A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of interviewing with SoftwareCEO.com. The writer, Grant Buckler, asked me to prepare tips on how other CEOs can achieve a similar level of success as Beyond.com has over the past 10 years. I enjoyed preparing for this interview, and think that Grant did a great job of pulling all of the information together in a very detailed article that I hope you will find useful.
So how did Beyond.com become a success story?
It's all about flexibility: letting our customers and partners do things their way. In the article, “How Beyond.com became a web powerhouse by being flexible”, Grant developed 14 tips based on our conversation explaining how our company goes beyond expectations:
1. Take an existing idea, and make it better
2. Offer one-stop shopping for everyone
3. Get your branding right
4. Don't try to be all things to all people; market to niches instead
5. Be flexible with your partners
6. Be flexible with your customers
7. Be flexible with your software, too
8. Hire good listeners
9. Try people out (and let them try you out) for 90 days
10. Understand how your users think
11. To get noticed, share your knowledge
12. Put people ahead of boom-and-bust growth
13. Go beyond your comfort zone
14. Create processes for listening
If you’d like to read the full article, please click here.
