What links Boutique Winemakers and Emerging Tech Companies?

I was delighted to be a guest of Milo Skene and Diego Echeverria at the Chilean Embassy last week, as part of a #prochile initiative introducing tech company #ImageMaker. They are a leading Latam digital tech consultancy company with over 20 years of experience in delivering over 3,000 successful projects for our clients such as Santander, Walmart, Zurich, Metlife, and Citibank, and are already starting to make an impact on the UK market.

The evening was made even better by refreshments in the form of what is best described as the ‘family wine’, #Echeverría or ‘#Echewine’. Their heritage involves bringing wine-making technology across the world from Spain nearly 200 years ago, and to create new 'sustainable' vineyards in a part of the world, Chile, that has special interest for me. ?

I reflected afterwards on the synergies between good winemaking and great tech companies:

Customer Focus: The winemaker continually thinks about how his product will delight the consumer; the tech company also needs to focus on how their particular solution meets the needs of their client base, and how their solutions are implemented with attention to detail.

Content: A beautifully created boutique wine may not have the wine-making capacity of the mega producers but there is care and personalisation in how it is created. In the same way, smaller consultancies can provide a degree of client care which larger companies struggle to deliver.

Geography: Wine and technology have no boundaries. Both are exportable which allows much greater flexibility for both to operate effectively.

Image: Last but not least, how both appear is important in terms of their image. The enjoyment of a fine wine starts with the label, how the wine pours and how it appears in glass in terms of colour and clarity. The image of a tech company is equally important as it influences how both clients and employees feel working with them. ?

To summarise, whilst making a comparison between a tech company and a boutique wine is a bit of fun - especially on a rainy Sunday afternoon - it’s the least I can do for their hospitality. I’m especially looking forward to visiting the vineyard in the #CuricoValley, Chile, next time I get over there!