What's Your Edge?

Most of us are wrestling with change. Whether it’s because of accelerating technology cycles, disruptive technologies challenging established models, competitive pressures intensifying, or something else, we risk becoming dinosaurs.  How do you future-proof your company, and what does that mean? For leaders and boards alike, this question has become less about optional innovation and more about long-term relevance, risk management, and enterprise resilience.

The companies that anticipate change, embrace innovation, and most importantly keep their customers at the center of every decision are in a better position to survive and thrive.  Future proofing is about building resilience and agility so your organization can adapt, grow, and stay relevant. No matter what the market throws your way. Future-proofing isn’t about predicting exactly what will happen next.  It’s about creating the capacity to respond when it does.

For customer-centric companies, the answers to tomorrow’s challenges are often hiding in plain sight: in the very pain points, feedback, and unmet needs of the customers you serve. And that’s what we’re going to explore today in our conversation with Dave Work, Managing Partner of Diversicom Corporation, a Managed Service Provider (MSP). MSPs act as an outsourced IT department for businesses, which typically provides managing IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, network management, and cloud support.

Dave, welcome to What’s Your Edge?

Dave, let’s start with your take on the current MSP landscape. While the MSP market is experiencing explosive growth, it is also facing significant disruption. There are anywhere 150,000–200,000 providers worldwide, with 5,000-10,000 of these being certifiable. The market is growing, projected at a 12.9% CAGR through 2033. But competition is fierce, and SaaS platforms are eating into core service revenues.

From a board and executive perspective, this creates a familiar tension: market growth on one hand, and margin pressure and model erosion on the other. The landscape is shifting rapidly, which is eroding traditional MSP revenue, forcing providers to innovate or risk obsolescence.

What are the biggest challenges you see for MSPs today, and how might that relate to other industries? You’ve said you believe much of the traditional MSP business is going away. Can you elaborate on what’s impacting the MSP model, and which of these risks you see impacting other industries?

Laura, I see the further emergence of Saas products severely diminishing the management needs that were once provided by typical MSP’s. A core function of an MSP is to manage the software their clients utilize, and with support now being provided by the software company, it will minimize the need to contract with an MSP. Additionally, many quality MSP’s host client data, which is typically much safer than a cloud environment; the “Cloud” is being utilized more and more each day. This is another area that will affect the client/MSP relationship.

I also believe there are a few challenges that businesses/industries will face because of these factors.

First, the support that most Saas products provide is limited and not personal to the end users. Meaning, the clients our MSP firm manages have relationships with our staff. We know their business, their struggles, and have genuine care as a partner. All our contracted clients are of the highest priority to us, but that level of care and prioritization currently doesn’t exist with the majority of Saas products and probably never will. The loss of having a true “IT partner” will undoubtedly affect businesses & industries.

Second, the cloud is a great development, and as a firm, we are all for it. However, because of the cyber dangers that exist, we also still firmly believe in having data backed up and monitored. Personally, I believe the cloud gives business leaders a false sense of security, and the need for redundant data and a Backup disaster or Recovery plan may be ignored. This scenario could be catastrophic for businesses that aren’t educated or recognize the needs this evolving world brings.

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You’ve spoken about the need to “future-proof” your company, to insulate Diversicom from becoming a “dinosaur” as the market changes. Future-proofing is about proactively protecting growth by anticipating threats and adapting before disruption hits. As we tell our customers, future-proofing is about building the agility and resilience to adapt to whatever comes next.

For many organizations, this also requires leadership teams and boards to challenge legacy assumptions and be willing to invest ahead of certainty.  We have found that this requires leaders to continually scan the horizon, experiment with new business models, and invest in capabilities that will keep their organizations relevant and competitive. Dave, what were some indicators that made you pause and realize you needed to future-proof your business?

Because of the many Saas products that are available, many business owners/leaders believe that if they just bundle some products together and have access to support, then their IT needs are resolved. This creates a false sense of security. But this is what the narrative is by salespeople for these products. I began to notice, as an MSP, that it was becoming more difficult to have conversations on the benefits of contracting with an MSP.

This made us as a firm realize that this is now our competition, not just another MSP. To future-proof our business, we were going to need to improve how we educate businesses on the existing need & benefit of an MSP, and also how we create our niche alongside these Saas products.

Whether it’s a transformation or a tweak, leaders need data to make better and faster decisions. Companies and boards that foster a culture of data-driven decision-making are better equipped to create a path forward.  Data becomes the connective tissue between strategy, execution, and accountability. Tell us about how you began using your own data to enable better decision-making.

I have always been a data person. Analytics has always been an important tool for me to manage & grow my organizations. I believe that data is currency! As software and technology have evolved, it has provided businesses the ability to extract and examine internal data more quickly, and the more someone does this, the better they are at decision-making.

Years ago, it was taking data from financial reports, operational reports, sales reports, etc., and configuring some type of snapshot to view the desired data. That was time-consuming. Then technology allowed us to export, cut/paste, etc. This was much quicker. Now tech can be connected and do the extraction and analyze the data for us. More efficient decision-making.

Organizations that optimize analytics, especially customer analytics, can anticipate needs, personalize experiences, and make more informed, data-driven decisions. There was a moment when you realized that the need for data-driven decision-making was your challenge alone; it was a pain point your customers shared. Often, the most resilient growth opportunities emerge when leaders recognize that creating an internal capability can solve external customer problems. When did you realize there was a business opportunity in helping customers with analytics? And what were the most common pain points you heard, and how did you translate those into a new service?

Basically, we followed the technology. We knew about data mining, data warehousing, dashboards, etc., and we started investing time in understanding and in development. We have a client who used a variety of software applications, and they wanted to pull them all together in one report.

An out-of-the-box or Saas dashboard was not the answer this client wanted. They wanted something tailored. They also wanted something that would break less than the previous types they tried.  And they wanted it managed, so when it broke, they weren’t on hold or lost in a ticket queue. It was a perfect opportunity for us. By solving their problem, we realized we had created a quality, trusted product/service we could market.

That’s a great example of combining your passion for data and solving a customer problem to create a new line of business. Moving from insight to monetization is often where many good ideas stall. How did you move from internal analytics to a packaged, customer-facing offer? What steps did you take to productize the offer?

Before we went to market, we knew we needed to do some market research. We discussed this new solution and current challenges with many of our peers in business.  We started having conversations with target clients about the solution, and they responded positively.  That information, combined with our own expertise, gave us the information we needed to take the idea further and begin pilots.

As a market researcher, I’m glad you conducted research. Another thing companies often do before going to market is to test the product internally and then in the market. Testing ensures that the customer experience meets expectations and that the solution delivers real value. This phase also helps reduce risk, something boards and leadership teams care deeply about when introducing a new offering. What did you learn from the pilot phase, and what changes did you make to the product as a result?

We learned a lot about the overall process of collecting the desired data, protecting the data, and getting it translated to what the client wanted. As we learned more, we iterated on the product. Plus, the product needs to evolve to remain current as technologies change. But the biggest change is the end users, once they see the data, then they want more data or more of it translated in a different way. So, we are always facing the challenge of providing the next iteration of the product. It’s a good problem to have because it means we remain relevant to our customers. Remaining relevant is a key part of future-proofing a company.

I agree. To have a future as a company, you must remain relevant to your customers. The faster organizations can turn data into actionable insights, the greater the impact on performance. We are often asked how to measure the value of data-driven decision-making. Two measures we regularly recommend are time-to-insight and time-to-decision. These metrics help leaders understand not just whether analytics exist, but whether they are actually influencing outcomes. As you scaled this new offering, how did you measure the value of the analytics you provided to clients?

I believe we are still scaling! We routinely meet with this client to discuss their use of technology. We have received feedback that the analytics tool has improved the management team’s performance and has allowed for better decision-making. This is a company with a management team spread throughout the country, so the fact that they are all seeing the same analytics daily has made them a stronger, more efficient team.

Since launch, analytics now makes up 10% of your revenue, with expectations to grow to 25–30% in 2–3 years. Congratulations! That kind of revenue mix shift changes how a business is valued, how risk is managed, and how future investments are prioritized.  How have you changed the culture in your organization to continue your future-proofing efforts?

We are blessed with a number of young guns who are hungry to learn and are confident to try new things. So, we have further empowered our staff to be an integral part of growing our company. As managers, we don’t make decisions in a vacuum. Yes, we are the decision makers, but we seek and invite our staff’s ideas and thoughts.

Dave, as we come to the end of our conversation, I’d like to reflect on your journey. You’ve navigated a rapidly changing landscape, future-proofed your business by listening closely to customers, and demonstrated how a customer-centric approach can reveal new opportunities hiding in plain sight. Let’s talk about lessons learned.  What were the biggest surprises or challenges you encountered as you pivoted and launched a new line of business? Looking back, are there any assumptions you had to let go of, or moments that fundamentally shifted your perspective as a leader? And finally, what practical advice would you offer to business owners, executive teams, or boards who recognize the need to future-proof, but aren’t sure where to start?

The biggest challenge is that you are never DONE! The future is always around the corner, so the need to look ahead never ceases. We must always challenge ourselves and our leadership teams to look ahead. Another challenge is to make the time to look ahead, which involves research, evaluation, and risk. As a service provider, our main priority is the level of service we provide to our clients, so freeing someone on our team to “champion” the initial research and begin some type of Beta testing internally is a challenge and a risk.

I don’t think we had to shift perspectives much. I am fairly open-minded, let’s try this type of person, and my partner is an out-of-the-box thinker. So, regarding perspective, I believe we are and were in a good place.

The advice I’d give is to look at your competitors and your peers, talk to your client base and your professional networks. You must discover the challenges they all face, any solutions they have encountered, and keep a pulse on technologies. Take AI, for example. Considering AI is progressing at a rapid rate, we may always be a bit behind, but the quicker you know what it can do to improve your team or business, the better you’ll be. Discussing and researching what others are doing or have done is very important in adopting new ways of doing business better!

Dave, thank you for sharing how you approached future-proofing your company. Your story is a powerful reminder that resilience, adaptability, and deep customer understanding are the keys to sustainable growth, especially in times of uncertainty. For leaders and boards alike, future-proofing isn’t about chasing trends.  It’s about making deliberate choices that strengthen relevance, reduce risk, and create new value for customers.

Let’s talk if you are ready to future-proof your business and are open to guidance.

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: What does it mean to future-proof a business?

A: Future-proofing means building organizational resilience and agility to adapt, grow, and stay relevant in the face of disruption. It’s about making deliberate choices that strengthen relevance, reduce risk, and create new value for customers—not just chasing the latest trends.

Q2: Why is focusing on customer pain points essential for long-term business growth?

A: Solving real customer pain points ensures your company remains relevant and competitive. By listening to feedback and unmet needs, businesses can uncover new growth opportunities and develop solutions that drive loyalty and market differentiation.

Q3: How can analytics help companies future-proof their strategy?

A: Analytics provides actionable insights that inform better, faster decision-making. Organizations that leverage customer and operational analytics can anticipate market shifts, personalize experiences, and optimize performance for sustainable growth.

Q4: What are the best metrics for measuring the value of data-driven decision-making?

A: Two key metrics are time-to-insight and time-to-decision. These help leaders understand whether analytics are actually influencing outcomes and driving meaningful improvements in strategy and execution.

Q5: What steps should leaders take to create a culture of continuous future-proofing?

A: Leaders should empower teams to experiment, invest in ongoing learning, and encourage open dialogue about challenges and opportunities. Regularly seeking customer feedback and involving staff in innovation keeps the organization agile and responsive.

Q6: How can market research and pilot testing reduce risk when launching new offerings?

A: Market research validates customer needs, while pilot testing ensures the solution delivers real value before a full-scale launch. Both steps help companies iterate quickly and minimize the risk of failed products or wasted investment.

Q7: Why is data considered the “essential currency” for better decision-making?

A: Data connects strategy, execution, and accountability. In today’s digital landscape, companies that treat data as a core asset can move from intuition-driven decisions to evidence-based growth, improving outcomes at every level.

Q8: How does VisionEdge Marketing help companies become more customer-centric and future-ready?

A: VisionEdge Marketing partners with organizations to identify customer pain points, implement analytics-driven strategies, and build cultures of resilience and innovation—ensuring clients stay ahead of change and unlock new growth.

True differentiation takes boldly reimagining how products are created and delivered. For many organizations, the secret to market growth isn’t found in the boardroom alone. It’s forged in partnership with their most demanding customers. In this episode of What’s Your Edge?, we are joined by Armen Alajian, CEO of ARTO, a family-owned innovator in the tile, stone, and brick industry. Armen is going to share with us how they turned customer challenges into a catalyst for innovation and sustainable growth. Embracing customer-centric product development propelled them ahead of overseas competitors and established a blueprint for unlocking new levels of market success.

Armen, I know from personal experience that sustaining a family legacy in a highly competitive, mature industry requires more than tradition. It demands strategic leadership and the courage to adapt expertise to evolving customer needs.

My father, Arto, was both a maker and a merchant. He crafted products based on what he knew customers already liked or what he anticipated they would appreciate once they saw them. He was inherently adaptable. Because we always keep the customer in mind and often work with limited resources, my brother and I view innovation not just as a way to honor our father’s legacy, but as the method for staying relevant to our customers.

In our work, we’ve found that engaging customers early, especially those with demanding requirements, dramatically increases the odds of developing products that succeed in the market. We have used customer scenarios to reveal gaps and opportunities that internal teams may overlook. They provide a valuable real-world perspective that moves product development from guesswork to grounded innovation.

