The 10 Companies Beyond Business Transformation

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he world of entrepreneurship and business is a complex. As an important economic driving force, companies are of great importance. Around the globe, there is a driving trend to opt for developing their own start-up business of different types.

Having a startup venture of your own may sound exciting, but it is also challenging for those who only choose this field for the perks.

Moreover, being prepared to face the hurdles is equally essential. Companies today are driven by many factors apart from your skills at marketing your products. One of the significant drives behind a successful business is the technological advances of the contemporary world. Driving business transformation from the front is of vital importance to stay alive and thrive in this ever-changing business world.

Some of the companies recognize this and act on the same to make sure that the business transformation is taking place, when needed. But beyond business transformation, there are also important factors to consider such as innovation, leadership, and strong vision. Combine these, and there won’t be much struggle on the way. Beyond Exclamation, after a thorough research, has come up with a special issue titled, “The 10 Companies Beyond Business Transformation.” These companies are striving for business transformation while also staying at the forefront of the technology and innovation in the industry.

On the cover, we have, Fidello, Inc. – a consulting firm specializing in improving human performance. The company helps identify strategic competencies / behaviors that drive strategic results. It also helps develop and implement integrated systems such as Training and Development, Selection and Recruitment, Succession Planning, Performance Improvement, and Career Management, to support and enable the strategic competencies, behaviors, and results.

Besides, we have Canvas Infotech Inc – a leading provider of IT Solutions and Services to the Fortune 500 clients in the United States since 2006; Anychart – a US based graphics software development company providing more than 70% of Fortune 1000 companies with cross-platform interactive data visualization solutions; Libelium – a wireless sensor network platform provider that delivers, open-source, low-power consumption devices that are easy to program and implement for Smart Cities solutions and a wide range of M2M and sensor projects; and Banyan Technology – a leading provider of live carrier and API connectivity for transportation management with more than 1400 carrier connections.

Also, we have featured contributing articles from industry thought leaders that include The Unique Business Strategy This Company Used to Raise $86 Million by Larry Kim; Tesla’s Simple Business Strategy You Can Implement Immediately by Richie Norton; and Developing a Business Strategy for a Sustainable Competitive Advantage by George Schildge.

Flip the pages to read their amazing journeys!

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The HR Superhero - Fidello

Chris Bjorling CEO Fidello

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R managers must deal with the human aspects of an enterprise, namely hiring, training, performance management, and succession planning etc. A quality consulting and solutions firm can play a pivotal role in making life easier for an HR manager by matching the need of the organization with quality human resources.

Chris Bjorling, Founder and President, Fidello, began with the idea of providing exclusive HR services, 32 years back. “The inception of the concept of ‘helping improve human performance’ came to us as a generational modification of our unique value proposition.

Over the years we have found that as we continued to work with clients and provide human capital management or talent management applications for them, we had an epiphany and that was it,” said Bjorling. COMPANY’S FOUNDER; AN ASSET!

Chris Bjorling had a vision of creating an organization that allowed clients to have consulting services and solutions tailored to their strategic need and matching their cultural values. This unique approach to providing services and tools to Fidello’s clients has enabled them to work with a variety of clients requiring a range of solutions. This approach has not only been for performance management, succession planning, competency development and

management, career planning, learning management, organizational redesign, and others.

But additionally, it has enabled Fidello to help create the backbone of a college, work with nonprofits in a variety of ways as well as to work with other organizations satisfying their unique needs.

Bjorling has been working in the field of HR solutions since 1986.

Early in his career, he worked with an organization that looked at the cradle-to-grave of an employee within their organization. This complete view of the employee lifecycle and its subsequent needs for the identification, development, advancement, performance management, succession planning of an individual created the genesis for all of the work that Fidello does currently. This exposure to the whole situation versus a component or two of talent management allowed him to vision consultative processes and a set of software modules allowing his organization to succeed. Over the years he has worked with a variety of clients that range from the private sector to the public sector to global charity groups. The diversity of their needs and the types of clientele has enabled him to see that there are not many differences between their worlds. There are more similarities between them than not. The similarities have allowed him to quickly and easily transition from HR process consulting to crafting online solutions. Solutions that leverage the clients existing assets and strategically focus on their

need in understanding the business outcomes that need to occur.

Because Chris doesn’t believe in a one-size-fits-all strategy he could be called a unicorn in our industry.

His ability to meet the client where their needs are enables the best

success for clients who are budget conscious and focused on doing the right thing. He has the uncanny ability to speak the language of talent management and transcend that into technical speak for his programming sta.

AN ERA OF TRANSFORMATION

Over the years, Bjorling’s team has been on the forefront of introducing several new concepts from the concept of a fully integrated talent management or human capital management system to the forefront of advancing with

Cover Story tools such as language support and activities allowing for ease of use as far as the PDF outputs, multilingual capabilities and so forth. They have also looked at the fact that we have taken a unique stand in the industry and saying one-size-does-not-fit-all. This stand has allowed them to be very conscientious as they work with their clients. It is allowing Fidello to provide them with unique solutions based on their requirements. “We have seen over the years where other companies we compete against or that are in our industry space provide single solutions for their users with minor customization available. We provide the opportunity for the client to have a system that uniquely different. A solution that specifically addresses their strategic needs as well as leverages their cultural environment,” says Bjorling. This unique approach gives each of the clients they work with the opportunity to have a culturally relevant strategically focused solution. They feel that in this area we have uniquely transformed the environment within which we live work.

ENSURING OPTIMAL EFFICIENCY AND CLIENT SATISFACTION

“At Fidello we have the opportunity to provide both consultative services and online system resources or solutions.

These various solutions allow us to provide not only a software solution but also a consultative solution,” asserts Bjorling. The

consultative solution usually occurs before they tend to create a software solution. This need could be performance management, succession planning, full talent management, career planning, learning management, or more.

Their ability to work with them for understanding their strategic needs, understanding the vision of where they like to take the program is critical. At that point, they look to start where the internal maturity of the organization is and then move from there. “We then can craft a culturally relevant and strategically focused solution for them. The solution can be either a set of processes and procedures, or it can be an online tool. Their solution will allow them to use the technology to manage their workforce better,” says Bjorling.

Alongside, at Fidello they also ensure optimal efficiency with their clients and increase their satisfaction by creating tools which are specific to their needs. They feel that they have worked with them hand-in-hand to create a solution. Whether it’s a consultative solution of processes and procedures or a solution in the configuration of an online tool they’ve created a solution which meets their needs explicitly.

