Conference: ATEC 2009
Just this week I visited ATEC (Aachen Technology and Entrepreneurship Conference) with distinguished members of Momentum Maastricht. The event took place at Schloss Rahe, which was a great choice for this event. The Maastricht delegation was especially invited by the organizing team of AC.E as part of a cooperation of the ATEC and the Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship.
The conference offered many workshops, lectures, presentations, and opportunities to network. A participant could chose between three tracks, namely Mobile Technologies, Automotive, and Energy.
The Mobile Track
I chose the mobile track and had the opportunity to hear and get to know a very interesting speaker and personality, Prof. Dr. Jan Borchers. His presentation about usability and how the topic should be approached by companies, especially engineers, was funny and very well structured. He gave great examples of Dos and Don’ts when designing a new product and showed the audience some hilarious product design disasters. It was a very valuable speech since he showed the different perspectives (R&D, production, marketing, sales, user, etc.) on product design. Overall, I enjoyed his restless enthusiasm for the topic and the way he talked about it. His presentation was definitely the best of the track and possibly one of the freshest of the whole ATEC. One version of his presentation is available at his departments website.
Other speakers of this mobile track included a representative from Metro AG, who showed a new concept that Metro wants to implement in their stores which makes the consumer’s cellphone center of the focus. With an everyday mobile phone customers will be able to scan their merchandise and use a quick check out. In essence a system that Albert Heijn uses in its stores but instead of the “Albert gun” the cellphone will do the job.
Another presentation was given by a representative of business consulting firm McKinsey & Co. about mobile trends – yes great consultant charts that left no doubt that the proper resources like Gartner, Datamonitor, etc. were harvested in countless hours of all-nighters… To give some credit, it was very informative though if you spoke consulting.
The fourth speaker was an entrepreneur (the first and only one in this track) who presented the history of his chip manufacturing business and had the great ability to convey some entrepreneurial spirit to the group. He shared his experience and gave some great advice on how to get started and how to fight the fear of going on “alone” if you are a non-business student. His presentation had among all the highest perceived value since it was as real-life as it could get and very personal.
The interesting thing about the conference was the schedule. The morning kicked off with the workshops without one real word of welcome (we were greeted very nicely though) and only after lunch the opening ceremony began. This had an up and down side. The good thing was that you started off immediately after you arrived but the downside was that without the opening ceremony in the morning the feeling of a united conference start kind of got lost. The location and the students organizing the event did everything they could to be very hospitable but to me a conference should start with everybody and should end at some point with everybody. Maybe this is just a matter of habit, nevertheless, quite noteworthy.
StartUp MeetUp
In the morning I participated in the StartUp MeetUp session which brought together four founders and their start-up story. Here is my twitter feed from that session to give you an impression of what was said:
Just heard a presentation of Felix from #conangel cool iphone app for conventions and fairs – def. bright future, great job #atec09
Just checked out the iphone app from @conangel after hearing a pres from founder Felix. Awesome tool that every event should use!#atec2009
Joerg Meyer of EUtech biz advice: have fun at work, watch for quality, watch your liquidity, choose your own project, think longterm #atec09
Claus Overbeck from RedTeam Pentesting talking about his biz: playing the bad guys (hacking) and getting payed for it – awesome!#atec2009
Sven Wilhelm from #collectiveiq: you dont have to be an IT guy to run an IT company, find great support, think about your biz model#atec2009
The AC.E Invitation
The organization of the whole event was remarkably well done. The subscription online was easy and quick and the day itself was perfectly executed. At this point I want to thanks all the people over at AC.E – who invited us – to make this such a special, meaningful, and informative day.
The Highlight
The highlight of the day was probably the speech done by Microsoft Germany CEO Achim Berg, who presented some of the latest Microsoft brew, which will hit the markets very soon. The focus of their R&D seems to go further into the direction of artificial intelligence and cognitive learning. He showed some videos and figures which paint an interesting future.
read moreBusiness Practice: Texan IT-Service Strategy
In a recent conversation with a friend who is starting to sell his hosting services big time I was reminded of some business advice I got from a Texan entrepreneur. We had met at Texas A&M University where he was giving a guest lecture on entrepreneurship. He made it big by selling pre-built websites to Texan farmers in the 1990s.
