Raj Shankar's Blog, page 21

Do MOOCs upend traditional business education?

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course

Are MOOCs scaring traditional models of business education? Though the number of people enrolling for these courses seem to be on the rise, the number actually completing and gaining a certificate seem to be a let down – 3% – 5%. Here is a study that talks about this and some rather surprising trends on how MOOC’s are faring and how they may impact traditional education. Link: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/moocs-upend-traditional-business-education/

There are important lessons from the study for both receivers and providers of online content. It doesn’t seem like pricing for certification with the content delivered free has been a very interesting revenue model so far. But it is also important to not miss the fact that the volumes may over time justify the revenues, especially the margins.

It also looks like MOOC’s if used well could bring to business schools a fresh set of students who may add diversity to a good program. It will bring improved class discussions, perspectives, as well as greater markets to business schools. Hence it does seem a worthy experiment for most business schools to offer some form of MOOC or online courses, that students can take prior to choosing a business school. It seems like a real differentiator!

While there are no final words out on the matter of whether people would prefer to stay at home or continue in their jobs and take courses online to complete higher education – but assuming that this will be the future, seems far fetched! At least in the current context, especially in a developing country context.

It doesn’t seem like MOOC’s will replace traditional business schools in developing countries for a long time. But will B Schools use these channels as sources of drawing in more students, creating more markets for themselves is something worth watching as a trend.

Think about it!

Books and Me: The Myth of the Garage

Book Title: The Myth of the Garage

Authors: Chip Heath and Dan Heath

This is not really a book in the real sense. It is a collection of articles previously written by the authors. Having read some of their other books which made immense sense, I downloaded this booklet on my Kindle to read. I always look for some random light reading on business on days when I feel too full. So on one such day, I decided to go over these articles.

I was immediately caught on to the variety of articles that the brothers have brought together during their writing these for a column in a popular trade magazine. There is tremendous breadth to their writing with an underlying theme. I think this reminds us over and over again about the importance of making ideas stick. Getting our products / services and the related communication stick with consumers is a big challenge to almost every marketer. I think the problem goes well beyond business – into education, non profits, governance, politics, etc The authors highlight number of other books, research articles and case studies to impress upon us the importance of doing away with myths.

The biggest myth that I smiled on reading was the one that bears the title of the collection – ‘The Myth of the Garage’. Being a researcher, writer and teacher of entrepreneurship it was a pleasant surprise to see some references to academic research citing the contrary to be true. It was surprising and a welcome perspective to spend time on, share in classes and aid students to try entrepreneurship at later stages in their careers and lives.

There are many other counter-intuitive studies are showcased in those articles related to interesting and pertinent topics such as: talent, communication, happiness, buying, etc

One is bound to have enough inputs for reflection upon reading this little collection. I completed the book in a couple of hours while making notes. I have enough references for inciting me to read more, write more and share more in classes. Thanks to the authors for bringing these articles together as an e-book as it made it easy to consume them.

Happy Reading!

Interest Versus Commitment

I teach entrepreneurship across a number of institutes in India. Routinely I also conduct hands-on workshops for entrepreneurs and small business owners around the country. What I hear from both aspiring entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs already in business is fundamentally the same thing: we are very interested in doing this or we really want to do this or we come up with number of whacky ideas, etc – basically everyone is ‘interested’ in doing something different. The aim is to get their venture off the ground and soaring. But sadly the statistics that we see from the results (facts) is almost the opposite. Most, if not all, of them, end up not taking off. In case a few do manage to get the lift off, they remain at low altitudes before falling back to the ground. What’s the problem? With all the ideas and passion for doing things why is it that they don’t take-off successfully?

The answer is the transition from the word ‘interest’ to the word ‘commitment’. What’s the difference and why is it so vital to success? The big difference is ‘interest’ results in lots of talk, plans and activity identification; but sadly for want of being prioritised with resources, they remain where they were created. No wonder that so many participants in my workshops tell me, we thought something along the lines of what you are suggesting, but!

The problem begins when your plans are not supported with resources. Who is in charge of posting the blog on the website everyday? Who is in charge of bringing fresh content everyday? Who is in charge of conducting events and bringing customers / potential customers to them every day? Who is speaking to customers / potential customers every day? The answer to many of these questions remains the same: we wanted to, we planned for it, but something more important came by! We needed to fire fight some challenge! All of us have to be prepared to handle exceptional situations, but if they happen almost everyday, something is amiss – what is it? Priorities? Commitments?

