I want to be an Entrepreneur (a chicken and egg story)

The other day, over a random lunchtime conversation with this very interesting startup Rechargion that is working on Clean Energy Solutions (Na-ion and Li-S batteries as an example), we were discussing the startup eco- system in India. And someone at the table said they were very impressed that increasingly now one sees people at final placement sessions of premier engineering institutes opting out of placement, saying “we want to be entrepreneurs”.

I’ve seen many such kids too – bright young things with unicorn shaped dreams fuelled by the Flipkarts and the Zomatos…..and this is great – maybe finally the onset of the Silicon Valley-isation of India.

My only issue with many of these, however – they want to entrepreneurs, but have no idea! And I don’t mean idea about what it entails to BE an entrepreneur (which is gruelling back-breaking disheartening work most of the times – before exciting/ rewarding payoffs MAYBE), but, – they have NO idea WHAT they want to do – not a problem they have identified that needs a solution, not a better(faster/ more convenient/ easier/ cheaper…) way to do things, not…

Made me look up the definition of “entrepreneur” – the simplest one (top hit on google) says – An entrepreneur is an individual who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks, enjoying most of the rewards. I did like this one though – an innovator who brings forth economic development through new combinations of factors of production. Another one that said – someone who sees an opportunity and creates a business to exploit it.

That’s the point I’m making – identifying the opportunity – WHAT is it that you’re trying to do / what is the pain point that you’re solving for/ the gap you are addressing/ the technology you are introducing, or, harder still, the need you’re creating….And, of course, is there a market for it? or, can you create a market for it?

It can’t be – I want to be an entrepreneur – just because I think I should – and poof! (like Raju ban gaya gentleman!) I mean – come on yaar, chicken se pehle egg hai ki nahi?

Ofcourse there needs to be passion, and competitiveness, and risk apetite, and discipline, and fire in the belly, and skin in the game – all these buzz words one hears in the VC world – and then the stars have to align! par, anda tou chahiye na!

(Unpopular opinion) – but this reminds of my problem with the creativity/ innovation workshops one used to attend in the corporate world – I mean, I get that you can enable creativity and encourage innovation, you can provide a toolkit for ideation and a facilitative environment to hone creativity, and to teach thinking outside the box, but there has to be a problem you are trying to solve (or an opportunity you are addressing! (don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying process improvement ideas can’t come from brainstorming or all the other tools, I’m just not sure that creation of an opportunity is something that can be taught. The opportunity/ that idea/ that spark – HAS to come from the person wanting to be the entrepreneur.

So I guess today’s question is  – What do you think is the pre requisite to be an entrepreneur. Is it enough that someone WANTS to become one (so has the bent of mind and the resilience)…

#foodforthought

On 18 hour work days and Quiet Quitting

I get Shantanu Deshpande. I really do – maybe its generational, maybe its just a type; but I have more than a sneaking fellow feeling for him. So does the husband. And so do/ did Roger Federer, Steve Jobs, Indira Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan.

I mean, I now lead a life which I worry is a very bad example to my kids in how checked out it is – I walk 15k steps a day while taking dog for ambulatory walks; read (and re read) old comfortable books (like Blytons and Potters and Heyers) while generating HUGE tsundoku; attend music groups; avidly follow cooking trends (on that topic – butter boards: yes or no?); clock 8 hours plus on average on several devices; and drink copious amounts of beer on weekends. Thankfully, the husband’s lifestyle is the exact opposite – his day begins at like 5 am-ish, and ends at 1 am-ish – with maybe an hour and a half for other stuff like eating; walking dog. The rest – he is working. (Except for the drinking on weekends). I’m hoping the kids learn from the dad even if they aspire to the mom.

But, this lifestyle of mine came AFTER years of backbreaking slogging – of, in fact, much more than 18 hour workdays – and that, irrespective of whether I worked in a privately held Indian business, a Multinational Corporation, or of course my own venture. I think I’ve recorded this somewhere earlier: when we were running our start-up; given it was in the early days of digital media – so, a very new domain, and completely new roles at entrepreneurship for us partners, also new geographies that were not co- located, we needed to have really long hours, and often, undefined work scope. It was NOT easy – but, as I told some teams who were complaining about the long work hours – ‘nothing you can say about unreasonable hours will astonish me, as I’ve done all this and more’….

So I now feel reasonably guiltless about my life of leisure – I think it is well earned – I’ve paid my dues and am now reaping the reward – the reward is compounded by the fact that I don’t really have a hugely expensive lifestyle and am very happy to just smell the roses as it were.

I think our generation (and definitely those before us) had this very strict effort and reward code – you work hard, you get your reward (in money/ in time/ in success whatever). It was generally acknowledged and proven that you didn’t get good marks unless you slogged, and that meant you didn’t get admissions into good colleges, and that meant you didn’t get good jobs, and that meant you didn’t make good money and that meant you didn’t have a good lifestyle. It was fairly direct correlation, and fairly organic growth.

Also, it was a waterfall sequence related to life cycle stages – work at one phase/ family at the next/ retirement and attendant benefits at the next. And, at the overlapping stages, it entailed constant juggling.

But, I think times have changed drastically (at least in urban middle class cohorts). Maybe it’s the culture of instant gratification, (no waiting in line at STD booth for calls/ hungry at 2 am? just order swiggy/ spent too much this semester? a click and mom wires money…). Maybe it’s the wave of cool start ups – with so many unicorns around that enable exponential payoffs and reward, the newer generations want a non correlated effort-reward equation. As I see it, the newer younger workforce is not willing to submit one’s life at the altar of their jobs.

Hence the uproar on Shantanu Deshpande’s edict (and his subsequent resignation). Hence quiet quitting. Hence the workation trend. Hence the shortening median tenure at a single job (down from 36 odd months to 18 now).

The good part about this – the fact that this generation wants ownership of their time. They feel they are multi dimensional, they want to explore different parts of themselves, and they do not necessarily feel that money is equal to success.

They probably also feel that hard is not equal to smart – which is valid – one doesn’t necessarily want everyone slogging at stuff that could be done quicker/ better – technology now works tirelessly at enabling that very thing. 

The problem with this however is when this desire translates to a work ethic that makes the job just the job, when the commitment/ the drive for excellence/ the passion is not only lacking, it is considered not a good thing. Because, lets face it – there ARE times when you need the 18 hour work day – it’s not ideal, but it’s unavoidable. Because, unicorns and stock options notwithstanding, earning money is not easy – it takes long, unremitting hours very often. And, one has to strike a balance between ensuring good physical and mental health, and giving one’s all to what you are doing.

So, one has to wonder – it’s great that the current generation is making things easier for itself and that hedonism is a quasi virtue, and definitely that folks are prioritising health over everything. But, in the process, are we creating a less hardy/ more entitled generation? When chips are down, will this generation be able to cope? Or am I just too old and cynical? Food for Thought.

Personal Branding vs. Succession Planning: An Ode to a Queen?

The Queen is dead. Long live the King…

Yes, colonial past hangover notwithstanding, I have to confess it IS the end of an era – if nothing else, she was remarkable for her attire, and her corgis!

But looks like I’m not the only one not being able to compute the new Monarch’s feet filling the late Queen’s very large boots – most memes on the net are trolling the poor guy for a) the long wait he’s had to finally become king, but b) also for his perceived (in)competence to do this job.

The question to ask, though, is – is it really his fault that there is this scepticism about his abilities. Maybe not. Maybe, quite apart from the fact that he’s spent 70 + years being lord in waiting, it’s also a case of the Queen having been larger than life/ TOO big a brand. And therefore, that big brand is shadowing all in its “wake”….Leads me to think of this very conundrum that I was discussing with a family member the other day…

In the corporate world too, and specially in the start up/ entrepreneurial world, a leader needs to build his/ her personal brand. Sometimes, nay, often, the personality of the leader is intertwined with that of the corporate. At the very least, very often the leader is the public face of the corporate – and a lot of the thought leadership/ the voice of the organisation and definitely the culture, stem from the leader.

It is wise, therefore, for said leader to build his/ her personal brand – this is even more important in today’s world of digital influencers and viral means of communications. Think Musk and Tesla, or, closer to home and a very different industry, Prannoy Roy and NDTV…the organisation and the leader become almost merged personnae.

But this inseparability of org and leader – is it too good a job done, or is it the harbinger of the next level of problems.

After all, What happens when the leader has to go – for whatever reason – to bigger/ better/ other things; or, just, as in the case of the Queen, to a better life…..if the head honcho has made the org too entrenched in her own way of thinking and acting, how does succession planning happen. 

We experienced this moment when we four co founders sold our small sized business to a large org – the way we were structured, there was no clear one successor. The org taking us over did things their own way (as they needed to, to be fair)…what resulted was a gradual disintegration of the org we had built…maybe it was for the best; maybe this is the way it anyway would have panned out; but for sure I believe that had we had a clear strong leader as a successor, the course our startup charted would have been very different.

