We all know of them and we all wish we were making money off them. The real question is what makes a great product, service or technology?

Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen in a keynote speech at the EmTech conference spoke of tech innovations and turning them into sustainable, profitable businesses.

in answer to a question (at 28:00 into the video) when he was asked, "What are the main changes needed to make in the business competitive model in order to drive success, Mr. Verwaayen identified:

• Speed – Smart is good but speed is number 1. The ability to get products to market quickly is critical to their success.
  
• Relevance to customers – The whole model must be focused on making it valuable to the customers not just to the creator
  
• Business model – A business model that moves past free.
  

How odd that the CEO of a 100 year old business is preaching these three values to improve his competitive business model.

When I think about technologies moving past free, my mind leaps to the iPhone App Store where undoubtedly there are many examples of people moving past free and in fact the speed is almost to much. Perhaps though in a lot of those case relevance to customers might be lacking.

Relevance to the customer is where the rubber really meets the road in this equation. We all know those products and their creators who had perhaps started believing their own hype just a little to much. You see this often with content producers who get so caught up producing their vision they miss the audience by a long shot.

Speed is that sharp edge that can go either way for a product. To soon to market and your product is not ready and customer confidence is lost. To late to market and opportunity is lost.

Three simple factors to successful products and services that are anything but simple in their implementation or execution.

So join us as we explore what it takes to have a really great product or services and who and what products are making the grade as opposed to those missing it.

As always, there is no better way to meet and connect with other executives then over dinner and conversation. $21 in advance via PayPal or $25 at the event gets you a full dinner, drink and the best networking around.