What your startup needs to grow fast

If you want to succeed as a start-up, you need to excel in three key categories: design thinking, open thinking and platform thinking. This is according to a new report released by Alfresco Software, which analyzed what separates winners from losers in the digital world.

Based on a poll of 328 senior-level IT executives, the report says that 64 percent of those companies that excel in the three categories above usually "report significant annual growth." On the other hand, 43 percent of companies that are still developing their capabilities in one or two of the key areas are reporting different.

Design thinking is when organizations focus a lot of their energy on user experience optimization. With open thinking, innovation from both inside and outside the organization is encouraged to drive new initiatives.

Platform thinking revolves around building an ecosystem of partners and customers that exchange capabilities and data in a manner that creates added value.

"Today’s corporate leaders must realize that they need to disrupt or risk being disrupted. Those who are not yet thinking about how they will innovate with new approaches leveraging technology are at risk," warns Alfresco founder and CTO John Newton.

The report says that having a CEO to lead digital transformation is also important. "Digital transformation starts at the top, ideally with the CEO driving change and ensuring that the whole company is moving in the right direction," says Newton.

Companies that are growing fast usually employ a customer- and user-first thinking, commit to an open approach to the flow of ideas and concepts in their organisations, and re-imagine a business model that supports a shared economy and leads the way in platform thinking.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Future plc Publication. All rights reserved.

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