This is a rant - mostly.
A couple of days ago I attended a seminar by MathWorks about their products.
MathWorks has its only Indian office in Bangalore. That is not surprising, the bulk of the government hi-tech establishments are located there.
But Delhi too is important, after all it is where the headquarters of those establishments are located:-) So here they have partnered with a local company. They are part of the MathWorks value stream.
The "bandobast" (organization) - venue, registration, refreshments, lunch, gifts- for the seminar was done by the value stream partner.
I was informed, by mail from MathWorks, about my registration and asked to bring a printed copy of the mail. At the registration counter that mail was no help. The guys there had a handful of sheets listing names and organizations. There was a stack of pre-printed name cards. What was the problem in putting them in boxes according to the some ordering scheme? Better still why not keep a couple of small printers and print out the names on the spot?.I have seen electoral rolls checking, which is done by low paid government school teachers and other district staff, done better.
What does it say about MathWorks when its value stream partner does not know enough to put the lists on an Excel sheet? Does it need great administrative talent to allot a unique registration number to each participant? Is it expensive, compared to the expense of the venue, and the refreshments and lunch, to put a couple of laptops and a couple of printers at the registration counter?
The piece-de-resistance was the gift in exchange for the filled feedback sheet. It is good looking table clock. Nice big digits. The instruction sheet needs a magnifying glass. The day of the week cannot be set. Maybe some Chinese company designed it using a MathWorks product:-) Maybe all the clocks were not like that. Maybe, they fixed this one clock specifically for the guy who was making all that ruckus at the registration desk :D
Lesson: If your value stream partner interfaces with the customer, it is vital that you check the customer experience. Dog-fooding is more than eating the lunch served at the venue.
27 November 2010
24 November 2010
A Role Model for Entrepreneurs
This video on what it takes to build a successful venture was recommended by my friend Karnan.
Learn about dog-fooding, about values and vision.
Learn about dog-fooding, about values and vision.
22 November 2010
Are Top Management's Sensory Channels Effective?
The collapse of a building gets the Chief Minister's attention, not this person's complaints.
My question: Can IT not be used to see that such citizen complaints are visible to the Chief Minister. Not just made visible but processed to extract information, spot trends, establish correlation, ... Delhi Traffic Police's Facebook page is an initiative that could be replicated and built upon.
What is the barrier to effective implementation? The political and administrative culture.
In a software company too, the culture and the values of the organization, can either sensitize, or de-sensitize, the sensory channels. The culture must re-inforce the value - get the bad news early. The culture must promote scientific checking for reality, the courage to face it, take corrective action, determine preventive measures and put them in to practice.
It is top management which, by its actions - not just words - communicates the culture and values.
With the wrong values even the most basic of business sensors, the balance sheet, is worthless - witness Satyam.
My question: Can IT not be used to see that such citizen complaints are visible to the Chief Minister. Not just made visible but processed to extract information, spot trends, establish correlation, ... Delhi Traffic Police's Facebook page is an initiative that could be replicated and built upon.
What is the barrier to effective implementation? The political and administrative culture.
In a software company too, the culture and the values of the organization, can either sensitize, or de-sensitize, the sensory channels. The culture must re-inforce the value - get the bad news early. The culture must promote scientific checking for reality, the courage to face it, take corrective action, determine preventive measures and put them in to practice.
It is top management which, by its actions - not just words - communicates the culture and values.
With the wrong values even the most basic of business sensors, the balance sheet, is worthless - witness Satyam.
21 November 2010
What is The Hard Part in Your Venture?
Finding and doing the hard part in your start-up is critical. It is leading from the front.
The trouble with leading from the front is knowing where the front is. The added problem is that the front keeps shifting. It is not just fighting fires. "Fire-fighting" gives an adrenaline rush. It can be addictive. You have to lead. But you have to also do the hard part, and that is putting "fire-prevention", "fire-detecting" and "fire-fighting" processes in place.
The hard part at any given time could be quality, productivity, raising financing, sales, seeing reality and changing the business strategy, people, ... Whatever it is, it has first to be identified. It is about spotting broken windows. And there could be more than one broken window.
In my view, getting the right people on the bus, and keeping them on it, and getting the wrong people off it, is always a hard part.
Can one person do it? Highly improbable. But a team with shared values, mutual respect, and interlocking skills, can.
At acmet we did not have such a leadership team.
The trouble with leading from the front is knowing where the front is. The added problem is that the front keeps shifting. It is not just fighting fires. "Fire-fighting" gives an adrenaline rush. It can be addictive. You have to lead. But you have to also do the hard part, and that is putting "fire-prevention", "fire-detecting" and "fire-fighting" processes in place.
