Crowdsourcing - Some Thoughts

For those of us seeking to convince ourselves of the power of crowdsourcing, we need not look any further than Wikipedia. Other examples of crowdsourcing abound. Threadless, an online community of designers, conducts weekly competitions for T-shirt design and prints the winning designs. Quora, a great Q&A website, sources both questions and answers from its members. Procter & Gamble uses crowdsourcing heavily to generate ideas about packaging, marketing etc. The list goes on.

There are two fundamental approaches to crowdsourcing: competition and collaboration.

In competitive sourcing, you look for the best input by designing incentives to win. Competition weeds out the mediocre and elicits the best anyone in the crowd has to offer. The Threadless model, for example,  appears primarily to be based on competition.

In collaborative sourcing, you get people to work together in communities to solve problems or come up with new ideas. This model works best when you are looking at projects that a single person might not easily be able to work on. The open source software movement, as well as Wikipedia, are examples of crowdsourcing based on communities that collaborate.

In essence, both competition and collaboration play on three fundamental types of human motivation: intrinsic, extrinsic and pro-social. A person experiences intrinsic motivation when he or she simply likes to do something. For example, you might be an expert in disaster management, and you may simply want to answer a question on earthquakes because you are interested in the topic. Extrinsic motivation follows rational thought. It makes you wonder: what is in it for me? Cash prizes, coupons, discounts and reward points would create extrinsic motivation. Pro-social motivation has to do with social factors. People like to be 'liked', and seek feedback and validation. A lot of online content uploading is motivated by pro-social factors.

When defining a good crowd-sourcing business model, the entrepreneur must ask these questions:  How would I approach crowdsourcing - through competition or collaboration or both? How can I create the right mix of the various motivations so that I can build a great community that produces the best? In short, why should the crowd care to participate in my enterprise?

Team Harbinger Celebrates Employee #500

Harbinger Group's employee count has crossed 500 now. Bootstrapping this company from a start-up, and developing it into a global organization delivering cutting-edge software has been a wonderful personal journey for me. It has been full of learning and a sense of meaningfulness, that only comes from pursuing a purpose with passion.

Harbinger grew in interesting times. Founded in the pre-liberalization days of Indian economy, it witnessed the emergence of India on the global economic scene. In parallel, it participated in key transformations in computing technology - personal computing, the Internet,  mobile, social media and more.

In times of constant change, some things have remained constant at Harbinger - notably its values: make an honest buck, respect the individual and learn continuously.  At Harbinger, the guiding light has been its unwavering purpose: make a difference in our world through software innovations.

We have been doing that, and how. Harbinger pioneered several e-learning technology innovations, including Raptivity, helping thousands of course developers build interactive content. We built some great e-learning content for leading global corporations. We helped dozens of cutting-edge global software vendors build their products which eventually reached hundreds of thousands of users. We participated in the evolution of Windows operating system by working with Microsoft. In the process we developed several long-term customers, who came to look upon us as partners in innovation.

In conversations with new employees, ex-employees, customers and colleagues at Harvard Business School I keep hearing this - 'There's something different about this company'. It's a difference that matters, and I feel committed to preserve it and to build upon it.

As we reach the milestone of 500 employees, all I have to say is: Thank you Team Harbinger, for creating this wonderful workplace to belong to, and where it feels right.

What is Strategy without a Strategist?

Earlier this year at Harvard Business School, Professor Cynthia Montgomery took a group of entrepreneur-owner-presidents through a series of discussions on strategy. We discussed several case studies, one that examined Gucci's near-death experience and another that chronicled Ryanair's strategic self-discovery. 

To analyze the cases, she used what she calls a strategy wheel, that puts a company's purpose in the center, and a set of mutually-reinforcing activities all around. As we progressed,  I couldn't resist asking her how she defined strategy. Her answer was quick - A system of value creation anchored on a purpose that makes a difference that matters.

It was refreshing to hear a view of strategy that did not focus primarily on beating the competition, but rather on making a difference that matters to the customer. It seemed to suggest that the all-important sustainable competitive advantage would be inherent in the strategy wheel - no need to obsess with it.

So, when she announced her new book,  The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs (Harper Business, 2012), I was eagerly awaiting its publication. Sure enough, the book is a great read for the business leader, whom she inspires to become a strategist. For her, strategy isn't some left-brain activity to get right once, but rather an ever-evolving agenda to live with.  Her revisionist view of strategy is refreshing, vibrant and imbues strategy with a moral purpose.

Long time back, Kenichi Ohmae, in his classic titled The Mind of the Strategist, talked of the strategist's mindset.  Cynthia Montgomery's new book takes you on a journey that will help you discover the strategist within you. This is an opportunity you don't want to miss if you are at the helm of an enterprise. A highly recommended read, and I would love to hear what you took from it.

About Purpose, Priorities and Alignment

Some of the healthiest debates in an organization are about its priorities. Here is an exercise your organization could do, to develop a better sense of alignment.

1. Define your purpose.

Answer these five questions briefly (typically in 1 line.)

1. Who are you? (This question is not as simple as it seems to be. This is a question about your organization's identity, its self-perception. Many times it is extremely hard to get the right answer. )
2. What do you do? (List the products or services you offer, or better, say what outcomes you help achieve)
3. For whom? (If you were not around, who would miss you? Would there be a tear in the universe? Where? Who will mourn you? This could be customers, community and other stakeholders)
4. What difference do you make? (Obviously you make some difference in a unique way for those who will miss you. What difference is that?)
5. Using what unique competencies? (What is it about you that helps you make that difference year-after-year? What is your unique strength? Your secret sauce?)

2. Define your priorities.

Use a table such as the one below. Too many priorities are no good.

Short Term (3-6 months)	Medium Term (1 Year)	Long Term (3 Years)
1.	6.	10.
2.	7.	11.
3.	8.	12.
4.	9.
5.

3. Check alignment.

Now answer the following questions

1. Are your priorities aligned to your purpose?
2. Have you allocated resources (time, people) in line with priorities?
3. Have you prepared yourself to change resource allocation as you transition to mid-term and long-term?
4. Do you feel you can make some changes to align yourself with the priorities?
5. What are those changes, if any?