‘Unconsidered Needs’ is a short weekly email about the trials and tribulations of tech value creation.
Unconsidered Needs Archive
The next frontier of value creation.
If you asked most people what they were most excited for at re: Invent, they would say Werner Vogels technical keynote. He does not disappoint. AWS has invested heavily these last 12 months to improve network latency. Creating new regions, local zones, relays to connect to space and outposts in the Antarctic. The goal of…
AI, ML Re: Inventing the future of value creation.
Today, AWS dedicated 2x full 2hr keynotes solely to AI and ML technologies. Nearly all of your PortCos will be investing 6/7 figures in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. You’ve probably even recruited a new head of AI/ML/Data Science to your PE firm to bolster your in-house capabilities. There is considerable unrealised value in predicting…
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Why a tech conference in the middle of the desert could be your best chance to create technology value in 2022.
AWS re: Invent, it’s fast becoming the go-to event for PE firms to mingle with their portcos. Typically, portcos will spend 7/8 figures on cloud services and infrastructure. That number will be growing rapidly. AWS re: Invent is a great excuse to meet, persuade and ‘encourage’ your portcos tech leaders to find innovative ways to…
One of the biggest challenges at scale is technology performance.
This week a colleague was complaining about the productivity hit their portcos were getting from slow response times on IT systems. Later in the week, I experienced this for myself after making a mistake on my Tax Return. A simple mistake. The wrong surname. After 95 minutes on hold to HMRC, a polite Scottish gentleman answered…
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Machine learning is fast becoming the differentiator in value creation.
Nearly all of your PortCos will be investing 6/7 figures in Machine Learning. Those that aren’t, should have a roadmap to build significant capability within the next 12-18 months. Last week I was turned on to an excellent book, ‘Prediction Machines’. It introduces the concept of Machine Learning simply as an intelligent way to predict…
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Your Code as a Crime Scene, forensic value creation.
This week I’m reading the book ‘Your Code as a Crime Scene’. It provides practical techniques to forensically analyse tech issues that occur at scale. Along with insight on the psychology behind the decisions that led there. You might be thinking, what does forensically analysing code change have to do with value creation? These are…
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Outcomes over Output. The value of making tech change.
This week I read the book ‘Outcomes over Output’. This book was recommended to me after an exchange with a client about data analysis methods. We talked at length about the math rather than the value acting now would realise for their investor. This example will probably resonate with you when working with portco tech…
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Identifying tangible value in an intangible world
This week I was turned on to an article from 2005 titled ‘Identifying the Business Value of What We Do’. An extract from this article that will resonate from working with your portco tech teams: ‘Half of all users who attempt to register can’t successfully complete the process. Those who do register find the process…
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Your Portco tech team’s approach to BBQ can tell you everything you need to know about their tech value creation potential.
This weekend was suspiciously warm for Autumn in England. We decided to have not one but two BBQs with friends. We recently purchased an OUTBACK Meteor Hooded 4 Burner Gas BBQ Grill In Red, this is what a BBQ should look like. On both days to the amusement of my wife and friends. As soon…
What is the cost per user?
Until you fully understand the impact of cost per user, IT cost reduction or investment decisions are like playing roulette When technology teams are asked to think about costs the first thing they think of is how to get them to come down. As important as this is It’s only half the story. The other half…
What results does your Private Equity firm get from technology product reviews meetings?
I’m coming to the end of my mid-length vacation in Italy. This year, on the beach, I’ve been re-reading ’The Phoenix Project’. It’s a novel about tech jargon, delays and re-prioritisation that limit technology value creation.
A nice story, but what does it have to do with technology value creation?
For the first time in a long time, I took an international flight. In 2021, you need to complete some new forms… A passenger locator form, this lets people where you are going and why. A negative COVID-19 test certificate 48hrs before departure. A copy of your vaccine certificate, 0 1 or 2 doses. The…
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Why data science is fast becoming the competitive advantage in Private Equity
When you talk to PE firms about Data Science. Some will talk very openly about what they are doing. Others will prefer to talk about anything besides Data Science. Very few have little to no capability in this area. Some PE firms have built large teams of data scientists to compete against their rivals. Who…
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How to net out the Global Minimum Tax (GMT) by reducing cloud cost
A G7 announcement out of Cornwall that you won’t have missed is the introduction of a global minimum cooperation tax (GMT). Some PortCos could see their corporation tax bills increase by 5-10% overnight. Today we’re going to look at how you could net out this increase using the same model cost introduced last week. If…
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Putting a dollar value on Cloud Cost Optimisation
Picture this, each day your PortCo tech teams are provisioning more cloud services. Each month your cloud infrastructure bill is growing. There are rumblings of setting up a new data centre in Austin and South Africa. Something doesn’t feel right. You suspect that your PortCos might be spending too much money in the Cloud. You…
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Can an incomplete Digital Transformation still create value?