At ARTO, this willingness to tackle the “hard jobs” did more than bring in premium business. It created a pipeline for new, validated products that could be brought to market faster and with greater certainty. From a leadership standpoint, this approach replaces random acts of innovation with deliberate experimentation anchored in customer reality. Can you share a story where working with a particularly challenging project for a customer led to a breakthrough product or a new market opportunity for ARTO?

To be clear, it wasn’t the customers’ personalities that were challenging, but the technical demands of the work itself. Two projects stand out: Fertitta Hall at USC and the Belle Isle Library in Oklahoma. Both required very specific custom colors—a precise “USC Red” and a unique palette for the library. While we continue to offer those custom colors today, the real breakthrough was internal. These high-stakes projects forced us to develop new, streamlined procedures for color matching and production. Those processes now allow us to serve all our customers with much greater ease.

Isn’t it illuminating that it is our difficult customers who often have the clearest vision of what’s missing in the market? And that by listening to them, understanding their market requirements, and leveraging their real-world scenarios, you can turn custom work into a proving ground for future bestsellers.

It seems true that the most customer-centric companies are the ones willing to invest in understanding what their customers buy, where they spend their time, how they make decisions, and what truly matters to them.

The outreach created a real connection through me. I worry sometimes it should be about the brand and not the CEO, but at the end of the day, people want to buy from people, not a logo. It made ARTO real. At trade shows, people recognized us. It gave us some “celebrity” that opened doors with suppliers. With existing customers, it lets us get deep. We’d talk about the struggles of being an employer or just being fellow travelers on the earth. It turned a transaction into a real relationship.

When companies move beyond basic customer service and proactively engage customers, they uncover insights competitors miss. It’s about being present in the moments that matter, asking the right questions, and listening deeply. ARTO’s decision to launch weekly personal videos and emails wasn’t just a marketing tactic. It was a strategic move to build authentic connections and replace transactional interactions with partnerships. How did you ensure these efforts stayed focused and didn’t become another set of random acts of engagement?

These are not random marketing tactics. In my emails and videos, I share the good, the bad, and the ugly. I don’t just talk about the business. I make it personal. Trust is not simply something you can convey in a standard corporate email. The beauty of this approach is that I often get direct and immediate feedback, which provides valuable insights and market intelligence.

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Market leaders don’t simply react to trends. They shape them by listening closely to customers and systematically gathering market and competitive intelligence from the field. Scenario planning based on real customer data allows companies to anticipate shifts and leapfrog competitors, particularly in industries where overseas suppliers compete aggressively on price. Boards often ask, “How do we know what’s coming next?” This is one of the most reliable answers. How do you and your team identify and act on market trends before your competitors?

It’s like a perpetual motion machine. Once people know we solve problems, they bring us more problems. We don’t guess at trends; we look for patterns in what people are asking for. If a customer brings us a problem that is just plain cool, we might take it to market immediately. Other times, we wait until we see the same “non-standard” request pop up multiple times. When that happens, we know it’s a trend, and we turn that custom solution into a standard product.

Competitive intelligence tracks what others do so we can understand where the market is headed and position our organization to lead, not follow. By regularly engaging with customers and mapping market scenarios, companies like ARTO can spot opportunities and threats early, turning information into a competitive advantage. What tools or processes have proven most effective in gaining insight into competitors?

To be honest, it sometimes feels like we are following, but we track competitors at trade shows and listen to what customers are asking for. A lot of times, we spot a trend because a “market leader” has a great idea but fails in execution. The customer comes to us because the originator can’t actually deliver. We don’t just follow the trend; we step in to solve the problem the other guys created.

From our perspective, the most successful innovations are rooted in a deep understanding of customer and market requirements, not just internal brainstorming. Research shows that companies that effectively leverage customer feedback are 30-50% more likely to develop successful products. Measuring engagement, time-to-market, and adoption rates ensures innovation delivers business value, not just activity. When companies involve customers in the product development process, they accelerate validation and build products that are more likely to succeed in the real world. What metrics or signals do you rely on to validate new products before scaling?

A product is ready for prime time when it’s actually out in the field. Depending on the situation, the testing might be rigorous over a long period, or it might be quick if the product is going into a low-friction, low-touch location. If we need to get it to market faster, we’ll use ASTM or ANSI testing to validate it and move forward.

And companies that continuously test, learn, and iterate see significant sales boosts, with examples including a 50% net sales per employee increase from continuous training, a 28% revenue jump from standardized sales processes, and 7-20% productivity/revenue gains. Innovation metrics should go beyond the number of ideas generated. By tracking customer engagement, pilot success rates, and market adoption, you ensure that your innovation pipeline delivers tangible results. The best organizations make learning loops part of their DNA: test, measure, refine, repeat. How do you measure the ROI of customer co-creation at ARTO, and how do those insights inform future investment decisions?

I look at ROI through a few lenses: top-line sales and market share. Eventually, the CFO tells me if we’re actually making money. Every product has to pass two tests: Does it help me make payroll this Friday, and does it help ARTO become a 100-year brand? That balance between surviving today and building a legacy is just human nature.

I love these two tests! Market leaders implement processes that drive those outcomes, such as customer engagement, product validation, and innovation velocity. Companies that continually learn from their customers and adapt their approach are those that sustain growth, even in crowded markets. Differentiation is possible when organizations relentlessly focus on customer collaboration and learning from every engagement. In my experience, the most resilient organizations treat every customer interaction as a learning opportunity. They don’t shy away from tough feedback. They seek it out. From a board and leadership perspective, this requires discipline, patience, and a willingness to invest ahead of certainty. Armen, as we wrap up, what advice would you give to other business leaders facing intense competition, especially those tempted to compete on price alone?

My advice for CEOs is to get on the ground, meet the customer, and get involved. If you’re already doing that, the answer isn’t necessarily to do more of it, but to do it better. Always go back to the two lenses: paying the bills today and building the business for 100 years. Price is often not the real issue; focus on the margin. If you have to shrink the business to survive, then do it, but protect that margin at all costs

Thank you, Armen, for sharing ARTO’s journey, which shows the future belongs to those who listen deeply, act boldly, and measure relentlessly. Turning adversity into innovation and customers into collaborators is the foundation for sustainable growth and market leadership. For leaders and board members listening, this episode is a reminder that the strongest differentiation is built not through random acts of innovation, but through a disciplined, customer-led growth strategy.

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: What is customer-led product development, and why is it important for market growth?

Q2: How can engaging customers with challenging needs drive innovation?

Q3: What metrics should organizations use to measure the success of customer-led product development?

Q4: How can personal outreach enhance customer insight and product innovation?

Q5: What is the role of leadership in customer-driven product development?

Q6: What are common challenges in collaborating with customers on product development, and how can they be overcome?

Q7: How can organizations balance legacy and innovation in mature industries?

The manufacturing industry is defined by complexity, competition, and opportunity.  Founded by Alfonso Aramburo in 2012 as a product development company, Brecher Manufacturing has evolved into a premier source for Rotomolding, Injection Molding, Sheet Metal Fabrication, Thermoforming, Rapid Prototyping, and CNC Machining, serving clients across Mexico, the U.S., China, and Canada. Alfonso’s journey to profitable growth illustrates what becomes possible when leaders resist the temptation to chase every opportunity, avoid random acts of revenue, and instead make deliberate strategic choices about who they serve and how they grow. For executives and boards alike, this episode of What’s Your Edge? is a powerful reminder that growth without focus often creates complexity, margin pressure, and operational drag. Profitable growth, on the other hand, requires discipline, clarity, and sometimes the courage to say no.

Welcome Alfonso. I’m sure everyone is eager to hear your story.

Alfonso, you originally started Brecher Manufacturing as a product development company, then repositioned it as a design and prototype firm, and ultimately as a full-fledged manufacturer.

That kind of evolution isn’t trivial. Repositioning often introduces risk, stretches capabilities, and can create internal tension if the organization isn’t aligned. There’s more to repositioning than changing your message. It often takes realigning your entire business to better address evolving market needs and opportunities. Successful repositioning requires a willingness to challenge assumptions, embrace change, and focus on delivering differentiated value. When done well, repositioning can revitalize growth, sharpen competitive advantage, and set the stage for long-term success.

What prompted this evolution? Was there a pivotal customer insight, market signal, or operational constraint that made it clear the original model wouldn’t support the kind of growth you envisioned?

Laura, you hit on something critical. The main shift was an internal battle against FOMO.

Early on, we were in a “yes-man” phase. We offered a massive range of processes, and we were spinning our wheels, quoting everything that walked through the door. I realized we were actually losing existing business because our team was so distracted by chasing the ‘new’ that we couldn’t execute on the ”now”. Our margins were thinning, and we were essentially subsidizing complexity with our own burnout.

The breaking point came in 2019. We saw a massive influx of RFQs because overseas supply chains were failing. I looked at our numbers objectively and realized we had a major issue and an opportunity.  We were spending days quoting complex, multi-process projects with low win rates. On the other hand, for our Rotomolding, we could turn a quote around in hours. Our knowledge was deeper, our margins were higher, and frankly, nobody could touch our speed in tooling or molding.

I had to make a hard decision. Kill the interesting/great potential projects to save the ‘profitable’ ones. It wasn’t a math problem; the numbers were clear. It was a mindset problem, my own mindset. I had to move from a state of mind of growth-at-all-costs to a clear direction of specialized excellence.

Once we decided that Brecher was going to be the authority in Rotomolding and full-product integration, the ‘chaos’ started to clear. We built an execution engine around what we were actually best at, rather than what we were merely ‘capable’ of doing. That shift is what allowed us to scale from a prototype shop to a high-volume manufacturer for industries like Aerospace, Military, and Automotive.

As you began working with customers who had larger volumes and more complex requirements, you recognized the need for a single point of contact. From our experience, fragmentation, such as multiple vendors, handoffs, and accountability gaps, often creates friction for customers and inefficiencies for manufacturers. Reducing customer effort is a proven way to enhance both satisfaction and retention. High-performing companies understand that every interaction, especially those tied to quoting, onboarding, or support, should be as frictionless as possible. By measuring and actively managing customer effort, organizations can strengthen loyalty and drive repeat business. How did this realization reshape your service model and operational processes? What did consolidating responsibility change for customers and for your internal teams?

Laura, you’ve touched on one of the biggest pain points of manufacturing partnerships: fragmented accountability. Buying different parts from multiple suppliers for one integrated product creates a massive coordination headache.

We reshaped our model around a single, non-negotiable principle: One Project, One Face. We understood that by owning the entire lifecycle, we would be solving a gap in the market. Whether it’s good news or bad news, the customer has one person who knows exactly where their project stands, and most importantly, who owns the quality of the project. We went from Yes, we can do it all to We own it all.

But the real game-changer was consolidating the supply chain itself. Because we are experts in Rotomolding, we became the ‘hub.’ We took over the sourcing and integration of the sheet metal, the CNC components, and the injection molding.

This gave us the ability to eliminate logistical friction for our customers. Now they can focus on their market while we handle the complexity of the execution.”

In the early days, you’ve said profitability was good, but not great. That’s a familiar place for many growing manufacturers: busy, revenue coming in, but margins under pressure and complexity creeping in. You’ve shared that learning when and how to say no was critical to unlocking profitable growth.

Alfonso, can you talk about the challenges you faced in making that shift? What criteria did you develop to decide which opportunities were worth pursuing and which ones, even though they brought revenue, were actually holding the company back? And looking back, how did saying “yes” too often contribute to what we sometimes call random acts of revenue—work that looks attractive in isolation but doesn’t align with long-term strategy?

In the early days, I was my own worst enemy. I had this deep-seated fear that if I said no to a project, I was failing as a CEO. But the truth was that by saying “yes” to everything, I was failing to potentially grow.

I realized that price is a commodity. If you compete on price, you are easily replaceable. We decided to compete on expertise and trustworthiness. To do that, we developed a rigid strategic screening process.  This approach improved our margins and our stability.

Despite early profitability, repeat customers were nearly zero, a common challenge in manufacturing, where the industry average retention rate sits around 67%. Retention is often treated as a downstream outcome, but in reality, it’s a leading indicator of product-market fit, operational discipline, and customer experience. Customer retention is a strategic imperative for sustainable growth and profitability. Companies that prioritize retention benefit from lower acquisition costs, higher lifetime value, and more predictable revenue streams.

What were the biggest obstacles to retaining customers in those early years? How did you diagnose the root causes rather than just addressing symptoms? From a leadership perspective, when did retention shift from being a “nice-to-have” metric to a strategic priority that influenced decisions?

Laura, you’ve hit on a hard truth. In the early days, we weren’t just below the industry average for retention; we were practically starting from zero every month.  We were built for ‘one-off’ product development sprints. We gave the customer a great design, but we didn’t give them a reason to stay. We were effectively ‘firing’ our customers as soon as the project was successful, as entrepreneurs and small- to mid-sized companies are not constantly working on the next product.

As we shifted into high-volume manufacturing, I realized that if we wanted to grow, we had to stop the revolving door.

Coming from a background of leading Kaizen events, I developed a framework I call Root Cause Branching. In Root Cause Branching, look at the problem holistically and how every part of the organization may have contributed to the problem.  This was the “game-changer” for customer retention. We started evaluating every lost customer we didn’t want to lose and mapped those failures across the entire organization. For example,

Once we started solving the branches, our stability increased, our costs went down, and retention moved from a “nice-to-have” metric to the very foundation of our execution engine.

