During the “Excellence Revised” Session at DataContent 2013, we will hear from past Model of Excellence honorees on how these companies adapted to industry-changing trends. BrightScope, DemandBase and WAND were among the first to be singled out for producing exemplary data products over 5 years ago. That was pre-cloud. Pre-social. Pre-crowd. Pre-analytics.
- BrightScope took public domain data, but rather than simply selling it as sales leads like so many others, it flipped this data to make a useful and valuable benchmarking product that helps companies and their employees compare the quality and performance of their 401(k) plans.
- DemandBase was billed the “iTunes store of business contacts,” aggregating data from a number of reputable data providers, adding several layers of value including prospect scoring, and allowing user to buy just the number of records they needed – no need to buy access to the entire database.
- WAND sold a database publishing platform but with two unique twists: clients add listings and sell enhancements in their own markets, creating a vertical market online directory that also becomes part of WAND’s global directory. And to add a further level of value, all companies were coded against a sophisticated product/service taxonomy developed by WAND.
What this session has come to underscore is the pace of change and innovation. It is also known as our “open the kimono” session, where the top executives from past InfoCommerce Model of Excellence companies review both the intervening years since they received their recognition, and their entire company history to answer some of these burning questions:
- Is the product you initially came to market with the same one you are offering now and if not, what changed and why?
- Just how easy or hard is it for an online start-up to compete with legacy print publishers and/or create entirely new product categories?
- How has your mix of revenue sources changed over the years? Is it much the same as at launch or have you found the mix is dramatically different from first envisioned?
- As you built your business, did you discover unexpected revenue opportunities? If yes, did you pursue them, are they material to your revenues now, and what are the trade-offs involved in being opportunistic?
- What kinds of curveballs did you encounter along the way, and how did you deal with them?
- What are the most important “lessons learned” you can draw out of your years at this venture?
- What were the easiest aspects of launching your business and what were the hardest?
- Could you start the same business you have now from scratch in 2013, or are things too competitive, too developed, too risky, etc.?
- What’s your advice to both start-up entrepreneurs and established companies looking to launch new products in the near future?
What we’re interested in bringing out in this session is not just “what went right” but what went wrong, what didn’t pan out, what turned out surprisingly (either good or bad), how your business has evolved since it was started. Our goal is to leave the audience with useful insights and lessons they can apply to their businesses and new product launches.
During DataContent 2013, you will also have a chance to meet the 2013 class of the Models of Excellence program, network and have some fun at our annual Models of Excellence Networking dinner held at Cuba Libre.
Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at 
