Le gars du Web

Réflexion sur les cinq dernières années.

Ceux qui me connaissent un peu savent combien je suis passionné pour l'univers Internet et plus particulièrement l'utilisation des technologies dans la résolution des problèmes d'affaires. J'ai retiré une grande satisfaction de plusieurs des projets sur lesquels j'ai travaillé au fil des cinq dernières années. Bien sûr, il y a eu des frustrations et des moments difficiles, mais il y avait toujours de précieux collègues sur qui compter. Il y a de cela quelques mois, j'avais pris une approche honnête en discutant ouvertement de mon avenir et des scénarios possibles, tant dans mon intérêt que celui de mon employeur. "Le gars du Web" ne voulait plus être vue ainsi (trop technique, pas assez stratégique) et les grandes orientations de l'entreprise en ce qui concerne les affaires électroniques étaient maintenant déterminés. En plus, les contraintes budgétaires et la réorganisation de l'entreprise ne prédisaient rien de bon pour au moins un an, sinon deux.

Le fait de quitter cette entreprise après 5 années, avec ses hauts et ses bas, n'est pas pour moi une situation négative. Au contraire! Je considère depuis longtemps qu'en tant que professionnel, je me dois d'abord d'offrir la juste valeur à mon employeur et par le fait même, m'assurer que cette valeur demeure compétitive et surtout, que mon travail demeure une source de motivation et de reconnaissance.

Je vais maintenant avoir l'occasion de contribuer au succès d'autres projet et de continuer à progresser dans cet univers.

startup.com: the raise & fall of the american dream

A pair of high school classmates propose to start an Internet company that will help citizens deal with local governments. They call it "govWorks." It will enable people to go online to register their motor vehicles, pay parking tickets, and do all the other nasty little things municipal and regional governments require of them. From 2 to 233 employees... from 0$ to $50M in venture capital... back to zero in about a year. From 1999 to 2001.

What lessons can we get out of this fascinating documentary?

I was curious and researched more information. What is striking is:

• being able to get venture capital even without the slightest business plan
• arguing about a company name rather than discussing the business strategy
• the friendship of the beginning gives place to the difficulties of the "business reality"
• the size of the speculative Net bubble (the CEO of the company made the front page of several magazines and was even invited by president Clinton!)... and the very rapid fall when the bubble busted
• a very insightful comment from a senior executive (not in the Net business) when meeting with the CEO of govWorks who was explaining the huge market ($6billions/yr): "we have to see who will make money out of it"... The young, sometime arrogant CEO was bragging the old timer...
• the advantage of the first mover that disappear when a late comer shows off a better solution...

Some references:

• Watch the trailer (Windows Media Player, 4.5Mb)
• Review by David Loftus
• Review by the New-York State Writers Institute

Why an eBusiness strategy?

The Web is one of those fields where anyone and everyone can become an "expert"... This often leads to situations where someone sincerely think the next greatest thing after sliced bread will be to build this nifty web site because THEY have this great idea... Even after the web-rush and dot-bomb era, there are still people who think the magic will work for them.

I have seen this thinking in all kinds of situations, from managers at large organizations going so far as to spend hundred of thousands of dollars before pulling the plug, small businesses thinking people will flock to their site to buy their nifty product or even individuals who think they will turn authors within days. If they know what to do, why would they need an ebusiness strategist?!

Instead of going into long explanations that would look like hype and marketing, I'll just give my top recommandations:

1. Forget about the web! Define your strategy, your product, your idea, your measure of success or whatever it is without ever saying the Web will do it for you! If your idea makes the smallest sense without the web, it will certainly do with it!
2. Forget about technology! Give me notepad or vi and I'll build you a web site. Give me Siebel, Microsoft.Net solutions or Open Source solutions and I'll build you a solutions based on those technologies. For 98% of the situations, technology is not an issue and is now mature enough to answer your needs.
3. "Start small, think big". You might have heard this one before, but it is so applicable to the web! Do several iterations to improve your site, test with real users and think in term of evolution rather than trying to build the Coliseum that will stand centuries.
4. Identify the "ecosystem". A web site doesn't exist by itself, it exists because of other systems: databases, search engines, links to other sites, people participating in your "community", etc. Interactions with those entities will determine the growth... and eventual death of your web site.
5. Recognize you don't know... The important is not to know everything, but rather to know where to find the answer!