Small Is the New Big
In Ralph Grabowski’s last upFront.eZine newsletter
he wrote about the changing of the guard in the CAD market that I have been speaking about for some time: the idea that a small number of software vendors can no longer control the future of the CAD market. It’s gratifying to see thought-leaders and others in the industry beginning to recognize the change that Alibre has been working hard to affect.
In his article Ralph references “three mid-sized CAD software companies” that revealed their plans and strategies to him in return for his feedback. You can read the entire article here.
The article goes on to describe certain attributes of the “old guard” and the “new guard,” most of which
apply directly to entrenched CAD vendors and Alibre respectively. I’ve listed a few below:
Feature Sets
- Old Guard: Lots of new features little-used by users.
- New Guard: Basic features oft-used by users.
Compatibility
- Old Guard: To lock in customers, prefers to avoid compatibility with competitors.
- New Guard: To attract customers, prefers to embrace compatibility.
Software Distribution
- Old Guard: Relies on country offices and regional dealers.
- New Guard: Relies on country distributors and the Internet.
Marketing
- Old Guard: Hires teams of external PR firms to support the internal PR firm.
- New Guard: Usually has the CEO doing the marketing.
Customers
- Old Guard: Uses customers as a source of up-sell revenues.
- New Guard: Uses customers as a source to sell to new customers.
The article ends with the following statement: “The new guard does not take over the old guard quickly. It happens gradually; think in terms of Alibre's progress.” Thanks Ralph! That’s what I’m talking about. The pace of change is indeed hard to predict, hence our adherence to a mantra from the Innovator’s Solution: “Impatient for profit, patient for growth.”
So while we’re being patient for that growth, join me for a moment to imagine the impact of that change. Alibre has learned how to do more with less than any other CAD software company; this has been a requirement for survival. Consider a hypothetical 100,000 people buying a license of 3D CAD. By virtue of our efficiency, 100,000 people buying a $1,000 product from Alibre would result in a product dramatically better than any 3D CAD product on the market today, and for only $1,000, versus $7,000 for SolidWorks. Moreover, the over half a billion in customer savings could be applied to all sorts of other productive tasks. Now consider 100,000 people buying a $7,000 copy of SolidWorks. That is actually less than Dassault and SolidWorks claim they have already sold. So not only would there not be a better product on the market - how could there be with less revenue than they have today – it would also only result in a bunch of grumpy people from Dassault upset because they didn’t make their numbers.
With half a billion dollars to spend on innovation and a better product in their hands, 100,000 people buying a copy of Alibre Design changes the world!
In line with this theme, I borrowed the image above and the title of this piece, “Small is the New Big,” from Seth Godin’s book of the same name. Here’s a link to a rant by Godin on the topic. The idea is basically that small businesses have lots of advantages over big businesses. Even big businesses that can think like small businesses – which is way harder really – have those advantages. You probably won’t be surprised to find that we at Alibre agree with this; we believe our “small business” approach to our customers, our product and the market is our core advantage. Godin’s rant is well worth a read, so I won’t repeat much of it here other than to point out a few attributes of “small” that I personally like:
Small means that you can answer email from your customers.
Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.
A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency [insert CAD software company here] is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big.
Small is the new big only when the person running the small [company] thinks big.
We’re thinking big, and we’re patient for big, and that’s good for our customers, because even when we get big, we'll still know how to act small.
Until Next Time,
Greg Milliken, CEO
B-Splines are the most familiar type of spline in Alibre Design and are useful for a wide variety of tasks. However, one of the strengths of B-Spline curves can also be a weakness in certain circumstances: they are rigid and not subject to changing shape without explicit intervention.
