I am sure you must have come across the mythical place known as Silicon Valley where dreams and fortunes are made/broken in the tech world. It’s been an amazing confluence of geography, culture, networking and chance that have made it the tech capital of the world, and I think most people would agree they do things a little differently there.
So here is a small post that emphasizes on what rest of the business world can learn from here to be smarter and more competitive.
MVP
Do you think this stands for “Most Valuable Player”? No, it rather stands for Minimum Viable Product. When starting with a complicated new product or idea, a company will figure out what is the minimum they can create that will be viable, in other words, that will generate sales. This excellent strategy works at its best when it’s about getting something to market quickly, generating cash flow, and getting feedback from real users. Which leads us to…
Failing fast
Tech startups want to fail quickly do you know why? So that they can move on to the next thing. With the help of minimum viable product model, people can see which products, which features work and which don’t quickly and relatively inexpensively. Instead of spending time and money perfecting something people don’t even want, they create the basics, launch, and get feedback. Sometimes the MVP is a total failure, but more often it leads to…
Iterating
Initially released as an MVP will go through multiple iterations adding new features and removing the old ones that don’t work aren’t needed. In the tech world, this goes for everything from apps to smartphones, but it’s a concept that can- and should-be applied to many other business sectors. Don’t stop at the first version just because it works; keep iterating and improving on any idea.
Stand-up meetings
Also known for eschewing many of the traditional trappings of the corporate world, several tech companies can benefit from instituting stand-up meetings, which keep things brief, relevant, creative, and flowing. Imagine the time and money saved if all your company meetings were more efficient and effective.
Agile methodologies
This is a project management methodology that simply focuses on empowering team members to make decisions and breaking projects down into manageable chunks, usually in two-week intervals (called scrums). The emphasis is generally made on communication and coordination rather than planning and control. In this kind of setting, a team meets every two weeks to discuss progress on the project, changes, and what the direct next steps should be. Here each team members know what his or her task is, but has the power to make decisions within that framework. As a result more and more businesses can benefit from taking a less top-down approach to management, empowering employees to have more control over their own work.
Creating culture
A beer keg and ping-pong room may not be in the future for your company but every company can take a page from Silicon Valley’s culture in creating a workplace where people actually want to come to work. I mean Google is famous for the perks it offers employees- from the perks it offers employees, but they choose to do so because they know they demand a lot from their employees and they value their productivity and input. After all, a business would benefit from treating employees as valuable assets rather than just cogs in the machine.
Source: IAMWIRE