This is also the advice I was giving this relative – he is a strong charismatic leader doing many different, brilliant things – but he doesn’t yet have a strong successor. In his case, it is compounded by the fact that what he is doing is very new, and lies in the social welfare domain – hence there are fewer monetary compensations.

Every 3 months, he talks about moving on to the next big thing – and I have to speedily bring him back saying, wheres your successor????

So, what one needs to think about is – where does building the personal brand end, and building a successor begin. Whats the balance. How do you ensure sustainability of your legacy….in effect, long live the king, yes, but how do you make sure its also long live the kingdom…..

Food For Thought?

Armchair Stories, and making them Real

The scene in most households nowadays is probably similar – TV on full blast with stories on coronavirus spread; or elections; or riots; or climate change ; or failing economies – most are macro issues – and most can serve as debate topics for hours on end. Ours has pretty much the same thing – with, depending on how much media you have consumed, how opinionated you are; and how you lean, you hold sway (or not) in the family debate.

Armchair stories all! We are all self proclaimed experts on many topics – I self confessedly am an armchair expert on tennis – I can advise Serena, Fed or Rafa where the next ball should be lobbed or dropped or smashed (as opposed to most of my countrymen who can bat and ball with the best of them from the safety of their sofas) ; and of course my blog is active manifestation of my armchair expertise on all things tech/ entrepreneurial/ management-ish. I am also the BEST parenting expert – to other people! The other day when a friend called lamenting her 12 year old’s goth phase, complete with dress/ music/ horror movie sense, I gave her long and sound advice. But, come 3.30 pm, when one child comes out from school all hot, bothered and grumpy; or 9 pm, and the other child’s “ma” message appears on whatsap, phusss……all my gyan fizzles out of me. 

Whatsap specially is a huge playing ground for armchair expertise – the number of treatise on any current topic (or historical for the matter), is just too large to even wade through on an ordinary day. But even otherwise, one is surrounded by cerebral gyan – even right at the moment I am hiding in one nook of my room furiously typing this out to get away from a family member spouting virology and politics. I know a person who actually writes reviews and other online content on things that he hasn’t even experienced – so a book review by reading the summary (similar to child attempting English literature exam after reading spark notes); a review of Patal Bhuvaneshwar mandir based on the description of relatives; and so on.

In this day and age therefore, I am very very impressed and inspired by my friend Srikanth Narasimhan. Srikanth was an investment banker (a profession he adopted after passing out of my alma mater IIM Bangalore). He happens to have been the banker who helped sell our company, chosen after many interviews with other candidates across geographies, for his sound “elder brotherly” advice. Srikanth has now given up investment banking to start a new political party! Yes, you heard it right! He had been an active member of his apartment building’s RWA – but over the years felt the need and drive to take a more active part in changing the many things that are wrong with Bangalore – solid waste management and sanitation, infrastructure, health, education. And his theory was, that this can only be done via an active participation in governance.

Hence, the Bengaluru Navanirmana Party. BNP is a party that is of the citizens of Bengaluru, for the citizens of Bengaluru, and by the citizens of Bengaluru. This is a party created from scratch, with no political affiliations – a bit like what the AAP should have been, but was not! The party is aiming to contest the 2020 BBMP elections from all wards – it has volunteers and members from across Bangalore – activists/ lawyers/ business people/ corporate employees/ educators/ NGO folks, common man, basically a whole gamut. The core group, which is the Governing Council and the Executive Council plus Functional Heads, is a really senior, dedicated and passionate lot – most have already been working at various individual and collective levels to better the plights of their immediate surroundings, sometimes even wider. This despite other full time commitments in many cases. (As Srikanth had said to me, the BNP team is what makes the party – they are all committedly working on the ground). The idea is to focus local/ Bangalore only issues but do it from the inside. The party already has some 20 odd corporator candidates identified and ready, has been enrolling members steadily, and just last weekend held a rally to gain momentum. 

BNP Rally For Bengaluru

One of the party’s manifestos focuses the situation of the Pourakarmikas. The laudable India wide mandate of Swachcha Bharat that the PM laid down a while ago cannot be achieved if the sanitation workers’ plight is pathetic. Similarly, another one tackles the issues that apartment dwellers (a large percentage) in Bangalore face. 

When Srikanth first told us about the party, he had apparently not even broken the news to his wife. I assume she was fairly supportive, and since then, the party has seen much positive action. I am, as I told Srikanth, very very impressed – I think he puts all of us armchair commentators on governance to shame. It is very very easy to sit in cushy living rooms and argue about what should and should not be done – but to put your money where your mouth is, brave indeed! 

After all, If not we, then who. If not now, then when! Power to Srikanth! Down with Armchair experts! (PS: If in Bangalore, enrol into the party)

Bouncers, Googlies and Swinging From the Fences

I REALLY like Bill Gates. I mean, REALLY REALLY like him. (I don’t much like his PCs, though I’m definitely the generation that uses MSOffice far more than Google docs which my daughters use). But I really like him.

I like that he started Microsoft when he was 20. That he was the richest guy in the world for many years. That he quit when ahead and started philanthropy actively. That he doesn’t plan to leave his wealth to his kids. That he has really middle class values as a parent. That he plays these cute games for Match for Africa fund raisers with Roger Federer, who is another guy I REALLY like. That the ceiling of his large home library is engraved with a quotation from The Great Gatsby. Oh, and that his house has the Judy Garland red slippers from the Wizard of Oz, and the costumes from the Sound of Music. And a trampoline room. And is called Xanadu. 

I like that when he was a kid, “he preferred to stay in his room where he would shout “I’m thinking” when his mother asked what he was doing”. That when automating his school’s class-scheduling system, Gates modified the code so that he was placed in classes with “a disproportionate number of interesting girls”. That his algorithm for pancake sorting held the record as the fastest version for over 30 years. That he chose a pre-law major but took mathematics and graduate level computer science courses at Harvard, but dropped out after 2 years. That he is colour blind.

All this despite his combative personal style, and his controversial Anti trust actions.

But I like MOST the work that he and Melinda are doing with the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charitable foundation.

Their recent annual letter has seen much accolade, and also generated much criticism. But for me, there were a few interesting lessons to take away. 

A) The Smartness of Pivot : The startup eco system will tell you that success almost warrants frequent pivots from the original idea – in a marketplace that is changing every second, the original idea you began with may need several mods, and sometimes complete turnarounds before it sees acceptance. Bill and Melinda seem to exemplify this in their letter – they have changed their strategy in education in the U.S. , from granting scholarships to a few very bright people to funding larger areas – the entire public school system in the U.S., therefore. “Our goal is to help make a huge difference for all U.S. students, so we’ve pivoted most of our work from scholarships to areas that can have more impact for more students”

Similarly, in HIV treatment, the focus from daily preventive vaginal gel , that would be effective if adherence was sound, but is not; to a longer lasting treatment – where compliance is easier, and therefore efficacy is higher. “We’re looking for new treatments that can be taken less frequently, as much as a year apart”

This also leads me to the next lesson:

B) The Power of Admitting Failure/ Saying sorry:  “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

I read some criticism on this year’s letter, some of it directed at the fact that so much of what the Gates did apparently hasn’t worked. Honestly, a) it’s their (ok, and some other folks like Warren Buffet’s) money primarily. And b) actually, at least they are being upfront and admitting failure – which for celebrities like them, must be a big deal. I think partly, this failure is almost mandatory in the model the Gates are following – hence the “swinging for the fences” analogy. By definition, one will either hit home run, or strike out! But also, somewhere within it, the Gates have defined the slot that their foundation and other philanthropic organisations need to occupy. “At its best, philanthropy takes risks that governments can’t and corporations won’t. Governments need to focus most of their resources on scaling proven solutions. Businesses have fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders. But foundations like ours have the freedom to test out ideas that might not otherwise get tried, some of which may lead to breakthroughs”. 

This then leads to the “why” of the slower success in Education that the Gates have seen. And that is, that

C) Education is the basic welfare activity, but maybe the toughest to execute:

I recently also watched a ted talk by Atishi Marlena (apparently after Marx and Lenin), a member of the Parliamentary Affairs committee for AAP, a Rhodes Scholar, and one of the key people behind the Education Reforms that Government School in Delhi have seen. It’s impressive to say the least (and a must watch if you haven’t yet), (After all, FLOTUS Melania attended a Happiness Class in Delhi and is continuing to tweet about her Indian experience! ). But a striking fact is the one about dignity to the public school classroom – and that being the backbone to any reform. 

The Gates’ letter says the same thing. “In 2001, … Deborah Meier …Her book The Power of Their Ideas helped me understand why public schools are not only an important equalizer but the engine of a thriving democracy. A democracy requires equal participation from everyone, she writes. That means when our public schools fail to prepare students to fully participate in public life, they fail our country, too.”

I think the biggest pity in India is that the basics of Health, Education, Infrastructure and Utilities like Electricity, Water, Roads, Transport and above all Safety that the government should be guaranteeing is not happening, and hence philanthropy is stepping in where the government needs to.

