Tightrope Consulting

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 2024 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? 🚀 Are you a retailer navigating the complexities of the ever-evolving market landscape in Australia? With consumer behaviours shifting, economic uncertainties looming, and technological disruptions at play, the need for strategic innovation has never been more pressing. 🔍 CreditorWatch’s recent default data shows a rise to 4.5% of Australian retail businesses defaulting (up from 4% in December 2023). This highlights the urgency for retailers to keep costs down while ensuring they deliver the right product, to the right customer, through the right channels, and at the right time. This is where 𝐀𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫. 🎯 Explore the 𝐭𝐨𝐩 10 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 2024 and discover how AI solutions powered by LLMs from OpenAI, Google, and others can not only mitigate risks but also turn them into 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡: 1. **𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠**: Drive customer engagement and loyalty with tailored experiences. 2. **𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 & 𝐔𝐩𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧**: Boost sales with targeted product recommendations. 3. **𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠**: Stay ahead of consumer preferences with predictive analytics. 4. **𝐃𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠**: Maximize revenue while remaining competitive in pricing. 5. **𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭**: Optimize stock levels for improved efficiency and profitability. 6. **𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧**: Enhance visibility and reduce costs across the supply chain. 7. **𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭**: Improve response times and satisfaction with AI-powered support. 8. **𝐈𝐧-𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧**: Differentiate physical stores with personalized experiences. 9. **𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧**: Safeguard revenues against fraudulent activities. 10. **𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧**: Embrace emerging channels for seamless shopping experiences. Link to the full article in the comments section. 🔑 Ready to take the leap into the AI-driven future of retail? Tightrope Consulting can guide you through a structured approach, from identifying key objectives to executing AI solutions that deliver tangible value. Reach out for a conversation and let's unlock your retail potential together. #Strategy #AIinRetail #RetailInnovation #UnlockPotential 🛍️💡

🤖 Embracing AI in UX Research: Will it Replace Human Researchers? 🌐 While AI transforms the UX industry, it won't render human UX researchers obsolete. Here's why: 1. 🧠 AI currently lacks human understanding: Despite providing faster insights, AI lacks the nuanced understanding and empathy of human cognition that human UX researchers bring. 2. 📚 AI excels in secondary, not primary research: as it stands today, AI is excellent at analysing existing data but falls short in generating new discoveries, making UX researchers' ability to engage, probe and adapt strategies irreplaceable. 3. 🎨 AI struggles with creative ideas: Creativity remains a unique human quality, and AI's creative output is confined by predefined parameters. 4. 👥 AI cannot manage relationships: AI currently lacks the emotional intelligence required to build and manage relationships with stakeholders. 5. 🚨 AI needs human review: Concerns about AI's low-quality outputs highlight the importance of human review in the nuanced field of research. Researchers must exercise caution in relying too heavily on AI to avoid false or misguided insights.   🚀 The Future of UXR: AI Means Transforming Without Replacing 👉 AI acts as a sparring partner, aiding in faster insights and automating repetitive tasks, allowing UX researchers to focus on deeper and more extensive research. 👉 UX researchers shift roles from gatherers to curators, organisers, facilitators, and strategic guides, refining their creativity and problem-solving skills. 👉 The rise of AI in UXR calls for a shift in skillsets, emphasising soft skills, interpersonal proficiency, strategic thinking, problem-solving, empathy, and intuition.   🌐 Balancing AI and Human Expertise: AI reshapes the UXR industry, making processes more efficient and effective. Human intuition and creativity remain essential, and UX researchers must learn to balance AI use with their unique skills. Access the full article in the comments below.   At Tightrope, we embrace the benefits of AI in UX and design. Want to hear more? Let's chat! 🚀 #AIinUXR #FutureofDesign #Innovation #UXResearch #AIIntegration

🤖 Will AI replace the Strategy Consultant and automate strategy development? 🌐 Not quite, but AI will make it more efficient and effective! Welcome to the era where AI joins your strategy team to revolutionise strategy formulation. Over the past months we've been helping clients look at the impact of AI on their business so it's only right we look at the impact it will have on what we do day to day. 🔍 AI's Role in Strategy Development: The answer lies in the nuanced collaboration between AI and human strategists. AI will help strategy teams and executives with more efficient and effective data-driven decision making, predictive analytics, customer insights analysis, competitive intelligence and operational efficiency. 📊 Growing AI maturity in Strategy Formulation: From simple analytics to full strategic execution. AI is already making waves in predictive analytics, providing strategic recommendations, and enhancing operational efficiency by automating some level of strategic decision making. ⚙️ Who will benefit most: Organizations with abundant data and fast-paced decision-making benefit the most from AI. The majority are gearing up, organising data structures for AI-powered analysis. 💼 AI as Your Newest Team Member: Fear not, strategists! AI isn't a threat; it's your newest team member. Strategy professionals, equipped with AI knowledge, guide organizations in AI adoption. The challenge? Finding business-savvy minds to embed AI effectively. 🚀 Strategy Consultants Need to be AI ready: Leading consultants will upskill in AI to be able to develop the right prompts to drive innovative insights, develop the scenarios for on-demand planning, and use the right AI efficiency tools to gather faster insights, develop more compelling strategic stories and use AI to get feedback before testing it with clients. 🌐 The Future: AI Reshaping Strategic Planning: AI's transformative power predicts a more efficient, effective, and democratized strategic planning experience. Small organizations can benefit, bridging the gap with large enterprises. Full article on how we see strategy development change in the AI era! At Tightrope, we're at the forefront, embracing AI to deliver value. Curious? Let's chat! 🚀 #AIinStrategy #FutureofWork #Innovation #Growth

🚩 Successfully scaling a technology company is complex. It’s a non-linear process with lots of ups and downs. Talking to founders and CEOs, we at Tightrope Consulting have noticed there are a lot of myths when it comes to the “perfect” path to scale. We’ll be posting a myth a week and would love to hear your perspective on myth vs. reality. 🔨 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 10: 𝐓𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞, 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞. 🚀 There is a lot written about those unicorn startups, that become hyper growth companies and successfully launch new products, integrate acquisitions and enter new markets. They often talk about their ability to “𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩” as the key to success in keeping ahead of the competition. However, this statement creates confusion as when we look under the hood of these companies, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬. ❣️ In the start-up stage, a small team of people come together to create an innovative solution and successfully take this to market. Most people wear multiple hats, collaboration is high and the speed at which decisions are made and executed is quick. This is not a scalable model, as 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲 and the volume of concurrent activities becomes too hard to manage in the way a startup would. Therefore, when founders state they still work like a startup they mean that they have been able to 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 🌐 The key thing for scale-ups to keep some of the cultural benefits of their startup phase is to 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬. They should be specific, measurable, and aligned with your strategic goals. The next thing they do well is 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐭. Keep adding people to the team that can reinforce that culture, not dilute it. Thirdly, they 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬. This way they create a flywheel where as long as the values are adapted and evolved as needed, the behaviour (and results) follows. 💬 We would love to hear from you – What are some of those large corporates that have retained that startup culture with clear values, empowered teams and agile strategic direction? 

🚩 Successfully scaling a technology company is complex. It’s a non-linear process with lots of ups and downs. Talking to founders and CEOs, we at Tightrope Consulting have noticed there are a lot of myths when it comes to the “perfect” path to scale. We’ll be posting a myth a week and would love to hear your perspective on myth vs. reality. 🔨 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 9: 𝐓𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞, 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐂𝐄𝐎. 🚀 There is a belief in the business world that startup founders can’t scale. Put another way, a company’s growth curve will eventually outstrip the capabilities of its founder’s ability to remain CEO. And the statistics seem to bear this theory out: Only 50% of founders remain CEOs after being in business for three years, 40% after four, and a sadly low 25% of founders make it through their company’s IPO as CEO. ❣️ In the start-up stage, you need entrepreneurial founders who get the company off the ground. In the scale-up phase, you need a solid CEO to scale and bring the company to the next maturity level. With scale comes a lot of new challenges. Challenges that are usually of a different nature to those of the early days. They require less creativity and vision, more structure and leadership experience. It means 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐂𝐄𝐎, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲. They need to evolve from the visionary person who came up with the original idea (product person), to becoming an integrator and delegator who can bring together talented people across domains, and get out of the way to let them do a great job. They become coaches. 🌐 There is benefit for founders to stay on as CEOs, with evidence suggesting that 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫-𝐂𝐄𝐎 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 10% 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐏𝐎 than non-founder-CEO leadership companies. The key success factors we see coming back with founder CEOs of those that scaled are (1) building the right structures, (2) evolve ways of working, (3) develop the right talent, (4) maintain a cohesive culture, (5) scale leadership capabilities and importantly (6) surround the CEO with a top team c-suite. When these things are in place, founder led scale-ups will outperform the market. 💬 We would love to hear from you – what do you think is the best strategy? Going for the external veteran CEO or the adaptive strategy of having a founder-CEO? What are some of the best founder-CEOs that have been core to the success of scaling their companies? 

