The First Entry: About Being a Fast Company

I suppose the major reason for this blog is to explore the concept of "Fast Company" and what that means to people inside such a company and what it means to the business itself. Being written in the first person it makes this blog, in the first place, a personal exploration of being in a fast company, but secondly and of primary importance, I am able to explore how the software we use, advocate, and market to other companies, is involved in aiding us to be a "Fast Company".

Now that sounds all pompous and grand and I didn't mean it to be that way, it is just that I had a difficult time in wording it any other way. But that is what a blog is for -- I see a blog as a place where I can write ". . . off the sleeve . . ." as one might say. And I really don't like the idea of a blog as a place where other people can make comments. No, I say, this is my window and I will dress it the way I want and I will be pompous if I want to be, scathing if I am allowed to be, and your best friend, if I want to be. Let other people talk on their blogs. I will see it soon enough if you link to me -- say what you want on your blog and we will get along just fine.

So, what is this Fast Company thing?

Yes, we got on a list for being a Fast Company -- the Business Review Weekly list of companies that are Innovative and Flexible. Number 11 to be precise.

Being on the list doesn't mean much to me.

But I can tell you what it means to work in an innovative and flexible company -- and that is what got us on the list in the first place.

Let's take, for example, my Adwords Campaign. I created ten or so ads in the campaign, built some landing pages so that I could track the results of each advertisement. From where I sit I can see the leads coming in using my NetSuite tracking facilities. However, I can see right through to how those leads convert into prospects, and whether they convert into being a customer. I don't have to go and have a meeting with the Sales Managers, or the Marketing Director to see right through to a sale -- it is there in NetSuite.

I can evaluate the cost of obtaining each sale from an Adwords Advertisement, compare advertisements, and immediately stop those advertisements that are not above some threshold. I can tell in a day which advertisements give me the most prospects, and in a week I can tell which leads make it beyond prospect. So I have immediate feedback and can take action with the advertisements, change them, boost the display of the best ones, reduce the display of the worst ones etc. I can do all that without having a meeting.

And then best of all, if I think I need some more money for a campaign because it is doing well, my boss, the marketing director is just sitting in the next cubicle, and we make a decision in minutes. That is part of what being in a fast company is about -- immediacy -- we don't have to wait for a meeting -- or for someone to give us figures on the next weekly report.

I think in my next posting, I will consider the egg and chicken question . . . does being a Fast Company mean you will most likely adopt something like NetSuite? Or does adopting NetSuite make you a Fast Company?