Scaling your business requires having strong cross-organizational functions including, sales, marketing, finance, product development and client services. The client service function is often over-looked by early stage companies for several reasons. These include assuming that your product can be used by anyone without significant training…it can’t. Or, early-stage companies lack resources to properly staff this [...]
Many entrepreneurs believe that they have Blue Ocean companies and opportunities. Yet, most have actually never read either of the books “Blue Ocean Strategy” or "Blue Ocean Shift”. (BTW, I recommend “Blue Ocean Shift” for personal reasons). And even fewer have properly applied some of the key principles of the books that would better ensure [...]
Working through an Ann Arbor SPARK EIR grant, Arbor Dakota helped shopwindow, a SaaS retail company blow out its revenues. https://annarborusa.org/news/executive-in-residence-program-helps-ann-arbor-startups-excel/
Many startup companies invent new markets or approaches to solving existing problems. In doing so, they need to convince their markets to think differently about this brand-new approach to industry problems. This is very difficult and requires a non-traditional sales approach. These opportunities are Blue Ocean opportunities and they require Blue Ocean knowledge, a Blue [...]
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well - Albert Einstein As an entrepreneur, you are always selling…prospects, customers, employees, investors, partners, market influencers. Always!!! But selling a new concept is tough enough and often the technology is complex enough to understand. A great CEO will simplify this complexity as [...]
Arbor Dakota customer, Groundspeed Analytics receives series B funding and an outstanding valuation. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180726005176/en/Groundspeed-Analytics-Announces-30-Million-Series-Funding
Dacko to lead expansion of national program empowering high school entrepreneurs ANN ARBOR, Michigan, June 19, 2018 –Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneurs Corp (BOSE), the organizer of the Blue Ocean Entrepreneurship Competition, the premier entrepreneurial competition for high school students, today announced Ted Dacko is appointed to the role of Executive Director – a critical leadership [...]