Nine predictions for 2009 (not what you think)

Well that is the title of a recent blog post of Tom Asacker, the guru of branding and author of A Clear Eye for Branding. Its brilliant, please read and please pass on. As I try to start a new begining in my new company, facing a tough 2009 ahead, the following two predictions inspire me:

#6 - The passionate will not only survive, but they thrive
#7 - Success will go to those with the best questions, not those with cleverest answers

Thank you very much,


RamP!

Reading list for Dec'08

December typically has several holidays and its my catch-up time with books. However, this year its tough due to commitments both on personal and professional sides.

Experience Economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage
According to Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore, authors, there are four levels of value starting with raw-materials economy at the base. Next up, the goods economy. Then, the services economy, and at the top of the totem pole is the experience economy. Examples of two companies that are reaping rewards by playing in the experience economy are Starbucks and Harley Davidson. Starbucks is not in the business of selling cups of coffee but is in the business of selling an experience referred to as the “third-place” between home and work where customers can find refuge, unwind, chat and connect with one another. Harley Davidson is not in the business of selling motorbikes but is in the business of selling an experience that Harley calls the “Rebel Lifestyle”. This book is continuation of my recent interest in economics.

The Pixar Touch: The making of a company
I'm a student of innovation. Infact I make a living by convincing my bosses that my core competance is to "facilitate impact through innovation". Nothing gives better education than studying firms that became successful through technological innovation. Pixar is one such company whose technical innovation revolutioned animation. Its also a story of company that began with a dream, remained true to the ideals of its founders—antibureaucratic and artist driven—and ended up a multibillion-dollar success. Want even more incentive to read? Steve Jobs too was associated with this company.


iCon Steve Jobs: The greatest second act in the history of Business
Apple Inc, holds a special place for anyone that worships design, I'm not an exception. I salivate of the thought of having my own MacBook sometime. I have seen so many presentations by Steve Jobs in an attempt to improve my own presentation skills. I hope to gain insights into Steve Jobs way by reading this book.





iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon
Steve Wozniak is considered to be an engineer's engineer. In this book the low profile Wozniak tells his story and corrects some information which is wrong - for example it has been chronicled that Jobs and Woz built the first Apple computer, but its only Woz who did it. This month's reading would be incomplete without reading about Woz.

Reading list for Nov'08

Realized that I had not posted my reading list for Nov'08, when I decided to post the same for the month of Dec'08. Here it is, before it is too late:

Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur
Sir Richard Branson is one of my heroes. I'm always fascinated by this man's vision, guts and charisma. In this book he openly discusses his principles, successes and failures. One feels so highly energised when you read the stories on how he took on the biggest companies (be it British Airways or Coca-Cola), how Virgin Mobile USA was made one of the fastest growing company in the US (I can related to Virgin Mobule USA (VMU) as I happen to work on a few cool phones, some of them for VMU, while I worked for Kyocera) and the audacious Virgin Galactic that would start space travel. If you are budding entrepreneur or aspiring to be one, you can also learn about the process at Virgin to fund select companies.

Mindset: The new psychology of success
Ever since my other hero, Guy Kawasaki, wrote about this book by Carlos Dweck, I wanted to read this book. Finally got a chance this month. The main message is contained in this paragraph
Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.” You may also want to read this article If you are open to growth, you tend to grow, which summarizes the work of the author.

Planned/Orgnaized Living vs being Spontaneous

My friend Vinay Dabholkar in his blog Becoming to Being, posted an interesting article on Story of Plan B. Like most of his posts, this too was thought provoking. My personal take on this specific one is that "it depends on the context" and I prefer preparation/planning to Plan B, though it might appear same, there is a subtle difference. When you are preparing, you come from a position of "playing to win". Plan B, though depends on the context, brings in a feeling of not being confident or in other words "playing not to loose".

I was reminded of an interesting discussion I had with a few friends of mine on being spontaneous vs being organized. Personally, I consider myself to be fairly organized. Lot of preparation and planning goes into most of my activities - both personal (like going on a vacation, or preparing for a job interview) and professional (meeting a client, commiting to a set of milestones etc.,). Naturally, I was arguing hard for being organized. Here are a few advantages that I see for "organized" people:

• the chance of succeeding is lot higher
• easier to change course midway because you are in control
• easier to accomplish several things and therefore lead a balanced life
• you become credible, because people would know that if you have committed to something it would happen
• ironically and more importantly, I've found out that I can be lot more spontaneous because I'm organized.

