Madhukar R Joshi (1938 - 2011) - Distinguished Scientist, Military Bridging Expert, Art Connoisseur, Early Harbinger Well-Wisher

M. R. Joshi, former director of Research & Development Establishment (Engineers), a DRDO institution, passed away recently.

Joshi, a distinguished scientist and a brilliant innovator, was a civil engineer by training. He was an expert in military bridging. His work included MLAB, the manually launched assault bridge and Sarvatra, a multi-span bridging system. The idea in these unique systems was to help Indian soldiers make rapid advances in difficult terrains with lightweight bridging equipment.

Joshi was relentless in his pursuit of applying information technology to engineering, administration and knowledge management.His establishment was the first to have a local area network in the city of Pune. He worked towards a paperless office, and pursued several ways to foster knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst project teams using computer systems.

It is in these areas that Harbinger in its early days became a trusted software provider and partner of DRDO. For an engagement spanning several years in the early '90s, Harbinger continued  innovating software applications with inspiration from Mr Joshi.

Recipient of many awards, Mr Joshi was a remarkable person to know. At the time we worked with him, he was about two times my age, and yet always managed to make the difference disappear. The Establishment would organize classical music concerts, and he would personally send a signed invitation every time. Harbinger was a 10-people company back then, and this vendor treatment was indeed very special, as you can imagine.

Joshi had a deep regard for the military genius of Leonardo Da Vinci, combined with the great  master's legendary art. His home was decorated with his favorite Leonardo paintings. His loyal dog was named Ermine. When he commissioned a beautiful new auditorium on the R&DE campus, he named it Leonardo da Vinci Auditorium. It took him a few trips to Delhi to convince the bureaucrats and politicians that this was a good idea.

Mr APJ Abdul Kalam, who later became the President of India, was his immediate boss, and paid him glowing tributes for his work.

Dr S Guruprasad, a young and promising scientist who worked in his team, later went on the become the establishment's director. In a fitting coincidence, he felicitated Joshi on the occasion of the establishment's golden jubilee.

Team Harbinger cannot stop counting its good fortunes - this great man was certainly one of them. We will miss you, M R Joshi. Rest in peace.

Business Models

A business model tells you how a company makes money. More formally, a business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers and captures value. Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur have proposed a business model canvas, a shared language for describing, visualizing, assessing and changing business models. The canvas identifies nine building blocks of a business model.

Business Model Canvas by Osterwalder & Pigneur

My team used this canvas for analyzing one of our businesses, and found it very useful  in galvanizing a vibrant discussion. I recommend it highly. To know more about the business model canvas, visit their web site.

Here is a quick primer on the 9 building blocks:


1. Customer Segments
Who are the people or organizations that you aim to reach and serve? How would you group them into segments with common needs, behaviors, buying habits, etc.? Different segments may require different offers, channels or relationships. They may have different profitability and willingness-to-pay.

2. Value Propositions
What product-service offerings do you have and why do you think they create value for a specific customer segment? The value proposition is the reason to buy from you, not the company next door. Are your offerings new, better-performing, customized, cost-effective, well designed, status-enhancing,  risk-free, accessible, convenient? What is your value proposition?

3. Channels
How does your company communicate with and reach the customer segments to deliver the value proposition? This includes channels for communication, distribution, sales and support. Channels raise awareness, help customers in evaluating value proposition, allow purchase, deliver value proposition and post-sale support.

4. Customer Relationships
What type of relationship does the company establish with specific customer segments? Answer could vary: dedicated, personal, self-service, automated,  communities, co-creation etc.

5. Revenue Streams
What kind of transactions result in generating net cash for the company from each customer segment? What value are they willing to pay? Though what pricing mechanism?  One time or recurring or both? There are several ways to generate revenue streams: product sale, usage fee, subscription, leasing, licensing, commission, advertising etc.

6. Key Resources
What are the most important assets you must have to make the business model work? This includes physical, intellectual, human and financial resources.