The hard part at any given time could be quality, productivity, raising financing, sales, seeing reality and changing the business strategy, people, ... Whatever it is, it has first to be identified. It is about spotting broken windows. And there could be more than one broken window.
In my view, getting the right people on the bus, and keeping them on it, and getting the wrong people off it, is always a hard part.
Can one person do it? Highly improbable. But a team with shared values, mutual respect, and interlocking skills, can.
At acmet we did not have such a leadership team.
18 November 2010
Maintaining Software
Lack of maintenance results in a "Bhoot Bangla".
So too for software: RENOVATE it or demolish it. Do not carrying on living with it (or in it).
So too for software: RENOVATE it or demolish it. Do not carrying on living with it (or in it).
17 November 2010
Oversimplifying
Einstein said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler". Watch Complexity leads to Simplicity
Meditation: The Power of Now
I have recently finished reading The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
, or rather my first reading of it. It is just 191 pages. I recommended it highly. Here are some things that I learned.
* The practices by which one can still the voice in one's head - the mind. Earlier I had read of it as "empty the mind of all thoughts". Never understood how to do it.
* My habitual procrastination was caused by the mind's fear of failure.
* There is "clock time" that is used for practical living. This is when the mind is required to be used
* And then there is "psychological time". The mind - the voice in the head - either keeps the past alive, or imagines a future. It distorts what exists now. When the mind is stilled one is aware of what exists NOW without judgement.
* The mind is stilled when in a deep dreamless sleep. Meditation has the same effect except that one's sensory perceptions are totally aware of the present. Many a times "sleeping on a problem" results in a creative solution. Meditation - putting the "voice in the head" to sleep - has the same effect.
Words, as Tolle says, are just road signs. They are meant to direct. They are not the destination.
My words above are meant to direct you to Tolle's book.
, or rather my first reading of it. It is just 191 pages. I recommended it highly. Here are some things that I learned.* The practices by which one can still the voice in one's head - the mind. Earlier I had read of it as "empty the mind of all thoughts". Never understood how to do it.
* My habitual procrastination was caused by the mind's fear of failure.
* There is "clock time" that is used for practical living. This is when the mind is required to be used
* And then there is "psychological time". The mind - the voice in the head - either keeps the past alive, or imagines a future. It distorts what exists now. When the mind is stilled one is aware of what exists NOW without judgement.
* The mind is stilled when in a deep dreamless sleep. Meditation has the same effect except that one's sensory perceptions are totally aware of the present. Many a times "sleeping on a problem" results in a creative solution. Meditation - putting the "voice in the head" to sleep - has the same effect.
Words, as Tolle says, are just road signs. They are meant to direct. They are not the destination.
My words above are meant to direct you to Tolle's book.
15 November 2010
ADHAAR The UID Project
Believe the Hype by Thomas Friedman illustrates the grass-roots innovation opportunities that exist in India.
A few posts ago I mentioned that I attended the session on governance at the PAN-IIT 2010. My reason for doing so was that Nandan Nilekani was to speak about ADHAAR, the UID project that he is heading.
What the project is going to do is to allot a UID to every citizen after recording iris patterns and fingerprints. These will be maintained in a database. I suppose other data too would be maintained.
The database could be queried for delivering services to the citizen. I am sure it is going to open up new business opportunities.
A few posts ago I mentioned that I attended the session on governance at the PAN-IIT 2010. My reason for doing so was that Nandan Nilekani was to speak about ADHAAR, the UID project that he is heading.
What the project is going to do is to allot a UID to every citizen after recording iris patterns and fingerprints. These will be maintained in a database. I suppose other data too would be maintained.
The database could be queried for delivering services to the citizen. I am sure it is going to open up new business opportunities.
09 November 2010
Innovation: RoI
R & D need not be restricted to the parent company's business. R&D at Xerox is not. That is why they let Steve Jobs exploit PARC's innovations.
Constraints & Opportunities
Seth Godin has a post on Problems & Constraints.
Problems are within one's power to solve. Constraints are not. Constraints belong to the environment.
Problems are "pain points", the solutions to which are addressed by business plans. Constraints have to be catered for in the business plan.
But all constraints are not a law of nature like gravity. The earth will never become flat (not at least in a non-cosmological time frame). The world can, and has, become flat.
Technology, regulatory systems, social mores, demography, modify, or remove, constraints. Those who can spot the coming change in constraints, and have the capability to quickly ready themselves for it, can use it to their advantage.
Peter Drucker said that whenever distribution channels change, opportunities arise. The internet, not withstanding the dot-com bubble, has changed the way goods and services are distrubuted. That is what enabled Apple to change its business model - removal of a constraint.
Problems are within one's power to solve. Constraints are not. Constraints belong to the environment.
