Grow
An executive’s guide to software development | McKinsey & Company
Architecture based on application programming interfaces (APIs). Historically, companies have suffered from building and maintaining “spaghetti code,” which is as messy and difficult to manage as overcooked angel-hair pasta. An effective API-based architecture solves this problem and instead provides an extensible framework of building blocks that can be used to compose powerful applications. Like Legos, such blocks are easy to separate, update, and then replace.
Source: An executive’s guide to software development | McKinsey & Company
Read MoreThe case for digital reinvention | McKinsey & Company
This finding confirms what many executives may already suspect: by reducing economic friction, digitization enables competition that pressures revenue and profit growth. Current levels of digitization have already taken out, on average, up to six points of annual revenue and 4.5 points of growth in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). And there’s more pressure ahead, our research suggests, as digital penetration deepens.
Source: The case for digital reinvention | McKinsey & Company
Read MoreHow the API economy is igniting a cultural shift in businesses | CIO
It’s clear the big no longer eat the small; the fast eat the slow. Speed is one of the single most important characteristics that determine a company’s success today. It’s critical for bringing new products to market, establishing new global presences, changing existing processes and onboarding new partners—all faster than competition.
Source: How the API economy is igniting a cultural shift in businesses | CIO
Read More25% of CEOs’ Time Is Spent on Tasks Machines Could Do | Harvard Business Review
Like President Johnson in the 1960s, we see that automation could make a major contribution to productivity and prosperity… For companies around the world, automation will offer the potential to capture substantial value — and not just from labor substitution. These technologies enable higher throughput, enhanced quality, better outcomes, greater safety, and the opportunity to scale up or adopt new business models.
Source: 25% of CEOs’ Time Is Spent on Tasks Machines Could Do
Read More2017 Is Quickly Becoming The Year Of The API Economy
Bottom Line: APIs are most valuable for creating new business models and streamlining selling strategies across all channels. The greatest revenue potential they provide is removing barriers to growing revenue by integrating platforms and apps so organizations can quickly launch new business models and scale fast.
Source: 2017 Is Quickly Becoming The Year Of The API Economy
Read MoreMeasuring B2B’s digital gap | McKinsey & Company
The top quartile of B2B companies we studied had demonstrably higher revenue growth, operating profits, and returns to shareholders.
Source: Measuring B2B’s digital gap | McKinsey & Company
Read MoreDisruptive strategy: Usage-based pricing | Deloitte University Press
Today, pay-per-view isn’t the only thing you buy on a per-use basis. Companies are now offering usage-based pricing on everything from cars to car insurance, giving them rich insight into how, when and where customers use products and threatening to upend traditional business models where revenues depend on ownership.
Source: Disruptive strategy: Usage-based pricing | Deloitte University Press
Read MoreDo Things that Don’t Scale
If you can find someone with a problem that needs solving and you can solve it manually, go ahead and do that for as long as you can, and then gradually automate the bottlenecks. It would be a little frightening to be solving users’ problems in a way that wasn’t yet automatic, but less frightening than the far more common case of having something automatic that doesn’t yet solve anyone’s problems.
Source: Do Things that Don’t Scale
Read MoreLessons Learned Building A Productized Service – Smashing Magazine
It’s Not SaaS: It’s A Productized Service
I started out with the goal of building SaaS. But as it evolved, I learned that the value was not so much in the software part, but rather in the service. A more accurate way to describe the business today would be a productized service.
It’s largely built around manual processes. We personally talk to and follow up with every visitor who requests a consultation. We then manually set up every new customer’s website, input all of their content and make customizations. We even offer “done for you” ongoing support.
Source: Lessons Learned Building A Productized Service – Smashing Magazine
Read MoreHow to ‘Productize’ Your Service Business Offerings
If you own or lead a professional services company, you understand the unique challenges you face in not offering a tangible product. Even if your business is thriving, you still only have so much time to exchange for money. Try as you might to maximize price or delivery and allow yourself a comfortable margin, you will still reach a natural ceiling.
This was the day things shifted from: “I know this and therefore others will pay me to do that for them,” to “I want to learn everything about marketing. Quantify and organize it, and then bring it to market in a highly repeatable manner.”
Source: How to ‘Productize’ Your Service Business Offerings
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