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What’s A Warboard & Why You Need One For Your Startup To Thrive
“We’re going to have a warboard, and you’re going to manage it.” Jack Gifford, Maxim’s founding CEO, said to me.
What’s a warboard?” I asked.
Gifford was pacing back and forth as he continued. “You’re going to manage every detail. Every, single, detail of the sales process, so we don’t screw up!
“The sales people are going to hate you, but I don’t care.”
Gifford stopped and paused for emphasis. “It’s what we need to win.”
We were the dominant supplier of a particular product to PC manufacturers worldwide. Our market share was over 50% and we wanted to keep it that way.
In fact, we wanted our market share to improve. We were out for blood.
So every night starting around 5PM, Kent, the Business Manager I was working with, and I would get on the phone with various sales people in Asia.
“Did you give the samples to the engineer?” I asked.
“No, I haven’t had time,” came the answer.
“You committed you would deliver the samples by Tuesday. It’s now Wednesday. This is unacceptable!
“You need to go there today!”
