Other day I had an interesting conversation with a few of my friends on whether there is any "decision making process" for changing jobs. I don't know whether one exists, whether there can be a uniform process for everyone, where does "objectivity" comes into picture, etc., I tend to trust my gut for most of my decisions, but tend to do an assessment of the following three parameters when it comes to my career:
1. I try to remain as close as my stated objective "Facilitate Impact thru innovation. Contribute. Learn. Enjoy", with a particular emphasis on enjoying myself. If enjoyment is missing for a large part of the time, it is the signal for me to perhaps see what is going on. The above objective, which I came up with after a lengthy and time consuming exercise, provides me with motivation and warning signals.
2. I keep asking myself these questions "who am I?", "do I matter?", "does my work matter?". I get bothered if I feel that things would continue fine even if I'm not around in this place. I'd like people to remember me for something long after I've left the organization. If I get a feeling that may not be the case, its a clear warning signal.
3. My long term goal is to retire from "salaried job" by 2016 and after that I want to consult. To consult, you need to be a specialist and not a generalist. I fancy myself as a Technology Specialist and I need to work as one, preferably retire as a CTO by 2016, to give credibility and attract clients for my consulting work. If my current role is not taking me there, it is a signal to do something.
I evaluate myself twice an year - once in Dec and once either in May or in Jul to see where I'm, how I perceive myself progressing on my career and how I've done with my own goals and objectives. This exercise typically done as a part of 3-day solitude in my village, gives a good amount of clarity on things that are going on fine and things that aren'tt. To an extent, the clarity would also emerge as to whether I'm in control (and therefore effect changes) or I'm not (if there are too many things that are bothering me and most of them or not in my control, isn't it a good indication to move on?).
The three parameters also help me to "objectively" evaluate an offer vis-a-vis my current role. Normally most people tend to move out from the existing job and that acts as a prime motivator (the push factor) and might make the mistake of going back in their careers. Having any set of parameters help overcome such mistakes and articulate what does one want in their new job. I'm confident because it has helped me.
Have a great day,
RamP!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Buzz of the week 19-May-08
1. Sprint's iPhone killer to debut 20-Jun
Sprint confirmed that it will debut the Samsung Instinct on June 20. The phone, which has been pegged as the carrier's answer to the iPhone, is expected to cost between $200 and $300. Visit Sprint's official site NowIsGood for more information.
2. Social Networks generate almost 40% worldwide mobile web traffic.
Social networking now generates almost 40 percent of worldwide mobile web traffic, even topping 60 percent in markets including the U.S., South Africa and Indonesia, according to browser development firm Opera Software's first "State of the Mobile Web" report. Basing its findings on the traffic patterns of more than 44 million Opera Mini browser users worldwide, Opera reports MySpace is the most visited mobile web destination in the U.S. market, followed in descending order by Google, mobile social networking service MocoSpace, Yahoo and Facebook.
3. Messaging milestones from AT&T and Verizon
AT&T is touting its text messaging traffic surge generated by "American Idol" fans who used their cell phones to vote for their pick. This season's show generated more than 78 million text messages for AT&T, which is the exclusive sponsor of the show. During the previous season, the show generated 64.5 million text messages. The carrier added new elements to this year's contest by using text messaging to inform the final three contestants of the Producer's Choice selection via their Apple iPhones.
Not to be outdone by its competitor, Verizon Wireless decided to promote its text messaging volumes. The carrier announced that it delivered 58 billion text messages during the first quarter of 2008.
4. Orange and Nokia in 3-yr games, music partnershipOrange and Nokia announced a three-year strategic international partnership that will include a suite of integrated multimedia services as well as the addition of 10 new Nokia handsets to the Orange Signature range. The initiative, which will launch across nine international markets in the second half of 2008, will offer Orange subscribers direct access to the Orange Music Store, both Orange and NGage games, and Nokia Maps--all services will be integrated into the Orange user interface, enabling single-click access to information and entertainment content. Per terms of the agreement, Orange and Nokia will team on marketing and collaborate to develop new mobile multimedia applications, with a particular emphasis on location-based services; the firms said they plan to create 10 million active Mobile Maps users on Nokia devices within the operator's footprint by 2010.
5. Videocon wants to buy Motorola even as another Motorola senior exec departs
Diversified business group Videocon said its talks to buy out the mobile handset business of US-based Motorola are at 'initial' stages.