The Gates go on to explain why their educational reforms have had lukewarm success. And it is largely because of the issue of:

D) Localisation: “Businesses that scale and those that don’t scale… It became clear to us that scaling in education doesn’t mean getting the same solution out to everyone. Our work needed to be tailored to the specific needs of teachers and students in the places we were trying to reach. We’ve shifted our primary focus in K-12 to locally driven solutions identified by networks of schools. Our hope is that these Networks for School Improvement will increase the number of Black, Latinx, and low-income students who graduate from high school and pursue postsecondary opportunities.”

This is an essential lessons that global/ multinational companies learn/ need to learn. One apparently that Microsoft hasn’t learnt that well in its gaming business. But, many others have – the most reputed being Nestle (goat’s milk instead of cow’s milk and loquat, gouge used as ingredients in China; matcha flavour KitKat in Japan); McDonald’s (Paneer Wrap; Veg only restaurants in India); Coke (Coke friends campaign having been customised to suit the needs of the local markets). But also Netflix, who showed rapid expansion in international markets due largely to their local language sub titles, dubbed version content, and originals. They’ve even localized the app navigation and UI for different countries. 

The Gates Foundation realised that they needed local solutions grounded in reality to meet the challenges of education. It wasn’t all the fault of a single global approach though. Education is tricky. As they say – “But one thing that makes improving education tricky is that even among people who work on the issue, there isn’t much agreement on what works and what doesn’t. In global health, we know that if children receive the measles vaccine, they will be protected against the disease, which means they’re more likely to survive. But there’s no consensus on cause and effect in education. Are charter schools good or bad? Should the school day be shorter or longer? Is this lesson plan for fractions better than that one? Educators haven’t been able to answer those questions with enough certainty to establish clear best practices. It’s also hard to isolate any single intervention and say it made all the difference. Getting a child through high school requires at least 13 years of instruction enabled by hundreds of teachers, administrators, and local, state, and national policymakers. The process is so cumulative that changing the ultimate outcome requires intervention at many different stages.”

E) Last Mile – Is the proverbial holy grail. This is where many companies fail. And many others make the cut as successes. Flipkart made such inroads into the Indian market, due largely to its logistics that was able to reach customers, aided by its revolutionary COD policy. In sharp contrast, most government welfare schemes do not benefit the real beneficiaries, ending instead in the coffers of the infamous middlemen. (The Direct Benefit Transfer schemes by the government were actually policy measures to eliminate middlemen and have technology enabled last mile benefits, but the efficacy still has gaps). The Gates Foundation is no different. “Today, 86 percent of children around the world receive basic immunizations. …But reaching the last 14 percent is going to be much harder than reaching the first 86 percent. The children in this group are some of the most marginalized children in the world….Frustratingly, some live just a few hundred meters from a health facility but are invisible to the health system”

This is a real lesson for any business – the focus to the last mile has to be out of context and Pareto – otherwise the balance efforts go waste. 

F) The Benefit of collaboration – I only last week wrote this piece on cooptition, which is kind of what the Gates are rooting for also. They are very bullish on Gavi – the vaccine alliance; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, DREAMS, The Global Polio Eradication Fund amongst others. “We worked with the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and UNICEF to create Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi brings together governments and other organizations to raise funds to buy vaccines and support low-income countries as they deliver them to children……Rather than focus on one-size-fits-all solutions, our foundation wants to create opportunities for schools to learn from each other. What worked at North-Grand won’t work everywhere. That’s why it’s important that other schools in other networks share their success stories, too”

G) Accident of birth – These are dark times across the world as we see increasing levels of intolerance and homophobia. People are fighting, even killing on grounds of religion, caste, colour, sex, behaviour, attitude, and sometimes for no reason at all. In these times, it is really important to remember that if it were not for an accident of birth, you could very well be the person you are hating on! As Melinda said, “I met a woman who asked me to take her newborn home with me because she couldn’t imagine how she could afford to take care of him. I met sex workers in Thailand who helped me understand that if I had been born in their place, I, too, would do whatever it took to feed my family”. This fact was brought home to me quite powerfully the other day when my mother in law’s caregiver, a Koran reading, namaz offering muslim girl, last Friday requested me to take her to a Sai Baba mandir and then a hanuman mandir – she said that when she first ran away from home to Bombay, she prayed at these temples and was able to keep herself safe and well fed. So much for different Gods! I saw a really powerful visual today that in fact my mum had put on Facebook that underscores this really well. 

H) Strategy vs. Execution – Bill and Melinda made the clear distinction between the 2 –  “To be clear, the risks we take are different from the ones the true heroes of global progress take all the time: the health workers who brave war zones to get vaccines to children who need them, the teachers who sign up to work in the most challenging schools, the women in the world’s poorest places who stand up against cultural norms and traditions designed to keep them down. What they do requires personal sacrifices we never have to make—and we try to honor them by supporting innovations that might one day make their lives easier”. Given their influence and wealth, and given many even large problems require local or micro solutions, this is an optimal route. I think for us in everyday lives, and certainly in professional ones, we have to differentiate between doing vs. managing and decide where is time best spent. Narayan Murthy once said, we Indians are very poor at execution. 

Some other quotes that struck me as relevant from the letter were:

– “Disease is both a symptom and a cause of inequality, while public education is a driver of equality”

– “When more women have a voice in the rooms where decisions are made, more of those decisions will benefit all of us…. that our economies are built on the back of women’s unpaid labor”

– “Tackling climate change is going to demand historic levels of global cooperation, unprecedented amounts of innovation in nearly every sector of the economy, widespread deployment of today’s clean-energy solutions like solar and wind, and a concerted effort to work with the people who are most vulnerable to a warmer world”. By the way, my daughter along with her friends and what looked like pretty much the whole of Bristol recently attended Greta’s Climate strike. Here are some pictures – its heartening to see what a single girl started due to the power of her belief. 

Climate March Bristol

So, power to the Gates Foundation. May their fence swingers result in hitting all balls out of the park. I must also confess that I read their older annual letters for the first time – and actually, they haven’t been saying anything startlingly different – its a narrative thats been ongoing in different forms but is therefore at least consistent.

I have to end with a photo of my husband with Bono. This was at the Global Fund conference last year, where Bill Gates also participated obviously. He says it was a selfie taking opportunity choice between Gates and Bono – he chose the latter much to my daughters’ delight, and my despair. (To be fair, his logic was that I can meet Gates again but Bono maybe never)

Co-optition, The Quest for Access, or, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

Narayana Heart Centre at M S Ramaiah Memorial Hospital

We moved houses a few months ago, and I needed to go to a completely new hospital for a check up. Imagine my surprise (and relief actually), when I saw the Cardiac Care department at M S Ramaiah, a large, old and reputed Hospital and Medical College, run by – Narayana Hrudayalaya, also a large, reputed and old Cardiac Care Hospital started by the eminent Dr. Devi Shetty! Now, this was a hospital I was very familiar with. It was hugely reassuring to get my check ups done there – and even see the familiar blue saree for the customer service folks – almost like being home. 

It set me thinking about the world now collaborating in newer ways, even with erstwhile competitors, in a bid to win access to customers. (I saw later that the Oncology centre at Ramaiah was run by HCG, a cancer specialist).

Narayana itself, from being headquartered almost outside of Bangalore in a large “health city’, has of late started smaller branch centres all over at least south and south east Bangalore. And now, this shop in shop in Ramaiah!

So this is smart business, right, exemplifying a few business imperatives:

A) Core competency specialisation 

B) Outsourcing of non core work to other experts

C) Competition changing to Co-optition (or, everything being fair in love, war and business)

And right then, I saw pop up on my screen, an ad for a sale at Nykaa, an online turned clicks and mortar retailer of beauty and personal care products (a retailer that my teenage daughter had first told me about some 4-5 years ago as her friends were all buying discounted toiletries and make up from there), of products by Fable Street, another online retailer that sells very attractive work wear clothes and accessories (this one run by an IIM alumna). 

It kind of messed with my brain for a bit (I mean, I understand cross usage of channel, but direct competitors using each other as channels?), till I reasoned that this was the true value of the market place model that Amazon had pioneered. (An article I read recently put the figure of third party sales from Amazon at 58% of total revenue). This is Amazon’s stated intent of “helping independent retailers meet the needs of Amazon customers around the globe”. I think Amazon really made the transition from an e-tailer to a channel provider to a technology company very very smoothly and logically.

So what scenarios work best for this co-optition, or collaboration amongst competitors:

A) Multi party Industry nature collaborations

This is normally for Big Problems – setting standards/ fighting common causes like climate change/ defence and security/ energy/ epidemics/ education/ poverty. 

For example, at the recent NRF 2020, one of the biggest panels featured executives from Target, Chipotle, and Best Buy who discussed the power of cyber security industry collaboration. 

Similarly, Facebook, Amazon, Google and more met with WHO recently to figure out how to stop misinformation on the dreaded Coronavirus. 

Or, in 2013/14 post the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, consortiums were formed between Walmart, H&M, Zara, Nike, Adidas to ensure safety and better working conditions for their workers 

Open source was probably the earliest version of this co-optition – where varying competing organisations would come together for development. 

