USF MBA Customer Success Management

It's been great meeting new USF students, seeing several current ones, and hearing from several alums over the last week. For those who have not heard, I will be on sabbatical this year (my wife and I will be living in Paris while I serve as a visiting scholar at IESEG Business School (https://www.ieseg.fr/en/).

My most recent column in Analytics magazine was just released this week. If you are interested in where your food comes and some of the challenges that come with it, then I strongly encourage you to give it a quick read. As always, comments are welcomed!

https://pubsonline.informs.org/do/10.1287/LYTX.2024.03.13/full/

Creating “Healthy” Food Supply Chains | Analytics Magazine SaaS vendors can utilize data from a variety of sources to create health scores to improve customer retention and account growth. This work presents a fascinating example of a classic management science/business analytics challenge.

USF CS Students, Alumni, and Friends: It's been a bit quiet on this page for the last several months, mostly because I've been busy getting ready to leave for a year's sabbatical. My wife and I are heading to Paris in a few days, where I'll be a visiting faculty member at IESEG School of Management (https://www.ieseg.fr/en/). I will miss working with this year's 1st and 2nd year MBA students :(.

But I have been busy doing a few research projects associated with Customer Success. This recent paper is definitely worth a read: https://hbr.org/2024/07/toward-healthier-b2b-relationships

That's it for now. Please stay in touch, and I'll do my best to share interesting information on this page as well...

Toward Healthier B2B Relationships Today’s software makes it easier to track patterns, trends, and even granular details of how customers use products. This data is collected in systems that support marketing, sales, finance, and operations. But many companies aren’t sure how they can best support employees who are overseeing hun...

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2. Trampoline - see https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/spo/d/oakland-trampoline/7776319968.html - pick up by Sunday night at 8pm

Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew: Remain in Light @ China Basin Park — SF LIVE In “Remain in Light”, Adrian and Jerry, with their all-star backing band, bring you powerhouse renditions of Talking Heads classics like “Once In A Lifetime”, “Psycho Killer”, “Take Me To The River”, and selections from their respective solo careers. — SF Live is a six-month series...

I have not been too active on this page for the past several months due to a very busy semester. But I am pleased to announce that our article on Customer Health Scoring and B2B Customer Relationships has just been published in the Harvard Business Review. Check it out here, and I would welcome your feedback!

Toward Healthier B2B Relationships Today’s software makes it easier to track patterns, trends, and even granular details of how customers use products. This data is collected in systems that support marketing, sales, finance, and operations. But many companies aren’t sure how they can best support employees who are overseeing hun...

My most recent column in Analytics magazine is now available:

Machine Learning Deployments Need to “Change” Given the current economic challenges for much of the technology industry, it would be natural for the customer success (CS) management community to aggressively adopt AI and large language model tools in hopes to scale delivery capacity in the presence of headcount limitations, but this is not the....

We are throwing a party to celebrate the success of our graduates, to thank the CS community for all of its support over the past few years, and to announce our new Digital Transformation initiative. We would love to have you join us on May 8 from 4:00pm to 7:00pm at our downtown San Francisco campus at 101 Howard St. Additional information is in the attached flyer. Please come if you can, and RSVP here: https://tinyurl.com/USFDigitalTransformation

This podcast was just released today. Give it a listen:

Professional Education in Customer Success w/ Vijay Mehrotra Today leaders are keen on ensuring customer value.Customer Success plays a pivotal position in the customer-centric software industry. If you are eyeing a ca...

My most recent column in Analytics magazine examines Customer Success Management, Predictive Analytics, Health Scoring, and Large Language Models. Check it out, and thanks for reading!

The Score is Changing in Customer Success Customer success management (CSM), a new functional area focused on driving customer retention and revenue growth. Over the past decade, customer success has emerged as a “must-have” function for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies and for many other organizations with subscription-based busi...

Grading completed, grades Submitted: another semester of teaching is in the books, literally. Halfway through my 21st year as a Professor, I feel lucky to have a job I like and students that are hungry to learn. Happy Holidays.

Every year since 2017, we have had a group of 15-25 USF MBA students spend their spring semester focusing on Customer Success Management. The key components of this initiative are (a) the industry consulting projects that student teams undertake; (b) guest speakers and company visits that are focused on different aspects of Customer Success and SaaS; and (c) summer internships and professional opportunities.

If you are a CS Professional and are interested in collaborating with us during the spring of 2024, please click the link below to start the process. Thanks for your support, and we will look forward to hearing from you.

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https://www.linkedin.com/posts/growthmolecules_customersuccess-activity-7094698433113931776-SYwz?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/growthmolecules_customersuccess-activity-7094698433113931776-SYwz?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Growth Molecules™ on LinkedIn: #customersuccess 📢Vijay Mehrotra from University of San Francisco, highlights the necessity and power of Training and education for professionals everywhere:…

Several people connected with our Customer Success initiative here at USF have been publishing some great books lately. I've put a bunch of links into the comments (big shout outs to Ruben Rabago, Donna Weber, Sasi Yajamanyam, Rod Cherkas, Emilia Danzica, Sabina Pons).

What are some of your favorite books on Customer Success and Sofware-as-a-Service? Please add them to the comments below...

