"Crossing the chasm and surviving the tornado" - impressions from CoachLab™ participants

Attendees at the event in deep concentration as they focus on the information presented.

Dr Jill Sawers (left), Manager of the Hub's Maxum Business Incubator at the event with Belinda Schömlke (middle), President of the SA MIT Club and Darryl Aberdein (right), Treasurer of the SA MIT Club.

The Hub's CoachLab™ participants recently attended one of the Hub's regular Kgotla@Hub networking sessions. Following is a brief summary of their impressions of the event:

"We were indeed fortunate to have been invited to attend one of the Hub's popular and well-attended Kgotla@Hub events. We immediately recognised a number of the well-known academic and business leaders attending the event, including UP Vice Chancellor Prof Calie Pistorius, Maxum Manager Dr Jill Sawers, MIT South Africa President Belinda Schmolke and Shake IT CEO Cobus van der Linde. The guest of honour, Coen Bester, introduced author Geoffrey Moore's high-tech product marketing DVD, "Crossing the Chasm", which was shown to guests as part of the evening's programme.

Also included in the programme was a DVD from MIT SA on one of the MIT Group's conferences held in the US and facilitated by Geoffrey Moore. The focus of the conference was on how three security solutions companies - Barracuda Networks, Postini and Proof Point - had successfully crossed the chasm between the early adopter of technology products and adoption by the early majority. As a result, these companies are today effectively surviving the "tornado" that is created by the late market adoption of new technologies.

We found the evening inspirational and related well to the topics addressed in the presentations, such as developing and marketing innovations in the ICT field as well as the passion with which the companies pursued the ideas in which they believed without any upfront guarantee of success. It has given us confidence in the fact that emerging companies can contribute meaningfully to the dynamic ICT sector through perseverance and following their dreams.

The material presented supports the Hub's contention that "there are no limits to innovation". One of the valid points mentioned was that "everywhere there are people that will always try to find reasons why something will not work and few that will find reasons why it will". At the Hub, we interact with those that do.

As young CoachLab™ participants, we were inspired to continue working on our current projects. We are more convinced that ever of the merits of following our dreams, and never giving up on an idea that we believe in!!

For more information on the CoachLab™, contact Martin Manmohan at Maxum or visit www.coachlab.co.za.

[Back to top]

Next