So yea…. we have found ourselves at the head of whirlwind tour starting on December 5 that takes us to Dusseldorf for e-Unlimited’s European Venture Summit. This is the last stop for those hoping to go onto the finals in Barcelona also known as the Eurocan European Venture Contest. The reason we like being a part of this VC/Tech ecosystem, is that despite its buttoned-down atmosphere, it really is a place where VCs – seed and upwards – come to shop. We will be there as a mentor and coach on the prep day, but also as a judge to select those that will move on to the final and have their dreams come true.
So here’s one we want to tell you about. On the move from Nordic Venture Summit to EVS is Defendec, a new start up out of Estonia. And guess what they do? They are a low-power wireless detection system for vulnerable borders which detects infrastructure sabotage or asset thefts, illegal crossing at international borders and monitors tactical operations areas. Ok, that doesn’t sound too sexy does it? But think about all the millions of miles of borders on this big old planet and think about everything from drugs to people to power stations to well, just about anything that is critical infrastructure. If you are living in a cabin in the Alps with only candles or are that Hermoine Way chick who claims to live out of one suitcase, you might not care, but the rest of the planet is a bit vulnerable and remote and gee, can’t be monitored remotely in an energy efficient way. Thus Defendec.
Right. Fresh off of a trip to Berlin for Mobile 2.0 and the Nordic Seed Capital Initiative Tour, our heads have been filled with a lot of stuff like why do mobile operators still not get it and what are they actually up to day after day?
1. The Nordic incubator scene spins its own web – they have their own hierarchy, methods and vision for how to incubate a start up.
2. Bjorn von Siemens wants to add value to the start up community by translating old economy standards into successful behaviors in the new economy.
3. LindenVC is the new VC model for incubating innovation.
4. Berlin is a very hip city that knows how to make Manhattan properly.
5. For the second time, it is a jagged volatile communications landscape out there, start ups need to KNOW who they are before they start talking.
6. For reals, the 20-something working kids use Facebook for everything and think it will over-take LinkedIn.
“You can survive a lot of things if your CEO loves you and very little otherwise.”
Okay….Tattletech has been spending a lot of time lately listening to companies and hearing their woes when it come to getting into the marketplace they want to get into. It’s no mean feat being responsible for marketing within a hi-tech company. For a start, you are usually the only one who believes in it, understands it and (battles to) implement it.
Add to the mix, if you will then, the typical CEO who, again, often brilliant, has a ‘challenging time’ communicating with us mere mortals, let alone those who look after non-technical aspects of the business namely, marketing and communications. These guys (yes mostly) ‘wag the dog’ and if they, for instance, don’t like journalists or ‘don’t have time for marketing’ the role of marcomms becomes that of a lobbiest, evangelist, teacher and perhaps even masochist. Often an agency or consultant is brought in to blaze the trail or offer ‘expert advice’ in an effort to shift mindset and convince. At times like this the tension in the room is almost palpable!
There are exceptions – heard of Apple? The technology company that executes marketing well is changing the way we communicate and has a CEO of the decade by Fortune magazine.
What follows are some rules by Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, on how to make the most of that dream IT marketing job … and how to survive it! Enjoy and take heart!
Rule No. 1: Learn from the Last CMO’s Mistakes and Successes
I was tempted to suggest you might want to sacrifice a chicken on the first day of the job. Instead, find out as much as you can about why the person you are replacing didn’t make it. Chances are that person was forced out, even if people initially tell you otherwise.
Rule No. 2: Learn the Power Structure
I can’t tell you the number of CMOs who didn’t realize in time that they were subordinated to division managers and often the marketing directors who reported to them. It is easy to fall in love with an organizational chart that puts you next to the CEO, but often that job is actually rather junior.
Rule No. 3: Own Your Metrics
You probably know that marketing metrics suck. They are largely unreliable and it is likely vastly easier to count the whiskers on an angel than to know at any given time how well or poorly your team is doing. However, it is in your best interest to make sure these metrics reflect as accurately as possible your contribution to sales. If you don’t own them, you can’t assure this, and you’ll likely find the metrics work against you.
Rule No. 4: Build a Qualified Team Loyal to You
As CMO, you are under siege. The last thing you need to worry about is one of your own people using your corpse as a stepping-stone to the next promotion. I’ve watched a lot of folks get shot down because their people did something either intentionally or accidentally that resulted in major problems for the company. Chances are your predecessor had this problem. One of the first things you have to do is make sure that any problem children in your new organization become someone else’s problem children.
Rule No. 5: Find Out What the CEO Wants (And Avoid Making Him or Her Look Stupid)
CEOs either want to meet celebrities, see themselves on TV, give presentations to large audiences, and/or be seen as a hero at the company or be totally invisible. Either way, they aren’t too fond of being pilloried or looking bad – EVER This suggests that you find out what the CEO wants to do in terms of public image and then you make sure no problems come from that.
