olivergajek

New commandment: Thou shalt blog more often. Just kidding.

This is a good one, comes to you from the folks at Netscape: Find a parade and jump in front of it.

Meaning that whatever you do should be connected to a bigger thing that’s currently going on. People are gathering in the street and are beginning to march. More precisely, a topic is being recognized and buzz starts to build.

Examples, not necessarily the best ones, would include topics such as Big Data, Enterprise Social Networks, Next Generation Firewall, Zero-Knowledge Encryption, etc.  

You want to be at the stage where the people who are always too early have begun to lay the groundwork. And where normal people, especially potential customers, are beginning to want to figure out what this all about. And then you assume a thought-leadership position and try to shape and brand the discussion.

Note that this requires more than inventing a three-letter acronym and declaring yourself the leading provider thereof.

Why is this important? If there is no parade, meaning no early evangelists, no start-ups entering the market, no end-users with the nagging perception that they need to learn more about the topic, then there may just be no market or you may just be too early.