Why suddenly...?

Did you not hear this expression when somebody said, I am resigning? Especially, from your boss when you told him you are quitting. The typical response is 'Why?', 'I am shocked to hear this', 'I never expected, that "you" would do this', etc etc. BULL SHIT!!

If I were a team leader, I exactly know who is reporting to me, what is the work being carried out, what are individual aspirations, what is the value addition to each team member and how each person is peforming. Even if a small disconnect between individual's expectation from the organization and his/her aspiration ignites the negative thinking. I fully support the theory that people quit not from the organization, but from their immediate boss.

And to enlighten the poor boss's soul, the chicken starts to think at the first negative sign and many things keep adding up. Finally the individual either encounters a spike that completely demotivates him/her or reaches a saturation state accumulating all the encounters in the past (like illogical appraisal talks etc). This process could take anytime from 6 months to one year. And then the employee announces his decision to be free from the boss (not from the organization). So my dear bosses, when somebody says I want to resign, please dont pretend to put a shocking expression on your face. You better be aware of whats happening in your team and atleast verify where the 'disconnect' is. Mere talking does not help, act.

Leader and Manager

I have been thinking about this for a while and asked my sister whats the difference. She told me Leader is the one who leads and Manager is the one who manages. Hmm... thats a trivial answer, but not clear enough. Infact, when I started writing this, I gave the title as 'Leader vs Manager'. I wanted to distinguish the roles that each one play. Later I realized, these two roles do not really compete with each other, but sometimes are best performed complementing each. Based on the situation one of the qualities come out from the same individual (not induhvidual). The reason I started writing about this topic was, simple organization behaviour. I believe work atmosphere should never create 'challenging confusions' among work force.

Let us look at a typical team structure in a Bangalore based software services company. A team of size 30, has one line manager, has 4 or 5 project leaders (or team leaders) reporting to him/her and the remaining (24) is a mix of senior and relatively junior set of developers. In such a set up, a project leader (or team leader) is the one who is closest to the work force. He/she knows about business intricacies and execution. Seldom is the manager aware of them.

In this kind of setup, the ideal role for manager is to do 'measure and control' and interfere less in the daily operations of execution. May be the manager could look at measuring the productivity or 'observing' the quality process or motivating the work force or providing a safe and inspiring work environment, matching their professional and personal goals, etc. It is upto the project lead to ensure that deadlines are met, team members are skilled to perform the tasks, there is a great degree of inter and intra team co-operation, quality processes are 'followed', ensure transparent reporting of activities for better visibility etc. If the project is adequately staffed and project leader is able to manage the execution and still has time, there is no harm in sharing few responsibilities of line manager. BUT I would expect its a great disaster if manager tries to micro manage the project leader's functions. It hurts the confidence of team members and the project leader.

I conclude with the fact that a leader is more result oriented person with a team to produce results and a manager need to steer the energy in right direction. A manager has got 4 to 5 engines and he/she needs to make them function with synergie to make the vehicle move in right direction. But a steering could never try to become an engine.

One liners...

I am currently reading 'High Performance Entrepreneur' and came across this sentence. I thought I dont always have to write minimum of hundred words to make up a post. So, here it goes.

"Do not try to solve all the problems you face, some problems do not need to be solved and in those situations try to change the rules of game".

For example, if you are running a business where its no more profitable and has negative margins and with no proven business model, it does not make sense to pump in more money. Just forget it and start a new life. Or you picked up a stock without your own research and later realized its a dead investment, just get out of it even for a loss. Atleast you are free of the space it is occupying in your mind.

Saving Earth and filling pockets

Shai Agassi calls it quits to commit himself to alternate energy, environmental policies and other issues. Norway aims be zero emission country by 2050 and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 30% before 2020. Carbon trading business is reaching close to a billion dollar per annum and its growing.

ICICI Bank announced a Rs. 100 crore fund on April 26, to support innovation and development of green business in India, focusing on energy-efficient and environment-friendly ventures. Well, needless to say the interests on saving earth from greenhouse emissions are growing. This concern has been there for a while. So, whats new now? Let me explain what motivates countries like India and China in this program.

