What makes or breaks a company?

Not all business ventures are successful. They fail for many reasons at different stages of their journey. But one among them, CULTURE, can cause their failure at any stage and at any time. There are many examples, few whose culture is holding them down are…

HP – lack of urgency

Sun – lack of software-ness

Pets.com – lack of nimbleness

Groupon – lack of humility

and we can name many more…

And few whose culture is holding them high are …
only the key differentiation for each is highlighed

Zappos – self organize

Southwest – true service

Facebook – no frills

REI – a community

What is Culture? It is the way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization. A great culture, results in

culture = happiness = impact = results

So it is important to get the culture right and more important is to preserve them through their journey. A company goes through many stages of transformation, and each stage provides different set of challenges. How a company outlives those is a testament to its culture..

1/ seed stage, <2. The culture at this stage is nothing but the founder “himself”.

2/ startup stage, < 10 employees. The culture at this stage is what the early stage employees exhibits. It is key to hire right than hire more. At this stage, it is important that founders spend more time hiring the right talent and cloning themselves – their attitude, their behavior, their intellect, and their thinking.

3/ growth stage, < 100 employees. At this stage, the perception is very important. As it will help build its brand value and more than that help draw the attention of like minded people. So the culture at this stage, is the perception it has created across its audience – employees, customers, competitors, and future employees.

4/ corporate stage, < 1000. At this stage, the culture is nothing but the values that each employees relate to. This is hard to get, as individuals imbibe values from their surroundings at work. So if a company has not build the culture right from day 1, then this stage will start creating a spiral effect as through growth the bad culture expands quicker and results in death.

5/ expansion stage, < 10000. At this stage, the culture is nothing but the communal changes the company has brought to the market via its services or products. Any companies product is a mere reflection of the culture it has inculcated amongst its talent pool.

6/ stable stage, < 100000. At this stage, the culture is nothing but the consistent results it delivers to its customers & investors. This is the testing phase, as with growth comes lot of challenges and one among them is maintaining the culture as-is when the company was at startup stage. Any company who gets to this stage and keeps its culture the same, can win no matter what the market conditions are.

7/ done stage, I call this as a stage when the company needs to reinvent itself. This could be just due to changes in customer needs and market conditions. And it has nothing to do with culture. So, the key at this stage for any company is to get acquired or acquire. But in either case finding the best fit both in terms of the market space and culture is key to make them a legacy.

CULTURE is the key to a company, which can make or break it.

 

2016: Goals

I got inspired by Mark’s resolution published here

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/03/technology/mark-zuckerberg-2016-personal-goal/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

If a CEO of a great company is able to make bold resolutions and stick to it, anyone in the world should find a goal then publish and make it work.

Yes, that is what I am on to starting 2016. I have been ambitious about many things, but over time I lose track and lose the momentum. This time around I want to publish the 2016 goals to myself (only top 3) and retro at the end of year. To keep embarrassment if any to myself, I am just publishing onto my blog post which has limited set of audience. But I promise that starting 2017, I will publish to my world so as I can be completely committed to what I say to myself and the world 🙂

Goal setting, as on Jan 2016…

1. Lose 15 lbs
2. Read at least 1 book/month
3. Manage at least, $5M real estate investments
4. Accomplish 250 miles of running

Check point, as on Jun 2016…

The only think, I feel I can get closer is miles of running. So far what I have done…

1. Clocked, 30 miles, as part marathon practice
2. Finished, 13.2 miles (Seattle Rock n Roll)
3. Started, weekend practice >= 6miles/week starting 07/15

Challenge, RAM CAN YOU CATCH UP ON ALL THE ABOVE?

 

 

Turn the Ship Around! – One great book for anyone who is into building a team/org

People are the asset to any organization. People are the ones, who can make an impact. People are the one, who can get things done in an organization. But almost always in most of the organizations, if management is not effective and enable their best people to their best job then we will end up with lot of frustrated people.

With all the above said, still in many organizations the leadership views team as just a cog machine to get things done. Rather looking at them as real people who are assembled together to make an impact. There are many factors contributing to this, but one that I can relate is to – managers are none other than individual people, who grew up to manage people. Following are my self notes from the book “Turn the Ship Around!”, it is a great read and a must for any leader to transform to a great leader.

