Presentation covering leadership and innovation in the technology industry.

1. University of Dublin
Trinity College
Leadership
&
Innova0on
Presenta)on
to
M.Sc.
classes
Paul
Woods,
12th
March
2014

2. Thank
You
• Deeply
humbled
to
be
invited
to
present
again
this
year!
 TCD,
a
fantas)c
ins)tu)on,
modeled
on
Oxford
and
Cambridge,
best-­‐in-­‐class!
 The
Long
Room,
an
inspiring
place
to
ponder
how
you
are
going
to
change
the
world.

3. Background
• Commercial
experience.
 Strategy
experience
across
start-­‐up,
corporate,
and
public
sector.
 Successful
design,
launch,
and
scaling
of
many
products.
 Led
winning
teams:
customer
service
and
ICT
team
of
the
year.
 Integrated
Perlico
upon
successful
exit.
 Established
Vodafone
branded
fixed
line
and
broadband
business.
• Technical
experience.
 Strong
engineering
competence
including
product
and
process
design.
 Managed
P&L
of
eircom’s
infrastructure
division.
 Programmed
fault
tolerant
distributed
systems.
 Evaluated
IPR
ranging
from
encryp)on,
early
cancer
detec)on
…

4. Leadership
• Leadership
and
management
differ.
 Leaders
role
is
to
set
a
vision,
inspire
and
mo)vate
a
team
desire
to
execute.
 Managers
role
is
to
plan,
organise,
and
coordinate.
• Leadership
skills
can
be
con)nuously
honed.
 Develop
innate
knowledge
of
weaknesses.
 Focus
on
personal
growth.
• How
do
leaders
you
admire
lead
and
behave?
 What
values
do
they
hold?
 How
do
they
start
and
finish
their
day?
 Strategic
vision:
Amazon
versus
Apple?
 How
do
they
maintain
energy?

5. Innova)on
• Innova)on
comes
from
the
La)n
word
‘innovare’,
meaning
“to
change.”
 Passion
is
key
to
innova)on,
willingness
to
see
beyond
the
status
quo.
 Lack
of
innova)on
can
quickly
damage
large
companies;
Microsob,
HP,
Dell
…
• Difficult
tradeoff
in
ensuring
business
focus
while
retaining
innova)on.
 This
tradeoff
usually
provides
gaps
for
new
start-­‐ups.
 Many
corporate
companies
allow
start-­‐ups
take
the
risk
and
acquire
if
successful.

6. Successful
technology
management
• Establish
clear
and
prac)cal
project
plans.
 Place
emphasis
on
how
value-­‐add
is
created
for
customers.
 Priori)se
core
over
nonessen)al
product
features.
• Map
resource
alloca)on
to
“value
add.”
 Ensure
resource
alloca)on
acts
as
catalyst
for
opera)onal
momentum.
 Treat
every
investment
decision
as
if
the
money
were
your
own,
even
when
it’s
not.
• Establish
crystal
clear
key
performance
indicators.
 Monitor
execu)on
to
plan
daily,
especially
core
sales
and
opera)onal
metrics.
• Refuse
to
engage
in
discussions
around
how
well
things
are.
going!
 Success
is
not
debatable,
focus
on
achieving
momentum.

7. Understanding
value-­‐add
key
• Problems
that
can
be
solved.
 Iden)fying
new
markets
or
befer
products
/
services
for
exis)ng
markets.
 Social
networks,
a
market
based
on
humanity’s
innate
social
dimension.
 A
Kindle
allows
you
to
carry
thousands
of
books.
• Opera)ng
efficiency.
 Lower
overhead
or
solu)on
that
allows
the
customer
reduce
cost.
 A
drone
can
pull
a
higher
g
force,
fly
for
longer,
avoid
traffic,
…
• Ecosystem.
 Keystone
strategy,
developing
an
ecosystem
that
acts
as
a
biosphere
for
growth.
 Ensuring
clear
stable
incen)ves
to
join
ecosystem!

8. Start-­‐up
culture
/
team
• Convex
lens
leadership.
 Choreograph:
U)lise
team
as
a
super
composer
would
make
best
use
of
an
orchestra.
 Darwinian
selec)on:
Limited
investment
and
)me,
respect
precious
resources.
 Focus:
Do
not
erra)cally
pivot
unless
clear
and
well
thought
out
befer
path.
• Team.
 Start-­‐up
environment
suited
to
high-­‐energy
individuals.
 It’s
easy
to
find
a
good
idea,
pujng
in
place
a
great
team
is
hard.
 Highly
incen)vise
team
for
success,
deal
with
underperformance
in
real
)me.
• Culture.
 Culture
of
‘demo
or
die’.
 ‘Will
to
win’
needs
to
be
cul)vated
and
protected.

