Follow the Leaders
Eric Martin, CEO of 80amps, on Practical Innovation
JOKE: Two guys in the woods spot a bear charging toward them. The first guy says to the second guy, “Can we outrun this bear?” The second guy says, “Heck, all I need to do is outrun you!”
But there’s no reason to outrun the bear. It’s about staying one step ahead, and during our most recent Quarterly Luncheon, 80amps CEO Eric Martin told us how to do just that. He spoke about Disruptive Innovation – and asked us to commit to the rewards promised by Practical Innovation instead. Break away from your biases and other faulty ways of thinking, said Martin, and you will outrun the bear!
Martin’s presentation was packed with interesting information – too much to share in this short summary – but following are a few takeaways from this captivating VACEOs event.
DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION: SHOULD YOU BE WORRIED?
CEOs are never at a loss for things to worry about, and it seems Disruptive Innovation could be the next big bear chasing us in our dreams.
Disruptive Innovation is defined as a product or service that creates an entirely new market or value system – or one that actually displaces existing competitors. A prime example is Uber, a nationwide ride-sharing service that uses technology to connect people who need a ride with others who can offer one.
According to Eric Martin, the current private market value of Uber is $40 billion, which is greater than the value of the entire taxi industry. Clearly, the taxi industry is being disrupted, and Martin says Uber is beginning to become a concern for the auto industry, as well.
When it comes to industry disruption, not everyone is at risk, but if you’re unwilling to change or unaware of the “disruption train,” as Martin calls it, you could be run over.
Should we be worried? Most of us probably needn’t be. But Martin says now is the time commit to Practical Innovation – to run faster toward the low-hanging fruit that’s right in front of your eyes.
THE FRUIT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE
Martin’s message for most of us is to forget about Disruptive Innovation. His advice? “You don’t have to be the ruler of your industry. You can see accelerated growth with Practical Innovation.” The information you need to drive profits and growth is right in front of you, and it has everything to do with your customers and how well you serve them.
Martin explains, “The low-hanging fruit in almost every case is standing right in front of you. It’s customer-driven Practical Innovation along key dimensions of the customer experience. Now is the time to run faster toward those dimensions.”
When was the last time you experienced extraordinary customer service? If you’re like most people, it’s been a while. In fact, says Martin, most companies earn about a “C” grade, according to his national customer satisfaction research. And here lies the low-hanging fruit: Practical Innovation is customer centric.
The key for CEOs is to determine what is the MOST important customer service trait or factor for your customers. Is getting their product quickly most important? Or do they appreciate the fact that ordering is automated? Remember, customer experience encompasses every touch point a customer has with your company. It’s also important to find out which service points your customer feels are nice to have – and which ones are irrelevant.
According to Martin, companies that apply an innovative approach to one key customer service characteristic often see a payoff. In fact, his data suggests that even a small amount of difference created around that characteristic is enough to produce a significant return.
GETTING OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY
Is your company innovative? Not sure? How much revenue did you earn this past year from a product you didn’t have a year ago?
Now is the time to take measured steps and put together a team. Recruit those employees who work most closely with your customers and get out of your own way – meaning, don’t let your job biases and power keep you from thinking about things in new ways.
Yes, that’s right: CEOs, like it or not, are often the inhibitors of innovation. And Martin says that if you move away from old habits, your business will move toward innovation.
You Know You Inhibit Innovative Thinking When…*
1) You start off thinking you have all the answers. (Observational Bias)
2) You frame questions too narrowly. (Ex: Which gives you infinite possibilities? 5+5=X? or X+Y=10?)
3) You believe you have the answer before you start – and the only failure you anticipate is one of execution. (Linear Execution)
About Eric Martin, CEO of 80amps
Eric Martin advises clients throughout the United States on issues of transformation, corporate growth and innovation through his firm 80amps for Enterprise. In addition, through 80amps for Start-Ups, the incubator he founded, Mr. Martin provides new venture guidance to The Martin Agency (one of the country’s top advertising agencies) and a number of startups in the 80amps portfolio.
