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Lessons We Learned
The birth of any company brings lessons that shape its culture and IGC is
no exception. Two engineers, Gary and Marty, had an idea for a great product but
knew absolutely knew nothing about business so, not surprisingly, there were lots of lessons
to learn. We thought we'd share a few of the lessons that shaped IGC.
Lesson 1: Know What You're Good At
First, Gary and Marty knew they needed to seek out the advice of clever people with experience
in marketing, sales, support, and finance. Good advice was remarkably easy to find and
historically IGC has generally followed it, no matter how crazy it may have sounded at the time.
Know what you are good at and get help on the rest.
That premise has become a way of life at IGC and it applies at every level and for every employee.
Lesson 2: Listen to the Customer
Engineers love to build quality products, and Gary and Marty were no exception. Inherently knowing
what the market needed, they built a product and proudly took it to their first prospects
to demonstrate its fabulous abilities. Sadly, the prospects promptly announced that this product
would not work for their environment or users, and another lesson was quickly learned:
Build products that customers actually want and can use to do their
jobs better. It is all about customer input.
Lesson 3: Trust & People
From customers to employees, companies are ALL about people. Customers need to trust
that the company will build dependable products that fit their needs now and into the future.
To do that, the company needs to have the right people—quality people that fit the company
culture—and then trust them to do a great job. With a
nurturing environment and trust, amazing things can happen. Like IGC.
Lesson 4: Learn from Your Mistakes (or Don't Make Any)
To continue to grow, a company needs to try new technologies and new features and
explore new product opportunities. IGC is no exception. As we have innovated, we learned that not every idea is a winner. Not every
feature is smoothly implemented. Mistakes happen. We believe that every mistake is an opportunity to build a better
relationship, learn, grow, and improve the process to help prevent it from happening in the future.
Since our employees tend to stay with IGC long-term, we have smarter employees and a
stronger company.
Lesson 5: Focus
We think it is better to do a few things really well than a lot of things not so well. Focus takes discipline,
a strategy, and a good plan. Execution takes everyone understanding the plan and, most
importantly, believing in it. Everyone at IGC knows who we are and what our focus is, so we
can execute well.
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