IOT is a great area nowadays which needs to see, and is slowly seeing, collaboration between competitors to develop platforms and utilities for seamless customer experiences. Recently, Google, Apple and Amazon, probably the most acrimonious competitors amongst tech giants, unveiled a smart home collaboration, Connected Home over IP. This is inviting device manufacturers, silicon providers and developers across the smart home industry to join and develop new connectivity standards. 

Another area is self drive cars – the trio of Ford, GM and Toyota has formed what they are calling the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium

Ofcourse, when competitors work together, data security/ patent protection become critical areas, and most companies work well on solving for those. In case of any leaks, these collaborations dissolve.

B) Collaboration between select parties to develop new technologies/ products; to address client needs, or to fight a common competitor: 

Probably the most celebrated example of co-opetition success is the 2004 Sony-Samsung JV to develop and produce LCD panels for flat-screen TVs.  “Bravia” and “Bordeaux” came out of this collaboration, more than doubling the combined market share of these two companies.

In 2012, Harvard University and MIT formed EDX, a non-profit organisation that provides free online courses, each investing $US30 million. By end 2019, there were about 20 million students that it had served. 

In 2017, a consortium of automakers including Ford, Toyota and Suzuki, planned to develop standards for in-vehicle car telematics as an alternative to Google’s Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay. 

In 2016, Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft came together to create a historic partnership on AI. Apple, Google, Facebook, participated in a twitter data sharing project in 2019.  Google supported Mozilla (Firefox web-browser), a rival to Google Chrome, in order to limit the expanding influence of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari. At Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event in Aug 2019, the company announced four partnerships – of which Microsoft was one, to bundle its Android apps on the Note 10.

Even in the B2B world of tech services that I was briefly a part of, one has seen big competitors work together to win a large contract. TCS in 2018 was in talks with Wipro and Infosys to market its automation software Ignio, though nothing really fructified as Wipro ran the AI platform Holmes and Infosys its Nia.

In tech industries, the need for co-opetition is felt more due to the pace of evolution of technology, shorter life-cycle and high R&D costs. The cost of introducing new technology can be prohibitive for one company. Another perspective could be that these partnerships are short-term co-branding and marketing opportunities.

Pharma sees a lot of these in a bid to discover and trial new cures – In 2014, Pfizer and Merck collaborated on a study evaluating a novel Anti Cancer regimen. More recently, in 2019, Pfizer and Merck KGaA, joined BioXcel Therapeutics in its clinical collaboration with Nektar Therapeutics, creating a partnership to assess a triple combination therapy in pancreatic cancer. And then in 2020, Genome & Company entered into a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck KGaA, and Pfizer to evaluate the safety, tolerability, biological and clinical activities of some combination therapies, in multiple cancer indications.

The risks of collaborating with rivals might seem huge but a study by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute found that co-optition, when it lasted from three to five years, had more than a 50% chance of mutually reducing company costs.

But co-optition is not really new – There have been enough examples in History, as well as in ancient legends, mythology and fiction of strategic collaboration between enemies to defeat a rival enemy.

In India, the Rajputs occasionally united against foreign invaders – once under Bappa Rawal, then under Shakti Kumar of Mewar and Jaypal Tomar roughly in the 11th/ 12th century. Once the foreign invasions stopped, the Rajputs fought each other.  Then, the rajputs under Rana Sanga managed to defend their confederation against Sultanates of Malwa, Gujarat and also Ibrahim Lodi, Sultan of Delhi.

Some historians think that Rana Sanga also invited Babur to fight against Ibrahim Lodhi, plotting that he himself would move over to Delhi after both warring sides were weakened. As it happened, Babur was very strong, he defeated Rana Sanga, and started the Mughal Dynasty. 

Globally, while the US and the Soviet Union had not exactly been friends in the times before the WWII, it was their collaboration as allies that had a large part in defeating Nazi Germany. 

Hagrid Looking at the Giant Colony

Pic Credit

Recent popular fiction e.g. Harry Potter, saw both the Dark Lord’s side and the Order of the Phoenix wanting to ally with the giants to defeat the other side (this despite a fair degree of mistreatment accorded to the giants ordinarily by both sides). Ultimately, the Giants joined the Death Eaters. In the famous Game Of Thrones, Starks, Arryns and Targaryens allied with a few key House of Lannister members like Tyrion and Jamie and fought against the White Walkers, the army of dead in the battle of Winterfell.

Why go so far – Indian Politics sees a lot of co-optition – in 2018, the Karnataka state assembly elections saw a farcical situation when the party with the majority (BJP) first claimed the right to form the government, but then had to resign as its two competitors (The Congress which actually had the least votes, and the JD(S)) formed a post poll alliance and staked claim – it is another matter that the government didn’t last very long.

Apparently, in the NASCAR world, co-optition means one racer helping another by working together to go faster until the last lap, before they start competing against each other.

In teen patti/ cards, one has side shows with a competitor in a group to ensure the larger enemy gets slain.

Side Show in Teen Patti

 As the iconic Godfather line said, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”

C) Cost Optimization/ Capacity Sharing 

Don’t even get me started about this – the hardware guys want to make software and vice versa, the gaming guys are making voice assistants and so on and so forth. And competitors supply parts and components to direct competitors while their finished goods are fighting for share of wallet! It’s all over the place, and hugely incestuous! 

Apple and Samsung for heaven’s sake! While Samsung’s Galaxy and Apple’s iPhone are arch rivals, Samsung at the same time continues to be one of Apple’s main suppliers of screens.

Microsoft and Intel were “married” to each other for ever it seemed (their Wintel alliance) till the advent of mobile technologies created a split. 

The Star Alliance network of competing airlines, which included Air New Zealand, Thai, United, Air China, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, to name a few, was established to save on logistics, marketing and ticketing costs . But we travellers benefitted also as can share loyalty points :).

Peugeot Citroen and Toyota used to have an arrangement to share components for their city cars to the extent that critics said it was one car with three names.

And then there is branding/ white labelling in retail, and actually tech services. Essentially everybody plays happy families in order to lower the burden of capital intensive businesses.

Happy Families / Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

D) Arising from a partner eco system  

Then there are the companies who are building entire eco systems – Salesforce was one of the earliest. Now there is Amazon Web Services. And the participants in these eco systems are competitors but benefit from the network. I mentor an AWS / cloud computing consulting services startup called Rapyder – they do good work, have a solid client base, and are growing excitingly. Obviously helped on by AWS. Don’t yet exploit the advantage of co-optition – but could very soon. 

In the social impact sector, there are platforms like Lets Do Some Good run by my ex business partner. Her concept when she started was to weed out the inefficiencies of “random acts of kindness” (e.g., too much funding and CSR efforts going to a school close to many corporates, and none going to one a little distance away), and give small NGOs and ISR folks the ability to synergise their efforts. Cooperatives and marketplaces are other such instances – Social Alpha, as an example, has incubated a farmer cooperative called Farmveda, that has enabled better market access and profits directly to a network of farmers in the South of India. Similarly, a market place called Habba, run by RangDe, that enables artisans to sell and reap the benefits of their crafts. Many countries do this, e.g New Zealand enables its wine growers export their products  – all constituents can be viewed as competitors, but in the cooperative model, they leverage a common entity to come together for “the greater good” and enjoy the benefits. 

(As an aside, while the greater good, also known as win -win is a really praiseworthy ambition, it can have very dark results as we know – after all, Hitler convinced a vast population that homophobia of various kinds was for the greater good. In recent times, a good metaphor for Hitler has been Grindelwald of the Fantastic Beasts/ Harry Potter franchise. Anyway, this is a deviation…)

Grindelwald giving the Greater Good Speech

E) Access to a whole new world

This is the pure commercial/ channel play, cross sell to allow mutual benefit, ensuring ubiquity of a familiar brand. The online world made this possible – when instead of customers needing to go destination shopping (including for medical services – a la me going to Narayana), they expected manufacturers and service providers to come to them. The battle for access became fiercer – with players realising the benefit of selective partnerships to ensure visibility across forums – the power of decision then lay in the customer’s hand, influenced less by “location”, and more by other factors – it really became survival of the fittest.

Vimeo, a competitor to youtube one would have thought, allowed publishing of its videos to youtube (as well as others like Facebook/ Linkedin etc) via its “publish to social” feature  – this maybe underlines Vimeo’s shift from a video content making company to one that is making tools for content makers and publishers.

Microsoft offers Xbox games via Xbox live – on Nintendo Switch – its a partnership that is mutually beneficial, though there are claims that it may be ending soon. (It started with Minecraft, and post that, despite ongoing “exclusives” for each platform, the gaming companies started collaborating for better access. Sony has less incentive for this partnership, but there is certainly cross play gaming going on).

SAP used to run Oracle database  and  Microsoft Office is available on Apple computers (Macs and iPads). Similarly, Apple and Amazon combine for Kindle – Apple has a kindle app for iPads, which one would think is counter intuitive. But this is because Apple needs content for its devices, while Amazon needs people to buy more and more (e) books. In this case, it is because the strategic imperatives are different for the competitors for the collaboration.  

