For any company, handling challenges is a daily affair. But only a small percentage of those companies are actively trying to find ways to learn from those challenges, and the inevitable failures, and improve from that adversity.

As the first day of Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks Connect 2016 came to a close, John Walls (@JohnWalls21) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, met up to discuss insights from the day’s guests and keynote speakers.

Great minds

The bulk of the discussion focused on the speakers and interviewees who had brought so much liveliness to the event, with author Malcolm Gladwell and Scott Cook, founder and chairman of the Executive Committee at Intuit Inc., being the key figures in this analysis.

With Gladwell, the examination leaned toward his thoughts on how struggling against difficulties and outright failures could lead to some of the greatest accomplishments. The process of “compensation learning,” which draws strengths from these apparent weaknesses, was a vital part of explaining odds-fighting innovators and entrepreneurs and the ways in which they can find revenue in the most unlikely of market niches.

And while the cohosts were dismayed by the relatively short amount of time they had to pick the many ideas of Cook, the experiences and learned lessons he shared during his time on theCUBE provided a tall helping of food for thought. Walls highlighted the concepts of ‘we, not me,’ and the efforts by enterprises to value their customers’ individual problems over their own pre-existing solutions as some of the most inspiring in this field, while Frick was intrigued by the community involved with these approaches.

Engaging others

“Building a platform that enables other people to fill in the gaps … really creates a ‘1+1=3’ equation,” Frick stated, delving into the ways in which the interplay of company and customer has enabled enhanced benefits for both.

As Intuit continues to grow from its humble beginnings as the germ of an idea in Cook’s mind from seeing his wife’s hard work in managing payments, the crowd of attendees present at their events grows along with it. Despite the swell of people present, Frick felt that the original spirit of concern for individuals was well-represented. “This show is still about the small business entrepreneurial dream,” he stated.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of QuickBooks Connect.

*Disclosure: Intuit and other companies sponsor some Quickbooks Connect segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Intuit nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.

Photo by SiliconANGLE