PubCon Keynote

I am excited about delivering a keynote talk at Pubcon on November 12 in Las Vegas. (See press release.)

I will tackle the topic of Internet valuation, drawing in part from the experiences of acquiring 100 web businesses in the last 5 years. Specifically, I’ll address issues such as:

-- Who has really made the most money on the internet so far?
-- What types of sites are the most valuable and the least valuable?
-- What can you do to make your site more valuable? What mistakes should you avoid?
-- What's ahead for the next 5 years:
>> Who's likely to make the most in the future?
>> Which risks should you really worry about?

My team and I will also be sharing some of the best website management ideas we have ever seen. These will include ideas about monetization, community management, content origination, and more. Maybe we will share some of the worst ideas we’ve seen as well.

We’re planning to make our presentations insightful, fast-paced, and interactive. We’re doing some original research for the sessions and will “tease” some of the findings in advance on this blog.

If you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, please leave comments below.

We’re looking forward to PubCon.

Kaizen Your Growth Rate

"Do not trust people. They are capable of greatness."
--Stanislaw Lem

I just attended a great training class on Kaizen management techniques. The management philosophy helps people achieve breakthrough success-- results beyond what they might have thought possible. Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement that has been used in the Toyota Production System. The philosophy focuses on radically eliminating wasteful work and improving productivity, while maintaining work/life balance.

How does Kaizen work?

By breaking down improvements into many small steps (hundreds or thousands), which are collectively transformative.

While Kaizen is famous for eliminating defects and cutting costs, it also drives growth by improving quality and freeing resources for reinvestment.

For sucessful internet businesses, a Kaizen-type approach of sense and respond is a way of life. Since the costs of product experimentation on the internet are very low, you can continually imporve your value proposition. It might be worth continually asking:
-- What small changes in your products and services could unlock large value for your customers?
-- How do you rapidly and constantly test these changes?
-- How do you make this approach a fundamental part of your business?

I am most grateful to Danaher executives who graciously hosted our training.