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In 2020, Brecher Manufacturing sought out customer feedback that became a catalyst for meaningful change. Effective Voice of Customer research uncovers actionable insights that drive strategic decisions. Organizations that systematically listen to their customers are better positioned to identify unmet needs, improve offerings, and enhance satisfaction. This disciplined approach transforms customer input into a source of innovation and competitive advantage.

What did you learn from your Voice of the Customer research? Were there any insights that surprised you or challenged long-held assumptions? How did that feedback directly inform your strategic priorities and operational focus?

Laura, the most difficult part of VOC research is that you have to be willing to have your ego bruised. We went in thinking our biggest value was our ‘jack-of-all-trades’ flexibility and our speed. But the feedback we got was a cold shower.

Our customers told us: ‘We love that you own the whole process, but because you’re trying to do everything, your expertise is spread too thin, and we’re seeing it in the quality.’

That was a hard truth. It challenged my long-held assumption that ‘more services equals more value.’ This feedback was the final push we needed to double down on Rotomolding as our core expertise and use our other capabilities as supporting integration tools rather than standalone services.

But the biggest surprise was about speed.

We assumed ‘Speed to Market’ meant ‘How fast can you run the machines?’ The VOC research taught us that the real bottleneck wasn’t production, it was the Design-for-Manufacturing phase. Customers wanted a manufacturer who could do more than follow instructions.  They wanted a partner to tell them when their instructions were wrong.

This reshaped our entire strategic priority. We moved from a model of ‘do as you’re told’ to a model of ‘Joint Forces.’ We started getting involved much earlier in the product lifecycle. By partnering with our customers during the engineering phase, we could identify potential quality issues before the first tool was even cut. We realized that true speed meant removing the roadblocks before the race even starts. That insight is a core pillar of what I now call the execution engine.

Alfonso, you’ve described a period when acquiring new customers required enormous effort that kept the organization in constant hustle mode. Growth fueled purely by hustle can mask inefficiencies and exhaust teams. Over time, it also raises an important governance question: Is this growth scalable and repeatable? One of the steps you took was to optimize lead conversion to improve the quality of leads and the efficiency of your sales process. High-performing organizations analyze every stage of the customer journey to identify bottlenecks and accelerate the quote-to-close cycle. By focusing on conversion metrics and process improvement, companies can drive higher win rates and sustainable revenue growth. What steps did you take to analyze your customer acquisition process? What did the data reveal about where time, effort, and resources were being spent and whether those investments were paying off?

Laura, you hit on a vital distinction: Hustle is not a strategy; it’s an admission of a broken process. In those early years, our ‘hustle’ was actually masking a massive lack of direction. We were celebrating the volume of RFQs coming in, but when I finally sat down to look at the data, the reality was sobering. We were spending 80% of our engineering and quoting resources on ‘Random Acts of Revenue’. There were projects that had a less than 5% chance of closing or, worse, were for industries that didn’t fit our long-term goals.

I realized that our execution engine was overheating because we were feeding it the wrong fuel. To fix this, we moved from a ‘Sales’ mindset to a ‘Governance’ mindset. We analyzed the ‘Quote-to-Close’ cycle and identified the biggest bottleneck: Unqualified Effort.

We mapped out exactly how many people-hours it took to quote a complex assembly versus a specialized Rotomolding project. We discovered that the ‘complex’ quotes took 10x longer but yielded lower margins. This data gave me the courage to finally say ‘No.’  We started treating the RFQ states as a gate.  We stopped quoting any project that didn’t align with our ideal customer profile. We mandated a specific set of technical questions be answered upfront to accelerate our internal response time. Because the data was clean, we could quote in hours, not days.

The data eventually revealed something powerful: By reducing our total number of quotes by 40%, we actually increased our revenue and boosted our win rate. We focused on managing our focus. That transformed us from a chaotic shop into a scalable, high-EBITDA business.

Companies with high customer retention rates are often a direct result of targeting “right-fit” customers, and typically grow 1.5x to 3x faster than their peers. By analyzing your data, you identified tooling as your sweet spot and became far more selective about the customers and projects you pursued. We know from our work that not every customer is the right customer. High-performing organizations consistently profile their best customers and use that insight to focus their customer acquisition efforts. By defining the attributes of right-fit customers and aligning resources accordingly, companies can improve conversion rates, increase average order value, and foster long-term loyalty.

How did this focus on right-fit customers, that is, those who needed, tooling change your quote-to-close ratio, average order value, and operational predictability? What changed internally once the organization had clarity around where it should and should not compete?

Laura, when we stopped chasing every RFQ and focused on ‘Right-Fit’ customers, specifically those requiring both tooling and production, the transformation was a total step-function change for the business.

First, let’s talk about the Quote-to-Close Ratio. Before this focus, we were “spraying and praying”. Our win rate was low because we were competing against specialized shops on their home turf. Once we narrowed our focus to projects that required our specific integration of Tooling and Rotomolding, and positioned Becher as the company that owned the entire technical risk from the first mold to the final assembly, our closing rate nearly doubled.

Second, our Average Order Value (AOV) skyrocketed by 2-5X. By focusing on customers who needed Tooling, we were essentially ‘locking in’ long-term production. We moved away from the one-off parts and toward integrated projects. Tooling as the ‘hook’ that secures the production life cycle, drastically increased the lifetime value of every customer we work with.

By focusing on where we could compete and win, we became masters of a specific set of constraints, making us 3x faster and more accurate. We were no longer constantly switching setups for random projects. We had a predictable flow of similar high-value work. And we went from Hustle/Panic Culture to Professional Execution.

We stopped bleeding margin on the wrong work and started compounding value on the right work. That clarity is what turned Brecher MFG into a much more predictable operation.

By 2022, the impact of doubling down on tooling customers enables you to achieve 2X growth and increase repeat customers from 0% to 70%. That’s impressive given that, as of 2025, the average customer retention rate in manufacturing is approximately 67%. That’s a meaningful distinction in an industry where growth is often driven by volume rather than value.

Those results don’t happen without discipline. Organizations that excel at delivering customer value consistently outperform their peers in organic growth. By focusing on what customers truly value and aligning offerings, processes, and communications around those priorities, companies create stronger relationships and accelerate growth. Ultimately, the ability to measure and act on customer value is a key differentiator in today’s competitive landscape. What were the most important operational, cultural, or leadership shifts that enabled this transformation? And today, what metrics do you track to ensure the company doesn’t drift back into chasing misaligned opportunities? From a board or leadership standpoint, what indicators tell you that the business is growing well, not just growing fast?

Laura, reaching a 70% retention rate in an industry that averages 67%, especially when we started at zero, was the result of moving from volume-driven growth to value-driven growth.

The most important shift was a leadership shift in the Power of No. Early on, I thought growth meant a bigger top line. Now, I know growth means a healthier middle line and bottom line. To get there, I made two internal shifts.

First, we stopped treating Tooling as a product and started treating it as the Onboarding Phase of a Partnership. We aligned to realize that a tool isn’t ‘done’ when it’s built; it’s done when the customer has a repeatable, high-quality production run.

And second, we stopped incentivizing the Big Win and started rewarding Process Adherence. We taught the team that a small, perfect project is better for the company than a large, chaotic one.

Today, to ensure we don’t drift back into chasing the wrong things, I track three key indicators that tell me if we are growing well, not just fast:

Looking back on this journey, what are the most important lessons you’ve learned about profitable growth?

If you were advising another company, what would you emphasize about:

First, I’d learn to say NO sooner. Saying “No” protects your team’s capacity for excellence. Every time you say “Yes” to a project that sits outside your core expertise, you are essentially asking your team to pay a “complexity tax.” You lose money in engineering hours, setup times, and mental bandwidth. Looking back, I’d fire the FOMO sooner.  I spent too much time trying to “work harder” to fix a problem that was actually a direction problem

Second, I’d avoid Random Acts of Revenue. In the beginning, I trusted my “entrepreneurial gut” to tell me if a deal was good. I should have built my Effort-to-Value dashboards sooner. The data is much more honest than the gut when it comes to margins.

Many leaders’ thoughts on balancing customer focus with operational discipline are in conflict. True Customer Focus is providing a predictable outcome. You can only be predictable if you have the discipline to follow a process. If you “bend the rules” for a customer, you usually end up failing them because your internal engine wasn’t designed for that detour. The best way to love your customer is to give them a disciplined process.

I have two pieces of parting advice.

First, treat your organization’s capacity like a high-end hotel. If you fill all the rooms with “budget travelers” (low-margin, high-friction work), you have no room left when the “VIP” (the right-fit, high-volume partner) shows up.

Second, look at your revenue through the lens of repeatability. If a project doesn’t have the potential to lead to a long-term production cycle or a “Directional” partnership, it’s a distraction.

Alfonso, thank you for sharing your journey and insights. Your story is proof that profitable growth requires both discipline and courage to say no, stay focused, and eliminate random acts that dilute value. You also reminded us that:

For business leaders and board members listening, this raises an important question: Are you growing with intention, or are you simply in hustle mode?

If any part of this conversation felt familiar, strong demand, full pipelines, but margins under pressure, it may be time to step back and assess where growth is coming from and what it’s really costing you.

If you’re ready to identify where random acts may be creeping into your strategy and replace them with a clearer, more deliberate, customer-centric path to profitable growth, let’s start a conversation.

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: What does it mean to focus on “right-fit” customers, and why is it essential for profitable growth?

A1: Focusing on right-fit customers means identifying, targeting, and serving clients whose needs align with your organization’s core strengths and long-term strategy. This approach increases conversion rates, customer lifetime value, and operational efficiency, while reducing churn and resource drain from misaligned projects.

Q2: How can organizations avoid “random acts of revenue,” and why is this important?

A2: Avoiding random acts of revenue requires discipline in evaluating opportunities against strategic criteria rather than chasing every potential deal. By saying no to projects outside your expertise or direction, you protect margins, reduce complexity, and create capacity for high-value, repeatable business.

Q3: What is the “Voice of Customer” (VOC) and how can it drive meaningful change?

A3: Voice of Customer is a structured approach to gathering, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback. Effective VOC research uncovers actionable insights, challenges assumptions, and helps organizations realign offerings, processes, and communications to better serve customer needs—ultimately fueling innovation and loyalty.

Q4: Why is customer retention a leading indicator of business health?

A4: Customer retention signals product-market fit, operational discipline, and customer satisfaction. High retention rates lower acquisition costs, increase predictability, and foster advocacy. Organizations that prioritize retention typically enjoy more sustainable, profitable growth than those focused solely on new business.

Q5: How do process discipline and data-driven decision-making support scalable success?

A5: Process discipline ensures consistency, quality, and efficiency across the organization. Data-driven decision-making allows leaders to objectively assess performance, identify bottlenecks, and allocate resources to the most impactful areas. Together, they reduce risk, support customer focus, and drive repeatable, scalable growth.

Q6: What are the risks of overextending services or chasing every opportunity?

A6: Overextending dilutes expertise, increases operational complexity, and often leads to inconsistent quality or missed expectations. Chasing every opportunity can exhaust teams, erode margins, and distract from building a sustainable, differentiated value proposition.

Q7: How can organizations measure whether they are growing “well” rather than just growing “fast”?

A7: Growing well means tracking metrics such as fit score of the backlog, quote-to-close ratios for core services, customer effort scores, and retention rates. These indicators reveal whether growth is aligned with strategy, sustainable, and delivering real value—not just top-line expansion.

Today’s episode explores the transformation of a legacy business in the fire protection industry, a sector that is highly regulated, fiercely competitive, and faces ongoing price pressure and low barriers to entry. Perhaps some of you can relate. This is also an industry where many companies experience long periods of stagnant growth or workflow. It’s not because demand disappears, but because differentiation erodes and internal complexity quietly increases.

Our conversation is with Shawn Mullen, President and Chief Energy Officer at Protex Central. The company has been serving mission-critical facilities for 60 years. When Shawn took the helm in 2017, the company’s revenue trajectory was flat. Essentially, a parked car in an industry where standing still means falling behind. What’s especially interesting is that the market itself was growing; yet Protex Central wasn’t. That gap between market opportunity and company performance became the catalyst for change.

Fast forward to 2025: revenues have doubled, margins are up, and project overruns are down. Let’s find out how Shawn accomplished these results.

Shawn, welcome to What’s Your Edge?

Let’s begin by framing the fire protection industry. The U.S. Fire Protection System Market is set to grow from USD 25.94 billion in 2024 to USD 32.26 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 3.60%. Even so, it is considered an established industry marked by intense competition, thin margins, and constant regulatory scrutiny.

This combination often creates a false sense of momentum, where the market grows, but individual companies struggle to translate that growth into improved performance. Shawn, when you took over Protex Central in 2017, what did you see as the biggest challenges? Was there a specific moment or insight that made you realize the company needed a fundamentally new approach?

Laura, thanks for the opportunity to visit with you and your listeners today.  It truly is an honor.  When I bought the majority interest from my dad, I had been with the company for over 32 years. 

We all knew our single biggest challenge was sales.  But no one on the leadership team, at that time, had a solution to move us forward.  For too long, our corporate mindset was “we wanted what we got” instead of “going and getting what we wanted.” 

At that time, I didn’t know how I was going reverse that mindset, but I knew this:  I must get outside of my current echo-chamber and expose myself to other business professionals.

So I joined an executive coaching and peer-to-peer advisory group.  I threw myself into all it had to offer – great business speakers, other local business owners, and a talented business coach. 

The cumulative effect of being a part of that group was an understanding that it was me – the Chief Energy Officer of Protex Central – who had to change first before I could ask our team to change.  It didn’t happen overnight – in fact, it took me about four years to really get in the groove of working with my coach and asking myself the hard questions that I knew had to be asked and wrestling with the answers.

