Market-ing: Make it personal

We live in a time where communicating to broad audience alone one way has limited reach and stickiness. To make a message sticky and gain viral spread – you want to communicate through your audience. You want to foster a community of influencers who can help spread your message and communicate for you.

Ask someone who is running a business and they will more likely suggest that bigger risk they run is not getting adequate market recognition making sales cycle harder for them. Putting businesses in a position to not able to compete effectively in the market place. Unless you are doing some ground breaking invention – not many will cite they run technology/product risk as the primary reason to go out of business. Market risk usually trump over the product risk. Largely products adopts and evolves to follow customer/technology life cycle. At least until it meets a disruptive trend.

Several well known Marketing gurus have suggested how to effectively target marketing message to create the viral adoption taking “Marketing” from job function perspective to “market-ing ideas that spread” broadly. e.g. Seth Godin…around his thought process “Ideas that spread – wins” or Tribal management. or Forrester on its analysis around how to create Groundswell. Web is littered with such case studies and adoption stories – some more successful than others.

It is one of the reason - more businesses from the get go are increasingly embracing social media and encourage employees to rather share ideas broadly. Folks will invest from the start building community of developers/influencer/promoters needed to give business a market edge. Taking the discussion beyond Marketing department to engage every one involved in the endeavor to help promote your business; ideas; product; etc.

At the end of the day ask yourself – who best positioned to spread what you do best and all the creative ideas about your business than your own employees. So start the journey with your team and go get your ideas out…

Share your ideas – Social Media 101

I find myself in more situations lately educating others or asking others to embrace social media as part of professional life. It has become a norm for start up companies where social media is part of life. However, in established companies it is a journey: some leap forward and others need hand holding to get the journey started.

I usually find 2 stumbling block for the folks who have not done it before:

1. Overcome their own inertia or fear what does it mean to share ideas on the whole world wide web.
2. Not knowing how to get started – particularly how to keep personal and professional life separate and private as one deem appropriate.

I am not an expert but I have embraced few things as part of my daily personal/professional life. Here is what I do:

a. Facebook: It is my personal family/friend group. This is where I keep up with what is happening in the life of my family and close friends. I usually share personal/family stuff here. I am particular about whose invitation I accept on Facebook or who I invite to be my friend. You can find me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/alok.tyagi

b. Twitter: This is where I microblog on what is happening in my professional life. Usually, I share organization thoughts that are important to me. I accept everyone who want to follow me on twitter – except lately I am finding blocking some people who seem to have find a way to push porn on Twitter. You can find me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aloktyagi

c. Personal blog: This is where I speak my mind and share my personal/professional opinion on wide variety of topics – usually topics that are near and dear to my heart. You can find my personal blog at http://aloktyagi.wordpress.com

d. Company blog: This is where I represent my professional view as it pertains to the company I work for. You may want to check out your company policy. Some companies are restrictive on what you can say or not. Others are rather liberal and allows people to speak their mind. Anyway – it is better to know company policy as you blog on company site or forum. You can find my company blog at http://community.sagemas.com

e. LinkedIn: I don’t use it as much as others do. It is mostly my professional contact list and I usually use it to do quick reference check or know relationship when I meet someone new. I only accept LinkedIn requests from people that I know of or met recently at some conference/networking event. You can find me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/aloktyagi

Anyway – there are various other avenues and some people use social media more than others. I suggest find your comfort zone and start the journey – whether to start on the personal end or professional end or both. What is important is to start the journey and be regular.

Me Inc.

Are you the CEO of your destiny who is  investing towards your future – learning and sharpening the game?

Great musicians never stop trying to improve; great athletes never stop trying to improve – so why should that not be true for everyone else.

However, it is rather common that many of us stop investing towards learning once formal education is over. Class room education may stop but quest for learning and keeping up with the changing landscape should remain high on the personal agenda. Whatever it is that one want to be better at – can be better – should a person keep hunger in the belly to learn and create opportunities to apply.

It remain a key difference that set apart individuals who succeed from others. Successful individuals never stop applying new learning. They can be gauged by their curiosity to learn and apply everyday. One key metrics – just check their book shelf. It is common for them to read several books a month.

So ask yourself – what is competing for your time that takes away personal obligation towards investing in yourself and learning?

One way is to make a commitment – find books/on-line material/social networking groups/etc. that are relevant to an individual profession and get started. Good books can be the single best personal investment and life mentor. 

I say let’s start today.

Be a fisherman

While driving back home yesterday, I tuned in to the NPR as a routine habit. At that time, I happen to catch a story on Fishermen’s life – particularly how they deal with the highs and lows in their life. In fact it is the only way of life a fisherman knows. Various thought sparked in my mind and prime being – what a tough life!!! One would wonder how to tackle life when nothing is predictable or usual. To top off the story – it is amazing that fishermen encourage their kids to follow the same profession. It must be the love of fishing.