A ROLLER COASTER RIDE

According to Bjorling, “having started the company in 1987, our journey has been long, and by far it has been a good one. We have seen the industry change as it grew and

developed. These changes were from the standpoint of technology as well as differences in the likes and dislikes of clients. Our most significant challenges to date have pretty much been the fact that there was dot.com bust at the end of 20th century. That changed the landscape and perspective of all IT groups that we work with to help

set up our applications with them.

In our experience, they have tended to take control over the selection of vendors v\s the internal HR client.

It is understandable that that type of action occurs based upon the issues that came out of that time. But it does provide a lot of different challenges to organizations that are small and agile such as ours that

continue to deliver tailored solutions for the client’s needs.

From those efforts, we have found that it’s harder for an organization such as ours. An organization who doesn’t have a standard rollout plan or have a version plan for our SAAS model. From our vantage point, we often off the radar for those in the IT world who are filling out forms.

Over the years we’ve had a variety of achievements we were the first from a technological standpoint to do a lot of different things within our software. I recall a question from primary HRIS provider in the 90s and why would anyone want an integrated solution? We provided an integrated solution in the 90s, and it was confusing to the HRIS

Cover Story world. They felt that the silted approach to HR management that had been occurring for so long was still going to continue. We were able to demonstrate and have continued to show over the years how our solutions work well with each other. This ability precisely provides what our client needs at the point in time they need it and with a reflection that is appropriate for the culture of their organization.”

STANDING OUT AMIDST THE REST

The critical area of human performance development is first to understand the competencies or capabilities required to be successful within an organization.

This information is foundational in setting up the hiring and promotion profiles. When incorporated into job descriptions, it allows for a straightforward review of whether an individual meets the performance criteria or doesn’t meet the performance criteria. With this groundwork data, a manager can work with an employee to focus on competency areas that need to be improved. This improvement is for the individual to be more successful in their current position or at a desired future location. The success of developing human performance or of increasing human performance rests upon this understanding and the capability of the managers to have developmental discussions with their employees. Far too often the marketplace has promoted individuals who are top producers

as individual contributors.

However, they do not have the skill set or capabilities to help develop individuals that will increase their performance.

Similarly, Bjorling and his team are often called in to help address this shortcoming in frontline leadership.

They can help those leaders be more effective at using the tools at their disposal. Often, they have to design and develop the tools that they work with so that they can be developed to their full potential.

Fidello stands out from its crowd of competitors by realizing that the strategic aims of each organization are different and that the culture of each organization is different as well. This realization focuses on working with our clients to develop custom or tailored solutions. The solutions can be focused on competencies specific to the organization and written in a way that resonates with the workforce of the organization. This focus and unique offering allow the organization to adopt the solution and its contents. By having a

a pull-through effect after they are launched with a workforce asking for more capability from the system versus a push down from the HR community. To continue to do this for Fidello will continue to invest in the development of its modular software components and increase the ease of configuring various software components to deliver the optimum for each of his clients.

focused solution specific to their organization, Fidello’s team sees not only the human performance increase but also an increase in employee engagement and focus.

They know through their experience that having solutions that engage and focus the employee enhance the cradle-to-grave employee experience for the client’s workforce. “Our focus is not to provide solutions for the solution sake. Our focus is to provide solutions that enhance and move forward the capabilities and performance of the organization’s

people. We feel that competitors in this space place a higher premium on their product sales than they do on enhanced employee experience,” asserts Bjorling.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Further, Fidello is of the view that he will continue to provide tailored provisions to client specific solutions exactly meeting the needs of his client base. He feels that this key focus allows his team to create solutions that are received with great acceptance and often provide

Fidello will look to create a solution for smaller organizations that will allow great flexibility to configure client-based solutions at less of a cost. His team feels that this expansion into smaller organizations will set him apart from his competitors who choose not to work with smaller groups in a customized way. Additionally, it is the team’s focus to continue to maintain an understanding of what is relevant within the HR community and what is essential for the continued growth and development of workers. This focus on the employees of an organization continues to change and evolve. We see this evolution as we deal with variations in the number of existing generational workforces. We view that our agility and our willingness to continue being flexible will only allow greater success. Success is not only for us as a firm, but for our client base as well.

Alok Bhatia Founder & CEO Canvas Infotech Inc.

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Consummating Staff Requirements with perfection

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hat if your tedious hiring process and consultation issues are solved under one roof? In today’s fast paced world, companies are seeking holistically practical candidates, helping the owners run a smooth flow and rapid growth of organization.

Impeccable and disciplined employee league reports to work daily and are confident and proficient at doing their business with full sincerity.

But this is the basic issue which firms face, of not being able to gauge the perfect employee for their firm and this is where Fremont-based Canvas Infotech Inc. helps organizations find niche-skilled staff like business analysts, quality analysts, project managers, data analysts, and other technical consultants along with providing appropriate certifications. “Our clients recognize the value of our integrated approach that leverages both domain and technical expertise to devise the right solution for your career needs as a Business Analyst, Project Manager, Quality Assurance or Data Analyst Professional in the IT

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industry,” says, Alok Bhatia, CEO and President of Canvas Infotech Inc. Beginning from the makers Having founded Canvas with Madhur Bhatia in 2006. Alok possesses over two decades of management, international business development, technology consulting, product management and software engineering experiences. He has worked in Silicon Valley behemoths like Wells Fargo Bank, Yahoo, Excite@Home, Synopsys, Ernst, and Young, etc. before starting Canvas InfoTech.

Bhatia is of the view that supplemental staffing is a costeffective approach to quickly augment an organization’s staff with precise skills for a specified period. Additionally, it also helps in increasing technical breadth. Canvas Infotech Inc. provides supplemental staffing that can help clients by freeing internal resources from the timeconsuming hiring process of advertising, screening, and

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verifying credentials.“I am committed to providing cost-effective and quality services to companies that recognizes and promotes diversity in technologies, cultures, people and ideas, both within the company and in the markets where it does business. I interact with several international consultants which require some specific skill set,” says Bhatia.

Having interacted with clients like Facebook, Google, Apple and ebay, he is ready to expand its operation globally, and plans to exponentially increase the number of consultants.

A Dream which came true Alok always wanted to share the IT knowledge that he had gained over the years with as many people as possible.

It was in 2006 that his baby Canvas was born and since then he has provided successful lives to many families and at present it possesses over 250 strong consultants, offering to its clients temporary and permanent staffing.

