conference 2013.

Tag any media #BoS2013 to be included.

Thanks to Trever Lohrbeer at Lab Escape, for a neat run down on other technology events going on in Boston around the Business of Software Conference that starts next week in Boston…

“Unfortunately, with closing my biggest deal ever & buying a house in the past month, life has not let up enough for me to prepare for BoS properly this year.” [We SO know that feeling…]

I had wanted to write an article about activities people could do pre/post BoS. I don’t have time for that, but I figured I’d write you and pass along the info in case you want to work it in somewhere.

Before BoS, we have:

• Barcamp Boston – Sat/Sun Oct 26-27 – 9am-5pm

Fantastic FREE geek unconference. I’m flying in Friday night just so I can go to this before BoS.

After BoS, we have:

• MassChallenge Awards Ceremony – Wed, Oct 30 – 6pm

Giving away $1 million to the winning startups who’ve gone through one of the largest accelerators in the world, many of which are software startups. Amazing networking, plus you get to see the finalists pitch their companies. Plus this year’s MC is Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show and the keynote is George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic. Not cheap ($199 for most companies), but worth it.

• MassTLC Innovation unConference – Fri, Nov 1 – 9am-5pm

I’ve been twice before and one of the best unconferences I’ve ever been to. It now has 1,000+ attendees. Again, amazing networking, inspiring & educational content. I’ve both hosted & attended sessions, and I always learn a great deal. Attendees tend to be entrepreneurs, investors & creative thinkers around Boston.

• The Venture Cafe – Thu, Oct 31 – 3pm-8pm

Held in the Cambridge Innovation Center every Thursday, Venture Cafe always has smart attendees & sometimes educational presentations. Free beer & wine while you network and mingle with other entrepreneurs and like-minded people.

Other events happening that week are listed on Greenhorn Connect or VentureFizz.

Unfortunately, it’s probably too late for those who have booked their flights. But for people who will be in town anyway because they chose to come early or stay late, the ones listed above are all great events. I’m flying in on Friday and staying for almost two weeks to attend all the great events and catch up with people. I’m planning on attending all the events I listed above, and am happy to introduce other BoSers to the people I know in Boston at these other events. Just tell me people to look for the fedora. 🙂

I’m looking forward to another year at BoS. I’ve been feeling my excitement building this past week. Keep sending those great e-mails, and see you up in Boston next week!

Mike’s DNA is all about relationships – he started life as a trainee salesman at IBM where he learned the importance of human intangibles – of the developer and their perspective, on the customer, on the human obstacles and nay-sayers, and the sheer force of will and determination to conquer.

Video below

Over at Hubspot, Dharmesh has been thinking about some of the key pieces of advice he’s found at Business of Software that really make the difference to how he approaches product development and promotion. It’s a great post and a great summary (full transcript below). If you want to really get to grips with these principles, I recommend watching the talks as a whole: Kathy, Joel, Rory and Don all give practical tips on how these insights can be used for your business.

A word of advice: these are long talks, and could disrupt your working day. If you would prefer us to email them to you for later consumption, just leave your details in the form below and we will make sure you get them, plus a notification when the talks from BoS2013 are published on this site.

“Make the user awesome instead of competing to be perceived as awesome.” — Kathy Sierra, Serious Pony

“As soon as you think someone is seeing what you’re doing, you start to care more about it.” — Joel Spolsky, Stack Exchange

“If you think creativity is expensive, you should try logic.” — Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy Group

“Design products for who your users are, not who you want them to be.” — Don Norman, Nielsen Norman Group

Here is what they mean to Dharmesh and the team at Hubspot (you can see the original post here):

‘As many of you know, creating remarkable content is a hallmark of both HubSpot as a company and the inbound marketing movement. But as a proud “geek” myself and someone who has also spent a fair amount of time writing code, I’m a strong believer that best-in-class companies need both remarkable products and promotion that their prospects, leads, and customers don’t just tolerate, but actually really love.

I’ve been fortunate to join many people who care about this very topic at the Business of Software conference here in Boston over the last five years, so to celebrate my sixth year with this esteemed group of people, I pulled together some of my favorite pieces of advice from panelists past and present on how to write code and content your customers truly love.

“Make the user awesome instead of competing to be perceived as awesome.” — Kathy Sierra, Serious Pony (Tweet This)

The first piece of advice comes from a woman I deeply admire and who has a lot of fans in and around HubSpot. Kathy notes that while trust in advertisements is down, trust in recommendations from friends and colleagues is up (inbound marketing for the win!). And yet, what this trend has created is a massive crowd of companies and brands competing to be perceived as awesome. This sounds, at face value, like a well-intentioned and successful business strategy, but as Kathy points out in her address last year, trying to achieve the perception of awesome is a fierce and bloody battle with very few winners.