9. Vectors of differentiation
• There
are
many
vectors
of
differen)a)on
including:
 Ease
of
use.
 Low
cost
(airlines).
 Design
aesthe)cs
(Apple).
 Free
to
customer
(Google).
 Ecosystem
(Amazon
/
Facebook).
 Improving
customers
produc)vity.
 Unique
fundamental
capabili)es
(Kindle
versus
tablet).
 Reducing
customers
total
cost
of
ownership
(cloud
compu)ng).
• Business
model
must
be
supported
by
coherent
focused
strategy
(Ryanair
–
cost
leadership).

10. Thinking outside the box
• If
a
baby
incubator
cost
$25,000,
could
a
product
with
equivalent
benefit
be
made
for
$25?
 Yes!
Engineer
insulated
infant
sleeping
bag
with
wax
hea)ng
module.

11. Start-up strength: focused problem solving

12. • CLV
for
the
customer
(i)
using
current
service
can
be
denoted
as:
Where
CFi,k
=
the
net
cash
flow
D
=
discount
factor
K
=
)me
period
• Time
period
(K)
=
Customer
length
of
service
(LOS)
 Number
of
transac)ons
a
customer
will
make.
 Impacted
by
contract
dura)on,
compe))veness
&
special
promo)ons.
 Long
LOS
not
necessarily
correlated
to
higher
CLV.
 Acquire
customers
when
CLV
>
customer
acquisi)on
costs.
Understanding
customer
life)me
value

13. • Current
value
doesn’t
provide
insight
into
poten)al
value
via
up/cross
selling
of
add-­‐ons
or
new
products.
• Poten)al
customer
value
can
also
be
calculated
as:
Where
i
=
customer
who
uses
service
j
from
compe))ve
op)ons
available.
ij
=
profit
company
can
make
from
customer
i.
• Decision
tree
can
be
used
to
evaluate
poten)al
value
for
distribu)on
of
customers,
taken
into
account
probability
of
up-­‐selling
op)ons.
• Acquisi)on
threshold:
weighted
poten)al
value
>
acquisi)on
costs.
Understanding
poten)al
value

14. • Seeking
investment
rounds
too
early
can
compromise
discipline
and
flexibility.
 Cri)cal
to
understand
cash
burn
and
ensure
it
is
mapped
to
high
value-­‐add
ac)vi)es.
 Working
capital:
If
you
haven’t
got
cash
to
keep
you
business
moving,
it
will
die.
• Befer
a
company
manages
its
working
capital,
less
equity
it
needs
to
raise.
 Amazon,
Walmart,
Dell,
all
examples
of
good
working
capital
management.
• Angel
investors
 Worth
approaching,
especially
if
investor
has
exper)se
in
field
and
can
provide
advice.
• Venture
Capital
 Seek
to
prove
business
model
early,
raise
funding
incrementally.
 Demonstrate
clear
milestone
delivery,
seek
to
minimise
equity
dilu)on.
Funding

15. • What
app
is
worth
$19
billion?
 WhatsApp
$42
per
user,
based
on
growth
to
1
billion,
share
in
emerging
markets
...
 Several
other
‘highly’
valued
compe)tors:
Kakao
Talk,
Line,
Viber
….
 Viber
was
acquired
by
Japanese
firm
Rakuten
for
$3
per
user.
• Valua)on
is
complex.
 Value
as
source
of
cashflow?
 Standalone
value?
 Value
to
broader
porwolio
of
acquirer?
 Strategic
value
(IPR,
market
dynamics
…)
• Ini)al
focus
should
be
on
standalone
value.
Valua)on

16. Super trends highlight opportunity
① Popula)on
growth
and
aging.
 New
healthcare
products
/
services
and
approaches
to
preventa)ve
care.
② Globalisa)on
and
urbanisa)on.
 Smart
ci)es,
grids
&
water
management.
 New
forms
of
ci)zen
protec)on,
ways
of
working
…
③ Intelligence,
knowledge
and
innova)on.
 Designing
and
interpre)ng
big
data.
 Decision
support
tools
that
can
take
increasing
variety
of
inputs.
④ Environmental
and
resource
strain.
 New
technologies
to
op)mise
and
control
use
of
scarce
resources.

17. Everything is possible!
Maria Leijerstam cycling South Pole

18. Conclusions
• Leadership
is
a
choice.
 Many
are
born
with
leadership
traits,
but
skills
can
also
be
developed
/
honed.
• Innova)on
requires
passion.
 Innovators
don’t
just
consider
rewards,
love
to
challenge
the
status
quo.
• Customer
value.
 Consider
economics
of
customer
acquisi)on
and
prospec)ve
life)me
value.
• Super
trends.
 Several
super
trends
emerging,
opening
up
opportuni)es
for
you
all!
“A
man
who
dares
to
waste
one
hour
of
)me
has
not
discovered
the
value
of
life.”
Darwin.