Anyway, I thought the story appropriate to share given current tough business environment. Check it out or listen to the audio.

(The audio is 5 min or so long)

3 thoughts, I picked up:

1. Cooperate and Collaborate – foster your community; commit to it, help and support each other

2. One has to love the line of business so much to encourage your kids to follow the same

3. Above all – have a positive ATTITUDE. It is THE difference

Find good people around you who share your enthusiasm and “can-do” attitude and let’s go to bat (fish) together. Enjoy!!!

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won

Tough time present opportunities otherwise not available. Current economic environment is just one such opportunity.

Much depend on how we as individuals act and enable others to act to make the best of it. It is  our collective attitude that determine how an organization will fare as the rough weather passes.

Few thoughts:

1. Know yourself – recognize your strength and weakness. Position where your strength can make a difference

2. Work with people, regardless of their position, who share optimistic perspective on things (equally important shield yourself from individuals with negative attitude)

3. Know where you are going; bring focus on critical few; and make hard choices necessary to accomplish

4. Have sense of urgency to achieve. It should be driven out of what you plan to accomplish and not fear. Fear usually motivates but in the wrong direction

5. Roll up your sleeve and get involved directly with your customers, products or whatever your line of work. It helps appreciate perspective otherwise missing

Lastly –  communicate openly and candidly.

Remember, in the current environment – it is high time to demonstrate the winning attitude and make a difference. Opportunity is knocking at our door step – question is who is prepared to respond?

Innovation stumbling block

Innovation is hard. It is usually hard in an established organization. Why?

Top 3 reasons, in my mind, that hurt innovation in an established organization:

1. Knowledge – It is a double edge sword. While past experience helps but many smart brains get caught up to the learning or failed experiences of the past talking themselves (and unfortunately others too) out of good ideas prematurely.

2. Being perfect – On the other end, smart people looking for the perfection doesn’t help either.  Smart folks finding themselves rat-holing a conversation on obscure things making an idea too hard to conceive at the onset or too costly to tackle. Some time perfect is the enemy of good enough that stop conceiving a great idea from taking shape. Innovation evolves by shaping the idea one day at a time to its greatness.  

3. Afraid of failing – Smart people trying not to stick the neck out or taking chances that may make a difference because the potential of an effort may fail. It is our desire to act ordinary and remain on the proven path hence avoiding what best could have been achieved. It is amazing how conspiracy theorists (and they exist) attract smart brains keeping them just acting ordinary.

Alienus Non Diutius

Pixar motto “Alienus Non Diutius” (Latin for ”Alone no longer”) speaks volume. Pixar is probably the only Hollywood production house that emphasizes collaboration where crew remain employed one movie after another. This is considerably different from other production houses where everyone is on a contract for one movie. Once the movie is over folks moves on to their next production forming another crew with other production houses or whatever else they can lay their hand on.  

Is it just a coincidence that Pixar continues to deliver hit after another hit? or is it the team work that make Pixar stand out. Consider Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Bugs life, Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Cars, Wall-E, etc.

“Alienus Non Diutius” hits the nail for software organization. Gone are the days of lone rangers where organization rode on the back of heroes only to find they can’t scale. Heroes are still needed (actually by a lot) – but someone who knows how to be part of a team environment. Such heroes bring sea change in an organization. These gifted individuals groom other strong players bringing high tide in the organization and make it play on a level field otherwise not possible.

Well done is better than well said…

Earlier today, I was watching an interview of Arnold Schwarzenegger on ABC. In response to a question he quoted his belief around “Well done is better than well said”. I love it…

Action just speak louder than the words. It is great to be of creative mind and think new ideas. But the fun is in converting those ideas and making it real.

Which idea do you want to work on today?

PS: This quote gets originally attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

People process

Bob Bennett from Sage Payment Solution Division recommended “The Future of Management” and also send me a copy to read. It is an interesting read and the book compares the management practices of the yesteryears to what is needed now to build an innovative/high performance organization. Management Innovation is called out repeatedly touting empowered employees in a self managed, transparent organization where peers hold each other accountable to build a high performing organization.

Truly, at the end of the day an organization success is a direct product of the people it employs. I like the example of Toyota’s TPS (Toyota Production System) fondly known as “Thinking People System” is a good example of how it can be a differentiator in tough industry environment. It is keeping Toyota healthy despite all the challenges within the automobile industry.

A team from Detroit once took the tour to Toyota to find out the difference. Initially, success was attributed due to the Japenese culture and different work ethics resulting in Toyota (and similar other Japanese auto marker) an edge over its Detroit counterparts. It soon got belied as Toyota expanded its manufacturing base in US. Now, even within the same cultural context and country Toyota continues to make the difference that has made it famous.