Elsewhere, another Motorola executive has departed from the company. Rich Nottenburg, chief strategy and technology officer, is the latest executive to leave amid investor Carl Icahn's activist ways to shake up the Motorola board. Nottenburg's departure follows the replacements of CEO Ed Zander in January, acting CFO Tom Meredith in February along with mobile devices head Stu Reed, Casey Keller, head of marketing, treasurer Steve Strobel and EMEA mobile-devices head Mike Fenger. Dan Moloney, who leads the company's home and networks mobility business, will replace Nottenburg.
6. BREW conference May28-30
BREW conference in back. I attended the same in 2005 and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Next week we will have some announcements from the conference.
Have a great day,
RamP!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Nurturing Innovation
From the last couple of days, I'm having a fascinating discussion on "innovation" with my friend and consultant Vinay Dabholkar. Here are some questions that I'm trying to find answers for:
1. Does "ability to think" an essential skill needed for innovation?
2. How is "creativity" different from "innovation"?
3. Does "innovation" mean only generating ideas or even seemingly mundane things like writing a better/elegant implementation of an algorithm could also be called innovation. (note that some application, especially in the domain of Electronic Design Automation (EDA), competitive edge would come from being say 10times faster than a product that does the same thing. An elegant implementation may give that edge).
4. How should innovation be led (I hate the word driven) in an organization? Should it be nurtured as a part of building the culture or is it yet another initiative driven by a senior person?
5. What are the metrics that should be used to measure innovation? Does #patents filed or #ideas pushed to roadmap is a good measure?
6. Why many organizations have all the structure (idea logging tools, idea selection process, rewards etc.,), but still cannot be counted in for great ideas?
Any answers, thoughts, questions?
Have a great day,
RamP!
1. Does "ability to think" an essential skill needed for innovation?
2. How is "creativity" different from "innovation"?
3. Does "innovation" mean only generating ideas or even seemingly mundane things like writing a better/elegant implementation of an algorithm could also be called innovation. (note that some application, especially in the domain of Electronic Design Automation (EDA), competitive edge would come from being say 10times faster than a product that does the same thing. An elegant implementation may give that edge).
4. How should innovation be led (I hate the word driven) in an organization? Should it be nurtured as a part of building the culture or is it yet another initiative driven by a senior person?
5. What are the metrics that should be used to measure innovation? Does #patents filed or #ideas pushed to roadmap is a good measure?
6. Why many organizations have all the structure (idea logging tools, idea selection process, rewards etc.,), but still cannot be counted in for great ideas?
Any answers, thoughts, questions?
Have a great day,
RamP!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
JetBlue
From the last several months I'm increasingly intrigued about what it takes to start a great organization. So, whenever I get a chance I keep talking with like minded folks on the problems that plague "not-so-great organizations" and what could be done to build one, if at all I get a chance. BTW, my definition of a great company would embody the following:
1. There is a well defined purpose
2. Encourage risk taking at all levels
3. Dignified - graceful, respects individuals
4. Expects "excellence" in every pursuit
5. Led by leaders that are willing to serve
(I've been greatly influenced in my thinking by Tom Peters).
I'm reading some books which give me an inside view of how such organizations are built.
Last weekend I completed BlueStreak: inside jetBlue an upstart that rocked an industry, story of jetBlue, one of the most successful airlines in the USA. It is a great read for anyone looking to build an organization.
Few things that stuck me are:
1. Being Different: The CEO and founder Neeleman was very clear from the beginning that he wants to build an airline with a difference, not just yet another airline. This philosophy is evident in every action/policy of the airline. Interesting to understand their culture.
2. Vision: The importance of having a dream team to start-off. He managed to persuade some of the very best people in the industry to join him so that they together can serve the people better.
3. Leadership: Leaders at all levels. With a flat hierarchy and empowered staff, JetBlue can make decisions faster than competition.
4. Excellence: Hunger to be the best. The team went systematically acquiring market share and beating the competition in almost every route that they decided to operate.
5. Training. New recruits are trained not only on the technical skills needed to do their job, but also on the values of the organization. Neeleman himself teaches the new recruits the Economics101 and drills in the importance of CASM (Cost per Available Seat Mile) and
6. Employee First: Neeleman refused to divulge the name of the manager who by mistake revealed some private data to the govt. Such acts would get a great level of commitment not just from the manager in question, but by the whole company.