7. Key Activities
What are the most important things a company must do to make its business model work? The answers could vary from technology R&D to supply chain management and from product sales to brand management.

8. Key partnerships
What network of suppliers and partners would be critical to make the business model work? What kind of partnerships would you pursue? Strategic alliances, JV, buyer-supplier relationship or even competition?

9. Cost Structure
What are the costs incurred to operate a business model? Are they largely fixed or variable? Are their economies of scale or scope?

For those of you contemplating start-ups, as well as those responsible for sustaining and growing  existing businesses, I highly recommend asking these questions Osterwalder and Pigneur have proposed.

Tribute to a Man at the Intersection of Art and Technology

Steve Jobs is no more.

'Think Different', proclaimed a proud and defiant campaign inspired by Apple, his tech company, that was struggling while stalwarts like Microsoft were stealing the limelight at the turn of the century. Apple really thought different and came up with one home run after another - first the iPod, then the iTunes store that revolutionized the music industry. Then, a wholly re-written OS that made the Macintosh line of computers compatible with Intel chipsets. This, followed by the iPhone - a revolutionary smart phone that left Blackberry and others in the space running for cover. And yet again the App store which sold millions of apps developed by thousands of third-party developers - generating a huge network effect. An again, the iPad which spawned the tablet computer industry. In a space of ten years, Apple not only surpassed Microsoft, it became the most valuable tech company in the world.

Steve was a designer at heart, and an unreasonable perfectionist. His products were the best-looking gadgets of his times, and sported the best usability amongst all their peers. If you wanted to be proud of your electronic gadget, you had to buy Apple. Such was his fanatic following, that every Apple conference in San Francisco was completely sold out, heavily talked about and widely  publicized. He was a master of publicity. His famous superbowl ad of the Mac is subject of marketing case studies. His product designs and package designs were epitomes of aesthetics - as were the Apple retail stores that he set up to own distribution. The model of Apple's proposed building in Cupertino has been subject of intrigued discussions in architectural circles.

An inspiring speaker, Jobs was a presenter par excellence. He was a great showman. There are pages after pages written on his presentation style. He prepared well, knew his audience and knew his subject only too well. Steve was a vegan, loved calligraphy, had traveled to India and walked through the Himalayas as a youth.

Steve Jobs was a great soul of our times - we've been lucky to have witnessed his stellar decade of achievements as he battled liver disease and pancreatic cancer. He worked till the end, and only resigned when he believed the time had come.

Leonardo Da Vinci was an artist and an engineer - and many other things. So was Steve Jobs. Such multi-faceted  talent is god's gift to mankind, and we must be grateful - even if he lived only 56 years on this planet.

May his soul rest in peace.

I Moved Your Cheese : New Business Fable Helps You See the Old in New Ways

Entrepreneurs – by definition – won’t accept things the way they are. They are keen on changing the world. They pursue opportunities that are seemingly beyond their resources.  One critical aspect of an entrepreneur’s journey is the changing environment in which he/she must operate. Uncertainties external to business abound, and you never know who will move your cheese.

I Moved Your Cheese (IMYC), Harvard professor Deepak Malhotra’s latest book, was written ‘for those who refuse to live as mice in someone else’s maze’.  The writer of Negotiation Genius should know a thing or two about mazes, I thought, as I approached the book – on my Kindle – half expecting a clever treatise on negotiating. What unfolded, to my delight, was a business fable that rebuts the message of the bestseller Who Moved My Cheese? (WMMC) by Spencer Johnson.

While WMMC exhorts you to get out of denial, accept change and adapt to it, Malhotra’s IMYC goes to deeper questions. Why has the change been forced on us? How might we exercise greater control over our lives? Are the goals we are seeking the correct ones? How do we escape the maze designed to suit the needs and interest of those in control?  In a simple, storytelling way, Malhotra wages a scathing attack on the philosophy of embracing our limitations, blindly accepting change and eagerly adapting to it. Indeed, he questions the very assumption that we are condemned to be mice in a maze chasing cheese.

