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The Harvard Business Review Analytic Services produced in association with CovQ by 8W8 the briefing paper ‘Mastering Value Creation by Centering Strategy and Execution’ defining a new category: value creation management platforms.
CovQ (Compound Value Creator Quotient) encompasses a value-driver-based corporate IQ assessment system, a framework, method, and knowledge embedded in SaaS/PaaS for strategy management, reporting, team communication, collaboration, and alignment measurement.
At CovQ by 8W8, we focus on empowering forward-thinking and ambitious management teams, investors, consulting and advisory firms to consistently deliver exceptional outperformance.
Billfold empowers creators to produce the best experiences in the world by providing seamless technology solutions that remove friction at every step of the customer journey. Billfold is an innovative market-leading live entertainment marketplace point-of-sale solution designed to streamline operations, boost revenue, and enhance the consumer experience. Billfold’s purpose-built platform empowers all event and venue stakeholders to be collaborative and thrive in complex scenarios. Developed by genuine & dedicated industry specialists, Billfold is user-friendly and packed with powerful features that are solution driven for both consumers and operators. Billfold provides a seamless setup, accountability, customization, and robust analytics.
As a rapidly growing payments, SaaS, and Adtech one-stop-shop for the live entertainment industry, Billfold felt that it could really use CovQ’s process to align internal stakeholders around our short, medium, and long-term internal strategy.
The CovQ structure is very user-friendly, helping us to derive insights and results from a straightforward user experience. This is key for us because, as leaders of a fast growing organisation, we have so much on our plates; we need a process that is fast and efficient to help us scale as quickly as possible.
CovQ will help shape our organisation now and in the future, with its dynamic feedback process that keeps our internal leadership aligned. We’re thrilled to be able to lean on the deep work that CovQ has done and to use it to leapfrog our own internal processes to a more dynamic and effective level.
Podium Partners assists clients in accessing private capital markets for both debt and equity financing. Through an extensive network and established relationships with family offices, private equity, venture capital firms, lenders, and debt investors, Podium Partners has developed a proven, step-by-step process, which ensures that clients can remain focused on running their businesses while Podium Partners creates efficient, executable, and cost effective solutions to various financing and strategic needs including exit preparation.
“As a team of former water polo Olympians, national team players, and coaches, we have an immense appreciation for the synergies of team members, aligning focus, creating game plans, and using data for better decision-making. As we are applying CovQ we are able to deploy in business what we learned from the world of professional sports: unite and develop employees, get the most out of each individual and team, hold all accountable, build trust, and set everyone up for success by identifying and executing the most mission-critical strategies throughout the entire value creation processes.”
Aetherium Acquisition Corp, (NASDAQ GMFI), headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, is focused on making investments in leading Education Technology (EdTech) and related technology companies in Asia that have global ambitions by employing data-driven methods in combination with the management team’s long-standing experience in capital markets and technology entrepreneurship. As such, it has positioned itself as an early adopter of the CovQ platform to accelerate the execution of its post-IPO De-SPAC processes including the identification of potential acquisition targets and business combination activities. The company’s executive team also plans to use CovQ to systematically manage the value creation strategies together with the business combination targets of their current and subsequent SPACs.
Alex Lee, CFO, stated, “Contrary to popular belief, a SPAC entity is itself a complex business enterprise requiring many of the same day-to-day operational processes as that of a target company. Having a clearly defined and integrated “corporate IQ and culture” both during the due diligence process as well as when entering into a definitive agreement with a target company to commence the formal De-SPAC process is critical to a SPAC’s success. By integrating CovQ we now have a cohesive business building infrastructure that allows us to leverage data-driven decision-making, put knowledge into action, measure and monitor progress, and to assess and evolve in our efforts to minimize risk and increase shareholder value.”
Viveka developed the first all-in-one people development platform that empowers people to work better and live better through world-class coaching, training, and reskilling – all while streamlining and automating the programs and processes behind the scenes. Viveka’s mission is to make professional development and well-being unparalleled flexible, central, automated, and measurable. As a result, Viveka enables companies to grow their people, execute their objectives, and improve the bottom line.
FxM is FinTech for Media, reinventing the financial backbone of the media supply chain with a singular focus on the capital, liquidity, and payment challenges of today’s CMO, CFO, and Procurement professionals. Connecting the advertising ecosystem to new sources of capital and financial innovation, our solutions address long-standing AdTech and media pain points, including sequential liability with long payment terms, complex and multi-party reconciliations, working capital issues, and redundant and costly financings of the same media dollar. FxM’s solutions are operationally seamless, work within its clients’ existing processes and platforms, and are remarkably easy to execute.
