Cloud Marketplaces: From Good to Great

Good to Great 🏆 is the №1 framework in business on driving growth and innovation.

Use these 6 steps from it to kickstart your cloud marketplace flywheel.

💡 Niall Ruane, mentor of our Cloud GTM Leader Course and MD of Flywheel Consulting shares his insights as a frm. Enterprise Lead at AWS.

“Reflecting on my 8 year experience at Amazon Web Services (AWS), one crucial lesson is the significance of the Amazon leadership principles, especially "learn and be curious".

Greatest business and tech leaders, like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, all found time to learn from others.

№1 framework in business growth and success is based on the "Good To Great" book. Jim Collins distilled repeatable success principles and mechanisms from 1,400 companies and stressed the importance of creating a flywheel effect.

Jeff Bezos famously invited Jim Collins to discuss its insights with Amazon's Senior Leadership team.

💎Amazon Flywheel for Amazon Marketplace

In 2001 Bezos sketched his vision for Amazon to become the world's most customer-centric company. It all starts with an excellent customer experience, which draws more customers.

This attracts more third-party sellers, leading to a broader product selection. This helps reduce costs and spur innovation, powering a flywheel effect.

📊 6 Elements of Flywheel for Cloud GTM

Creating a flywheel is a goal and hallmark of great companies, and according to Collins, it results from 6 key efforts working in harmony.

How to apply this to your Marketplace Flywheel:

1️⃣ Level 5 Leadership

Be humble yet incredibly driven to achieve marketplace traction and build a customer <> CSP flywheel in the mid-long term.

2️⃣ Disciplined People

Getting the right people takes precedence over your marketplace strategy.

First find the right entrepreneurial people who can work with minimal bureaucracy across hierarchy. Let them work out details on what and how to do it.

3️⃣ Confront the Brutal Facts

Assess your cloud GTM potential, asking critical questions about your market, customers and partners. Confront the brutal facts - how your company needs to change to get traction?

4️⃣ Embrace The Hedgehog Mindset

Be laser-focused on the Marketplace and your product value to the buyer and CSP:

✔️What are you passionate about?

✔️What are you best in the world at?

✔️What drives your economic engine?

5️⃣ Foster a Culture of Discipline

Do not mistake control (CRM) with a culture of discipline. Build a focused team of people and partners who will act consistent with the Hedgehog mindset.

6️⃣ Implement The Flywheel

Start with excellent customer experience. Think big and focus on elements that attract more customers, engage more partners, and expand your efforts.

Collins highlights that flywheel is “all of them added together.. applied in a consistent direction.”

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📈 Accelerate your Growth in Cloud Marketplaces

Transform your marketplace strategy with first-hand insights from Cloud GTM leaders in our 5-week cohort course. Learn in a community of great alliance leaders. Join 100+ alums from companies like GitLab, Darktrace, IDC and others.

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