Lot of books on management and leadership, talks a lot about effective delegation. But delegation alone cannot make someone a great leader. Rather it has to be combined with other set of attributes to make someone a great leader.

Leaders are of two types, one who creates followers and one who creates leaders.

Leader-Follower, model is hierarchical. It has two set of people, one who gives instruction and one who takes instruction.

Leader-Leader, model is level set and distributed. In this model everyone in an organization is a leader. He does not waits for any instruction, he takes action and he informs the rest on what he is on to.

As a leader few things you may want to ponder on, before setting yourself to establish leader-leader culture….

• What is the leadership model at your work place?
• Is your team empowered to do the right thing?
• Do you rely on decision-making of one individual or on a team?
• To you, is not making an error is important or do you the right thing is important?
• Is your team after short-term rewards or long-term success?
• Does your people want to be missed after they leave? Do you?
• Do you reward people for what happens after they leave? (this is bit strange, i have never seen anywhere)
• Do you want to be in control or just want to be responsible?
• What are you willing to personally risk?
• Do you feel you have a strong personality?
• Do you give goals and wait for the result, giving the freedom?
• Are you a curious guy or questioning guy? (note, there is a difference)
• Do you think you have to be smart to be an effective leader?
• Do you think tech competency is a must for an effective leader?
• Do you want to change?
• Do you find your environment is complacent?
• What motivates your people to do their best job?

In order to create a true leader-leader environment one has to pay attention to the following three areas:- CONTROL, CLARITY, and COMPETENCY.

CONTROL

As you may find, it is very difficult to give away control and take the responsibility. But the leader who leads the leader-leader environment is good at it. In order to move yourself to a leader-leader model, you need to find the best way to distribute control across your team/org and just become the person responsible for the outcome. As we grow through the management chain, the implicit feeling that everyone enjoys is that “they are becoming more and more powerful, have control”. In order for any organization to successfully migrate to leader-leader model, it has to make sure their leaders are thinking through the following:-

• Distribute control
• Eliminate top-down monitoring
• Eliminate top-down decision making
• Resist to provide any solution and let the team step up

So, how can one manage this areas and transform their org into leader-leader org?

The powerful method used by the author to show the change in control, is making everyone report on what they do by starting with “I intent to..” rather “Can I…”. And the way you avoid providing the solution is to help people come up with it rather you directly showing it to them.

CLARITY

As you slowly change your org culture through more delegation and pushing decision-making down the chain, it is important that everyone understands what the vision/mission of their org or their team. This clarity is super critical as it will make or break the cultural shift that one tries to bring about. In order for any organization to successfully migrate to leader-leader model, it has to make sure their leaders are thinking through the following:-

• Achieve excellence, rather just avoiding errors
• Build trust and take care of people
• Inspire through your legacy
• Use guiding principles for decision-making
• Use immediate recognition to reinforce desire behavior
• Encourage questioning attitude rather blind faith/obedience

COMPETENCY

It is great to provide the right clarity and divest control. But if the organization does not have the right competency mix, then bringing any cultural change is much difficult. So it is important to identify the competency gap early on and cover it through appropriate sessions. They way any organization can strengthen their tech competency is through the following:-

• Take deliberate action
• Always be willing and be ready to learn
• Don’t brief, rather be ready to certify
• Tell the same message – again, again, and again
• Specify the goals and not the method

Thus by divesting the control over to the bottom layer and bridging competency gap through well identified discussion forum. Thus making everyone happy.

 

 

 

 

Reading and other activities!

Today, children’s are surrounded by many electronic devices (Mobile/TV/Laptop/iPad etc.). So if the kids are not subjected to good discipline they slowly move away from reading habits to other form of activities. I am worried about how to keep kids engaged with reading. From my perspective, reading has a lot of benefits on kids and their growth

a. They can bring focus

b. They can provide the feel & touch experience (note, by reading I always refer to physical books)

c. They can preoccupy themselves with books than other electronic activity

d. They can gain more knowledge, vocabulary, and increase their reading levels

I hope I can inspire my kids to set a book count goal and motivate them towards becoming a great reader! I regret I did not catch on this disease (reading books) early in my life. But now I want to read more and read often, I am catching up.