Kathy advocates a different route entirely: creating applications and experiences that are so inherently valuable and simple that users extract value within the first 30 minutes. I was particularly struck by the wisdom of this insight during a recent West Coast trip: Part of the genius of companies like Dropbox and New Relic is that their user experiences are so sticky and intuitive that the time between “getting started” with Dropbox and “benefiting” from Dropbox is minutes, if not seconds. It’s that threshold, as Kathy notes, that all of us should be aiming for each day as we build our products.

“As soon as you think someone is seeing what you’re doing, you start to care more about it.” — Joel Spolsky, Stack Exchange (Tweet This)

Joel runs Stack Exchange, which has cultivated a community of 22 million users, making it one of the most popular websites on the internet. This is no small feat, but when asked about the success of Stack Exchange’s platform, Joel references not just the code, but also the culture that has engendered such excitement for an answers-driven destination.

One of the insights from his talk last year that I particularly enjoyed was the notion that first impressions send signals to your users and website visitors that indicate whether the site is relevant for “their people.” For example, if you’re seeking out high-level physics insight and the first item you see on an answers site is about where to find an apartment, chances are you will leave within seconds.

Identifying the signals you can send to visitors and prospective users that they are in the right place and that they have found a community where they can either actively participate or simply get a quick answer they need is core to Stack Exchange’s business model. As a result, the company focuses on guiding principles and governing rules that facilitate the quality of those first impressions, and their users benefit daily from these decisions. Product managers and marketers alike should take that advice to heart: What signals does your homepage send about relevance for the community you’re seeking to attract and grow?

The second relates to badges: Joel correctly points out that most people respond incredulously when asked if they would behave differently to get a seemingly meaningless internet badge. However, he references cultural anthropology and human psychology by noting that everyone, regardless of whether you are online, offline, young, old, a developer, or a doctor, behaves differently when they believe someone else sees what they are doing.

When someone is observing your behavior, shoes, work, contributions, or intellect, you take more pride in it — this is as true of toddlers as it is for those of us who wish to be viewed as helpful or intelligent on Stack Exchange. As a result, badges and other forms of social proof and rewards aren’t for show: They reinforce the vision that Stack Exchange users aren’t just providing Q&A fodder, they are also responsible for creating “a permanent useful artifact for the internet’s benefit.” Give people a mission that matters, and the right users will care enough to contribute, collaborate, and correct clearly defined cultural norms.

“If you think creativity is expensive, you should try logic.” — Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy Group (Tweet This)

I’m a huge fan of logic and data-driven decisions. But, I’m also a huge fan of Rory’s insight that rationality goes “dangerously unpoliced” at many organizations, and that most of the world’s great businesses are rooted in a really exceptional human insight. Rory’s talk at the 2011 conference reminds each of us that it’s not just about having a product that is “better” than something that currently exists. In fact, Rory is quick to note that marginal improvements on one dimension often fail miserably.

There are always going to be thousands of alternatives to your product available, but all of our market perceptions are shaped by heuristics. To that end, entrepreneurs, developers, and marketers alike cannot lose sight of the fundamentally human component of a value proposition. It is not enough to be a bit better, different, or more expensive — it’s about how you frame those differences in terms of their associated risks, benefits, and value that resonates with your customers.

The danger of rationality should resonate and move all of us. It’s very easy to talk yourself into or out of anything with data, including what your customers want. Often, if your product or services are not meeting the needs of your current install base, this gap will not emerge immediately, but rather show when people vote with their wallets by moving on from your company months or years later. In particular, SaaS platforms like ours rely upon long-term relationships with customers to pay back the investment of acquiring them.

It’s not good enough to think big, push creative limits, or revisit the drawing board when things are bad or customers complain. The world’s best companies combine creativity and rationality to solve real human problems, upgrade people’s lives in new and meaningful ways, and continuously evolve to meet the needs of their customers.

“Design products for who your users are, not who you want them to be.” — Don Norman, Nielsen Norman Group (Tweet This)

I can personally attest to how important a reminder this particular tenet is from Don Norman. At HubSpot, as most of you know, we sell inbound marketing software that allows companies to attract and engage with prospects, leads, and customers by leveraging an integrated system that combines blogging, SEO, social media, analytics, and email tools. We take our own medicine, so we use our tools to engage with our audience daily via blogging, social media, and email marketing.

This is all wonderful, but it sometimes leads us to believe that our users are just like us: that they know, understand, and have seen the incredible value of inbound marketing. For business owners and marketers who use our product every day, we need to be realistic about the demands on their time, energy, efforts, and wallets, and our product must be designed and delivered in a manner that reflects how customers actually engage with our product every day.

I’m a big believer that, in addition to adding remarkable features, this exercise should also include removing features that are counterintuitive or no longer add value: Simplicity matters, and walking a mile in our customers’ shoes can’t just be a poster or a vision board. Don’s advice is a great example that building for an idealistic user base can leave you playing to an empty room. Design for real people and you’ll be rewarded with real results.