Mr. Martin is also Director of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business and co-founder of the Galant Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, and has lectured at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter on driving wealth creation through creativity.
Mr. Martin was previously president of TM VISTA and a member of Ticketmaster’s Global Leadership Group. He was formerly the CEO of 2b Technology, which was acquired by Ticketmaster in early 2000.
Eric Martin is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
* Source: Eric Martin, CEO of 80amps; “Practical Innovation” presentation, VACEOs Quarterly Luncheon, 01/22/15.
Becoming Unboxed Technology
Walk into the workspace, and the walls are covered with varying sizes and lengths of quotes. Collectively, it reads like an inspirational sounding board: “The good life is a process,” “Imagination will take you everywhere,” and even “Just keep swimming.”
The proverbial Inspirational Wall is fitting. In essence, these credos, carefully selected by each Unboxed Technology employee, tell the story of the vision, struggle and character of this young company.
Turning just six years old in 2015, Unboxed Technology has already found itself on the Richmond BizSense RVA 25 list of fastest-growing companies in the region. (Unboxed’s 95 percent growth over the years 2011 to 2013 earned it the number 15 spot on the high-profile list.) Today the company’s client list reads like Who’s Who of local and big brands, including Comcast, Allianz, McKesson, Samsung, 24 Hour Fitness, nTelos and Owens & Minor.
Defining the Unboxed Technology product isn’t so easy, until you get to the heart of it. The company creates the ultimate learning and teaching environment – one where creative content rules and a new common interactive platform rocks. And it wouldn’t be Unboxed unless it was mobile.
More specifically, Unboxed Technology creates everything from interactive training sessions to mobile marketing apps, analytics engines to animated videos, user interfaces to face-to-face instruction. And production value is extremely high: This isn’t PowerPoint on steroids.
Think Universal Studio video production quality while teaching your employees the correct way to greet customers. Or a colorful animated Q&A session for your salesperson’s tablet – one that narrows down a complex decision for his customer. Or an application that becomes the ultimate sales assistant, intuitively ordering samples for a prospect.
The goal is educate and empower and reduce confusion – to motivate your people and your customers to make the best choices.
This is the story of Unboxed Technology. And almost immediately at the beginning of our conversation, co-founder Brian Leach says, “The story of this company isn’t a ‘me’ story – it’s a team story.”
BECOMING UNBOXED
Says Leach, “If you ask me what drives Unboxed, first of all, it’s the relationships we have with our clients, and secondly, the team here at Unboxed. We have a wonderful team. Then, it’s our products. I believe our products are very different. But we wouldn’t have them if we didn’t have great clients who allow us to innovative and produce different and captivating content.”
Inspiration for Unboxed Technology was found in the corporate halls of the now-defunct retail giant Circuit City. It was there that Leach and co-founder Dave Romero first met. It was also where the two became friends with Unboxed Technology’s first employees, Kevin Leetham and Michael Laskaris. All were heavily engaged in unveiling a multibillion-dollar project for the national retailer: an interactive concept that would change the retail industry – and ultimately birth Unboxed.
Leach explains, “I was with Circuit City for over 20 years, and Dave (Romero) was there for over 15. We were both leading the development of a new concept called ‘The City.’ The concept had a lot to do with how employees interacted with the customer. We were doing a lot of innovation with tablet technology at the time – even before the iPad came out. We ended up building a multimillion-dollar enterprise platform for Circuit City that leveraged mobile technology, creating tools for employees to better serve the customer.”
Sixty new concept stores were formed. Write-ups on the innovative sales approach appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and even in a Microsoft case study. But despite The City’s successes, Circuit City as a company went bankrupt. Of that time, Leach says, “We had been running really hard at something, and then it just stopped.”
“IT WAS SO CRAZY”
With the encouragement of colleagues and business mentors, Leach and Romero founded Unboxed together in 2009. They sketched out a strong business plan and almost immediately convinced Leetham and Laskaris to take a leap of faith. Six months later, the Unboxed Assistant prototype was built using Microsoft technology.
