From The Editor | August 2, 2018

Why Every POS VAR Should Read "Built To Last"

Abby Sorensen July 2017 Headshot

By Abby Sorensen, Executive Editor

Built To Last

In 2008 we published an article in the then-named Business Solutions magazine titled “Turning The E-mail Explosion Into VAR Opportunity." Fast forward to July 2018 and Channel Executive magazine covers things like, “The GDPR: Separating Fact From Fear.”

What a perfect illustration of one of my favorite quotes from the legendary business book “Built To Last” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras:

“All products, services, and great ideas, no matter how visionary, eventually become obsolete. But a visionary company does not necessarily become obsolete, not if it has the organizational ability to continually change and evolve beyond existing product life cycles."

The technologies VARs sell and the services VARs provide change drastically in short periods of time, and it takes persistence to evolve your business to keep up. That’s why Built To Last is a must-read for VARs.

If you don’t want to read the book, I’d at least recommend listening to the hour-long discussion about the key concepts in it. This recently released podcast episode was hosted by Jim Roddy, Reseller & ISV Business Advisor at PaymentsEdge Advisory Services with Worldpay. Jim and I – along with POS industry veterans Sean Buckley of Vend and Jeremy Julian of CBS NorthStar – dig in to how the book applies to POS resellers and software companies. The “On The Edge” podcast is designed for POS executives with a goal to educate them on leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other SMB best practices.

Our first episode was a discussion about The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. You can listen to that archived episode here.

After you’re done listening to the podcast, check out these articles that feature POS solutions providers that are embodying some of the principles of “visionary companies” as explained in Built To Last.

To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the Vantiv Advantage Podcast via iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.