One of your first moves was to analyze the attributes of successful versus non-successful customers. This kind of customer segmentation is essential for sustainable growth. We often work with our customers to help them profile their best customers and use those insights to shape acquisition and retention strategies. Many organizations believe growth means more customers, when in reality it often means the right customers and the discipline to say no to the wrong ones. You concluded that to grow, Protex Central needed more of the right customers and a better process to acquire them.

Can you share how you approached this analysis? Other than revenue, what are some of the key attributes of a successful customer? Was there anything in the data that surprised you or challenged long-held assumptions about who your “best” customers really were?

Wow, great observation, Laura.  You’re spot on.  We did have to “triage” our customer base and determine the qualities of our best customers. 

What we found was that our best customers were not necessarily our largest revenue volume customers, but rather, they had attributes that were common across all verticals, systems, and services. 

Things like longevity of relationship, a trusted communication style between their team and ours, a designated internal champion for fire/security related systems and services, as well as an expressed progressive corporate recognition of keeping their employees, properties, and processes safe.  Lastly, we had to determine if our value proposition fit within their budget and their expectation.  Again, this didn’t happen overnight, and it hasn’t stopped.  In fact, that discipline continues.

Oh, and plus, the good customers always pay on time.

I imagine there were a lot of implications to the company once you identified the customers you wanted to serve, including how to market and sell to them. Process mapping provides clarity, uncovers inefficiencies, and enables organizations to optimize for performance and operational excellence. In our experience, unclear or inconsistent processes often show up as margin leakage, project overruns, and frustrated teams—long before leaders recognize process as the root cause. What were the most significant changes you made to your business processes? How did process mapping help you drive measurable improvements?

Wow, another keen observation, Laura.  To be fair, our process mapping at the time was more like Crayola Crayons and Big Chief Tablet paper rather than ChatGPT or GROK.  It was old school for sure.

The key benefit was that we were able to see gaps not only in our sales process but also in our engineering, sales ordering, and pre-engineering/installation processes.  Those gaps are now eliminated, but the mindset – and yes, I keep coming back to that – the mindset has changed for every touchpoint in our organization, and that is this: “am what I’m doing helping us want what we get or are we going out to get what we get?” 

I believe my role as a leader is to reinforce, champion, and recognize that mindset at every opportunity.

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As you transformed your customer base and operations, you also recrafted your marketing messaging. Consistency and clarity are critical. From our experience, we have found that a well-articulated positioning and messaging strategy elevates growth and competitive advantage by ensuring every touchpoint communicates value.  Messaging isn’t only about external communication. It’s a strategic alignment tool that influences sales conversations, customer expectations, and internal decision-making. Shawn, how did you approach this messaging overhaul? What changes made the biggest impact on how Protex Central is perceived today?

Laura, this question keeps me up at night.  Are we as Protex Central really consistent across all of our touchpoints with a consistent message?  I fancy myself as one who has articulated at any number of inflection points within our company that I sense that we’re delivering on the consistency of execution and message, but without a sterile and objective measuring tool, I can’t be sure.

Maybe it’s part faith and part hope, but given that we have such a very low attrition rate compared to our industry, my sense is we’re making it happen.

One of the things I know you invested heavily in was sales training and playbooks. We often say that a powerful sales playbook is more than a script. It’s an alignment tool that ensures everyone is clear on the process, the value proposition, and the customer journey. For many sales teams, adopting a playbook requires unlearning habits that once worked but no longer support growth. Can you briefly walk us through how you built and implemented your sales playbook? What were the most important elements, and how did it change your team’s performance? What was the most difficult shift for the sales team to make?

Laura, our playbook is always in flux.  We have intentionally developed it to be a dynamic document that is responsive to changes in the marketplace, regulatory environment, and other outside dynamics.

To your question about the difficult shift for our sales team, I would have to say that the emphasis on discipline of daily KPI’s was the biggest challenge.  As I often say, every crusade needs a crusader, and I saw it as my responsibility to be that crusader.   Phone calls, emails, text messages, and the like were and continue to be part of the effort to work “ON” the business rather than “IN” the business. 

In industries like yours, there is ever-present risk of becoming a commodity because it can be difficult for customers to distinguish your offering from others. In this situation, price often becomes the only differentiator, and the race to the bottom begins.  When that happens, growth slows, margins erode, and customer relationships become transactional rather than strategic. How did you ensure Protex Central avoided this trap? What role did customer service play in setting you apart?

Once again, Laura, you’ve hit the nail on the head.  Creating the differentiation was a challenge.

We had to really had unterstand our value proposition to the customer:  we’re local,  we’re thought leaders, and we are reliable.  In fact, as consolidation in our indstrutry as accellerated, we emphasized that we have local ownership that’s involved in the community.  We, as a company, want to see the entire community succeed and prosper.  That’s something that our new private equity owners can’t say.

That was a terrific, pivotal move to have technical talent closer to customers.  We truly believe that service quality is not an afterthought. That it can serve as a key differentiator. We have found that organizations that empower their technical teams to engage directly with customers see faster problem resolution, deeper relationships, and greater loyalty. This kind of proximity often turns service interactions into opportunities for insight, trust-building, and long-term value creation. How has this shift impacted your customer relationships and service outcomes?

First and foremost, it didn’t happen overnight.  It was an intentional effort on the part of every member of our team.  Yes, I had to articulate it, but secondarily, they had to live it out.  Often, that means getting up at 2 am to respond to a service call.   I mean, who wants to leave the comfort and warmth of their bed to head out to a service call at 0-dark-thirty?  But that’s what our team does when lives, property, or process are on the line.

Here’s the lesson learned: our customers appreciate the effort it takes, and they value that effort and time to protect lives, property, and processes.

Shawn, let’s talk about one of my favorite topics, performance management and metrics. Metrics shape behavior. What leaders choose to measure determines what teams prioritize, improve, and ultimately deliver. What are the key metrics you track today, and how do they differ from what you measured back in 2017? Which metrics have had the biggest impact on decision-making and behavior across the organization?

Wow, again, this is a great question. 

As far as key metrics are concerned, we transitioned into a process that measured Key Performance Indicators such as:  number of prospecting calls made; number of targeted customer calls made; and further, number of post-service call follow-up calls made. 

We didn’t rely on a BOT to ask those questions; we established an internal tracking system through our CRM to assign a live human being to make those calls.  We believe that made the difference in establishing a long-term relationship.

One of the things our community appreciates is hearing about lessons learned. Shawn, what are the biggest lessons you’ve learned on this journey? Looking back, was there anything you initially underestimated or would approach differently today? And what advice would you offer to other leaders in established, highly competitive industries who want to drive meaningful change?

To me, as a leader, the biggest lesson learned was that of being “present.”  In other words, you can’t just dictate a direction and expect it to happen.  You must be dedicated to seeing it through.  That means being there for your team – shoulder to shoulder – when they make the call or the follow-up call.  It means role-playing conversations and critiquing them before and after they occur.

And finally, it means assuring your team that 24/7, you’re there for them to support and encourage them in their efforts to move the organization to the next level.

Shawn, thank you for sharing your journey. Your story is a testament to the power of disciplined process, customer-centricity, and the courage to challenge the status quo. For those listening, growth doesn’t come from random acts—it comes from deliberate choices about customers, processes, and how value is delivered. For those listening, if you’re ready, let’s have a conversation about how to move beyond commoditization and operationalize sustainable growth.

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: What are the most common reasons established companies experience stagnant growth, even in expanding markets?

A: Stagnant growth often results from eroding differentiation, increased internal complexity, and a failure to adapt processes or value propositions to evolving customer needs—even when market demand is rising.

Q2: How can a customer-centric approach accelerate growth in mature, competitive industries?

A: Focusing on customer-centricity helps organizations identify and prioritize their most valuable customers, tailor their offerings, and drive loyalty. This approach shifts growth from acquiring “more” customers to acquiring the “right” customers, resulting in improved retention and profitability.

Q3: Why is customer segmentation and profiling essential for sustainable business growth?

A: Effective segmentation and profiling reveal which customers align best with your value proposition. By understanding attributes such as relationship longevity, communication style, and operational fit, companies can focus resources where they yield the greatest impact.

Q4: How does process mapping drive operational excellence and profitability?

A: Process mapping uncovers inefficiencies and bottlenecks across sales, service, and delivery. By optimizing workflows, organizations can reduce margin leakage, minimize project overruns, and create a culture of continuous improvement.

Q5: What’s the role of messaging and positioning in differentiating a business?

A: Clear, consistent messaging and strategic positioning ensure that every customer touchpoint communicates unique value. This strengthens brand perception, aligns internal teams, and supports competitive advantage—especially in crowded markets.

Q6: How do sales playbooks and training support customer-centric growth?

A: Dynamic sales playbooks align teams on best practices, value delivery, and the customer journey. Ongoing training and KPI discipline foster adaptability and ensure consistent execution, which is critical for scaling growth.

Q7: Why is direct engagement between technical teams and customers important for service quality?

A: Empowering technical teams to interact directly with customers leads to faster issue resolution, deeper relationships, and greater loyalty. Service quality becomes a key differentiator and a source of long-term value creation.

Q8: What are the most effective metrics for managing performance and supporting growth?

A: Metrics should track both activity (e.g., prospecting, follow-up calls) and outcomes (e.g., retention, revenue, margin improvement). The right KPIs shape behavior, support accountability, and drive continuous improvement across the organization.

Q9: What leadership practices are essential for driving transformation in established organizations?

A: Successful transformation requires leaders to be present, model desired behaviors, support their teams, and reinforce a culture of discipline and accountability. Change is sustained when leaders are hands-on and committed to seeing it through.

Q10: How can organizations avoid commoditization and maintain pricing power?

A: By differentiating through customer experience, operational excellence, and service quality, companies can shift the conversation away from price and foster strategic, long-term customer relationships.

Today’s conversation explores how a lean process improvement initiative, originally launched to address patient complaints about long wait times, evolved into something much more: a deeply embedded customer-centric culture grounded in customer value and customer-centricy, and a move away from random acts of efficiency toward a systematic, measurable approach to customer experience. Stephanie Collins, CEO of Austin Retina, a practice that has been serving patients since 1979, joins us today as our guest for What’s Your Edge.  Stephanie has been with the organization for 25 years, rising through the ranks to lead the practice through significant growth. The practice has grown from a single provider to 19 physicians and nearly 300 employees. And recently, it became a part of Cencora, a global leader in pharmaceutical and medical supply distribution. Stephanie, I’m looking forward to learning how Austin Retina reframed time as a critical dimension of value, how you operationalized customer-centricity, and how you measure the impact of customer value on growth, loyalty, and performance.

Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Stephanie, let’s start with the moment that really catalyzed change. In 2015, Austin Retina initiated a lean process. One of the primary triggers was patient feedback that they felt the practice didn’t value their time—that they were being treated like a number. I imagine most everyone listening has experienced this feeling. In fact, nationally, studies suggest that patients spend roughly 11–18 minutes just waiting to be seen in a doctor’s office, and when you add travel and disruption to the workday, researchers estimate about $89 billion a year in lost time due to medical visits. Now, when we wind back the clock, patients were often in the office for three hours, and these patients often see their physicians every 4–6 weeks. That is a significant time commitment. We can easily see why the initial goal of the lean initiative was straightforward: shorten wait time. Congratulations on achieving your goal and reducing the wait time from three hours to about 90 minutes. Take us back to that period. What were you hearing from patients that made you realize “we have to do something different”? Was there a specific story or piece of feedback that made the leadership team say, “We cannot continue this way”?

When I think back to that time, what really struck me wasn’t just that patients were waiting a long time — it was how that wait made them feel. We began hearing consistent feedback that patients felt like they were being processed rather than cared for. One moment that stuck with me came from a long-time patient who very kindly said, “I know you’re all working hard, but it feels like my time doesn’t matter.”

For a patient who is already managing a chronic condition, that comment was eye-opening. Many of our patients visit us every four to six weeks, and for many years. When they’re spending three hours in our office each time, it adds up to a tremendous burden.

That was the moment when our leadership team realized this wasn’t just about efficiency — it was about respect, empathy, and dignity. We couldn’t continue operating in a way that unintentionally signaled that our time mattered more than theirs. That realization is what pushed us to take bold action and pursue a lean initiative.

I personally believe time is our most precious asset. How did you and your team come to frame the problem—not just as an operational issue, but as a patient or customer value issue?

As we started digging into the long visit times, we realized the real question wasn’t just “How do we make the process faster?” — it was “Are we delivering what patients truly value?” That shift in thinking was important. We wanted to reduce waste, costs, and redundancies in the process, but never at the expense of the quality of their care or the relationship they have with their physician.

Framing the problem through the lens of patient value helped us focus on improving flow and eliminating waste while still protecting the elements of care that matter most. It allowed us to design improvements that were more meaningful, more patient-centered, and ultimately more sustainable.

I love the fact you stepped into your customers shoes.  In our work, we define customer value as the balance between what customers receive and what they must give up, such as time, effort, money, and risk, to obtain that value. For many customers, time is one of the most precious currencies.  From your perspective, when did you begin to see time not just as a scheduling issue, but as a core component of the value proposition Austin Retina offers its patients?

The turning point for me was recognizing that time is deeply emotional. It’s tied to autonomy, to a sense of control, to quality of life. In retina care, many of our patients already feel like they’ve lost control — their vision, their health, their schedule revolves around injections and follow-ups.