This year, Kathy’s talk at the Business of Software conference will focus on “Unfinished Business,” and I think that’s a great place for me to conclude here. The reality is that outstanding product design, remarkable marketing, and exceptional user experiences rely upon an ongoing commitment to greatness. The startup and software worlds rarely reward one-hit wonders — our user bases rely upon us for constant innovation and insight to make their lives easier, simpler, and better.’

Because software (and work) is about more than just the money, the next of our occasional series of interviews with BoS speakers involves Iris Lapinski, the founder of Apps for Good.

Join us on Thursday 17th October (12 noon EST) when we’ll be talking to Iris about her work with CDI Apps for Good (http://appsforgood.org), an award-winning technology education movement where young people in schools learn to create apps that solve problems they care about and change their world. From a modest start in 2 centres, 2 teachers and 50 students in 2010, Apps for Good has grown exponentially to 100 schools and  5,000+ 11-18 year olds across the UK and is on course to be active in 250 schools with 20,000 students by September 2013.

Hangout here!

Iris (and we) believe that we can learn a lot from the next generation of tech entrepreneurs and the experience of teaching lean and agile methodologies in schools. If you’d like to know more about her work and what she’ll be speaking about at BoS, join us!

You can bookmark this page and add it to your Google Calendar here.

Questions to us on Twitter, please, using Hashtag #BoS2013

At the end of a packed 2.5 days in October 2012, we asked the attendees if they could sum up their BoS experience. Here are their responses – uncensored. We think there are lots of reasons to come to Business of Software Conference – we have designed the event so that you can get, over two and a half days, the theoretical grounding, practical knowledge and personal contacts that you need to build a long term, sustainable, profitable software business.

This is what attendees said in their feedback from last year.

