Meet IdeaConnection’s VP of Business Development, David Porter

An interview with David Porter, IdeaConnection VP of Business Development
By Paul Arnold

As IdeaConnection’s new Vice President of Business Development, David Porter plays a number of crucial roles, including increasing global sales and forging long-term relationships with customers. He came to IdeaConnection following more than 12 successful years growing client bases and businesses in the technology sector. In this interview he talks about the challenges and opportunities of his position and why companies should be engaging with external knowledge sources.

I am extremely excited about working for IdeaConnection, especially increasing the number of marketing assets we have in order to attract some of the players that are looking for the types of services that we offer.

What does your job encompass? I am assuming no two days are the same.

You’re right, no two days are the same. Typically they are starting a fair bit earlier than the average because the opportunity is global in scope. For example, dealing with Europe. I’ve had calls this morning already with Italy and Portugal from two very different industries. A lot of the stuff at the beginning was typical for me when starting a new job. It’s connecting with perspective clients whether it be from a cold nature or a lead that looks like somebody might be interested in one of the open innovation verticals we offer.

It was also really getting a sense of the type of marketing assets that IdeaConnection has and where we can make improvements to those assets. That work has evolved into getting further along in the buying cycle and engaging with higher-level individuals within organizations and trying to encourage new business development with existing clients.

Are you having to sell open innovation?

I find in general I’m not having to convince people of open innovation and its potential. I’m finding that I have to talk to people about why our open innovation model will serve their needs well. That involves guiding them through how IdeaConnection’s value proposition can assist their business in getting a competitive advantage and keeping them at the forefront of technological development within their specific industry.

What’s really exciting to me is the breadth of the need out there is incredible. Companies are building up their open innovation capabilities, and their internal departments are tasked with finding solutions outside. It can be a major ship building company, or an alcoholic beverage provider or a major pharmaceutical company. What’s so interesting is there is such a diverse need across all these different industries. You’re not just pigeonholed to one industry.

Those examples that I gave you – the major alcoholic beverage providers, the major pharmaceutical companies and large shipbuilding companies – these are all prospective customers I’ve been dealing with in my first two and a half months.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

The thing I enjoy most is the potential that I see forming every day. There are so many quality prospective customers that the future looks bright. We’re providing an extremely valuable service to these organizations that will create a lasting and ongoing partnership. We’re a trusted open innovation partner, because it’s not a one-off sale. That is rewarding in of itself but it’s also financially rewarding for the organization because there are a tremendous amount of current and future opportunities with those customers. There’s something monumental happening here and it’s going to provide a lot of opportunities going forward.

What challenges do you face in your role?

People are hesitant to use new technologies. Convincing them of the financial benefits as well as the technical benefits they can get from going a different way is actually part of the fun, and it opens up doors to tremendous amounts of opportunity and revenue.

I think the technology is disruptive. And I like the disruption. If I look back at ACD systems where I was a Senior Manager we had one of the first and fastest digital imaging applications on the market. Back in the mid-nineties you’ll recall what it was like to look at an image online. It took forever to bring that image up. Well our application was known for its rocket fast speed. It was disruptive at the time.

I remember a head guy of a professional photo management institute said that digital imaging was a fad. Obviously he was dead wrong. And the company I worked for was part of the movement to prove how wrong he was, and we made a lot of money and had lot of fun along the way.

Would you draw a comparison between the person who said there’s no future in digital imaging and the CEO or CIO who says working with external knowledge sources is not for us?

Yes, I think it’s the same thing. Those people who are saying that I think are dead wrong. They’re going to miss the opportunity and they’re going to see it as a significant competitive threat for not having engaged in open innovation the way their competitors are. Because their competitors are doing it, their competitors are going to get an advantage in the marketplace because they’re going to external sources. Those companies that don’t engage are going to find themselves behind the eight ball that presents a future opportunity for us.

And finally, when you’re not working with clients and creating new business opportunities what do you like to do?

Oh as much as humanly possible really. I’ve got three fairly young kids so that obviously keeps me busy. But I’m also very active. I love all sorts of sports such as skiing and mountain biking. I love the outdoors and spend as much time as possible there.