Setting the vision for the IDC

Continuation of the story of setting up the India Development Center (IDC) after explaining how I got into it and how we decided to register with STPI instead of SEZ.

One of the things that we (myself and a long time colleague who was happy to join me in this venture) wanted to avoid was to position the IDC as a low-cost alternative and define all goals and parameters based on cost alone. My good friend Vinay Dabholkar, who runs a consulting business helping organizations to MUTVC (Moving Up The Value Chain), has already done a study of captive IDCs of MNCs. He pointed me to the Partnership Maturity Model (PMM) [1] pioneered at the Philips Innovation Campus at Bangalore, besides giving his insights on the typical problems faced by the IDCs to move out of cost-center model into an innovation center.

The PMM talks about 5 levels of maturity.

1. Resource Center: The center provide only the resources and the cost is managed on a per resource level. Differentiating attribute is the center's ability to supply resources as per the need.
2. Offshore Development Center: At this level the center manages the projects locally and the cost is managed at project level. Project Management is the key differentiating factor.
3. Center of Excellence: A this level, the center co-develops requirements in its area of excellence and starts contributing to the feature roadmap.
4. Innovation Center: At this level the center creates new product ideas and protoypes. It also owns the technology and product roadmaps.
5. Highly Valued Partner: At this level the center influences the standards, defines new areas of research and contributes towards market leadership.

This PMM gave us a great framework to articulate the vision for the center, which we sold to our management and got their buy-in. It also helped us to attract top talent and set goals for the overall center and for individuals.

Due to internal reasons we have started at Level 2 (ODC). Since all the software development happens in India, we will be skipping the Level 3 and would move to Level 4 directly. We have set ourselves a goal of one year to do so.

We see the following challenges though:

1. It is essential that Level 2 is crossed with flying colors and that the enggs are trained on the technology and products quickly. If we cannot deliver at the basic project management levels, we are doomed.

2. The market (Internet Radio) is in the developed world. If we have to influence and then own roadmaps, we need to figure out a way to remain on top of the market dynamics, sitting in Bangalore.

3. Defining what is the meaning of innovation at various levels - enggs, architects and system engineers. Once this defined coming up with supporting processes and mertices.

4. Recession. We are in the middle of unprecedented recession. Too many things happening all around on which we don't have any control. Maintaing focus and motivation in tough times are going to be a lot challenging.

We are blessed to have put in a world class team without too much effort (which typically is the biggest challenge for start-ups), thanks to our conscious effort over the years in building an eco-system that we could tap into, based on a few simple values that we stand for. Resumes continue to pour-in long after our initial hiring is completed.

In the next post, I'll talk about some of the guiding principles on which we want to base the IDC on.

[1]: Jaideep E K, Dr. Ajitabh and Ravi Raghavendra, Partnership Maturity Model: Philips Innovation Campus recipe for moving up the value chain, IMK conference on Global Competitiveness, Feb 2006.

Thank you very much,


RamP!

Tribes: We need you to lead us

Tribes: We need you to lead us

Well, this is the title of Seth Godin's (one of my heroes), new book. In this inspirational book, that I read as a part of my January reading plan, Seth argues that today everyone has an opportunity to bring together a tribe of like-minded people and change the world. Yet too many people ignore the opportunity, too afraid to take the lead. It is indeed comforting to know that for people that have passion and drive, there is a tribe of employees, or customers, or investors, just waiting to get connected and follow the leader.

I was underlining the concepts that resonated with me (and ended up marking more than half the book), and thought of putting a few things down here.

* Leaders have followers. Managers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make change. Leadership is about creating the change you believe in. He doesn't push; he leads.
* Leaders lead when they take positions, when they connect with their tribes, and when they help the tribe connect to itself. They use passion and ideas to lead people, as opposed to using threats and bureaucracy to manage them.
* For tribes, average can mean mediocre. Not worth seeking out. Boring. "Good enough" stopped being good enough long time ago. Average stuff is taken for granted, not talked about and certainly not sought out. Defending mediocrity is exhausting. So why not be great?
* Individuals who push their organizations, who inspire other individuals to change rules, thrive. Whatever the status quo is, changing it gives you an opportunity to be remarkable.
* The only thing that is holding you back is your own fear. The essence of leadership is being aware of your fear (and seeing it in the people you wish to lead)
* Deciding to lead, not manage is a critical choice. If you are not uncomfortable with your work as a leader, it is almost certain you're not reaching your potential as a leader. Leadership is a choice. Its the choice to not do anything.
* Curious is the key word. It has to do with a desire to understand, a desire to try. And perhaps its such curiosity that will lead us to distinguish our own greatness from the mediocrity that stares us in the face.
* All that you need to know is two things - first thing is that one peron can change an industry and the second thing is faith. Faith that you can do it; faith that it' worth doing. Faith that failure won't destroy you. Faith leads to hope and it overcomes fear. Without faith it is suicidal to be a leader.
* The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate. Initiating is really and truly difficult, and thats what leaders do.
* The secret of leadership is simple. Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow. Why not you? Why not now?