• Every time I come to BOS I feel like I’ve found my “tribe.”  Fellow techie entrepreneurs who are dying to roll up there sleeves to get a business going.
• Each year you somehow present the best speakers perfectly relevant to our current/latest dilemma.  Are you eavesdropping on our management calls.
• I’m not one to create and execute on specific takeaways as a result of any conference.  But, I’ve come to realize, after several years of attendance, the ideas and skills I’ve learned have somehow seemed to ‘leak’ into my organization anyway.  My organization is better as a result of the ‘tools’ that BOS has provided to me.
• Business of Software gets you out of the trenches and firefighting, and reminds you that there are 20 other dimensions to your business that are fascinating and important and that you have been completely ignoring.
• Badassingly brain busting.
• Overall, the conference is tailored to startups and young companies. We have been around 25 years with an established world wide base. The content was good and the sessions valuable with some good takeaways but we felt we could likely help alot of companies with some of our lessons learned.
• Great speakers and great conversations. An amazing three days, with much learning and inspiration.
• It was an action-packed thrill ride.
• As an early stage founder, Business of Software was a phenomenal opportunity to learn from phenomenal software warriors who’ve been through the paces of a software company. The conference also put things into perspective, allowing me to take a step back from the day to day trenches to see where the business needed to go next.
• Great place for the novice software business person. If you are ready for personal stories and some bonding go, but if you are looking for more thematic learning and ideas of how to evolve you might as well read some good literature on the topics.
• Learn how to grow your software business.
• It’s like being hit on the head with an anvil forged of startup culture, ideas, and values.  Something that will forever change the way you think about business, software, and organizational architecture.
• A founder-rich environment of entrepreneurial people who want to learn and who are willing to share their experiences and knowledge.
• The Business of Software Conference is a quick way to get up to speed on current thinking in how to build a business that will delight customers.
• I usually come away from the conference with 2 or 3 action items that pay for the conference along with a renewed attitude.
• One of the best places to meet the people who actually make significant revenues in the software industry.
• You are guaranteed to learn something meet someone that makes the trip worth it on their own. As a bonus you get to go to an awesome software conference.
• Imagine a dream world of full employment, meritocracy, innovation and success, abundance, respect, and happiness. It’s real, and it’s going on all the time in the unbridled world of software, and the Business of Software conference is your window into that world.
• As a wannapreneur, it was awesome to be inspired some of my “heroes” speak as well as being pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the talks of those that I didn’t know previously.  And more importantly hope that the connections/relationships that I formed over the past two days continue and spur me to come back next year as an entrepreneur!
• Too much focus on the pure start up.  Many speakers repeated the same theme.  Would benefit from also providing speakers that took a business after start up phase and successfully led through the high growth phase and created a business with lasting value.    Also, no discussions on practical operational challenges of running a software business.  For example, a real discussion on remote versus central development teams, etc.
• Attending BoS is an absolute necessity for anyone involved in software start-ups and provides invaluable information for those in established software companies.
• Expensive – lost some of the “feel” from 2011 being much larger and also the expense made me much more aware of going.
• A great conference for great entrepreneurs to exchange great information about building great business focused on making users great.
• An opportunity to take a step back from the business and get inspired and re-energized, so I can dive back into the business with new ideas, hopes, and wisdom.
• Defies summing up.  Brilliance, compassion, excellence and support all around — who else would you want to hang out, learn, and explore with?
• It’s rare that I can have an interesting business conversation with any random person next to me – this is one of the few venues where I can pick a person out of the crowd and have a deep meaningful conversation, help them, or learn from them.
• Being a software company already grown out of the startup phase and well into maturity, it’s still amazing how much I learn from this conference, which is seemingly the “how to” for start up entrepreneurs.
• Unless you’re buried under a pile of money you pretty much don’t have any excuse for not being at the Business of Software conference.
• Amazingly well done conference. The talks are outstanding and the people you’ll meet are even better.
• BoS is alike to taking a deep breath of fresh air while jogging through the park .. just that it is intellectually doing so with fresh thinking, knowledge and experiences of speakers already blazing the path being unraveled..
• A skinny dip into a pool of software passion.     A high entropy solar wind of actionable information to turn you into a badass s/w entrepreneur.
• Best conference I have ever attended!
• This conference reminded me of being in the classroom with favorite professors.  Clarity, delivery, substance–it was all there!–were the marks of every speaker.  Their collective honesty and vulnerability, frankly, made for a rich and open environment where learning can flourish, far beyond the confines of business or technology.
• It’s good to realize you’re not alone; there are many entrepreneurs facing the very same problems, and they’re just as confused as you are.
• Engaging and enlightening conference that allows you to learn more about the software industry and connect with others.
• Go for the content, re-go for the audience
• It’s like a spa weekend for software entrepreneur geeks – you leave feeling recharged, focused and centered but also a little bit sore.
• The conference every software entrepreneur must attend.
• Great place to meet, interact with, listen to, and exchange ideas with like-minded and passionate individuals.
• BoS is a great venue to meet people, share experiences and learn about how to grow in the (fascinating) business of software. In my opinion, BoS is the best conference for those who are focused in getting their startups on a path to growth through knowledge and shared experiences.
• I got enough inspiration and knowledge in three days to keep our company busy until BoS 2013. It was an experience that no other conference can offer.
• The most inspirational three days of our year. We went home with more homework on how to improve our company and our product than we’ve ever had from a different conference.
• Simply the best conference to attend if you’re serious about running a successful software company.
• Software is only as good as the problems it solves for its users.
• An intent 2 1/2 day event that condensed the best knowledge, wisdom, and experience from the world of starting, growing, and running a software company into one delicious package.
• Nice to get out of the office and have time to think about big business issues rather than the details of the day-to-day
• an awesome collage of people, ideas and information that will help bootstrap your software product company into a BADASS software business with wildly ecstatic customers.
• A bunch of ambitious, smart, hardworking geeks leveraging each other’s knowledge to create their own rules and figure out how to build profitable, sustainable businesses and lifestyles.    I also left wondering; “What is the Business of Software?”.  When is your business about software vs. services? Is GroupOn in the business of software? Is AppSumo (a GroupOn for apps/online services) in the business of software? How about Facebook are they in the business of software? Is the orientation here that the business of software is about delivering business to business products and services versus business to consumer? The line is very blurry, but the audience and content seemed much more focused on business to business solutions.
• I’m very, very tired
• Stay away if your personal finances aren’t in order, because you might just quit your day job and start a company after this meeting. (please don’t use my last name or last initial if you use this in a testimonial)
• Business of Software is a place to meet and talk with people going through the same challenges as you, then learn actionable information on how you can improve your business.
• the best mastermind group in the world for startups. most of your tech smb rockstars in one room.
• Mind stretching brain food
• The most interesting and highest-quality software conference by far. Attendees aren’t too shoddy either.
• A friendly and informal conference with inspiring speakers and attendees. An evangelical church for software entrepreneurs with charismatic ministers and testimonials from members of the congregation.
• Invaluable advice for software companies
• I found that (a) it replenished my sense of excitement and confidence in my startup, (b) drove home the point that I am not the first person to wrestle the sort of difficult questions I’m wrestling with, and (c) provided me with a LOT of ideas and perspectives to mull over going forward.
• Come and be amazed and engaged by leaders and inspirational speakers from the business of software.
• Meeting awesome people, the doers, the FOUNDERS.
• Stimulating, thought provoking, fun, thoroughly worthwhile and good value for money.
• Perfect opportunity to swap war stories and elevate everyone’s game!
• Expose yourself without the constraints of the title on your business card to change the way you approach the software business.
• Jet fuel of inspiration and problem solving tools and approaches for entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs
• The only conference I know of where you leave more mentally awake and refreshed than coming in. To anyone considering coming, DO IT.
• A college semester’s worth of training in entrepreneurship and working in the software industry, packed into three days with a room full of people who are all smarter than you.
• I was honored to be part of an incredible network of talent actively discussing how best to apply their passions and address software business challenges.
• Independence of agenda is imperative to creating an interactive and informative events for the ISV community.
• You dont know what you dont know until you know what others know.
• this wasn’t the theme of all talks, but I liked this aspect: startup wisdom for companies of all sizes and stages.
• Some hundred software biz nerds from around the world sharing their learnings.
• This was the best BoS yet. The only drawback was that there was TOO much good stuff to think about! My next six months are already overbooked!
• BoS is the only place where I feel – professionally – amongst my peers. We’re all working to use technology to build successful and sustainable businesses. I always walk away thinking bigger, thinking clearer, and looking forward to the next time I can be here again.
• As a first timer to BoS, it’s great to meet with like minded people building real business in the areas we are passionate about. That together with the high quality presenters makes this a must see conference. I will definitely be back next year.
• Great for anyone looking to start a company.
• It’s a conference about software but not about code, and one where the presentations are just one-fifth of the real show. And it picked up right where last year left off.
• Inspirational
• The BoS experience is the truest and best representative set of what is now and what is next in software from a business perspective.  Nowhere else can you have access to the people actually DOing the innovation in tech, and they are just as passionate as you are about the craft which remains so essential to success in the software business.
• If you’re serious about your software company there’s no better place to spend your money than going to this conference.
• The only place where I can meet so many similar founders and get real answers to my specific business problems.
• Amazing crowd and good content. Down to earth conversations, a good place to come back to
• Good opportunity to stay out of the day-to-day business for 3 days and reflect on some ideas/what other people are doing (and some academic research).
• BoS equips you to understand what success is to you and also how to reach it.
• That line that “the people make the conference?” It’s never more true than at BoS. So many great conversations with great people, all looking to learn from each other.
• Well worth the investment.
• Fourth year here, and the caliber of participants is better than ever.
• Inspiring
• Hear inspiring content, have amazing conversations, and make fantastic connections!
• A gathering of real entrepreneurs who help each other and build a community
• Everything about the business of software, except technology.
• BoS is a software, technology, and business focused TED. And, because of that, for me, it might be better than TED.
• Smart people. Epic learning.
• A bootstrapper’s MBA in 3 days. An opportunity to learn from software thought leaders offering actionable and seasoned advice.
• BoS is a great community of startup entrepreneurs.
• There is nothing like the Business of Software conference anywhere in the world.  It’s a place where passionate practitioners in the software industry convene to learn and share.  My favorite event of the year.