Before I proceed, let me introduce to one buzz word, carbon trading.

• Under Kyoto protocol, developed countries agreed that if their industries can’t reduce carbon emissions in their own countries, they will pay others like India (a signatory to the Protocol) to do it for them and help them meet their promised reduction quotas in the interest of worldwide reduction of greenhouse gases.

• The “currency” for this trade is called Carbon Emission Reduction (CER). One unit of CER is one tonne equivalent of carbon dioxide emission.

• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change registers the project, allowing the company to offer CERs produced by the project to a prospective buyer.

Now that we know the currency for carbon trading, lets look at who is gaining this currency in India.

Vadodara-based Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd (GFL), and Gurgaon-based SRF are likely to see their bottomlines grow more by selling carbon credits, a waste product, than their main business, refrigerants.

SRF made Rs 149 crore from the transfer of Certified Emission Receipts (CERs, also called carbon credits).

So far, GFL has received around Rs 350 crore (including advances) toward sale of carbon credits. They claim a potential of upto Rs 400 crore per annum if they are able to sell all of 6 million CERs.

It was the first Indian company to get registered for a CDM project in March 2005 for 3 million CERs. With 114 CDM-registered projects, India is currently the world leader.

Meanwhile, SRF which got registered for its 3.83 million CERs in December the same year, has taken the lead in actual trading accounting for 39 per cent of market share in the country.

Coffee day is expensive

Coffee day has revised its pricelist since last month. One of my alltime favourite 'Cappuccino' that was priced Rs. 30 now costs Rs. 45. Its a 50% jump straight. I think its either planning an IPO (to show good balance sheet) or the costs have gone up really high. If we say, costs have gone up high, milk did not really go up so much in the past one year. Fuel prices have come down, the number of people visiting coffee day did not go down, the staff remained same, rentals would have been agreed upon before and one could expect a rise of about 10% max in a year. Salaries would have gone up by 15% more. Total expenses would not have rised more than 15 to 20% considering the above facts. And finally coffee prices. Weighted average prices of coffee in the last three years did not change much. I understand there are fluctuations, but as I said overall in a year not much of change (google on coffee prices). But a straight 50% rise is a surprising move. I would be consuming less coffee there.

Are you over-achiever?

Picked up this from smbconsultinginc.com.

10 Dynamic traits of over-achiever

Are you a successful over-achiever? Considerable research has been done about the characteristics that typify the successful business owner. Most experts who have studied the subject tend to agree that the most important single factor is an overpowering need to achieve. In other words, a person's attitude seems to be the main determinant of success in business, more so than education, intelligence, physical attributes, or having a pleasing personality. The key characteristics that have been found to be part of the makeup of all successful over-achievers are:

1. Powerful need to achieve -- which should not be confused with a mere need to exercise power or be liked or admired; the way in which different entrepreneurs "keep score" in assessing their level of achievement varies, and may range from accumulating great wealth to creating a better mouse trap;

2. Perseverance -- the characteristic trait of following through on commitments and not abandoning objectives when difficulties are encountered;

3. Positive mental attitude -- the self-confidence in one's abilities that allows a person to remain optimistic in new, unfamiliar and unexpectedly difficult situations;

4. Objectivity -- an ability to accurately assess the risks associated with a particular course of action, including a realistic understanding of one's own capabilities and limitations. This includes being willing and able to abandon an ill-advised project without having ones' ego get in the way.

5. Foresight -- the ability to anticipate developments and be proactive, rather than constantly having to react to problems after they arise;

6. Well-developed personal relations skills -- being cheerful and cooperative and able to easily get along with people, but often without being close to employees and associates;

7. Strong communication skills -- the ability to communicate well in written form and in making effective oral presentations, either one-on-one or before groups;

8. Resourcefulness -- an ability to solve one-of-a-kind problems in unique or creative ways, including the ability to handle problems for which you might not have had previous training or experience to call upon;

9. Technical knowledge -- broad and well-rounded technical knowledge and understanding, especially with regard to the nuts-and-bolts physical processes of producing goods and services

10. A respectful attitude towards money -- a tendency not to look upon it as an end in itself, but to view it as a means of making things happen and accomplishing business goals, or as a type of objective feedback from the outside world, which lets the entrepreneur know if is on the right track with the business.