Get inspired, and do something really great!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I wanted to start this years blog with a great opening and I am doing so….

There are many famous quotes, which keeps reminding people that perseverance is what matters when you want to really differentiate and go great miles compared to the rest. Read the following, some might be familiar, some might open you up

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
– Albert Einstein

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
– Japanese Proverb

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
– Thomas Edison

One may go a long way after one is tired.
– French Proverb

Some of you might know Diana Nyad, the great endurance swimmer. I recently watched her TED talk and I got inspired more by her personality.

The one word she said keeps on echoing in my mind – “never give up, just find a path”.

What a personality she is, at 64 with 4 failed attempt finally made her most memorable experience – swimming from Cuba to Florida a 100 mile journey.

I SALUTE YOU! AND HOPE I CAN BE AN EXAMPLE IN SOME WAY LIKE YOU

PLEASE DON’T JUST DO WHAT I TELL YOU!*

*Do What Needs to Be Done

Well written, short, book. I really enjoyed it. These days I am very much looking for books that are short that I can finish in days or within a week.

The silver bullet from the book is just “just don’t do what is expected out of you, go beyond and do what needs to be done, take that extra mile and make a difference”.

Think, Prepare, Act, Preserve. Kick the tires, don’t hold back – fear, frustration, failure.

Said that, I wanted to highlight few points that went straight to my heart.

• Make Your Job More Difficult
• Turn Needs Into Opportunities
• Don’t Be a Complainer
• Learn What You Don’t Know First
• Shoot Holes in Your Own Plan
• Realize No One Cares about Your Ideas
• Speak Up to Have Influence!
• Greet Challenges with Creativity
• Be a Person Who Makes Things Happen
• Do the Same Thing Differently
• Learn to Enjoy Those Things That Others Hate to Do

Kick the following off your back

• “I might make a mistake”
• “I don’t have the support”
• “I don’t have the authority”
• “I took initiative once and made a mistake, not again”
• “What needs to be done is not easy”

What, within me, got reinstated is that “each one of us is special and no different than the most successful person on earth, we need to believe, one needs to recognize that and realize his/her full potential”

Competition is it worth it?

I find one becomes unnatural when they are put under the lenses of “competition”.

So what I am wondering is what is really important – Winning or learning & improving? Personally I feel one has to learn something or the other from any competitive environment, improve on their learning and eventually reach their goal (winning).

Crawl (learn) -> Walk (improve) -> Run (win)

So in summary its OK if you lose, but its not OK if you think you did not learn and improve.

What’s your perspective?

Amazon Prime – a ripoff?

I was always fascinated by amazon prime, just because of its free shipping offer. Along with free shipping, they promise free movies, better digital catalog.  But all looks like an eye wash. I recently signed up for prime account but i was surprised that the free catalog or movie list is lot worsen than Netflix.

 

I love Netflix.

How can one give rest to his/her mind?

Great question…. Many things in the world has a state called – REST, but not mind.

Is SLEEP the REST state for mind? I am not sure. But it is important that one takes few minutes out of their busy schedule to REST their mind and re-energize it.

https://ted.com/talks/view/id/1640

A Gift to My Children – A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing

A great short book by Jim Rogers.

If you have read my blogs you might have realized that I am using blogs as a personal journal, rather injecting my perception about anything. Yes, I should acknowledge that I don’t restrict to just capture my reading rather at times write my perception.

Okay as usual, let me stop my rattling and get to journaling…

I really enjoyed the book for one main reason. The book was short as stated above and each chapter was simple, concise and sweet. This is one of the book which drove me to finish ASAP.

The book has 13 chapters and I want to capture few phrases, thoughts over here and not paraphrase the entire book.

“Swim Your Own Races: Do Not Let Others Do Your Thinking for You”

Well said. One has to rely on ones intelligence and decide. One cannot depend on others for their career, life decisions. There will always be more opinion providers but no decision helpers. Note, no one will have any vested interest in your decisions other than you.