So, when we began mapping the patient journey, we realized that if we could give time back to them, we were restoring some of that control. That’s when it became clear that time wasn’t a scheduling matter; it was a core part of our value proposition.

You started with a lean initiative to reduce wait times, but over time, that effort evolved into something deeper—a cultural shift toward patient or what we call customer-centricity. At what point did you recognize, “This is no longer just a process improvement project; this is reshaping our culture”?

For us, the moment we realized this had grown beyond a process-improvement initiative and had truly become a cultural transformation was when patients started commenting on their own. We began hearing things like, “I don’t know what you’re doing differently, but keep it up!”

Those spontaneous comments were incredibly validating. They showed us that patients weren’t just experiencing a shorter visit — they were feeling a real improvement in how they were cared for.

What was just as meaningful, though, was what happened internally. As patients started noticing the changes, our staff re-engaged in a way we hadn’t seen in a long time. They began bringing forward new ideas, suggesting areas where we could streamline or improve the experience for everyone. You could feel the excitement building — this sense that we were accomplishing something important together.

That combination of patient appreciation and staff enthusiasm is when we knew we weren’t simply adjusting workflows. We were reshaping our culture around valuing time, reducing frustration, and creating a better experience across the board.

What an excellent point about how the process helped reshape the culture. We often talk about the need to operationalize customer-centricity; that is, to move from slogans about being customer-focused to embedding customer value into processes, metrics, and decision-making. What were some of the concrete operational changes that signaled to your patients, “We heard you, and we’re changing how we work to respect your time”? And how did you make those changes stick so they became “the way we do things here” rather than a one-time initiative?

Some of the most meaningful changes were:

What made these changes stick was that we embedded them into daily management. They weren’t “projects”; they became expectations. And as soon as patients started noticing shorter visits and smoother experiences, the team became even more committed.

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I think that’s a powerful point about making changes expectations. We often emphasize that customer-centric growth depends on being able to define, measure, and monitor customer value. We’ve written about customer value metrics that facilitate customer-centric growth and about the importance of identifying the variables that matter most to your customers, like time, access, outcomes, relationship, and so on: What measures and metrics are you using to track whether you are delivering that value? For example, do you track average total visit time, wait time by stage, on-time starts, or visit variability? And have you adopted or adapted any form of customer value metrics beyond the measure of time, such as combining time, satisfaction, and clinical outcomes into a composite view of value?

To truly understand whether we’re delivering value, we had to measure the elements of the visit that matter most to patients. Today, we focus on a set of operational and experience metrics that give us a clear picture of both efficiency and patient perception.

We measure:

By looking at these measures together, we’re able to evaluate not just speed, but predictability, consistency, and overall patient value. It helps us pinpoint where improvements will make the greatest difference in the patient experience.

Stephanie, these seem like meaningful measures. Thank you for sharing them. We strongly believe that customer value delivers faster organic growth. And that organizations that explicitly manage and measure customer value tend to grow faster and more profitably. Stephanie, how has focusing on patient value, particularly time, influenced your organic growth? And have you seen changes in referral patterns, patient retention, or word-of-mouth as a result of this shift?

The shift to shorter, more predictable visits has had a tremendous impact on our growth and our reputation in the community. Patients consistently tell us how much they appreciate not having to spend hours in the clinic, especially given how frequently they need to see us. That positive experience translates directly into word-of-mouth referrals — patients recommending us to family and friends because they genuinely feel cared for and respected.

It’s also strengthened our relationships with referring providers. We hear often that patients go back to their optometrist or primary eye care provider and share how smooth and efficient their visit was. That kind of unsolicited feedback builds trust and reinforces the confidence referring doctors have in sending patients to us.

And operationally, the improvements in flow and visit time have enabled us to care for more patients in the community. When you increase efficiency without compromising quality, you expand access — and that’s incredibly important in a specialty like retina, where timely care can make all the difference.

We often describe the value proposition as the customer-centric bridge between your business and your customers’ definition of value. In a specialty like retina, patients are often with you for a long time, returning every 4–6 weeks. That creates not just a series of visits, but a relationship. In what ways has your value proposition evolved as you’ve become more intentional about being patient-centric?

Consistency is everything. We reinforce our value proposition by making sure patients feel it at every touchpoint:

I couldn’t agree more about the importance of every touchpoint in delivering on the value proposition and promise. Stephanie, How do you communicate and reinforce that value proposition, whether that’s respect for time, quality of care, continuity, empathy across your touchpoints (scheduling, front desk, clinical staff, physicians)?

We internally post and discuss metrics with our entire team and celebrate these metrics and the positive feedback we receive on a daily basis.  When patients provide feedback either spontaneously during their visit or via a Google review, we share those highlights with the whole organization thanking them for their commitment.

We’ve written about how relationship strategy and brand equity are strengthened when organizations consistently deliver on what customers value and measure that delivery. Have you seen evidence that your patient-centric approach has enhanced your brand equity, for example, in how referring physicians talk about you, or how patients describe you to others?

Patients consistently mention shorter and smoother visits and feeling genuinely cared for.  When patients begin describing you as “efficient and compassionate,” you know you are doing something right.

It takes commitment to sustain a customer-centric culture and leveraging best practices.  What practices or mechanisms help you maintain alignment around customer centricity?

We use several mechanisms to keep us aligned:

In terms of process and best practices, I’m curious about how you reinforce your processes. Are there thresholds or targets you manage to—for example, “no patient should be in the clinic longer than X minutes” or “Y% of visits must start within Z minutes of scheduled time”?

Yes, we do track and report on certain metrics and targets for each doctor and their team monthly.  We aim for a 90 min lead time, an efficiency score that looks patients time in clinic compared to the staffing ratio, and of course, always measuring these against patient satisfaction scores and feedback.

Many organizations say they want to be customer-centric, but they struggle to translate that aspiration into metrics, processes, and behaviors. They end up with what we call “random acts”.  Random acts of customer experience, random acts of improvement, random acts of efficiency. As opposed to a disciplined, value-driven approach anchored in customer value metrics. How can leaders avoid “random acts” and instead build a systematic approach to customer value, similar to what you did with lean and patient experience?

One of the biggest lessons we learned is that you don’t have to — and really can’t — build a full systematic approach all at once. That’s where many organizations get stuck. Creating something from scratch can feel daunting, and when you try to design the entire system upfront, it becomes overwhelming and unsustainable.

Lean taught us the value of small, intentional steps. Instead of chasing big, complex solutions, we focused on small-scale trials. We would identify a specific problem, bring the right people together to brainstorm a potential solution, test it on a very small scale, and then track the metrics closely. If it worked, we refined it and expanded it. If it didn’t, we learned quickly and adjusted.

Those small cycles of testing and learning helped us avoid what we call “random acts” — one-off improvements that don’t stick. By taking small steps, guided by data, we were able to build a systematic approach over time. And the team gained confidence because they could see the impact of each incremental improvement. That momentum is what ultimately created sustained cultural change.

In our conversation, I feel like we’ve made the case that customer-centricity is not a project; it’s a way of operating. It requires clarity about what customers value, the right metrics, and a commitment to continuously aligning your processes and decisions with that value. What routines or governance mechanisms help you keep customer value at the center of strategy, operations, and growth?

We have internal hard and soft skill training and onboarding programs, internal certification programs for LEAN and Leadership Development, recognition programs, per physician and team scorecards as well as the leadership team has weekly meetings, and quarterly strategic planning discussions.

Stephanie, thank you for sharing your experience with us.  Based on your journey, what advice would you offer leaders who want to embed customer value—especially time—into their culture and operations and what are some your biggest lessons learned about listening to customers, redesigning processes, and measuring what matters?

My biggest advice is to really listen — and be willing to hear what’s uncomfortable. Patients were telling us the truth long before we acted on it.

Second, don’t underestimate the cultural side of operational change. You can have the best processes in the world, but if your team doesn’t believe in the “why,” they won’t sustain them.

Third, measure what matters. If you believe time is value, then track it relentlessly.

And finally, stay humble. Improvement is never finished. Customer value is a journey; the moment you think you’ve arrived is the moment you start to slip.

Stephanie, your story shows how listening to customers, treating time as a critical dimension of value, and embedding customer-centric practices into processes and metrics can transform both the experience and the business.

For those of you listening, Stephanie’s experience at Austin Retina is a powerful reminder that time is one of the most important forms of customer value. When you make time visible, measure it, and design your processes around it, you move from random acts of customer experience to a disciplined, customer-centric system that improves satisfaction, loyalty, and organic growth.

When you’re ready to move beyond good intentions and truly operationalize customer-centricity in your organization, we’d welcome the opportunity to help you identify practical steps you can take to put time—and customer value—at the center of your strategy, operations, and performance.

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: What is customer value in the context of healthcare and patient experience?

Q2: Why is time considered a critical dimension of customer value?

Q3: How did Austin Retina use lean process improvement to enhance patient experience?

Q4: What are customer value metrics, and which ones did Austin Retina focus on?

Q5: How does customer-centricity differ from traditional efficiency initiatives?

Q6: How can focusing on customer value drive faster organic growth?

Q7: What governance and routines help sustain a customer-centric culture?

Q8: How can leaders avoid “random acts” of customer experience and build a systematic approach?

In this episode, we’re joined by Stacie Feller, President of Kanga Roof. Stacie’s journey is a powerful illustration of how the absence, or presence, of customer data can dramatically impact business decisions. We’ll go behind the scenes to explore how a lack of customer insights created missed opportunities, and how a renewed focus on data has since transformed her decision-making. Today’s conversation takes us from instinct to insight and ultimately to impact by exploring how data transforms business decisions into measurable growth.

Stacie, at the outset of the pandemic, uncertainty was the order of the day. Like many leaders, you and your team anticipated a sharp decline in business. Yet, the reality was the opposite. Instead, you experienced a surge in demand for roofing services. Despite this unexpected opportunity, Kanga Roof was unable to fully capitalize. The supply chain faltered, and your organization was caught off guard. This wasn’t simply a story of external disruption, but a wake-up call for the importance of customer data.

This scenario is not unique. According to Forrester, “insights-driven businesses” are growing at more than 30% annually—far outpacing their peers.  The difference? These organizations don’t rely on gut instinct; they invest in data-driven decision-making.

Let’s start at that critical moment. What were the early warning signs that your assumptions about customer demand might be off? How did you recognize that the root issue was a lack of actionable customer data?

During the early days of the pandemic, we assumed business would slow down like it did for most industries. But when the phone started ringing off the hook, we realized our assumptions were off. Homeowners were home, noticing roof issues they hadn’t before, and investing in their property instead of travel.

The problem was that we didn’t have good data on who our customers really were, how they found us, what services they needed, or how their priorities were shifting. We were reacting instead of planning. That’s when I realized we needed a stronger system for capturing and using customer insights to guide decisions instead of relying on instinct.

What you described is something we see across many organizations: decisions made from instinct or urgency rather than insight. We often refer to these as “random acts”. Random acts of marketing, planning, selling, or even customer engagement. They feel productive in the moment, but often lead to inefficiencies or missed opportunities. Once you recognized that pattern, what steps did you take to move from these random acts to more deliberate, insight-driven actions?

We had to get intentional. We started by documenting every customer touchpoint—how they heard about us, what problems they were trying to solve, and what factors drove their buying decision. Then we implemented tools to track trends in lead sources, service types, and timing.

Instead of reacting to what we thought was happening, we began making decisions based on what the data told us. It wasn’t just marketing; it was operations and staffing.  For example, we have trained our appointment coordinators to gather data that will help them determine who is the best roofing advisor to send to them.  That shift from gut feeling to evidence was a real turning point.

Your experience highlights a common pitfall: acting on assumptions rather than evidence. As you reflect, what was the impact of not having real-time customer insights during that period? What decisions do you wish you could have made if you’d had better data?

Not having real-time data caused us to miss opportunities. We couldn’t predict demand surges, so we were short on materials and labor when business spiked. Looking back, I wish we’d had a clearer view of customer intent, like knowing who was in research mode versus ready to buy. If we’d had better insights then, we could’ve staffed more efficiently, adjusted pricing based on material shortages, and prioritized the right jobs. It taught us that every delay in understanding our customers costs both time and revenue.

Many organizations realize they need better insights—but struggle to know where to start. We have found it is helpful to have a practical framework organizations can use to move beyond intuition and experience. That’s why we developed our  8 Steps for Applying Business Data-Derived Insights approach that transforms data into a disciplined decision-making process. The framework offers a systematic way to recognize, validate, and apply insights from quantitative and qualitative data. It emphasizes that data-derived insights, when leveraged through a disciplined, eight-step process, enable more objective, scalable, and predictive decision-making, leading to above-market growth and significant EBITDA gains, somewhere between 15-25%.  Stacie, what were your first steps in building a more robust customer data foundation? Did you focus on capturing customer feedback, transaction data, market trends, or something else?

Our first step was organizing the data we already had. We pulled customer information from estimates, service calls, and follow-ups into one system so we could see patterns. Then we started collecting feedback after every job and tracking reviews to understand what customers valued most.

We also began layering in operational data—things like lead times, call volumes, and job profitability. It wasn’t just about collecting data; it was about connecting it so we could make better business decisions across departments.

I know you are very familiar with the value of the supply chain.  When it comes to insights, there is a supply chain as well. The insights supply chain entails five critical stages: plan, source, make, deliver, and return. By mapping and continuously optimizing this “insights supply chain,” organizations can efficiently transform vast amounts of data into timely, relevant insights distributed across business functions. Proactive management of this process is essential for maximizing customer value, sustaining competitive advantage, and supporting long-term business success. How do you ensure that your data collection and analysis processes keep pace with evolving customer needs and market conditions? What systems or routines have you put in place to keep your “insights supply chain” flowing and relevant? What obstacles did you encounter as you tried to close the gaps in your data supply chain?