Bookmark this page! This is where we’ll be continuing our series of Q&A sessions with  speakers on 14th October, when we’ll be broadcasting a Q7A session with Mike Muhney.

Mike pretty much invented the CRM industry when he co-founded ACT! 20 years before most of us were even thinking of opportunities in B2B software he created a business that is now used by over 10 million people.

Since leaving ACT! Mike is building a new  and very successful business – ViPOrbit – founded on his core beliefs in the power and importance of relationships.

So he has quite a point of view.

Join us on 14th October at 12 noon EST for an interview with Mike, to introduce him to you all and look into the  topics that he’ll be speaking on. If there are questions you want to ask (I know, you’re thinking: ‘what could I possibly want to know from a man who’s built several multi-million dollar businesses?’ but just in case) you can share them with us on Twitter (use tag #BoS2013), or Facebook, or LinkedIn.

You can add the event to your Google Calendar here:

That was a harder one!

Some of the companies and people that are coming to the Business of Software Conference, 28-30^th October 2013, Boston, MA.

It not just the talks that makes BoS awesome, (though we think they are world class), it’s the amazing people who come from around the world (almost half from outside the US), to talk and share ideas about making software people want and building long term, sustainable software businesses.

Obviously, while we would love to share everything about everyone, we do not publish individual names of attendees outside the conference attendees. This list of companies and the job titles should give you a good sense of who is coming though.

