Monthly Archives: January 2016

How to Innovate (Cont.)

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One of the big factor for Innovation is finding your Inspiration.

Inspiration comes from anything & everything around us and it becomes very important to pay attention. Once we have the ability to see what inspires us, solutions come from unexpected corners.

The inspiration for Dr. V to create a process oriented eye care centre came from watching how McDonald’s was able to provide the same taste of burgers anywhere in the world. The inspiration to create a car came from wanting to have a vehicle to go places faster for Henry Ford.

The inspiration for Elon Musk came when he realized that the future of mankind was three things – Internet, Solar Energy and multi-planetary life. The inspiration to understand gravity came after watching the apple fall from the tree for Newton. Every innovator in this world has had his share of inspiration come from facets in life.

Today, what we need to keep eyes on are the small things which make a difference and understand them to create a better way to deliver.

The idea for this post came after I noticed the small magic book which was sold on the road yesterday.

Innovation comes from the ability to understand the why and what of the problem you wish to solve. What becomes important is not just identifying the problem, but finding the approach to solve the problem. This comes only when you understand the length and breadth of the subject.

How to Innovate

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Innovation is the buzz word. Every organization and every person on this planet is innovating right now, the very moment.

Today morning as I was stationary at a traffic signal, a lady was walking with a comic book with the characters in the book moving. Correct. You read it right. When you open the book, the character printed on the left side of the page is moving on the right page. I opened the window and asked how much was the book and she replied Rs.50. I immediately paid and picked up. What fascinated me is the very fact that the person who created the comic of 2 pages is sure thinking different and wanted to understand what lay inside.

There is no job in the world which is not worth Innovating for.

How to we Innovate?

Innovation needs hunger. A hunger from the heart with desire to create something new or better something which is already existing. When Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy (fondly called Dr.V of Aravind Eye Hospitals) noticed that the Mc Donald’s burger tasted the same anywhere he ate. He was inspired to create what he created.

The very fact of survival pushed the person to create the comic book.

Whatever the economic situation is, only the person who is hungry to do something better is the one who is innovating.

Along with hunger, Innovation also needs understanding of the subject matter. For example, even though I am hungry, I cannot improvise on a Cardiac operation because I am not a specialist nor a Doctor. Understanding the problem completely is very important, else we cannot address what we want to address.

Innovation needs patience and perseverance. When trying to build something new or improvising an existing solution, having a buy-in and testing the hypothesis is very important. When Starbucks was entering China, it needed them ten years to make a tea drinking nation just to want a Coffee. This is Business model innovation. Ten years is quite long, but what did it get Starbucks in return? Its market share along with creating a change in lifestyle of the Chinese.

…to be continued.

Why should you bootstrap?

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From the time we are born and till we complete schooling, parents bootstrap. When we get to college, we do not have Credit Cards (Funding), but we do odd jobs to support ourselves. When the biggest and the most important aspects of life are arising out of bootstrapping, then why not our Ideas? Why do we look for funding?

Bootstrapping is often misunderstood word. Bootstrapping is just not our own money. Bootstrapping also covers money we borrow from family and friends. This money is very crucial for us to do what we need to and we have timelines when we return the money. This money comes because people around us buy into our idea. They are our first customers.

Even when we startup, going to family and friends first to raise some equity to build what we want is very important in many aspects.

– We have the confidence we have our first customers.
– Getting support from people we know gives us the motivation that we are on the right path.
– We will also develop a social commitment and work towards making the idea successful because we need to return the money.

Bootstrapping is not only associated with the Money, but also associated with our credibility. What happens when you have a new idea and share that with your Manager? Your Manager evaluates and after he invests and buys into your idea, he takes it to the Senior Leadership. Your Senior Leadership trusts you because your immediate Manager also thinks that your idea is worth it. They allow you to work on your idea. It becomes your moral responsibility to not let your Leadership down because you might not get another chance.

So, next time you have an idea give it your best shot to BootStrap rather than looking for funding or passing it on to someone else in the team to do the execution.

Creating your market segment

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Any idea starts with identifying the key pain point it is going to solve and which segment of the consumers will it help. Identifying the segment of consumers is more important then the execution plan for the idea itself because, execution plan changes according to your consumer.

There are two ways to do it, either work with the existing segments or create your own market.

