Interesting piece on innovation..

By Godin: Source: http://hbr.org/2010/11/column-to-win-create-whats-scarce/ar

Excerpts below:

Marketers like to work on the demand side—take what’s in demand, make it cheaper, run a lot of ads, make a profit. If you can increase demand for what you already make, a lot of problems take care of themselves. It’s the promise of the typical marketing organization: Give us money, and we’ll increase demand.
There’s an overlooked alternative, though. If you can offer a scarce and coveted good or service that others can’t, you win. What is both scarce and in demand? Things that are difficult: difficult to conceive, to convey, to make. Sometimes difficult even, at first, to sell—maybe an unpopular idea or a product that’s ahead of its time. In fact, just about the only thing that is not available in unlimited supply in an ever more efficient, connected world is the product of difficult work.
The only refuge from the race to the bottom? Difficult work. Your only alternative is to create something scarce, something valuable, something that people will pay more for.
What’s difficult? Creating beauty is difficult, whether it’s the tangible beauty of a brilliant innovation or the intangible essence of exceptional leadership. Beauty exists in an elegant and novel approach to a problem.

People who can do difficult work will always be in demand. And yet our default is to do the easy work, busywork, work that requires activity, not real effort or guts. That’s true of individuals, and it’s true of companies.No longer. The world will belong to those who create something scarce, not something cheap. The race to the top has just begun.

What do you miss when you dont have a regular job!?

Of course the salary & all the unnecessary bhaav from various stakeholders!!:) :(
But some other stuff too:
1. Endless auto supply of mineral water bottles which help you  not de-hydrate
2. The controlled spread out central air conditioner as opposed to the jarring ones at home
3. Small stuff which can be done easy (photocopies, couriers !!?)
4. Bitching coffee sessions
Thinking thinking.. would be more..

Interesting blog post

I have appended some blogs from VCs that I read often on the right side of this blogspot (look to the right). An interesting post today on www.bothsidesofthetable.com...Give it a read.. ..A bit of a "gyaan" piece, but still nice..

The value of the network

It would be interesting to discover the value of the "network" in a startup. More than value, the question is - what kind of network helps. & I am discovering some stuff here. Lemme tell what kind of a network would help a wannabe "starter":
1. People with a network of very small designers, CAs, lawyers, company secretaries etc
2. Those with knowledge of pricing done by such smaller agencies
3. Those with the intent / desire to spend an hour a week on the idea at hand
& plus if you are not from a tech background, someone with understanding of tech pricing & products. Now, very less of the network you have if you are a typical MBA esp with banking/fin serv experience would be of this type.
Its not a crib session but really a direction on the kind of network one must try & build before making a decision to start something. I actually did build the odd contact in this direction like for e.g. a secretarial firm who I now use for incorporation etc. But I do realise that I could have done much much more in this direction as a preparation before starting out.
Trying now to tackle atleast the problem of the lack of cross functional expertise by "thinking" of bringing in such guys as advisors to the venture. Will see if & how that works out..

MVP & more..

Lots of theory on MVP (Minimum Viable Product) & the Lean Startup in the US of A. Interesting theories around pivoting - which is the process of a startup creating a prototype and then adapting based on market responses.
But much of them focusing on tech/web startups. Not so many on the normal offline-online kind of combination which prevails in our parts of the world.
In any event, the theorized versions of the MVP are quite intriguing. There are several key questions around this concept of MVP. But I am experiencing the below 2 as most critical:
1. Determining how much is the minimum from a product design perspective
2. Determining the pricing
Now, Q No.1 is well answered and the answer is kinda common whether tech or non-tech. It should largely be the intersection set of what the customer wants and how much you can deliver within your proposed outlay (whether self funded bootstrapped or investor funded) & available talent.
Q No. 2 though is radically different for tech. Esp the new age ones. Many of the iconic sites like FB, twitter & the less iconic ones like simple photo sharing ones etc have the liberty to launch "limited period free" products (being subscription businesses). Plus they have the ability to launch free & paid-premium services.
However, this is much more complex in a non e-business- the issues being:
1. Products are typically one shot consumption products. You gotta sell the product on Day 1
2. If you dont price at all , measuring test success is difficult
3. In case you price the product (& if there are certain product issues or you substantially change the product later), there may be customer issues
Solutions ?
1. Handling the initial customers very closely via email etc & promising to provide them any updates on the site in the next 12 months for free? (very tedious process-wise.............)
2. Maybe pricing at ZERO for say first 25 customers but gauging demand from web hits, requests from more customers, engagement of those who hav bought for zero etc
3. Charging a minimal cost & then combining it with No.2 above?
Interesting, nevertheless....

