 |
|
|
|||||
Every company is racing to modernize. Theres a sense that if you arent adopting new technology fast enough, youre already behind. From AI and automation to digital platforms, the list keeps growing. Leaders make big investments, employees sit through onboarding sessions, and for a few weeks, excitement fills the air. Then the momentum fades. Dashboards sit idle. Pilots stall. The return on investment never arrives. We see it all the time. On the factory floor, operators are juggling a dozen tools that dont talk to each other. Managers chase data that doesnt reflect whats really happening. Teams try to keep up with systems meant to help them but instead end up slowing them down. In moments like that, its clear that transformation isnt just about technologyits about people. TRANSFORMATION STARTS WITH CLARITY Real transformation begins with clarity. A tool must serve a defined purpose, be anchored to measurable outcomes, and be designed around the people who use it. True impact happens when its tied to measurable business goals and shaped around the people who actually use it. Together as the CEO and the customer strategy lead of Squint, a manufacturing AI startup, we spend our days in our customers factories, walking the floor with production managers, maintenance crews, and line operators. We see firsthand how new systems can either make work smoother or create new friction. Over time, weve noticed a pattern: Too many teams start with the tool instead of the goal. They adopt technology because it looks impressive, not because theyve defined what success should look like. Implementation should always begin with two simple questions: What problem are we solving? How will we know when weve solved it? At one food and beverage manufacturer we worked with, the operations team made a single smart decision. They tied their rollout to a company-wide goal of reducing downtime. That clarity changed everything. Instead of running scattered pilots across departments, they focused on the process that mattered most: unplanned line stoppages in their packaging area. Within weeks, operators were using the new system to run machines more smoothly, and technicians were diagnosing problems faster. Downtime dropped noticeably. The transformation didnt come from the tool itself, but from the focus and from the people. Once the team anchored implementation to a business priority, adoption took care of itself. People didnt have to be convinced to use it; they saw its value immediately. On another visit, we met with a maintenance team that was struggling because they spent half their time walking between the floor and a back office just to check paper manuals. The tech couldnt solve any real problems until what was getting in peoples way was defined. Once they could access that information digitally, troubleshooting time dropped dramatically. More importantly, the team wanted to use the new system because it solved a problem that actually mattered to them. If people dont find value in a tool, no amount of training or policy will make it work. But when technology removes friction from their day, adoption becomes natural. Thats what good implementation does. It removes friction and gives people back the focus they need for the work that matters most. KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER IS CRITICAL TO IMPLEMENTATION The last piece of effective implementation is knowledge transfer. Every organization has experts whose know-how keeps things running, but much of that knowledge exists only in their heads. When those people retire or move on, it disappears. Implementation should include ways to capture and share what they know so the organization continues to learn. Weve seen companies build training systems around their most experienced workers, turning decades of individual experience into company-wide capability. Thats when technology stops being a project and starts becoming a culture, one that learns, adapts, and grows as its people do. Across the board, it is clear that people-first, problem-centered implementation is the real differentiator. The organizations that win dont just buy tools; they implement them strategically, tie them to measurable goals, and design them around their people. Because great technology doesnt replace people; it amplifies them. And in the end, technology doesnt transform companies. People do. Devin Bhushan is the CEO and founder of Squint and Carolina Lago Pena Maia is the customer strategy lead at Squint
Category:
E-Commerce
Early in my career, I learned a valuable lesson that has stayed front and center. I was working for a company struggling to meet its marks. We were doing fine, but not knocking it out of the park. I walked into a quarterly business review, confident in our marketing metrics. We were hitting or surpassing every KPI, and I presented our achievements with pride. My CEO made a statement that stopped me in my tracks: Marketing success means nothing unless the company as a whole is winning. That moment was a turning point. In our focus on metrics, its easy to overlook what really matters. Its a lesson I was grateful to learn early and one I believe every leader should embrace. THE POWER OF MEASURING WHAT MATTERS MOST As business, and particularly marketing professionals, metrics are drilled into us. Its what we were taught, so it would be predictable for me to operate like that. Dont get me wrong, metrics still matter. But they arent the only thing that matters.The problem with a laser focus on your individual departments goals is that it tends to be myopic, focused only on your stats. We track what’s measurable. We celebrate what’s improving. We report on what highlights our teams productivity. However, it’s easy to optimize for your own scorecard without checking whether those scores are driving company growth. The harder work is asking whether we’re moving the needle on the larger business goals and aligning your metrics to that. Unfortunately, your department dashboard can show improvement while the company and customers need something different. Your team can hit targets while overall revenue needs a different kind of support. My CEOs feedback helped me see this gap. Marketing wins that don’t translate to business wins are just activity, and this insight applies to all areas of the business. Fortunately for me, this CEO knew that I was early in my career and provided me with a teachable moment. MY APPROACH NOW Since that conversation, I’ve changed what my team measures and how we define success. Every initiative has to answer two questions: How does this support overall company growth and health? And how does this help our customers? Not just “how does this improve our brand score” or “how does this boost engagement?” Those might indicate progress, but they’re not the end goal. Business impact is the goal. This means: Throwing support behind products customers will actually buy Building brand equity that translates into customer preference and pricing power Improving customer experience in ways that drive retention and expansion Creating demand that converts to revenue 4 WAYS TO ALIGN METRICS WITH BUSINESS GOALS If you lead any function, here are four things to consider to better align your efforts with business outcomes. See if any of these resonate with you: Start with company goals. What three to five outcomes would make your CEO and board happy this year? Revenue growth? Customer retention? Market share? Margin improvement? Build your metrics from there. Connect your work to those outcomes. Draw clear lines between your initiatives and company business goals. If you can’t make that connection, you have an opportunity to refocus. Celebrate progress, not victory. Improving KPIs shows progress. That’s worth acknowledging. But it’s not the finish line. Make your metrics achievable, with room for growth. The best metrics show you where you’re creating value and where you have room to improve. They help you make better decisions about where to focus your efforts. WHY BUSINESS ALIGNMENT CREATES BETTER RESULTS When you tie your success to your companys success, several things happen. You make better decisions about what to prioritize. You have clearer opportunities for collaboration with other departments, reducing silos. You create more customer value. You build stronger cases for resources because you’re speaking business impact language. HOW MY TEAM OPERATES TODAY When my team presents quarterly results now, we start with how the business is performing. Then we show how our work has contributed, or the opportunities for improvement. It connects our work to what matters. It helps us focus (or refocus) on creating real value rather than just checking boxes. The CEO was right. Marketing success means nothing unless the company as a whole is winning. But here’s the good news: When you align your metrics with business goals, everyone wins more often. Melissa Puls is chief marketing officer and SVP of customer success and renewals at Ivanti.
