Next Vision
Management Consultant Fractional Executive Advisor Go to Market Projects
Next Vision
Management Consultant Fractional Executive Advisor Go to Market Projects
What We Do
About Us
In a period of uncertainty in our economy where budgets are being scrutinized, competition is at an all time high, product life cycles are getting shorter and the demands of share holders seem at times unreasonable, the need for experienced leadership is imperative. It's all about flawless execution and delivering results worthy of the proper level of reward. Reducing financial risk is a primary focus in today's business culture and carrying higher levels of overhead is unacceptable. For these reasons we started "Next Vision" 25 years ago because it's not about what you did or what you're doing now, it's about the next success. The next success is a result of proper planning, minimizing execution risk and driving acceptable return on investment. In any business, understanding the ecosystem and where to play and where not to play are keys to success. The old saying of it's more important to understand "what not to do" rather than "what to do" has huge implication in today's resource constrained business climate. We have a business structure that's results oriented where all expectations are set up front. Each project or initiative is carefully outlined, planned, forecasted and executed by our team or implemented within your organization.
How We Work
Whether you're just starting out or looking to restructure we've got you covered. Our mantra is: analyze, identify, advise, execute. Our mission is to create relationships, not transactions. Our promise is that we'll be there, as questions or issues arise, every step of the way.
Founded in 1998, Next Vision provides consulting services in the area of Strategic Alignment, Go to Market, Channel Development/Enablement, Customer Acquisition, Product Strategy, General Management and Capital Acquisition. Product areas include SaaS solutions, mobile devices, medical devices, storage, accessories, LBS applications, mobile applications, wearables and home infotainment solutions.
About its Founder
Professional Bio
Fernando Corona has a proven track record in the SaaS, IT and Telecommunications industry with Fortune 500 and startup companies. Recently, Mr Corona provided Global leadership to the channel business unit of Chatmeter, a SaaS reputation management and sentiment analysis company that has an AI powered platform. Fernando also headed up the effort for Viasat to deploy B2B and B2G broadband satellite service in Latin America & Caribbean. Prior to joining Chatmeter and Viasat, he founded smrtACCESSORIES a wireless accessories manufacturer as well as the founder of Next Vision, a technology consulting firm. Fernando has held several executive sales, marketing and operations positions including Vice President/General Manager at Cricket Communications/Leap Wireless where he helped develop their wireless channel strategy and headed up the accessories, broadband and tablet businesses. Prior to Cricket, Fernando was the CEO of V-Enable and part of the founding management team of Packet Video as well as CEO of Tandberg Data. Fernando also held senior management positions at Glucovation, Allied Telesyn, Western Digital (US & Europe), Maxtor and AST Research.
As well as his professional technology background, Mr Corona has served on various boards, provided expert witness support and has started 4 companies from the ground up.
It's all about trusting who's on the other side of the table (or zoom call) and being 100% committed to the process to get to the desired outcome.
Fernando Corona
Product & Segment Expertise
SaaS | Broadband Services | Connected wearables | Storage | Wireless | Medical Devices | Mobile Devices and applications | PC/Tablet
Channel | Consumer | B2B/Enterprise | Government | eCommerce Retail | Distribution | VAR | Medical | MNO | MVNO | OEM
Experience (ExecutivePositions)
Chatmeter
Cricket Communications (sold to AT&T)
Chatmeter
Oversaw Chatmeter's domestic and international channel partner business unit to expand the company's reach through a leveraged organizational strategy. This structure allowed for a profitable execution while allowing a phased expansion approach to growing internationally. De-risking the business model allowed for unforeseen changes in the
Oversaw Chatmeter's domestic and international channel partner business unit to expand the company's reach through a leveraged organizational strategy. This structure allowed for a profitable execution while allowing a phased expansion approach to growing internationally. De-risking the business model allowed for unforeseen changes in the business climate.