When it came to selling its services he was not very successful at the beginning. He and his team went to many IT conferences to present their unique system of having a pre-built website where the content of the individual farmers are just inserted through a standard mask. The more conferences they visit the more money did they lose and the less sales did they make. It did not take long until they were seriously considering closing down their business. But quitting was not an option for them and so they decided to completely overhaul their marketing and sales strategy.
From that moment on they started to go to agricultural fairs for fertilizer or tractors. Their idea was to be where their customers would go instead of where their competitors would be. In essence this sounds very straight forward but I guess still many companies are not doing this. Today, the entrepreneur owns and runs one of the largest web-design and hosting firms in the United States being market leader in Texas and several other (agricultural heavy) states.
The example of the friend of mine sounds like a good implementation of this advice. Offering hosting services they are actually not going to HostingCon or similar events but rather focus on conferences where developers meet up.
The advice is very straight forward and simple to implement. Next time when you think about how to spend you marketing / sales budget think of this advice and what that would mean for you. Make sure you leave a comment on what you think of this advice and how you would use it.
read moreBusiness Idea: Pizza Machine (or how to press your business into a vending machine)
On a recent holiday I came across a great business idea: An Automatic Pizza Baker. It completely blew my mind because this machine was located in an Autogrill highway service station in Italy. Having lived in the US for a while I would have bet all my money on the machine being in the US.
The fun thing about this machine is that you can watch the pizza being made. Although the process of making it and baking it only takes 2 1/2 minutes it becomes somewhat interactive since the screen tells you about the process and the progress. There is four different kinds of pizza to choose from. The only downside here is the lack of different payment options. In this case it was only possible to pay with cash, raising the barriers to purchase enormously.
Business Practice: Changing the business model too late
A recent article titled “The Unlikely Mogul – Can Jason Kilar and his hit site Hulu save traditional TV from itself while remaking it for the future?” from American entrepreneur and tech magazine “Fast Company” has brought me to think about something that came to my mind years ago already. This time it is just about another, though related, industry: Television.
The Music Industry, Still up to date?
I remember that years ago when I read about the first lawsuits initiated by record companies against the people who created illegal copies of pieces of music I thought that since the evolution of P2P software and the continuous build-up of sharing networks it would be soon an unstoppable movement. In deed the outcome was something like this. Although right now the movement is back to hosted solutions like Rapidhare or Netload the idea of the (P2P) networks lives on. People want to share information – in this case – music for free. Apparently, nobody wants to pay for music, films, etc. anymore. On the one hand many people will claim that the work an artist put into the creation process needs to be rewarded. In addition to that there are of course production and logistical costs. Fair enough. On the other hand, to me it seems rather to be a matter of perspective. What if the main good is not the actual CD but more the artist itself? What if the CD actually does not matter but the presence and/or actions of the artist is the actual new money-maker? Many things can easily be copied – such a CD – and are therefore very hard to protect. The artist itself is almost impossible to replace under the condition that people like him/her and his/her music. Thus, the prime objective for the artist should become to reach as many people as possible.
Many companies use so-called “White papers” in order to spark the interest of their (potential) customers. A good white paper usually outlines how the company works, gives detailed insights in the technology or processes that they use, and gives relevant, to-the-point, applicable advice or solutions for different scenarios. To a certain extent the company is giving away valuable information that can be used immediately. It can be copied and distributed but one thing it cannot. It does not replace the actual service or product that the company can deliver. If the business is set up intelligently and a fair competitive advantage exists the company becomes irreplaceable. It is unique and could be compared to an artist. So what if the music is actually a white paper? In this sense I think the music industry missed out on changing their business model in a timely fashion and many of the involved firms have to pay the steep price for it now.
