With six months to go to Business of Software 2011 we are delighted that well over 50% of the places are now filled. You can still save $800 on the full ticket price if you act fast – due to the absurd number of public holidays in April in the UK (we even had a public holiday for the Royal wedding), we have extended the April Early Bird deadline by a couple of days and this will now close midnight PST on 4th May.

Book your Early Bird tickets by midnight PST on 4th May, and the April Early Bird price with $800 discount will stand.

One of the people we really wanted to get to speak at Business of Software is Professor Clayton Christensen, author of, ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail‘. The Innovator’s Dilemma considers how successful companies with established products can stay ahead of those with newer, better, cheaper products. Needless to say this is a tough proposition. It is a seminal work that starts out by comparing the hard disk industry to fruit flies…

“When I began my search for an answer to the puzzle of why the best firms can fail, a friend offered some sage advice. “Those who study genetics avoid studying humans,” he noted. “Because new generations come along only every thirty years or so, it takes a long time to understand the cause and effect of any changes. Instead, they study fruit flies, because they are conceived, born, mature, and die all within a single day. If you want to understand why something happens in business, study the disk drive industry. Those companies are the closest things to fruit flies that the business world will ever see.” The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

We are delighted that Professor Christensen will open this year’s Business of Software Conference, (24th-26th October, Boston).

Here, Professor Christensen talks about disruption in the steel industry.

We are delighted that Professor Christensen will open this year’s Business of Software Conference, (24th-26th October, Boston).

When I started talking to Professor Christensen’s office about speaking, I came across an article he wrote last year that had as much resonance for me as the Innovator’s Dilemma. It turns out that a lot of other people felt the same about How will you measure your life? (10 minute read, lifetime impact). The article, a summary of Professor Christensen’s graduation address to 2010 HBS students, has become one of the most downloaded articles in the history of the Harvard Business Review. This month it won the Harvard Business Review McKinsey Prize making the author an unprecedented four times winner of the award.

How will you measure your life is less about business, more about, well, life…

“When people who have a high need for achievement—and that includes all Harvard Business School graduates—have an extra half hour of time or an extra ounce of energy, they’ll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments. And our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re moving forward. You ship a product, finish a design, complete a presentation, close a sale, teach a class, publish a paper, get paid, get promoted. In contrast, investing time and energy in your relationship with your spouse and children typically doesn’t offer that same immediate sense of achievement. Kids misbehave every day. It’s really not until 20 years down the road that you can put your hands on your hips and say, “I raised a good son or a good daughter.” You can neglect your relationship with your spouse, and on a day-to-day basis, it doesn’t seem as if things are deteriorating. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families and overinvest in their careers—even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.”

We are very proud that Professor Christensen will be speaking at Business of Software in 2011. Not only has he written some of the most important business writing ever, he understands that life is not a business, it is about people. We think those sentiments resonate with the attendees at Business of Software.

“I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.”

We hope to see you there – and don’t forget the delegate rate will rise by $100 from midnight 4th May so act now – you will almost save yourself the price of a Kindle. Register here.

BLN Money in Mobile, June 14^th – http://moneyinmobile2011.thebln.com/ – How companies make money in mobile.

BLN Growth Forum, July 5^th – http://growthforum2011.thebln.com/ – For grown-ups running growth businesses.

I am a little bemused as to what happened to April…

Living in the UK, we are used to having a few bank holidays around Easter but this year, we also had an extra public holiday to celebrate the wedding of William and Kate. We at the BLN have been organising two UK events, (Money in Mobile, June 14th, and the BLN Growth Forum, July 5th), that have taken up a lot of our time and I also went camping for a week with my family. A week with no electricity or internet access is not that productive.

As a result of my inefficiency, I have not flagged the end of our $800 discount on Business of Software that is due to finish at midnight tonight, on the blog. I am sorry.

As a result, we will extend the discount period to midnight on 4th May. This should give you enough chance to get into the office, work out who will go, grab the company credit card and book for this year’s event that takes place between 24th-26th October. We are now over 50% booked. Please don’t miss out – book now and see you in Boston!