7. Humane: Numerous examples are littered throughout the book that tells us that the staff at JetBlue put humanitarian needs ahead of business. In fact there was one occasion where they took care of stranded passengers of a rival airline, as what they saw was the need to serve the needy and nothing else.
8. Innovation: First airline to introduce live TV, leather seats etc., These are all typically unheard of in a budget airline.
9. Profitability: Any for-profit organization has to make profits to survive. JetBlue has achieved the same year-on-year and has shown the world that one can he humane, serve, excel in what they do and still make profits.
I haven't flown with them yet. But surely shall do as soon as I get a chance.
1. There is a well defined purpose
2. Encourage risk taking at all levels
3. Dignified - graceful, respects individuals
4. Expects "excellence" in every pursuit
5. Led by leaders that are willing to serve
(I've been greatly influenced in my thinking by Tom Peters).
I'm reading some books which give me an inside view of how such organizations are built.
Last weekend I completed BlueStreak: inside jetBlue an upstart that rocked an industry, story of jetBlue, one of the most successful airlines in the USA. It is a great read for anyone looking to build an organization.
Few things that stuck me are:
1. Being Different: The CEO and founder Neeleman was very clear from the beginning that he wants to build an airline with a difference, not just yet another airline. This philosophy is evident in every action/policy of the airline. Interesting to understand their culture.
2. Vision: The importance of having a dream team to start-off. He managed to persuade some of the very best people in the industry to join him so that they together can serve the people better.
3. Leadership: Leaders at all levels. With a flat hierarchy and empowered staff, JetBlue can make decisions faster than competition.
4. Excellence: Hunger to be the best. The team went systematically acquiring market share and beating the competition in almost every route that they decided to operate.
5. Training. New recruits are trained not only on the technical skills needed to do their job, but also on the values of the organization. Neeleman himself teaches the new recruits the Economics101 and drills in the importance of CASM (Cost per Available Seat Mile) and
6. Employee First: Neeleman refused to divulge the name of the manager who by mistake revealed some private data to the govt. Such acts would get a great level of commitment not just from the manager in question, but by the whole company.
7. Humane: Numerous examples are littered throughout the book that tells us that the staff at JetBlue put humanitarian needs ahead of business. In fact there was one occasion where they took care of stranded passengers of a rival airline, as what they saw was the need to serve the needy and nothing else.
8. Innovation: First airline to introduce live TV, leather seats etc., These are all typically unheard of in a budget airline.
9. Profitability: Any for-profit organization has to make profits to survive. JetBlue has achieved the same year-on-year and has shown the world that one can he humane, serve, excel in what they do and still make profits.
I haven't flown with them yet. But surely shall do as soon as I get a chance.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Buzz of the week 12-May-08
Last 4-6 weeks have been pretty hectic on the personal front, getting me not much of time for any serious blog posting. So many of my cousins got married, got a new house or had their baby named. From this week onwards I want to start a column called "The week that was", where I try to capture interesting things that happened in the telecom world. This is the first such attempt.
1. RIM announces BlackBerry partner fund
3. Alltel commits itself for LTE
Alltel announced that it was committed to evolving its network to LTE over the next five years. The move makes Alltel the second biggest CDMA carrier in the U.S., after Verizon Wireless, to commit to the LTE standard, even though LTE was originally on the GSM evolution path.
1. RIM announces BlackBerry partner fund
Research In Motion (RIM) has announced creation of a fund to invest in
- Commandaro – GPS based SN program. Sends out alerts and invites friends based on relevance to a user location
- GolfPlay – Support real time necessities of a golf player and acts as a SN to meet local area golfers
- Wikitude – Find points of interest based on your current location
- Sustain – Helps to keep your SN alive
- BreadCrumbz – Picture based naivigation
- Cooking Capsule: Convert recipes to a check-list!!
- Eco2Go – Alerts you on alternative public transport, so that you contribute less to the pollution
Overall, one of the dominant theme to be Social Networks (SN) and location based services in the context of SNs. Frankly, I was disappointed to see the list. No "change the world" kind of a stuff, yet.
You can get the complete list here and can see some screen shots here.
3. Alltel commits itself for LTE
Alltel announced that it was committed to evolving its network to LTE over the next five years. The move makes Alltel the second biggest CDMA carrier in the U.S., after Verizon Wireless, to commit to the LTE standard, even though LTE was originally on the GSM evolution path.
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