🚩 Successfully scaling a technology company is complex. It’s a non-linear process with lots of ups and downs. Talking to founders and CEOs, we at Tightrope Consulting have noticed there are a lot of myths when it comes to the “perfect” path to scale. We’ll be posting a myth a week and would love to hear your perspective on myth vs. reality. 🔨 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 8: 𝐓𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐬. 🚀 A lot of the advice to 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 and help solve more needs of your existing and new customers. There is logic in this, as growth with just one product looks quite limiting. However, in digital companies that’s quite different because you can add product features, experience improvements and performance improvements. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥. It means doubling down on solving your customer’s needs and wants in the best possible way. ❣️Going after diversification opportunities too early in a company’s journey can have obvious complications. It means you will need 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 to focus on multiple opportunities, build multiple products. It also means the 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱 with different working groups focusing on similar things. 37signals' basecamp strategy is a nice case study where they went for diversification but went back to product focus as the diversification was too distracting. (HBR article on Basecamp's strategy in the comments) 🌐 So how do you choose what works best for your company? In general, 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡, 𝐨𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭, 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞. Your clients will most likely pick the product that solves most of their problems, not just one part of, or one problem. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭, 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. There is an opportunity to do one thing well and take the market. There are plenty of examples of huge technology companies that have stuck to focus. Facebook(not parent company Meta) for example has evolved and transformed but still does the same thing and has not diversified. Same for LinkedIn, Intuit Mailchimp, Twitter (now X) and many others. 💬 We would love to hear from you – what do you think is the best strategy? Going for diversification or focusing fully on the biggest opportunity? What are some of the best one-product companies you love? 

🚩 Successfully scaling a technology company is complex. It’s a non-linear process with lots of ups and downs. Talking to founders and CEOs, we at Tightrope Consulting have noticed there are a lot of myths when it comes to the “perfect” path to scale. We’ll be posting a myth a week and would love to hear your perspective on myth vs. reality. 🔨 Scaling Success Myth 7: To be successful, Technology companies need to be global from day 1 🚀 The benefit of building and scaling technology products is usually that they can be sold with relative ease in different markets. The user needs might slightly differ but in general, the big pain point you are solving is probably a global one. Therefore, a lot of advice (mainly from big VC) has been to go after the global opportunity and do so from day 1. You can go after the biggest market opportunity (maybe your initial customers are even overseas), you can outpace your competitors (as the one who reaches scale first usually wins) and because of the big total addressable market and the larger opportunity, you can get attract the right level funding to succeed at the global strategy. ❣️ However, there are downsides to going global from day 1. For one, you need a lot of capital to expand internationally. This means the focus shifts from building a great product to getting the right level of funding. Secondly, you need to quickly understand if you have a global product (useable in every market without significant changes) or a multi-local product where you slightly adapt the product and go-to-market in each market you expend into. It’s harder to build a global product from day 1 as it’s much harder to understand the global market than it is to understand the local market you operate in. Thirdly, going global means dealing with a vast variety of different laws, regulations and different languages making it a more complex task to successfully do in one go. 🌐 The best path will differ business by business but thinking global means growing a mindset that your product or service is designed for the international market. It does not mean going global from day 1. To go truly global, you might need some localisation. This is the process of taking a product and tailoring to a specific locale/market. Keep in mind that localisation is more than translation. It’s adapting your product physically, linguistically, and even culturally. What better way to start this in your home market, where you know the customer, have early proof your proposition will work. 💬 We would love to hear from you – what do you think is the best strategy? Building to go global from day 1 or a more localised approach where you expand into new markets more gradually and strategically with a localised proposition?