Picture this scenario, you’re getting geared up to exit an investment. The Cloud Migration you’ve been working on is only 75% complete. The new product you’ve been working on is three months away. You’ve done all the heavy lifting. Taken all the pain. Today the value of all your hard work is $0. Imagine you…
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What is the impact of legacy technology on value creation?
Does it reduce your risk profile? Does it increase or reduce your cost base? Does it enhance revenue? Legacy tech brings with it unconsidered or unknown system constraints. These problems catch you out. They frustrate sales and marketing. You’ll ask yourself “why didn’t we know about this already?” They won’t be resource constraints, like people,…
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Digital Transformation and Private Equity, one buzz word at a time.
Google ‘Digital Transformation’ and you’ll be treated to a myriad of different buzz words. Search ‘Digital Transformation Private Equity’. You’ll get the same buzz words, but you’ll be told you ‘need’ to do it fast… Here’s a very well-written FT article telling you to do just that. https://www.ft.com/content/1ba9d897-d3b2-4786-a8c0-304617d817a7 Digital transformation has become a catch-all term…
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Your Friday night’s entertainment, courtesy of the open-source community.
It’s Friday night. The kids are in bed and the takeaway has just arrived at your doorstep. You sit down on the sofa, pick up the TV remote and turn on Netflix. You ask Siri to turn down the lights, it’s time for the weekend to begin. Sounds great? 5 years ago your Friday night…
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The hidden challenges to adopting SaaS usage based pricing models.
SaaS Usage-based pricing models are simple. As your customer grows so does how much they spend with you. Their success is your success. This article from Tech Crunch does a good job of detailing the benefits of SaaS usage-based pricing models. https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/18/why-do-saas-companies-with-usage-based-pricing-grow-faster/ But, we assume that behind every good SaaS company is a scalable and…
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When your site fails, It can be great for business. Summary from IMPACT 2021.
If you missed the IMPACT Virtual Conference 2021 then this briefing is for you. As a Tech Value Creation follower you might be surprised to learn about the silver lining found in a site failure. Here’s three insights you’ll get. Have you found yourself sitting in a virtual queue thinking why does it have to…
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NBA Topshot, Intangible, Expensive, State Of The Art.
It’s amazing how much value is being created from intangible digital goods. NBA Topshot is a recent example of this intangible revolution. A blockchain-based platform allowing fans to buy, sell and trade digital ‘moments’. Moments can range from $2 to $250,000. Crazy for something that is still in Beta. What lessons Private Equity can take…
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Why Gamestop and AMC is the least of Robinhood’s worries.
It’s been a huge week in the GameStop & AMC saga. Aside from regulatory threats and crazy stocks, trading platforms have failed to keep up with demand. In particular Robinhood. It got me thinking. How much value is created by being able to keep up with demand? Or lost by not. And how can Private…
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Newest Microsoft Gold partner on the block.
Small announcement for Market Hill today. Thanks to our relationship with Northdoor we are welcoming ourselves as the newest Microsoft Gold partner on the block. What does this mean? Microsoft has recognised our expert skills in DevOps, Analytics, Data and Cloud platforms. What does this mean for my portfolio companies? They can continue to get…
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It’s not you, it’s my ERP playbook.
Last year implementing an ERP was the number one tech change operating partners made. Number two on the list was implementing a service now type platform. There are some obvious benefits for doing this. Integrating applications into one place. Integrating the management of all business processes. Giving business leaders a real-time view of core business…
Whats new for 2021? in 300 words or less…
2021 hasn’t started out exactly how you wanted has it? Are you still feeling ambitious that things will get back on track, but wondering when? Who knows. Meanwhile here’s what you can expect from Unconsidered Needs in 2021. Each week you’ll receive engaging content, in 300 words or less, on the Private Equity relationship with technology. …
Cardboard, the latest advancement in modern technology
These last few days my daughter and I have been working through our Nintendo Labo. For those who don’t know this is a box of A3 cardboard sheets that you pop out and fold into tactile games. For both child and adult it’s a fantastic experience. You see the physical games building right before your…
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Watch out for the Cookie apocalypse
With today being Christmas I thought I’d write something a little shorter. It will be no surprise that like most I’ve been baking biscuits and cookies over the last few days. The cookie apocalypse is coming. Something is brewing in the tech industry. Keep your eye on the developing Facebook / Apple feud. This could…
When it goes wrong it really goes wrong. The pitfalls of Value creation from Cyberpunk 2077’s release.
Last week the video game Cyberpunk 2077, a sequel to the popular 90s board game Cyberpunk 2020 was released. The launch was a complete failure unless you own a PC. Three days after the release, the share price of CD Projekt RED (the creators of Cyberpunk 2077) had dropped 40%. The co-founders lost the equivalent of…
Belli di nonna. Fresh, homemade, quality pasta.
A month ago my neighbour became another COVID-19 unemployment statistic. Like my wife he’s an Italian abroad. He decided he wanted to follow his passion and sell pasta online. Fresh, homemade, quality pasta. The quickest way to hit the ground running in 2020, Shopify. What is special about their technology? Where do they create value?…
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What American Girl can teach you about value creation.
