{"id":38808,"date":"2023-10-20T14:59:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-xero-drives-its-employees-to-innovate-and-why-thats-important-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:59:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:59:04","slug":"how-xero-drives-its-employees-to-innovate-and-why-thats-important-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-xero-drives-its-employees-to-innovate-and-why-thats-important-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How Xero drives its employees to innovate and why that\u2019s important – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For a global startup to win the market, it has to put the customer at the centre of everything it does and innovate and iterate their product at a dizzying speed.<\/p>\n

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This is a process which inherently benefits the economy.<\/p>\n

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By challenging your workforce to do better, they usually improve their skills and problem-solving mindset which over time contributes to increasing personal incomes and sustainable economic growth.<\/p>\n

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Employees where I work, Xero, work on a meritocracy, where their salaries reflect their successes and talent in the business. It\u2019s a system which drives product innovation and ensures our engineers, designers and developers consistently do beautiful work which delights our customers.<\/p>\n

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Over the past 12 months, Xero has released more than 500 product updates and features.<\/p>\n

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In two years, we\u2019ve also spent more than $100 million on building out a beautiful platform which makes life easier for small businesses, allowing management to focus on growth and products rather than the time-intensive tasks in accounting.<\/p>\n

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Building a beautiful product, at pace, with the customer at the centre of everything we do, means there\u2019s no room for the traditional IT software company model and the complex processes which slow down decision-making and product development.<\/p>\n

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For innovation to have its full economic impact, changes need to happen swiftly and decisively.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve been building a new-age tech company with an agile structure and highly productive teams situated all over the planet, so there\u2019s always someone online – and it\u2019s paying off.<\/p>\n

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Benefiting the country\u2019s economy<\/b><\/p>\n

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Innovation, like that happening at Xero, is ultimately hugely important to the wider economy \u2014 history has shown how the long-term success of a developed economy is directly linked to the innovation of its organisations. Think back to the impact Henry Ford had on the US economy, or how Apple and Google have changed Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

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With Atlassian\u2019s recent IPO in the US, Australia is now finding itself in a position where if it supports these technology companies, it too can benefit.<\/p>\n

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But not just any company can innovate – it takes a smart workforce, a crystal clear understanding of the problem you\u2019re trying to solve, the availability of capital and a market which wants to interact with what you\u2019re offering.<\/p>\n

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The rise of the cloud<\/b><\/p>\n

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With the explosion of the internet, mobile tech and the cloud, more tech companies are trying to break through by providing innovative and different solutions.<\/p>\n

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The evolution of cloud-based services is helping small businesses all around the world by taking the onus off owners and freeing up their time to get the important stuff done.<\/p>\n

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Xero isn\u2019t the only cloud-based service giving small businesses some time back. My favourite US service is Postmates. They deliver anything you need, at any time, to your home within 60 minutes. Their couriers collect the item, charge your credit card and you can track the whole journey on your phone.<\/p>\n

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While it\u2019s not available in New Zealand or Australia yet, it\u2019s an example of just how big an opportunity cloud is for small businesses, especially ones which want to create a more connected world.<\/p>\n

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Angus Norton is Chief Product Officer at <\/i>Xero<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 For a global startup to win the market, it has to put the customer at the centre of everything<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}