Companies

4ormat, ABIS, Inc, Accedian Networks, Acid Media / Mobiscroll, Acquia, acQuire Technology Solutions, Adaptasoft, Inc., Admin Arsenal Corporation, Adzerk, agileDSS , Anamika LLC, AppFusions, Appointment-Plus, Atlassian, Avangate, Aviaso, Avontus Software, Award Nexus, Axiomsoft, Axosoft LLC, Badass Users, Balsamiq, Bettermarketing Inc., Bidsketch, BitsDuJour, Bizworks, Blackbaud, Blue Fish Development Group, BlueZebra Sports, booj, Boondoggle Films, Box, Brecht Inc, Buildium LLC, Business of Software, Calix, Campaign Monitor, Cancel Bayern Software, Cape Horn Strategies, CAPS, Inc, catalyst investors, CDI Apps for Good, Cisco Systems, Cisco Systems, Inc., CivicPlus, Columbia Business School, Computational Hydraulics International (CHI), Constant Contact, Inc., Conversocial, ConvertKit, CopyCat LLC, CoreMedia AG, Corporation Service Co, CoSupport, CURE International, CustLabs Ltd., Cycling ’74, Dassault Systemes, DDL, Delivra, Development Partners Software, DevFacto, device42, Devonshire Investors, DevResults, D-I, Dnet Internet Services, DRH Internet Inc., ECIS Consultants Ltd, Effective Computing, Elbrys Networks, Ellexus Ltd, eMoney Advisor, Emurasoft, Inc., Enova, Entrance, EVER TEAM, Evernote, Exprodat, Faria Systems Ltd., Fire Ant Software, Fireworks Project Inc., Five Lakes Studio, FLAVIA IT-Management GmbH, Fog Creek Software, Formstack, Formstack LLC, Formstack, LLC, Formula VC, Forward Thought, Inc., Freeside Internet Services, Inc., FundStream, Globe Software, GoECart, Google, Inc., GovProcure, GovProcure Partners, GRAHL software design, Grant Street Group, GraphPad Software, Grasshopper Group, LLC, GunpwderLabs, Harvard Innovation Lab, Heroku, HFLabs, Highland Capital Partners, Hopper, HubSpot, Hudl, Independent, InetSoft, Insperity, Insyston, Integral Group Inc., Interapptive, Inc., Intercept Solutions, Intercom, Intern Avenue, inWorks LLC, IQ Capital Partners, JBurgess & Associates, Jitbit Software, JKI, Just Add Content, Kalzumeus Software, kCura, Keepify, Kentico software s.r.o., Kindoo, KnowledgeLake, Inc., Koombea Inc., KSS International, Inc., Lab Escape, Inc., Litmus, Lobster Software, Locaweb, Logos Bible Software, Mad*Pow, marcucio.com, mdk GmbH, Metaworks Inc., Method R Corporation, Microsoft, Microsoft, Mind the Product, Modern Survival Solutions, MongoHQ, Monkida, Moon River Software, Inc., Moraware, Multunus Software, N. Nyman Oy, N/a, Neo, NeoSmart Technologies, North Bridge Venture Partners, Nozzle, Nuxeo, Ocean Learning Ltd, One More Cloud, OpenEye Scientific Software, Optimizely, Optis, Oracle, O’Reilly Media Inc., PadMapper, Inc., Paramount Software UK Ltd, Percussion, PHC, Physion, PK Data, Planscope, Pluralsight, Pollen.io, Precision Lender, PrecisionLender, Primate Technologies, Promethean, Inc., PROS, protobi, Rand Worldwide, Readdle, Readdle Inc. , Real HQ, Recruitment Systems, Red Gate, Relevance, Inc, RIPE NCC, Rivo Software , Robots and Pencils Inc., RocketScope, Rogish and Associates, Royal Palm Software, LLC, SASSIE / SurfMerchants, Sched.org, Schneider Electric, Schneider Electric IT Denmark ApS, Schneider Electric IT DK ApS, SeeThoughtDone, Self, Serlio Software, Servolutions, SimplyWork, Sitrus LLC/ AMC Bridge LLC, Snow Mountain Labs UG, Socious, Software Pricing Partners, Inc., Software Verification, SoftwarePromotions, Solana, Stack Exchange, StartHQ, Stella Nova Technolo, Sterling Medical Devices, Stormpulse, Inc., Streema, Inc, Swoop, Table Xi, Takipi, TBA, Tealeaf Academy, TechSmith, Telerik, Terraine, Inc., The BLN, The BLN & Business of Software, The Re-Wired Group, Three and a half Roses, Thycotic Software, Tioga Lake Systems, LLC, Total Synergy, Totango, TRANZACT, Tucows/OpenSRS, Tuff Decisions Inc., Univeris, US Health Works, UserIQ, UserScape, Veson Nautical, Violarth, VIPorbit Software Int’l, Inc., Vircom , Webapper Services, LLC, Websites4Sports.com, Widefido, Winshuttle, Wisco, xMatters, Xtreme Labs, Yammer, Yesware, Zillow, Zoomergy LLC.

Job Titles – good to see that some people retain a good sense of humour when it comes to Job Titles.