Canvas InfoTech is known to be a consortium of seasoned consultants with solid experience, working together in delivering success in ERP implementation, detailed business requirements gathering, creating SRSs, developing Web based applications, and building robust test cases for ERP implementations. “We not only provide solutions to your Business’ unique needs for standard ERP implementation, we also stay with you to assure that the quality of the end product is what you expected,” says Alok.

Branched into varied Verticals Operating in Different Verticals Canvas Infotech Inc. works in several different verticals such as: Contingent Staffing: Canvas provides consultants for the duration of the project. Some of

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the core resources are business analysts, project managers, data analysts, quality analysts, technical writers, java developers and other technical resources.

Full time, Permanent Jobs: The Company is working with over 50 direct clients all over the US: Facebook, PG&E, Veritas, Whirlpool Corporation, Procter & Gamble, Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, Epstein, touchCommerce, etc. to fill their full time jobs.

Certifications: To help candidates get ready for the next promotion and get an edge over the competition, Canvas offers PMP, CBAP, CSM, CSPO, SAFe, PMI-ACP, MS- Project 2013, ITIL certifications. It is also getting into new certifications and training like Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), CBAP (Certified Business Analyst Professional), Android Automation Testing, VB Scripting, etc.

Direct Clients for Contingent Staffing: Canvas has recently become approved vendors of Facebook for all technical and functional CTC (Corp to Corp) jobs Key Differentiating Factors Canvas provides talent and sponsors visas like H1B, Green Card, etc. for candidates. The training portfolio is extremely vast. PMP, CBAP, CSM, CSPO, SAFe, PMI-ACP, MS- Project 2013, ITIL coupled with Canvas’ strong relationship to its consultants, growth opportunities for the staff and several ongoing training programs differentiate the company from its competition.

Proud Associations The company has been very evidently delivering quality professionals and

optimize business processes through a blend of on-site and offshore engagements for start-ups and Fortune 1000 companies. Currently, Canvas Infotech Inc. is working with over 50 direct clients all over the U.S., including Whirlpool Corporation, Procter & Gamble, Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, Epstein, Touch commerce, to fill their full-time jobs.

Canvas consultants have been involved in planning and implementing of new software and applications growth in the

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industry for companies like Facebook, Apple, Wells Fargo, Google, Bank of the West, etc.

Tackling Rough Patches and Future Planning Just like most other organizations, Canvas too had its own share of initial struggles which Bhatia had overcome and landed the firm to where it is today. Also, hard work, persistence, and perseverance of the extremely dedicated team, did pay the venture.

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Bhatia commemorates his success to the solid team of the company who readily understood the constant market change and adapted to all these changes accordingly. Canvas is hoping to be the number one staffing agency in the bay area and also the best training institute for certifications training in the near future. The focus will be on generating more direct clients in addition to currently assisting Facebook. India expansion is another focus area for the company. Job opportunities and InHouse programs

are some of the projects on the anvil in India.

Canvas Infotech Inc. is also expanding towards trainings for Big Data and JAVA development in addition to contract-based trainings for big corporations. “We intend to expand globally by creating job opportunities and in-house projects. We believe it all starts by being the right partner with our clients to grow big,” concludes Bhatia.

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Timothy Loginov Co-founder AnyChart

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Disruptor of Data Visualization Software Market

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ata is everywhere and in large amounts, so it’s getting harder and harder to analyze it quickly and efficiently. Moreover, humans perceive graphics better than raw digits or spreadsheets. That’s where data visualization enters the stage. A global leader in data visualization is AnyChart – a US based graphics software development firm providing more than 70% of Fortune 1000 companies and over half of the top 1,000 software vendors worldwide with crossplatform interactive data visualization solutions such as JavaScript charting libraries AnyChart, AnyStock, AnyMap, and AnyGantt. Co-founded by Timothy Loginov, the company makes dataviz really convenient and accessible, bringing unique ideas and disruptive approach into the global market for 16 years now.

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Idea and Success AnyChart was founded in 2003. At that time, Timothy Loginov and team were thinking about an idea of making a universal, versatile interactive data visualization tool to help web developers and data engineers visualize any data in any charts. “I mean, if you have a certain data set and a certain task of what to look for or focus on in it, you can make a chart using one or another solution quite easily. But what if the conditions are not that favorable? For example, if you are working on an enterprise reporting system, you may well have to deal with diverse types and sources of data, not to mention a variety of specific questions that the analysts may need data to answer,” explains Timothy.

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So, they decided to create such a “one-fits-all” charting tool, like a “Swiss knife” for interactive data visualization. Sixteen years ago, when they started, was the time when Adobe Flash was everywhere and XML had already begun to gain popularity. That’s where they recognized an opportunity as typically you could extract data in XML from literally any source and then visualize it as a Flash chart.

thousands of developers worldwide. “That proved our idea in practice, showing AnyChart is a great fit for enterprises’ data visualization needs. Thanks to a partnership with Oracle, we also received huge amounts of use cases and feedback from developers, which greatly helped us in improving the product, technical support, and business in general,” shares Timothy Loginov.

“We succeeded to earn the first big corporate clients quite shortly, and this actually gave us a great push forward,” recalls Loginov.

Today, thousands of companies and organizations from startups to enterprises to universities and NGOs use their charting solutions to power data analytics and business intelligence systems with the right data visualization.

AnyChart’s clientele includes giants like Volkswagen, Samsung, BP, ExxonMobil, General Electric, AT&T, Microsoft, Bosch, Orange, Ford, Bank of China, JPMorgan, Citi, Lockheed Martin, California State University, Greater Manchester Police, Women’s Health America, and many more.

When it became clear and inevitable that Flash would not be universally supported and at the time of the increasing popularity of iOS devices, AnyChart began to shift to HTML5, added an SVGbased, HTML5 version of their components, and launched their own JavaScript charting libraries.

“Nowadays, we keep supporting our Flash solutions as some companies still use it, although the overwhelming majority of our customers have already shifted to HTML5 data visualization with AnyChart JS Charts,” he says.

When Hard Work Is Paid Off The very first big moment when the AnyChart team realized the hard work started to bring fruits was the time of getting the first big customers. One of them was Oracle — they integrated AnyChart into APEX, a very popular web app development tool used by many

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visualization software, offering flexible JavaScript charts libraries with plugins and integration templates for numerous technology stacks. The libraries seamlessly work with any platform, any technology, and any database: ·

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AnyChart is a JavaScript library for making interactive charts of the most common basic dataviz types; AnyStock is for date/time visualizations like financial and stock charts; AnyGantt is helpful in product management, designed for building Gantt, resource, and PERT charts; AnyMap allows you to create interactive JS maps, including geographic and seat maps.

