Kicking off the keynote at this year’s Suiteworld in Las Vegas, NetSuite Executive Vice President, Jim McGeever, suggested discipline and focus were essential ingredients in driving business growth.
Ostensibly there to announce an array of product innovations to the popular brand’s suite of business solutions, McGeever took the opportunity to reveal the strategies behind the growth of the business.
Having spent the last 18 years in service to the company, McGeever is well positioned to speak on the roadmap that leads to business success.
According to McGeever, there are few barriers to starting a business today. He suggests the main challenges occur when businesses attempt to grow.
“[Howvever] There is an enormous amount of information out there that suggests it is really hard to scale a business,” he says. “So why is it that hard to scale a business? How can you go from a small company and grow to medium and then hopefully large?” he asked.
“The reason we think it is hard, is growth is change, and change is always hard.”
Citing Darwin’s survival of the fittest, where those who can adapt, are those that survive, McGeever also tells the audience “Growth is also discipline”.
“The lessons you learn from failure are the ones that really stick with you
“Processes are really important to scale. How you deliver to your customers? How do you support them? How do you work with them?
“Growth is also focus,” he adds. “You must focus on the compelling proposition of customer value. You have to pick the thing that really moves the needle for you
“And growth is stress – on your people, your financials and you.”
While successes are important, McGeever suggests it’s the mistakes you make that will really provide the biggest lessons for you and your business.
“The lessons you learn from failure are the ones that really stick with you and you can learn from and expand,” he says.
He cites Netsuite’s own expansion into the UK and Japan as a case in point.
“When we first went international – UK and then Japan – our first non-English-speaking expansion, we tried to do things differently. In the UK we tried a different product strategy and in Japan a different go-to-market strategy. But it failed.”
Moving forward McGeever says the failure provided a valuable lesson.
“You have to keep the core of what makes you good and then localise it – don’t try to create a new business model,” he advises.
[The author was a guest of Netsuite at Suiteworld]
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