7 Leadership Lessons from World Cup

Jul 13th

Posted by Hari in Entrepreneurship

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FIFA World Cup 2010 has just concluded and if you have been following the games, I am sure you have learned a lesson or two. My favorite team has been Spain since the beginning seeing their performance in the last 2-3 years. Most of my friends laughed at me and just wrote me down. Spain lost their first match and opinions became stronger. Well, I was confident of Spain since the day one and it actually became stronger after they lost their first game.

As I followed the games, I understood that this time it is going to be a different one. As expected, all “favorites” were out in either the league or Super 16′s. One team which has stood out was the Spain and there are definitely lessons to be learned from them. Here are the top 6 Leadership Lessons I learned:

Persistent – Even though they lost their first match, it is their Determination to win what mattered. The only thing which they concentrated was the game. Who ever the opponent is, the game came from the heart.

This is exactly what is needed from a Leader. No matter what the situation is, who the opponent is and what the game is, you need to have the determination to handle the game. Winning and Loosing are two sides of the game and there is nothing like he/she is stronger than me, more educated than me, have more experience than me.. These are all reasons we give ourselves. The fear of loss in us becomes the strength to the opponent and this is what takes the game away. You need to be confident of yourself and play it with your heart and no matter what, success is yours.

Consistent – Consistency comes from the mind. The Determination to always excel is what makes you a winner. Failure is the stepping stone to success, and if you close your mind thinking that the game is over, it is long over. Consistency is a must quality in each of us to make the difference and this does not come in a day, it is a constant practice. Also, when you are being consistent, you do not change the rules of the game, but you change the way you play. Just imagine if Gandhiji stopped his ‘Non-Violence’ strategy because he is not able to move forward? Would we have got Independence? He kept to the rules of the game, but kept on sharpening his playing skills which ultimately achieved what has to be achieved. From the beginning the Spanish kept to their cool side and only concentrated on being the wall to the opponent. They used every opportunity to hit a goal.

n FAILURE = 1 SUCCESS – It does not matter how many times you loose, but it matters if you have won the crucial game or not. In real life, no one wins everyday, but just because of that, if you stop practicing being consistent and determined and kept on changing your strategy, you will NEVER win. Only when you fail many times will you know how to be successful. Do you think it was any different with the Spain matches?

Goal! – You should DEFINE and quantify what you want to achieve and this is the key to success. But, this does not mean you bend the rules to reach your goal. In movies, we see always the Villan bends rules to become the winner, but the Hero always plays the game following the rules, and who wins? Even though movies are fictitious, the fiction comes from real life. The Spanish always got their goals (remember, they hold a record this year for scoring the least number of goals and still winning what matters) when they wanted to. They has to work hard for it, but when you are just determined to get it, you know you would get it.

TEAM WORK – Last but not the least, its all in the Team. Team should stick to their roles and live up to play the best of their capacity all the time. If one starts thinking that I am superior than the other, that’s it, the game is all over. Each one in the Spanish team came from different parts of the country but played together for one club until they achieved what they want. It’s all in the TEAM and there is never an Individual Winner, also will never be.

Play the way, the Game needs to be Played – You are playing a very truthful and committed game, but opponents are not always the same. You do not run away from a mosquito, but you do run when you see a Tiger. Why? In the last two games which mattered, the Spanish played the way the opponent was playing. With Germany, there were no fouls at all, but with the Dutch, the match holds a record for the maximum number of cards. However, one key aspect here one needs to remember, this should not deviate from the way the game needs to be played. You mend your game and not the rules!

Stay Cool – ALWAYS: If you noticed the games played, Coach played an important role and the one thing you notice is that he has always been cool.  No game can be played in tension and no game can be won with a disturbed mind.

The most important aspect of Leadership is keeping yourself Cool and Lite, else every decision you take turns out to be a disaster.

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Cost Effective Web Application Testing

Jul 3rd

Posted by Hari in OpenSource

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Web applications are the way of life today. Every business, every person uses web for one thing or the other every day. I remember the famous SAIL advertisement “There’s a little bit of steel in everybody’s life”.. “There’s a little bit of Web in everybody’s life today.

Recently, I spoke with a group of Web Application experts from RedBus on how can we reduce cost while testing web applications. How much ever the technology has advanced, few basic aspects remain the same and when you do them correctly, you can reduce huge over-head’s.

You may use any engineering model for your development (Spiral, Waterfall, Agile etc), but your test strategy should include the basics and get it right. The fundamental aspects of Inspections, Reviews and Checklists become very important.