AnyChart’s data visualization software solutions have been recognized by IT experts worldwide and even have won several awards. For example: In 2018, AnyChart received a prestigious DEVIES Award for the best in JS tech at the largest developer tech event, DeveloperWeek in California.

These four JS libraries are their core products, and the company markets them as different solutions composing the AnyChart JS Charts product family, but basically, it is a single powerful JavaScript (HTML5) data visualization library: “You can use it to visualize any data, out of any source, in any chart type, making use of any technology stack, and easily embed dataviz in any project, whether it’s web, mobile, or desktop,” explains Timothy Loginov.

Global Data Visualization Market Leader

Market Differentiators Advantages for Web Developers

Today, AnyChart is leading the segment of interactive data

AnyChart offers a lot of ways and options to work with data: JS API, Spring 2019 | Beyond Exclamation

JSON, XML, CSV, Google Spreadsheets, HTML tables. They have a dedicated data adapter, data mapping, etc. The company’s JavaScript charts do not depend on any particular platform, browser (Ie6+), database, or technology framework, as they are designed to be embedded, integrated, and look good in any project and environment.

AnyChart’s JavaScript charting library is very flexible and provides out of the box many dozens of chart types (from bar, pie, and line charts to gauges, sparklines, and maps to 3D surface, stock, and Gantt charts), fine-tuned solutions for visual design like pre-built themes and color palettes, vast interactivity and custom drawing options, annotations and technical indicators, powerful export and sharing engine, smart localization, full accessibility (Section 508), and so on. Everything in AnyChart can be customized. Moreover, the full source of AnyChart is opened on GitHub. For graphics rendering, they use their own graphics engine released to public several years ago as GraphicsJS, a powerful free open-source JavaScript library for drawing any graphics and

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animation, based on SVG (VML in older browsers).

To make things easier for web developers, AnyChart has comprehensive and detailed API reference and documentation, thousands of data visualization demo samples that can be played with on the AnyChart Playground, dozens of integration samples for all major stacks, as well as a prompt, enterprise-grade technical support.

Advice for Future Tech Leaders When asked about the best piece of advice he ever received and giving an advice to aspiring tech entrepreneurs, AnyChart’s Cofounder is careful: “Advice is a delicate thing. I mean, it’s always good to receive a piece of advice.

But I believe you’d better not take every one of them as is, without any doubts that it will work for you in your situation. In fact, nobody knows your life, your business, and your aspirations better than you,” emphasizes Timothy Loginov, and adds: “So at all times, I am pleased to get advice and absolutely thankful to the people doing that.

But I also do my best to consider

each advice critically, analyzing whether it’s a good fit in my current circumstances or not. And exactly in these terms, I really like one I read many years ago somewhere and I can give the readers the same — never listen to any advice, not even this one.”

Bringing New and Better to the World Growing up, Timothy always wanted to bring something new and better to the world. Leading a disrupting company, today, he is glad to be able to do that as a tech entrepreneur.

“When customers tell us they are happy to use our solution as it saves them time and effort in creating visualizations and making faster and better data-driven decisions, which indeed happens often, that is precious and inspires me and all of us to work even more,” Timothy says.

Already at the top in the industry, Timothy Loginov envisions AnyChart to further strengthen leadership in the global data visualization software market.

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George Schildge Leader Matrix

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Strategic planning is the managerial process of developing and maintaining a viable fit between the company’s objectives, resources, an d its changing opportunities. The aim of strategic planning is to shape and reshape the company’s business and products. So that they combine to produce satisfactory sales and profits.

The company’s plans for its existing businesses will allow it to project total sales and profits. The product portfolio plan will include divesting some businesses, and these will need replacement. If there is a gap between future desired sales and projected sales. Top management will have to develop or acquire new businesses to fill the strategic planning gap.

Business strategy development begins by defining the mission of the business. Top management should continuously monitor the market and competitive situation faced by a company.

The corporate mission may, over time, be changed to respond to the findings of such an assessment. Strategies are developed for the product and market areas selected by management. These decisions determine the composition of a business. The strategic planning process is made up of more than one business area is the periodic analysis of the business portfolio. Strategic business units may have different objectives and strategies, offering various opportunities and requirements.

The strategic plan for each unit spells out how the unit will fulfill its assigned role in the corporation. Underlying each unit strategic plan are functional strategies for each supporting area such as marketing, finance, and operations.

Strategies are then implemented and managed.

Deciding on the Corporate Mission The corporate mission statement defines a nature and scope

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of a business and provides important guidelines for managing the corporation. Management must initially establish the company’s operations and adjusted decisions as necessary over time.

Strategic choices about where the company is going in the future— choices that take into account company capabilities, resources, opportunities, and problems— establish the mission of the company.

Early in the planning phase, management should develop a statement of mission. This statement is reviewed and updated as changes in the strategic direction of the company occur over time. The mission statement establishes the following important guidelines or business operations.

These guidelines include: Ÿ Why the company is in existence and its responsibilities to shareholders, employees, society, and other stakeholders. Ÿ The customer needs that are satisfied with the company’s products or services Ÿ The extent of specialization within each product market area Ÿ The amount and type of product market diversification desired by management Ÿ Management’s performance expectation for the company Ÿ Other general guidelines for overall business strategy.

This includes technologies to be used and the role of research and development within the company Guidelines used to prepare the mission statement can be seen in Exhibit 1. Here we can see the company and how it develops mission statements for the functional areas.

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In addition, the mission statement should indicate the broad goals and policies of the business unit, going beyond the corporate goals and policies. What policies does it want to have regarding customers, employees, and other stakeholders? All of these matters require clarification in the business statement.

Examples of Mission Statements These examples of mission statements should help give you some ideas. Ideas to help you develop your own mission statement. Ÿ

Ÿ

Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Patagonia: Build the best pr oduct, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

American Express: We work hard every day to make American Express the world’s most respected service brand.

Honest Tea: To create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages.

IKEA: To create a better everyday life for the many people.

Nordstrom: To give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.

Workday: To put people at the center of enterprise software.

Prezi: To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.

Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

TED: Spread ideas.