The Business Model Idea
This discussion obviously triggers the question of what the new business model is. To be frank I do not have a one-fits-all solution. If I did I might not put it on here but rather be meeting up with record company executives. One thing is for sure though. Concerts of all kinds, live-venues, interviews, meet-and-greets, private sessions are increasingly more important. I am certain that many artists could make similar amounts of money through innovative ways of delivering and distributing their music and performances. Radiohead is probably one of the most recent examples of how a step ahead can bring is huge success. The band not only got lots of free marketing through their spectacular move but also made it a financial success.
To come back on the “Fast Company” article I see some strong parallels with the Television industry.
When I lived in Texas for half a year I was able to enjoy the services of Hulu.com. Hulu streams TV series legally to US consumers via its website. It does not require but offers registrations for personalized service. All major US TV shows are on there and can be watched at any convenient point in time. The service is like YouTube but with feature shows that run on all major networks. So far, the service is unparalleled in the world. In Europe some internet providers have taken on the challenge to integrate TV into their internet delivery. The idea is to give the customer a box that can do it all. Since this is rather new and customer acceptance is rather slow, not many people have signed up for it so far. No doubt that the market is growing though. In the US a previous invention that sort of revolutionized the market was TiVo – a box that would record the requested show when it was on and that made it available later on even with the option to skip commercials.
The hurdles to make a project like Hulu go global are perhaps preexisting contractual obligations. So far it is not possible for people outside the US to access the Hulu offerings. Since the main revenue generated by Hulu comes from advertisements it is not really a technical issue to let it go global. Assuming Hulu was available globally, there would be a lot of money to be made for everyone; the platform, the networks, etc. Offering a new business model next to the other one does not necessarily mean that the old one would die immediately. On the contrary. If there were other things like paid subscriptions things would be different.
I trust that in Europe many companies would be willing to pay top-dollar, because Hulu has something to offer that no TV station can give you: a perfect profile of nearly every individual viewer. It must be every marketing manager’s dream to be able to custom tailor his message to the individual audiences with maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Hulu offers this for anyone involved with television. Also the chance of getting immediate customer feedback should erase any doubt that might be left. Since the technologies for real-time customer interaction are already there companies have to learn to use them properly, too. One other example of how a global implementation of a video streaming service was successfully carried out is the offerings of South Park (www.southparkstudios.com). Not only are they offering localized mini-sites for many countries but views from non-English speaking countries are also able to view the program in English. This is a very important feature to most young people who like to watch the show in its originality. Translated jokes are mostly not very funny. The show, however, is still running on TV and is probably not going away for some time.
In this three-minute interview with Hulu CEO Jason Kilar he explains that Hulu also is a long-term business
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HO-4ZoNBEY]
And now?
A remaining question of course is what other, non-related businesses can take away from this example. To me the message is quite clear. To change the business model or to explore new ways to distribute a service or product should be one of the top priorities of business owners and entrepreneurs. Constantly working on the business concept is an absolute must since the dynamics of the market should not be underestimated. Especially in a connected world as the one we are living in, a market-changing innovation or innovative approach will most certainly be highly rewarded. Examples for this can be found in every industry, for every product, and in any organization.
Making sure that every possible way to reach your target audience is explored is essential. Maybe this might not be the cheapest way since failures can happen but not daring to try it might be the last mistake of your organization. In my opinion if there is any decent or crazy idea to create new sales it should be tried. Giving away customers (and money) – maybe even to your main competitor – will never be acceptable. Even more shocking is that most of the tools that enable a business to explore new ways are freely available at no extra cost. Many businesses are not using them so far. Facebook and Twitter are just two out of hundreds of examples.
Is it possible to sell a pizza, accountancy services or a haircut through Facebook? I claim that if you can sell taxi rides through twitter it must certainly be.
read moreToby who?
I'd like to welcome you to my blog and invite you to stay and read my articles on marketing, entrepreneurship, business, and life. This blog's main idea is to let you see the world through my eyes. To me there is nothing more exciting than the exchange of opinions, viewpoints, and attitudes. Feel free to leave your thoughts on my posts.