R "Ray" Wang > Quotes

“So in a quest to balance rapid growth and increased profitability, startups (especially the software-as-a-service or SaaS kind) have adopted the rule that a company’s revenue growth rate added to the profitability margin should be equal to or greater than 40 percent.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“There’s no long-term loyalty. Customers will trade loyalty for convenience, for value, or for status. Which means that every company must constantly reevaluate its business and monetization model and value proposition.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“A good metric to determine whether you’re accomplishing this objective is whether your company consistently earns best-place-to-work ratings from your employees.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“Digital giants over-invest.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“However, what is often not talked about is how the speed with which decisions are made plays a role in claiming victory.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“There are five ways DDDNs generate revenue: advertising, digital services, digital goods, subscriptions, and memberships.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“In a graph often cited by the late Clayton Christensen, a noted expert on disruptive innovation, in 1981, 50 percent of the average investment of profits was allocated to research and development and 50 percent to shareholder dividends. Today, 50 percent of that investment is allocated to stock buybacks, 49 percent to dividends, and a meager 1 percent to research and development.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“A DDDN is any business that captures, harnesses, and deploys insights from massive amounts of data, often provided for “free” by a large network of users.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“What about option three, you may be wondering? Can I choose to quietly run my business in my small niche, without the backing of a DDDN and without provoking the giants? The answer, I’m sorry to say, is no. If you want to survive for another decade, there is no other choice. Like it or not, the only options are to build your own duopoly, join a coalition that can hold its own against the dominant DDDNs in your market, or give up and wait for the grim reaper.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“Integrity. Great leaders have strong moral principles, demonstrate honesty, and uphold honor. Inspiration. Great leaders stimulate and draw people toward ideas, concepts, and actions. Inclusiveness. Great leaders bring people together from different backgrounds and points of view to create equal opportunities. Authenticity. Great leaders are genuine about who they are and what they stand for. Transparency. Great leaders hold themselves accountable and provide clarity on their decisions and actions.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“Any organization that can make decisions twice as fast or one hundred times faster than its competitors will decimate them. Time is a friend to those who make can make faster,”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“In the past, when a company executed a “turnaround,” it usually targeted one or two of five focus areas—what I call the five pillars—for transformation: the company’s purpose, its team, its offerings, the market in which it competes, and the capital it has at its disposal.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“It’s true that between March 2020 and August 2020, what would have taken five years to accelerate to digital occurred in five months of COVID”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“Most successful regional players dream of emerging as a top contender in the nation. Once they grow to play in the national stage, they set their sights toward global domination.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“When the smoke clears, we can expect to see about a hundred dominant players in about fifty distinct markets, known as value chains, around the world. In most cases there will be a duopoly of two giants in each market. The concepts of banking, financial services, and insurance will converge. Consolidation of telecom, entertainment, and tech will accelerate.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants

“This approach enables leaders to strategically map out the ringers—those leaders who inspire others—across the entire talent pipeline and reward them. They know loyalty and performance will be backed up by actions. Often seen as star players, ringers attract key talent through their skills and professional reputation.”
― R "Ray" Wang, Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants