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As winter turns to spring (whether that means the weather is actually getting more pleasant is irrelevant), now is a great time to clear out the old ways of thinking about your business operations. On a recent episode of Series Pass, Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple and current leader at Canva, discussed tips for business growth with Desk.com’s Leyla Seka. In the process, Kawasaki presented several ways entrepreneurs and companies can re-imagine the way they do business.
Below are some of those tips, alongside AppExchange apps that will help rewire your business operations processes.
Kawasaki said the most important lesson that he learned from Steve Jobs is that “Your current customers can’t tell you how to create a revolution. All they’re ever going to tell you is better, faster, cheaper.” He gave an example of the ice business, which used to deliver cut blocks of ice via trucks and never saw the refrigerator coming. The fridge eventually put ice delivery out of business. “Most companies define themselves in terms of what they do, as opposed to the benefits they provide,” Kawasaki said.
While your business may not need to find a better way to make ice, there are most likely places you can reinvent things to make your processes more efficient. FinancialForce Professional Services Automation for Salesforce gives your team full visibility across sales, services delivery, and finance. You'll get the insight and data you need to improve sales collaboration, better manage projects, resources, and revenue, and ultimately maximize profits.
Recently, Kawasaki updated his book, Art of the Start, in large part because of the way social media has changed the ways businesses are founded. Kawasaki referred to social media as a meritocracy, saying that the more money you have, the less likely you are to succeed. Those with money, he said, abdicate and hire a digital agency. “And then they’re going to have this team of 10 to craft a Tweet,” Kawasaki said. “So 10 people craft a Tweet, three people work on the graphics, three lawyers are making sure you don’t promise anything in the Tweet, and 45 days later you Tweet.” For a medium that moves so fast, overcomplicating the process completely leads to failure.
The same axiom applies to managing your core business processes, whether it’s quote-to-cash, procure-to-pay, global financials, or planning and production. Kenandy Cloud ERP is an end-to-end ERP system that automates these core processes to empower employees, customers, and supplies with a single source of truth available in real time. With Kenandy Cloud ERP, easily implement and automate operational and financial business processes and adapt to change quickly, all without needing code, by leveraging the power of Salesforce App Cloud.
In discussing why some companies come across as genuine and innovative, Kawasaki pointed to those who had a real story to tell about the founding of their product or service. “I think the genesis of most great tech companies is that people are creating something that they themselves wanted to use,” he said. He referenced the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, who tells the story that he created the company to help his girlfriend sell her Pez collection online. “That is a total [made-up] story,” Kawasaki said. “But it is a great story nonetheless.”
Enterprise software can get in the way of telling a great brand story. Your internal software should be as friendly and accessible as your company. In the past, creating an enterprise-grade app that’s easy to use required resource-intensive custom code. With Skuid, this process is painless. Quickly and easily create custom apps and portals with Skuid’s code-free tools. Focus more on the stories your business wants to tell to your customers, and less on building a complex, difficult-to-implement app, with Skuid.
To learn about more great business operations apps, visit the AppExchange. And make sure you watch the full Series Pass episode with Guy Kawasaki.
