Christmas Edition - Ho Ho Ho ...
This year presented unique challenges and opportunities for me in Tech Sales. I wanted to provide a “Best of” of the CIO monthly digests I discussed in all the 2023 editions:
“The New 2023 Cloud Reality and Sovereign Cloud comes of Age”
The July edition discusses a shift in cloud adoption, emphasizing the superiority of the Private Cloud over the Public Cloud based on a study by Constellation Research. Also, it provides a practical analysis guide that helps you decide where to go with your workload.
“The State of Cloud Infrastructure and why ISVs invest in SaaS Offerings”
The August edition is based on the Redpoint team's InfraRed Report, which indicates that infrastructure software surpasses application software in performance as an asset class, with a Net Dollar Retention (NDR) of 120%. Examples of Application SaaS (Adobe, Figma, Notion) and Infra SaaS (mongoDB, snowflake, twilio) are provided.
“Is the fast-food-like Cloud experience too good to be true?”
The September edition explores the nuanced considerations and benefits of using major cloud platforms versus alternatives like OpenStack, cautioning against the simplistic appeal of the "fast-food-like" cloud experience while emphasizing the importance of informed decision-making in cloud strategy.
“Software Ate the World, Now AI Is Eating Software – a Sales Perspective”
In the post-COVID era, traditional sales tools like LinkedIn InMail, cold calling, and email campaigns have become ineffective, prompting a shift towards more demanding and relationship-focused approaches such as content creation with ChatGPT, ecosystems selling with partners, warm calling with prior research, and introductions by colleagues.
“Swiss Software Developers shape the Swiss way to Cloud”
The November edition emphasizes that Swiss SMEs, including Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) like Phoenix Systems, play a vital role in shaping the digital backbone of Switzerland's economy, emphasizing innovation, quality, and digital sovereignty in software development for diverse sectors.
On a personal note:
As a hectic year turns the corner and is about to close out, I am thankful for all the new and existing connections and the time spent with colleagues, customers, partners, and prospects.
I will focus more on my family and myself for the upcoming Christmas holidays. With an inward perspective, I hope to explore the following:
Stoicism Gratitude Wellbeing
Those concepts will help me recalibrate myself.
With stoicism, I try to control my emotions and control what I can at any moment. I will practice in any situation that asks for my emotional attention and use my skills to fight the urge to get emotionally involved and caught up. With this detachment approach, I will spend more time reading the situation, analyzing my emotions, and finding a way of not reacting and giving way to that emotion.
This should help me to be in control of the things I can control and override the urge to lose myself in mental entanglements. As Ryan Holiday says, “No thank you, I can’t afford to panic”.
By expressing gratitude in the simplest forms, I want to make people around me feel better about themselves, and in return, I will feel better about myself too. It is easy to be grateful. The concept I am applying is to be kind to everyone in every situation. This kindness is rooted in simple habits. By being kind to others, I am directly expressing my appreciation – not only to the person involved but also to myself. Ryan Holiday argues that being thankful, especially for what went wrong, and saying “Thank you” for every experience.
Applying simple tools, I am building the processes for well-being into my daily routine. I appreciate investing time in physical exercise and conscious eating patterns. The latter is especially challenging for me. I find intermittent fasting a fascinating tool to create more conscious eating patterns. Paired with physical exercise provides more than well-being; it is a structure for me to follow.
“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” – Marcus Aurelius