Samsung and Apple have tied up for TV services, an area where both have been slow to grow.  

This cooptition also helps small scale companies scale up by pooling resources too (a bit like the cooperative model, but not wider/ multiparty). It’s a rising tide, that raises all boats. 

Overall, there is a time, place and reason for competition, and then one for collaboration – and increasingly, as we are seeing, the same two people can be competitors or collaborators. The world is becoming one large happy family – the Upanishads called it Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. 

As Abraham Lincoln said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”, and (not to be outdone), Sigmund Freud said “an intimate friend and a hated enemy have always been indispensable to my emotional life…not infrequently…friend and enemy have coincided in the same person”

And as my daughter would say, Ma, duh! Frenemies! 

The Circle of Life – Some insights from a Hospital Stay

So, Ija, my 89 year old mother in law had a stroke (right cerebral infarct with left cerebral bleed) last week. After 10 days spent at the hospital, we brought her home yesterday – she has been lying unresponsive in bed since last Monday morning. Obviously, this was a period of worry and frustration for us, but also of observation and reflection. A few thoughts emerged:

A) Old Was Truly Gold – It’s a truism, but the age old mantras of Clean air, Organic food and Simple living really worked. This is preaching to the converted largely, but the fact remains that urban upper middle class living nowadays is the pits. My in laws lived in a small hilly border town called Pithoragarh most of their lives. Like most hill folk of that time, they ate simple, locally grown vegetarian food supplemented with lots of dairy twice a day; woke up at 4 am and slept at 8pm, walked everywhere; didn’t overwork and didn’t party. Result – ija at nearly 90 was walking, talking, eating, bathing independently till Sunday evening – she held sway over,  in fact terrorised a household comprised of sons, daughters in law, grandchildren, household help and guests. Even now, when she has been bedridden for nearly two weeks, her vitals are strong and working perfectly fine. This, despite having had two strokes some 15 years ago, losing speech as a result, and then recovering from it to regale us with many tales of her brain haemorrhage and other illnesses.

B) It REALLY is all about the people – A Hospital, just like, but even more than other service oriented institutions like schools and banks, is run by the people – it is not just the doctors, who of course are very important, but the rest of the staff. Nurses (and that entire eco system) are probably even more important than doctors. So are the ward staff, the cleaning staff, the security, the ambulance staff, the food deliverers, the Physio therapists, the admin, the cash and billing staff, the counsellors, the dieticians – the entire jing bang. Ramaiah Memorial Hospital was an example of an institution where we met excellence all around. Every single interaction with the staff, from the security guard outside the ICU, who went out of his way to check status of arrival of stretcher for MRI, and gave us numbers of key people to call; to the physiotherapist girls who not only exercised ija’s stiff neck and limbs, but also took care to give me, my sister in law and the new caregiver girl we hired, clear, lucid and reasonable instructions for her care post hospital; to the catering guy who made sure and delivered food we wanted as and when we wanted; to ambulance folks who called several numbers to ensure they were ready and waiting when ija was ready to be taken home – these micro “moments of truth” were what led to delight in customer interaction. Infact, on a previous visit to the same hospital with ija, the guard outside the dental hospital had been extremely helpful – when my husband offered him a tip, he flat refused – saying this is my duty sir. This is unprecedented in India, where most things do not work without a bribe or a bakhshish! All of this brings home the importance of training and investing in the second and third in commands in an organisation. That is the only way to make sure a system is sustainable. Leadership is very important, but so is the workforce. For example, in Ivy League colleges, the undergrad classes are really taught by TAs – but that is possible only because they admit the best/ the cream of the students. Similarly, MS Ramaiah has integrated its supply chain backwards – they have nursing training college, also medical college – so their hiring pipeline is always full (a lesson many schools and other organisations can learn).  

C) But Process is King – The thing is, people with the best intention in the world, cannot make a scale institution work unless there are rock solid processes – that is the reason why large multinational corporates funded economies like India, which then entered new phases of development because of their process expertise. Ramaiah has not only the people to make even a hospital stay almost pleasurable (and certainly reassuring), its processes are also world class. They have a clear role definitions with accountability, but also supervisors with different spans of control for  every job. This includes the staff who cleans and dusts every room – the cleaning supervisor actually slid open the windows to ija’s palliative care room, swept a finger on the sill in classical housewife style, and showed the smear of dust on his glove with this “a-ha” glint on his eyes to the hapless dusting guy. (Ija would have been proud)! The ambulance folks (driver/ stretcher bears) – had a supervisor too, who apparently makes sure that every ambulance experience is seamless – according to him, they fire from 10 -15 staff every day on grounds of incompetence. Of course, they also pay top salary. There are floating staff that take care of redundancy – the head of the Palliative Care Unit was absent for a couple days, but she had a second in command, and then another lady who generally adds as PR dogsbody, but acted like a great customer touch point in her absence. 

D) “Sung” Heroes – The Medical profession is often reviled and sometimes blessed, but it really needs supreme appreciation – How difficult is it to tell patient after patient, and caregiver after caregiver, that there is no hope! How difficult is it to go on performing a job again and again, and saving lives, despite the odds of lives getting lost in the process. I just bought this book This is Going to Hurt, an account of a doctor, who gave it up because of sad incidents. Doctors have this incredibly hard entrance exam, then they study for many many years, and then intern for many many hard hours, and then do this very very very very hard job. They have all my respect, and long may their tribe last. Despite much evidence to the contrary, and of course many malpractices, for a good doctor, medicine needs to be more a vocation than a profession/ means of income.

Murphyisms

E) Murphy’s law is real – This insight was the result of a conversation I had with a deeply philosophical security guard outside the Palliative Care Unit. Hailing from Hyderabad, he told me he had experience of patient care at the ICU, but he had quit that department when the SARS outbreak happened. He told me triumphantly that it was now the Coronavirus that was reaching epidemic proportions, and wasn’t it a good thing he had shifted to the Palliative Care! Having explained to me the benefits of an air bed over a water bed, and the correct setting for maximum patient comfort for both, he waxed eloquent on the dollops of ghee that people of the older times would eat – that being the reason why they grew so robust. He vented about the chicken available nowadays, which were being given injections to grow from scrawny beings to 3 kg fat hens; and the mushrooms which were being manufactured in machines – and said, no wonder there are illnesses aplenty. After a longish conversation about many life and death theories, he told me that I should pray to Allah that I never be brought to the hospital in a stretcher or a wheelchair. On my saying yes, that’s what everyone hopes for, but no one has control over, he nodded sagely and said – that is correct, madam! Later, when I was going home, I met him in the elevator and asked he me – “oota aita” (have you eaten).  When I asked him if he had, he told me, “duniya ka asool hai ki jab kuch nahi chahiye tou duniya poochti hai, aur jab bhookh lagti hai, tou koi nahi poochta.” A very Murphy Law-ish statement from the mouth of a security guard. 

F) Ancillary services – A while ago, I watched an interesting movie called Tumhari Sulu – was a refreshing take on a middle class ambitious housewife who first, by an interesting spate of circumstances, tried being a sexy chatline host much to her family’s horror, and then, after a series of unfortunate incidents, began a catering service , supplying amongst others the radio channel she was working at. Similarly, a Hospital spawns a whole host of ancillary services. Medical supplies rental, nursing attendant supply, catering service….the whole Nursing Homecare industry is one that we saw closely. Essentially, in a world where people have the ability to pay, the gaps for services are so many – and still so difficult to fill. The global geriatric services market is estimated to be at about 900 billionish USD according to a report by GMI. As per Cyber Media Research’s analysis, in 2016, the home healthcare industry in India stood at $3.20 billion and is expected to grow to $6.21 billion by 2020. By 2050, the elderly population is likely to increase by three times to reach around 300 million, accounting for 20% of the country’s total population. There are many providers – Bangalore based Portea being a big professionally run one. But clearly many smaller ones are jumping in. After all, body shopping is something we do well. The Homecare service seems to see margins of 50% and upwards, relying on caregivers from Bengal, Odisha and Kerala, Karnataka – these are barely trained, needy girls (and I assume boys) on whom you leave the daily care of your loved ones.

G) Melanin’s Rule – Skin colour is really an obsession with us Indians (and of course across the world). The very very sweet well meaning nurses looking after ija would repeatedly say – “she is a white beauty”. I felt like quoting MLK back at them all the time “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”. Its another matter that the white beauty comment would have made ija very happy – she has often told me about the skin whitening afghan snow cream she used daily for skincare. I am so so happy about the recent penalty proposed on skin colour related ads. And the fact that my daughters’ generation at least is actively rejecting these racist norms. 