My students and I enjoyed a great career development session with Kalina Bryant from UnapologeTECH (https://unapologetech.com/). The students were enlightened and excited about the prospects in fast growing SaaS companies, and Kalina as always brought terrific energy, experience, and insights. Looking forward to the next one!

Last night's celebration of our USF's growing Customer Success community was inspiring and energizing for all of the students, alumni, industry partners, Advisory Board members, faculty, and staff who attended. For me, it was also a real treat to see so many of the people who have been part of our program over the past six years, and to get updated on how well so many of you are doing. It was our first such on-campus event since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and I can't wait for the next one!

And a very special Shout-Out to Kalina Bryant from Unapologetech (https://unapologetech.com/) for a fabulous career workshop for this year's students prior to yesterday's party!

Our MBA students continue to do great things in the SaaS world. Coming up on Wed 3/29 at 2:00pm Pacific Time: don't miss Johnny Kelley (USF MBA in CS and Analytics, Class of '20) on what promises to be a very interesting and illuminating podcast

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7036775438521683968-dX08?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Amessaging_thread%3B500ffbc6-2a54-4394-86f9-3afd17ee72b1

Five years ago, we started the first university program focused on Customer Success and Software-as-a-Service. Today, we have more than 100 successful alumni working in a variety of roles in CS and SaaS in companies all over Silicon Valley and around the world, and are launching another class of 20 CS-focused MBA students this spring.

So many members of the CS community have supported our program in so many ways since we began, and we have been blessed to have developed a great group of alumni, advisors, project sponsors, and friends of the program over the years.

We are excited to announce that we will be holding our first live on-campus event since the COVID-19 pandemic came crashing down on all of us. Please join us on Friday, March 3 from 4pm to 7:00pm at our downtown San Francisco campus (101 Howard St., 5th Floor) to welcome our new class and celebrate our community. RSVP if possible, and please join us if the spirit moves you and the calendar allows. We look forward to seeing you on campus!

http://evite.me/4xnWfvMUpq

For those looking for their next opportunity in Customer Success, my sense is that this is a terrific position with a lot of potential for professional growth! Please respond to Emily directly, and let her know you are connected with USF's MBA Customer Success initiative.

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I’m thrilled to be part of the panel on Customer Success Learning and Development webinar! During this live online event we’ll be discussing the main benefits of investing in training for your team. I’m looking forward to having a lively discussion about the key skills you should be looking to develop in your team members and much more!

Join this live online event on Monday, August 15th at 1 PM PT / 4pm ET to get practical suggestions and real-life tips! Get all the details and register at: https://successcoaching.co/events/.

Customer Success Event Calendar | SuccessCOACHING Your success starts here with Customer Success learning events and seminars brought to you by SuccessCOACHING. Check out our calendar of upcoming events.

A big thanks to all who joined us last night at The HiDive in San Francisco last night (and to those who were there in spirit!). It was a great joy to have the chance gather in person to celebrate our graduates (especially those from 2020 and 2021), to send off this year’s graduating class, and to pay thanks to the many members of the community who have supported this program in so many ways over the past five years. A huge thanks to you all, with a special shout out to our Customer Success Advisory Board, who had a very enjoyable and productive meeting yesterday as well.

And on a personal note, I want publicly thank my students for helping me make it through the past two years. For extreme extroverts like me, the pandemic has been a really challenging time – and your dedication to moving forward inspired me to do the same. It was really great to be able to see so many of you yesterday.

To former USF CS MBA Students and other Friends of the Program: I am having a party to celebrate students who have graduated in the past few years under the cloud of COVID. Please join us! It would be great to see you! http://evite.me/HgeN88yQQS

Tap to RSVP to USF MBA Customer Success Party You're invited to USF MBA Customer Success Party - Click here to RSVP

I've been thinking a lot about Product Led Growth SaaS companies, for whom our traditional consultative framework for Customer Success isn't particularly practical. Some good thinking on how CSM and PLG play together: https://openviewpartners.com/blog/the-customer-success-managers-role-in-a-product-led-growth-business/

The Customer Success Managers' Role in a Product-Led Growth Business - OpenView Customer Success Managers can be the hidden gems of product-led businesses. Here's how to ensure the two approaches align.

There's a lot of stuff out there (podcasts, webinars, blog posts, etc). I'll try to post more of these over the next few months. Here's a great one to listen to:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6910745681448042496/

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I could not be more thrilled about this. At USF’s School of Management, we take great pride in providing lifelong learning and career development opportunities - and our partnership with SuccessCOACHING is a great example!

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6894694271253929984/

University of San Francisco, Executive Education on LinkedIn: #employeerelations #employeeengagment #employeeexperience Expand your employees knowledge, skills, and capabilities by offering them our Certified Customer Success Manager Course. The 12-week course will be held...

Five years ago, the idea of training MBA students in Customer Success Management was just a wild idea spinning around in my head. This week, we start our fifth class of CSM MBA students and the industry has definitely taken note! Please join me this Wednesday morning as I participate in a webinar with some of the best minds in the industry to explore the past, present, and future of Customer Success education!

https://www.planhat.com/community/educating-tomorrows-cs-leaders/

Learning never stops: educating tomorrow's CS leaders Join our first expert session in 2022 to learn about how to drive Customer Success education forward.