I recently had the pleasure of spending a day with 60 Software and Online Services CEOs as part of SIIA’s Deciphering the CEO event. The day was filled with peer / panel discussions, each with valuable points, but I thought I would share a couple thoughts that rose above the rest as common themes.

The megatrends all point to the rising importance of software – Michael Redding, Managing Director of Accenture’s Technology Labs laid out key disruptions of our day – from the blurring of physical and digital, the nature of platform resilience, through to the business of applications. It was that last point where he stressed that software is fast becoming a core competency in the digital world (see Andreessen’s article) where vendors will increasingly deliver end-to-end solutions to meet specific strategies for industries, as well as for companies.
And organizational alignment needed to execute fast in an accelerating global environment – CEOs agreed throughout the day that the rise of platforms simplifying and accelerating software development, easier distribution online, and the change of how customers are buying more like consumers, are creating whole new opportunities for software vendors. There was some disagreement to when to go global – on one side, US is 50% of the market, but with VC’s looking at your international strategy on series B and C (not a late stage strategy anymore), CEOs have to have a global perspective … especially given transparent, connected, online market. If you are not expanding globally, then you are likely losing market share to a competitor that will be hard to win back at a later date.
Organizational Alignment is Key to Keeping Innovation Alive – CEOs agreed that keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive was critical as companies grew. That means deliberate communication, teachable moments, and repetitive messages from directs on down to keep alignment as a company, especially as a balance against fragmentation. Along these lines, one rule came up across multiple panels … NO SURPRISES … whether the board, the exec team, or the stakeholders within your business, do not go for the big bang approach if you want to create strategic alignment. Show the facts, and lead the horse to water. One fun example one CEO gave was their team holding a wake as they discontinued one of their original products that was core to the company to refocus everyone on what was now core to their new direction … and that was after working with the leads in the organization for a while on why change was necessary.
Not the Golden Rule, but the Platinum Rule – even as CEOs all spoke to embracing customer centricity, especially with the growth of subscription and usage-based business models, they also agreed on the need to not only treat customers the way you want to be treated, but also to really understand your customer and treat them like they want to be treated. The goal is to not just support them, but really challenge them on how to map out their strategy – “need a product person” to work with customers.
Focus on Leading, Not Lagging Indicators – all agreed that traditional metrics that organizations used were lagging (e.g., NPS, retention, growth), and they were refocusing their organizations look at leading indicators (e.g., product usage, time spent, relationship, the new digital + direct selling funnel) for each department that rolled up into a shared top-level dashboard for their teams.