Page 20 - CSA Speaker Bulletin March 2019 | CSA Celebrity Speakers
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CSA SPEAKER BULLETIN TECHNOLOGY
Dhiraj Mukherjee
on Shazam, Creativity, Innovation and Digital Business
You are co-founder of the service, and usage exploded. that I advise have not mastered this
Shazam, which is now one Shazam has now been downloaded as a core competency. However,
of the most popular apps in over 1 billion times worldwide, and every successful start-up that I
existence. Was it possible 150 million people use Shazam every interact with displays the ability to
in the beginning to have a month. confidently change direction when
clear understanding of just needed and when it matters. That’s
how amazingly successful it How important do you why established companies have a
was going to become? believe creativity and lot to learn from digital start-ups and
innovation are for a digital scale-ups, and I actively work on
My co-founders and I set up Shazam business to be successful helping corporates and start-ups to
in the year 2000, at the height of the and are these skills more collaborate in effective ways.
dotcom bubble. Back then music fans important than in a
bought CDs, mobile phones were far traditional business model? Dhiraj Mukherjee is an
from smart, and Google was almost experienced digital business
unheard of. When we first came up I think that creativity is an essential executive and entrepreneur
with the idea of identifying any song, part of building a successful digital with a proven track record in
anywhere from a mobile phone, we business. Innovation for me is “turning both corporate and start-up
had big dreams and aspirations for ideas into invoices,” a phrase I environments.
the service. In reality we were naïve once heard and like. Creativity is an
– our early results after we launched essential ingredient of innovation, but
in 2002 were below expectations and in my mind it’s not an end goal in a
we started to understand just how digital business.
hard it is to build and popularise a
business. However, I think that there is no
substitute for execution and delivery.
Yet we never gave up the vision, and I don’t know any start up (or any
worked and worked on improving individual for that matter) which is
the product. At launch we could successful without the ability and
identify a million songs in the UK, and rigour to deliver. The art is being
we pushed hard to grow the service adaptable and nimble with what the
in other countries. The recognition business is delivering over time.
rate improved, we added features
like being to buy a ringtone or send Established companies tend to be
a 30-second song clip to a friend. good at structured, repeatable
However, it took six full years for processes, which work well in more
Apple’s app store to launch in 2008, traditional industries. In modern digital
and Shazam released one of the first business, the ability to change course
iphone apps ever created. Finally quickly, frequently and accurately
Shazam found the right platform for is a key skill. Most large companies
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