The BLN, ‘BIG’ discussion. #BLNBIG from Wild Lion Media on Vimeo.

Enjoy.

This is the video of the  BLN CEO Tales, ‘BIG’ discussion run in partnership with Erevena and Taylor Wessing on London, March 16th 2011. The discussion was moderated by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC Technology correspondent, to discuss the question, ‘Should the UK worry if ARM and Autonomy were the last big UK technology businesses?’ Speakers: Stephen Allott, Sherry Coutu, Ben Holmes, William Reeve. ‘Should the UK worry if ARM and Autonomy were the last big UK technology businesses.’ This is the full video. We were particularly entertained by the faux Apprentice-style opening credits created by the excellent Tom at Wild Lion Media – so we kept it in. It really doesn’t do to take yourself too seriously.

Talk timings, if you want to fast forward, were roughly as follows:

• Rory Cellan-Jones intro: 5.00
• Stephen Allot: 8.00
• Ben Holmes: 13.00
• Sherry Coutu: 20.00
• William Reeve: 26.00
• Panel discussion & disagreement: 34.00
• The role of VCs in building big companies: 40.00
• Questions from the floor: 44.00

Don’t miss the BLN Growth Forum, 5th July in Cambridge.

Come and spend time working on, not in, your business with speakers including Warren East (CEO, ARM); Peter Bauer (CEO, Mimecast), Stuart Miller (CEO, ByBox), Jonathan Milner (CEO, Abcam), and Tim Weller (CEO, Incisive Media).

Early bird discounts available until the end of April.

Rory Cellan-Jones – Moderator

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Stephen Allott

Stephen Allott is a technology business leader and social and business entrepreneur. He is Crown Commercial Representative for Small Business, building a more strategic dialogue between the Government and smaller suppliers. He is also chairman of Red Gate Software’s Council of Advisers. Red Gate are a 200 person privately owned software company based in Cambridge and are officially the best small software company to work for in the UK. Stephen co-founded his own business, Trinamo Ltd, a management consultancy for UK technology companies and founded a non-profit: the Cambridge Computer Lab Ring which is an association for Cambridge computer science graduates. He is a member of the Ring Governing Council. Stephen is a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and has worked for Xerox, Sun Microsystems, McKinsey and Micromuse, where he led their NASDAQ IPO and was President, CFO and a main board director. He has chaired 7 technology company boards and is a quondam City Fellow of Hughes Hall, Cambridge University.

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Sherry Coutu

Sherry Coutu is an experienced executive, former CEO and angel investor who now serves on the boards of companies, charities and universities. The companies she serves range from fast growth private early stage to public and boards with turnover more than £ 1 bn. As an entrepreneur, Sherry established two businesses in the financial services industry. The first (acquired by Euromoney) has operations in more than 70 countries. The second (acquired by AMP) was floated in 2000 on London and Nasdaq and valued at more than $1 billion before being acquired.

Sherry loves working with great entrepreneurs solving problems that matter. Her current portfolio of interests include sitting on the boards of Cambridge University and Artfinder, the advisory Boards of Linkedin, Harvard Business School European Council, NESTA and Cancer Research UK. Her investments usually include ‘databases’, as a common theme. These range from movies (Lovefilm) to real-estate (Zoopla), energy consumption (Alertme), clean energy (New Energy Finance), water pressure (i20), investments (covestor), professional contacts (Linkedin), builders (mybuilder), to how to get pregnant by monitoring trends in body temperature (CTC). Her latest ‘exit’ was New Energy Finance (acquired by Bloomberg).

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Ben Holmes

Ben focuses on the software and internet sectors and has been actively involved with many of the firm’s consumer and media investments. He currently sits on the boards of Just-Eat, Mind Candy, Netlog, Notonthehighstreet, Rebtel, Stardoll and Shapeways. He was previously a Director of Playfish (Electronic Arts). Prior to joining Index Ventures, he worked at the NewMedia Spark investment fund, before becoming Vice President at EO plc, a Spark portfolio company in the consumer financial services sector. Previously he spent four years at OC&C Strategy Consultants, advising firms in the retail and IT sectors. He has a Masters degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University.