So, there you have it...10 successful business traits. If you see yourself in this list, then we will be seeing you at the top!

Be your own life coach

I was reading this nice article in RD March edition by Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and author of Never Eat Alone. He emphasizes on the following four aspects that sound quite logical.

Focus: Identify your needs first. Form a focus. Many times it is not easy for us to answer this simple question 'What do I want to do?'. But its not that difficult too. Its a matter of focus. Dont let others define your success. Once you know what you want, just follow the next three steps.

Diagnose: You need to identify what is the behaviour that stops you from moving forward in achieving these goals. Identifying weakness is as important as knowing strengths. The good behaviour and the bad one work in opposite directions to prevent moving forward. For example, I was raised in an environment where I was told to respect elders, do not question them and give them what they want. Unfortunately I observed that I carry the same with me in my professional life where I seldom question my manager in the fear of sounding too argumentative and also in fear of making my boss feel uncomfortable with me. But when I found such a problem with me, I consulted my friends and got an advice that I need to handle the conversation in a professional way. Put all the information in black and white and let him know what I want, instead of work towards what he wants me to be.

Share: Help others to let them help you. Let others know what you have in mind. Be open to receive feedback. If somebody is giving you a 'gift' saying your behaviour is not good or certain aspect of you is not good and few more people share same feeling, certainly there is some change needed in you. A good behaviour is always respected and makes you feel good. Someone would not bother to give their opinion on your behaviour if you are going to contradict everytime you receive some feedback. Perhaps the best people who would know your weakness are your friends, colleagues, or your spouse. If you receive some negative feedback, seek clarifications if you dont understand. Ask more like 'Could that person give more examples', or 'What exactly do you mean by that?', 'What came to your mind when I was doing this?'. You could work it out by forming a group of trusted advisors to you and let them know that you give importance to their advice. 

Milestones: You cant manage what you cant measure. Once you got the focus, you need to see if you are going in the right direction. Periodic checks always help. It is possible that the contents of checkpoint change. For example if your focus is weight management, check everyweek changes in the weight. Once you got the weight into control, perhaps next checkpoint would be to see if the waist is reducing.

Guru - the movie

Watched this movie two weeks ago. I thought of writing this blog because of one reason - many people told me that its an inspiring movie and gives some boost to start a business. I am not sure if this movie is such a booster. So I want to focus on two aspects in the movie in that direction and I welcome your comments.

First one: Starting Business - As Mani Ratnam portrayed in the movie, 'the passion todo business' makes the 'hero' to make 'life turning' decisions. It makes him think, makes him not to think, makes him goto extremes, makes him take the power into hand when required: I mean... the essential leadership qualities are displayed. These qualities come from the 'passion'. The true passion to be someone, to do things differently, to dream and then to follow that dream. Well, the point here I am trying to make is... its the passion that makes the difference, not some movie or someone's life story.

Second one: Sustaining the business in ethical way. In other words doing the business in true spirit and with ethics. Zero means zero. However tough it may be... how many years it may be. This is one thing I wish everybody takes from this movie. And the director has nicely put it in the role of chief editor 'The Independence' newspaper. In my opinion its a real tough job to stand for what you believe in life and carry on with it. If such an ethical business is practised we would not hear any Harshad Mehta or Enron stories.

Technorati tags: Movie review

What does companies like Infosys do?

Thats a good question. A friend asked me. What is the difference between a product company and services company (in other words, a services department in a product company and services company). How could companies like Infosys deliver so much so fast for so less. I gave the following answer. They have processes so much established that a newbie becomes productive in less than three months, where as it takes upto 6 months to be productive in a product company. Definitely he did not buy the idea of process. Of course, then I started thinking and started writing this blog.