#1, Architect, Associate, Audience Evangelist, Author, Backwards Thinker, Business Strategist, CEfounder & O, CEO, CEO & Co-Founder, CEO & Founder, CEO & Lead Developer, CEO/CTO, CEO/Founder, CFO, Chairman, Channel Account Manager, Chief Architect, Chief Entertainment Officer, Chief Evangelist, Chief Information Officer, Chief Product Officer, Chief Strategist, Consumer Applications, CIO, Cloud Consultant, CMO, Co Founder & CEO, CoFounder, Co-Founder, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Commercial Strategist, COO, CTO, Deputy Assistant, Developer, Development Manager, Director, Director IT, Director of Client Care, Director of Client Services, Director of Consulting, Director of Engineering, Director of Information Technology, Director of Marketing, Director of Operations, Director of Product and Operations, Director of Product Development, Director of Product Management, Director of Product Strategy, Director of Sales, Director of Software Engineering, Director of Support, Director, Engineering, Director, Marketing & Product Strategy , Director, Software Development, Editorial Strategist, Engineer, Engineering Director, Entrepreneur and Investor, Event Assistant, Events Manager, Founder, Founder & CEO, Founder & CTO, Founder / Principal Consultant, Founder and CEO, Founder and CTO, Founder/CEO, Founder/CTO, Founder/Editor, Founder/Principal, General Manager, General Partner, Global Engineering Director, Global Product Management Director, GM, Heroku Postgres, Google Whisperer, Growth PM, Hacker in Residence, Head of Customer Success, Head of Finance, Head of Marketing, Head of Product Development, Head of UX, In house Counsel, Independent, IT Director, Jack of All Trades, Jobs-to-be-Done Associate, Jody’s Daughter, Jody’s Mom, Lead Developer, Localization Specialist, Manager, Software Dev Engineering, Manager, Software Engineering, Managing Director, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Managing Partner, Marketing, Marketing Coordinator, Marketing Manager, MD, Member of Technical Staff, NED, One of the team, Oracle Business Unit Manager, Owner, Partner, Partner Program Manager, Physician Assistant, President, President & CTO, President / CTO, President, Software Division, President/CEO, Principal, Principal Consultant, Principal Engineer, Product Manager, Professional Services Director, Professor, Project Manager, Sales, Sales & Development, SciBizD, Senior Associate, Senior Developer, Senior Experience Designer, Senior Manager of Software Engineering , Senior Software Developer, Senior Software Engineer, Skilled Engineering, Software Craftsman, Software Developer, Software Development, Software Development Expert, Software Engineer, Software Engineering Manager, Special Projects, Sr Director Product Management, Sr. Product Manager, STAFF, Support Engineer, SVP Business Development, SVP Customer Operations, TBA, TBD, Technical Director, Technical Product Manager, Technologist, Thought Follower, UX Lead, Vice President Solution Software, Vice President, Business Development, Vice President, Commercial Operations, Vice President, Strategy & Marketing – 3DVIA, VP, VP and Technology Evangelist, VP Business Development, VP Engineering, VP marketing, VP of Engineering, VP of Industry Solutions, VP of Marketing, VP of Operations, VP of Product Management, VP of Products, VP Operations, VP Product, VP Product Strategy, VP solutions, VP Technology and Platforms, VP, Business Development, VP, Engineering, VP, Enterprise Solutions, Web Guy, Zookeeper.

Previously, on Business of Software, Avangate have very generously supported scholarships for promising software businesses to come to BoS. Now they are extending their generosity to other BoS delegates, with a dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse on the evening of Tuesday 29th. We’d recommend it because Avangate scholarships reliably turn up some very interesting new faces at BoS.

Their space is limited, so if you want to go you need to book a spot here.

In their own words:

If you are attending the Business of Software conference this year, taking place October 28-30 in Boston, please join us for dinner on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at Morton’s Steakhouse as we celebrate our Avangate – Business of Software Scholarship winners.

It’s a great opportunity to network and share ideas with other emerging Software, SaaS, and Cloud Services industry leaders and make valuable connections to help push your company or organization to new levels.

If you would like to join us, please RSVP using the form on this webpage. We will follow-up with you to confirm your attendance.

Space is very limited so be sure to reserve your seat!’

Or not – it is transient after all.

I went to see Rita Gunther Mcgrath last night in Nottingham. She was addressing a group of Boots executives on the ideas in her book, ‘The end of competitive advantage’. Would I normally spend 5 hours in a car to hang out with a group of pharmacists? To be honest, probably not, but as Rita will be speaking at Business of Software Conference (28-30th October, Boston), I wanted to meet properly before she spoke. I was so glad that I went – I left buzzing with excitement that she will be opening the conference. Not only is she whip smart and utterly charming, she has a way of explaining things that is up there with Geoffrey Moore and Clayton Christensen. A total rockstar.

You can also view a short interview with Rita that I did that offers a taster of some of the things that she will talk about at BoS where she will talk about the ways that entrepreneurial software businesses can use her strategic framework to maximise their impact here.

I won’t spoil Rita’s Business of Software talk by sharing some of her ideas here – this talk was a talk for an audience of executives in big organisations. I think she is even more excited about what the implications of this framework for entrepreneurial businesses which is what she will focus on in Boston.

So what’s the big idea?

Rita challenges the orthodoxy that the main thrust of strategy for many years has been built on concept of sustainable advantage where you build a business that creates barriers to entry and exit for competitors that allows companies to milk their advantage for huge profits for many years. The world changes and she illustrates the idea with a story.