Matrix Marketing Group: To help businesses grow

Factors Affecting Mission Several factors help determine the nature and scope of the business mission. Among these factors are the following: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Benefits provided to the customer Technologies used Customer segment served and target markets

Ÿ

The level in the distribution channels

A key impact on the mission decision is what management wants the business to be. The constraining nature of capabilities, resources, opportunities, and problems, management is left with a lot of flexibility. Flexibility in deciding the corporate mission as well as changing it in the future. Priorities and preferences of the CEO or the board of directors may override factual evidence in selecting the business mission.

Environmental turbulence may create the need for alteration of the mission.

Corporate Objectives In addition to a mission statement, objectives should be selected so that the performance of the company can be gauged. Corporate objectives are the results that top management wants the corporation to accomplish.

Your objectives include the following areas: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Marketing Innovation Resources Productivity Social responsibility Finance

When corporate objectives are very general, it is important that they are made more specific at lower levels in the organization. Objectives are set at several levels in an organization, beginning with those indicating the company’s overall performance targets.

Corporate objectives are decided by top management.

These decisions may be the result of decisions of key objectives. Objectives to determine what is feasible, given the competitive environment in the organization’s capabilities and resources.

Corporate Development Alternatives Corporate development alternatives are the possible directions of growth that may be taken from the core business of the company. The major corporate development options are shown in Exhibit 2.

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There are many specific combinations of these major options. Most companies start a business in some core area.

Success often leads to expanding into rule related areas and sometimes entirely new product market areas. Will look at each alternative and provide an understanding of corporate expansion activities.

Core Business Many companies start out serving one product market. The product or service offered may be a single product or line of products. This business strategy offers the advantages of specialization but contains the risks of being dependent on one set of customer needs. As a company grows and prospers, management often decides to move into other

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product in market areas. This is shown in Exhibit 2.

Reducing dependency on the core business is a major factor in corporate development. Of course, financial resources are necessary to expand into related or new areas. In some situations, selling the business may offer management and attractive opportunity for expansion.

Market leaders are seeking a competitive business strategy and carve out a competitive position in the target market.

Through market research, the strategic management team can begin to create a business plan to support the desired market position.

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New Markets for Existing Products To expand away from serving a single product market is to serve other customer groups by using the same product or a similar product. For many companies, expanding into new markets is a natural way to grow.

This business strategy reduces the risk of depending on a single market yet it allows the use of existing technologies and production capabilities. When deciding to pursue this business strategy, management must have adequate resources for expansion. And must develop a marketing strategy for the new customer groups.

New Products for Existing Markets Another business strategy for shifting away from dependency on one product is to expand the product mix offered in the company's target m arket. New product planning can be developed internally although the acquisition is faster. Resources are necessary to support either alternative. A disadvantage of this business strategy is that the company remains dependent on market changes in a particular product market area.

Diversification Diversification is selected for corporate development by many firms. Diversification is the movement from the company into a new product and market area through internal development or acquisition of products for the new market.

This option can be the costliest and riskiest as shown in Exhibit 2.

It may be an attractive avenue for the growth of existing product markets face slow growth. If resources for diversification are available. Unfortunately, the success record for diversification has been dismal.

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Ÿ Ÿ

Corporate management and technical capabilities The desire to reduce the total dependency of the company upon a single product market

Business Composition Understanding the composition of a business is important in both corporate and marketing strategic planning for a specific business. A single-product firm is easy to determine the composition of the business.

A recent example could be the performance of GE. Successful diversification appears to be closely related to industry attractiveness, favorable cost of entry, and the opportunity for improving competitive advantage.

Movement beyond the core business is typical as businesses grow and mature. A company may be involved in all the option shown in Exhibit 2.

These include product and market expansion, diversification, and possible divestment a business unit.

Several factors influence the speed and direction of corporate development activities.

These include: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Many other firms it is necessary to separate the business into parts to facilitate strategic analysis and planning. When companies are serving multiple markets with different products, grouping similar business areas together facilitates planning.

Business Segment, Group, or Division These terms identify the major areas of business of a diversified company. Each segment, group, or division often contains a mix of related products or services. Although a single product could be assigned such a designation. This use of the term segments does not correspond to a market segment.

Most large companies break out their financial reports into business or industry segments according to the guidelines the best accounting practices. Some companies may establish subgroups or related products within a business segment targeted two different customer groups.

Available resources Management’s preferences Pending opportunities and threats

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The Strategic Business Unit (SBU) A business segment, group, or division is often too large. Too large in terms of product and market composition for creating business strategic analysis and planning. It should be divided into more specific strategic units. The most popular name for these units is the strategic business unit (SBU).

Typically SBU is organizational units formed based on product market similarities. A strategic business unit is a single product or brand, a line of

Corporate Strategy Top management should have established guidelines for long-term strategic planning of the company. In a business that has two or more strategic business units, decisions must be made at two levels. The company’s leadership team must first decide what business areas to pursue. Then establish priorities for allocating resources to each as for you.

Decision makers within each SBU you must determine the appropriate strategies for delivering the results that management expects. Corporate level management should assist the SBU in achieving their missions.

Corporate strategy and capability should enhance the capabilities of the SBU. This allows the SBU to compete more effectively than if it operates on a completely independent basis.

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products, or a mix of related products.

They meet a common market need or group of related needs.

The strategic business unit's top management is responsible for all the basic business functions. The SBU has its own business strategy rather than a shared strategy. It should be a cohesive organizational unit that is separately managed and can produce sales and profits.

itself rather than being a single homogeneous unit. The SBU might have product market segments that occupy very different market attractiveness and business strengths positions and strategic missions. This is logical for SBU formulation as the corporate level focuses on the management of shared resources.

These businesses often kind of crossmarket segments with very different characteristics and opportunities.

Often an SBU comprises a portfolio

To remain competitive, companies must provide their business units with: Low-cost capital Outstanding executives R&D Centralized marketing where appropriate Ÿ And other resources in the corporate arsenal

Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

The SBU has its specific product and market domain.

Corporate resources and synergies help the SBU establish its competitive advantage. The strategic focus and priorities of corporate business strategy help determine SBU strategies.

Top management’s expectations for the corporation indicate the results needed from an SBU. These include Both

financial and non-financial objectives.

When viewed in this context, the SBU become an active component of the corporation, operating under the corporate umbrella.

Wrap-Up The corporate mission statement defines the nature and scope of the business and provides essential business strategic direction for the company. The company’s objectives indicate the performance desired by management. And moving away from the core business, several passes of corporate development is possible.