The key ofcourse is not being tied to outlook calendar or being totally inflexible or too much worried about "what people might think" if you change something. Its really not either-this-or-that.

I've no problem being spontaneous as long as being spontaneous is not an excuse for being indisciplined and not keeping commitments.

Turning around Malaysian Airlines

In these days of gloom one can get doses of adernaline by reading fascinating stories of big turn arounds. Happen to read one such thing in Mckinsey Quarterly, in which the CEO of Malaysian Airlines, Idris Jala explains how he went about turning around the ailing airline in a span of about 2yrs (from -$363M in 2005 to +$247M in 2007). Idris Jala had based this turn around on the following 6 principles:

• the game of impossible
• anchoring everything on the P & L
• building a winning coalition
• discipline of action
• situational leadership and
• divine intervention

He had to take some tough and emotionally charged decisions (like selling their building in KL downtown, which gave him monies to survive for 20more days) etc., He makes it looks very simple though. But the highlight is the clear execution. Bigger highlight is that Idris Jala had never run an airline, which clearly shows why leaders are important.

You can read the complete interview here (registration (free) needed).

100K clicks

From the last one year, I got a new passion - taking video clips of the (mostly) hindustani music concerts that I attend and post them on youtube. I posted a few clips and people started liking it and I started getting a ton of mails thanking me for posting. I suddenly realized that classical music lovers, that are living outside India, rely solely (well almost) on youtube or similar video sharing sites to enjoy live concerts, even if the clips represent only a tiny percentage of the whole concert. So I decided to take clips from all the concerts that I attend and post them. I've now posted, in an year, about 20+ live concerts and early this week, the total clicks crossed 100K.

It also helped me in my work. Around the same time, I was also studying Web2.0 and it was all making sense suddenly as I had this small project running. I had too many clips and decided to organize the same thru a blog that I titled SuSwara. Once this blog was up, I tried driving traffic into the blog and its been a very interesting experience, as my work revolves around content discovery.

Youtube makes it easy to analyse through their insights tool.

• The daily clicks are anywhere between 250-450.
  
• More than 50% of the viewers are in the US and about 30% is in India.
• Young gen, teenagers are not too much into hindustani music. Age group of 25-34 is about 12%, 35-44 is about 22%, 44+ is about 54%.
• Males are 77% and females the rest
• Bulk (more than 90%) of the content discovery happens thu Youtube's "related videos". My blog is slowly picking traffic and has started accounting for about 5% of the traffic.
  

You can even notice Longtail phenomenon too, Out of the 22 concerts that I've presented the analysis above, about 4 concerts are runaway hits, but the clicks on the remaining 18 concerts are far more than the clicks for the top 4 concerts. Never thought it would be so much fun.

Artists too fall into Web2.0 or old world categories. There are some artists who happily grant permission to post them as they understand the power of internet. There are stubborn ones who openly announce not to record. Ofcourse I never asked the greats - Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, they don't need such things.

But the most satisfying part is the mails that I receive almost daily thanking me for posting the clips and telling me how much they enjoyed. I now have e-friendships all over the world, thnx to youtube. The obsession to attend concerts has become so much that earlier when I had to skip a concert, I used to think I miss the concert, now I start thinking lot of other people outside on India are going to miss. So, I try to attend almost all concerts that come my way (though my wife is not happy) and what a blessing it is.

Bharat Ratna for Pt. Bhimsen Joshi

I'm thrilled to note that BharatRatna, the highest civilian award has be conferred on the giant of Hindustani Music, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. Its a moment of great joy for millions of his fans like me. I started listening to his Daasavaanis (kannada bhajans, if you will), some 20-25yrs back and never knew that would be the starting point of my interest in Hindustani Music. I started buying Panditji's albums and now I've almost all of his albums and some mp3 files from live concerts.

Panditji is now about 86yrs old and even he was hospitalized, he came back and sung in the annual Sawai Gandhrwa Music festival that he has started in memory of his guru. Will pray god that Panditji lives for several more years.