Category:
E-Commerce
The battle for Warner Brothers Discovery got hotter this week as Paramount launched a hostile bid of $108.4 billion for the company, topping Netflixs agreement last week to pay nearly $83 billion for the companys streaming and studio assets. Its the largest M&A deal of 2025 and rightfully will receive tough scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe. The ultimate price for Warner Brothers Discovery will certainly factor heavily into who wins the fight, especially with investors, and there could be additional bidders and proposals. For sure, an acquisition by Netflix of one of the oldest Hollywood studios, Warner Brothers, and its HBO Max streaming service would have ripple effects across the industry, though not in the way critics contend. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called it an anti-monopoly nightmare that would harm consumers and American workers. Actress Jane Fonda, who’s appeared in successful Netflix shows and movies, called it catastrophic. Titanic Director James Cameron declared it a disaster. Roy Price, the former head of rival Amazon Studios, penned a New York Times editorial proclaiming the end of Hollywood. Such histrionics forget how Netflix already slowly yet systematically reordered the global entertainment industry over the last 25 years through a strategy of addition, not subtraction. By innovating from the margins, Netflix challenged outdated models, rewarded risk-takers, and gave consumers more control for better value. In doing so, it created countless opportunities for all stakeholders. Traditional antitrust reviews focus on market share and whether the resulting combination has the power to harm consumers and competitors alike. Key will be how narrowly or broadly antitrust authorities define the market. For example, will they evaluate the deal solely on streaming TV services, all TV including broadcast and cable, or all entertainment options including games, music, etc. But even in the narrowest of interpretations, a Netflix-HBO combination would still face steep competition from well-funded rivals such as Disney, Amazon, Comcast, Apple, and Paramount. And this merger review will have the added intrigue of President Trump already making clear hell be directly involved in deciding which offer gets approved despite his son-in-law Jared Kushner partially funding Paramounts bid. With all that said, Paramount has already mounted an aggressive roadshow for Warner Brothers Discovery investors to convince them to pledge their shares. That means Netflix too will need to woo investors, regulators, and politicians in what will undoubtedly be its biggest publicity tour ever. And the strongest argument it can make lies in its very own story. Full disclosure: I led Netflix corporate communications team from 2014 to 2017, know the company deeply, and remain a shareholder. I also led PR for other corporate mergers including Xeroxs hostile bid for HP until the effort was scrapped due to the pandemic. I served as lead antitrust reporter at Bloomberg News during the late 1990s. The Netflix Narrative Today many people look at Netflix and see an entertainment behemoth valued at more than $400 billion with a lot of market power. But it didnt start out that way and its success certainly wasnt assured. In its most fundamental sense, Netflix epitomizes the American Dream. Not because it became big, but because it began small and showed how ordinary people with a better idea and a lot of grit could up-end well-entrenched industries. Netflix demonstrated when you level the playing field and bet on people instead of institutions, you unleash possibility that couldnt previously be imagined. Netflix has been underestimated at every turn, perhaps even this latest one. In the early days, banks turned it down for financing, Blockbuster Video executives laughed them out of the room and former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes famously dismissed the company as the equivalent of the Albanian army, suggesting it was no threat at all. Netflix didnt succeed by manipulating government loopholes or seeking regulatory protections to fend off competition. It identified a compelling need in the marketplace, analyzed how new technologies could solve it, and got to work building an alternative. It took risks, learned, pivoted, and kept moving, leaving no aspect of the entertainment experience untouched. Candidly, it would be hard to overstate the many ways Netflixs very existence benefited consumers, the entire entertainment ecosystem as well as adjacent markets such as consumer electronics, telecom, tech, marketing, language translation, and more. From the start with mail-order DVDs and then as a streaming platform, Netflix put consumers and their pain points at the heart of its decision-making. For example, I recall numerous meetings where we discussed whether price increases should go into effect for inactive accounts. (Short answer: No. In fact, I believe Netflix is now cancelling inactive accounts rather than continuing to charge people.) It partnered wherever possible even with would-be competitors to simplify, expand, and enhance the entertainment experience. When Netflix launched original streaming content in 2012-2013, the company didnt just usher in a new Golden Age of TV. They changed everything from how content was made, released and experienced within the broader ecosystem. How? Here are just a few ways: It broke the scarcity model of appointment TV and movie windows, exponentially increasing the number of stories told as well as the formats, frequency and topics. Its increasing content budgets forced rivals to do the same, putting billions more into the creative community than previously existed. This year alone, Netflix is expected to spend $18 billion on content for a global audience topping 300 million. Many of its hits