These include expansion into new products and or markets as well as diversification. Strategic analysis begins by assessing the situation advantage of the business. Several classification models assistant deciding what generic strategy to select for each business in the corporate portfolio.

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David Gascรณn Co-founder & CTO Libelium

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The Inception of an exceptional idea; all thanks to a few ants.

L

ibelium: The IoT gamechanger Change is fundamental to life and in these rapidly changing times, the technological world has been constantly shifting its tectonic plates, which has unlocked a plethora of opportunities for those who have a thirst of innovation. In this cut-throat competitive world, we need technological innovation and productivity to survive this race of success.

After IoT and Big Data have stepped into the arena, the floodgates of the tech world have been gushing with opportunities and challenges for many companies. To keep up with this fast-paced world, Libelium has envisioned that IoT will drive a new form of society, with more transparency and more freedom. Thus it has ventured into the world of the Internet of things, smart cities and M2M platform provision while creating a unique window of opportunity for the future of technology. Being one of the most successful wireless sensor platform providers, Libelium has created a healthy and rational relationship between developers,

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integrators and innovators while being completely clientcentric. Herein, we look at the story of Libelium and what drives this company to continually strive better and dream more.

A man and his ants David Gascón, Libelium CTO, was only 23 when he observed the behavior of the ants that create the most efficient algorithm of trying to find the minimum distance between two points. David was inspired by this algorithm and proposed the idea of expanding the limits of the internet and allowing objects and the environment to be part of it using small sensors which send information in real-time to the internet. Acting upon the metaphoric light bulb that lit above his head, David made Libelium (which means dragonfly in Latin) his brainchild.

Libelium’s smart sensor platforms are branded by their capability to operate over long distances and low consumptions since they can last up to 10 years with the battery of a single mobile phone. Ever since the

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inception of the company, the powering of the IoT revolution became real thanks to visionaries such as Libelium who realized its potential from the very beginning.

The company is now playing in the world’s ’first division’ and in the next decade, their goal will be to get the technology to reach the maximum number of people.

Libelium’s strategy to offer high value-added services to the entire chain of IoT key players has led them to release a new service called “The Hive”, a unique Internet server, which allows users to send information from any IoT device to the main worldwide cloud platforms without having to implement each specific cloud protocol or authentication. Highlighting the greater connectivity, enhanced data security, and online device control, the new “Hive” service allows devices to have direct, secure and reliable connectivity to the cloud concurrently guaranteeing end-to-end data privacy.

By using a unique HTTPS request, any device can connect to the main worldwide cloud platforms just by sending the data to - The Hive which strongly promotes that security is a key factor. “All the messages are point-to-point encrypted so developers do not have to cope with security issues,” points out Gascón.

Thinking beyond the horizon David Gascón, who is used to work with disruptive technology, has constantly focused on the future and what is coming next, which has formed the main driving force in

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his career. This aspiration for growth has been a dynamic game changer for him here at Libelium as well. Gascón highlights, “The most important thing is the path we follow, more important than the goal.

We must always be moving forward.”

Inspired by ant colony and other swarm insect behaviors, David mainly researched on the Wireless sensor networks (now commonly known as the Internet of things) and Mesh networks and Self Emergent and Auto organizational Complex Systems. For his revolutionary innovations, he has been awarded by the MIT with the TR35 prize as the most important innovator under 35 (2012) and the "Juan López de Peñalver" in 2018 by the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering.

These awards grant the most outstanding engineers under 40 in Spain. In 2013, Libelium Sensors successfully launched ArduSat, the first open source satellite that allows private citizens to design their own applications in space.

Libelium has been a pioneer in the world of the Internet of Things for over a decade now and has continued to revolutionize the digital world with their vision for the future of technology. Identifying IoT as a breakthrough for their company, Libelium has found new ways to solve the problem of interoperability of any IoT project. Furthermore, it has focused on organizing its relationship with the ecosystem and has launched more partnership programs than ever. The most striking quality about Libelium’s Smart Sensor platforms is that they

can be utilized for a variety of purposes, from monitoring cities to precision crops.. David Gascón and Alicia Asín, CTO and CEO of Libelium, see IoT as an untapped goldmine that is just starting out on its own path and is still at a very early juncture but with the right set of innovative minds this can really be a breakthrough for many consumers and providers. Until now the transactions have been more between professionals and companies but Libelium dreams of making the technology accessible to anyone and everyone in the years to come.

Turning an idea into an accomplishment Libelium is a strong believer of the ecosystem approach and believes that small companies need to focus on what holds you back and work on Spring 2019 | Beyond Exclamation

these shortcomings to better themselves in the future. Their primary focus used to be on hardware and sensor devices; it was only later in their journey that they grew to understand the nature of the market and what clients really need.

Through this journey of understanding, Libelium dug out other underlying shortcomings as well. For example-System integration; the customers did not want to start putting things together instead they desired a turnkey solution. The chief focus of most companies in the IoT industry was finding software solutions which made the customers wonder about the data generated by the hardware and collected by the sensors. This is where Libelium stepped into the picture to fulfill their customers’ needs; Libelium became more aware Beyond Exclamation | Spring 2019

of the potential of the market, hence gaining relevant partners to their business. In order to connect everyone in the same way, a compelling program was required.

That is when the cloud partner program was created wherein anyone who got a cloud gateway from Libelium could connect to all partners that the company had on the cloud and enhance business.

A bright future After years of deploying their sensors all over the world, Gascón visualizes the sensors to have a collective global brain that equips them with intelligence and decision making abilities in anticipation of new situations. Gascón claims. “There will come a time when there will be billions of sensors that are interconnected”. Libelium can be

given credited for having a big impact in shaping the IoT industry in different developing countries. For instance, fish farms in Vietnam were monitored by controlling water quality in ponds and lakes which led to the reduction of the number of lost animals and improved the product quality.

IoT’s primary advantages being efficiency and cost saving, the other underlying advantages are generations of new jobs and greater opportunities. Thus a society based on data can optimize many things and the biggest legacy of IoT will eventually lead to greater democracy and greater economy.

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Tesla’s Simple Business Strategy You Can Implement Immediately

“I

think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” — Elon Musk

Tesla recently announced their $35k car, a massive drop from their typical $100k+ cars.

Richie Norton Author, Advisor, Entrepreneur

Why would they do this?

