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<\/a>Before launching Knoa Software (www.knoa.com<\/a>)—a fast-growing software firm that helps companies like British Telecom and DHL get more value out of their enterprise software—Thad had already honed his secret formula. He was previously Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Constellation Ventures, a New York-based, $450 million venture fund, and before that was the co-founder and President of iFLEET\/ERS, a leading provider of technology to the transportation industry.<\/p>\nHe also spent 12 years at Dun & Bradstreet including stints at McCormack & Dodge, D&B\u2019s software division and A.C. Nielsen, D&B\u2019s marketing research division.<\/p>\n
During all of that experience, he saw that companies often invest tens of millions of dollars to install a new enterprise system (e.g., Oracle, SAP) but fail to realize their full benefits because users don\u2019t adopt the program or, if they do, they do not use it efficiently. Thad reasoned that by going deeper than other performance management solutions and measuring how end-users actually use software applications, companies could address many of the issues that prevent them from delivering the kinds of benefits the software application promised.<\/p>\n
The reasoning seems to be working because Thad and his team have been growing Knoa at 100% year over year and they now have 130 customers. Their success is due in part to the simplicity of their business-building approach.<\/p>\n
When a problem looks complex, it is because you have not yet mastered it. Masters reach simplicity. As Charles Mingus, the late American jazz composer and pianist, once said, \u201cCreativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird—that\u2019s easy. What\u2019s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple complicated is commonplace—making the complicated simple, awesomely simple—that\u2019s creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thad\u2019s experience leads him to such simplicity.<\/p>\n
What is his \u201csecret formula\u201d? In an interview I had with him, Thad shared that a successful business has four steps.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Get a customer<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make them happy<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Get a referral<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Repeat<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been thinking about this model for the past two weeks and it has really clarified things for me. It is deceptively simple but, I think, clearly captures how to build a growing company. If each day you check to see if everything you are doing fits into one of these areas, then you can feel confident you are advancing.<\/p>\n
So today, look at your agenda, walk through your to-do list and mark anything you are doing that is not getting a customer, making them happy, or getting a referral. Then see if you can take that item off your list. I think you will find yourself more focused on the productive aspects of your company, and in turn, you will become more successful.<\/p>\n