Show, backed by Nielsen, a global leader in audience insights, data and analytics, was founded to revolutionize how brands and live video influencers come together to create successful and meaningful partnerships. Show provides live streamers and brands with an accessible ad platform that serves the needs of both streamers and brands: Streamers connect with brands that they appreciate to monetize their content effortlessly and brands instantly reach their target audience in a meaningful and creative approach. Show is the brainchild of an experienced executive team spearheaded by CEO Shay Kareples and his co-founders Ori Arditi, CTO, and chief scientist Shmuel Ur with the headquarter in New York City supported by a team in Tel Aviv.
When we first took the CovQ Assessment, we immediately spotted some additional upside potentials we could address. One of the actionable insights we gathered was to fine-tune and develop our integrated marketing efforts further, so we developed the priorities and executed strategies to get this value driver up and deliver more value for our business. As we have been ramping up the management team, we found it essential to adopt the CovQ value creation OS to be always fully in tune and in sync, instrumentalize focus and build out the business in the most agile and systematic way possible. Our world-class brand advertisers, streamers, employees, and investors will appreciate this big time.
Dreamscape is a partnership between GTCR, a leading private equity firm focused on investing in growth companies, and the former IAS Integral Ad Science executive team: Scott Knoll, David Hahn and Michael Iantosca. GTCR invested $15 billion in over 200 companies. Integral Ad Science Holding Corp (IAS) is traded at NASDAQ since June 2021 after it had been acquired by Vista Private Equity three years earlier.
“My team, board, investors and I built IAS from a concept to a global company with more than 600 employees in nine years. We had big dreams and lots of ideas, but the key to our success was our ability to focus all of our time and resources on the limited number of strategic initiatives that really mattered. It would have been much easier for us to do this if we had a strategy platform of record in place that had powered, tracked and supported our rapid growth and ambitious expansion plans. The value creation system and business building platform CovQ makes a lot of sense to adopt early on for any business, but it’s especially relevant for growth companies in volatile environments like technology.”
Attributy is an AI-driven, deep-learning multi-touch attribution platform empowering marketers and agencies to track, manage and optimize all advertising campaigns from search engine advertising to retargeting to offline campaigns like TV. ‘Made in NYC’ with headquarters at Times Square in Manhattan, Attributy is best positioned to capture the latest trends in media, broadcasting, advertising, and tech for the benefit of its customers’ goals of achieving superior and scalable marketing results by steering and optimizing the customer journey and allocated budgets.
“After bootstrapping my first company from day one all the way to its acquisition, I have a deep appreciation for structured and systematic approaches to communication, management, and business building. As an industry veteran of DRTV, campaign tracking & marketing attribution, I founded my latest tech scale-up, Attributy, operating with employees based in five locations, four countries, and three time zones. One crucial success factor is that management and employees are aligned and rallied behind the defined mission-critical priorities at all times. By applying CovQ we could identify those easier than ever and very detailed at the same time. Now our leadership team can cascade and manage the derived strategies throughout the organization and include all employees worldwide.”
L.A. based Perci creates customized plans for families to be ready for natural disasters. Perci mobile app helps families prepare for natural disasters based on the family’s size and unique needs as well as based on the natural disasters most likely to occur at their home’s location. Families receive real-time alerts from multiple sources in one feed. Perci helps families build a resilience network with neighbors and friends. The Perci vest is specifically designed for evacuation and comes pre-packaged with essential items. Perci’s promise is to equip families with tools to live a worry-free life knowing they are taking all the necessary steps for disaster safety.
“The CovQ approach of identifying and distilling crucial value drivers into the most relevant priorities has been critical to our launch. It is very helpful to seamlessly translate these priorities into strategies to build and improve our business operations. The refinement of strategies on an ongoing basis that are derived from regular CovQ assessments matches and reminds me of exactly how I used to provide clinical care. I am so glad we started to apply the CovQ management system in Perci’s mission to help families protect their loved ones and property from natural disasters.”
VONQ is a leading B2B provider of online recruitment technology services to corporate Human Resources departments across Europe and the US. VONQ empowers its Enterprise and SME clients in making performance data-based decisions and thereby optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of advertising vacancies across more than 5,000 job boards globally. The complexity of sourcing and attracting top talent is increasingly driving employers to VONQ’s intelligent recruitment marketing platform. VONQ is majority-owned by Capital D, which is a next-generation pan-European PE fund investing in mid-market businesses that will be winners of the disruption economy. Capital D invests at the intersection of mega, technological, and behavioral trends, and believes in agility and purpose as value creation drivers.