Take Audi, when they entered Indian market with their flagship Q7, they did not go into mass advertising.They first identified their segment of consumers – Film Starts and Influential people. Why? Because usually people aspire to be like their favorite stars and successful people. They want to use the same brands like them and they wish to be successful like them.

Audi wanted to create a niche market for themselves and so, they went door-to-door with their sales team. Over the last ~9 years, they have not only build a niche, but created a complete different market for luxury cars in India which Mercedes could not do being here for a long time.

In the recent times, I have seen Big Basket doing the same. They invested in roping in Shah Rukh Khan for their Radio ad. When SRK himself uses Big Basket, why will his fans not?

This is how you create your market. Identify whom your Product relates to and then start from the top.

Choosing the right Health Apps

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There are more than 165,000 apps to track your health and fitness available. Of these only 36 apps account to more than 50% of downloads according to a study by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics which analyzed 26,000 apps.

Interestingly, only 10% can connect to a device or a sensor and only 2% sync with any providers systems.

I have been tracking my steps, calories burnt and fitness (Running and Training) very sincerely for over 2 years and have been tracking my food off and on.

There are a variety of apps available and my recommendation would be to try few before you finalize on what you wish to use.

It will be interesting and exciting to be using and tracking activities in various apps, but over the period of time it will become monotonous and you will start to be away from them.

Which apps to select?
First, identify your goals (Food, Steps, Calories, Running, Walking, Swimming, Cycling and workouts). Then look for apps which provide you with the information you wish to track and the ease of use and then finally settle down on what you wish to use.

I personally use a Garmin Vivofit, so I use the Garmin iOS app. Over the period of time, I also bought a Triathlon watch (Garmin Forerunning 920) and hence it became more easier to track all my activities. For food, I use MyFitnessPal which integrates with Garmin App.

In summary, use the apps which motivate you and your data syncs to the servers instead on being remote on your device.

What is your Strategy?

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You have an Idea and it is your Eureka! moment. You are going to change the world with your innovation and you are proud of it. The next steps you take lay the foundation to the future of your idea and changing the world.

You will need to have answers to:

– How to make your idea into reality?
– How to take it to market?
– How much money is required?
– What is the gestation time?
– When will you make money?
– If it does not work, what is the Exit?

Strategy involves Understanding, Thinking and Predicting.

Understand the present. First, look at who your competition is. If you do not have competition, Congratulations! you have taken the first step to changing the world. If you do have, identify as many competitors as you can along with their offerings and USP along with their market reach and penetration. Understanding your competition is the first step in creating a niche product offering.

Think of what your USP is going to be. For each of your competitors marketing message, have a USP of your own. This will help your consumer to easily identify you and it will give them clarity as to why they should come to you.

Predict the future, not of your idea, but your consumer. How will your consumer benefit by using your offering?

Strategy is the fundamental understanding of what your consumer needs, how are you going to provide it to him.

Demand Aggregation

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What is the Business Model of eBay? It is a site where sellers quote their price and buyers come to buy what is being offered. In the process, the seller and the buyer both benefit and also the ratings given by both seller and buyer play an active role in determining the price point. This is called Demand Aggregation.

In today’s startup scenario, often founders are a little perplexed about the pricing point. There are numerous factors which go into identifying the price point of the offering. How do the airlines price their tickets? During weekdays, the prices are less and during weekends and holidays they automatically go up. Try booking a ticket for any festival time during the year, prices remain high. However, as the date of journey comes closer and if they are not able to sell the tickets, prices will continue to come down. In Europe for instance, it is the opposite. The nearer the departure date and time, the cheaper is the ticket. Airlines just want to sell and have a full flight rather than sticking to the price and flying with empty seats. After all, the success of an airline is based on the Passenger load capacity.

At Uber, during the peak hours, automatically it shows us that the price is 2 or more times higher than the regular price. The price goes up if the number of cabs available comes down. But the same times during weekend, prices don’t go up.

It is a wise business model to determine the price point. First, attract the consumer, make them use your offering and slowly increase the price. Having a huge database of consumers / potential consumers is what the makes the company attract the investors. That is the USP which many startups miss.

Thoughts?