It is not unusual for people, organizations and even entire nations to feel trapped in their current circumstances. IMYC makes a strong case to rise above that feeling. No one says it better than Zed, one of the three adventurous mice: “You see, Max, the problem is not that the mouse is in the maze, but that the maze is in the mouse.”

Without departing from his characteristic wit and humor, Malhotra encourages reflection: Have you experienced a moment which made you realize ‘our hunger for inspiration is greater than the hunger for cheese’? Will it be worthwhile to reconsider some of the things in our environment that we often take for granted? Have you come across adventurous people that simply walked through a wall when no one else thought it was possible? What mazes do you find yourself in? Are they of your choosing? What’s the game you are playing?

This book is a must-read for every entrepreneur. The author suggests specific questions for organizations, which will help them see the old in new ways. Those interested in talent management will find this book a great asset. What’s more, it’s a really short read. What you will get from the book will depend on you – which is always a hallmark of a great fable. Read all about the book here.

Innovation and its Discontents

The US Patent and Trademark Office recently granted a patent for my work on interactivity software here at Harbinger Knowledge Products- our second patent among several filings.  That triggered a thought process about this whole idea of patenting.

What purpose does a patent serve?  The system of patents creates incentives for innovation. The innovation process is inherently risky - one could use the time, effort, money and other resources to do something else, rather than go invent a mousetrap. Patents  provide enough protection so that investors have an incentive to put up the money, and inventors are willing to put in the time to develop new technology.

Josh Lerner and Adam Jaffe provide an interesting counterpoint. They argue that  patents are blunt instruments. Because of the complexity of the evolution of technology, the monopoly that they create will sometimes retard rather than encourage competition.

Take the example of Edison's light bulb. Edison was granted the basic patent on incandescent lighting in 1880. In the subsequent years, Edison General Electric Company practically throttled all their competitors' efforts at improving their design by bringing infringement suits, which they won. It took until the expiration of Edison's patent for other improvements to kick in. Soon after that, bulbs got better and cheaper.

In effect then, the patent system essentially slowed the pace of innovation in a bid to protect Edison.

So it is hard to get it right, say Lerner and Jaffe. In the best of worlds, a patent system is a compromise among competing objectives.

I hope to catch Lerner (those who have seen him run about in class will know what I mean) again next spring before deciding where to stand on this issue. His book is titled Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, published by Princeton University Press.

Developing People in a Growing Team : Coaching

When an organization grows rapidly, its members must keep up. In the half-hour long one-on-one (O3) meetings discussed in my earlier posts, the last 10 minutes are reserved for the team member's development. The question is - how do you go about developing a direct. The answer is - you do it through coaching.

Some people sense a negative connotation in the word coaching. Somehow it is linked to fixing the wrong things. Or  even worse, it is seen as the last resort before letting an employee go. Nothing could be further from the truth. Coaching is a pro-active effort to develop the direct to the next level.

Here are the main steps in coaching that I have found effective. These are largely adopted from Auzenne and Horstman's Manager Tools podcasts:

1. Identify the next stage of development a direct needs to get to. This would follow from his/her growth path and next position you plan to promote the direct to. For example, your direct may be a frontline sales person who needs to learn campaign planning as one step towards becoming a sales manager.

2. Collaborate with the direct and get a buy-in on the development goal. This sounds easy, but may not always be so. The direct may have a different view of his or her own future. You want to be sure the commitment to development is mutual.

3. Again, collaborate with the direct and identify some good resources  that would help. Examples would be e-learning  material, training programs, books, webinars, expert consultants, budgets etc.

4. Collaboratively create a learning plan. The plan should have clear deliverables that can be discussed in each weekly o3. For example, the next week's goal could be to download two books to Kindle and to schedule an appointment with a consultant.

5. In every O3, follow up with the direct and find out how the direct is progressing relative to the plan.

That's it. Coaching is not training. In coaching you encourage the direct to improve effectiveness. You do this through regular, goal-oriented communication.