Priorities

Define who are the customers. In a product company the customers could mostly be either internal or sales force. Sales force would (perhaps) promise heaven and earth to customer and sometimes customer is willing to wait (till end of the year or till the current contract comes to expiry). Revenues would be realized as per the contract and may not be so much dependent on 'all' promised deliverables. But in a pure offshore services company majority of the projects are handled in Time & Material way. Which means one could bill only to the amount of 'actual work'. This means a clear visibie signs of functionality to customer. Customer would not pay unless things are moving. Situations like this forces offshore companies to really deliver something with time. But product companies which get the pressure only towards the deadline do not see any motivation to deliver.

 More on the way...

Technorati tags: Business, Technology, Outsourcing

K@W: Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Just came across this article and found quite interesting.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1623&CFID=2567255&CFTOKEN=90452463

Following are the takeaways for me.

• Entrepreneurs not only take risk, but also manage it well.
• There are no special qualities they posses. Its the drive and passion to take on makes them one.
• Check out how much you got to lose if you start something on your own. Its better to have as low liabilities as possible.
• Follow the KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid principle. No fancy GUI without value addition.

How to be a good manager.

Or atleast I try to write how to be a manager or on the second thought i think it is just enough to write how to be a human being. Let me write some of my observations that would tell budding managers on how not to behave.

1. Privileged Person: Being a manager does not mean that you belong to a privileged lot of human beings. Only from 8 to 5 at work somebody is a Manager. After that he/she is just 'somebody'. You cant take extra luggage on plane without paying extra, you cant upgrade to business class without being a frequent flyer, you cant just do things which you are not allowed to or can not do!!

2. I am GOD: PLEASE for GOD's sake, leave the notion that a manager is God. A manager is after all a human being (atleast should try to live like a human being, if the manager is appointed from the Homosapien species). A manager does not necessarily have to have the knowledge of everything in the world. Other people in the society know about it. One does have to say that Operas come from France and Italians make Champagne. One does not have to say, I do not work for money. One does not have to break all speed limits (one does not get lucky always). One does not start to speak a foreign language without learning it.

3. Manager Attitude: First of all by virtue of your name and location where you sit, everybody around you at workplace knows that you are a manager. This is enough to kill opponent's energy by 50%. You still do not have to kill the rest by wearing 'Manager Attitude' hat and moving around. Stop doing that. Stop telling people that your laptop was used by somebody next to Board member and now it is possessed with super powers. Stop compelling people that they need to invent super duper figures and presentations in two shakes of a lamb tail because somebody next to board member asked. Stop telling people that you are flying on a work day and you can send emails while flying. Stop telling people in meetings that you are attending the meeting not to understand the contents but to tell at the end that you are a manager and you just want to grace the meeting with your presence.

4. Accept Ground Realities: Everybody who is employed at work place are productive in their own way. Infact a manager is the one who is not as productive as the employee. There are ways how a manager could be productive. you could contact me to find that out. But a manager should never become a hindrance to productivity. One must not carry the tag that says I am the manager, I work the most, I produce the most!! This is a wrong notion. As I said earlier a manager by himself does not produce anything. Its like Government. A government organization can not survive if there are no people paying taxes or no people at all. Without a team a team manager is nothing. One has to realize that. A manager has to respect the team members and also people outside his team. Who knows, may be one day the manager has to work for the team member.

5. Move with Makeup: This is one thing I always suggest wannabe managers to be aware of. If you think you are moving with a make up, remove that make up. Everybody around you knows how a damn fool you are with the make up. Everybody around you knows everything. you are the one who is ignorant.

6. Managers make mistakes: Its alright. Nobody is perfect. If you are a manager, if you commit a mistake there is no problem in admitting it. nobody takes you off your position. You dont get dis-respected suddenly. So, dare to commit mistakes and dare to admit them.

Standard Disclaimer: All characters & information posted are purely my personal opinions and any resemblance to dead or alive is purely coincidental.