VP/GM Global Channels
Viasat
Cricket Communications (sold to AT&T)
Chatmeter
Worked with various channels including distributors, strategic partners and government organizations to deploy Satellite Broadband Services through the Latin American and Caribbean region. Developed market entry strategies working with our regulatory team and GTM strategies for launching services in these territories.
Director, International Enterprise Channels
Cricket Communications (sold to AT&T)
Cricket Communications (sold to AT&T)
Cricket Communications (sold to AT&T)
As an industry leader in the "unlimited" wireless service, Cricket Communications has been instrumental in establishing new ways of providing a full range of wireless services to the underserved demographic segment. During my tenure I was responsible for channel strategy, sales operations, and business unit leadership for accessories, broadband and tablets.
VP/GM
V-Enable (now Ground Truth)
Packet Video (now Lynx Technology)
Cricket Communications (sold to AT&T)
V-Enable began as a voice to text wireless technology company. As CEO, I recapitalized the company with 3 rounds of private and venture financing and repositioned the company for growth. Since my departure the company has changed their name to xAd and then to Ground Truth.
CEO
Packet Video (now Lynx Technology)
Packet Video (now Lynx Technology)
Packet Video (now Lynx Technology)
A true technology innovator, Packet Video was the pioneer of streaming MPEG-4 video to a mobile device. As SVP of Marketing I was responsible for creating/promoting the product and branding strategy. The company raised $130M in institutional investment in a three year period.
SVP, Marketing
Tandberg Data (now Overland Data)
Packet Video (now Lynx Technology)
Packet Video (now Lynx Technology)
Tandberg Data was a leader in the tape drive storage segment. As CEO, I re-established the brand, marketing and sales direction for the company. This was a classic turnaround situation in a declining segment. The company was restructured, new channels created and product specific focus was implemented.
CEO
Storage - Maxtor | Western Digital
Networking/PC - Allied Telesyn | AST
Networking/PC - Allied Telesyn | AST
Maxtor was a hard disk drive storage company prior to its acquisition by Seagate Corporation. I was brought in as a consultant to create a two tier distribution strategy.
A leader in the personal and enterprise storage segment, Western Digital has become the largest supplier of disk drives through both acquisition and organic growth. Durin
Maxtor was a hard disk drive storage company prior to its acquisition by Seagate Corporation. I was brought in as a consultant to create a two tier distribution strategy.
A leader in the personal and enterprise storage segment, Western Digital has become the largest supplier of disk drives through both acquisition and organic growth. During my time at WD, I managed distribution product development, started the branded retail business unit, managed technical support, lead sales operations in Europe and was the Vice President for the enterprise storage division, along with having WW distribution strategy responsibility.
Vice President, Global Channels
Networking/PC - Allied Telesyn | AST
Networking/PC - Allied Telesyn | AST
Networking/PC - Allied Telesyn | AST
Allied Telesis is a leader in various connectivity segments of the network products market. I joined the company to grow their network peripheral portfolio and shortly became in charge of 5 of their product divisions including the engineering team associated with these areas.
As one of the first companies to arrive on the scene to suppor
Allied Telesis is a leader in various connectivity segments of the network products market. I joined the company to grow their network peripheral portfolio and shortly became in charge of 5 of their product divisions including the engineering team associated with these areas.
As one of the first companies to arrive on the scene to support the new IBM PC with peripherals and add on I/O products, AST Research became a household name in this segment. Their flagship product, the "SixPakPlus" sold in the hundreds of thousands, and later their "Bravo" PC became one of the first "clones". I was one of their first sales people handling most of the US and establishing their distribution and computer store channels.
Vice President
Medical Device - Glucovation
Networking/PC - Allied Telesyn | AST
Medical Device - Glucovation
Glocovation had technology to allow for a better performing and lower cost Continuous Glucose Monitor for both Type I and Type II diabetic patients. I ran operations and managed all fund raising activities, business development and marketing. During this time I raised $20M in strategic funding from Chinese, So. Korean and Japanese partner
Glocovation had technology to allow for a better performing and lower cost Continuous Glucose Monitor for both Type I and Type II diabetic patients. I ran operations and managed all fund raising activities, business development and marketing. During this time I raised $20M in strategic funding from Chinese, So. Korean and Japanese partners. We also created an off shore license holding entity in Ireland.
