Accept Software Resource Library

When the Stars Line Up

It’s rare when the stars in the sky and those out there speaking for your company all line up. After years of knowing what we know, the world is suddenly recognizing that what our little software company has built now makes perfect sense for companies creating products in this ever more complex world. And if that weren’t enough, we now have the good fortune of having just acquired a real-life “star”: CEO John Hamm.

He hit the hammer on the proverbial head (I guess the star Inc. writer Lindsey Blakely thought so too) when he was quoted in her Inc. article “Who Will Survive after CES?”.

She posits the not-so-fun question about how many “cool-when-we-thunk-em-up” ideas like those at CES this week never actually make it past the realities of product planning and product development. It’s a startling and sad number as her article points out  “More than 50 percent of new technology products that enter the market fail, according to the Association of International Product Marketing and Management. Remember HP's Touchpad? Microsoft's Zune? HP's foray into the TV business?” Ouch!

Her article goes on to point out “It's no wonder even the big brands with sizeable R&D budgets launch flops at CES. Small companies have an even tougher time.“

Our star CEO, John Hamm, drives home the unfortunate issue by pointing out how companies like “HP can come out with something and screw it up several times in a row before they finally get it right. Start-ups don't have that luxury. They must get their innovation right and meet customers' expectations as early as possible.”

That, my friends, are stars lining up for us. And for our customers, who now have a chance in hell to plan products when it gets really complex, can, as John Hamm says, “meet customers’ expectations”. I guess with stars like this, marketing can go on home huh?