The key to the success, as people find out, is the constant change that happens at Toyota – mostly driven by its employees who are always looking to optimize or making things better. It is widely touted as “Kaizen“. Contrast this with other companies where change is induced from the top when the need is drastic and employees resist change resulting in half hearted adoption akin to too little too late. Thus companies struggle to remain agile and difficult to keep up with the market need.

In mature market and competitive industry landscape where margins are hard to acheive and average growth remains minimal - it is such a boon for Toyota where employees bring gradual change among themselves ensuring organization to remain current with the need. Also, it fosters a culture of team work, collaboration, and change that thrive to remain agile. Essentially, Toyota is successfully reaping on the bright brains it employs.

Learning here is no different for other industries including enterprise software. Key to success remains empowering employees who regularly reflect on day’s work and adapt; fostering a cross functional team environment; and an environment where peers hold each other accountable for the joint success.

Organization thoughts

Organization is much in my thoughts these days. So I thought of capturing some of those that worked well for me over the years.

1. Think globally act locally – Understand the big picture from business perspective and know where the ship is sailing to rationalize everyday decisions and their impact towards the goal.
2. No Surprises- Trust gets built overtime. One way to foster trust in any relationship is to avoid surprises. It is mutual and my #1 ask of people who work with me – just don’t surprise me. More important – just don’t surprise when there is bad news. It helps keeping lines of communication open and over time groom trust needed in the current competitive landscape.
3. Good news is no news, bad news is good news, no news is bad news- Idea being you can proactively work on improving should you know what the bad news is. It is just terrible when you have no clue what needs fixing or get no red flares. Key is being proactive in identifying bad news and aggressively working to fix it.
4. Learn, Unlearn, Relearn - We live in a time where change happens more often. Technologies and business landscape is ever changing. One definition of illiteracy in the current world order is how fast one can learn, unlearn and relearn the new skills. Ask yourself do you have an appetite to learn as new opportunities knock on the door? Better yet present yourself to those new opportunities.
5. Failure is an option - At times, we make mistake and fail. It is OK to make mistake. Knowing there is a safety net allows new ideas to nurture. But understand successful individuals also know how to fail early; correct quickly; and learn from it to avoid repeating it. You get additional point when you share the learning to peers so that others learn from your mistake. It help build openness, collaboration and trust.
6. Bias to action – Remember - we all have an equal if not more chance to win. As the saying goes – luck favors those that are prepared and destiny is defined by the collective action we take. What need to be done is – act and act now. Take one step at a time without getting caught up with analysis/paralysis. Demonstrating progress and successes all along goes a long way than simple talk for the perfect grandiose plan.
7. Be a problem solver - Highlight the problem but more importantly suggest alternatives and propose solution. Remember fun is in action and showing progress improving things – not by having the best idea in your brain that never gets to see the light of the day.
8. Keep your commitment everyday - If you committed to finish something today – do it. Time and schedule are only as important as you would like them to be. It takes a discipline approach and soon one learns how to constantly prioritize everything that comes their way to ensure what is committed gets done. Whatever we slip – we slip one day at a time.
9. Participate – Be engaged in understanding/participating/influencing organization goal; share your opinion and provide feedback. Also, know when a decision is made how to be the best soldier and execute.
10. Lastly, have stretch goal – Impossible speaks loudly to I-M-Possible. We constantly see things that others would call hard but actually possible for some. This is one difference that makes an organization win over others in the marketplace. Keep in mind organization succeed when people succeed – not the other way around.

Bottom line – Keep an open mind; don’t shy away from going beyond what you know possible and have fun along the way. All work and no fun gets boring pretty quickly.

 

Kaizen

A key measure of a successful product organization is its ability to deliver on Quality commitments. This usually is the cost of entry in a competitive market landscape. There is no magic formula for an organization to get there. Key remains building a culture of continuous improvement.

In Japanese, there is a term that describes “continuous improvement” mindset well. It is called “Kaizen”. Toyota actually mastered this and it later became part of the DNA of various Japanese companies causing them to win the marketplace primarily on the basis of Quality.  

Kaizen emphasize the culture of continual small improvements that yields large results in a form of compound productivity improvement over a period of time. The “zen” in Kaizen emphasizes the learn-by-doing aspect of improving productivity. Idea remains smaller experiments, which can be rapidly adapted as new improvements are suggested.

In our industry one way to measure Quality is considering how its “Quality curve” looks like during product development. It is plotting number of defects on y-axis during various phases of product development. A traditional organization that deals with quality late in the development cycle may look like the following:-

to another with the emphasis of bringing quality early on during the development cycle:-

So watch out next time as you encounter bumps that can be improved. What you do to get around those bumps and how you address it has an impact towards building winning organization. Every effort counts.