Reviews
This is one of the oldest and proven forms of Testing. Reviews demand understanding of the domain and the technology by each and every stakeholder of making the system work as required. Reviews happen within the team and also by a knowledgeable source – Peer-Reviews and Expert Reviews. Peer reviews are within the team by an Architect or the Designer and also a review by an expert in the domain and the system will add a lot of value. One other review is by the end-user. Requirements are gathered by the Business Analyst or the given by the End-user. Having a review of the functionality of the system by the End-user will ensure that you building the system right and adds value to the end user. In case of the web application and it is our solution, a review of the functionality by your friends or family will give you a third perspective.

Imagine a rocket launch or an airplane with out the review… Reviews exist in all industries and this is one of the most accepted and cost-effective way of testing.

Inspections
Inspecting the system is again a task of the expert. Inspections provide opportunity for ad-hoc testing and ensure all requirements are covered while building and not at the end.

Checklist
Checklists help in ensuring you check for the key functionality, but not at an intense level. For example, if you are building a user log in functionality for your web-site, the checklist will read something like this:

1. Page load with all required fields?
2. Correct User Name and wrong password?
3. Incorrect User Name and random password?
4. Blank User Name and Password fields?
5. Blank User Name and random Password?
6. Blank Password and random User Name?

In a checklist, you do not get into the details. You will check for the appropriate error messages which need to be shown. Checklists are most effective when you make them as comprehensive as possible. Try speaking to a Pilot and he will tell you how their checklists are designed.

The above are the common Cost effective testing method’s. Threat modeling and Penetration Testing are two techniques which are important for web applications. In Threat modeling, you will design various models of how the application can be intruded once deployed. Considering these models, you test the application. However, it is not practical that few people can think of all the various ways an application can be intruded. Hence, a good threat model does not mean that the application is safe in all aspects.

Recently, I was reading The Checklist Manifesto by Dr. Atul Gawande and it shows the power of checklists. Dr. Atul showcases his experiences of usage of checklists in Construction, Airplane’s and Hospitals and this is an amazing read to see for yourself, how these small checklists make life so easy to work.

Cost Effective Web Application Testing
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Creating a Market for your Startup

May 7th

Posted by Hari in Entrepreneurship

2 comments

Days have changed and so has Entrepreneurship. Until very recently, if you have an amazing/cool idea (as per your rating), you write your thoughts on paper, share it with family and potential investors and look for some angel funding or formal Investment to give shape to your idea. In cases where you do your homework well, you go around doing the ground work asking people of their views on your idea, make modifications and re-design your Innovation.

Today, we have the new parameters of Entrepreneurship shaping up. Innovations are shaping the future. People are not only expecting better solutions for problems, but smarter ones. The future of Entrepreneurship and Innovation lies in creating the market and just not bringing out new solutions.

What is Creating New Market?

Let me start with an Illustration – Today, in developing countries, HealthCare is one of the primary focus for building a healthier future. However, with no strong HealthCare framework for meeting the demands of hungry consumers, HealthCare organizations (Hospitals and Medical Schools) design and operate very independently. What misses is the “integrator” for providing Quality HealthCare. Each organization has its own way of handling medical records and the system. Instead, “single-point” solutions is the need of the day. This is not the problem in India, but across the world.

The next aspect of Innovating for the future demands “Education”. Educating the customer gives better mileage to the Innovation rather than creating something and leaving it for the customer to read and understand.

One of the most recent advertisements (advertisements are the closest to Customer Education) I saw and loved its thoughtfulness is the Volkswagen Polo Ground Clearance advertisement. VW came to India just few Years ago and they have been really bombarding commercials (which make sense to Indian Customer) of their brand and in just a very short period of time have become a very common name. Mercedes, Honda, Toyota have been in India for long enough but still not many people cannot identify the car (at least few models). What i am referring to here is the time to market and customer education (awareness).
Any Innovation does not make sense unless it reaches its target customer and also creates a sizeable customer base.

How to Create your Market?

  • Create a prototype of your idea (can be as simple and stupid as you want, but which gives a near picture of what the final Innovation would look like).
  • Associate your Innovation to a cost.
  • Educate your potential buyer on how it can ease out their effort in addressing the problem you are solving (Provide the USP)
  • Sell!
  • Ask them to try and give you feedback.
  • Will they buy your Innovation at the price you have fixed or do they think twice and bargain??

After you win confidence of your potential customers, try it with outsiders (colleagues, acquaintances etc) and see what their reaction would be. Will they buy and use?

The last aspect what you need to consider is the longevity of your Innovation. How long will it take your customer to come back? If your customer has to come back regularly, what is that which makes them come back to you and not your competitors? How long can you sustain your customers before loosing them? Will they come back?

If your Innovation is a one time solution, how effective it is and what is the your Business Model to add enhancements and keep your market going?

…This chain goes on.
Remember to always Educate your customer on what particular problem your Innovation will solve, which makes meaning and this will help you see a new world of opportunities opening up.

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Twitter Update – 7 May

May 7th

Posted by Hari in Twitter

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Idea Valuation

Apr 11th

Posted by Hari in Entrepreneurship

3 comments

Yesterday (10 April 2010), I had a opportunity to speak at the Start-up Saturday Bangalore on Idea Valuation. I was playing the devil’s advocate role for few of my friends Start-up idea’s and that is how I got interested in Business Model Testing. After speaking to good number of people around me on this topic, I felt I could do something and help people by giving a third eye perspective of their ideas. Accidentally, I ran into a book Will it fly? The Idea Tester by Carla Langhrost. This little piece of work really inspired me. There is someone else in this world who is thinking like me :) Took few key aspects which match with my thought process and put together few slides as a framework for my talk.

Here is the link to my slides Idea Valuation

Idea Valuation
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Ground Rule: All topics of discussion in this talk are practically applicable in your daily life too and just not Entrepreneur Ideas.

I started my talk with the definition of an Idea. What is an Idea?

The transcript, image, or picture of a visible object, that is formed by the mind; also, a similar image of any object whatever, whether sensible or spiritual.

Any idea, if it cannot be visualized in your mind is not worth taking forward. What you visualize need not be precise, but at least a skeleton image is not showing up in your mind, you need to re-think on your Idea. For instance, you are wanting to buy a car, but you have not decided the brand and make yet. However, when you think of buying a car, a skeleton model is up in your mind. The end result might not be exactly what you visualized, but without that skeleton picture, it might be practically impossible to get what you really want.

Components of Idea

Every idea has four basic components – Uniqueness, Meaningful, Acceptance and Future.

  • What is the Uniqueness in your idea? You are doing your job or your are driving the car of your choice only because your organization found some uniqueness in your skill set and you are driving that car because it has few unique features which match you requirement.
  • Meaningful – Your idea has to be meaningful. To dry yourself after a shower, you need not only have a towel, you can use a dryer or stand below a fan.
  • Acceptance – One of the best examples is the “Free Hugs”. Fee Hugs was initially not accepted by many countries, it was even banned in few places due to various reasons, but the persistence of Juan Mann and his visualization of the happiness in one’s heart after the hug is what makes the movement a very successful one.

Testing Parameters

Three basic parameters to test your idea – Idea Preposition, Start-up Preposition and Self Preposition.

Idea Preposition

  • Need – What need are you addressing?
  • Idea – How viable is your idea and how much of the problem can it solve? (Note that not all ideas solve 100% of problems)
  • Uniqueness – How different is your idea from your nearest competitor?
  • Test – Finally, ensure that you give sufficient time for your idea to settle and test the viability of your idea.

If you notice the graph, Uniqueness occupies the biggest pie. During your Idea Preposition days, the more you concentrate on your uniqueness, the more better is your end result.

Start-up Preposition

  • Start-up Cost
  • Profit Margin
  • Breakeven Point
  • Test

While testing your Start-up Preposition, Start-up costs become the most important factor. When you are buying a car, the initial investment you make on your is more important that the maintenance costs. Even if you can afford maintaining (paying service bills) a high-end luxury car, but you are unable to raise funds for the cost of the vehicle, it really does not make any meaning.

Ensuring that your Start-up costs are completely in your control is the one key factor for your idea to become a reality.

Self Preposition

  • Self Analysis
  • Salary
  • Work-life Balance
  • Passion
  • Test

When ever we take up new task, we always tend not to look at the viability of implementing it. When you are having a 12 hour work-day everyday, it really does not make sense to start another new task taking more time away from your resting time. This results in failure than success even if the idea is one of the best. Work-life Balance is the key is Self Preposition. Ensuring enough time for rest will help in thoughts settling which ensures better results.

Business Model Test Approach

Traditionally, there are two well accepted ways of testing your idea – Data Driven and Model Based.

  • When you are starting something new, it is the Data Driven Model which you would choose. You need to do your ground work really well to ensure you have the right ingredients in place for building your Start-up. “Data” is the only answer and it will substantiate your idea to make it practical and implementable.
  • When you are starting something similar to an existing business (Ex. Software Services or a Retail Chain or a Restaurant Chain), you may test your idea comparing with various business models in the space. Already businesses are existing and you are starting something similar. There is no harm in understanding, valuating and identifying gaps in your competitors business model to ensure you incorporate them in your business model.

