Bob Thompson

#ServiceNow’s Q3 report highlights an impressive surge in demand for #AI-driven solutions, particularly #AIagents 🦾🤖 ServiceNow CFO Gina Mastantuono noted that #customerservice is an especially fertile ground for #GenAI. Their platform is now focused on embedding AI agents that can streamline workflows, boost efficiency, and elevate customer interactions. In a world where companies are under increasing pressure to enhance #customerexperience and operational agility, ServiceNow’s AI-centric approach signals a clear path forward, adapt with AI or risk being left behind 🚀🚀 #NowAssist #NowPlatform #LLM #ML #RAG

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Earlier this month, on June 11, we celebrated our 20th Anniversary at the Post-Industrial Institute. We were fortunate to have a great panel of guest speakers: Heather Jerrehian from ServiceNow, Dr. Mihir Parikh from Nishith Desai Associates, and Stefan Petzov from Swisscom, expertly moderated by Alison McCauley of Unblocked Future. The panel provided fascinating snapshots of how the enterprise is being reinvented from the inside out. Dr. Suresh Sunderrajan, SRI's President of Commercialization, provided welcoming remarks. We are grateful to have SRI as a supportive partner. Yours truly gave a talk attempting to summarize what we have learned in our quest to reinvent management science and support leaders building the organizations of the future. It was really an impossible task. Over the past 20 years, we have covered organizational design and transformation from A-Z, in theory and in practice. Our early work on the modernization of management practices for knowledge work, our predictions about the impact of decentralization and AI, it has all come to pass. Of course, for AI it's still early days, and decentralization of manufacturing and agriculture is also in an early stage. But it's coming. So what's next? In our upcoming Post-Industrial Summit 2024 FALL, on November 5-6, we will be focusing Super-Productivity and AI Agents. We will be looking at the revolutionary impact of AI on work and careers, and we'll examine other aspects of work as well. AI will make people MORE important, not less. Enterprises are not as well prepared as they should be. The Summit will again be hosted by SRI in Menlo Park. Mark your calendars, we'll provide more details soon. Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Introducing Clari Forecast for Consumption – helping leaders drive predictability and accountability across complex revenue models. Predict and manage all consumption revenue in one place, uncovering next best steps, new opportunities, and use cases. You’ll also get customizable forecasting fit for the scale and complexity of your revenue cadence. Now, all members of your sales team can lean in and run revenue like a pro. Learn more about how you can recharge your revenue engine with AI here: https://bit.ly/3yb09dT 

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"The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation." So true. Excellent take by Zeya Yang, Marc Andrusko, and Angela Strange at A16Z Unlike traditional data tools, new age tools, particularly those with Gen AI capabilities do not require a level of readiness in enterprise data systems and processes. Instead, they can work with incomplete and unstructured data sets to generate reasonable points of view to inform and enhance a sales conversation. These Gen AI tools are enabling and driving a seismic behavioral shift in the sales function and executive-level decision making - one that accepts and adopts reasonable inferences from an "unstructured" or "multi-modal" set up vs. fully explainable conclusions from "structured" systems of record. Opens up many interesting possibilities for next generation go-to-market models.

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Thanks to Dave Rigotti and team for a wonderful #PLGTM conference in SF. I had great discussions with sales and marketing leaders and here are some observations on how PLG has evolved. Part 1: Time to rethink PLG practice ✔ While the core idea of PLG revolves around self-service adoption and user-driven growth, the practice has evolved, and companies are recognizing the need for a hybrid approach. ✔ For a lot of practitioners, PLG means self-service and users adopt the product without sales support. In practice, PLG leads to increases S&M costs increasing CAC. So, it no more just about building a product but putting the marketing $ behind it. ✔ Enterprise buyers are researching on their own and have good information before they come to the call. Huge number of prospects want sales help in navigating the value prop but want to try out themselves. ✔ PLG does lead to execution speed driving the awareness, showing the value, decreasing sales cycles and enabling simple and faster expansion. ✔ There is a myth that only startups or B2C companies use PLG and has to be bottom-up approach. While many of the companies we know and products we use might be B2C, lot of enterprise B2B companies are PLG as well. e.g. users can simply signup and start using Calendly, Canva or Airtable. teams can start using the products like loom, figma and datadog. ✔ Bringing customers need a hybrid approach in 2024. You need to provide user value created by the product and buyer value created by sales teams. Think about product market fit and product customer fit - leading to greater number of happy customers ✔ Every KPI you are measuring should drive an outcome. If you collect data, ask "what is it used for? " and "how does it help customer or adoption?" ✔ As the PLG model continues to evolve, companies must adapt and embrace a balanced approach that leverages the power of self-service adoption while providing sales support to drive customer success and long-term growth. Thanks to David Yockelson and Dave Boyce for providing engaging discussion on the core of PLG. #productledgrowth #productledsales #salesledgrowth #startups #salesleadership #productmanagement

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I always look forward to talking to Ina Fried at Axios who asks incisive questions and notices important trends about the impact of emerging technology. And as we enter the era of #AI #agents it's important that we keep asking these questions. What are the right actions to delegate to agents, and the right safeguards to ensure successful outcomes? More here about guardrails in the era of agentic AI:

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Upwards of 90% of enterprise data is unstructured - PDFs, emails, audio, and video transcripts that have gone unused for years. But what if you could tap into this hidden goldmine of customer information? Salesforce recently announced the general availability of Data Cloud Vector Database with Semantic Search. This revolutionary tool lets you combine structured and unstructured data, empowering AI models to deliver powerful customer experiences across the Customer 360. Imagine a service agent who types a case subject and instantly surfaces similar cases based on meaning, not just keywords. Data Cloud understands the context, regardless of language. It can even help solve problems like lost packages by analyzing case descriptions and identifying the missing item without sifting through countless records. These are just a few examples of how Data Cloud unlocks the potential of unstructured data. Interested in learning more? Check out the video and newsroom post below!

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Generative AI continues to blur the lines between IT and business, demanding a new breed of CIOs. So forward-thinking tech execs are upskilling in finance and building cross-functional relationships to bolster AI-driven revenue operations and corporate transformations.

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At Black Box Intelligence™, we've been closely monitoring California since the minimum wage increase in April, and the findings may surprise you! Explore the trends in sales, traffic, check growth, and staffing, particularly in comparison to the rest of the nation. https://lnkd.in/gkf2mVUf

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Lack of clear requirements on what the company wants from partners – Starting in Partnering: What most Tech CEOs get wrong #4 http://surl.li/prwzcz #SalesChannels #PartneringStrategy

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Lack of clear requirements on what the company wants from partners – Starting in Partnering: What most Tech CEOs get wrong #4 http://surl.li/prwzcz #SalesChannels #PartneringStrategy

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Lack of clear requirements on what the company wants from partners – Starting in Partnering: What most Tech CEOs get wrong #4 http://surl.li/prwzcz #SalesChannels #PartneringStrategy

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Lack of clear requirements on what the company wants from partners – Starting in Partnering: What most Tech CEOs get wrong #4 http://surl.li/prwzcz #SalesChannels #PartneringStrategy

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Lack of clear requirements on what the company wants from partners – Starting in Partnering: What most Tech CEOs get wrong #4 http://surl.li/prwzcz #SalesChannels #PartneringStrategy

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Lack of clear requirements on what the company wants from partners – Starting in Partnering: What most Tech CEOs get wrong #4 http://surl.li/prwzcz #SalesChannels #PartneringStrategy

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