good experience, and if therewere problems, we wanted toget that feedback. It was a verysimple innovation, but it wasnew and it helped us add valuefor the customer.We have more complicatedinnovations, like our “Sit withFriends” feature. One of theissues people encounter whenthey want to go to an eventwith friends is that one personneeds to buy all the tickets sothe group can sit together.Otherwise there are noguarantees. We built “Sit withFriends” to solve that problem.If you buy a ticket from us, weprovide a link at the end of theprocess that you can then sendto friends. When those peoplebuy tickets through that link,your seats are automaticallygrouped together. That wasan innovation that came outof talking to our customersabout their frustrations. Forus, innovation is a constantprocess of saying, What arewe doing to help improve themember experience?Q: You serve a diversecustomer base. How do youget to know your members?A: User reviews are one of themost important things thatpeople do on our site. We dida study a couple of years backthat basically asked, Wouldyou trust user reviews on awebsite that you like, or themost well-known critic in thebiggest newspaper in your city?And which source would youtrust if they had a differenceof opinion about a show? Theresult was something like 30to 1 valued the reviews on awebsite they liked over thecritic. Because you need to buya ticket to write a review, usersshouldn’t have to wonder,“Who’s writing this review?What’s their agenda?” We’reporing over the data on a dailybasis, asking ourselves, What’sworking, what’s not working,what are people experiencingthat we can address? Everynow and then I’ll go work inour customer service queue toconnect with our customersdirectly.We know that people like togo to live entertainment morethan they actually go to liveentertainment. The “science”behind what we do is figuringout why, and then trying tobreak down those barriers.One of the mistakes that manyof our potential competitorsmake is thinking that priceis the single barrier, when inreality it’s one of several (andnot the most important). Weuse algorithmic solutions totake into account what eventsour members have looked at,what they’ve attended, andwhat they have said aboutthese events. We analyze howthey respond to e-mail, whatkinds of offers work for them,what kind of informationthey are searching for. Theirbehavior begins to tell us moreabout them, and hopefullywe’re adjusting with each newinsight. People don’t alwaysknow what they like until theysee it. There are some thingsthey know they want, butthere are other things they’reopen to the discovery of.That’s what we try to find out.There’s a meeting I have withevery new employee that wecall Goldstar 101. One of thethings that I do is show thema picture of a Sony Xperia —a really sleek smartphone.And then I show them a Sonytransistor radio from 1957,which looks crude and oldtimey.The point I make is thatSony had a goal back then,which was to improve people’slives through technology. Andeven though these devicesare really different, they’reboth still designed to achievethat same exact goal. If Sonytried to achieve that goal in<strong>2012</strong> with a transistor radio,it would be impossible. Beingconsistent with a strategy overa long period of time meansthe tactics have to constantlychange to match where theworld is.Q: That’s a great segue.When you launched in 2002,the economic climate waschallenging at best. Whatimpact did that have?A: It was a tough economy,and it was just after 9/11, whichadded uncertainty. It was alsoa time that tech investorsstill refer to as the “nuclearwinter”: After the dot-comboom had gone bust, theexuberance and enthusiasmvanished.Goldstar’s cofounders, RobertGraff and Rich Webster,and I had been working ine-commerce for several years.We believed that whetherthere were going to be crazyIPOs or frothy valuations frominvestors or not, the onlydirection that actual Internetusage could go was up, and upfast. We had this idea that theticketing business was perfectfor e-commerce. There wasexpiring inventory, but withthe Internet and e-mail and theability to customize, we knewthat we could reach a lot ofpeople.On the one hand, the easymoney wasn’t there. It wouldhave been really difficult toraise money for a consumerconcept at that time. On theother hand, the recessioncleared the field for us, in away. Because there wasn’t aRecessions create a lot of disruption, and they kill off some weakerbusinesses that are doing things in an outmoded way — and thatcreates all kinds of opportunities.ton of competition. It gaveus a couple of years to buildmomentum.In a time like that, if you say,“I’m going to start a business,”a lot of people around you willreply, “Wouldn’t it make moresense to just play it safe, geta job in a big company, andwait this out?” From my pointof view, however, a recessionis often the perfect time tostart a business, depending onwhat you have in mind. It was adisadvantage in that generallyeverybody was a little morepessimistic, but recessionsalso create a lot of disruption,and they kill off some weakerbusinesses that are doingthings in an outmoded way —and that creates all kinds ofopportunities.42 <strong>October</strong> <strong>2012</strong>www.teletimesinternational.com
DigitizationBahjat El-Darwiche, Milind Singh,and Sandeep Ganediwallaand ProsperityThe economic growth of nations is linkedto one factor: Adoption of information andcommunications technologyPolicymakers todayface an environmenttransformed by information andcommunications technology(ICT). More people today haveaccess to a mobile phone thanto electricity; the amountof data generated globallyis expanding exponentially.In every country, leaders ofgovernment and businessare deciding — throughtheir policies and strategiesfor ICT, Internet access,communications media, anddigital applications — how topromote and structure thedigitization of their economies.These choices have enormousconsequences. Countries thathave achieved advanced levelsof digitization, defined as themass adoption of connecteddigital technologies and ICTapplications by consumers,enterprises, and governments,have realized significanteconomic, social, and politicalbenefits. For them, digitizationis a pathway to prosperity.Other countries are fallingdisproportionately behind.The difference among countrieswas a core finding of a recentstudy conducted by Booz &Company, “Maximizing theImpact of Digitization.” Otherstudies on ICT and prosperityhave focused primarily onInternet access: whether peopleare able to connect to wirelessand broadband technologies.But by looking more closelyat the ways people use digitaltechnologies and applications,we found that the greatestsocial and economic benefitsdepend on factors related toadoption and usage: such aspricing, reliability, speed, andease of use. In any geography,these factors determine thelevel of digitization, whichin turn has a proven impacton reducing unemployment,improving quality of life, andboosting citizens’ access topublic services. Digitizationallows governments to operatewith greater transparency andefficiency, and it has a dramaticeffect on economic growth,but not all at once. Countriesat the most advanced stage ofdigitization derive 20 percentmore in economic benefits thando those that are just beginning.Policymakers have an importantrole to play in moving theircountries toward advancedlevels of digitization. In theirapproach to technology,<strong>October</strong> <strong>2012</strong>www.teletimesinternational.com43
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