Each of the above can be practically applied to any component of your Business Plan and Remember to TEST your Plan thoroughly before beginning your journey, because – In God we Trust and Everything Else we Test!

 

Here are the Video’s of my talk…

Idea Valuation – Part 1

 

 

Idea Valuation – Part 2

Idea Valuation – Part 3


Idea Valuation – Part 4


I thank Viswa for all his efforts in creating this video.

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Social Entrepreneurship is Sexy

Mar 22nd

Posted by Hari in HeadStart

3 comments

On 12 March 2010, we concluded our Annual Startup Showcase Event – HeadStart, this time at Hyderabad. One of the panel discussion topic was “Challenges in Social Entrepreneurship” and we had an amazing panel for this. This blog post is a summary of the discussion.

Members of the Panel were – Ms Lindsay Clinton, Director of Beyond Profit Magazine; Ms Yasmina McCarty, Founder and Director of Green Mango; Ramakrishna NK, Co-Founder and CEO of RangDe; Ramesh V, Founder CEO and Director of Ecomove Solutions Pvt.Ltd and Asgar Ali of Roshan Vikas.

The discussion started with introduction of the Panelists. Ms. Lindsay was gracious to be the moderator of the panel.

Being Indian’s, working for our society is a natural urge and interest, however, the greatness of Lindsay and Yasmina is that they are not Indian’s and choose to live in India to make a difference to the world where it is required. There are many other countries/regions in the world which they could have picked, whatever the reasons are and whatever their choices are, I am really impressed and respect both of them for choosing India for their work. Not only Lindsay and Yasmina, but there are many other not Indian’s (I can use the word ‘foreigner’, but chose not to so that I can use the country’s name) who are living in India and making a difference to the way we live.

Here is a brief of what each of them is working on:

Beyond Profit -Beyond Profit is a Social Entrepreneurship magazine focusing on bringing out stories of Social Enterprises in India and across the globe.

Green Mango – it is a placeholder for all daily jobs. Green Mango focus’s on building a database of prospective employers for Carpentry, Milk Vendors, Catering, Drivers etc. The team of Green Mango drills across the streets to find and give you the best possible service providers. Green Mango is based out of Hyderabad, India.

Ecomove -Ecomove Solutions was started in October 2008, with a motive of providing pick-up-drop services of bicycles for users to use for short journeys. This helps in contributing to reducing environment pollution and also provides opportunity for the user to exercise. Ecomove not only rents bicycles, but also battery operated two-wheelers and four-wheelers. Ecomove is based out of Mumbai, India.

Roshan Vikas – Roshan Vikas works with Women community to provide them the technical and marketing skills to run small artisan businesses to gain income independence.

RangDe -RangDe, based out of Chennai, India primarily focus’s on making micro-credit accessible to every low-income household by lowering the interest rates through innovative measures.

Here is a summary of the discussion, Key Questions and Answers by the Panel and attendees.

What does it take to be a Social Entrepreneur?

The very thought of wanting to be a Social Entrepreneur is quite different and this comes out of seeing people struggling with daily lives. Unlike any other businesses, Social Enterprises are build for long term. These enterprises do not diverge into various businesses, but focus core on one problem and address the solution in as many ways as possible. To be a Social Entrepreneur, one needs to have the determination, commitment and passion. These become the primary attributes for the success of the organization. Social Entrepreneurs come with loads of sacrifices and only the passion will keep the organization going.

Ms. Lindsay says that Social Entrepreneurship is Sexy in the west.

How did families support their decisions be to be Social Entrepreneurs?

For each of the panel members, families have been their biggest source of inspiration and motivation. Each one of them have been earning a good living and having beautiful lives, however, when they choose to do something very different, even though there have been initial apprehensions, each one could achieve what they are doing today.

It is a very big sacrifice for each of them personally to leave a fat paycheck and move on to change the world. You had to be present to see emotions of each of these amazing Social Entrepreneurs; I really do not have words to express what each of them shared from their personal lives.

Why is Social Entrepreneurship not regarded as mainstream entrepreneurship in India?

Various reasons – Societal acceptance, No formal education and no mainstream attention.