Problems are "pain points", the solutions to which are addressed by business plans. Constraints have to be catered for in the business plan.
But all constraints are not a law of nature like gravity. The earth will never become flat (not at least in a non-cosmological time frame). The world can, and has, become flat.
Technology, regulatory systems, social mores, demography, modify, or remove, constraints. Those who can spot the coming change in constraints, and have the capability to quickly ready themselves for it, can use it to their advantage.
Peter Drucker said that whenever distribution channels change, opportunities arise. The internet, not withstanding the dot-com bubble, has changed the way goods and services are distrubuted. That is what enabled Apple to change its business model - removal of a constraint.
08 November 2010
PAN IIT: Session on Good Governance
This post is off topic.
The PAN-IIT Conclave was held from 29Oct to 31Oct at the Expo Center in Greater Noida. This was the first one that I attended. I think I was the person living the closest to the conclave site. It would have been inexcusable if I missed the opportunity to meet with some people I have not met with for four decades.
One of the sessions was on good governance. Arvind Kejriwal was a speaker. Most of what he had to say about ineffective and toothless investigating agencies, appeared in his article of 02Nov in the ToI. What is missing from the article is the passion with which he delivered his talk. Listening to him I thought he was an activist like Medha Patkar, or Arundhati Roy. Only later did I learn that he is an alumnus of IIT Kgp. Well IITs produces all sorts of people. Some even join the Indian Air Force:-).
An examle that he gave during his talk, and which does not appear in his article, is that of how Hong Kong rooted out of corruption. I doubt if anyone, other than Mr. Kejriwal, believes that solutions that can be implemented in Hong Kong (now, or pre-unification with the PRC), can be implemented in a federal, multi-party, democracy. I believe that one place to begin is to make the accounts of political parties auditable and available in the public domain. That will go a long way to break the political-mafia nexus. Chandrashekar when he was the PM, was once asked about it by a reporter. The video shows the PM dismissing it out of hand.
An interesting episode. The audience being a bunch of techies were very appreciative of Mr. Kejriwal's passion. Mr. Kejriwal, sensing the reaction, felt that he would do better by speaking in Hindi. There was an immediate uproar from a number of people. Vociferously prominent amongst them were two IIT Madras guys sitting with me - one of them my batch mate, another a couple of batches junior. Apparently the spirit of 1965 lives on:-) Arvind largely stuck to English after that. It would have been a blast had Neelakeni, who spoke after Arvind, taken a leaf out of Kanimozhi's (I hope I got the spelling right) book and addressed the audience in Kannada, or Tamil. So much for PAN-IIT guys having a PAN-Indian perspective:-(
The PAN-IIT Conclave was held from 29Oct to 31Oct at the Expo Center in Greater Noida. This was the first one that I attended. I think I was the person living the closest to the conclave site. It would have been inexcusable if I missed the opportunity to meet with some people I have not met with for four decades.
One of the sessions was on good governance. Arvind Kejriwal was a speaker. Most of what he had to say about ineffective and toothless investigating agencies, appeared in his article of 02Nov in the ToI. What is missing from the article is the passion with which he delivered his talk. Listening to him I thought he was an activist like Medha Patkar, or Arundhati Roy. Only later did I learn that he is an alumnus of IIT Kgp. Well IITs produces all sorts of people. Some even join the Indian Air Force:-).
An examle that he gave during his talk, and which does not appear in his article, is that of how Hong Kong rooted out of corruption. I doubt if anyone, other than Mr. Kejriwal, believes that solutions that can be implemented in Hong Kong (now, or pre-unification with the PRC), can be implemented in a federal, multi-party, democracy. I believe that one place to begin is to make the accounts of political parties auditable and available in the public domain. That will go a long way to break the political-mafia nexus. Chandrashekar when he was the PM, was once asked about it by a reporter. The video shows the PM dismissing it out of hand.
An interesting episode. The audience being a bunch of techies were very appreciative of Mr. Kejriwal's passion. Mr. Kejriwal, sensing the reaction, felt that he would do better by speaking in Hindi. There was an immediate uproar from a number of people. Vociferously prominent amongst them were two IIT Madras guys sitting with me - one of them my batch mate, another a couple of batches junior. Apparently the spirit of 1965 lives on:-) Arvind largely stuck to English after that. It would have been a blast had Neelakeni, who spoke after Arvind, taken a leaf out of Kanimozhi's (I hope I got the spelling right) book and addressed the audience in Kannada, or Tamil. So much for PAN-IIT guys having a PAN-Indian perspective:-(
Leadership
Seth Godin says, "It requires education and coaching and patience to create a team ..." in this post. Exactly the same as teaching sparrows.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)