Unboxed Technology co-founders Dave Romero and Brian Leach.
Good times, right? Not quite. Seems a little company called Apple was finally ready to launch something called the iPad, and the Unboxed prototype needed to be compatible. “We had to start over,” says Leach. “If you’re going to be in the technology space, you have to be able to adapt and change and be nimble. You have to innovate. We think back to that time now and laugh. It was so crazy.”
Within six months the company started work with nTelos Wireless and 24 Hour Fitness. Fast-forward to today, and the company has reached fastest-growing business list status, has over 50 employees and plans to add more this year.
So how DID Leach and Romero do it?
GET OVER YOURSELF AND PLAN FOR SUCCESS
When you transform an idea into a multimillion-dollar business in a matter of a few years, you learn a thing or two along the way.
First lesson: Get over yourself.
Then: Plan for success.
Next: Don’t be afraid to ask.
“Getting past the fear of personal risk is hardest part when you’re thinking of starting a new business,” says Leach. “It never goes as fast as you’d like it to. You have to plan for success. You have to have confidence that you can get through the hard times. When you do that, it’s amazing what you can do. We laugh about it now – the personal sacrifices Dave and I and our families made at the beginning, wondering how we would we get through it.”
If you don’t plan for success, then it won’t happen. Smart businesspeople have to be willing to take on logical bets. Says Leach, “We tend to hold on too much as small business owners. Whether it’s investing in people or technology, be willing to knock down those barriers and not let them be obstacles.”
Leach also admits that finding business resources and asking questions is OK. “I learned a lot of life lessons during the early stages,” he explains. “I learned that you have to overcome fears and not be afraid to ask. There are so many great business resources available to you if you open your eyes. Resources I found within the membership of Virginia Council of CEOs are priceless. You just have to not be afraid to ask for help and guidance.”
With growth comes growing pains, but Leach has his eye on the ball. The happiness of clients and employee comes first: “We have to resist the urge to grow too fast. What makes Unboxed so great is our relationship with our clients and the team at Unboxed who do the work. We don’t want to goof any one of those up. We don’t want our rapid growth to cause poor execution, and we don’t want to let our team down or push them to a breaking point.”
It’s clear that company culture is a big part of what makes up Unboxed (queue the mental images of the Inspirational Wall), but Unboxed is more than the creative workspaces or the comradeship found in its “interactive huddles.” Its owners are also committed to investing in their employees’ happiness and development.
PAIN POINT = FINDING TALENT. CAN YOU RELATE?
Leach says his biggest growing pain was finding the right talent to take the company from four employees to over 50 in only a few years (a common woe heard ‘round many a roundtable). As a result, his team has become extremely adept at selecting and interviewing candidates. Good thing, because Unboxed receives hundreds of applications a month over the web: 815 total last year.
Finding the right experience and skill sets for the unique company means thinking in new ways and figuring out which roles need to be physically present and which don’t. For example, leadership and product managers work best on site, while developers and content strategists can work remotely. All of them get together several times a year, and when we visited, they were preparing for the company’s first Factory Day – a day when the business closes its doors to strategize on how to improve its processes.
THE FUTURE OF UNBOXED TECHNOLOGY
Leach promises a big evolution for Unboxed in 2015 – effectively evolving from custom software company into a product company that provides services. Expect to see a new website and strategic marketing campaigns designed to increase brand awareness. And, of course, more hires. (His budget includes a healthy investment in employee development – a subject of vital importance to Leach.)
Over the next five years, he hopes to penetrate new verticals and industries. Says Leach, “We’ve learned that we can apply what we can do in healthcare, in telecommunications and in retail. We even have a client that is a local law firm. We can apply what we do to almost any industry. We think there is so much potential.”