MTR Ready to Eat

When MTR Foods introduced their ready to eat stuff, there was an interview with the CEO of the Company. He shared one vision "MTR wants to be McDonalds of South India". In my opinion they are heading towards the right direction.

I happened to buy 6 of their ready to eat packs on Sunday, tasking one by one. So far I finished Tamarind Rice, Sambar Rice and Vegetable Pulao. Ofcourse, in the past I also tasted their Pongal, Tomato Rice, Masala Rice. Of all these, the best so far is Veg Pulao. I liked it for two reasons - 1. Less oil than other products in the same category, 2. Less spicy. Next best is Samar Rice, again for two reasons one being less oily and second being the taste (though a bit spicy). Then comes Pongal that does not make you miss the authentic taste. My next choice is Tomato Rice. Though a bit oily, the taste is quite good. Masala Rice takes next position with similar taste as Veg Pulao but more spicy. Tamarind Rice comes last because of heavy oil. If you are a staunch MTR customer, chances are that you would like this because MTR managed to preserve the taste.

By the way, for bachelors in Bangalore I feel this makes a quite nice meal after a hard days work and no time left. All you need to do is keep the pack in boiling water for 5 minutes and your favourite hot dish is ready. Except Veg Pulao, all of them are in the range of 18 to 22 Rs. And if you are really hungry two packs are recommended.

Successful Innovation

I am currently reading this book and picked up few lines that I thought I must remember & recollect often.

Capturing the thoughts... (How to capture creative ideas)

• Org wide competetions - People put their minds to work not because of the prize money, but because of the opportunity to gain public recognition for their thinking.
• Association of language and creativity - The choice of words provde an intellectual and emotional context for the way in which subordinates and colleagues relate to and make sense of their work.
  
• Avoide bullets during presentation - instead use story telling. Story telling has always been an important part of the culture of 3M. For example, story about a scientist who, while singing in the choir, wished he had bookmarks that wouldn't fall out of the hymnal - and later createed Post-It Notes. Bullets are typically generic and cant give critical relationships in a logical way.
  
• Reduce work based stress, one of the great inhibitors of creativity.
  

What are the attributes of a software company?

One of my friends told me, "Check out my startup's website"! I was quite amazed, then started thinking. How easy it is these days to start a website and it does not cost so much if its a no frills site (I mean no large data, no database connection etc). I asked him, what does your startup do? He said, they offer unique customer experience, they are into training, they are into product development etc. He mentioned that at the moment he is the only one and looking for freshers because they are less expensive. This made me think on the above subject. How much the traditional business has been changing.... one could ask what are the attributes of a company - the answer is readily available. What are the attributes of a manufacturing company? One could answer without hesitation. But, what are the attributes of a software company? To make it worse, how much thin line of difference exists between ITES and IT Services Company. I tried searching for this answer over the web and found one article that is quite interesting. I will not copy paste entire thing.. but here is what the author feels are important attributes of a software company.

• Requirements Management
• Change and Configuration Management
• Effective communication among development teams
• Appropriate defined processes
• Reviews

If you observe most of them align with SEI CMM assessment requirements. This would then showcase the capability of a software organization. A software company begins with a commitment to learn and employ the fundamental principles that govern the development and management process of software.

For further details, Roger Pressman's book on Software Engineering is highly recommended.

Making sense out of non-sense

The other day Rajeev asked me 'What is this blog thing all about?'. In his blog he wrote a blog on blog. If you read his post, one of the main concerns is that, does blogging have a purpose? In my opinion so far there is not a single tool or site that actually makes use of blogging platforms. So far blogging is really seen as a platform for individual's opinions. (To make it a point, read my previous sentence - it says my opinion). So far what is the commercial value of blogging? Why did google buy Blogspot? Why does Microsoft provide a tool to publish blogs? Why is every F500 company is trying to have a blog for their own? Why many technology companies have their 'Official' blogs? Is the information published over a blog just an opinion? (One of my friends says Opinions are like ass holes - everybody is entitled to have one.)