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William Reeve

William is a serial entrepreneur who has built and exited two leading internet businesses. The first, Fletcher Research, became the UK’s leading internet research firm before Forrester Research (NASDAQ: FORR) bought it in 1999. William’s second business, now trading as LOVEFiLM.com, grew organically and by acquisition to become the leading international online film rental business before Amazon acquired it (still in progress). At LOVEFiLM.com, which was backed by several leading venture capital firms including DFJ Esprit and Index Ventures, William served in a variety of roles including President, Managing Director, acting CEO and COO. William serves as Non-Executive Director with several other high-growth companies including Paddy Power (ISE:PLS), Zoopla, Graze and True Knowledge. A former McKinsey consultant, William has a first class Masters degree from Oxford University.

Two events we have coming up that we thought would be of interest – Money in Mobile, June 14^th and The BLN Growth Forum, July 5^th. Both events are content rich and networking heavy though they have different foci (a) how businesses can make money from mobile and (b) building a sustainable technology business in the UK.

Our early bird discount runs to the end of April so you can save £ 200 off the full ticket price if you act quickly.

The BLN Money in Mobile Forum London, June 14^th, 2011. This is a one-day conference to show how mobile can make companies money. The day will bring together ecommerce operators, software companies, technology businesses, retailers, agencies and brands looking to execute on their mobile strategies, alongside entrepreneurs, investors, corporate buyers and users of mobile technology. Our speakers, picked because of their expertise and experience, will discuss how companies are making money from mobile today. We will also hear from 10 hand-picked companies competing for our Money in Mobile Award to be given to the mobile business with the most potential to make money for customers.

Find out more and register: http://moneyinmobile2011.thebln.com/

The 2^nd BLN Growth Forum Cambridge, July 5^th, 2011. The day will feature some of the UK’s most respected technology entrepreneurs (including Warren East – CEO, ARM; Tim Weller – CEO, Incisive Media Group; Jonathan Milner – CEO, Abcam; Stuart Miller – CEO, ByBox) sharing the experiences, successes and mistakes they have made in building awesome companies. Themes include:

•             Finding and owning markets

•             Putting sales and marketing at the core of what your company does

•             Creating and scaling a winning culture

•             Maximising the value of your business through  IPO and beyond

For more information and register: http://growthforum2011.thebln.com/

As with all BLN events, the emphasis will be placed on interaction, debate and business development activity making the event much more than just the sum of all the participants. We hope you would like to come!

As we heard at the last CEO tales from Sherry Coutu, Amazon is 20 times bigger than its next biggest rival. But why? Is it because of the competitive prices? Yes, but if you dig around the Internet on more specialist websites and are prepared to buy from abroad, you will find a better deal.

What makes Amazon so great is the ease with which users search, select and buy goods. I just bought a new book from amazon.co.uk and it took less than 10 clicks of my mouse to find and purchase the title. No one from the competition even comes close to this.

Additionally, there is plenty of information on the website, but it’s not overwhelming or intrusive and everything seems relevant to me, the customer.

The customer experience on Amazon is terrific – it’s just so simple to click away and buy whatever it is you like. Once you have an account, there are no additional forms to fill-out and very few cognitive overheads for the customer.

The importance of this lesson is even more important when designing your company’s mobile site. With smaller screens (and other distractions arising from being out and about) a great user experience on your mobile site may determine the success or failure of your mobile strategy. We should not forget that user experience is more important than ever for mobile users.

This really does present a lovely opportunity – get the customer experience right and your company could be making significant money through mobile.

The BLN Money in Mobile Forum will bring together industry specialists to discuss what makes a great customer experience and how to achieve it. We will be hearing expert opinions from, amongst others, Rob Jonas (InMobi), Nick Lansley (Tesco.com), James Gardner (Volume), Simon Davies (Snaptu), Sami Paihonen (Ixonos) and James Patmore (BOKU).

The Forum will take place on 14th June in Taylor Wessing’s HQ, London. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Register Now »