You can buy the book here: Amazon, IndiaPlaza.

Thank you very much,


RamP!

Tom Peters on Innovation

One of my heroes and uber management guru Tom Peters, has come up with a list of 121 tactics, for/on innovation. Each tactic is a nugget in itself, in typical Tom Peters style. He says "recession or no recession, deep recession or not, the challenge to add more and more value grows, and the importance of innovation, and a culture of innovation grows exponentially. A "culture of innovation" covers everything. There is no half way". What more, the document also has 87 of TP's s favourite quotes on innovation, which itself is a treat to read.

The "culture of innovation" that TP covers falls under the following sections:

1. Trying Stuff. Screwing up Stuff. Fast.
2. Discipline. Accountablity. Execution.
3. We are What we Eat.
4. Diversity.
5. R & D
6. Role of Lead Customers. Loving Angry Customers.
7. Cross functional excellence.
8. Project teams
9. SkunkWorks. The invisible/shadow organizations
10. Decentralization
11. Commitment to Excellence in Innovation

Thank you very much,


RamP!

Mapping Decline and Recovery Across Sectors

McKinsey Quarterly has come-up with a study where they looked at the financial performance of US companies in the last 4 recessions and then analyzed how different sectors enter and emerge from recessions at different times. This is an interesting study for those who are actively involved in the strategy formulation of an organization and/or plain students of strategy. Here are some of their key observations:

1. Similar beginnings: All 4 recessions started with a dip in consumer discretionary sector and spread through the economy.
2. Variable magnitude: The size of the dip in EBITA varies across sectors
3. Speed of decline and recovery: Sectors contracted much more quickly than they recovered
4. Share price performance: Share prices tend to decline before or just after the recessions starts and tend to rise near the end of recession and in either case the actual financial performace of the organization reflects the share prices, with a lag.

Entire report is available here (registration is needed and is free).

Thank you very much,


RamP!

Goals Goals

This weekend I just completed my goals for 2009. No, its not new year resolutions. I tend to set and track my goals twice an year - during Christmas vacation (and in Jun/Jul), as I go to my village and in the serene coconut grove, its lot easier to introspect how I spent the last year and what should I be doing for the coming year. I run the first set of goals with my support group and after incorporating their feedback, I'm done. This is a practice, I've been doing religiously over a few years and this year is no different.

I was asked by a few friends and colleagues to explain my process of setting up the goals and hence this post (few resources at the end of the post!)

First and foremost is to come-up with a personal mission of sorts. I found out mine to be "Facilitating Impact through Innovation. Contribute. Learn. Enjoy". I don't know whether this represents a mission, but this statement has worked wonders for me. It helps to both set and evaluate goals.

In 2006, I ran into an article The ABC's of a Kaleidoscope Career in which the authors argue that there are three parameters for individuals to take stock of their career decisions and make changes and transitions to meet their needs for their lives, families and themselves. These are:

• an individual's needs for challenge, career advancement and self-worth juxtaposed against
• a family's need for balance, relationships, and caregiving, intersected by the person's need to say,
• "what about me?", "How can I be authentic, true to myself and make genuine decisions for myself in my life?".

Stephen Covey, in his First Things First, recommends setting goals keeping in mind the roles that one tends to play - your role at the office (engineer, manager, accountant etc.,), parent, spouse, volunteer at an organization etc., I liked this idea and next define the primary roles that I play.

Once the primary roles are defined, I go about setting top level goals for the each role and in the second pass further subdivide the same into quarterly/monthly goals and a measurement criteria for each of these.

Finally I do a check. Are the roles inline with the ABCs mentioned above? And are the goals inline with the mission described above? If I pass this test, I take it to my support group for feedback. The whole process usually takes about 2-3 weeks. I review the progress usually in April/May during the summer vacation.