H) The Flip Side of Influence – We Indians are so used to battling the odds to turn them into our favour in all circumstances, that we look for “Influence” always. So it happened to my husband and me when we first admitted Ija to the ICU. Feeling very lost, and unable to quite gauge accurately the true state of affairs because of our inexperience, we of course asked around if anyone had any “contacts” at the hospital. A bunch of folks responded. We were satisfied. But, the whole thing escalated – some one asked someone else and then someone else, and the matter reached the top folks at the hospital. In no time, we were called by the ICU staff and asked why we were unhappy with the service at the hospital, why we had complained, did we not get the counselling, etc etc. Caught completely by surprise, and embarrassed to the hilt, we spent many minutes clarifying that this was Chinese Whispers at work – and they were just the victims of well meaning helpers! Anyway, we got away with filling some feedback forms, but learnt a valuable lesson on not overusing resources at the wrong time. 

I) Self Worth vs. Humility – While sitting in Ija’s room, I was typing out a response to an urgent, important email. A young intern came in to return ija’s discharge summary paper which she had borrowed. When I asked her to place it in the file please, she said – no, I can’t do it. Im very busy. I guess I looked shocked – as she then said, we have many patients to see, and we can’t do these things. I guess she was right (my point had merely been – since you are placing it on top anyway, just open the file and place it aside) – but it reinforced an important point to me. This is about confidence in self/ or a heightened sense of one’s value – it is trait that I totally lack (I have been told several times by several diverse people the I have no ego – its not something that I am ashamed of, but neither is it something that I would necessarily teach my kids). My husband (and his brother, a senior doctor) – have it in spades. They are always about making something grand/ the big picture/ inflation/ larger than life… what have you. It stands them in good stead – my husband refuses to sign a deal with anyone unless it meats the bare threshold of valuation he has set for the company. My brother in law starts most conversations with strangers saying – do you know who I am – I was Senior Officer in so-and-so etc etc. My in laws had immense pride in being Bhatt from Bishadh, an uchcha koti brahmin; my mother has immense pride in her daughter’s accomplishments. My ex business partner smoke screened our capabilities to clients very often – saying we know/ have done much more than we actually had. Clever business? Yes, totally! Marketing? Maybe. Respect Generation guarantor? Sometimes. Good, bad, or ugly? Can’t really say. This also amplifies real or imagined slights (how did I not get a large room/ how dare the CEO not come and meet me)…but for sure, it is better than to be on the flip side of the coin. The number of conversations I have had with my daughter who is in college far away, in the wee hours of the night, to allay fears of – I have no friends/ I am not likeable/ I am dumb, is not funny. Just messes with her head, and ensures that the therapy/ mental health medicine industry is thriving. I am guessing a good state of being is confidence in self based on actual traits, behaviours and achievements; yet enough humility to acknowledge other people’s traits, behaviours and achievements. Tough balance!

J) Minimalism and Focus – This is the era of decluttering – many a preacher is giving gyan on mindfulness, on simplicity, on getting down to the basics. Celebrities are getting huge views and followerships on recycled clothing. Home schooling a big thing. Single home ownership/ single car ownership/ sharing rooms is being taught as a big lessons. No air travel/ dry shopping free months/ vintage shops are trending globally. My husband’s firm Social Alpha incubates a company called Bare necessities, which works on zero waste processes. All this, apart from urban brouhaha, is really good for the environment and just generally plain old common sense. But, somehow, the real value of paring down one’s life to the bare necessities comes when you have a loved one in hospital – all needs become wants – and all wants become don’t wants. You realise the bs about relationships is not bs. You rue the phone call you didn’t make, or the fight you did have, with parents and other friends and family. You say – God, I’ll feed a 100 children; or I’ll give up Rajnigandha, if you make my m-i-l well again. All external trappings evaporate in the face of adversity – my friend who lost her husband very young says this well – one life to live – may as well be true to what you really really want to do and what is important to you. 

K) New Normal – As we now slowly get used to a bed ridden mum, we have to adjust to our new normal. At each stage, one has changes, and one adjusts. When ija first came to live with us, we made minor modifications in life style – gave up eating meat; our evening outings together as a family stopped… When my daughter went to college, a room became vacant, uninterrupted sleep became a thing of the past and the voice data usage shot through the skies. So did stress and heart medication. Now when ija is semi comatose, we have a new full time member of our household (her attendant), her room smells like a hospital, bed sores and secretion cleaning have become frequent search terms, and the mixie is being overused. This, after all, is life! As I was telling a friend who lost her dad recently, and then is nursing her mother through a stroke (thankfully mashi is recovering) while we were grieving about the loss of another friend’s mother suddenly just as she was rehabilitating her father in law, we are now at that stage of life. In our late teens, we were all only about college admissions and exams, in our twenties we were all job hunting and then partying; then it was promotions/ marriage/ home ownership/ parenthood/ their schooling/ empty nesting – and now ofcourse as our parents are all becoming geriatrics, we are seeing their illness and, eventually their end. This is, truly, the circle of life

Reflections from a TEDx talk – to start off the new year 2020

Like most “people like me” (self confessed wannabe intellectual/ corporate types), I have been viewing/ listening to Ted talks for a while – I even subscribe to them on my social media accounts. I love them for the sheer diversity of thought they portray, and obviously find some that invoke “aha” moments, and some that I couldn’t care less about. Went to my first live session though the other day – was not a TED talk, but a TEDx event, held in a school. I have to say at the outset that it was a fun evening – organised really well by the students. As expected, listened to some engaging perspectives by a diverse speaker set; met some interesting people in the interactive sessions; ate some really good food; and went through some entertaining performances by the kids. This piece is about reflections during and post the event; thought would type them down jfk 🙂

– BIG Hairy Audacious Goals – One of the speakers at the event, in terms of sheer coolness of “achievement” (at least by the mainstream sense of success and achievement), was easily in the top order – has had two really successful startups – one in the enterprise space of mobile marketing, and another (newer one) in the urban micro mobility apace – and while his ventures may not be Mark Zuckerberg big; they are both still household names. His talk was the one I was most looking forward to; both for myself, and for my musical-theatre – crazy – yet – wrestling – with – middle-class – parental – ambition – to – do – more – mainstream – stuff – teenage daughter, specially as, part of my objective of attending this event was to expose child to a divergent way of thinking, rather than just Broadway and the Westend. Now to me, the big nugget in this talk was his point of choosing a “BIG problem to solve”. He spoke about his quest for an entrepreneurial opportunity post his first one (this, by the way, after having sworn to “chill with coffee at 40” – much like my intention to lie on a beach and drink beer! The difference is, I actually do my beach and beer, and he went ahead and started the new micro mobility enterprise ). The problem statement to him was that of urban traffic congestion, (very relevant in a city like Bangalore), and air pollution; and he chose a really innovative solution, despite what one would say were insurmountable odds. (The solution was hireable cycles and electric scooters).

Now obviously, this nugget of choosing the Big Problem was directed more at the students in the audience in order to inspire them, but it also made me a bit ashamed. I think there are people in this world who really take big problems to solve – and they are the ones who move and shake the world, and make life easier for the rest of us. These are not necessarily “great men” – it could be the boy or girl next door (this entrepreneur is an ex neighbour, and a really nice guy). I realise that I am not one of them, instead choosing to focus on making my immediate eco system happy and comfortable. Look after ageing parents and in laws, undertake some community service in neighbourhood schools and slums, mentor some startups that come looking for gyan, manage kids’ complicated calendars…these are the low impact low scale items that keep me occupied. Both paths of life, though divergent, are interesting, and potentially fulfilling. However, the second (mine) can be fulfilled by any Tom Dick or Harry, while the first needs the people chasing BHAGs. My husband I think is one of them – his outfit, Social Alpha is aiming to end world hunger, poverty, disability, climate depletion and many more such issues. They have an incubator, as well as a fund to identify, mentor, seed and take to market outfits creating social impact on a wide ranging set of areas like nutrition, agriculture, health, education, sustainability. “Our complex social, economic and environmental challenges urgently demand a radically new approach” says their website.

Now most corporates have their quarterly/ yearly/ 2 yearly plans, and then do have their BHAGs – a practice that keeps their paths both on the immediate Wall Street happiness, as well as future profitability. In a world, where global economic profits sank from $726 billion to an economic loss of $34 billion from 2005-07 to 2015-17 as per a Mckinsey study, these BHAGs are what may ensure financial stability in the years to come.

This reflection, actually tied in neatly with one of the screened sessions – a very interesting Ted Talk by David Brooks’ on Resume vs. Eulogy. Brooks makes the point about most of us, all our lives really aiming to build “resume” virtues – that focus on “external successes” we can show the world, and be proud of. There is, however, what he calls the “eulogy virtues” that are more your legacy, and really exemplify your “Internal Goodness”. He says that despite the fact that we all probably really admire and aim for the eulogy virtues more, our culture and educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies to build an external career, than on how to build inner character. It is apparently a really famous talk, based off American rabbi and philosopher Joseph Soloveitchik’s well known Lonely Man of Faith dichotomy between “Adam I” and “Adam II.” “Adam I is the external Adam, it’s the resume Adam…Adam I wants to build, create, use, start things. Adam II is the internal Adam. Adam II wants to embody certain moral qualities, to have a serene inner character, not only to do good but to be good. Adam I, the resume Adam, wants to conquer the world…. Adam II wants to obey a calling and serve the world. Adam I asks how things work, Adam II asks why things exist and what ultimately we’re here for.”

