
Stanford professor and entrepreneur Steve Blank on startups, pivots, and corporate innovation
One of the top entrepreneurial educators in the world offers essential advice to both startups and large companies.

SAP Buys Concur – Interesting Mix!
I have used Concur system for several years and had seen it evolve over time. Earlier this quarter, when I saw this announcement about Concur, Uber and AirBnb coming together, I knew that they are aiming big, given Concur’s active partnership with the likes of United, Marriott, IHG and Avis. There is definite meat behind […]

An HR business model for Millennials
Innovation requires rethinking how we do business. Here is a proposed approach for HR to re-examine how it serves the needs of Millennial workers.
The trajectories of great software companies
Ever wonder how much growth a software firm should really target? If you thought the sky’s the limit, you might want to think again.

Entrepreneur, repeat with me – is it repeatable?
Lately, I have met a host of entrepreneurs and friends with startups that are looking for just some input on their investment pitch and general feedback on their product and go to market strategy. I am really impressed by the products built and problems being solved but if I had to summarize my feedback, it […]

Subscriptions, Social and CRM
“Who is the customer?” It’s a great question and one that my managers liked to ask when I was a young sales representative. Like all great questions, it got to the meat of the matter with an economy of words that impressed as much by the brevity as for the meaning. The customer’s identity is […]

Sense and Respond, Operating a Social Business
Over the past several years I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at the impact of several change factors, including the application of social web driven ideas into business, the impact of mobile, cloud, and socialytics and a few…

SAP, Ariba, and SuccessFactors — By the Numbers
Please excuse our back-of-the-napkin math, but while we’re waiting on hold to join the SAP/Ariba analyst call, we thought we’d share some quick arithmetic on SAP’s recent cloud transactions.
SuccessFactors
2011: 1,578 employees, sal…
Facebook’s Next Business Model
VC Chris Dixon muses in a recent post that Facebook has yet to uncover a business model that will support its IPO valuation and drive future growth in that valuation. As he puts it: Facebook relies on an old internet business model: display ads. Display ads generally hurt the user experience, and are also not […]

"Late" to the Cloud?
It’s a statement that I hear often lately, as more traditional software vendors start to invest in cloud computing, that they’re "late to the cloud". Of course many of those who are saying it are "pure play" SaaS vendors that…