We treat data like an ongoing process, not a one-time project. Every quarter, our leadership team reviews trends in customer behavior and operations. We look for shifts—like a rise in roof repairs versus replacements—and adapt our marketing and staffing accordingly.

One obstacle early on was data accuracy. We learned quickly that bad data leads to bad decisions. So, we trained our team on why clean data matters, built checks into our CRM, and made data quality part of everyone’s responsibility.

Because effective business planning and decision-making require more than intuition. It demands a disciplined approach to identifying trends and patterns within both internal and external data. By understanding and leveraging these trends (general directions over time) and patterns (repeatable occurrences), organizations can anticipate customer needs, allocate resources strategically, and drive future growth. The real advantage comes from combining data trends and patterns to inform forward-looking, customer-centric business strategies. With a stronger data foundation, how did your decision-making evolve? Can you share specific examples of business decisions—whether about staffing, marketing, or operations—that you can now make with confidence thanks to data? How do you distinguish between a trend and an anomaly when interpreting your data?

Today, data drives a lot of our major decisions. For example, we track which zip codes convert best and adjust marketing budgets based on that. We analyze job types to know when to add or cross-train crews. Even our customer service scripts are refined from feedback trends.  We created a dynamic internal webpage for our appointment coordinators to follow that helps with this.

To tell a trend from an anomaly, we look for consistency over time and across multiple data points. One busy week doesn’t mean a market shift…but three quarters of the same pattern does. That discipline has made our decisions much more confident and less reactive.

I can see how important it is to take the right action at the right time. Stacie, a lot of people find it difficult to justify investing in data initiatives. We have found that two key metrics for evaluating the ROI of data are time to insights (TTI) and time to decisions (TTD). By tracking how quickly an organization can transform raw data into actionable insights (TTI) and then convert those insights into informed business decisions (TTD), leaders can quantify the productivity and profitability gains from their data investments. Accelerating both TTI and TTD is essential for gaining a competitive edge, improving operational efficiency, and maximizing the value derived from data-driven strategies. How do you measure the value of your customer data today? What metrics or business outcomes do you track to ensure your insights are driving results? How do you connect your data efforts to tangible business value?

We measure success by looking at conversion rates, job profitability, and customer satisfaction.  We also monitor how fast we move from data to action—if it takes weeks to act on insights, that’s a lost opportunity. The faster we turn information into decisions, the more value we get from our data investment.

Simply accumulating more data does not guarantee better business insights or outcomes. Throughout our conversation, you’ve mentioned that it is important for organizations to establish a disciplined process for data management. You brought up a great point about the quality of data, its relevance, and the need for structured analysis to extract actionable insights that drive strategic decisions. As you mentioned, value comes not from volume, but from a systematic approach that transforms the right data into meaningful intelligence for business growth. For leaders just starting their data journey, what advice would you offer? What are the biggest lessons learned about collecting, analyzing, and applying customer data? For those further along, what best practices or next-level challenges should they anticipate?

Start small and stay consistent. Don’t get overwhelmed by collecting every piece of data—focus on what helps you serve your customers better. For us, that was understanding where leads came from and why customers chose us. Once we had that, we could build from there.

The biggest lesson is to actually use the data. Too many businesses collect it but never act on it. Create a rhythm of reviewing, learning, and applying what you see. That’s where the real growth happens.

One of the biggest hurdles we see is that many organizations operate through what we call “random acts”.  These are isolated efforts not anchored to a clear data-driven strategy. Avoiding these requires discipline, process, and focus. For leaders just starting out, how do you recommend they prevent these random acts from creeping into their data and decision-making processes?

Random acts happen when there’s no clear strategy or accountability. We prevent that by setting measurable goals and reviewing performance regularly. Every initiative—marketing, hiring, or operations—must be tied to a specific data point or outcome.

That discipline keeps us focused and ensures that everyone understands why we’re doing something, not just what we’re doing.

Stacie, it’s clear you and your team have found actionable customer insights to be a critical driver of business growth, enabling your organization to anticipate needs, personalize offerings, and build stronger relationships. We believe that by systematically collecting and analyzing customer data, you can see patterns and preferences that inform strategy and foster innovation. And your story seems to bear that out. By leveraging customer insights, companies can differentiate themselves, improve customer value, and accelerate sustainable growth. How do you ensure that customer insights are systematically collected, analyzed, and translated into strategies that deliver measurable value and sustainable growth?

We’ve built a rhythm of gathering and sharing insights across the company. Our CRM gives every department visibility into customer trends. We use that data to forecast sales, plan staffing, and even improve training programs.

When people see how their input feeds into better decisions, they take ownership of the data. That’s how we’ve sustained a culture of continuous improvement.

As we wrap up, let’s talk about building a data-driven culture, which requires more than technology. It takes leadership commitment, clear processes, and continuous investment in data literacy across the organization. It is critical to align people, practices, and incentives to ensure that data and insights are consistently used in decision-making at every level. The key is to foster collaboration, encourage curiosity, and make data accessible and actionable, so organizations can embed a culture where insights drive performance, innovation, and long-term growth. What are the most important steps leaders can take to embed a truly data-driven mindset across the organization, ensuring that customer insights consistently inform strategy and innovation?

As a leader, I try to model curiosity—asking questions like “what does the data say?” before making decisions. We include data reviews in leadership meetings and align our KPIs around both customer experience and profitability.

The key is making data part of the conversation, not an afterthought. When leaders value it, everyone follows suit.

How do you, as President, ensure that data accountability is part of leadership discussions—perhaps even boardroom conversations—so that insight-driven decision-making becomes part of your organization’s governance?

Data accountability starts at the top. We are transparent about what’s working and what isn’t. We discuss metrics so everyone understands how their numbers tie to the company’s goals.

Over time, that’s built trust and alignment. People know decisions are made based on facts, not feelings, and that’s changed how we lead.

Stacie, thank you for sharing your story and the lessons learned from your journey and highlighting how moving from instinct to actionable insights fundamentally transforms C-Suite decision-making.  Through your real-world experience, we see the tangible impact of building disciplined data processes, investing in data literacy, and cultivating a culture where insights drive strategy, operations, and growth. Our conversation underscores that sustainable business success depends on embedding data-driven thinking at every level of leadership.

Ready to take your organization from instinct to insight? Connect with us to discover practical steps you can implement today for a more resilient, customer-centric, and competitive future.

(written by Penn at Sintra.ai) 

FAQ: From Instinct to Customer Insights for Better C-Suite Decision Making 

In this episode of What’s Your Edge? we’re focusing on a foundational driver of sustainable growth: innovation. Research from McKinsey suggests that companies that prioritize innovation generate significantly higher growth than their peers. In one study, “innovation leaders” achieved 2.4 times higher total shareholder returns than laggards over a 10-year period, underscoring that innovation is not a “nice to have,” but a core driver of long-term value. 

As everyone listening knows, true innovation isn’t a one-time event or the product of a lone genius. It’s a disciplined, iterative effort, woven into the culture and operations of high-performing organizations. You may have read our article “Massive Action Leads to Business Growth, Innovation, and Operational Excellence,” where we explored how companies that operationalize innovation, where it is everyone’s responsibility, are the ones that consistently outpace their peers.  Today, we’re talking with Ed Trevis, President and CEO of Corvalent, an industrial computing manufacturing company, whose leadership journey offers a compelling blueprint for transforming a legacy business through innovation. 

Welcome Ed! 

Thank you, Laura, for inviting me to this episode. You’re absolutely right that induced innovation can drive profound transformation. In my 32 years of leading the company, we’ve experienced multiple moments where we had to break from the norm and pivot, whether for technological advancement, shifting markets, or economic and financial pressures. As CEOs, we must maintain a healthy paranoia about the possibility of becoming obsolete, and it’s often in those moments that real action and breakthrough innovation occur.

Ed, I’m so glad you mentioned that innovation starts at the top. And that Leaders must set expectations, model curiosity, and foster accountability. Ed, you’ve led Corvalent since its founding in 1993. Can you share the pivotal moment when you realized Corvalent needed to embrace a culture of innovation? What was the catalyst for this shift?

Purchase Your Growth Plan

There were several moments in the life of our organization where we had to be more than innovative, but there was one that I even wrote in my Portuguese book about innovation. The chapter is called “The dangerous silence and how demotivation threatened our future”. We faced a silent, but devastating problem: employee demotivation. A widespread feeling of stagnation, low engagement from employees, and a disconnect from the real impact of their work. It was like their tasks just felt like simple tasks, without a greater purpose. Over time, this created a cycle of dissatisfaction, low productivity, and no personal growth.  

Worse still, when a team loses the belief that their work doesn’t matter, the team loses vitality. 

Disconnection was subtle, but became very evident: 

Teams were less collaborative, silos were created throughout the organization, resistance to change, and in some cases, great talents left the organization. 

When we identified the silent problem, we realized something fundamental. It wasn’t enough to innovate products and services; we needed to innovate in how we managed people and culture. 

I like your phrase, the silent problem. We know from our experience that no transformation is without challenges. Changing culture, especially in a long-established company, requires trust, communication, and clear incentives. How did you secure buy-in across different teams and functions? 

Innovation became part of the strategic pillar within our corporate objectives. A living practice throughout the company, across every single department. 

We needed to change mindsets. 

As a result, we gave everyone a voice, encouraged participation, promoted exchange of ideas, made innovation part of everyone’s life at Corvalent, as well as personally. 

Making innovation a part of everyone’s life at Corvalent was quite an undertaking. At VEM, we believe innovation flourishes when it’s systematic and measurable. Encouraging innovation in every part of the organization, from HR to finance to product, and setting a target to innovate every year is a great example. How did you structure the expectation that every team would contribute to innovation annually? What systems or processes did you put in place to support this? 

One of the main objectives of our yearly strategic planning is Innovation.  

Every department in the organization develops what we call “Rocks” for the year based on corporate objectives. These rocks are like S.M.A.R.T. goals. They are thought of and established before the end of the prior year. Every team member, either individually or in groups, is assigned within every department to help accomplish those goals. 

Innovation is always a main corporate objective; the company may have ideas of innovation to be implemented for the year, and teams set them up to support the corporate objective.  

Sometimes, the best ideas come from unexpected places. Can you share an example of an innovation that surprised you—perhaps one that emerged from a department not traditionally associated with product development? 

As a designer and local manufacturer of industrial computing solutions, it operates through a well-structured organization with multiple departments, including sales, engineering, production, and shipping. Recently, our marketing team developed a new website architecture and design that clearly separates our two distinct product lines, hardware and software, each serving different industry segments. The result is an intuitive, easy-to-navigate, and highly functional online experience that effectively communicates the full scope of Corvalent’s capabilities. 

That’s a great example. Innovation must solve real problems. You created a new platform, which provides preventive and predictive maintenance data, that was developed in response to customer needs for reducing downtime and costs. What is the name of your platform, and what customer insights or market signals led to its development? How did you validate the need for this solution? 

CorGrid Suite is an industrial IoT platform that integrates both software and hardware components, providing a complete solution for data collection, monitoring, and intelligent control across industrial applications. 

Key industry segments we focus on today are Industrial Automation Process, Smart Machines, Smart Energy & Utilities, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Smart Building and Infrastructure, and Smart Cities.

Over the last decade, we observed that our capital equipment customers were closely following the global adoption of Industry 4.0 among large manufacturers. Through continuous conversations and analysis of their competitive environment, we identified a key objective shared across the industry: the need to implement preventive and predictive maintenance, along with some level of operational control of their equipment. 

Building on this insight, we designed a solution framework not only to meet those needs but also to empower customers to manage and resolve field issues more effectively, all through a unified, single-pane-of-glass platform that integrates monitoring, tracking, and control. 

As we know from “Ensure Strong Innovation Adoption,” even the best solutions can face adoption barriers. Despite a clear value proposition, you mentioned the initial adoption rate was lower than anticipated. What did you learn from this experience, and how did it influence your approach going forward? 

Our segments focus, acquisition of proof of concepts, and creation of a full turnkey solution to help customers from assessment, software, to hardware, to installation, are a key part of our approach. A large majority of prospects are not prepared to implement the entire automation on their own, so we developed a process to support customer implementation. 

Successful innovators are relentless iterators. When adoption lagged, Corvalent didn’t just push harder on existing customers. You looked outward, identifying new verticals like smart buildings, smart energy, and smart cities, and leveraged beta sites to build credibility. How did you and your team identify and prioritize these new verticals? What role have beta sites played in gaining traction and validating use cases? 

We conducted two years of consultative marketing research and a pre-sales exercise prior of having specific applications designed under our PaaS platform. This enables us to understand the pains of each segment, challenges, market potential, customer ROI, and competitive landscape. 

Ed, iteration is a recurring theme in your leadership. How do you foster a culture where experimentation and learning from setbacks are valued?  

Learn by doing is part of our culture, the positive state of mind of going through the experience, whether it is a success or a failure. Strategic thinking and Planning, post-mortem, lessons learned, and true positive reinforcement leadership style. Knowledge + Experience (good or bad) = Wisdom as an organization 

We advise our customers to measure not just outputs but outcomes, using clear metrics and feedback loops. What metrics or key performance indicators do you use to measure the success of innovation initiatives at Corvalent?

