LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY FOR SUCCESS

Advice for Tech Startups and SMEs

By: Roman Rammler

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Innovation - Automation – Future…Contribute to the growth of the economy! LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY FOR SUCCESS – Advice for Tech Startups and SMEs An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Launching & Managing an Automation-Technology Company This book is unique and has received many endorsements and outstanding customer review ratings. The book offers recommendations that help you overcome the challenges of a Technology Startup or Small & Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) in a “faction” form - that is, blending facts with fiction in a story/novel form - to convey the message in an effective way. The challenges of a startup, or an SME, are communicated by a fictional account of real events. And, as illustrated in the story, segregating goals into easy-to-understand parts can help to create a roadmap for success. The book will also guide you through the process of defining costumer needs, developing your story, and your marketing/sales strategy; it will make the difference in building a successful company. Automation is the future for process plants and factories. Technology both eliminates jobs, and creates jobs. Generally it destroys lower wage, lower productivity jobs, while it creates jobs that are more productive, high-skill and better paid. Historically, the income-generating effects of new technologies have been proven more powerful than the labor-displacing effects: technological progress has been accompanied not only by higher output and productivity, but also by higher overall employment. The industrial automation niche is a market of ~ 200 Billion dollars, which, although dominated by large companies, offers many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) good prospects for profitable niche solutions. While automation systems are often delivered by large companies, these firms frequently do not have the necessary know-how for niche applications. Small and medium-size companies can deliver niche process automation solutions for end-users across a variety of industries worldwide. They can leverage their systems’ capabilities and/or their application knowledge and thus offer good solutions for numerous process challenges. The ‘hot’ technology startup stories often relate to innovations in the areas of Internet, data communication and other consumer-oriented applications – the dream is to be one of the titans of Silicon Valley. While these inventions receive a lot of attention, they seldom impact the efficiency of the process-and manufacturing industries – Oil & Gas, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Food & Beverage, Glass/Fiber, Power & Utilities, Steel, Cement, etc. Although the performance in these industries is key to the economic success of any nation, there has been little improvement in plant efficiency during the past decade. There are scores of books and websites available that offer general guidelines for industrial automation businesses. However, this book is different; it provides much more than broad guidelines. The book conveys a strategy for successful business execution by segregating long-term objectives into ascertainable and actionable parts, some in direct recommendations and others in a story/novel format – a truly unique approach. It brings into line the day-to-day events (including new product development specifics) of a technology business with the primary obligations of its business strategy. .

Interesting Information bogged by technical difficulties

This book had quite a lot of valuable information. However, the virtual voice reader, at least in this particular case, presented some major problems for the listener. There were plenty of moments where the virtual voice reader conveyed the information effectively. One gigantic problem, though, became evident approximately 10 hours in during (or around) the chapter entitled International Business Development. Clearly, the producers failed to proof-listen this section of the book because there comes a point when, every 30 seconds or so (for at least 30 minutes), the virtual voice reader interrupts the narration, saying, “Underscore underscore underscore underscore underscore underscore underscore underscore underscore underscore underscore.” I had supposed it might be a temporary mishap, but it continued happening for so long that I eventually skipped 30-45 minutes of the book until I no longer had to endure that continued interruption. In this case, this mild oversight severely affects the presentation for the listener, and is forgivable only if the producers immediately edit the narration so that this problem discontinues.