Inside Intuit - Book Report
...factual information, something learned about people in general, or some self-insight learned.
Inside Intuit - How the Makers of Quicken Beat Microsoft and Revolutionized an Entire Industry, written by Intuit veteran Suzanne Taylor and seasoned business manager Kathy Schroeder, is certainly a boon to new entrepreneurs and business school students. The classic story of a Silicon Valley technology company has a lot to offer to the future generations. Even though, Intuit is a technology company, the challenges it faced and the steps taken to get out of woods are a lesson to companies across industries. I am from a technical background, who is currently managing customer situations and customer relations for my company. I believe in customer loyalty more than customer satisfaction. This book demonstrated how successful a marriage between customer driven innovation and technology companies can be. In 1980s, high technology industry was dominated by giants like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. None of them emphasized on customer satisfaction as much as Intuit did. I have learnt several valuable lessons from this book, most importantly, innovation driven by customers, followed by market strategy for a known product, having self awareness for CEO and always put employees and customers in the front.
Clear Strategy and Market Positioning
When his wife complained about the drudgery of paying bills and writing checks, Scott Cook sprung up with the idea for new software. It wasn't as if Cook and Proulx, cofounder of Intuit, had come up with an idea no one else had, back in 1983. There were 46 different competitive products already on the market. The problem is that none of them worked particularly well. The real challenge is in reading the pulse of the customers and to provide software that gives more than what the existing players are providing. Instead of triggering...
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