including Stranger Things, Squid Games, and Orange is the New Black never would have found a home or as large an audience on traditional networks. By broadening the pool of creators and reducing risk, Netflix also has been able to save beloved shows including most recently Sesame Street as well as launching unknown talent and reigniting careers of others. (Looking at you, Jane Fonda.) By releasing all episodes of a TV show at once, Netflix didnt just create binge-watching. It disintermediated traditional distribution methods that frustrated consumers and restructured the entire entertainment business. Cable bundles eroded, theaters needed to rethink exclusive agreements, studios launched their own streaming apps, and direct-to-consumer models stopped being where you dumped content that bombed at the box office. Consumers were able to decide on what schedule to watch shows and whether theyd prefer to see something in a theater or on the couch at home. And instead of having to pay for each movie or show separately, Netflix provided an enormous portfolio of content for a flat monthly fee. Beyond content, Netflix transformed the entire entertainment experience from end to end. By insisting on effortless viewing for consumers, Netflix accelerated entire industries, from Smart TVs and mobile devices to cloud computing and AI. In Los Gatos, labs tested and rated TVs, devices, and even internet service providerscalling out ISPs that throttled speeds to protect cable monopoliesand shared those ratings publicly so consumers could choose accordingy. Engineers built advanced compression technology to reduce mobile data overages and deliver high-quality streaming even on limited bandwidth. To build its OpenConnect Network, Netflix invested more than $1 billion to deploy some 17,000 servers in 158 countries that prepositioned popular titles close to viewers. This eliminated buffering (Who could forget that spinning circle from the early days?), reduced global internet congestion, and saved ISPs billions in transit costs. By aggressively distributing 4K and HDR content at scale, it sped adoption of Ultra HD, reshaping consumer demand and pushing the entire hardware industry toward higher-quality images. And while the company has been bringing the worlds stories to the world, it has invested heavily in the country where it got its start. As if knowing it would need to make this case at some point, Netflix posted a Made in America document on its website back in April of this year, highlighting the ways it benefits America. According to the document, it has contributed $125 billion to the US economy from 20202024, hired more than 140,000 cast and crew members, worked with over 550+ U.S. production companies, and filmed more than 900 titles across all 50 states. Netflix attracted more than 300 million subscribers by building the worlds most powerful global distribution platform and ensuring its content is easy to access and enjoyable to watch. Its not in the companys business interests to horde content made by Warner Brothers and nothing in its history would suggest such an approach. As for the theater owners expressing concern, their stiff-arming of Netflix led the company to buy its own theaters in L.A. and NYC to premiere movies so they could be awards eligible. This combination may finally force them to face societys viewing evolution and up their game to attract more theatergoers. Chief Salesperson Both co-CEOs at NetflixTed Sarandos and Greg Petersare impressive. But if Netflixs corporate story is one of the American Dream, its the same for Teds personal one. I often thought Ted must wake up every day and say pinch me. Because nothing about his childhood would make anyone think hed be in the lofty position he is today at the top of an industry he deeply and thoroughly loves. One of five children, he grew up in a working class, Greek-American family in Phoenix, where he often recalled watching videotaped soap operas and other shows with the whole family gathered round. He dropped out of college after two years and worked at the local video store near his home. It was after he began climbing the ranks at video rental companies that Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings reached out and sold him on the idea of joining Netflix. The rest, as they say, is history. As the chief content officer prior to co-CEO, Ted was the main driver behind the companys move into original programming. Through a combination of passion, charm, and high intuition, he built the companys credibility in a clubby industry that long looked askance at outsiders. Not only did his American Dream unfold alongside Netflixs, hes a highly skilled communicator, who connects with people in a very human way through personal storytelling and warmth. And with critics concerned about how Netflixs tech pedigree might change old Hollywood, Teds love for all things and people Tinsel Town oozes from every pore. Netflix Everywhere When we launched Netflix globally in early 2016, we used #NetflixEverywhere to mark the moment. That edict has never been more appropriate and necessary in the battle for Warner Brothers Discovery. Netflix will need to actively tell its story to every audience on repeat for the next 1218 months or, as weve already seen, risk having its many detractors push unflattering and perhaps even untrue counternarratives. Media interviews, major business and investor conferences, and congressional meetings all provide the opportunity to remind decision-makers and would-be critics that success itself isnt a problem if it was obtained fairly and by serving customers better than others. Its not like other companies didnt have ample time to beat Netflix at their own game over the last 1015 years. And no one loves a come-from-behind story better than the guy in the Oval Office.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||