Do you believe a manager needs to be expert at a subject in order to coach the direct on it? Do you know the growth path for each of your directs? Do you have a coaching plan for each of your directs? Do you think delegating some of your own work to a direct is a good strategy to develop the direct for the next position?

Encouraging Effective Behaviors in a Growing Team : Feedback

Do the math. When you have a small team, you have 24 hours in a day to work with them, in the unlikely case you all work round the clock. The team doubles in size, and you still have 24 hours in a day. How does that impact the time you have for keeping each of them focused on the most effective behaviors?

In an earlier post, we reviewed the one-on-one (O3) meeting as a mechanism for regular communication that builds trust with directs, in a growing team. In this post, we talk about one aspect of O3 meetings that not all of us are very comfortable with – giving feedback - which encourages effective behavior in future.

Clearly there are two types of feedback. Positive feedback, which encourages observed behaviors, and adjusting feedback, which encourages changed behaviours.

The positive feedback is easy, but it does not come easily to all, so let's mention it here. When a direct does something that deserves encouragement, give positive feedback. Example: When you came up with that idea in our project meeting, it showed us a way to meet our timelines. Thank you.

Now, we come to adjusting feedback. Here, Manager Tools (the site I referred to in my earlier post) shows a couple of ways to deal with it.

1. Cite the behavior and state the consequence. Example: When you show up late for meetings, it wastes everyone’s time. Just thought you should know. Now let the direct interpret that and decide where to go from there.
2. The same as above, plus add the line: Can you do it differently? Or say: What can you do differently? Example: When you judge others’ ideas too quickly during brainstorming, they feel less secure and we miss some good ideas. Can you do it differently? Another example: When you bring a project in late, it makes us lose money. What can you do differently?

Notice that in both cases the format is nearly the same: When (behavior) here is what happens (consequence) Thank you / Can you do it differently / What can you do differently?

Auzenne and Horstman, the Manager Tools gurus, go to great lengths in clarifying that you must cite behaviors, not characterizations. Behaviors are observable. Characterizations are your interpretations. For example, ‘you show up late for meetings’ is a behavior, and ‘you are unpredictable’ is a characterization. So is ‘you are arrogant’ or ‘you are a nut’. Behaviors being observable, are undisputable. Characterizations being subjective, are disputable.

Can you see the difference between positive feedback and praise? Can you distinguish between adjusting feedback and criticism – or punishment?

Okay, so when do you give feedback? Three points to check.

1. Give it when you are sure about the direct's behavior. 
2. Give it during O3, during your 10 minutes. 
3. Give it when you are absolutely sure you are not angry. 

If you follow these simple rules, your directs will look forward to feedback (I’m serious) and you both will feel better after each meeting.

Generation Y in the Hot Seat

At Harbinger Group's annual awards function last week, the 500-strong audience witnessed a unique event.

The Generation Y, represented by twelve young men and women members of Harbinger, participated in a talk show. As their host took them through a series of questions, what unfolded was a rich fabric of dreams, aspirations, emotions, achievements, values, work ethics and lifestyle choices of this dynamic generation.

Given the unique demographic cycle through which India is passing, the 1.2 billion strong nation will have a fascinating workforce composition by the turn of the decade - a good majority of people will be under 30, and possibly managed by today's Gen Y.

The youngsters on stage - aware of their hot seat, but confident in their demeanor - answered questions  effortlessly, and their stories were applauded by the audience ceaselessly. We witnessed  a youthful company whose core values were evident in its youngest members -  what a blessing!

Strengthening Bonds in a Growing Team : One on Ones

As a start-up grows from a few dozen employees to several hundred employees, and then to thousands, the founding team needs to devise scalable and resilient ways to foster relationships up and down the hierarchy. In a small setup, relationships are natural – everyone is physically together, and feels together in the venture. Growth can change all that.

One-on-One (O3) meetings with direct reports encourage relationships through regular communication. The rationale goes to basic psychology. Relationship is based on trust and regular communication improves trust, particularly when it is about things that the direct cares about.

Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne are co-founders of Manager Tools LLC, a management consulting firm, providing consultancy and training to managers around the world. Both co-founders are United States Military Academy graduates (West Point) and former US Army officers. I am impressed with their work in this area. You can access their free and premium podcasts at manager tools website.

In this post, I summarize some of the lessons learnt about conducting effective O3s with one's directs. These are based on my own experience for over a year.

Great managers build relationships with directs by communicating regularly. The O3 is scheduled as a recurring appointment in my calendar, every week, for 30 minutes. This appointment is rarely missed, never cancelled and only rescheduled when there is a conflict. The meeting can be over phone, IM or in-person, in the manager’s office.

Every time before the O3 the manager needs to tell himself or herself: This O3 focuses on the team member. Not you, not your work, nor your issues! This half hour belongs to my direct. The rest of the week is for me.
The suggested format of the 30-minute O3 goes something like this: 10 minutes for them, 10 minutes for you and 10 minutes for their development.

Preparation for the O3 can take about 30 minutes – sometimes more. Trust me, the prep time is worth it. Review all deliverables and communication. Decide what you need to tell. Write down positive or adjusting feedback. Figure out what to delegate. Write down questions you want to ask. The questions could be about their weekend, week, work, family, project, questions, worries, etc.

Auzenne and Horstman suggest you start with the same question each time, and write down the answer your direct gives. I have not always followed this. 

Listening: This is the most important skill for a manager conducting O3. Clear your desk, focus, stop doing other things, and listen. And remember, do not interrupt!

Take notes. O3 must be documented. The Manager Tools site provides a free O3 form that can be used for writing your notes. After about 10 to 12 weeks, you can review your notes and they will be a rich treasure of information on the direct’s work performance, behaviour and development. This makes periodic appraisals more powerful and real easy.

There are two aspects of O3 that need separate discussion. How to give feedback, and how to coach your direct. I will write about these separately at a later date.

Developing Young Leaders in a Growing Company

If the transition of a manager from tactical management to strategic management is big, an earlier career transition from contributor to manager is even bigger. A learning event at Harbinger, known as the Emerging Leader Workshop, brings home this truth to participants by letting them experience this transition in a simulated environment. Sort of like a sneak peek into their future as a leader.

Here is a quick description of the general format of the Emerging Leader Workshop.

This program targets junior staff members with three to six years of work experience, who have excelled as individual contributors in a certain function such as sales, engineering or tech support; and have a potential to get ready for moving up. They meet on six to eight Saturdays for the workshop, typically spread over three to four months.

Each meeting lasts three-quarters of a day and has five parts. The contents vary depending on audience background.

1. Situational response
Given a realistic business situation, how do you combine your prior knowledge,  skills and judgment to arrive at an appropriate response? A typical example could involve responding to a project crisis involving multiple parameters such as customer expectations and team morale.

2. Problem solving
Use your analytical skills (and lateral thinking) to get to a solution of a well-defined problem in your area of work. For example, allocation of resources against a complex work schedule.

3. Written communication exercise
Prepare business-quality documentation of various types. Examples could vary from software release notes to announcements appreciating team member contributions to a project.

4. Research-based presentation exercise
Use the Internet and other resources to find material related to a technical topic and prepare a presentation with a coherent theme, such as applications of a cutting-edge technology, or competitive landscape in a particular product category.

5. Discussion on company values
Understand company values and find out how they translate into decisions made when the management is faced with a choice. Internalize the values by applying them to decision making situations.

The method for teaching each part is different. Several formats have been used, including case study, individual exercises, group projects, group discussions and lecture sessions.

Previous graduates of the program act as observers, and rate the participants on their performance during the program every day. At the end of the day's session, they convey feedback one-on-one, helping the participant understand his/her strengths and areas of improvement.

Participants that form a learning team are not necessarily co-workers, and their observer may not be a superior at work. We mix them up.