Not only Social Entrepreneurship, but also Entrepreneurship itself has not been the mainstream profession in India. There is no coverage of Entrepreneurial / Innovation education in our Education System. Colleges/Universities have laid strong foundation for Engineering and Medical professions but there are no places where Entrepreneurial spirit is encouraged. However, today, we have few universities offering courses on Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship (Ex, Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad).

Acceptance for Entrepreneurship at homes has not been big. Students/wanna be entrepreneurs are not encouraged much due to uneven financial in-flow. India has been a country of middle-income families and in the last 5-10 years, things have been changing. Aspirations to take on big things such as owning house, car and financial security are taking a big seat in everyone’s life. In this situation, Entrepreneurship/Social Entrepreneurship is not regarded as a step for financial success. This is one of the key reasons for not being accepted by Society when you start something on your own to build a future that is quite uncertain.

Also, India is a country where parents fund children till they secure a job and have a steady income. Children are not nurtured to handle life independently. This directly has an impact on how can they manage business or drive their passion without knowing how to handle any situation.

Mainstream and Media attention also adds to the non-societal acceptance. Government does not have encouraging policies for aspiring entrepreneurs. Bureaucracy plays a key role. Instead of encouraging Innovation and Entrepreneurship, roadblocks are created and thereby discouraging aspirations.

How do we define Social Entrepreneurship?

Social Entrepreneurship is a form of Entrepreneurship where your vision and mission is about providing a solution to a societal problem. Social Entrepreneurship is just not about making money, but a bigger aspect of solving a societal problem where a common man is benefited.

Social Entrepreneurship is not always “not-for-profit”. This is one common mis-assumption people have. I covered few aspects of understanding/fundamentals of Social Entrepreneurship earlier at Understanding Social Entrepreneurship.

There are two other very informative questions, which came up in the discussion. However, I am not able to fill in all the information today as I am working on gathering information. Will keep updating the blog as and when I find appropriate answers for these questions along with what has been discussed. If you have any points, please do send them to harinath {at} headstart {dot} in.

  • What organizations are in India which can help build Social Enterprises?
  • Are there organizations where I can share my idea and they help realize my dream?

As promised in the event, here is the link to the mailing list on Social Enterprises and Social Entrepreneurship.

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Understanding Social Media

Mar 4th

Posted by Hari in Social Media

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My first interaction with Social Media has been with Orkut long ago. It was not so welcoming, rather, I did not understand it much. I felt it was very childish. Then came Facebook and Twitter which have changed the way I interact with people around. I thought then, there is something big happening in this Global Village. Slowly, it started sinking in. Initially, I was using Twitter and Facebook very generally, just writing what I felt and seeing what others are saying. Over the last one year, these both Social Media Tools have changed the way I look at the world. Seriously.

Even though there are many ways to define/design your Social Media presence, there are two ways which I categorize – Knowledge and Connectivity.

Knowledge – I would like to illustrate using an Analogy. I am a Landmark Graduate and during one of the initial introductions, they use a simple analogy to make you think differently and this is their USP. However, it is very practical for each one of us. If you can imagine all the knowledge in this world in a circle (as big as you can imagine), how much in the circle do you know? I am sure it would not be more than a dot. Our knowledge base can be categorized into three broad aspects:

  • I know that I know – I know that i can drive a car…
  • I know that I do not know – I know that i cannot drive an aeroplane…
  • I don’t even know that I don’t know – ???????

Social Media is one key tool for learning “I don’t even know that I don’t Know“. When you see new information, then you realize that you are not aware of it or this is something new!

There is a lot of information in this universe and there are many eminent personalities who have worked and have been working to know more. Today is not the day where you start your day from the beginning every day. You start your day from where someone has left last minute. How do you know where someone has left last minute? This science of Social Media would help. It helps you to connect with people and organizations around the world without any hazels and money and helps you understand things better.

I use Social Media to learn and to share. I strongly believe that only Learning and Sharing will get you what you want and take you where you want to go.

I wrote a post on How I use Twitter? Today, I follow around 746 Tweople and I learn a lot from each of them every single second I am on Twitter. I dedicate certain time during my day to Social Media. At times, this runs to more than two hours and during this time, I Learn and Share. Social Media is the only Institution in this world where Education is not ony free, but worth than all the money in this world put together.

This is the first in the Series of Social Media posts from me. Over the due course, I will share my personal Insights into How you should embrace Social Media, which will change your life.

Twitter updates for the week – 28 Feb

Feb 28th

Posted by Hari in Twitter

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Twitter updates for the week – 21 Feb

Feb 23rd

Posted by Hari in Twitter

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Twitter update for the week – 14 Feb

Feb 14th

Posted by Hari in Twitter

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