Anyway... to a common avid blogger or a net savvy user its not un-usual that the above questions pop up in the mind. I think (again in my opinion), there is a business opportunity here. Or...let me not even go to the extent of talking about business opportunity. Let me put it as taking some value out of blogging. First thing I noticed is all blogging sites and platforms provide a way to tag the posts with labels. Which is quite good. This makes blog search quite easy. It becomes easier to categorize given blogs into these topics. So, the next step is to apply little bit of analytics to these categories to figure out trends. For example, Coca Cola has launched 'Chai Coke' a new flavor of coke that smells like Ice Tea in 4 metros of India. Now coke wants an instant feedback on the product to proceed further on this product. My idea is that Coke should promote blogging on this product to individuals and apply our little analytics tool on the blog sites to search for labels such as Colas, Cool Drinks, Spirits, Cocktails etc and search for the word Chai Coke and see the number of positive or negative words in these posts. This could give an idea on success factor of the new product.

Netscape and Google - Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Google requires a competency that Netscape never needed: database management. Google isn't just a collection of software tools, it's a specialized database. Without the data, the tools are useless; without the software, the data is unmanageable. Software licensing and control over APIs--the lever of power in the previous era--is irrelevant because the software never need be distributed but only performed, and also because without the ability to collect and manage the data, the software is of little use. In fact, the value of the software is proportional to the scale and dynamism of the data it helps to manage.

Another example demonstrating Web 2.0 principles - BitTorrent: a key Web 2.0 principle the service automatically gets better the more people use it.

The central principle behind the success of the giants born in the Web 1.0 era who have survived to lead the Web 2.0 era appears to be this, that they have embraced the power of the web to harness collective intelligence:
The lesson: Network effects from user contributions are the key to market dominance in the Web 2.0 era.

As noted above, one of the defining characteristics of internet era software is that it is delivered as a service, not as a product. This fact leads to a number of fundamental changes in the business model of such a company:
1. Operations must become a core competency
2. Users must be treated as co-developers - It's no accident that services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Flickr, del.icio.us, and the like may be expected to bear a "Beta" logo for years at a time.

Real time monitoring of user behavior to see just which new features are used, and how they are used, thus becomes another required core competency. A web developer at a major online service remarked: "We put up two or three new features on some part of the site every day, and if users don't adopt them, we take them down. If they like them, we roll them out to the entire site."

Mittal wins

As I rightly predicted, Mittal has won. From his words, 'If this deal does not go through, Globalization has no meaning'. I think so too.

Mittal vs Arcelor

Its an interesting game is not it? But its not new to Mittal. Infact its been his most favourite game. The game he played since he has been an entrepreneur. The game he mastered for years. For me personally, I felt Arcelor made a hasty decision when it could not shape up the deal right with Severstal (the russian steel maker). Infact I read one of the reportes wrote a sentence that sounded like this entire take over bid of Mittal is a conspiracy planned with the help of Indian government. It might sound absurd... but then how else could one convince the investor community in European countries?

Now Mittal has got the nice business plan presented to the investors and I have a strong feeling that he is going to win this match too.

Social Networking

These days I see lot of people using Orkut. Then I started wondering how successful this webcommunity is. Coincidentally, I found an article on Social Networking from K@W Newsletter. (Connecting the corporate dots). Its an interesting article, afterall some big heads from Wharton have written it. Well... the amazing thing is, the concepts have been there for quite sometime - except that the new age computing has made them as a bigger commodity. Easy to use, whenver, wherever, more accessible, more interesting.... all in all it has become a fun activity that users would love to do.

I would now like to take another view point on these web communities. Just login to Orkut or MySpace or Friendster. Did you find any ads? Or adsense atleast? (ubiquitous google)
How do they make money? Atleast they are not in charity. This certainly is a food for thought.

Atleast one blog a week

I set a goal for myself to write atleast one sensible blog in a week. I myself did not like the making of telugu movie blog. I shall delete it.