Last week a colleague of mine shared an article that talked about American Girl. It got me thinking. How much value is created by focusing on small details? How could Private Equity leverage that? What is the role of technology? What’s so special about American Girl? They aren’t selling dolls, they are selling an experience.…
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Did the recent AWS outage make you think about how reliant your business is on the cloud?
I hope you all had a fantastic thanksgiving yesterday and are feeling extra full today. It’s no surprise that today, Black Friday 2020 will be the biggest online shopping day, ever. Global lockdown, pent up consumer demand and the promise of discounts have created the perfect storm. But, It could have been a very different…
Why can’t Apple TV+ get it right?
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Apple fanboy. My first Apple computer was the iMac G4, also known as the iLamp because it looked like Luxo Jr from the Pixar short film. Last year with an extra day in San Francisco my first and only stop was to Apple Park. So, why have I…
Fortnite has quickly and quietly revolutionised the commercial gaming model
On Tuesday (much to my wife’s surprise) I took delivery of my new Xbox. The unboxing and setup experience with the Xbox was well thought out (see here). There was one problem. I didn’t buy any games. So what do you do if you don’t have any games? You download Fortnite. The gaming industry has…
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The long and painful virtual road to recovery with Zwift
Last weekend I was racing my brother in the last race before lockdown no.2. We were racing an Aquathlon, 750 meter swim followed by a 5 km run. We came out the swim separated by 2 seconds. We started the run at the same time, pacing for a 17 min 5 km. On the 2nd lap I…
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Marginal Gains. 1% in undiscovered areas that adds up to big value
Last week the Giro d’Italia went down to the wire. 3 weeks, 20 stages, 2163 miles in 85h22m07s. Two riders tied with the same time going into the final stage. A first in Grand Tour history. The final stage was a 10-mile Time Trial, the ultimate race of truth. Local Hackney boy Tao Geoghegan Hart…
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Only 3% of all workloads in the cloud? Really?
Short answer is Yes. 3% of all workloads is in the cloud? That sounds like a tiny number. Considering how every company and vendor in the world talks about cloud. You’d expect it to be higher? I quizzed a few people on this, most guessed it was between 25-30%. If you breakdown the 3%, AWS…
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When being offensive is great for business.
I came across a podcast that interviewed Riccardo Basile of Permira. Riccardo talked about technology as a key value creation driver. I liked that. So, I’m writing about it. Technology has becomes a key element of value creation Value creation has moved beyond sales growth, expansion, risk reduction etc. Meanwhile, technology has moved beyond sector…
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It’s not easy being green.
Are carbon emissions now on the Private Equity radar? Last week Blackstone announced plans to cut carbon emissions by 15%. This is within the first three years for new investments. That’s a good start. Green savings are often overlooked in tech, particularly the cloud. Cloud providers are doing most of the heavy lifting reducing emissions…
When your site fails it can be great for business!
Wow. That was crazy. If you are a big kid or have kids, you’d have struggled to miss the pre-order launch of the Xbox series X and Playstation 5 last week. It was a huge mess. E-commerce platforms all over the world struggled to cope with the sudden increase in demand. Even Amazon was down.…
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An uncommon ‘Unconsidered Need’. Market Hill join forces with Northdoor.
Thanks to those of you who helped keep this hush whilst we sorted the ins and outs over the last few months. Market Hill are now in the strongest position to help our private equity operating partners and their portfolio company CEOs to achieve tech value creation. As of 1st Oct 2020, Market Hill has…
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How many potatoes do you want in the cloud?
This week Google announced its ‘round the clock’ clean energy for the cloud. This came just 1 week after they announced their carbon footprint was now zero, meaning Google has compensated for all the carbon it has ever created. This is a great start. However, the announcement has some really interesting themes for the cloud…
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TikTok is the most exciting big tech buyout in recent years.
Could you have ever imagined an executive order from the president of the United States, saying that in 45 days all firms have to stop working with a Chinese run app? After speculation that Microsoft would get the deal, it seems like Oracle have found the formula that works for both the US and China.…
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Performance testing is a waste of time.
Performance testing on its own isn’t useful, it’s a waste of time and money. Testing can be a great method to understanding at a deep level where you can make radical, innovative and disruptive business change. But few use it this way. Almost every dev/product team out there can at some level of run automated…
Start as you mean to go on.
A common symptom of working with private equity is that the people you start the journey with are not the same as you end with. Most CTO’s will get their key leadership team post-acquisition and tell them: PE partners will have ‘some’ involvement going forward Expect ‘some’ changes in people, strategy and velocity.Don’t worry! With…
Cost optimisation is boring…
The real value of ‘cost optimising’ in the cloud isn’t really about how much money you save, it’s what you can do next… Value is made on the journey, understanding at a deep level where you can make radical, innovative and disruptive business change. Today most companies have internal teams who can do this work…
And we need to do it within 6 months…
It gave me a rush of memories, thinking of those times I’d seen ‘big’ transformation programmes heading for the cliff. I had a previous client who