The "you" in this provocatively titled comment refers to the
E2.0 true believers who eschew any focus on business
value justification. It's dedicated to Dennis Howlett
(http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/) ... whom every E2.0
geek should learn to love and rely upon.
Here's my point made as bluntly as I can:
1. Basic Research vs. Commercial Product. E2.0 folks ...
you're positioning your goods and services much like the
Basic Research produced by Ivy League universities. Basic
Research, while great building blocks for commercialized
goods, is distinctly different in two important ways: it's
subsidized by grants (private and public) and it rarely
resembles the final product purchased by the final
consumer (businesses or individuals) ... so please... stop
using your lame VisiCalc examples!
(http://chieftech.com.au/enterprise-20-show-me-the-
money-a-spreadsheet)
2. You versus Your Customer. When you rail against ROI,
you rail against those folks who approve the purchase of
your goods and services. In this era of hyper-
accountability, no CFO is going to breach his/her fiduciary
responsibility to their shareholders for the latest and
coolest technology. Get over this or get out of the
profession.
3. Latent versus Explicit Pain. I love Apple. Not because of
its super sexy hardware/software ... but because it is a
shining beacon of the difference between the "solution
selling" push model and pure a pure demand-driven
model. If your stuff is really that great, your value prop so
compelling ... customers will line up to buy it.
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