Commitment means I am investing something into the activity because I think it is too important for me as a venture. The same applies to individuals too! If interests are not supplied with commitment, they are bound to move on. Don’t be surprised if you find your competitor doing what you planned – and don’t fool yourself that he/she copied it, because ideas are free. They come to everyone. If you don’t act on it early enough, you lose your right to it. Now go to your team and ask which ‘interesting ideas’ or ‘interests’ remain unexploited, ‘commit’ yourself, your team, your resources to it. Make them see the light of day. Let the world tell you if they are good or bad. SO what if you fail, at least you have a chance to improvise it before everyone else. Additionally you will learn something that most others lost the right to – isn’t failure supposed to do that?

Think about it!

What to do with dreams?

I am referring to dreams about our lives and careers. Unfulfilled aspirations, expectations, desires about who we want to become. All other dreams fall under the medical domain and I cannot comment on them.

Dreaming is an important aspect of our lives. We all do! They are especially important for entrepreneurial individuals. Being entrepreneurial is not only for entrepreneurs who start business, but for people in all domains.

So the big question is what do you do with your dreams? There are two possibilities of what one can do with dreams:

Some let go of the dreams and dream fresh dreams
Some dream the same thing again and again

People who do something about it
People who don’t do something about it

What kind of dreaming is yours? Do you belong to the first category which most people fall under? If you do, try to see if you can shift to the second variety, because you will become frustrated with everyone around over a period of time.

If you can dream the same dream over and over again, then you have a chance to do something about it. If you do something about it, it either fails or it helps you see your dream turn into reality. Examples: entrepreneurs of every kind. If you don’t do anything about it, you will invariably go eccentric / insane over time. This is because one can’t stay with a single thought without acting on it. It will make that person virtually start living in that world. But reality will show itself and that will be too hard to accept.

This is an important thing to think about. Since all of us spend some time dreaming, it is critical that we take action on our dreams. Taking action on our dreams can start with a small first step. Something like building a product prototype, starting a blog, meeting with 100 potential customers, sketching that first painting, short first sonnet, etc.

Taking action is the most important thing for dreamers, else this big strength, that which takes the world forward will be wasted. Dreaming is important – it is what makes the world progress. So, don’t sit still if you dream the next time. Try to take action and you will find yourself building on your dreams in the dream world as well as in the real world.

Think about it!

Books and Me: My Days, Autobiography

Book Title: My Days, Autobiography

Author: R K Narayan

I recently picked this up at the Chennai airport book store as I was leaving for a workshop for entrepreneurial CEOs. I wanted something light and inspiring. R K Narayan was a celebrated writer and his life for a person like me (a writer) could be both inspirational and motivating. A quick look at the book also convinced me that I should read it because there were many references to places I was familiar to in Chennai.

Over the next two flights before I returned to base, I completed the book. It was a direct from heart story written in the typical Narayan style. The language is simple, the message clear and direct. His ability to craft stories is simply amazing. As with any other person who has come up to great success, he has had his fair share of challenges – both personal and social.

The beauty is that he found his calling pretty much early in life. While many of us have glimpses of this in our early lives and many times thereafter, I think the problem is that we silence that voice within us. Narayan gives us many episodes from his life that indicate how these obstacles and forces come our way. Family members trying to persuade him to make writing a hobby rather than a vocation. Not much of early success with the chosen vocation can catalyse our internal mind to attempt alternatives to keep ourselves afloat. Social obligations can force us to forego our dreams. And many more! He had a fair share of all these asking to turn away from writing.

His own life was filled with personal challenges. An early and pre mature death of his wife was a disheartening event, but which also produced some classic works. His travails to take a job eventually strengthening his resolve to be a writer. His hands at trying his own media (quarterly newsletter along with friends) giving him options to move away from his vocation. How did he manage to stay true to his inherent interest? Is it this strong resolve that made the forces of nature bring important people his way. Were his discoverer in UK, Mr Greene and his other contacts that resulted in him becoming published all a result of this strong resolve to be a writer?

Lots of things to learn from the life of this interesting and loved author. Persistence to keep doing what you ought to do without regards to acknowledgement, keeping a single goal in life, giving up all other opportunities for the sake of the singular goal, learning to ignore social pressure and stick to the path chosen, and being true to one’s calling are all important lessons to learn from the autobiography of this writer. Above all, it is important to learn that one has to discover one’s calling early in life (however early as possible) and have the courage to stick to it. I loved his ideas of coming up with a lifestyle (and associated upside costs of Rs 20 per month) so as to align with his chosen vocation. It is important to adjust lifestyle to make sure we don’t compromise on our vocation – but most of us succumb to the reverse. Think about it!