Welcome to BetterLesson

Welcome to BetterLesson: "Receive real recognition for high-quality lessons"

And another one...Interesting again..

University of the People – The world’s first tuition free online university

University of the People – The world’s first tuition free online university

Very interesting concept...free education using the web.

The Perils of...

This is the season for me defining perils ! Thats what I am confronting ever so often. Possibly in some time, I may have recommendations, but right now, I am only defining perils.

One of the dangers of having worked in a pure corporate fin services background is that you "actually do" very less. Time is spent largely on analysis (less) and presenting it in various formats (more). You do get a great top view of businesses , strategy, scalability blah blah. Further you get to structure/strip/design fin products like loans, mezz, equity etc. But these largely require understanding of market pricing & regulations..only...

But thats kinda very different from having to decide on the logo, the brand name, the brand design, product notes, printers, web designs & so on... Most of these kind of things is what one has tackle first up. Its almost like chalk & cheese, I guess. The big dilemmas then are about whether the logo is good, whether you paid too much or too less for it & you dont have a frame of reference to figure these out.

What can I say..interesting.............for now..........

Variables going into deciding what to start..

What I used:
1. Surely no money gonna come from anyone else. Hence, how much money can you put down & can the proposed plan come to any kind of shape and size in that money?
2. Given Point No.1, is there some kind of novelty in the product? If you cant commit reasonable funds, then what is unique about what you are doing?
3. Is that innovation a product innovation, tech innovation or a biz model innovation? Large number of product innovations these days are tech.
4. Do you have the requisite knowledge to take the product to a soft launch?

Groklaw - Here's Bilski: It's Affirmed, But . . .No Decision on Software Patentability - Updated

Groklaw - Here's Bilski: It's Affirmed, But . . .No Decision on Software Patentability - Updated: "patentability"

Domain registration..

Its a bit (thats it?) silly trying something on your own at times. One of my theories (& I have no idea if it is right or no) is to obtain little (even tiny) wins to gain momentum. Similarly, I also like the odd not-over-researched decision - all in the interest of gaining momentum. Time will tell whether it is the right thing to do. But I am surely using it as a way to make calls. Having given all this preview, today is the day I blocked my domain name on net4 domains. Hopefully, the stuff to be sold on the domain will do much better than I hope !:) More on the service levels from net4 as I figure out.

Some of the perils..

Its kinda tough to decide who to outsource work to when you are a "nothing". Its one of those times you lament not having any concrete skill (e.g. web designing). There typically tend to be varieties of people you can outsource to:

1. Those who are damn good & dont even wanna talk to you

2. Those who are quite bad & are keen for your little 20k contract !(INR 20k that is ..)

3. Those who are ok & yet see value in your tiny contract

You hope to be able to find the 3rd kind , but, really, there is no way to tell. I guess mistakes will be made in this..If & when I realise how to figure this one, will surely write !

The break !:)

The break is interesting- chutney bread and some water and England v Bangladesh Day 5. Good to see the Bangla tigers stretching the hosts in a Lords test in May. On that , its interesting to note how much pitches have changed even in England. Not too much pace & importantly, very less movement for the seamers. The Bangladeshi No.10 seems to be defending the ball rather easily. Ok- only 15 more mins of the break. Dont overdo it..

What was I thinking!?:)

Starting a new phase today. Its an effort to remind yourself that the learning is gonna be good and useful. The lack of direct correlation between effort and reward (reward is tending towards zero !!:) makes it difficult to keep at it. But that is the idea, I guess..