Raj Shankar's Blog, page 61

Interesting Links This Week : 27-Jan-2013

Here are my this week’s favorites:

A peek into the challenges and motivations of the Tech Startups in Africa: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=3166

Could this become the future of public libraries. After reading it I had a mixed feeling from the ease of access on going digital and the losing of the touch and feel of physical books http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/13/3872478/americas-first-bookless-public-library-will-look-like-an-apple-store

This could be happening right here. College students face many adjustment issues. Balancing the need to earn a living and the desire to get educated, the sudden change from vernacular medium to English, the exposure to city and multi culture environment as they step out of their smaller towns.. We need solutions to these and many more  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html?hp&_r=1

Books and Me: The $100 Startup

Title: The $100 Startup

Author: Chris Guillebeau

This is a unique book. It is aimed at those who want to be solopreneurs / micropreneurs. These are entrepreneurial individuals, who have something that they are really good at, want to live a life doing that if possible, and make a decent living for themselves and their dependents and most importantly are not too keen on creating an institution around the business. We find numerous enterprises like these in India. In fact many of the Tiny / Micro and even many small enterprises in India belong to this category.

This book explains why it could be possible for more people with similar inclinations to get started quickly. Though the title is provocative stating that such businesses can be started off for as low as US $100 or INR 5000/- (approximately) – it should not be taken in the literal sense. Most example cited in the book get very close to that figure with exceptions stretching far higher

too!

But if one reads the book, it is very unlikely that he/she will put it down without thinking that they could be in business very soon. Though I run a boutique professional services firm, I kept constantly thinking of extensions for my own business, which is primarily talent/person focused. The author has done a wonderful job of ensuring that he does not stop with enticing the reader

to dream. He takes the reader through all necessary aspects of the business namely: ideation, opportunity mapping, designing products/services, business planning, marketing, pricing and even strategies for growth. All these topics

have been written from the perspective of a micropreneur.

I would strongly suggest this book to aspiring entrepreneurs as well as people who have the entrepreneurial bug, but feel that they have missed the bus with respect to starting a firm. The author will convince you with enough reasons to get started either on the side or by taking the plunge full time. So if you are one of those who is on the verge of losing a job, who wants to let go of the job or not finding the right job – stop worrying and read this book!

On Entrepreneurship: Jumping is not all about the plunge!

Number of professor friends of mine call me quite frequently to their institutions to co-lead sessions, conduct workshops, or give guest lectures. But a recent trend has been their request to talk to individual students who require some guidance and direction. When I meet these enthusiastic kids, their energy is infectious. They are full of energy and are raring to go – literally at anything and everything!

One such interaction was with a young man, just out of his engineering program. Within a year of graduation he had tried his hand at three startups  - given up on two and toying with the idea of putting the third one on hold.  When I enquired for the reasons behind him closing the ventures – I found there were no specific reason except the fact that after a year, he has started evaluating whether all this effort was worthwhile at all. A very valid consideration, but shouldn’t it have been considered a bit earlier?

After about an hour of discussion, we were able to facilitate his thinking around where he could have possibly gone wrong.  Once he was open to examining his own actions and decisions, he was quick and open to suggestions and directions. He did come around to the fact that he had spent almost negligible time at his desk prior to jumping into action.  With a bit of prodding he came around to a set of basic questions that he would consider before starting on a venture. Questions like:

Is there really an opportunity in the first place?
Is there a good enough case for creating a business around the idea?
Does the usage of secondary data bring out the idea’s economic veracity?
Can his personal entrepreneurial spirit be sustained and fed by the venture around the idea?

He has agreed to re-look and come back with the workings so that we can take his efforts towards starting up ahead. I am waiting for him to come back.

In the meantime, it makes me wonder, how many such young minds we lose because they are averse rather unaware of using a disciplined way to starting up.  I will reiterate as many times as needed that  ‘machoness’ is not jumping off a cliff without a parachute – but it is in opening the parachute at the lowest possible point to achieve the greatest thrill.  It could also propel to jump off an even higher cliff. But thinking if the parachute is needed at all – is not heroic!