I came away inspired and at times with tears welling up in my eyes as I read the book. It has strengthened my resolve to live my life for the bigger purpose for which life has given me certain talents and do it as much as possible, irrespective of the results. What a lovely way to live life this way?

Think about it!

Vedantic Wednesday: Wealth and Richness

They have no correlation. While I have heard it many times from my master, I used to always wonder how, since it is anti-thesis to what we have been taught from childhood. But in recent times as I have begun to observe wealthy people more closely and interact with them more often, I am beginning to see the truth in that statement.

Almost everyone accumulates wealth. Nothing wrong with it. But as studies suggest, happiness and peace has nothing to do with the quantum, at least once you pass a certain level. Wealth in reasonable measure helps you lead a good life. In fact a certain amount of wealth is needed to stay afloat and every one of us has to do our bit of effort to gain it. Health, Peace, Education, Happiness, etc are all related to wealth, but when it is kept at its right place, to the right amount and used with the right attitude. I was startled to find out why some people look rich, even though their asset statements don’t reflect it. Equally startling was the fact that some people with all the riches on paper, could not look rich at all. Why is this? Can’t wealth buy richness? Apparently no!

On deeper thinking I am beginning to wonder that richness is a state of mind, an attitude, which one needs to develop. It results by a change in thinking. The truth behind this thinking as stated by my master is that – if a man has wealth more than wants, he is rich; otherwise, he is poor. Does it really matter if you have a dollar or a million – what matters is how you view your wants.

This is not superficial thought. In fact a lot of people dismiss it very quickly saying that it is not practical. I find the same people complaining, worrying and anxious, even upon having a lot more than what any average man will earn in his whole life!

Hence, if your ambition in life is to be rich, don’t stop working and deny wealth its fair due. On the contrary begin to understand what richness is all about. Use wealth in the right way – if our forefathers did not value wealth, why do we have a Goddess dedicated to just that: Goddess Lakshmi.

Think about it!

Entrepreneurial Skill: Sensing Opportunities

Even a person remotely associated with entrepreneurship will tell you that ‘sensing opportunities’ is a skill worth picking up for every entrepreneur. While entrepreneurs gain this skill early on, they rarely sharpen it and keep it alive through the entrepreneurial journey. This is why we see only a few entrepreneurs become extraordinarily successful, only a few become serial entrepreneurs and so on. Most others started the same way, but let their entrepreneurial abilities drop. Among the many things that this arsenal is made of, one important one is ‘sensing opportunities’.

How does one develop this skill?

For sensing opportunities one must learn to see changes, as changes are the source of opportunities. Underlying changes come in many forms – demographic, societal, cultural, political, technological, etc. If one learns the art of watching ‘changes’, then one can quickly identify opportunities that can open up.

What practices can help you see changes?

Reading the newspaper can help! When we read the newspaper we need to look for those articles that are not news today, but are factual changes being reported. While they are reducing day by day in the periodicals (as they are boring), they are the ones that signal up and coming changes.

Reading well written magazines, especially columns and editorials are good places to start noticing changes.

Thought Leaders in your domain or industry constantly keep sharing reports and data about changes taking shape.

Being out in the field and close to your customers / markets can give you indicators of what is happening. Customers normally keep telling you what is changing in their lives. When we listen, we hear them early.

How to know if any of these changes will become opportunities?

If you can keep a small journal and note down all the changes you come across, over a short period of time, you will start noticing opportunities. When a typical change is being reported over and over again, please know that the trend is slowly going to become talked about. You can have a head start by sensing it early. You can then brainstorm or seek help to figure the opportunities that could come up due to the change. You may then quickly narrow them down to what you and your company can help resolve. This leads to some possibility for innovation in your entrepreneurial firm.

But to keep this skill sharp we need to constantly practice it. Hence start the habit today. A little time everyday is a worthy investment on this endeavour and this will lead you to many profitable opportunities along the way.

Think about it!

Marketing and Entrepreneurs

Marketing seems to be the biggest challenge facing entrepreneurs today! Over the last few months I have been conducting day long workshops across India on ‘Getting to Market’ for entrepreneurs and small business owners. The last one was in Kolkata this weekend and we had close to 50 active participants in the room. The session started on time, had reduced break times and was extended in the evening by an hour. Why so much interest in marketing? And, the answer is direct – all of these entrepreneurs had capacity but not sales and in some cases almost no sales. Dangerous situation!

