Sundays!

Oh the images that a Sunday conjures in our minds! Happiness, joy, enjoyment, togetherness. While we all have our own reasons to look forward to the weekly manna from heaven, I conducted a small survey among my social media friends, and here are the innocent, happy and amazingly enjoyable replies to the simple query - What is the one thing you enjoy doing on a Sunday?

The insights I got by asking a simple question were revealing. 360 degrees, in fact. From the apparently enjoyable act of merely dozing the day off, to the more cerebral tasks of planning and executing, the range is exciting! The more analytical minded of my readers will want to do a statistical post-mortem of this compilation. Go ahead! I am sure lovely learnings await.

A million thanks to all those who shared their thoughts.

For all marketing managers, here are the insights you were looking for. Now plan your budgets, and get cracking :)

What's the one thing you love to do the most on Sundays?

Kaushal Kasat - Sleeping, watching Movie, playing cricket and picnic.....
Pooja Khatri - Movies
Gireesh Nagar - Outing after a week long work.

Guaranteed formula for MBA success - Long-term vision

Guaranteed formula for MBA success - Long-term vision

One of the questions often asked by MBA aspirants, young MBAs, and practising managers is "How do we become really successful?" Let me crisply answer this fundamental question, using my experience as a guide.

When we talk about MBAs - managers - what do these guys really do? Even before that, just who are these guys? Well, the "who" ratio is approximately 20 : 30 : 40 : 10.

• 20% are entrepreneurs - totally self-driven and in-charge of their own destiny
• 20-30% are intrapreneurs - they are entrepreneurs inside an organisation
• 40% are executives - they carry out things really well
• 10% are eternal crib-nannies - the world failed to see they are god's gift to mankind

I have worked with dynamic and successful people from all categories above (the least being from the fourth). The one thread which is common to all successful people is LONG TERM VISION. Every single one I saw had at least this one thing in common - they were all thinking and acting really long-term.

So what's that? What really constitutes long term vision?

A distractor intelligently said : in the long run, we are all dead. So for him there is no point in anything that's long-term. But what is long-term? 5 years? 15 years? 50 years? In my opinion, "LONG TERM" in any decision situation is a sufficient enough time period that you allow all players in the game to have their full effect on the situation. The subject (i.e. the manager or You) waits patiently for the final effect to display itself.

Hoping that you have understood this argument above, here are precise points.

When someone is in the first stage of her/his career, it pays to remember that it is precisely that - the first stage. The whole life is yet to happen! The first job, or the first 5-6 years of your job are your foundation years when you must focus on these four things above everything else

1. Greedily learn actual professional skills that matter - not just basic stuff like smart paper-pushing, ppt-making, and glib-talking
2. Slog your bones off so you learn more - your body can support it now (in your twenties). It will be too late after you are 30
3. Overlook the money you are making, focus only how much you are growing as a professional whose opinions people seek. It changes your *ENTIRE* perspective on life
4. Try working with the toughest bosses, not the easy ones. The tough bosses will force you to grow completely out of your comfort zones, and you will thank them for the rest of your life

I feel that 9 out of 10 successful people did many of these things in their earlier years, knowingly or unknowingly.

Let me be honest, while we are in the daily rut, it is difficult to get a 30000 ft view like the one I have propounded above. But if I am sharing this with you, maybe you should take it at the face-value.

So think really long-term. Focus on the job's content, not payoffs. And taken to extreme, if you get a chance to work with a super boss, a guy who can totally change your professional calibre, maybe it'll be a good idea to do it free of charge  :-)
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Spectacular failures

We often hear about big successes. They get talked and discussed. They are highlighted in the media, and case-studies are made out of them.

But there are spectacular failures, that escape our attention, after the initial media frenzy is over. In my honest opinion, more learnings can be gleaned from "spectacular failures" than from successes.

Let me share one such example with you today.

Remember eBay? One of the finest companies in the online Buy-sell-auction type of business, it grew rapidly and under the leadership of a dynamic lady CEO, became quite popular and profitable.