🚩 Successfully scaling a technology company is complex. It’s a non-linear process with lots of ups and downs. Talking to founders and CEOs, we at Tightrope Consulting have noticed there are a lot of myths when it comes to the “perfect” path to scale. We’ll be posting a myth a week and would love to hear your perspective on myth vs. reality. 🔨 Scaling Success Myth 6: To achieve scale, the main capability to invest in is sales 🚀 In the early days, companies who bring new propositions to market need to invest a lot of time and effort to get in front of customers, to build brand awareness and to explain the benefits of the solutions so that it can spark interest. As an organisation scales, in existing and new markets, it’s tempting for companies to just keep adding sales capacity assuming that every dollar spent will result in increased growth. Spending money to keep pushing your product to more customers is not scalable unfortunately. ❣️ However, to achieve true scale, a technology companies need to work towards moving from a product push model, where you are trying to convince customers to give you product a shot, to moving to a market pull model. At this stage, your product features and reputation, the brand awareness, and existing client credentials help to create a situation where clients perceive your product as so appealing, they need to have it. The customer is asking for it, instead of being pushed the product. Successfully achieving a market pull for your solution creates a flywheel for future growth. 🌐 A well-documented example is the difference between palm pilots or PDAs and the smartphone. The handheld PDAs never fully got to a stage where customers were screaming for them versus the modern era smartphone that each of us carry in our pocket. No one needs to convince you that you need one. Technology companies need to follow the market pull instead of pushing technology onto consumers. 💬 We would love to hear from you - share your insights on other examples of companies that successfully identified a market pull and created the perfect product? Or examples of technology companies that were able to achieve that themselves and move from early sales focus (product push) to at a later stage reach market pull. 

🚩 Successfully scaling a technology company is complex. It’s a non-linear process with lots of ups and downs. Talking to founders and CEOs, we at Tightrope Consulting have noticed there are a lot of myths when it comes to the “perfect” path to scale. We’ll be posting a myth a week and would love to hear your perspective on myth vs. reality. 🔨 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 5: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫. 🚀 The key thing for digital companies is to build solutions that find a clear product-market fit. They solve the issues of customers in unique and better ways to existing solutions. Therefore, knowing your customer, and listening to their feedback is key to evolving your product successfully over time. Today, majority of digital scale-ups put significant effort into customer research and customer feedback mechanisms to develop a strategic product roadmap with new features and improvements. ❣️ However, the best product companies do two things well. First, they have a 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, they start with the end in mind and have a view of how their solution will do things better (USP). Secondly, they 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲. Customers will always be asking for more features, but it’s been proven that products with a lot of features have reduced usability, are less intuitive and require more time to learn and adopt. Low feature adoption also leads to higher churn. The best companies have their finger on the pulse of the customer but can prioritise well, stick to a vision, and focus on only building features that add significant value or are truly innovative.   🌐 The most famous examples of innovative companies that ignored what their customers were asking for are Ford Motor Company and Apple . Henry Ford’s quote “If I would have asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses” is probably the perfect summary of the key message here. Similarly, Apple's iPhone departed from conventional smartphone design of the time - bigger buttons and smaller devices. 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲. An example of a product that took it too far was BMW Group's 7 series, where over 700 features and functions were combined into its iDrive system, a system so complex making the car nearly impossible to drive. 💬 We would love to hear from you - share your insights on other examples of companies that successfully stuck by their product vision, despite hearing different user requirements. Or alternatively, which companies have listened too much to their customers and created feature heavy products? 

🎄As we wrap up the year, we hope that everyone has a chance to take a break, recharge and spend time with family. 💭As we reflect on the year, we recognise the significant challenges across the consulting industry, the technology industry and the wider economy. At the same time, the pace of innovation and excitment for new opportunities, driven by AI and other technologies, has driven a surge in exploration and transformation to deliver technology enabled growth. 🚀At Tightrope Consulting, we're very optimistic about the year ahead and thankful for the partnerships we're building with our clients to help them deliver growth. 🎉Seasons Greetings, thanks you to all our clients, our partners and the Tightrope team! Enjoy the break.