He adds, “If you value your people and you value those business relationships, you have principles that you use to make decisions around both of those things. And we do. We put a lot of those things before ourselves. That’s how you get a great customer and employee experience. I think if we don’t lose focus, then the sky is the limit. I really do.”
Or simply stated through his personal selection on the Unboxed Inspiration Wall: “All dreams came come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” (Walt Disney)
Learn more about Unboxed Technology here.
Other posts you may like:
• VACEOs Members Make RVA and INC 5000 Lists
• Unboxed by the Numbers in 2014 (funny holiday video)
Brian Leach has been a VACEOs member since 2011. Membership of the Virginia Council of CEOs includes professionals from award-winning companies across many industries, including IT Services, Marketing & Advertising, Logistics & Transportation, Business Products & Services, Consumer Products, Human Resources, Finance, Health Services and more.
Imagine what you can achieve, surrounded by CEOs like these! Learn about VACEOs membership.
Finish Big
No, this is not another end of the year, rah rah blog post. Rather, I just started reading Inc. editor Bo Burlingham’s new book, Finish Big. Bo co-led our 2008 CEO Retreat with Doug Tatum.
The book starts with “Every entrepreneur exits. It is one of the few absolute certainties in business.” There are damn few certainties in the life of a business owner. Still, many pay scant attention to their coming exit until it is too late. This book will motivite you to get going, and give you an outline to pursue.
Well, Bo is sucking me in, so I will be through it shortly. His writing is powerful. His genius is in distilling and sharing experiences, all the while telling a good story. If you would like my copy of Finish Big when I am done, let me know. – Scot
A Message of Thanks
Virginia CEOs have a lot to be thankful for… the economic outlook is up, our Governor is furiously, and successfully, promoting Virginia to the world, and we all benefit from a rising tide of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Here at the VACEOs, we are thankful for all the people who make the Virginia Council of CEOs a success. Our Board and volunteers move us forward, our sponsors make more possible, and our membership continues to grow. In fact, in 2014 we have added 22 new CEOs to our “Safe Haven” and we look forward to getting to know them in 2015.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Matt Brotherton
1752 Financial, Inc.
Claire Gastanaga
American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia
Josh Wishnack
C&K Auto Parts
Eddie O’Leary
CO+LAB
Duke Dodson
Dodson Property Management
Brian Forrester
Dynamic Web Solutions
John Coleman
Fairway Styles Inc.
Steve Rosser
Gelati Celesti Ice Cream
Jennifer Boyden
Heart Havens
Andrew Smith
Initiate-It
Kyle Stephenson
KRS Holdings Inc
Jay Bloxsom
NationsClassroom
Terry Fink
Planet Central
Rich Boehling
Productiv Inc.
Pete Quinn
RiverFront Investment Group, LLC
Steve Green
Sylvan Learning Centers
Ro Meade
Synergy Technical
Rick Morris
Techni-Pak, LLC
Duane Slyder
The Farm Table
John Cohen
Total Party Planner
Thomas Dodson
Unlimited Air Mechanical
Jeff Samuels
William Jeffrey’s Ltd.
Breaking Routine
One of the best things about routine is breaking it. While our rhythm of highly structured and disciplined monthly CEO roundtable meetings produces great results for members, it is good change things up! That’s where roundtable retreats come in. Every roundtable gets away together once a year for a one to two night retreat. Some stay close, heading to the lake, the river, or a nearby resort. Others travel farther, as seen in this photo.
Roundtable Retreat in NYC
Regardless of the destination, what matters about a roundtable retreat is the chance to learn more about one another, build stronger relationships and become a more productive roundtable. Many roundtables include a regular meeting in their retreat, some build in roundtable-specific training, and others bring in a facilitator lead a learning experience. The important thing is that you break the routine together.
Our membership includes award-winning companies across industries like IT Services, Marketing & Advertising, Logistics & Transportation, Business Products & Services, Consumer Products, Human Resources, Finance, Health Services and more. Imagine what you can achieve, surrounded by CEOs like these! Learn about VACEOs membership here.
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