Rule No 6: Own your Agencies – Don’t Let Them Own You
I’ve seen a lot of advertising and PR disasters over the years. Generally they have resulted from poor ownership over the process and one or more of these vendors behaving badly. The practice of bringing in an agency you know and love is a best practice, assuming the existing agency isn’t closely tied to an executive or board member. Like your employees, you want the agency to have your needs and reputation as its top priority.
Wrapping Up: The CMO is a Job at Risk
I’ve often thought that CMO should stand for Chief Masochistic Officer in technology companies because the deck is stacked against the successful execution of this job.
This sound helpful? Well today in the Blur Group blog, we read a similiar story about whats happening in the ecosystem of advertising… where agencies, once fat on the vine, now are rebuilding themselves in their own image..creating an agency in the eyes of an agency. The game is changing… are you?
This post is a little late – but after a busy week from being on the road and at the TechCrunch Europas… we had to let it all setttle a bit. Here are things we learned this past week:
2. Never start buying cocktails for a group of people who have had too much to drink and just put it on your hotel bill. The next day, you will not be happy.
3. Emerging tech/VC events are really just like a one-day summer camp reunion, nothing more. Be seen, have some drinks, go out later.
4. No matter how much funding a start-up has, with an un-experienced marketing person at the helm, you will zig and zag all over the place and get no where.
5. A good marketing person steers the ship with ease, but even they can’t control an eratic CEO.
6. Investors should not be doing PR of any form for their portfolio companies. Nada. Zip. Zero. So cut it out.
7. Apps still won’t work without network coverage or WiFi, let’s fix that.
8. How long can you coast on luck or self-deprecation? Pretty long apparently according to some.
9. You can not launch a product in 2 days.
10. There is only noise at big trade shows, not noise. Don’t be delusional in thinking otherwise.
11. Old school 80s style PR is dead. Today it’s a jagged, volatile communications landscape that’s all about targeting, social, issue hi-jacking, thought-leadership & disruptive concepts.
He’s ex-Oracle. Wears a flowery shirt. He’s Stewart Townsend and he’s on the loose. His new event, now that he is free of the corporate shackles is The New Social Rules. If you are in London on November 24th, go check it out and be smarter when it comes to being social. My favorite part.. see belowP
This mashup event will present views from those who are bringing about change, focusing on the debate centred around the social norms of etiquette, safety and privacy. With technology moving forward have the old rules around these areas moved on and developed or have we got new social rules that lead our lives…
Tattletech just received what we believe, to be the coolest invite ever – to tag along on the Nordic Seed Capital Initiative German tour in Berlin November 23-24. Why is this a good thing? This means we get to meet some innovative tech start ups that aren’t just creating apps or platforms for entertainment or for consumers, but real game-changing tech that just might make our lives better. But… the real win for us is to talk with a number of Nordic & German investors, science guys, big thinkers, who see beyond the pop technology and dig in for the long game and look for investments that will help shape the future not only for our health but for our environment, industry and overall global well-being.
The tour is organized by Nordic Investment Solutions and we plan on having a long talk with these guys about the why and the how of it all.
The real show-stopper for us is actually to get more time with one of the most unique and off-book VC firms in the indsutry, VeraVenture. Quietly tucked away in Finland (where snow already exists) this team goes about their days cherry-picking the most innovative pieces of new tech out there. I mean really innovative stuff… they are not into pop start ups or even heavily consumer based web 2.0 companies but technology that will impact our lives… in the long run. They are the cognac of investors, letting their investments mature into industry, municipalities and health care with less emphasis on a fast commercial explosion. Because changing patterns of behavior - recycling technology, smart grids, furniture that charges your mobile devices, mobile phones that monitor your glucose – that takes time. Check out ZenRobotics, PowerKiss,Multitouch, m-Brain. Between their low-profile super stars, Petri Laine and Ari-Pekka Laitsaari, you would think that it’s not big deal, but behind that wall is a vast amount of brain power and financial acumen that makes you sit up and pay attention. “Innovative banking” as Mr. Laitsaari calls it… seeing beyond the present and into the future takes patience and innovative banking. More to come from these two on the road from Berlin. – JLH
So yea…. we have found ourselves at the head of whirlwind tour starting on December 5 that takes us to Dusseldorf for e-Unlimited’s European Venture Summit. This is the last stop for those hoping to go onto the finals in Barcelona also known as the Eurocan European Venture Contest. The reason we like being a part of this VC/Tech ecosystem, is that despite its buttoned-down atmosphere, it really is a place where VCs – seed and upwards – come to shop. We will be there as a mentor and coach on the prep day, but also as a judge to select those that will move on to the final and have their dreams come true.
