Putting DISC Profile to Use in Your Team

Managers often struggle in coping with the different working styles of different team members. One common error for a manager in dealing with a team member is to think - why can't this team member behave more like me? The answer lies in the different behavioral tendencies people have. The DISC profile is a great tool for understanding the behavioral tendencies of a person. 



Dominance. People with a high D score are known to be result-oriented. You can count on them to get things done. They may come across as being rough around the edges, but they won't mind straight talk from you.

Influence. People with a high I score are friendly, talkative, and full of enthusiasm for new ideas. They will get started with things in no time, but don't count on them completing everything they start. They are prone to exaggerating, and easily over-estimate themselves and others.

Steadiness. People with a high S score provide the glue that holds the team together. You can count on them to tell you how everyone on the team feels. They may come across as being resistant to change. They will want to make sure everyone is on board with a new idea before jumping into it.

Conscientiousness. People with a high C score are perfectionists. You can count on them for producing quality work, and getting it right the first time, always. They are very focused on the the task at hand, and may appear reserved. They won't interrupt when you talk.

Are you curious to know what your DISC profile looks like? There are several free tests available online that only take a few minutes, and you will get your full profile! Click this link to take yours now.

Fostering Entrepreneurship: Chilecon Valley

Recently at the World Entrepreneurship Forum in Lyon, France, I came across a unique model for fostering entrepreneurship. I met Nicolas Shea, a businessman-turned-bureaucrat in the Chilean government who described to me what they are doing in Chile to attract entrepreneurs. The government issues an Entrepreneur Visa to foreigners who are interested in setting up a business in Chile. The visa is good for an initial period of one year, and comes with $40,000.

Yes. You read that right. The Chilean government pays you for the visa. You get the money. It is not a loan. You don't even have to give them equity in your company. The money is yours to use for putting together a start-up in Chile.

How many companies have you funded? I asked Nicolas. Five hundred, he replied.

That is twenty million dollars spent - how does your government feel about it? I asked.

Nicolas Shea's answer was thought-provoking. That is a small sum, he said, to attract the best of talent from all over the world. We screen thousands of business plans to pick a hundred every quarter. We have some of the world's most exciting technology start-ups coming up in Chile, thanks to this program. How else were we going to get talent from Stanford and other elite institutions? We hope some of these start-ups get to a stage of raising money. Even if two of them raise $10M each, we have our $20M back in Chile. And imagine the way in which it helps our economy. Visualize the ecosystem we are creating.

He has a point. A big one. If you want to have a Route 128 or a Silicon Valley in your country, you have to do something crazy, something unique - like Startup Chile. Here is a link to a recent article in The Economist on Startup Chile. What do you think about the idea?

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?

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.