7 Laws for the New Landscape
The Inter Personal Enterprise will call for software vendors to deliver an entirely new mix of offerings. Product, price, promotion, place - no Marketing 101 concept will be left untouched. Here are seven guiding principles.

1. Serves an individual need - The product must be able to create value for a single individual or and become more powerful as it serves a group.
2. Virally adopted - Users will hear about it via word of mouth. Someone downloaded it and is saying, "Try this."
3. Contextually personalized information - Products need to know the location of the user, the reason for being there, and what information the user might need because of these factors.
4. No data entry or training required - Users can bring up the application, enter some information and begin to use it. Usability is completely intuitive.
5. Delivers instantaneous value - As soon as users begin to use the application, they realize its value. There is no waiting period or return that is based on usage by a larger group.
6. Utilizes community and social relationships - Products will leverage the vast network of social and organizational connections attached to each individual for new connections and better information.
7. Minimal IT footprint - CIOs are critical in determining how technology is utilized by the company but no longer have to make all the decisions. Ideally, products should be able to be adopted without IT's approval.

The fact is that many successful Web 2.0 companies are already leveraging these principles. Consider WebEx, Skype, IM, RIM, Google Desktop, SFDC, Monster, VisiblePath... All embody the best of the coming Inter Personal Enterprise^SM.

Now is the time to rethink the software industry. Let's take out a clean sheet of paper and rewrite the model. What growth rate will we experience next year? Maybe 4 percent? What if we didn't grow 4 percent and instead reworked the business so that in a few years, we'd have a far better outcome?

I can't guarantee this strategy will bring new growth for every software company. But I have spent a lot of time over the last year advising the companies with which I work to rebuild their businesses within the "inter" personal enterprise^SM context. Although a longer path to profitability, I feel better about the chance of success in today's difficult enterprise software environment.

Ray Lane is a general partner at venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers. Before joining KPCB, Lane was president and COO of Oracle Corporation. These thoughts were first presented as part of his keynote address at Software 2006.

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