Occasionally, a bonus session features screening of a documentary or a movie after which people socialize, dine and discuss what they saw.

Already in its 4th year, the results of the Emerging Leader Workshop have been remarkable. Participants report a much better appreciation of the manager's role, a greater identification with the organization as a whole, a desire to play a leadership role, a sense of learning something new and a mindset change. Some participants have shown a remarkable improvement in presentation abilities, yet others have developed a more positive outlook.

Many times individual contributors are too comfortable in the job they are good at, and there is no impetus to want to get into leadership. The Emerging Leader Workshop delivers just that.

Valediction usually involves participant's speeches and presentation of a bonus and a memento.

Anybody aware of other programs or has ideas that could be launched through Emerging Leader Workshop?

How do You Measure Entrepreneurship?

How can you tell that a society is highly entrepreneurial? Simply counting the number of small businesses will not cut it, because not all small businesses propel economic activity. I have often wondered if it is utter folly to confuse small business with entrepreneurship. By serendipity, I found the answer.

A couple of months back I met a bunch of entrepreneurship researchers and scholars at the World Entrepreneurship Forum in Lyon, France. One of them was Zoltan Acs, professor at George Mason University.  He founded the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute and devised a way to measure entrepreneurship potential of nations - known as the GEDI index.

The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) is comprised of three sub-indexes, each measuring the context of entrepreneurship in a society. Here is an excerpt from Prof. Acs's article on GEDI.

1. Attitude
Entrepreneurial attitudes are defined as the general disposition of a country’s population toward entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, and business start-ups. The index in-volves measures for the population’s opportunity perception potential, the perceived start-up skills, feel of fear of failure, networking prospects, and cultural respect for the entrepreneur.
 
2. Activity
Entrepreneurial activity is defined as the start-up activity in tech sector. The entrepreneur’s level of education is an important measure. Level of competition is another important measure.

3. Aspiration
Entrepreneurial aspiration, is defined as the efforts of the early-stage entrepreneur to introduce new products and services, develop new production processes, penetrate foreign markets, substantially increase the number of firm employees, and finance the business with either formal or informal venture capital, or both. The role of ‘gazelles’ or high-growth businesses is also vital to entrepreneurship as are internationalisation of trade and the availability of risk capital.

As you can see, this index is a sophisticated measure, which really focuses on the job-creation potential  of entrepreneurship and hence the economic activity fueled by it. A big improvement over reporting the number of start-ups.

On this scale, then, the top 5 countries are Denmark, Canada, US, Sweden, and New Zealand. Among others, UK is at 14, France ranks 18, China 40 and India 53.

Three Sure Ways to Kill Innovation

Slides from the Harbinger presentation at Innovations 2011, a premier event showcasing technology innovations in India, conducted by IIT Bombay Alumni Association.

 

Sometimes stating the negative is a great way of clarifying the positive. Therefore, instead of worrying about how to encourage innovation, let us talk about...

We are going to learn this in three easy steps. Ready? Let's go. Step one is...

Children carry little baggage of pre-conceived notions. They are open, curious, and prone to ask the question "why not?", which incidentally is the key phrase in innovation. Once you stop acting like a child, you have embarked on the path to kill innovation. Now you are ready for step 2, which is...

When Leonardo Da Vinci designed the ornithopter shown here, the materials required for building one were centuries away from being available. He dreamed ahead. When you stop dreaming, you are well on your way to thwart innovation. Now on to step 3...

Innovation is a hero-journey and the biggest devil of self-doubt is within us. Instead of slaying it, be its advocate, join other devil's advocates surrounding you and start doubting the merit of each innovative idea. Find out everything that could go wrong with it. Now, you have effectively killed the idea.

That's it, folks. Follow these these three simple steps...
 

Innovation and marketing together go a long way in building the right company. Innovative entrepreneurship thrives in a company where diversity and customer centricity are key values.

Our best wishes for Innovations 2011 and congratulations to all the innovators.