As 2013 nears an end, I have been reflecting on the things
we tried and the successes we had over the course of the year. For example, in 2013 Zerowait tried to
increase the proportion of total sales in the areas of international service
and support business and SimplStor products. In reviewing our efforts, I can see how we
accomplished our goals, but can also identify the many course corrections we
made along the way. The path was not
necessarily straight. Basically, I have
found that there are 3 steps to success; and, while each is critical, success
is never guaranteed. However, if you
allow your team to count learning and adapting from failure as a part of the process,
improvement is always possible.
Step 1 is Vision: Since
we are in the service and support business, when I meet with clients I hear
about their problems. I listen closely and
try to identify ways that Zerowait can create a solution for them. In a typical year I visit between 100 and 200
customers at their locations, and because I travel so much I have time alone to
think about possible solutions. The
result is between 20 and 25 new ideas a year that I try to work into something
definable. Once I have identified the core idea, I present it to our team for
review. Most of the ideas won’t hold
water after a few minutes discussion, but in a typical year about 5 new ideas
will get turned into projects of one type or another. One of my friends
considers this the law of 25%: About 25% of my conversations will yield an
interesting business idea, about 25% of those ideas are worth a business
analysis sheet (which I do), and about 25% of those analysis sheets will
actually be turned into a project at Zerowait.
Step 2 is Execution: If
you don’t execute then the ideas are just dreams. At Zerowait we create
engineering projects to try things with defined completion dates, which often
slip as we learn more information. What is interesting in researching new
things is that often the course you are on can change as a new piece of
information steers the project in a new direction. That new direction can create something
wonderful, but there is a chance it’ll just be a waste. That is why
communication is so important with projects. It is difficult to stay focused on
the objective while being flexible enough to be able to change direction a bit
to meet a new information or opportunity. As Zerowait doesn’t have unlimited financial
or human resources, we have frequent reviews and are willing to pull the plug
on a project if it is not yielding results of one type or another.
Step 3 is Course Correction: As we endeavor to create a new product or
service I have frequent conversations with our customers to make certain we are
staying on course with what they are looking for. Sometimes things work in ways that you don’t
expect, or someone leaves their job and that causes the project to wither on
the vine. Other times the “Hey – what if
we did this?” conversation with customers will lead to Zerowait trying a new
variation which turns into the final product, and that is very cool. Unfortunately, most projects we try do not
yield a new product; they yield
knowledge and often an incremental change in the way we do things to improve
our customer service and support.
It is often very frustrating to watch what started out as a
great idea struggle as we are unable to execute the idea and make it a success.
Even in those cases, when we write up the report it is
important to document what we learned so
we can add that to our knowledge and experience and apply it to the next round
of projects. For example, this year we built a special 2U SimplStor Controller
for a specific market niche but the customer went another direction. A few months later another customer asked for
a very similar product configuration because I had mentioned it during a
meeting. A perfect example of how the first failure led to the second success,
which looks like it will turn out to fit an even bigger market niche.
At Zerowait we will continue to try new things and find ways
to help our customers. Trying out new ideas is always interesting and often
frustrating, but in the end it certainly provides us with a wealth of
experience and knowledge with which we continually improve our products and
services. From SimplStor to the Exporter
of the Year award, Zerowait has grown and prospered because we keep trying new
things.