Billionaires, silver and the death of Kodak

Kodak and Fuji were once very similar – global brands, well run, highly profitable.

In 1973, two oil and gas billionaires, the Hunt brothers, decided to hedge their exposure to the oil industry by buying silver. By 1980, they had so much silver that they controlled the market, a major ingredient in film and prices skyrocketed, quadrupling in price between 1978 and 1980 (fascinating background here). Kodak and Fuji, at the time were the largest consumers of silver and they were both somewhat panicked.

3 months later, the price dropped back to a more normal level and everyone carried on as normal. Everyone except Fuki. The two global photography behemoths took very different paths.

Fuji realised that what could happen once, could happen again and started to investigate the opportunity for photography to be less dependent on chemistry where they couldn’t control the cost of materials.

Kodak did too – they invented the digital camera after all, but were stuck in a film-based paradigm. Early digital images were obviously pretty poor and in 1990, Kodak announced they had a ‘digital solution’.

The solution was: Film – Scanner – Manipulation – Put on CD – Available to play.

Their digital imaging solution was one that started in the place where they had a clear leadership position. While Kodak invented the digital image but they couldn’t move outside paradigm of existing thinking and processes. At first, digital imaging was a far inferior solution, but the world moves on.

Fuji continued to develop digital imaging as a core part of their activity.

• Fuji has $87 billion in global revenue in 2012.
• Kodak is more than a little bit broken.

The film-based competitive advantage for both had existed for decades. Competitive advantage does not last.

Competition outside your industry.

Today, the most important competitor you have may not even exist in your industry. Industries face massive competition from different industries. A recent US study on household spending showed recently that spending on electronics in the US is up whilst spending on eating out and apparel is down. Do people want an iPhone or a better car?

Industries are competing with each other for consumer’s cash.

The background behind the book

Her book was based on a series of case studies considering world’s largest companies ($1billion market cap. Total of 5,000 companies). Only 8% of world’s largest companies could sustain 5% growth for 5 years in a row.

Only 10 companies had been able to sustain 10% growth over year.

• Tsingtao
• ACS
• Indra
• Atmos Energy
• Infosys
• Cognizant
• Yahoo Japan
• KRKA
• Factset
• HDFC Bank

She set her students on looking at what happened to them when they had layoffs. What happened in a downturn. Couldn’t find any evidence of either. There was however, plenty of evidence of ‘ongoing configuration’ in all of those companies.

Rita’s new playbook for strategy.

1 Continuous Reconfiguration

• Have to be good at executing the traditional stuff but they also have to be in a state of continuous reconfiguration. Be aware of, hypersensitive to, the environment around you.

• Verizon – often spooked analysts by discarding existing highly profitable business units and focusing on longer term growth areas. Has paid off in long terms as others have stuck with existing businesses that eventually fail.

• Pallet manufacturer and distributor Brambles found supermarkets has major issue with handling of e.g. soft fruit. Developed packages that are picked and packed into trays directly. Reduces handling significantly and gets product to market faster. Don’t think of themselves as a pallet distributor, see themselves as solving logistic challenges for customers.

2 Healthy disengagement

• How do you recognise when things need to change before it is too late to do something about it?

3 Deft resource allocation

• Powerful people control where the resources go in businesses. They tend to be senior within companies and want to support the status quo – Blackberry’s vast spend on relaunch of BB10 for example. The allocation of resources for the future has to be separated from the people who control the existing profitable lines.

4 Innovation Proficiency

• Innovation today has to happen faster and more routinely than at times in the past. It cannot be episodic.

5 New leadership mindset

• More open, candid. “Don’t bring me any surprises” “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions”. Total BS. Means the executives only hear about the stuff that really matters when it is obvious to everyone. People in the executive suites need to be more willing to embrace uncertainty and surprises.

• Leadership really matters

Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, noticed when he took office that there were no Fords in the Executive parking lot. Saw this was a problem. Had traffic light system to manage management information. Came in sat down with team who presented a sea of green. “How can you be showing me a sea of green when we will lose $6 billion this year?”

“You can’t manage a secret”

When first guy to break cover after a few meetings and showed red on his dashboard, room went quiet expecting an on the spot firing. Mulally clapped. Floodgates opened. Began the turnaround process.

What does this mean for individual careers and talent?

• From                                                                    To
• Organisational systems                                  Individuals skills
• Sable career path                                              Series of gigs
• Hierarchies and teams                                    Individual superstars
• Infrequent job hunting                                   Permanent career campaigns
• Careers managed by organisation             Careers managed by the individual

Is there any good news in all this?

If you are an entrepreneur, YES! Organisations can’t keep you out. Access to assets, not ownership of assets becomes more important.

If you are an employee, yes if you understand the changing rules of the game.