Also, eulogy problems take more than one’s lifetime to solve, while resume problems get solved within an individual’s lifetime.

And I was thinking (much like BILL Gates hinted at in his blog on this topic) – that maybe more than two sides of man, the two Adams are merely a function of life cycle stage – one spends one’s early life being more Adam (well, or Eve) 1 and then having achieved certain milestones, the balance shifts more to Adam 2. My husband is doing this – after the first half century of his life chasing a resume (coming from a govt school in remote Pithoragarh, he ended up at Harvard; leading the Gobal development org for a fintech company); he is now building an eco system for social impact – he is really doing this out of a deepest desire to do good – to help the under privileged, and to right, in some small measure, the inequalities the world sees. I do think both sides of his life have been equally frustrating, yet equally pharrellian. Another of my ex-partners is also doing this – after exiting the company we co-founded, she has created an amazing platform (called Lets Do Some Good) that has connected hundreds of organisations working on areas of childhood education, health, hygiene, employability and overall quality of life for the urban poor. The idea being that many random acts of kindness, when brought together, can collaborate to create synergies. Her flagship project, in addition, aims to bring urban slum children into mainstream schools after a year of a “bridge program”. So, after half of her life spent on resume virtues, she is now very passionately involved in the eulogy side. Even Brooks has said this – Deep people also tend to be old.  But, “Being deep doesn’t preclude you from being, well, shallow. Some days we want to be externally successful, some days we want to be internally good. The question is whether your life is in balance.”

I think the trick is to ask this question of yourself, every few years, “At what points do my talents and deep gladness meet the world’s deep need?”

Having said that, another speaker, while maybe chasing resume virtues (she was really young though), made me realise that..

– The world is truly multidisciplinary / patterns are about joining impossible dots – 
I still don’t know what this young lady does by the way – she said she could maybe call herself a Creative Researcher. Her primary work seemed to be in the space of sound. She basically took us through some (I would have said fairly disjointed) pieces of work/ projects that she has done – and they were all jaw droppingly amazing. They ranged from an installation done with cut plastic water bottles, that was kind of shaped like an igloo, and that emitted some sounds as the wind whistled through it; to a graffiti made of auditory codes, each of which when scanned told the story of an immigrant (she distributed copies of these codes); to some work she had done on sound therapy (apparently there are claims that sound therapy can cure cancer); to a kaleidoscopic installation in Oslo made of folks walking through some architecture, and the waves/ voices emitted as they did it; to work she had done with appliances created to help differently abled children in Himachal. All mind-blowingly new/ seemingly unconnected to me/ abstract as well – and yet, all apparently keeping this young women happy and in money! It was raw yet refreshing, bizarre yet educative, and, honestly, eye opening. A really unique insight into non mainstream interdisciplinary work, and the incredibly diverse opportunities open to kids today.

During one of the activities during the event, I also met a lady, a part of the audience like me, who told me her son was a professional poker player – had been a genius at math; and turned this into playing professional poker – I saw this traditional middle class Indian mum’s struggle with this unconventional choice of livelihood for her only son, but I also saw an acceptance of what apparently was making her son happy. A good lesson to learn for a theatre kid’s mum.

– Context is King – The first speaker of the evening was the director of a Dance Village in Bangalore, founded by the talented though troubled Protima Bedi. The lady had enrolled in the school when she was 20, following her passion, and a path away from a degree in economics. The talk was about many interrelated thoughts – following your dreams, but also about making someone else’s dream your dream in the true Guru-Shishya Parampara; about dance being more than just movement – it being more a means of bringing your “inside out” and the “outside in”; going/ passing from this earth when your work is done – not before and not after. Incidentally, a collateral reflection (of mine) during this speech was one about “learning” today, specially for disciplines like dance/ music etc; vs. the models in the earlier years. I remember a renowned musician Mashkoor Ali Khan saying that when we lived with our Guru, any wrong note we uttered, would be immediately corrected by the Guru, and we would get on the right track (this even if we were doing riyaz in another room while the Guru was resting in another one). But nowadays, with the weekly one hour class kind of learning we undertake (my kids have done the regular rounds of all classes – dance/ music/ tennis/ basketball/ drama/ art), I wonder how one really internalises learning – and achieves the 10,000 hours needed to drive expertise. Ofcourse, it is also an “exploration” vs. “perfection” thing – for kids, they are exploring the areas they want to maybe specialise in later – and the hours spent do go up once they figure the thing/s they want to focus on.

This side thought aside, to me the one thing that stayed behind in my mind was what she said about how the motivation behind every gesture in dance dictates how one uses the gesture. She took the audience through the different ways in which the karkata mudra (I think), could be used to portray waiting/ mystery/ allure/ thoughtfulness etc…., similarly how the gesture for a veil could be used in different occasions – a bride, a mistress, shyness, strategy….and this essentially made me realise that what we hear very often now in the tech world – Contextual Marketing – is really more basic. The idea of a piece of technology working according to the place where you are/ or the impulse that triggered the use/ or the kind of person using it, is really common sensical context right? And this context we apply in everything – in our speech – how we talk, who we talk to, how we behave, how we purchase. Hence we develop ads like the one I saw while typing just now, for rental cars in Budapest and then another for winter clothing (I was just checking flight fares to Europe). Or, utilities like my friend and other ex co-founder’s company Zineone does. Zineone is a real time AI based personalisation solutions company. In their own words, “Want to drive higher traffic to your location? Send an exclusive offer for a customer’s favorite beverage, redeemable on-site only?. Are you looking to increase orders during a typical lull period? Push the customer a coupon for an item they frequently purchase, redeemable in the store during that time frame only” In fact, all of the currently wildly popular yet continuously developing Augmented Reality/ MR solutions would be nothing if it wasn’t for a realisation of context.

The question of context also came across in another, well, context …

– Know, and focus your target audience/ market – This was an unfortunate observation (and one would think is Business 101) – One of the above speakers, who I would have thought would have had the most interesting talks; much to my dismay, and the child’s boredom, got lost in vague generalities and prescriptive inanities. And, therefore, the talk remained just that – a talk. I think part of the problem was that this talk was undecided about who to address it to – the high schoolers, or their parents – it ended up by sitting squatly in the middle, and could impress neither – my daughter and her friends apparently raised eye brows and had a giggle about some visual with a Tee shirt saying IDGAF (which I learnt that night – means I don’t give a f$#@), and how he kept saying “dude” (which DD authoritatively says is only used by old fogies wanting to be too-cool). What would I think have made an impact on both audiences would have been anecdotes of how he achieved what he did/ what were the challenges he faced/ how did he overcome them. It also goes to show that you can do very cool things without being the communicator.

– Be honest to yourself – fake is forgettable – A bit of the same problem happened to a speaker who was a singer/ songwriter – lovely voice by the way. At the end of his talk he actually performed a song he had written – was really very foot tapping music, relatable theme and incredible voice. But, in this case again, he didn’t quite read his audience right – I think being younger, had the added burden of wanting to impress the audience – thus the talk was just high faluting words strung together – thereby narrating abstract banalities. To be fair, one of his subjects WAS the “power of words” – but I am guessing the older people were thinking – “why is this young thing telling us that words are important” , and the younger kids were thinking “what is he even talking about”. Instead, a description of how he started/ how he overcame his mental health issues/ how he struggled, and life lessons from there , would have been awesome. Again, set context via anecdotes – just a point with no back up data, is tough

– Less is more – In contrast, there was a scientist (who was the one my daughter was least interested in to begin with – you see, we are “theatre/ humanities’ type, we don’t like anything connected to STEM – but who ended up being the most interesting talk of all). Was about biodiversity of species , specially in the Western Ghats – crisp, concise, articulate, engaging, not too simplistic that you would brush it off, but not too esoteric either – overall, relatable, informative, understandable and told in personalised story format. No attempt at grandeur, no attempt at impressing anywhere – not unnecessary humility either – but just an honest talk about the work she does. Reflection – be true to yourself – the moment you try to project yourself as what you are not, you will meet circumstances where you will fall on your face.

At the end, the lessons I learnt from this evening in a high school were:

A) A parent is a parent, and unconditional love comes only from one
B) Context and Relatability are ubiquitous fundamentals
C) Today’s Youth is cool (and lucky) – far more so than my generation
D) The Circle of Life is real – and one traverses it by moving from building on strengths; to working on eradication of weakness.
E) Science is cool. Genetics is cooler. Honesty is the coolest

Size Matters? How Does App-Only Fit In?

Last week, my Facebook newsfeed was filled with posts like these:

– As an inveterate online shopper, (can’t remember the last time I bought at a physical store/grocer/mall) I am appalled to read Flipkart will soon go mobile-only. I don’t care what their analytics team says. To browse/drool/look/re-look on a teeny 3*5 screen….yikes! How terrible the experience is likely to be!

And a sample of some comments:
– …did you order that from the cell phone? I did try ordering from the cell phone and gave up half way.