The pressure of failing in a society such as ours is too high for young adults to take. Their enthusiasm will die down if adequate support is not provided for them to realize their dreams. And support is not blindly fuelling of their aspiration and telling them to go ahead and take the plunge. Support is to equip them with the right approach, tools, techniques and perspectives to realize their dreams!

On Entrepreneurship : Jumping is not all about the plunge!

Number of professor friends of mine call me quite frequently to their institutions to co-lead sessions, conduct workshops, or give guest lectures. But a recent trend has been their request to talk to individual students who require some guidance and direction. When I meet these enthusiastic kids, their energy is infectious. They are full of energy and are raring to go – literally at anything and everything!

One such interaction was with a young man, just out of his engineering program. Within a year of graduation he had tried his hand at three startups  - given up on two and toying with the idea of putting the third one on hold.  When I enquired for the reasons behind him closing the ventures – I found there were no specific reason except the fact that after a year, he has started evaluating whether all this effort was worthwhile at all. A very valid consideration, but shouldn’t it have been considered a bit earlier?

After about an hour of discussion, we were able to facilitate his thinking around where he could have possibly gone wrong.  Once he was open to examining his own actions and decisions, he was quick and open to suggestions and directions. He did come around to the fact that he had spent almost negligible time at his desk prior to jumping into action.  With a bit of prodding he came around to a set of basic questions that he would consider before starting on a venture. Questions like:

Is there really an opportunity in the first place?
Is there a good enough case for creating a business around the idea?
Does the usage of secondary data bring out the idea’s economic veracity?
Can his personal entrepreneurial spirit be sustained and fed by the venture around the idea?

He has agreed to re-look and come back with the workings so that we can take his efforts towards starting up ahead. I am waiting for him to come back.

In the meantime, it makes me wonder, how many such young minds we lose because they are averse rather unaware of using a disciplined way to starting up.  I will reiterate as many times as needed that  ‘machoness’ is not jumping off a cliff without a parachute – but it is in opening the parachute at the lowest possible point to achieve the greatest thrill.  It could also propel to jump off an even higher cliff. But thinking if the parachute is needed at all – is not heroic!

The pressure of failing in a society such as ours is too high for young adults to take. Their enthusiasm will die down if adequate support is not provided for them to realize their dreams. And support is not blindly fuelling of their aspiration and telling them to go ahead and take the plunge. Support is to equip them with the right approach, tools, techniques and perspectives to realize their dreams!

On Innovation:Are You Ready For Your Employees To Innovate?

Recently, we had a meeting with the CEO of a medium sized knowledge company.  He was sharing with us the campaigns and initiatives around their innovation program. He said he was facing a unique issue. While individuals are extremely enthusiastic when it comes to innovation and creativity training, the number of ideas that they are contributing is actually abysmally low.  This is not an isolated instance where we are hearing this issue from senior management with respect to their innovation programs

Many corporate realise the importance of innovation as a strategic differentiator.  Few are taking the cue seriously and getting into concrete action. Most of us are trained to be anti-creative. As we go through their life, the conditioning of sticking to the crowd, has made blunt our instruments of imagination and spirit of experimentation.  So companies need to provide training on tools and techniques to their employee set, so that these can be sharpened. Their first step should be to have an across the board training that is aimed to sensitize and tickle into action the hidden creativity of their employees.  While companies often get this step right – they fail in the subsequent one.

Neither the company nor the employees are clear on what they have to do once they become creative. Employees are seldom aware of where and how to contribute. What will happen to their contribution? What is the progress path of a good suggestion? What is the fallout of a rejection? Lack of a system and process for innovation program – shrouds the initiative in mystery.  When participants are not aware of the path of an idea within the firm, the opaqueness discourages them. Transparency of an idea lifecycle is a must in an innovation program. Failure to have this will yield little results, despite a great innovation campaign and training program.