And at the top of its success, it took a big bet. And failed in that.

When eBay was at the top of its game, it thought of a killer idea. Buyers and sellers, and the ease of communication between them, is the key to success of this site (business). The more convenient that will be, the more convinced everyone will be, to return for more action. And with each action (transaction actually), eBay gets its fair cut. That's the whole revenue model.

So the killer idea was to connect them using Skype, the famous and free web-service that allows you to make free calls over the internet to other people on Skype for as long as you like, to wherever you like. eBay spent billions of dollars (read full post) to buy Skype and integrate it into its entire user experience. Imagine - it all looks so neat. It had to work out. It had to create great value for everyone. It had to work!

It did not.

Here is a web news report that documented this. Read carefully!

"eBay has finally acknowledged what has been obvious to the rest of the world for at least three quarters: the Skype acquisition gamble has failed. Among the news today:  Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom officially gone (he's been virtually gone for months). eBay will take $1.4 billion asset-impairment charge. Skype has missed the targets Zennstrom and his team set at the time of the sale. Thus, eBay will only pay $530 million of the potential $1.7 billion earnout (some small consolation).eBay shareholders can only hope that Skype housecleaning doesn't stop here. The Skype acquisition never made sense strategically, and one reason Skype has struggled, we think, is that it is just a distraction to eBay (which needs desperately to focus on its core commerce business). eBay should immediately sell what's left of Skype to Yahoo, Microsoft, or Google, all companies that offer portfolios of communications services that Skype might actually benefit from being a part of."

eBay was lucky to have sold off whatever was left of Skype at a hefty price to someone else (who saw a future in it!).

If you are wondering why such a big deal failed to deliver, I can offer several possible reasons

1. Failure of CEO's vision - it was a bad decision from the start. Was taken under pressure to deliver big numbers really fast
2. Problems in integration - the usual M&A nightmare is back!
3. Misjudging the consumer's taste and needs - more of enthusiasm, less of a rigorous research
4. Plain bad luck - the combination of factors that must make a big deal work, was not present. Too many moving parts, too little time, too much pressure.

So you see, those willing to make big bets, should be ready to face spectacular upsets. This is what big coporate bets are all about. And so it is with life!

In India also, a similar story seems to be unfolding. The IIMs have recently decided to outsource their entire CAT testing process to a foreign firm. Apparently, this foreign firm is supposed to be king of its trade. I was hugely surprised at this decision of the IIMs, a publicly funded brand, to pay $40 m* to a foreign firm. I am certain an Indian company could have done an equally good job. Maybe better.**

Anyway, so this deal was done. And we all expected a FIVE STAR product to roll out from the pristine stables of this giant foreign testing firm.

In the last few days, from the first exposure that we have had to the working style of this company, confidence has been the casualty. Two reasons -

1. The demo of the online testing process posted on the official site of the IIM-CAT, is so pathetic in quality that it left me wondering about a lot of things. The online registration process also threw up several limitations.
2. The training video put up by the IIMs and this company on YouTube is not well-researched - it even lacks a proper Indian accent! So you are going to conduct a test for 2 lac+ Indian students, and process-train them with videos that do not even have Indian accents? Funny. (Check this -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQzvSq15RLQ)

So what next IIMs?  GDs and interviews with American accents?***

And here comes the absolute stunner - this foreign firm (in a tacit acceptance of its capability levels?) has already sub-contracted the humongous task of tying up with Engineering and Management institutes across India (for hiring their computer labs for conducting the IIMCAT) to a local Indian IT company. You know something? Sources tell me that this Indian IT company has little experience in such large scale logistical, testing exercises. And they are expected to manage the entire online IIM-CAT experience. You almost feel that a huge beta-version is being tested across hapless Indian students :)
 
What does all this prove? It probably shows the recklessness with which this deal was done. If I were an IIM Director, I would be really tough on the firm I am paying millions of dollars of taxpayers' money.

Let's accept it. No one can manager and deliver education testing services in India better than Indians can. Three cheers!


