E274 | Leveraging Lean Principles for Go-To-Market Success with Matthew May & Pablo Dominguez
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CastBoxIn a world where growth and innovation are the lifeblood of businesses, two seasoned experts unveil a secret weapon for entrepreneurs and business leaders. Matthew May and Pablo Dominguez shatter the perception that lean principles are solely for startups and scale-ups. Brace yourself for a mind-bending twist as they reveal how lean thinking can revolutionise go-to-market strategies for companies of any size.
Matthew May and Pablo Dominguez are the authors of the book What a Unicorn Knows: How Leading Entrepreneurs Use Lean Principles to Drive Sustainable Growth. Matthew works for Insight Partners, a private equity VC firm in New York, where he runs the Lean Scale Up program, helping scale-ups remove obstacles to growth. With a background in strategy and a decade of experience with Toyota, Matthew brings a unique perspective to the application of lean principles. Pablo, also with Insight Partners, supports their advisory teams and has a strong focus on sales effectiveness. With over five years of experience working with portfolio companies, Pablo brings valuable insights to the table. Together, they offer practical examples and templates in their book to help businesses of all sizes drive consistent growth and innovation through lean thinking.
Download and listen to learn more.
On today’s podcast:
- Diving into the Unicorn Model
- The five foundational principles of the Unicorn Model
- Improving the quote-to-cash process by removing waste
- The value of frontline employees
- The importance of leadership to foster innovation
Follow Matthew May and Pablo Dominguez:
Who are Matthew May and Pablo Dominguez
Matt is a six-time author, noted speaker, and currently senior strategy advisor for Insight Partners, a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology companies that are driving transformation in their industries.
His latest book, What a Unicorn Knows: How Leading Entrepreneurs Use Lean Principles to Drive Sustainable Growth, was published in early 2023 to international acclaim. His background spans over 30 years of experience advising and facilitating senior leaders and their teams through transformative strategy, innovation, and lean initiatives.
Matt’s perspective is heavily influenced by spending nearly a decade with Toyota. His work has been published in high-profile publications such as The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Inc., and The Rotman Management Magazine.
A graduate of The Wharton School and Johns Hopkins University, Matt is an avid cyclist and published songwriter, but considers winning The New Yorker cartoon caption contest one of his greatest creative achievements. He lives in southern California with his wife and daughter.
Pablo is an Operating Partner at Insight, where he partners with portfolios of companies to build and scale effective Go-to-Market teams through the application of proven and repeatable go-to-market and operational best practices. He brings over twenty four years of global sales operations and sales experience, including senior leadership roles at ADP, AppNexus, Avaya, and The Alexander Group. A graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business and the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas, he enjoys skiing, mountain biking, chess, grilling/smoking BBQ, playing tennis with his wife, and watching movies with his kids. Above all else, Pablo is a die-hard Texas Longhorn fan.
What you’ll hear from Matthew and Pablo
03:40 – Who is Matthew May
04:10 – Who is Pablo Dominguez
04:47 – Why writing What a Unicorn Knows
05:40 – Sharing the secret sauce of lean startup to go-to-market
06:53 – What is Lean Scaleup
08:55 – Doing less to achieve more
10:29 – Insight Partners’ purpose
11:34 – The forces getting in the way of growth
13:32 – The importance of team size for efficiency and communication
15:10 – Leadership’s role in fostering innovation, balancing risk and innovation
16:18 – The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do
18:13 – Strategic focus and constant experimentation
20:25 – What is accelerated value
21:47 – Selling to the right customers
23:20 – Lean is all about processes
23:56 – Removing waste to improve the quote to cash process
26:22 – Why organisations need to map out their processes
28:01 – The dangers of automating a flawed process
28:22 – The value of frontline employees in process improvement
30:27 – What is Esprit de Corps
31:25 – The importance of culture and leadership
33:20 – Collaboration and openness in strategy development
34:51 – A different approach to traditional management consulting
38:48 – Scaling with Lean
39:22 – The Value of Subtraction
40:11 – Hire Slow, Fire Fast
41:27 – Inspirational Books
Book recommendations
Just Because (Chidlren’s book)