“SAVE”

One powerful word. It is so easy to say ‘one has to save’, but not so easy to implement. One has to look everything objectively and not be carried away by instinct or temptations. This does mean one has to be stingy or one can spend because they can. This just iterates that before spending make sure whatever you are spending on is ‘worthwhile’.

“DEDICATE YOURSELF TO WHA YOU FEEL PASSIONATE ABOUT”

Well said! Today many of us are in day jobs which we are in just because to manage our families or for other excuses. So the point is, try as many things possible as fast as you can. Then pursue the ones that are close to heart with great passion. Then you don’t wake up every day to ‘go to work’, rather you wake up to have more fun than the day before.

“BE A SELF-STARTER”

Don’t sit idle and wait for a moment or a person to tell you what to do. Rather be involved and do something .

“LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH A DREAM”

I can completely resonate with this. Unless one does not have a dream, then his/her life would be more mundane. If there is a dream, then one has a target to reach and they would keep themselves busy in reaching that. You may not have a clear vision or a dream yet, but when you persistent work on your passionate thing then slowly you will find your dream.

“DO NOT RELY ON BOOKS; GO AND SEE THE WORLD!”

Its true. Unless you don’t experience what it looks outside your neighborhood, you won’t know what you got and what you miss. This will provide you a different perspective and broaden your mindset by many folds. I am relate to this, I was born in Southern India. Due to my dad’s banking job, I travelled a lot – both within south India and north India. And again, the same experience in US. I landed in VA, went to work in CT. Moved to mid west for graduate studies and from there to west and northwest. So this journey of mine helped me a lot to know different people, culture, opportunities, and what I missed.

“THE TWO WAYS OF THINKING”

Induction – proceed from what you observed and what you know; Deduction – proceed from facts, truth. logical approach.

One has to apply both, neither is better than the other.

“A MACROSCOPIC VIEW OF THE WORLD IS WHAT YOU NEED”

I use to hate history back in my 9th, 10th grade. And I even longed for getting into high school ASAP so as I don’t have to study history. But in this world this fact is really important. One should know history and should be able to relate the happenings across the world to paint a picture of the future. This is really important for two set of audience – investors and entrepreneurs, without which they might acting based on local events.

“NOTHING IS REALLY NEW”

History always repeats itself. He called out a pretty interesting rule – What is happening now has happened before and will happen again.

“KNOW WHO YOU ARE”

Be sure who you are and what you stand for. It is important that one knows themselves first. And it is equally important to acknowledge any mistakes one makes, this will help you take down the right path.

“DO NOT PANIC; LEARN PSYCHOLOGY”

This is a great info for any investor. To get better at investing one has to learn not to panic and understand the fundamentals of their investing. Without which one might lose money.

“EVERYTHING CHANGES. EVERYTHING”

Accept the fact that people change, environment change, country changes, and live with it. If you don’t you won’t last long.

“CHANGE CAN BE A CATALYST”

I think most of us would agree. Change is good and it is the only constant out there. With change one can see a new life, new learning, and new findings.

“PAY ATTENSION TO WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE NEGLECTS”

This is important both for investing and life. One can find a gem in such a rare find in investment world. And in life, one can find a life changing opportunity if one can find such a gem. Start now, start something new and something no one has tried.

“KNOW WHEN NOT TO DO ANYTHING”

This is a powerful statement for the financial world. Because it is important one has to have the discipline of not doing anything when they had to. For example, if you think you are a stock guru and all your bets make money then step back, relax, and do not invest. This same principle can be applied in other places in life.

“DO NOT STOP WHEN YOU ARE WORKING TOWARD YOUR DREAM”

I love this. And I can relate to this as well. When you have a dream you should not stop. You should be persistent and keep going after your dream. For example, my dream is to become a “serial entrepreneur”. I don’t have a successful startup yet. But when I do, I am very confident I will follow-up with many more. But I chase my dream only when time permits rather always. This message reiterates that if I want to see the light of the day for my dream, i need to really go after it. I mean i need to really go after it. AND I WILL.