Innovation program need a holistic design and approach. It should not be just limited to training. When only parts of the program are put in place – the expected results don’t appear. And this is no surprise!

Vedantic Wednesday: The First Doubt

While most of us find it easy to get acquainted and interested in spirituality, many of us find it difficult to actually travel the journey. Why is it so?

We are unable to comprehend the purpose behind the quest for SELF or ‘I’.  We are very clear that we already know who we are. We are Mr X, Y, Z living in such and such address, doing such and such work, married, with kids and this amount as bank balance. Sitting in lectures we appreciate what is being told as SELF being beyond all this and complete. However, in reality we are unable to accept we are beyond these external attributes of our identity.

If these are what that defines us, then why is it that we always feel incomplete? Whether it is losing our wallet, a tea-stain on our shirt, loss of loved one or a disappointment in not getting something – we feel hurt beyond measure. We always feel incomplete and wanting for more.

It is said that people would go to Sri Ramana Maharishi for answers to their worldly problems. They would lament saying ‘I don’t have a child’. ‘ I just lost my brother’, ‘ I don’t have a good job’ or ‘I am agitated’ etc. Sri Ramana Maharishi had only one suggestion for all of them. He would tell them ‘ Go and find out who this ‘I’  who is having the problem is and then come to me’.  Many would not understand the deeper connotation behind this seemingly obvious question. They would move onto seeking solace elsewhere – and most often keep searching.

The question that Sri Ramana Maharishi asked, is what sows the seed of contemplation. Our spiritual journey can only begin when we believe that this question is valid. When we believe it could have a different answer from the worldly description we carry for ourselves. Today this question fails to excite us as we feel we are very clear  about the ‘I’. There is neither a possibility or a need for another explaination for who the ‘I’ is.

Spiritual texts provide us two theories which could plant a small doubt in us on our current understanding of ‘I’. I will attempt to share my understanding of these two postulates in the coming weeks. But the key is, unless we begin to doubt the current clarity that we have on who we are, who this ‘I’ is, we will remain spectators to spirituality. Our journey can start only if we dare to doubt on this ‘I’ that we claim to know.

Vedantic Wednesday : The First Doubt

While most of us find it easy to get acquainted and interested in spirituality, many of us find it difficult to actually travel the journey. Why is it so?

We are unable to comprehend the purpose behind the quest for SELF or ‘I’.  We are very clear that we already know who we are. We are Mr X, Y, Z living in such and such address, doing such and such work, married, with kids and this amount as bank balance. Sitting in lectures we appreciate what is being told as SELF being beyond all this and complete. However, in reality we are unable to accept we are beyond these external attributes of our identity.

If these are what that defines us, then why is it that we always feel incomplete? Whether it is losing our wallet, a tea-stain on our shirt, loss of loved one or a disappointment in not getting something – we feel hurt beyond measure. We always feel incomplete and wanting for more.

It is said that people would go to Sri Ramana Maharishi for answers to their worldly problems. They would lament saying ‘I don’t have a child’. ‘ I just lost my brother’, ‘ I don’t have a good job’ or ‘I am agitated’ etc. Sri Ramana Maharishi had only one suggestion for all of them. He would tell them ‘ Go and find out who this ‘I’  who is having the problem is and then come to me’.  Many would not understand the deeper connotation behind this seemingly obvious question. They would move onto seeking solace elsewhere – and most often keep searching.

The question that Sri Ramana Maharishi asked, is what sows the seed of contemplation. Our spiritual journey can only begin when we believe that this question is valid. When we believe it could have a different answer from the worldly description we carry for ourselves. Today this question fails to excite us as we feel we are very clear  about the ‘I’. There is neither a possibility or a need for another explaination for who the ‘I’ is.

