Not long ago, we all gasped as Cognos was seemingly gobbled up by IBM. One of our biggest and best success stories was no longer “ours.”  Rob, who is fiercely loyal, with over 25 years at Cognos walked us through the highs and lows teaching us some important lessons that can enable all of us to be ready and able to adapt to change – regardless of what it is.  Undoubtedly, shift happens and there’s nothing we can do about it other than be on the upside of the transition. How? 1) strategically be prepared to run as a stand alone 2) talk to everyone! be connected and know who to call when you need information or advice 3) make sure your board is aware and informed 4) have up to date projections and 5) continuous strategic planning is mandatory.  Being prepared is the key – a great example of this was the way that Cognos ran simulated takeovers which allowed them to practice reacting, responding and managing all kinds of acquisition scenarios.  By including the board, management, bankers, lawyers in the dry runs, they were able to develop a very high level of readiness. It was an invaluable tool for the company and meant that when Rob received the call from IBM, he knew it was not a CEO’s decision but a board responsibility and the process began, as planned!

IBM’s commitment to building a Smarter Planet in which new intelligence is one of the key pillars, drives a global commitment to improving how the world collects, analyzes and use information.   Cognos is a “pearl” in the IBM necklace which includes some of the best people, technologies and services in the world and the Ottawa team is seen as the centre of IBM’s Analytics expertise.

Takeaways from today:

• innovation will pay off
• you need to follow the shifts
• be prepared
• there are huge opportunities if you follow the right areas including: analytics, social networks, cloud, and mobile with its world changing applications.

You know it was a good event when after the closing remarks and applause, nobody wants to leave.  

Looking forward to Peter Allen of DragonWave who kicks of 2010 on January 28!

A few other questions were also on point such as “what are the top 2 things a start-up needs to know to really succeed” and “what’s more critical – getting a product out that may have a few glitches or waiting and polishing it to near perfection before you take it to your client.” Pat addressed all these and more in his 45 minute presentation at OCRI’s Technology Executive Breakfast (TEB) this morning.  With eight start-ups in as many years under his belt and dozens more in his repretoire, it was sure to be a very informative and entertaining morning.

There are five things that must happen for any company– start-up or not — to be successful. 

First of all, you must become a “category of one” in the mind of your customers. This entails effective marketing, value positioning, and doing everything you can to win the crucial “bake-off” – especially if you know you deserve to win.  Pat used a great variety of examples that we could all relate to when he explained value positioning and the case of present mode of ops vs future mode of ops (PMO vs FMO). Citing his favourite business book and the evolution of the cable excavator to the back hoe as well as the FIDO phone that makes calls and sends texts to the I-Phone with 9,500 apps he demonstrated that the value of your product must meet and exceed the expectations of the target customer base.   Winning the ever critical technology “bake-off” is a make or break it opportunity for your company. Pat’s experience with BelAir clearly showed how important it is to know your value and position it correctly and then how to rally the team to go back and fight to win.

Adapt and adapt again. Be prepared to fine tune and adjust your approach to make your interface work and increase the impact in order to produce a real solution for your customers.

Simplify the confusing functionality of your technology. Very few people need to know all the bells and whistles that make it work. The black box does more than you think – it can simplify the way you operate, simplify the installation of the application,  present the solution to your customers in simple way, and transform into what everyone likes and appreciates – an easy button.

Scalability is key.  Being a small company, a start-up or a company with a product but no scale inhibits your ability to compete on a global scale.  There are ways around this.  Find a strategic partner or a number of them that can increase your output in order to meet client demands or entice a big brother to take you on. It may takes some coaxing  and baiting with evidence of business and significant returns because big brothers (or companies with scale but no product) don’t typically search out little brothers but the results can be big. Just ask BTI who teamed up with Fujistu in order to deploy massive quantities of product.

Execute.  All great plans must be executed well if they are going to make a difference.  First, the team must be in total alignment and then all efforts must be focussed.  If the team can’t work together – they can never be aligned. You need agreement to align at all stages of the process which has three parts 1) Vision (where are we going), 2) Current Reality (where are we now) and 3) The Plan (how do we get there). It’s a tough job, but it is the CEO’s responsibility to get  everyone to buy-into the alignment concept including the board, the team, the investors and the partners. Once you’ve established that everyone is on the same path, all your efforts, tactics, approaches must be in clear focus to be effective and efficient.  Pat recalled his SiGe experience which showed how important it can be to have a leader with excellent technological skills coupled with fantastic people skills in order to rally the team and align the efforts.  Product lines may need to change, approaches may be tweaked but when the alignment and focus is bang on and the chemistry among the players is solid you can pretty much count on improved performance. Just look at SiGe whose revenues  increased from around $67 M in 2007 to almost $100 M in 2008.

As Pat wrapped up, he explained that he’s learned many more lessons than he could ever cover in a short presentation and that there is always more learning to do.  No matter what business you’re in or what customer you are after, his five key pointers can always apply but admitted there could be more that work.  Teamwork, alignment, chemistry, flexibility, he certainly covered all the bases and in direct response to Mary’s question he added that sometimes you just need to fire someone. 

Great presentation! Looking forward to the next TEB.