This is the opposite of conventional wisdom. Most people start with cheap offers to “get you in the door,” so eventually you may be interested in the high-tier offers.

However, it was Musk himself, who10 years ago, said the following: …the master plan is: Build sports car Use that money to build an affordable

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car Use that money to build an even more affordable car While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options Don’t tell anyone.

Instead of having to produce mass amounts of cheap goods, Musk was able to use the funds from his high-priced cars to a small audience to fund lowerpriced ones to a large audience.

Additionally, the higher-priced cars helped Tesla gain attention, exclusivity, desire, and grow their audience / fans. Then, after patiently waiting and building brand reputation, at the critical point of mass exposure, they roll out the lower-priced model that everyone wants.

Note: You do realize there are plenty of other electric cars similarly priced to the Tesla Model 3, right? But apparently no one wants them now. Let that sink in.

What are you doing?

“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.” — Elon Musk Most entrepreneurs start with low-ticket items offered to a

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small audience and wonder why they end up failing with “cash flow problems.”

With confidence and foresight, start with high prices. Go big.

You’re better off working with one client for $1,000 than 10 clients for $100.

Use that money to build another high-ticket offer.

If you have a potential clientbase of 100 people, target the 1–5 who will love the biggest thing you can offer. Forget about “selling” the other 95–99 right now.

But most entrepreneurs don’t do this. Instead, they work crazy hours making pennies!

That’s what Musk did.

Why? Fear.

At the same time, remember to give the 95–99 who aren’t ready to buy (at the high-ticket level) great value through free offers and nurture the relationship (through email, community building and social influence) to prepare them to work with you on a deeper level.

They aren’t willing to swing for the fences and play the long game. If you create enormous value for one person, rather than minimal value for several, you do more good and free-up loads of time you could dedicate to other things.

You can do this right now.

It all starts in your head.

But what goes on in your head dictates your reality. Do you have the gumption to swing for the fences and play the long game?

…and we all love him for it.

Once you get traction, which comes more authentically than you think, you’ll have loads of freedom to focus on low-ticket expansion if you choose.

Freedom, influence and impact first, expansion second.

Or you could keep doing what you’re doing…

The simple formula: Build a high-ticket offer.

Use that money to build another high-ticket offer.

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Brian Smith CEO Banyan Technology

Lance Healy Co-Founder & Chief Innovation OďŹƒcer Banyan Technology

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Driving the Revolution of Live Connections

I

nitially, transportation management relied on tedious manual processes, static rate tables, and outdated routing guides. Shippers and carriers spent a lot of time referencing static rate tables, calling and emailing back and forth in response to RFPs, and manually entering shipping data. The industry took a step forward when it implemented EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) technology through TMS (Transportation Management Systems). Enabling computer-to-computer, batch exchange of data, EDI helped both shippers and carriers move away from those manual, paper-based processes to more streamlined, electronic communication.

Resembling “snail mail,” the back-and-forth between shippers and carriers was still slow and inefficient. Today, EDI is an outdated standard in the wake of API (Application Program Interface) connectivity. Systems powered by API technology can make live connections for two-way communication, resembling a real-time conversation.

Enters Banyan Technology, that introduced API carrier connectivity to the freight industry before anyone had even heard of it. Banyan co-founders Lance Healy and Jim Walborn initially joined forces to automate Jim’s commercial construction materials distributorship, Concrete Solutions, in the late ‘90s, without any intention of becoming technology entrepreneurs. However, they found themselves frustrated that there was no automated way to collect shipping rates for their online construction material business, and began developing processes to automate carrier connections and better manage freight logistics.

Realizing the potential for software that could help other

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companies do the same way, they took this innovative idea to GLIDE, Lorain County Community College’s technology incubator, in 2001 — and so began Banyan Technology.

Revolutionizing the industry beyond APIs

Being the first to introduce API carrier to the freight industry was a breakthrough that has revolutionized the way shippers, brokers, forwarders, and 3PLs connect with their carrier networks and do business. However, it wasn’t long before other API providers surfaced, trying to compete with platform solutions by offering live connectivity. That’s why Banyan has had to evolve beyond APIs. Banyan has created a central connectivity hub that goes beyond live connections — facilitating live rating, tracking, invoicing, and documentation functionality, all through the same API source. This solution isdesigned to support multi-modal connectivity across the global supply chain, and even supports alternative forms of connections beyond APIs to ensure users aren’t limited in functionality or carrier selection. Other vendors are still behind the curve. Often, they only offer APIs, lack visibility across the global supply chain, or don’t have a single carrier connection in Canada or Mexico.

Banyan distinguishes itself from others in terms of adaptation and innovation, which made it possible for the company to grow explosively since its founding, outgrowing first GLIDE and then its location in the Entrepreneurship Innovation Center in Elyria. By 2014, the cofounders had secured agreements with three of the top five largest 3PLs in the country and were growing rapidly.

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To manage this growth, Healy and Walborn hired Brian Smith in 2017 as Banyan Technology’s new chief executive. Moving the organization to a new headquarters in Westlake, Ohio, Smith has overseen the development of new solution features and industry partnerships, as well as the expansion of Banyan’s technology platform functionality across the global supply chain.

Boosting efficiency, improving visibility, and delivering permanent reductions in shipping costs Today, Banyan Technology is recognized as North America’s leading provider of live carrier and API connectivity for transportation management. With more than 2,000 TL, LTL, Local and Parcel carrier connections and 34,000 client locations accessing the application, Banyan provides commercial shippers, brokers, and 3PLs with unparalleled access to carrier data. These connections boost efficiency, improve visibility and deliver permanent reductions in shipping costs. All solutions stem from Banyan’s premier data hub, Live Connections. This platform facilitates live connections between shippers, brokers, forwarders, and 3PLs and their carrier networks for two-way communication, enabling users to exchange vital freight-shipping information instantly. This helps them to ship faster, improve visibility with real-time data, and deliver permanent reductions in shipping costs — ultimately boosting their efficiency and profitability.

Continuing to innovate and drive efficiencies

Banyan continues to innovate and drive efficiencies to the market, including theintroduction of a dynamic pricing solution for carriers and the normalizing of communications with hundreds of local carriers. There are always exciting new solutions in the works at Banyan; the three most recent

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notable breakthroughs include:

1. Local Carrier mode In April of 2018, Banyan launched a new user mode: Local Carrier. This new Live Connections mode was developed to fill a significant industry gap originating from the ever-growing omni-channel and e-commerce industries, imparting the same level of automation to first and last mile that Banyan has delivered for more than a decade to the LTL, TL and parcel market. This comprehensive, live connectivity to local carrier shipments allows shippers to rate, book, and track both pickup and delivery of their first and last mile services — in real time.

