How to Scale a Business Today: Embrace Customers, Uncertainty, and a Little Friction | Uphoff on Industry

The Big Themes:


The need for speed: scaling a business is more difficult than
ever, because the rapid pace of change across industries requires
leaders to make big decisions more quickly than ever before—and
still get the decisions right.

The primacy of customers: Tony channels Walter White of
Breaking Bad, and says that today, customers are "the ones who
knock," meaning they're dictating the terms of deals and services
to vendors, not the other way around.

The upside of friction: Generally, friction is seen as an
impediment to scale, but Tony says that some forms of friction
are good, in that they remind leaders to take a breath, look
around, and be sure things are working well.



The Big Quote: "In a funny way, it's such an obvious observation
of 'oh, okay, the customer is in control.' ... It is truly
profound, Bob, and I think if I was to point to one thing that
can help in the scale on the seller side for technology
companies—if I can point to one thing that could hold some of
those companies back—it's a lack of understanding of that
profound shift."


 


Looking for more insights to transform your
business? Connect with Tony on LinkedIn or through his
AE Analyst page.


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