Over the years, we have developed dashboards that encompass not only results, but also metrics for intercompany communication and processes on activities of engineering, marketing, sales, and operations development, focused on constant “team feedback”. Making sure nothing is missed or forgotten. 

Plan – Delegate – ongoing, constant feedback behavior rather than follow-up management as a culture. 

Some of the key performance indicators and metrics we use in our company are customer and employee surveys. Their feedback helps us understand their input about innovation. Helps us define and measure employee and customer retention. A major part of what we sell, and our ideology, is longevity and consistency.  

Driving adoption in new markets requires more than just a great product. What strategies have proven most effective for accelerating the adoption of innovative solutions, especially in unfamiliar verticals? 

We use advisory boards, marketing surveys, attend conferences, exhibit at vertical tradeshows, and leverage beta site deals to help drive adoption. 

Your long tenure as a CEO gives you a unique perspective on leadership and innovation. How has your leadership philosophy evolved as Corvalent has become more innovation-driven? What personal practices or beliefs sustain your edge as a leader? 

Early in my career as a CEO, I realized that leadership can be a lonely place. That realization led me to join Vistage International, a global community of more than 47,000 leaders, where I’ve been a member for 24 years. Through this community, I’ve learned not only from the experiences of fellow executives but also from world-class speakers who cover nearly every topic imaginable in business. 

These decades of shared insight have reinforced a fundamental truth: leadership and innovation are inseparable. They are the drivers of longevity in business and the forces that push us to continually improve as leaders and thinkers. To me, the belief (mantra) is simple: to innovate is to live a meaningful, productive life. 

Looking ahead, the pace of change will only accelerate. What are your priorities for Corvalent’s next phase of innovation? Are there new frontiers or technologies you’re particularly excited about?

I’m truly energized by the emerging frontier of an All-Americas Free Trade landscape, a powerful vision where more than one billion people across over 50 countries and territories come together in unprecedented collaboration. Within a mere 2–5 hour time-zone span, and united by shared linguistic and cultural roots, the entire hemisphere is poised to ignite what could become the greatest economic boom of the next 50 years. 

Together, we can share our greatest technologies, elevate innovation to new heights, and build a future defined by peace, partnership, and widespread prosperity. This is more than free trade; it’s a historic opportunity to uplift nations, empower people, and unlock the full potential of all the Americas, estimating an economy of over 50 trillion dollars in less than 20 years. 

Thank you, Ed, for illustrating what it means to build and sustain a culture of innovation. I found your message that, rather than treating the silent problem as a human resources issue, you and your team recognized it as a strategic threat and used it as a catalyst to innovate your products and how you managed people, culture, and performance. By elevating innovation to a strategic pillar and embedding it into corporate objectives, you’ve shown us how innovation can make a “living practice” across every department. Thank you for sharing your experiences and insights. For our listeners, remember that building a culture of innovation is within reach for any organization, provided you commit to the process, measure what matters, and never stop learning. 

If you’re ready to move beyond one-off initiatives and build a true culture of innovation, start by asking the same questions Ed did: Where is the “dangerous silence” in your organization? How are you equipping every team, not just product, to innovate? 

To explore how to operationalize innovation, improve adoption, and use data and process to accelerate growth, check out our resources on innovation, iteration, and performance management. 

Let’s talk if you’d like help assessing your current innovation readiness or building a roadmap for your next phase of growth.

(Written by Penn at Sintra.ai) 

Over time, these steps can help you move from isolated efforts to a repeatable, scalable innovation system. 

You’re probably experiencing what so many of our customers do.  Data pouring in from every direction. Transactions, digital behavior, product usage, customer feedback, and more. As organizations have amassed more information, the real challenge has gone from data collection to translating data into actionable insights and business intelligence. At VisionEdge Marketing, we’ve found that a data-driven culture is a foundational capability for sustained growth and customer-centricity. (See Why a Data Driven Culture Needs to Be at the Top of Your List).

To explore this topic, I’m delighted to welcome Kuber Jain, Senior Data Scientist for Product Analytics at Headspace. Headspace is a leader in the mental health and wellness space. He is an expert at leveraging analytics to drive member engagement and retention. Kuber and I share a similar philosophy.  The key to gaining better insights from data is asking the right questions.

Kuber works closely with the Chief Product Officer and Product Managers, leading efforts to define the key metrics that matter and to leverage insights for optimizing business outcomes and delivering more personalized member experiences. Today, he helps us unpack how to use analytics to drive engagement and growth, explore practical first steps for any organization, and discuss how AI is reshaping the analytics landscape. Most importantly, we’ll focus on how to move from simply having data to making smarter, faster business decisions.

Welcome Kuber!

Thank you, Laura. I’m really excited to be here. In my current role at Headspace, I focus on enhancing member engagement and outcomes by partnering closely with executive stakeholders to define key metrics, size business impact, and lead experimentation initiatives. What excites me most is the ability to translate data into decisions that not only drive growth but also make a meaningful difference in people’s mental health journeys. For me, analytics is about more than dashboards—it’s about helping people connect with the product in a way that improves their lives.

With so much data available, the most valuable skill in analytics is knowing what to ask. The right questions focus your attention, clarify your objectives, and ensure you’re measuring what truly matters for business performance.

At VEM, we regularly advise clients to “count what matters”—to align metrics with business outcomes, not vanity numbers.

Framing the right questions is a competitive advantage. For example, in our work with B2B organizations, we seethe difference between teams that ask, “How many users did we acquire?” versus those that ask, “Which acquisition channels yield the highest lifetime value, and why?” The latter question leads to actionable insights and better resource allocation.

Kuber, as a Senior Data Scientist at Headspace, what are the most important questions you’re asked to answer by product and business leaders? How do you determine which questions will drive the most value for the business?

That’s such an important point. At Headspace, the most valuable questions I’m asked are the ones that tie directly to outcomes—like, “Which experiences are most likely to help members build a lasting habit, and how do we double down on those?”

I prioritize questions based on their connection to impact. If a question can help us retain members longer, drive more meaningful engagement, or identify opportunities to grow sustainably, it rises to the top. And often, my role is to reframe questions so they shift from “what happened?” to “why did it happen, and what can we do about it?” That’s when analytics becomes a real driver of business value.

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Once you’ve defined the right questions, the next step is turning insights into action. This is where many organizations struggle. They have the data and maybe even the answers, but translating those answers into growth strategies is another matter. The key: Take a customer-centric approach. Use data to understand your customers’ journey, identify and eliminate break points, and design interventions that improve both acquisition and retention.

For example, map out your customer touchpoints and use analytics to pinpoint where prospects drop off or disengage. By focusing on these critical moments, you can create better experiences or adjust product features to better meet customer needs.

Kuber, how does your team at Headspace translate data-driven insights into actions that drive customer acquisition and retention? Can you share a practical example where analytics led to a measurable improvement in member engagement or business results?

Translating insights into action is where the rubber meets the road. A big part of my work is making sure the insights we generate are embedded in product and marketing decisions.

For example, one insight we uncovered was that members who completed their very first meditation within 24 hours of signing up were far more likely to stay engaged over time. Acting on that, we partnered with product and lifecycle marketing teams to redesign onboarding nudges—making it easier and more natural for people to take that first step right away. That single experiment created a measurable lift in retention and long-term engagement. It shows how small, insight-driven changes can unlock real business impact.

Many organizations, especially those early in their analytics journey, feel overwhelmed. They may lack the resources of a Headspace or the infrastructure for advanced analytics. The good news is that you don’t need to be a data giant to get started.

At VEM, we recommend a stepwise approach:

In our experience, organizations that follow these steps and create a data-driven culture —no matter their size—see measurable gains in both efficiency and impact. Research has found that organizations with a strong data-driven culture are 58% more likely to exceed their revenue goals than those that are not data-driven.

Kuber, what practical first steps do you recommend for teams that want to use data more effectively, whether they’re just starting out or already have a robust analytics function? How should they prioritize their analytics investments?

My advice is: start small, but be intentional. First, align your team on a few core outcomes that matter most to the business. At Headspace, we rally around metrics like retention, daily active engagement, and outcomes tied to well-being.

Second, build a cadence of review and action. Even if you don’t have advanced AI or a large analytics team, you can ask, “What story is this data telling us, and how do we respond?”

And finally, invest in the basics: clean data pipelines, clear metric definitions, and cross-functional alignment. Once that foundation is set, you can scale into advanced analytics and experimentation with confidence. In my experience, even small teams see outsized impact when they focus on discipline and clarity over complexity.

Well, we certainly cannot have a conversation about data, analytics and insights without touching on Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is rapidly transforming how organizations unlock value from data. AI can automate the discovery of patterns, surface hidden insights, and enable more personalized, predictive experiences. At VisionEdge Marketing, we’ve explored how AI enhances user intent detection and customer-centricity—making it possible to anticipate needs and deliver the right message or product at the right time.

The market is moving quickly: According to Gartner, 61% of global data and analytics decision-makers say their firms are implementing or expanding AI capabilities to drive business outcomes.

But AI isn’t just for the data-rich or tech-savvy. Even organizations with limited data can benefit from AI tools that help identify trends, segment customers, or automate reporting.

Kuber, how is AI changing the way you approach data analysis and member engagement at Headspace? If you’re a business leader with limited data, how can AI help you get started? And if you have lots of clean data, what should you be doing to maximize value and competitive advantage?

AI is changing how we work every day. At Headspace, we use AI to better personalize member experiences—like tailoring recommendations based on behavior—and to automate parts of our  analytics workflows so teams can focus on strategy instead of manual reporting.

If you’re just getting started, AI can help with simple but powerful tasks like segmenting customers, identifying common drop-off points, or even automating reporting. For organizations with richer datasets, the opportunity is to move toward predictive modeling—anticipating when a member might disengage, or recommending the next best action in real time.

The key is to treat AI as an accelerant. It’s not replacing the human element, but it enables us to ask bigger questions and act faster on the answers.

Headspace, like many leading organizations, operates on a SaaS and product-led growth model. This approach relies on analytics to optimize every aspect of the customer experience—from onboarding to engagement, retention, and upsell. Product-led growth puts the product at the center of the customer journey, using data to inform everything from feature development to support strategies.

Lessons from SaaS leaders are broadly applicable:

Kuber, as we wrap up, what are some best practices or lessons from Headspace’s journey that any company—regardless of industry—can apply to increase engagement, enhance customer experience, and drive growth?

From Headspace’s experience, I’d say the biggest lesson is to stay relentlessly focused on the member experience. A few principles stand out:

And finally, remember that empathy matters. The data tells you what is happening, but listening to your customers tells you why. When you combine both, you unlock growth strategies that truly resonate.

Thank you again, Kuber, for your insights and candor. As we close, I want to reiterate a few key takeaways that apply to any organization—regardless of size or industry:

Change is constant, but those who use analytics to inform and adapt their strategies will lead the way. And as always, if you have questions or want to continue the conversation, connect with me on LinkedIn.

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: What is the real challenge organizations face with data today—collection or conversion?

Q2: Why is “asking the right questions” the most valuable analytics skill?

Q3: What kinds of questions do product and business leaders ask that drive the most value at Headspace?

Q4: How does Headspace translate insights into actions that improve acquisition and retention?

Q5: What practical first steps should any organization take to use analytics more effectively?

Q6: How is AI reshaping analytics—and how should leaders think about it at different maturity levels?

Q7: What product-led growth lessons from Headspace apply to any company?

In this episode of What’s Your Edge? we’re joined by Doug Norton, Chief Marketing Officer of Inspire Semiconductor, a company founded in the early days of the pandemic that’s now launching its groundbreaking Thunderbird “supercomputer cluster-on-a-chip.” Doug is a veteran in the semiconductor space. With Doug’s help, we’re going behind the scenes of a Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy and talk about what it really takes to bring a new product to market, and how mapping the right ecosystem, focusing on customer needs, and measuring what matters can make or break a product launch.

Please join me in welcoming Doug to What’s Your Edge?

Doug, you joined InspireSemi at a critical juncture. One of the first things you did was make a strategic decision not to chase everyone, but to focus on market segments that were underserved. We believe that segmentation and customer-centricity are critical to the success of launching a new product.

Can you walk us through your process for mapping the ecosystem, selecting your initial target markets, and how you decided which segments and partners to prioritize?

That’s exactly right, the very first thing was to determine the markets we would – and just as importantly, would not – go after.

Believe it or not, the initial target for what ultimately became our Thunderbird was crypto mining.  Our founder saw a lucrative opportunity for some undervalued alt-coins due to the focus on Bitcoin, so he initially created an ASIC for a couple of these algorithms. It was a technical success, but for just a short time, since, unlike Bitcoin, the alt-coins constantly change their algorithms, making an ASIC (Application Specific IC) a dead end. This convinced him what was needed was a very versatile and easy-to-program chip that, of course, also needed to be very energy efficient to profitably mine crypto.  Our CEO, who was an advisor at the time, saw the potential for this to be a much broader and more significant device.  So they brought me on shortly thereafter, given my background in AI and HPC (High Performance Computing).

My favorite business book is Blue Ocean Strategy. I suspected the right answer was not to chase the bright shiny object of AI like everyone else, since that is a very “red ocean.”  Just as important, I have partnered with NVIDIA in the past and knew better than to compete head-on with them. 

