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"4 C's of Marketing Replace 4 P's, Software CEO Says"
"By Dennis LaRue YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The chief executive officer of RubiconSoft Inc., a woman who earned her master's degree in business administration at Youngstown State University, says the four P's of marketing have been replaced by the four C's.The four P's -- product, price, promotion, place -- have been supplanted, at least in developing and selling software, by the four C's, customers, content, context and community, Anu Shukla said. She received her M.B.A. with an emphasis in marketing in 1981. Shukla returned to YSU Tuesday after an absence of more than 20 years to share the lessons she's learned about developing and marketing software and being an entrepreneur. She is the second speaker in this year's Williamson Symposium and her topic was "Entrepreneurship in a Global Environment: Lessons Learned."Over the course of her career, Shukla held senior marketing positions at Unify Corp. and California Micro Devices. As vice president of worldwide marketing and product management at Compuware/Uniface Corp., she played a major role in Compuware's acquisition of Uniface (price $433 million), her biography says, and oversaw Uniface's growth over five years from $10 million in annual sales to $85 million.She went on to fill a similar role at Versata after being chief operating officer at mFactory Inc., another software company in the Silicon Valley. At Versata in 1977, she said, she pioneered the concept that a company's Web site can be more than a sales brochure and conduct conversations with its customers so it can provide what they want. Shukla struck out on her own to found Rubric Inc., which was acquired for $366 million in February 2000, with the help of a man whose parents are from Youngstown. More important, that man has a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University. Then she founded RubiconSoft, where she remains CEO, and became active in WHTC, Women's High Tech Coalition, among whose members are Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, both D-Calif., and several U.S. representatives.Much of her presentation on what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur is taught in colleges of business administration. With her 20-plus years in the Silicon Valley, Shukla brought a number of those lessons to life and allowed her experiences to underscore the points business professors teach.She should have paid a bit more attention in her management classes, Shukla allowed, and what's involved in leadership. "Leadership is all about the team," Shukla said. "You're only as strong as your weakest link." More specifically, she addressed her shortcoming of thinking her expertise in marketing could allow her to compensate for the inexperience and lack of knowledge of the staffs she oversaw later in her career.Hire the best people you can find and afford, she advised, so they can compensate for your areas of inadequacy. No one has all the answers, she said.On the other hand, in hiring the most talented software engineers -- she had 19 at Rubric -- Shukla found herself fending off recruiters every day. She provided the engineers massages chair massages, free laundry and dry cleaning pick up, free lunches and dinners as there seemed no end in the late 1990s to the run up in high-tech stock prices.Her "Top 10" items of advice -- and she quickly admitted she's no David Letterman -- are:10. Borrowing from Thomas A. Edison, Shukla says an entrepreneur is based "99% on perspiration, 1% inspiration. Inspiration is key." 9. "You have to be in front of the idea," that is, be aware of trends and anticipate customers' needs.8. "Do your homework." To YSU students who think homework will be a thing of the past upon graduation, Shukla dispelled that notion.7. "Be passionate; passion is infectious." If a leader lacks passion or can't communicate his passion, she said, a company won't succeed. "It's not just what you deliver," she elaborated. "It's how you deliver."6. "Lead by vision, power and knowledge. Rally people around your ideas."5. "Don't give up. Since you don't know it can't be done, do it."4. "Be an optimist."3. Network. "Networking is a powerful tool," she said.2. "Apply good timing principles."1. "Believe in your luck," and she admits, "Luck favors the prepared mind.""