Through this connectivity, users also gain insight into pickup and delivery information in previously niche markets, including residential, rural, and metropolitan areas as well as warehouses, facilities, and distribution centers. Ultimately, Banyan’s unique Local Carrier mode helps shippers improve efficiency and profitability, while gaining a competitive edge in the market.

2. UPS Capital Insurance feature Also announced in April of 2018 was a new partnership between Banyan and UPS Capital, a subsidiary of UPS, to offer users goods insurance beyond standard carrier liability. The duo’s new integration with Live Connections allows shippers and 3PL providers to more seamlessly select transactional insurance coverage at the time of shipment processing, as well as experience enhanced claims processing. Enhanced insurance options include: All-risk, door-to-door coverage, freight collect, third party,

prepaid and return shipments, concealed damage up to 30 days, theft or shortages and expediting expenses.

This new feature not only gives shippers and 3PLs more peace of mind regarding shipments — but competitive differentiation within the market.

3. Intelligent Pricing feature

Launched in BETA in October of 2018, Banyan’s new Intelligent Pricing tool makes what was once theory within the transportation management industry a reality. The industry’s first true dynamic pricing tool, the Intelligent Pricing feature gives Live Connections users the ability to leverage existing — and create custom — rules to offer client- and contract-specific pricing adjustments based on load attributes and client behaviors. These adjustments appear directly in the customers’ workflow as they are making their routing decisions. This significantly impacts a user’s ability to manage their yield by making adjustments at the lane level to a filtered cross section of their client base. When that capability is infused

with operational inputs and business Spring 2019 | Beyond Exclamation

logic, they benefit from unprecedented visible and actionable business opportunities.

Banyan provides commercial shippers, brokers, and 3PLs with unparalleled access to carrier data. These connections boost efficiency, improve visibility and deliver permanent reductions in shipping costs, saving users an average of 20 percent or more on transportation spending. The customers have time and again chosen Banyan Technology for its best-inindustry services.

Complimenting the same, Greg Keys, Freight Manager, Kaufman Container, says, “We’re benefiting from the best information available. Once we started with Banyan, we saw a 20 percent ROI within six months. We recognized Beyond Exclamation | Spring 2019

immediate cost savings from Banyan’s ability to compare our carrier rates for each shipment and the real-time rating

information has completely eliminated RFP’s. We have substantially improved our efficiency by selecting the best carrier option for each shipment, with Banyan completely automating our workflow processes from booking, tracking, and management of all our freight bill settlements. I’m able to collaborate with my carriers to align our shipments where they are competitive and also pinpoint where they need to improve their cost and service levels to be competitive. My finger is completely on the pulse of what’s going on with a shipment, and it’s all on one screen.”

Meet the maestro

Lance Healy is the Chief Innovation

Officer of Banyan Technology. Lance is responsible for strategic partnerships as well as directing the next innovations Banyan will introduce to the market. As Banyan’s initial user, Lance served in many roles during the organization’s formation and growth including sales to implementation and support. Lance brings more than 15 years of experience in doing hundreds of client implementations. About the future outlook of the company, Lance believes that Banyan’s Local Carrier mode and Intelligent Pricing tool are critical to the future of both the company and the industry – and will be of significant strategic focus in 2019.

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Larry Kim is the CEO of MobileMonkey, a Facebook Messenger marketing platform used by tens of millions of users worldwide.

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Q

uite often, the most brilliant ideas are hiding in plain sight, just waiting for an enterprising entrepreneur to push them to fruition.

However, simply having that great idea is no guarantee of success. In fact, 90% of startups will fail.

Among the top reasons businesses don’t make it that they expand too fast. Doing too many things at once or trying to be everything to everyone can lead to the demise of an otherwise successful business.

But you don’t just want to know what you might be doing wrong. There’s much to be learned from successful businesses, as well.

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One of those inspirational success stories is that of Stance. Although they’ve been in business six years, chances are you haven’t heard of them. No, they’re not a household name, but I can give you $86 million good reasons to sit up and take notice of their unusual — and incredibly successful — business strategy.

See, Stance was a socks startup. That’s right… their revolutionary idea was to sell one of the most boring products on the planet: socks. In an era where entrepreneurs compete to outdo one another in pushing technological advancements, Stance’s co-founders said, you know what? We’re just going to take this boring, utilitarian thing over here and make it awesome. We’re going to make socks sexy and exciting.

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And did they ever.

In April, Stance inked a deal to be NBA’s official on-court sock.

They even have a Rhianna sock line (as well as other artists, in case you aren’t a Ri-Ri fan).

Perusing their site, you’ll see they have all different colors, styles,

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lengths, patterns, collaborations, and designs… yet all they’re selling is socks.

They don’t want to become another WalMart. They aren’t even aiming to be an allencompassing clothing line or fashion house and are just now

cautiously entering the underwear market. Right now, they’re just selling kickass socks — and a lot of them.

Jeff Kearl, co-founder of Stance, revealed in a recent interview with Fast Company’s Evie Nagy that he wanted to emulate brands

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Kearl talked John Wilson in 2009, even though Wilson thought his friend must have been joking, that this was his big idea. Three other cofounders joined them and the rest, as they say, is history.

Over the past four years, Stance has sold over 15 million pairs of socks, almost exclusively through their retail partnerships. This past January, they began raising funding to expand into another seemingly full and alreadyestablished market: underwear.

Some backers even sought to expand the round to $80 million.

However, Stance still had at its disposal the first $36 million raised. They plan to open six retail locations by next spring.

Sometimes, doing something unusual doesn’t actually meaning tackling something so innovative it’s never been done before.

Sometimes, being unusual simply means reinventing an existing product and making it better.

like Under Armour, who attracted huge early investment by developing one hero product that did superbly well. He didn’t even know what that product was, but was determined to find it. That meant going to Target to study different types of products–sunblock, school

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supplies, jewelry, and the like–and Googling to find out gross margins and market shares and where stuff was being made.

But it was when he went down the sock aisle, overflowing with basic, basic brown, black, white and gray socks in boring plastic bags, that his inspiration piqued.

Stance’s epic win in the sock market should give heart and hope to entrepreneurs looking not to invent the wheel, but to build a better mousetrap.

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