Here are some resources:
1. Franklin Covey's Mission Statement Builder
2. Franklin Covey's Outlook add-in PlanPlus for weekly planning
3. Creating Desired Future workshop
4. www.43things.com - List your goals, Share your progress, Cheer each other on
5. Joe's Goals - Habit tracker
6. Suggested Reading: (no specific order)

• Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
• First Things First - Stephen Covey
• 10 Natural Laws of Time and Life Management - Hyrum Smith
• The Magic of Thinking Big -David Shwartz
  
• The Richest Man in Babylon - George Clason
• Mastery -George S. Leonard
  
• BrandYou 50 - Tom Peters
• QBQ - The Question behind the question -John Miller
  
• Now Discover your Strengths - Markus Buckingham
• Jonathan Livingstone Seagull -Richard Bach
  
• As a Man Thinketh - James Allen (free e-book here, registration needed)
• Simple Steps to Impossible Dreams - Steven Scott
• The Art of Possibility - Roz and Ben Zander
  

Reading list for Jan'09

New year, new beginning. I'm now booked atleast till Jun'09 w.r.t reading. I plan to read 3 books as a part of my PMBA (Strategy & Innovation, Economics, Productivity & Effectiveness) and one book on special interest (Physics, Zen, Philosophy and Parenting). Here is the list of books I plan to read this month:

Tribes: We need you to lead us
Seth Godin has been one of my heroes and his blog and books provide some great ideas. I use the word "remarkable" far more than what it used to be sometime ago. This particular book was named the best business book of 2008 by the folks at 800-CEO-READ and I thought I should read this book first. In this book Seth Godin argues that today everyone has an opportunity to bring together a tribe of like minded people and do amazing things. The book is for those who don't want to be a sheep and instead have a desire to do fresh and exciting work.



Seeing Whats Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change
In this book the authors present a framework for predicting outcomes in the evolution of any industry. The authors develop a three-part process of predicting industry change: (1) identifying signals of change; (2) analyzing competitive battles; and (3) understanding strategic choices.






Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
With stories on tariffs, minimum wage, rent controls, taxes. unions, wages, profits, savings, credit, unemployment, and so much more, Hazlitt takes some of the most difficult economic concepts and makes these easily accessible to the lay person who has no economic training, background, or even inclination.






Know How: The 8 Skills That Separate People That Perform from Those Who Don't
I've been a big fan of Ram Charan after reading his book "Execution" and applying those principles in almost everything I do. Ram Charan has identified, eight skills - he calls them "know-hows" - essential for leadership success:

1. Positioning and Repositioning. The ability to find an idea for the organization that meets customers' demands and makes money.
2. Pinpointing External Change. The ability to identify patterns that place the organization on the offensive.
3. Leading the Social System. The ability to get the right people with the right behaviors and the right information to make better decisions and business results.
4. Judging People. The ability to calibrate people based on their actions, decisions and behaviors and matches them to the job's non-negotiables.
5. Molding a Team. The ability to coordinate competent, high-ego leaders.
6. Setting Goals. The ability to balance goals that give equal weighting to what the business can become and what it can achieve.
7. Setting Priorities. The ability to define a path and direct resources, actions, and energy to accomplish goals.
8. Dealing with Forces beyond the Market. The ability to deal with pressures you cannot control but affect your business.

The Tao of Physics
I have a rather unusual interest in diverse subjects like Physics and Zen. This book was suggested to me by a friend of mine which relates both and naturally I wanted to read and understand it. I've no idea what to expect, but looking forward to read this as my friend who suggested this book also has been reading and has invited to exchange ideas - no better way to understand a book.

Personal MBA

I ran into the concept called Personal MBA (PMBA) as a regular reader of Seth Godin's blog. Its been a long cherished dream of mine to go back to college to study MBA and it is not coming to the top of my goals list somehow, as responsibilities both on personal and professional front keep increasing.

PMBA in a nut shell is a logical collection of best of the business books that you can read at your own pace. Please read the PMBA manifesto here. Reading is a big part of learning for me (my personal library has over 500 books and on an average I read 3-4 books every month). I got hooked on to PMBA as I realized its better to do a systematic reading, instead of reading interesting, but unconnected books.

I started by PMBA journey in Jan-2008 with a goal of completing the same by Dec-2009. The target for the year 2008 was to complete books on Strategy & Innovation, Marketing, Sales and Negotiation and Personal Effectiveness. It was a mixed bag - I completed books on Strategy, and about 75% of the books on the remaining two. This year I plan to complete the books in rest of the categories (Finance, Design & Production and Management & Leadership) and ofcourse the remaining books from 2008 that I could not complete.

Oliver Roland at Books That Can Change Your Life has set a goal to read 52 books off the PMBA list in 52 weeks, and he’s blogging the experience. Take a look at this post and its inspiring.

Thank you very much,


RamP!