Marketing is a subject that raises lots of interest amongst entrepreneurs but most do nothing about it seriously. By the time they start doing something about it, many are in desperate situations to makes revenue, hence aggressive sales is what happens! This may lead to a spike in sales, but will eventually settle down. It is not sustainable.

Entrepreneurs need to understand that marketing is an important function of the enterprise. It requires resource allocation and constant monitoring. It requires well thought out, coordinated actions. It requires investment beyond money: time, effort, creativity, and stories worth talking about.

Marketing for an entrepreneurial firm is much different than it is for mature businesses. This is because there is supposedly something new and unique about the product or the firm. The newness / uniqueness should be used to help people identify the start-up, thereby becoming discovered. Great businesses are found, they are discovered, not just by venture capitalists and angels, but by customers. They help the start-up with unsolicited marketing (word of mouth). This is because they see value clearly, they see pride in association, they see smartness in sharing this information, they gain some social currency for having discovered and recommended a new / unique solution.

Hence any marketing that an entrepreneur does should involve enabling customers to do the above easily. They should help right customers find them easily. They should give them messages that are worth sharing easily. They should give them tools and techniques to spread the message amongst their networks easily. If we can enable all of this through our marketing activities, business begins to come our way.

Think about it!

Books and Me: Creative Confidence

Book Title: Creative Confidence

Authors: David Kelley and Tom Kelley

I think that every single person on earth wants to live a full life. A full life which will enable them go to the grave empty. This means they should have used their talents to the fullest. But almost every one of us, feels bad that we could not really live to our fullest potential. We could not utilise out immense creative potential. After blaming all the external factors for not allowing us to live a creative life, we finally blame it on ourselves – saying we are not creative enough to live it!

The Kelley brothers have produced a very inspiring book for all those who want to lead an entrepreneurial life. They dispel the myth that creativity is for the few. They give enough examples from their extremely creative and entrepreneurial life to showcase how creativity can be learned and developed as we go along with life. There does not seem to be an age to start as they share stories of people who came into their workshops pretty late in their careers and blossomed their inner creativity. The brother dispel this misunderstanding using examples from their lives, their client work at IDEO, and their experiments with the d.school.

The brothers then go on to clarify how to develop and bring these creative abilities within us to life. They provide specific tools, techniques and methods. These are all based on their human centred design courses that they run at the d.school. These are the same methods they use at their famous design firm IDEO to solve some of the enterprise challenges creatively. They also inspire us to live our lives where our interests lie. They constantly remind us that it is not worth looking back at life wondering why the most personal interests could never be pursued.

They draw on existing literature pretty generously for all related reading. The references provided to various books, academic literature and trade articles give us enough further reading. Cases provided show us how the techniques are applied in practice.  The last chapter gives us access to various exercises that can be used by us within our firms and workshops. The exercises are provided with details of how to run them too which makes it usable directly.

We have to thank the Kelley brothers (authors of the book) for their generosity in sharing their learnings from life so elaborately so that many of us who may not have access to them or their courses can also draw from their experiences. Thanks for that.

Creativity is an important aspect of a life lived well. This book is definitely one that will urge us to keep the faculty alive, have courage to take steps to put it to use, apart from giving the approaches of how to channelise this faculty / energy for optimum use.

Happy Reading!

How Google Ventures helps start-ups?

Google Ventures is the arm of Google which invests seed, venture and growth stage capital in start-ups. They declare that they are open about these investments since they are not intended to be strategic investments for Google. Hence it is open to start-ups from all sectors and at all stages. But what is interesting is that they go beyond giving funds. They provide access to Google resources (engineers, scientists, technology), provide workshops, work closely on design, recruitment, marketing, websites,etc. Their way of working especially on building ideas is pretty unique. This example shows how they redesigned the website for Blue Bottle Coffee: http://www.gv.com/news/behind-the-scenes-with-blue-bottle-and-google-ventures

Their optimised process called ‘design sprint’ is interesting, and the voting method to move to the next level by voting (not democratic) with blue dots helps push for quick prototyping and fast changes.

This helps start-ups bring challenges which are quickly addressed using the same process. There is definitely something to learn about how to solve start-up challenges for all entrepreneurial ventures, even if you are not part of their portfolio.

The above link gives a quick insight into how the process works. Learn from it and use it in your own start-up to move ahead quickly. It’s a competitive world and speed is something useful to develop!

Think about it!