Relevance - MarcRudov.com

Are You Relevant?

According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, relevance is having significant and demonstrable bearing on facts or issues. In business parlance, relevance is a "perception" measurement of the culmination of a company's strategies, activities, communications, and achievements.

High relevance is derived from having great customer traction, solid channel execution, and ample capitalization. A company with high relevance has the clout to affect the kinds of products and services offered in the marketplace, and how and whether buyers purchase them.

You know if your company is relevant when you speak at a conference and get standing-room-only attendance. You also know if it is irrelevant. You just know. Is your company relevant?

Your company is relevant if it:

Consistently sets the trends and gets mobbed for media interviews
Produces financial results that attract and keep investors
Sees potential customers, partners, and employees breaking down its doors to get in.

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Google/YouTube is relevant. Toyota is relevant. Pixar/Disney is relevant. Apple is relevant.

Here is a BusinessWeek quote about Microsoft's relevance:

"For investors to care about the company, it needs to find new growth markets."

—Special Report on Microsoft, BusinessWeek, December 4, 2006

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"Digital Shootout" -- Power Lunch, CNBC: Bill Watkins, CEO, Seagate Technology

"What is Seagate doing to make itself more relevant?"

—CNBC's Dylan Ratigan interviews Bill Watkins at CES in Las Vegas, January 8, 2007

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If your company has lost or is losing its relevance, engage me to bring it back. Even a single-day positioning clinic will help. You can benefit from my solid experience and expertise, when you most need it.

Using my extensive background in marketing, sales, business development, and capital-raising -- in startups and large enterprises of the technology, publishing, and entertainment industries -- I can help make your company relevant and keep it relevant in the following ways:

Traction

Develop and execute marketing plans
Enhance/retool business plan
Align product/service benefits with customer needs
Create and refine positioning/messaging
Use advanced media techniques like podcasting to boost awareness, identity, and reach

Partnering

Design and execute channel strategy & channel development (Note: I have a channel network in Europe)
Outsource channel management for technology products and components: Austria, Benelux, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scandanavia, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland
Pull revenue through business partners and from customers
Recruit and negotiate contracts with revenue-producing business partners

Capital

Position your company in preparation to face potential investors
Assist with capital-raising and M&A activities
Perform due-diligence for enterprises and venture-capital firms
Join your boards of directors and advisors