COO/Executive Vice President
Case Studies/Concept to Sunset (Founder)
Chervo Active Sports Clothing
Chervo is an Italian golf/tennis/ski high end clothing line. I was first introduced to the brand while playing golf at the Valderrama Country Club in southern Spain. It was unique, functional and very high quality. When I got back to the states I contacted the manufacturer and managed to arrange to become their representative for the US. In order to test the market, I surveyed the category brand mix starting with golf at the more exclusive courses in San Diego. There seemed to me an opportunity for placement.
Once I received their samples and a good representation of their size run, we noticed very quickly that the sizing and cut was designed for more of a lean “European/Italian” body template. I still showed the line around to the various clubhouse managers and pros. They all liked the line but the fit was problematic. It seemed that the entire line would have to be re-cut and that at the time did not make a lot of sense, so I decided to terminate the relationship. Interestingly enough, Chervo now sponsors a top 50 player on the PGA tour.
Lesson Learned: Timing and ROI analysis
smrtWIPES/smrtACCESSORIES
During the early life cycle growth of the smartphone (large screen) it became evident that one of the issues would be, keeping the screen clean and managing bacteria that collects on the device. Rather than completely inventing a solution from scratch, I contacted a manufacturer of hand wipes in China and received some samples. One of the challenges was to reduce the wetness while still maintaining its ability to clean the screen and manage the bacteria accumulation. With the help of an agent in China that managed the manufacturer for QC and all of the forward logistics we arrived at a solution that worked and had great economics.
The next step was packaging and distribution. On packaging we took a page out of Apple and came up with a very clean and descriptive design. This was for the branded solution (smrtWIPES) for most retail channels. Where we really accelerated our market penetration was with a private label/OEM approach. This is when volume took off and eventually we shipped over 2M units at extremely profitable levels. The business was profitable from its inception with very little investment.
In order to grow the business further we introduced a line of phone accessories (smrtACCESSORIES) that were also branded or could be private-labeled. Very quickly we realized that there was very little differentiation and the margins were quickly becoming single digit compared with 5X margins on the wipes. This was a very risky endeavor, so we pulled out, liquidated the existing inventory and terminated the accessories portion of the business.
Eventually the wipes business became crowded as well, margins dropped and demand began to wane. After almost 10 years, we consciously sun set the business with very little inventory that needed to be liquidated.
Lesson Learned: Know when it's time to get out.
smrtCAM
As GoPro was beginning to take off it became very evident that young or infrequent active sports enthusiasts were not going to pay nearly $400 for an active sports camera. I used my contacts in China and contacts I made at CES to source a comparable waterproof camera that could be marketed at an order of magnitude less in price. The objective was to have basically the same feature and performance set, but have it be all inclusive with all the accessories needed to attach to all devices while performing your sports activities.
I managed to source a product that would retail at one third the going rate for a similar “branded” camera. smrtCAM was born. Again, we used the same strategy on packaging and branding to eliminate any ambiguity. Distribution was primarily through Amazon with a website outlining the value proposition and directed all purchases to Amazon.
Sales started to take off and again the business was profitable after the first shipment sold through Amazon. As sales started to ramp up, so did the “knock-off” competition to GoPro. I adjusted pricing accordingly over the next year, but realized that the space was getting very crowded and the ability to maintain margins was getting more difficult. There was also the risk of getting stuck with a lot of obsolete inventory as the segment started to transition to a 4K solution. Again, I existed with almost no inventory left and the entire venture was a success.
Lesson Learned: Timing and Evaluate Next Level Investment/ Know Your Competition
