Why Subscribe?

The Orthogonal publishes long-form essays and stories on how software and data science are transforming multiple industries and horizontal markets.

As vendors and enterprises seek to turbocharge every business process in every industry with automation and cognition,  we face a moment of truth that calls for reflection. After all, technologies —Cloud, AI, Blockchain, etc. —are only means to an end: providing a superior customer experience relative to status quo to drive better stakeholder outcomes. What is the progress we have made over time, where are we falling short,  and where do we go from here?

The Orthogonal takes an outside-in look at innovation from three critical vantage points: the enterprise buyers & users who seek value from new technologies; the vendors who create, sell, and deploy software and solutions; and investors in public and private markets searching for alpha.

For Enterprise Buyers and CxOs: How are customer expectations and the nature of work changing in multiple industries and horizontal business functions? How are upstarts disrupting the customer experience? How to keep score across silos of vendors and tech stacks? What are the challenges in converting the promise of enterprise technologies into business value? How to hold vendors accountable?

For Tech Vendors: How to rethink strategy from outside-in and orthogonal perspectives? How to create products that explicitly align with customer value drivers? How to navigate the travails of the journey to product-market fit and beyond? How to maximize buyer willingness to pay more over the life cycle? How to align pricing (value captured) to value created?

For Investors: What are the emerging needs in business software and tech-enabled services? Which new technologies can be disruptive to the status quo? Where are the biggest opportunities for growth and value creation in the short-term and over the next decade? How to better understand incumbents' strategies and moves?

I hope to discuss these questions and more in three related but distinct modes: a)1:1 conversations with decision makers, b) deep-dive essays on markets/vendors, and c) takes on current industry happenings with context, insight, and perspective. 

My goal is to write simply and clearly, and focus on what makes you the reader smarter. Tech stories are human stories first. They involve agonizing decisions, uncertain trade-offs, and roller-coaster rides. These need to be told better. 

I also plan to pipe content into this channel from a couple of book projects scheduled to be released in 2021. Stay tuned for more info on this.

Readers likely to benefit include:

• CxOs of tech companies, designers, product managers, marketers, sales executives

• Buyers and decision makers in large and medium sized enterprises

• Financial and Industry Analysts in SaaS and enterprise tech

• VCs and Angel Investors

• End-users of enterprise software seeking a broader understanding of the industry

• Casual observers / students curious about  enterprise technologies and wanting to learn more.

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The Author:

The Orthogonal is written and edited by me, Anandan Jayaraman (AJ), based in the San Francisco Bay Area. From time to time, it will also feature posts from guest authors. 

Previously, I worked at SAP, Epiphany, and Siebel Systems, and at multiple data analytics startups, where I worked on product strategy, product management, and go-to-market. I am the founder of a CxO advisory firm on software-enabled business transformation and an advisor to multiple tech companies and Fortune 1000 enterprises on product strategy, product management, and go-to-market. I also co-founded a Web 3 protocol to re-imagine B2B buying experiences through community-driven discovery. You can learn more about me here.