Solving the Healthcare maze

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When India got Independence in 1947, average life expectancy was 47 Years and today, average life expectancy is at 66.21 Years (we rank 139). Japan leads the list with average life expectancy at 84 Years followed by Spain, Andorra, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Singapore and San Mario at 83 Years. The country with the least life expectancy is Sierra Leone at 49 Years.

Previously, technological solutions in Healthcare have been focusing on advancing the care (how to provide better solutions), but now, we are focusing on advancing the care process (how to deliver better solutions).

In the Indian context, Tech startup’s focusing on Healthcare have increased over the last few years. This is good and it will help bring Healthcare to the fingertips.

Most of the startups are focusing on providing “services”, meaning, connecting the consumer to the service. Apps for finding Doctors, finding Services available, e-Commerce, Wellness etc. This is a good approach. All of us have an inherent fear for Health. We are over cautious and we generally tend to avoid visiting the Doctor/Hospital and also at times go with self-medication. The technology today is focusing on providing introductions to the end user to managing Health proactively. With the advent of apps for monitoring nutrition, work out’s, doctor appointments, enrollments into wellness programs, the common person is now getting to understand how to manage and monitor his/her health.

Also, with Health programs getting advertised, many who did not have an understanding of various health scenarios are now getting educated. If you are someone who is born after 1990’s, chances are that your parents are maintaining your health record with all the vaccinations were given and the history of your well-being.

Biggest health problems cannot be solved in one day and the approach is painstaking. Governments should focus on building the infrastructure and organisations (startups and the big one’s alike) should help support the initiatives by connecting people with the care providers.

There is no short-cut’s especially in managing Health of individuals and the nation alike. Connecting the dot’s proves pivotal in creating a healthy nation.

In the next decade, I am sure India would be in a much better place in creating a healthy environment for all of us. With initiatives like the Aadhar (UID) slowly gaining popularity, am sure solutions would stem out connecting people to Government (to prioritise their health initiatives), Insurance firms coming forward to provide better Insurance assistance and Hospital’s connecting to communities to provide better proactive care.

Personally, I think we should look at various models across the globe and adapt what worked well into the new system we are creating. India being the world’s second most populated country, if we create a system which works, then the entire landscape of Healthcare in the world would change.

Landscape of Wellness

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Wellness has gained attention in the last few years. With proactive health care management gaining attention, fitness centers, food monitoring apps and health management centre’s have gained a lot of attention.

It is estimated that the Wellness industry is a $3 Billion Market in India.

What is the landscape of the Wellness? Even though the definition is broad, primarily the industry revolves around Weight loss, Nutrition Management, Workout monitoring and sports. Home care and post operative care is also becoming part of Wellness.

The concept of wellness has gained importance in today’s context when people are looking for ways to maintain health and being proactive to managing their wellness. Organisations are adapting to provide proactive wellness management facilitates to their workforce to ensure the productivity levels increase.

Is wellness new? Didn’t we need it earlier? We needed them. With the changes in globalisation, changes in the work style, travels and the basic living, being proactive to manage health not only requires effort but a little of education too.

There are various kinds of medicine systems and understanding and utilising them to better our health would be very good. How do we get there? Startup’s are focusing to bridge the gap. In India, Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy are various kinds of medicine systems and today, we have technology helping people utilise the benefits of all the systems. Recently, I met a founder of a startup who is focusing on bringing a collaborative approach to proactive health management. They understand the persons medicine history and help connect them to a combination of medicine formats through their doctors and also help the person monitor their progress through their technology offering.

This is a very good start and with the growing awareness, the concept of wellness is moving upward from just sports tracking apps to health management apps.

Investor Pitch Template

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Recently, there was a request in one of the groups to share a Investor Pitch presentation template and many shared various templates.

I did one investor pitch quite sometime ago using a well defined Business Plan template and a beautiful presentation template. After the presentation, one elderly gentleman came up to us and asked us if we created them and obviously the answer was No. He then recommended, one of the ways that you show creativity and individualistic thinking to investors is that you do your own way. When you re-use, you are naturally accepting the fact that you are ready to follow. What happens when you create your templates, it gives confidence to the party that even though there are options available, you still have the time and patience to create your own stuff and this will be a deal breaker.

Cut and Paste is easy, but the moment you design your own thing, it speaks a lot about you.