– …Agree totally. Refuse to shop on the mobile:)

– …Totally agree – no matter how good the mobile app is, I can’t imagine peering at stuff on my phone screen and trying to figure what to buy

– …Interesting . ..have they done their research right with the correct tg?

– …The experience is beat when I use all my senses to see, hear, touch, feel, taste and smell the physical product. Even with books, I love to browse through every chapter before buying. Perhaps you may call me old-fashioned and not abreast with the times.

Here’s another one:

First Myntra, now flipkart! I am not ‘appy

With its comments:
– …I think they are moving way too early. It will be a while before the phone replaces the desktop in terms of Internet surfing. Myntra already recorded drop in sales after they moved. Not sure how it will end up for Flipkart.

– …Agreed …while I use the phone for a bunch of apps, I still like the exp of sitting on my desktop / laptop to shop.

– …Ha,, ha They are making sure that users land up with nice neck, shoulder, hand pain… they should soon start another division for treating their loyal users!! why is it that human factors are not considered with technology advancement?

Then my husband, who was tracking a gift order I had placed on Amazon, told me – It’s been despatched. When I said – where from? Bangalore or Delhi? He said, just a minute – lemme check on my laptop 🙂

Not only normal people, but “experts” are debating this – HuffPost carried an article on why this move could be a potential disaster for Flipkart; while of course other folks are hailing this move as a harbinger of an app-only economy in the fastest growing app market in the world!

This move should make folks like my friend Debjani, whose company zineone has bet completely on a mobile ready world, and who makes very cool app support software for enterprises, happy and vindicated.

But clearly, many many people (users) are not.

The big reason really seems to boil down to size! Tablets/ Phablets notwithstanding, it IS so much better to see a 14 or even 11 inch screen than a smaller one. The whole experience changes significantly! Scale, in all its manifestations, we all know the benefits of – economies; distribution synergies; skill specialization enablement; technology consolidation; etc etc…infact, even in the new digital/ e-comm & m-comm economy, we are seeing actions and transactions that reflect the desirability of scale and size – you see companies consolidating, take overs and buy outs – which will eventually I’m sure result in a shakedown.

Other Side of the Coin?: You know, it’s interesting, that I actually started writing this post (with the same first part of the headline) a few weeks ago – and at that time, it was going to be an “anti-size” post!

What prompted it was I guess the time of the year – it’s back to school time, and most people my age have kids leaving home to go to college for the first time – parents thus facing shrunk households. This always, but always, leaves my tummy churning, with a dreadful sinking feeling – I just vicariously go through the whole empty nest thing, and badly so (I still thankfully hv a few years before this hits me – one of the few advantages of a late marriage). And the thought came to me – looking at all these large 5000 sq ft houses, what are two old people (and in some cases, a dog) going to do, rattling away in these houses? Maybe they should de-size/ de-clutter/ scale down!

It also struck me, when after visiting a friend’s lovely spanking new, set in a 1 acre plot house, built in the beautiful traditional Kerala style, with a drool worthy Prof Higgins like library, my husband told me – hey, let’s buy a plot there. And it struck me, there’s really no end to this – bigger house, bigger car, bigger salary, bigger bank balance, (and bigger tummy to go with it!); and, actually, rather than buy a plot there – I did kind of anti-action – convinced my husband to sell off one of our (bigger) cars. So, we learn to survive with just the one (we’re managing fine btw, the Ubers and Olas have made life so much easier)

See, one gets faced with it actually even in business – after expanding the no. of items on offer, a retailer almost always goes through a phase of SKU rationalizing; large companies, after many M&As, get down to downsizing; many larger size packages of consumables start getting sold in smaller and smaller “trial packages” (sachets being of course the Indian success story to aid purchase in a low Per Capita Income society.) It is no secret that none of the Big Pharma actually now have a super cool pipeline, it’s the smaller boutique Biotech and Pharma companies that are doing all the meaningful research to bring potentially blockbuster drugs to market.

Incidentally, even downsizing is not easy. Read this interesting POV on retail store resizing problems.

It is said that Dinosaurs went extinct because their bodies scaled up disproportionately as compared to their brains; (and it is said that human beings will become extinct because our brains will become too big as compared to our bodies!)

So maybe it is a circle of life thing. One is small, then wants to become bigger, so expands. When one is too big, one has to reverse direction and cut down. Anti Size! ….One is single, then gets married, then has kids, then the kids fly the nest and you hunker down…anti size! 😦 ….Company gets many quarters of growth, starts becoming bigger, acquires diverse competencies, then…realizes is becoming inefficient, so, downsizes…anti size!

So, which is it to be? Big or Small? Website or App Only? Scale or Anti Size? Laptop or Phablet?

While you ponder this, I think that the defining “default” answer on “size matters” can be found in the Friends episode below. Enjoy 🙂

What’s Common Between A Broken Down Road and Greece! (Or, The Art of Patchwork)

I’m deeply disturbed (and have been for a while).

This picture shows a scenario I pass daily on my way to and from home – I live in one of the so called posh residential areas with million dollar homes placed at the end of a sparkling new SEZ area – with many MNCs occupying the glass steel and chrome structures. This commercial complex has made the road to home much more cluttered, and in fact dangerous of late, with serious bottlenecks at peak times of traffic. At the entrance to one of the complexes, there are atleast 10 security men placed – to direct the office cab traffic vis a vis the road traffic better.

However, the road has some disrupted tiles – which have been disrupted for over two months now. And, guess what, the builder/ the municipality, or even the posh MNCs, instead of trying to get that piece of road repaired, have cordoned off that bit, and everyone drives around….thus further bottlenecking that piece of cluttered road.

Classic case of treating symptom but not root!!

We are very often guilty of this – in personal as well as professional lives. Not only that, one sees examples in macro economics and corporate scenarios!

Infact, the reason I wrote this piece today is that I was reminded of my dad – who had a temporary lack of vision a few years ago – he couldn’t see with one eye for some 3 – 4 hours suddenly. We took him to an eye specialist, who looked at the eye, and said it would be OK soon. My dad did recover vision by the end of the day. But a few months later, we discovered that he had developed a condition called CRVO – basically an irreversible blood clot in the ocular veins, which made him lose vision in that eye permanently. If only the doctor at the first instance had told us to get a heart check, or a BP check when we went to him, this cd maybe have ben avoided (as one of the reasons for CRVO is spikes in BP)!

Credit

Look at Greece. It’s currently in deep trouble. And simplistically, basically, despite many years of trouble, the Greeks did not improve public finance their core financial fundamentals – they tried to work with IMF and the World Bank on short term measures. Unfortunately, that’s not how an economy revives! Hence, Greece faces bankruptcy, and global stock markets are bearish!

Interestingly, India currently is doing kind of the same thing – the finance ministry is saying that RBI should reduce interest rates in order to increase growth. This is patchwork again! A very different scenario, in contrast, was India in the 1990s, when, faced by a severe BOP crisis, we created created structural fiduciary reforms (trade and industrial policy; and exchange rate and interest rate liberalization), thus enabling a big growth spurt due to creation almost of a new industry – the Outsourcing/ IT and ITES one!

Credit

Look at even the famous Make In India Campaign – it’s a very positive moniker, and a superior PR exercise (and to give our Prime Minister credit, he has been doing a great job of communicating it globally). But again, unless we change ground realities — the root of the problem rather than just the symptom, it’s going to remain just that – a PR exercise! So, think improving ease of doing business in India – we are talking fundamental changes in G2B and G2C processes – easy registrations, simpler statutory processes…the works!

Software engineers suffer this all the time – legacy software, bugs on bugs, patches on patches — the management question becomes – when do I trash this, and start fresh code? How long do I keep fixing it? Obviously, the economics of the situation are complex, but sometimes, its just better to re-start from scratch!

My wanting-to-be-cordon-bleu-chef daughter the other day learnt a hard lesson! She baked a cake – it got burnt! She did a superior rescue job actually with fancy icing, but, the damn cake was , truly burnt! Since she didn’t fix the root cause (in this case the only way to have done it was throw away the burnt cake and start afresh!), she suffered!

I must admit, I’ve used patchwork myself – I think the important skill is to determine, when, and to what extent, is treating symptom OK, and when you have to dig and find out what’s wrong!

In our start up, when we were trying to get the ISO certification, and the audits turned up “issues”, the common term was “CAPA” (corrective and preventive action) – a really good concept, as you undertook root cause analysis for any deviation from compliance, and then figured out a short term fix, or corrective action; and a real diagnostic long term fix – or the preventive action. That’s the approach we need!

So, to circle back to what’s disturbing me deeply — maybe I need to get up a citizen’s (or children’s) action group, and just lay some tiles on that patch of cordoned off road one saturday, a bit like the great work The Ugly Indian is doing!

And, Greece, maybe you deserve what happened to you – I tried to visit you some 5 years ago. I would have spent many dollars with you – I had arranged my leave, tickets, stay, baby sitting for my kids, and….you didn’t give me a visa! Poetic Justice?? After all, Hell hath no fury…