Spiritual texts provide us two theories which could plant a small doubt in us on our current understanding of ‘I’. I will attempt to share my understanding of these two postulates in the coming weeks. But the key is, unless we begin to doubt the current clarity that we have on who we are, who this ‘I’ is, we will remain spectators to spirituality. Our journey can start only if we dare to doubt on this ‘I’ that we claim to know.

On Strategy: Profitability of Non-Profits!

The first few weeks of the new year has been very interesting for me personally. I had multiple occasions to interact with fresh and energetic groups of people through my business modeling workshops and other engagements. The discussions during and post the workshops are by themselves loaded with learning.  Last week in one such instance I found myself amidst an interesting and intense conversation on what differentiates social enterprises from profit oriented firms.   The premise of discussion rather debate was when a young aspiring social entrepreneur questioned the appropriateness of a business model that looks at price-cost (Demand /Supply) equilibrium for social enterprises.

Why should social entrepreneurs think of profits? Oops! Did I use the banned word – profits; as we discuss social enterprise?

Our confusion between voluntary social service and a social enterprise has led to many worthy social enterprises struggle and shut down unnecessarily. When you create an enterprise even if it is to address a challenge or need in the social context and intent, it becomes imperative that you do it in a manner, where the beneficiaries are able to derive value from your (firm’s) existence uninterrupted for a large period of time. This means it is important that your social enterprise requires to be in existence and grow to be able to cater to the challenge better in the coming time. For this, your firm also requires oxygen for growth – cash! And you need a business model to tell you from where the required amount of cash is going to make itself into the system and how you are going to construct your internal engine to optimally use cash to deliver larger value to your customers (society) in a sustainable manner.

Most people get offended when social ventures use the term profits – so may be the better term for them is: surplus. Why should social entrepreneurs think about surplus instead of deficit? For the simple reason it is this surplus that is going to be ploughed back into the system for creating greater value. What differentiates a non-profit from a for-profit is not the profitability of operations, but how the generated profits get used!

On Leadership: Lead, Follow or Move Away!

Leadership as they say is not something that comes with position or achievement. You can become one only if you desire to be one and have the skill, perseverance and genuineness to serve. Leadership then is a choice – one that very few make.

Most often we elevate people to lead us because they have done well in some area of their lives. But sadly, while a few graduate to the needs of their followers, most others don’t.  Those who don’t graduate tend to hold on to their position; making the followers go astray.  Some even misuse their power to retain a limited following. Not only are they doing a disservice to themselves but also to the future generations. By not leading while retaining their position in the front, they are not allowing the next generation of leaders to grow. Very often they are allowed by their followers to continue leading, only because there is no other alternative available. We see this happening in firms, institutions and in any form of comunity where a group of people gather together for a common cause.

It is up to the leaders to recognize their strengths, enable their followers to march on till they can, and step aside when they find there are better people to do it. The last quality is especially important because that is a mark of a true leader – one who thinks more for the general good than for themselves. The lack of maturity to acknowledge this is what creates a lacunae of leaders around us.

The mantra that should guide a leader is ‘Lead, Follow or Move Away’. It is in everybody’s good to do it. Take the responsibility if you have it in you, follow others if you are still unsure else just move out of the way so that others may lead! Because true leaders are the ones who not just lead, but allow leaders to emerge around them and give them way to lead at the appropriate time.  

Interesting Links This Week : 20-Jan-2013

Here are the articles that caught my attention this week

Being a voracious reader and a bibliophile my favorite haunt are the bookstores. Reading this article on how competition is challenging the survival of one of the largest and the oldest book store Barnes and Noble made me stop and think for more than one reason http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=3167

Kumbh Mela is here! This short article by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev brings out many facets apart from the spiritual reason for the congregation. http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-articles/mysticism/kumbh-mother-of-all-gatherings?track=1&uid=66214&date=20130117

Powerful views on short term focus by Clayton Christensen gave me a lot to think and share http://www.businessinsider.com/clay-christensen-our-obsession-with-efficiency-is-killing-innovation-2012-12