* $40 million is what the local newspapers reported, the IIMs will pay this foreign firm for this adventure
** yes, yes, I understand. All reasons will be proffered. You know, we want to make the IIM-CAT international, and offer it as a competitor to the hallowed GMAT. And all that! So why not let an Indian IT company use this grand opportunity? Are you trying to tell us that Indian IT firms (coupled with expertise from testing firms) are NOT capable of this? So what are the IIMs and IITs doing in the first place?
*** this is not a small matter. You get paid tens of millions of dollars, and this is the video you produce? Imagine a student from a small town wathcing the video. He/she will be scared stiff hearing the accent itself.

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From Thought to System

Sometime ago, I saw a beautiful advertisement for a consulting company which showed human footprints on a seashore and declared - "Your ideas are like these. Unless you convert them to solid reality, they'll be gone in no time." * 

I agree completely.

Every day, we realise certain simple solutions and truths related to our day-to-day existence. Most of these are pretty basic, direct, and simple. But nonetheless, they are solutions. On some specific moments, we come across really great ideas.

But in most cases, our ideas vanish by the time the next morning arrives. You know why? We lack the discipline of converting them into solid reality. So how does one go about doing that? 

Here is a stepwise Ideas Management process -

1. Whenever you come across any idea, write it down in your diary. This is the indispensable first step. (remember sand, waves, shore?)
2. Reflect on your idea when you are no longer in the thick of operational busy-ness of the typical manager's working day.
3. Involve others also, as they can share and contribute. Of course, you must be personally comfortable while doing so.
4. See what's the "time span of appilcability" of the idea. Can it be applied immediately to solve some short-term issue, or is it a long term idea suited to address some grand strategic issue?
5. There are only three things you can do with an idea. Act upon it now (option A), Store it for later retrieval (option B), or Dump it (option C).
6. Once you are sure of what you want to do with the idea - A, B or C - take action accordingly.
7. Get approvals, sanctions, agreement, consensus.. and push it forward.
8. Take full personal ownership of that idea. Remember - usually nothing moves forward in an organisation unless someone takes ownership of it.
9. Push, push, push .. till it achieves its desired destination.

Let me share an example.

Some time ago, a colleague of mine suggested that maintaining "good health" is a serious concern for young people everywhere. So, we can try to do something about it. We thought over this matter for some days, and realised that a solution needed to be found that was - cheap, easy to implement, and acceptable to one and all generally.

Then came the group ideation stage where everyone sat together and hammered out the idea in its practically implementable format - Walk PT Walk - a daily brisk walk of 3.5 kms for everyone, staff and students. The idea is simple - you sweat profusely, get refreshed from within, and stay fit from the cardio-vascular point of view.

We were cautious about not getting into the "gym" rut - it is too costly, deters many, and generally cannot be used as a team-building tool.**

We really went after this idea strongly. It was implemented for the staff of PTHQ, PROTON campuses, and SBM campuses. And also for students of PROTON and SBM. We pushed it hard, and provided significant leadership for several weeks, till leaders were created at all levels.

Today we look back with pride (it has been just 3 months) and can proudly say "We did it!" An idea was born, got refined, was test-piloted, and finally taken to execution. But the most important thing - it was made into a system to be followed.

Full credit goes to the students and staff who willingly accepted all this, and made it a success. Thanks everyone, and promise me that you will spread this far and wide, for the benefit of more people.

The media started taking note. We proved that a substantially good idea was converted to consistent reality.

What a satisfaction it has been, putting theory into practice. Trust me, nothing gives greater joy to a practising manager/leader. So get cracking with your own Ideas Management process. My best wishes!


Closing remark - remember our talk on Kaizen? It is interesting to see Kaizen put into practice with the software I use to upload my blogs daily. Everyday, I am observing small improvements that are making it easier for me to work with this software.  


* Interestingly that company itself vanished a few months later! 
** I was in the Weight-lifting and Power-lifting teams at IIT Delhi (1989-1993). I know what it takes!

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