“When things aren’t going right, go left” – the gist of this quotation by Lemony Snicket is that when you are pursuing something and putting a lot of effort into it, and yet are unable to achieve it, maybe what you need is a slight change of trajectory in the method you are applying in your pursuit.
Because it works. The slight change in actions brings a yawning difference in the outcome of your struggle. Jeff Eiben, a tech entrepreneur and the founder of River Point Technology, stands as an apt instance of that. We present him as an example because when he opened River Point Technology, now an acclaimed enterprise in cloud computing technology, he had nothing in mind.
With no business plan and an incomplete strategy, he set sail in the stormy waters of the business world. Jeff rowed, and rowed, but to no avail. The business was running rudderless, and although he was right in pointing out that the cloud technology is the need of the minute, it was left to speculation what made businesses choose otherwise.
After much deliberation, Jeff was finally able to step in the right direction. After failing at first, he reevaluated the market, sketched plans, and shifted his focus to ‘value creation technology’, a model that would later change his destiny along with many others.
“I had misjudged the market and thought that it would reciprocate to cloud computing once we brought it to them. Our market timing was wrong. But then changed the direction and saw what average businesses were going through and so observed a complete lack of innovation. I felt like this discovery was telling me to refine my methodology, and so I did. I started focusing on consumable solutions that the average business could consider and adopt, and that led me to the formation of value creation technology,” shared Jeff.
The Value Creation Technology is a tested methodology that was later adopted by River Point Technology to guide its clients to take strategic risks by incorporating cloud technology in their business design with the potential to deliver a measurable business impact. The outcome-oriented designing initiatives are at the heart of the methodology that results in small gains and losses.
Rather than going big, Jeff decided to start small and that’s what has made all the difference. The VCT methodology allowed his clients to either fail fast or generate a small win.
“Using this technology, when you fail, you do so with limited financial loss and limited damage to your credibility. And when you win, people notice, your credibility increases, and resistance decreases. You measure the results of that win to determine whether or not to make another investment in the technology. A series of small wins creates a viral interest and support that spreads throughout the organization. This dramatically increases your chances of successfully scaling the technology within the existing culture and resources of the organization. That process, too, is addressed in the methodology,” reads an excerpt from the upcoming book of Jeff Eiben.
After River Point Technology embedded ‘value creation technology’ in their business, it worked tremendously for them. The company was able to help hundreds of brands, including the world’s largest brands, digitize their business and transform into the cloud era.
So, next time, if things aren’t working right, don’t forget to try going left!
