We don’t hunt elephants- but when we see one, we shoot it. Before PETA & WWE get’s all nuts, this is a metaphor (FYI parts of Africa have real overpopulation problems with elephants). Elephants, Whales & Big Game are the historical holy grail of sales. Big customers are great- but they are expensive to find and close and have demanding requirements. Lean startups and SaaS models are increasingly focused on the small to mid-sized self-serve customer. It makes sense: diversification, larger installed base and creates a strong approach to roll out up-sells and cross-sells to your customer base.

But elephants have a lot of money- and they cannot be ignored. If you have ever camped in the bush, when an elephant walks in to camp you get your ass up and pay attention (yes, this has happened to me). Elephants can make a company– they bring credibility, adoption and most of all lots of cash. But elephants also can sit on a company and kill it (quickly or slowly)- they suck resources, focus and can significantly tax an organization.

Elephants have leverage and they know it and they use it. To de-lever them takes a skilled sales effort about your value proposition, tactical advantages and the value you create for them. If you can’t do that you are their mercy; hunker down and prepare to be trampled or run for cover if you can.

The key to de-levering and elephant and thereby extracting more value from them for less pain is understanding their pains, their business model and their goals. Demonstrating how you help them achieve and excel at these gives your strength. At the tactical level figuring out how to make whomever actually signs the deal move up the corporate ladder and communicating that through value presentation is highly effective.

The art to elephant hunting is knowing when to pull the tigger and when to back away slowly and quietly.

Afrobeats with flavors of Vampire Weekend, San Diego group makes a great sound. I love this track.

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Over morning coffee this morning my VP of Product told me I was a tool- and I took it as a compliment. His point was that we had a lot of swiss army knives at the company as any start up does. They go by a bevy of names: “Jack of all trades”, “Wear many hats”, “Generalist”. That is the right place to start- you need a bunch of people who can solve a bunch of hard problems with critical thinking. I, like others on the team are pretty good at solving a wide diversity of challenging issues and doing so pretty effectively. Note the modifier: pretty. Pretty doesn’t win the day.

Here’s the challenge- as we scale and grow like any fast pace company we need fewer swiss army knives and we need more circular saws (this is not the same as Indians vs Chiefs). A circular saw is a highly efficient single function machine built to tear through a task. Effective sales needs circular saws- hunt and kill. Rinse, repeat. Effective marketing, technology, product, finance- need specialization for maximum results. We need generalists without question, but we also need to find and hire circular saws…so we can tear it up. Are you ready for a circular saw?

Title track from French/Chilean Hip-Hop/Latin/Beats??? musician Ana Tijoux. Tremendous track.

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Complete album available on AMZN or Emusic.

The perfect addition to any office- this awesome Jellyfish fish tank. Artful, awesome and genius.

A CEO has a relatively easy life- there are only three things that he/she has to do.  Three simple little things– far less than most people have on their lists.  Easy sailing.

1. Don’t Run Out of Cash.  That says it all- the CEO is ultimately responsible for securing cash for the company- the buck stops there.  That means hard decisions sometimes about source of funds and use of funds.  Make the tough decisions when you have to.

2. Set the Vision and Strategy.  Leadership starts at the top down; culture and strategy are direct byproducts of the CEO’s actions.  Communicate a clear vision to the rest of the company- changes happens, but clarity of thought, process and a unified vision is crucial.  Then you empower this chain of events:  Vision –> Strategies to pursue the vision –> Tactics to support the strategies –> Actions to execute the Tactics

Vision -> Strategies -> Tactics -> Action (VISTA).  [No the MS Windows comparisons please! ]

3. Support the Team.  Except in the smallest of companies no one person can do it all alone.  A CEO must delegate and empower the team to make decisions and execute Strategies and Tactics.  Figure out how to empower your team (as individuals and teams) to make them more effective and productive.  To paraphrase JFK, your thought pattern should be “what can I do for my people today” not “what will my staff do for me today”.

That’s it.  Money, Vision & Team.

Classic Dean Wareham 01 California (All The Way)