Power of an Agile Mind

Agile processes have come a long way. It is now available in various flavors and different names. All promises an organization’s ability to deliver customer value faster while enabling organization to deal with the change. Several successful stories ranging from start up entrepreneurial companies to established large software organization help Agile Processes continue to gain traction. 

However key to the success comes down to the people. Agile processes like Scrum are great enabler in tearing down the barriers and bringing cross functional organization closer. But at the end of the day it is about how people approach problem and tackle everyday situation. Individuals with Agile mind tend to accomplish things that otherwise remain unaccomplished. Agile is as much a state of mind and how individuals in an organization approach things as it is about process and structure.

So what makes an Agile mind – beyond the classic chicken and pig story? Here are few characterstics -

• Believe in working as a team and recognizing team success
• Embraces change and focus more on providing solutions to the changing need
• Works relentlessly to remove barriers and getting today’s work done today
• Take individual responsibility and pride in an individual work
• Focuses on big picture and understand customer needs
• Deals with conflict in a positive way

Interestingly as I was searching the Internet on Agile mindset – I stumbled on this link around how agile mindset is applied by the US Army in Iraq. Similar principles in a different setting demonstrating the power of good communication flow and empowered individuals.

You get what you measure (or lack of)

As the saying goes “What you can’t measure – you can’t improve”. Paul Kedrosky mentioned in his blog various metrics an enterprise software company to use. It lists a score card of a typical good enterprise software company.

Personally, I am a number kind of a guy and also emphasize measuring various aspect of business – be it around what we do (building, selling, supporting, etc.) in a company or how (process, organization structure, etc.) we do it. It makes decision making objective and helps the organization to focus on the right things. Although, people need to keep in mind common sense and an aspect on subjectivity before making decision – as sometimes indicators don’t tell the whole story.

Also before instituing any metrics, an organization management, should carefully consider what it is trying to accomplish. Metrics drives behavior within organization. So good metrics drive good behavior and bad metrics drive bad behavior in the organization.

Paul Kedrosky’s blog suggests few key measurements around various aspect of the business. It also include a typical score card that can be used to benchmark. Check it out.

In product development, few of the metrics that I find helpful are around the following:

1. Utilizing capacity and resources

2. Progress of current work in development

3. Several quality metrics of work in progress during various development phases

4. Quality of releases in the market

5. Customer satisfaction metrics

6. Various organization metrics

First month at Sage Software

One good thing about being terribly busy – time flies. I just finished my first month at Sage Software. Looking back, I find the first month fulfilling. I spent much of the time learning across 3P – People, Product and Process.

I spent good amount of time meeting people within and outside my organization. I tried to cover and meet my development organization at Irvine and Toronto. I met various leaders at Sage. I met a few of our business partners who are extremely dedicated to our products. Although, I continue to learn here, but it has jump started my journey at Sage and provided me various perspectives to have early discussion around organization.

In the coming months, I look for opportunity to meet customers and visit development site that I have not covered to meet with the team members in my organization.

I also spent much time understanding various software development and organizational processes. I have several products in my portfolio (MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, PFW and BW) and an organization that is geographically spread out. Each product team, based on the need, has evolved and morphed the processes over time. This makes it quite a learning curve to understand all the different jargons and acronyms used. I think, I am getting there where I can have meaningful conversation like a native with all the right jargons and acronyms in a sentence.

Also, I got several opportunity to review various product in action. I had few architecture discussion around MAS 90 and MAS 500 products. It is helping me form an early impression to have few discussions around evolving architecture. I also got the chance to review product roadmap and get the glimpse on where we are trying to sail the ship. I reviewed current releases in development. 

All in all – it was a great first month. Although, it kept me away from blogging but I am hoping I made up the time learning various aspect of my new job.

 Bon voyage!

un pour tous, tous pour un

Oh! I just love it…

One for all, and all for one. Teamwork rocks!!

…

3P – People, Product and Process

Last few days, I was busy clearing much of the boxes that I had brought back from my office. It was walking down the memory lane going over various folders, documents and depositing them to recycle.

One thing I noticed was how long 3P – People, Product Process has been part of my work. I found meeting agenda starting in year 2001 that included 3P. Managing around these dimensions became an integral and central part of the work. Although, the concepts got molded over the period of time.

I don’t recollect how I got exposed to 3P initially – but I recall managing to these dimensions got re-enforced after I read “Execution” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan sometime in 2002-03.

In “Execution”, these three dimensions were referred to as “Strategy” – focusing on why/what; “Operations” – focusing on how; and “People” – focusing on who.

Coming from the Product Development organization, “Strategy” seemed to me as something that result into a “Product” and “Operations” was all about “Processes” needed to build an efficient organization.

So what surfaced in my staff agenda in 2001 – still remains an integral part of the agenda today.

Also one thing about opening old boxes – sometimes I think, it is better to keep them closed. It helps save time and grief.