Service mindset

Thought it will be worthwhile revisiting it based on several discussions earlier this week. Cloud/SaaS focus is more about the second 'S' in SaaS that stand for 'Service' over first 'S' - Software. It is the 'Service' aspect that differentiate SaaS with traditional Software product approaches - particularly in the enterprise space. There are various…

Why Agile

Product organizations are going through significant transformation. Business/commercial expectations of the Product organizations are changing; customer (buyer) behaviors are changing; how software gets priced; distributed and implemented is changing; People/employee expectation within an organization is changing; etc. All of this has led to the Product organizations transforming their inner-working and organizing things differently. As someone…

Change

This is an exciting time for people working in the technology field. Technology landscape is constantly changing and not a period goes by when we don't hear about innovation happening all around us. In fact, we experience most of the innovation as consumer sooner these days. So one has to keep investing in personal growth…

Know thyself

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. ~ Tao I enjoy meeting people who are self-aware. I look for the opportunity to work with them wherever possible. Working with them usually turns out to be a great experience where I end up gaining more and…

About Mentors and Change

In various conversations - I usually get asked question that imply something like "how I got to where I am now". My usual reply to those questions has always been something like: "My professional life is shaped by 2 things. Leading change and having great mentors". I suspect this will remain same for my professional…

Wanna play? Can you commit?

"It was my tongue that swore; my heart is unsworn" - Euripides We all have personally experienced, heard or seen examples where an individual or team accomplish goals that otherwise was seen hard to accomplish. It is the kind of stories that surprise people involved. You know about it when you experience it. And I am sure…

Paradox in business life

Life is full of paradoxes. All of us experience it on daily basis. Business life is no exception either. Few examples: Seek consensus or seek difference of opinion: Looking for consensus? But difference of opinion is what bring individuality and makes a place aspiring. However, you need a level of consensus to build buy-in for successful…

In our lifetime…

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin In our life time - we saw: Computers came to life. And shrank in size as fast as they came while becoming extremely powerful Computers…

Teamwork and Collaboration

Earlier today, I stumbled on this video clip of John Chambers speaking to Harvard Business on few of the things changing on the organization front. It is vital in the current day and age where increasingly changing landscape and global competition that continue to shape things faster than ever before. The need to scale our…

Management Excellence

Front line management plays a key role in the success of an organization. It can be competitive differentiator when companies are able to harness their management talent for their greater good. Consider the following on the importance of front line management: For 80% to 90% of the employees in an organization - their direct manager…

Leadership by Influence – Part Deux

This is in continuation to the earlier post...Here are few things I do more consciously than ever before in my own leadership journey: 1. Hire bright people and get out-of-the-way. It has been my rule #1 forever. Leaders are responsible for bringing in the bright talent and establish right organization processes/structure necessary that encourages desirable…

Collaborative Leadership – Leadership by Influence

Command and Control style leadership is outdated. Gone are the days when an organization look up to the leader and expect all the answers - or have leaders that expect to answer everything.  It limits what an organization can accomplish. Leaders who expect to have their fingers in every hole and micro manage stops much…

Rhythms

Life is about rhythms. Establish good rhythms and life become humming...likewise fail to establish rhythm and soon we are panting leaving us out of breath. Rhythms are important both in personal life and in professional life. Right rhythms help achieve what we care about and bring desired change. Like I have some rhythms around personal…

Net promoter score

If you have not heard about Net Promoter Score (NPS) - do yourself a favor and learn about it. Some links are here, here, and here. In a nut shell it is about building more promoters of your business than detractors. More customers speaking good about your business the better. It takes a whole lot…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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. 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. No Surprises- Trust…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…