We first engaged with the CovQ platform when we planned our strategy offsite. In order to perfectly understand the status quo of our value creation qualities and opportunities, I asked our board members of investors, advisers, and C-suite to take the CovQ Assessment. We then analyzed the CovQ value driver results and held a very structured session to identify the priorities, focus, and actions to power our winning strategies. Needless to say that we track and report the progress and decided to take the CovQ assessment in six months intervals. The CovQ platform is a great strategic and agile way to manage the steady evolvement and future growth of the VONQ Group worldwide.
MyStorage is Vietnam’s first tech-enabled mini storage facility combining traditional and valet storage. Both businesses and individuals can book online, manage their accounts, and check their storage inventories. MyStorage is managed by a diverse and experienced team with American, European, and Asian backgrounds.
I founded two companies, the first of which I sold to Mode Media Corporation in 2010 and the second to Yahoo in 2015. My latest entrepreneurial venture is MyStorage, Vietnam’s first tech-enabled, full-service mini-storage provider. We have adopted the CovQ value creation system at an early stage of our growth, as I wanted to formalize my learnings and experience from the past. By using the CovQ method, I’m able to execute on my strategy with consistency and effective follow-through, ultimately allowing me to expand the business in the most professional and successful possible way.
quantilope is the market-leading SaaS solution for executing automated and advanced market research methods servicing leading brands globally. It is developing the Insights Operating System empowering insights managers and marketers to become truly agile.
In Q3/20 quantilope closed a Series B funding round of $28 million led by Digital+ Partners along with Silicon Valley Bank providing debt financing and the participation of the existing investors Dawn Capital, Senovo, and Surplus.
“As an agile market research SaaS company, we particularly appreciate leveraging systematically generated insights and convert those into actionable strategies. As my co-founder and I took the CovQ assessment it allowed us not only to perfectly align but also to double down on our strengths and create space to initiate further growth strategies. We are expanding really fast, hence methods and tools are simply a must.”
PAFnow, acquired by Celonis in March 2022, empowers users to gain full transparency about processes. Companywide or project specific, for large quantities of data or for small optimization projects, every Office 365 user can use the PAFnow data mining tools and tear down the barriers to process mining. Due to the integration of PAFnow with Microsoft Power BI clients can do much more than just analyzing data. PAFnow customers can collaborate, communicate and directly start optimization measures as soon as optimization potential is identified.
“As a strategic partner of Microsoft’s Power BI business analytics solution, we, the Process Analytics Factory and provider of the PAFnow data mining tools, are scaling our global business in line with Power BI’s rapid market share expansion. Now we are using the comprehnsive and clear results of the CovQ assessment to implement additional laser-focused strategies that are going to enhance our growth and value building journey for the years to come.”
Centered in NYC, the global hub of business, Columbia Business School offers its diverse and entrepreneurial students daily access to influential industry leaders. The twofold mission is the commitment to educating and developing leaders and builders of enterprises who create value for their stakeholders and society at large as well as the commitment to creating and disseminating pathbreaking knowledge, concepts, and tools, which advance the understanding and practice of management.
“I like the fact that it is a structured approach and that the CovQ Enterprise version can be customized to each business’s unique challenges and needs. As a result, companies have the necessary insights to draw the right conclusions and can make meaningful impacts in strategic yet agile ways to start compounding.”
Accenture acquired PRION GROUP – a leading consulting firm and systems integrator specializing in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software – to help its clients increase the ROI in PLM by accelerating and optimizing their implementations, particularly in Europe and North America.
“True story: Ralf and I were drafting the first go-go-market strategy for PRION sitting at the kitchen table at my home. As a result, we then applied a holistic and system-oriented management approach over our 16-years long journey of expansion. 8W8 acted also as our guide and mastermind throughout the sale to and transition into Accenture providing support, expertise, and specialists.”
Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.
“Throughout my entire career, I have helped clients incorporate the right mix of data, technology, and marketing channel to efficiently scale their businesses while driving direct ROI. Now, as a visiting Professor at Cornell Tech in NYC and a business founder, I was looking for a systematic and quantifiable approach to guide decisions to leverage the drivers of value creation. The CovQ assessment, which is a transparent scoring highlighting a textured view of one’s current company’s situation, is at the heart of this approach and is the pivotal first-step to get going. Taking CovQ took me only 20 minutes. A time extremely well spent.”
Fuerza Studio is a fast-growing web, mobile, design, and branding company with over 12 years of experience working in dozens of countries, making companies leaders in their segments and creating the most diverse online products from scratch, from design to internal logistics, from development to user experience. Fuerza Studio is certified by GPTW as a ‘Great Place to Work’ 2022/2023.
The CovQ Value Creation OS Encompasses a Corporate IQ Assessment System, Framework, Method, Knowledge, and Tools to Deliver Desired Outcomes and Compound Value