What I could see happening was the HPC market, who invented and drove the h/w and s/w infrastructure AI now leverages, was being left with few options as all the chip companies rushed to cash in on AI. HPC encompasses important applications used every day in the real world for engineering, science, and manufacturing. Areas like computer-aided engineering, finding and producing energy (both renewable and Oil&Gas), vehicle crash simulation & analysis, genomics, financial modeling, nuclear fission and fusion simulations, climate & weather modeling, and cybersecurity. The underlying need for all of these big math problems is highly accurate math, which requires double-precision floating point (aka FP64).  Meanwhile, all the GPU players and AI chips were chasing very low-precision math that GenAI LLMs require (currently 8-bit, moving to 4-bit).

It sounds like you realized you needed to pivot, and once you had clarity on the target market, you were able to lock down the feature set, design, and specs. In your industry, this is often completed years before the product launch. Drawing on your experience, what are the biggest lessons learned so far?

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Never assume anything, especially if creating a product that will take years and millions of dollars to get to market like a high-end semiconductor. Once we knew the market we were targeting, it was important to ensure product-market fit. So, I reached out to my network and did this, with a key decision being which memory technology we should use. Fortunately, most of our choices were exactly what customers and OEMs wanted to see for the HPC market. But including them in the process was important, helping them buy in early. Most importantly, it gave our team, our investors, and our Board of Directors the confidence to move forward with product development.

You also mapped the ecosystem.  You recognized that your core customers would be big computing centers, national labs, and OEMs in sectors like aerospace, automotive, and pharma. Knowing what the customer needs and values and how your product delivers is essential to creating the positioning, messaging, and strategy. At what point did you address the value proposition, positioning, and messaging in the Go-to-Market strategy?

Yes, that was the next step, now that the target market and competitors were identified and engineering was off and running. Another nice thing about focusing on HPC was that open-source software is highly valued. I learned early in my career that hardware is just a platform for software. HPC users were the first to adopt the Linux operating system, and 76% of all HPC applications are open source. And it is often these DOE national labs, universities, and supercomputing centers, including UT TACC here in Austin, that work with these applications and can help port them to a new hardware platform like our Thunderbird. And big enterprise companies in markets like aerospace, automotive, energy, and pharma partner with these organizations and draft off their early work.

But we also don’t want to ignore that 24% of software that is commercial, so we have also engaged with some key ISVs in these application areas.

To jumpstart the S curve, we needed to get software development going, so we launched an early access program with select customers.  We provided them with simulators and emulators to get going prior to us having actual silicon, and they will be the first to receive the initial Thunderbirds. The ideal scenario is that these orgs will recommend Thunderbird for these apps, or even say they run best on Thunderbird.

Thank you. Having launched numerous products, I know a lot goes into successfully bringing an innovative product to market. It’s a high-stakes endeavor.  Research from MIT Professional Programs found that as many as 95% of new products miss the mark. With so much on the line, having a robust Go-to-Market strategy and the right success measures is more critical than ever. Success depends on what happens long before the product makes its way into the market. What we refer to as Upstream Marketing, that is, where customer insights, competitive intelligence, and strategy are addressed to help ensure faster product adoption.

What are the most critical steps you took in the pre-launch phase to support customers rapidly adopting the product, and how did you engage channel partners and technical influencers to build early momentum?

For sure, never underestimate this. From the ecosystem work, it was clear to me that the best Go-to-Market path was to leverage what works rather than try to change it. This meant the initial product should be a standard PCIe server add-in card that the computer OEMs and integrators would sell. Customers don’t typically just buy compute accelerator cards and replace the ones currently in their servers.  They buy new servers populated with the new accelerator cards. Plus, Linux has also become the de facto datacenter OS of choice, so the computer OEMs typically ship their servers with Linux.

But the challenge with an indirect model vs. direct sales is that they don’t work for you. You can only influence and encourage them. The key was to engage with the OEMs early on, in parallel with doing business development with our target end-user customers and markets. This let them hear early customer feedback, so they saw firsthand customer reaction to our value propositions. It also built trust, demonstrating we are committed to an indirect channel by bringing them in early. Then there is the financial aspect; the old saying is that salespeople are coin-operated. The server OEMs often lament that a compute accelerator card can cost as much as an entire server, and each server usually has many of them installed. The icing on the cake was that they can get a much higher deal size, with much better margins, by working with us.

We also continued to work with important industry analysts and various technical press, plus participated in the key trade shows both here and in the UK and Europe.

Stakeholder engagement is one of the many key success factors. You’ve talked about the importance of getting both technical and business analysts on board, and now you’re focused on procurement contacts. That’s a complex and multi-layered approach.

How do you ensure internal alignment across the InspireSemi team, especially between product, sales, and marketing members, and also with your external partners?

Yes, though engaging deeper into our OEM partner organizations is just the next logical step on the journey. This includes continuing to work with the CTO offices and now engaging with server product teams for validation, and of course, the procurement people. Another good thing about our early access program was that it was a paid engagement, so it was a bit of a pipe cleaner to work with those procurement teams and see what they were going to require.

For alignment, the key was all of us getting on board with the strategy initially as we pivoted to HPC. This, of course, meant the leadership team and employees, but that was perhaps the easiest part. And I own both sales and marketing, so that alignment is by default. What took more work was that we also had to get our early investors and Board of Directors to agree and stay committed. This is an ongoing process, with regular board meetings and business update webinars for our investors.

And of course, having strong analyst, press, and customer validation is good for all our stakeholders

As you and our community know, at VisionEdge Marketing, we’re passionate about, some would say, obsessed with measurement and performance management. You’ve shared that you’ll be tracking product adoption rates and OEM pick-up rates as key indicators of Go-to-Market success. What was the thinking behind the performance targets and measures you’ve selected?

End user product adoption is clearly what will drive everything else since we will be fulfilling through the OEMs once we start to ramp. We will certainly measure which OEMs work best with us and are most successful, which will also help us determine how to help those who are having trouble or are not focused on us. For launch, it will primarily be on the take-up of early units and the different vertical markets they are going into. I have an idea what they will be, and there are a couple of areas I want to focus more on to ensure we have a very diversified mix of industries. The next step will be looking for the increased availability of software applications in the verticals we are targeting.

As we wrap up, what advice would you offer to other leaders launching a complex, high-stakes product in a competitive market?

Do your homework, starting with strategy and high-level market needs, opportunities, and threats. Engage industry analysts to confirm or course correct.  They can also help give you market sizing and projection numbers to help your business plan and secure investors. Then engage potential customers and partners early, bringing them into the process and working both in parallel, so you will have end customers and a sales channel that is primed and ready to fulfill. As noted earlier, this also helps get the rest of your internal team as well as investors on board. Lastly, hire and partner with A players. Always best to have people who have the experience to know what works – and just as important – what does not. There are some good multi-million-dollar lessons from mistakes made by big companies in many industries.

Doug, thank you for taking us behind the scenes of your Go-to-Market strategy and new product launch.  We hope the new product is a huge success and becomes an industry standard. I’m confident that our community will take away at least one good idea for building a data-driven, customer-centric GTM strategy.  Bringing a new product to market? Let’s talk about your GTM strategy.

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: What were the first critical GTM decisions Doug made—and why did they matter so much?

Q2: How did InspireSemi pivot from crypto mining to a broader market opportunity?

Q3: Why did Doug prioritize HPC (High Performance Computing) instead of competing head-on in AI?

Q4: What was the biggest lesson learned in the pre-launch phase of a multi-year, high-investment product?

Q5: When did value proposition, positioning, and messaging enter the GTM process?

Q6: How did ecosystem mapping shape the GTM path—and why was open-source software pivotal?

Q7: What did InspireSemi do pre-launch to accelerate adoption and build early momentum?

Q8: How did InspireSemi engage channel partners and technical influencers in parallel?

Q9: How did Doug approach internal and stakeholder alignment—especially with investors and the board?

Q10: What GTM success measures did InspireSemi prioritize—and why?

Q11: What is Doug’s advice for leaders launching complex products in competitive markets?

Victor Gichun, Vice President of Business Development at Excess Logic, a nationwide leader in surplus equipment and electronics liquidation, offers businesses a seamless way to manage excess and obsolete inventory. What sets Excess Logic apart is its ability to create value through a robust ecosystem of providers and a laser focus on customer experience and competitive differentiation. In this episode, Victor shares how Excess Logic has engineered its customer-centric processes and ecosystem strategy to create value and growth, differentiated itself in a crowded market, and aligned its operations to deliver measurable results.

Victor, I’m looking forward to your insights and hearing how Excess Logic’s ecosystem and differentiation strategies have enabled it to create value and drive growth. Your story highlights the importance of aligning resources, fostering collaboration, and standing out in a crowded market.

Victor, let’s start by discussing the challenges your customers face. Managing surplus and obsolete equipment is a complex and often overlooked part of business operations. What are the most common challenges your customers encounter, and how does Excess Logic help them overcome these hurdles?

Hi Laura, thanks for having me here. One of the most common challenges our customers encounter is what to do with the excess equipment and electronics they no longer need. In the US, companies can’t just throw it into a garbage bin; they need to dispose of any electronic equipment properly to make sure it doesn’t end up in a landfill and doesn’t pollute the environment.

Excess Logic solves this problem.

It sounds like Excess Logic provides a lifeline for businesses struggling with these issues. Given your commitment to creating customer value, how do you ensure your solutions are tailored to meet the diverse needs of customers across industries?

To ensure that our solutions are tailored to meet the diverse needs of customers across industries, Excess Logic established a surplus equipment remarketing and disposal ecosystem across the nation. This is something that differentiates us from the competition. 

Excess Logic operates in a very competitive and cluttered market, making growth challenging. Yet the company is growing by focusing on customer experience. How do you differentiate your company from competitors, and how do you embed these qualities into your operations and service delivery?

To differentiate Excess Logic from competitors, we provide a one-stop solution. Any company has different departments with different types of equipment and electronics. The IT department has laptops and computers, the research department has analytical and R&D instruments, the production department has manufacturing equipment, and so on and so forth. A one-stop solution covers all departments and all types of surplus equipment anywhere in the US at once. A lot of our current clients, and we have over 500 clients now, used two or more different vendors for each location before they started working with Excess Logic, because each vendor they used before helped them dispose of a particular type of excess equipment. If the company has 15 locations, it works with 30-45 different vendors. As a result of our extensive provider network and streamlined logistics. This makes for a better customer experience and major cost savings, which drastically improves our customers’ bottom line.

We believe firmly in understanding and mapping the ecosystem and using the ecosystem to identify prospects and better serve customers. It’s a powerful growth strategy. Your nationwide reach and extensive network of providers are impressive.  How does this ecosystem enhance your ability to serve customers efficiently and effectively?

This is a very good question. Since 2018, when we started working with Google Excess Logic has developed a true nationwide network. This ecosystem allows us to provide same-day excess equipment removal services anywhere in the US, except Alaska and Hawaii.

This flexibility allows our customers to feel confident that the excess equipment sitting in the way of the new equipment will be removed on time and disposed of properly or resold for the maximum value.

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We have found in our work that customer experience is often the linchpin of long-term success. Where does customer experience fit into your company’s strategy, and how do you ensure it remains a top priority?

Over 50% of our business is repeat customers. This is because our clients, once they receive our services, prefer to use Excess Logic again and again because it’s easy, dependable, and valuable.

Besides the value of removing and disposing of excess equipment, Excess Logic remarkets excess equipment to recoup the investments our clients made into equipment. Our ability to sell it via online marketplaces to end users and recover the maximum value makes our service invaluable.

In our experience, customer experience plays a critical role in customer retention and lifetime value. Data is critical to making sure you deliver what customers want. Without good data products and services, especially new ones, can end up being a market flop. While data is no guarantee you’ll have a hit, it can go a long way toward improving your odds of success. What data do you use to stay ahead of trends and continuously deliver value to your customers?

This is another very good question. Since we sell surplus equipment via online marketplaces, we need to make sure that the asking price is right. Excess Logic uses one of the most advanced data sources that shows how much surplus equipment has been sold for the last 90 days anywhere in the world. This data allows us to put surplus equipment on the market at the right price and therefore recover the maximum value for our clients.

Data is a powerful tool for identifying opportunities and driving innovation. What are some examples of data-driven insights that have enabled you to be more customer-centric?

We use a unique system that provides us with the actual prices the equipment we are selling has been sold for. This system integrates all major online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Rakuten, and many more. Based on this information, we set the asking price, which is the highest price the market can pay. This insight allows Excess Logic to sell surplus equipment for much hire prices than traditional auctions or competitors that don’t have access to this system.

Operational excellence is at the heart of delivering consistent value. McKinsey’s article on analytics and asset management highlighted the importance of analytics and insights in the asset management space to improve distribution effectiveness, investment performance, and productivity. What steps has Excess Logic taken to leverage analytics and insights to improve the efficiency of the ecosystem and enhance the customer experience?

Automation, combined with our nationwide ecosystem, enables us to scale efficiently while maintaining high service quality.  For example, this allows us to schedule 5 pickups a day from five different locations and provide unified reports within one week.

It’s clear that your focus on process and operational excellence has positioned Excess Logic as a trusted partner for businesses nationwide and accelerated your growth.

As we wrap up, is there any advice you have for other companies looking to reengineer their processes for growth or create an ecosystem?

My advice to the listeners. If you run a business or want to start one, here are three things to consider:

Victor, thank you for sharing your insights and giving us a closer look at how Excess Logic leverages analytics, automation, and a powerful nationwide ecosystem to deliver operational excellence and enhance the customer experience. Your story highlights the powerful role of aligning processes, outsourcing, and leveraging data to scale efficiently while maintaining high service quality.

We welcome a conversation with you if you are looking to drive growth, focus on operational excellence, and/or create a seamless customer experience through data-driven decision-making.