Category: Entrepreneurship

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So Long, Sabeen Mahmud

sabeen

‘Friend’ is a rather strong word, but I believe Sabeen Mahmud and I considered each other almost that – despite not being in touch lately. We had first got talking in 2006 due to our common links then with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

A few years into my own business, I was just about testing TiE organization waters via ‘a mere’ ordinary membership of TiE Ahmedabad (India) Chapter, while she was already, among other things, a guiding light of the Karachi (Pakistan) Chapter. But that didn’t stop her from signing off her first email in her uniquely unassuming, unpretentious style: “32 – non-procrastinating female bachelor (what in the hell is a politically correct alternative to spinster, btw?)”

Last night (April 24), two gunmen on motorcycle pumped five bullets into her body while she was on her way home in Karachi. The attack took place shortly after she hosted a talk event titled ‘Unsilencing Baluchistan’, about the issue of human rights in the province that has played host to a bloody separatist insurgency for many years.

As per the New York Times, Sabeen agreed to host the discussion after it had been canceled at a private university in Lahore, “reportedly at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate”.

But this piece is not about the politics surrounding the tragedy. Reflecting the DNA of this platform, this remembrance is about Sabeen’s unshackled entrepreneurial spirit.

Though she was already established as COO of Beyond Information Technology Solutions – b.i.t.s, a J Walter Thomson (JWT) associate company, her fierce independent streak reflected in no form better than the place she nonchalantly named The Second Floor (T2F) – “because it was housed on the second floor of a nondescript office building”.

But there was no nonchalance involved with the purpose of the space. Sabeen was clear about what she wanted T2F to be: ‘A community space for open dialogue’.

To gather context about the initiative, read this by NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston:

“If you were in Greenwich Village or SoHo in New York, this would sound like more of the same. But this being Pakistan, the Second Floor is unusual. When lawyers demonstrated after then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf fired dozens of senior judges in 2007, demonstrators planned their next moves at the Second Floor.”

One of the more notable recent events of T2F was Pakistan’s first ‘Hackathon’ in 2013 – a weekend-long event with about ten teams focusing on solutions to civic problems in Pakistan.

Organised a few months ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections, the event featured a diverse group of people, from coders, civic planners to private sector executives.  After brainstorming about Pakistan’s three dozen odd problem areas, the selected participants got down to working on nine targeted issues that could be solved with workable, effective apps.

Such was the aura of the enterprise that the administration was more than excited to be a part of it – especially since some of the apps were about identifying, tabulating and reporting government infrastructure and delivery inefficiencies.  Other solutions ranged from crime mapping to emergency services.

Yes, apps for governance delivery – in a region where the latter is still largely non-existent!

But then that’s what set her apart.

A self-confessed ‘tech addict’, she was a ‘Mac snob’ to such an extent that she often gave Steve Jobs credit for shaping her “anti-establishment, anti-war, pro-freedom worldview”. It wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration to say that design and technology were an extension of her body.

Once during a visit to her maternal uncle (‘Mamoo’) in London, she found herself without connectivity for some reason. “Didn’t mean to not respond – have been in London with no Internet access. […] I tried dialup but his phone line felt like it was from the sub-continent… Any other city and I would have fallen ill but London!!!!!!!! So much to do and see that didn’t miss the lack of connectivity much,” she wrote to me a few days later.

Over a period of 8 years, T2F hosted over 800 events – reaching the current average frequency of about four events a week. The events include corner meetings for independent political candidates, symposia on culture, technology and society, tele-conferencing with exiled leaders and thought leaders from across the world, talks, readings, standup comedy, film screenings, concerts, technology workshops, art exhibitions and pretty much everything that it was approached for. A large number of those events were streamed live, tweeted in real time and digitally recorded for archives.

But it is not about numbers. It is about entrepreneurial spirit being put to effective use in the social sphere.  She once told me, “Street art adds colour and intelligence into a city, without changing the infrastructure”. The context was our conversation about mixing her expertise in design and technology and my understanding of civil engineering and media to good use towards a better society.

With tributes pouring in from New York Times, Pakistan’s current and past leaders and countless admirers on the social and mainstream media, one thing is clear – she added an awful lot of colour and intelligence to her society, despite her abridged stay therein.

“Hatred is inexplicable yet so rampant and accelerating at an appalling pace. You’re right, film/cinema is a potent medium. I’d love to try my hand at it – soon, hopefully” – she once wrote to me.

“It was good to hear that you’re open to the idea of making cinema. Maybe one day we can make a joint production – a lavish musical. What say ya? 🙂” – I had joked back.

Maybe some other time; so long, Sabeen Mahmud!

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Entrepreneurship Featured LinkedIn

Thinking Aloud: To Found or to Not, a New News Product

linkedinpost

As I grapple with the initial, broad mapping of content and technology architectures of a news journalism product that I plan to launch in India, I must admit that I am unusually distracted by the state of brand equity – and the consequent future – of the product category itself.

In the global context, the most recent push for the sobering deliberation came through the fall from grace of the much admired NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. In an on-air apology, he lamented that a ‘faulty memory’ had led him to falsely claim that he faced intense enemy fire while riding in a U.S. Army helicopter in Iraq 2003. His helicopter was a good hour behind the helicopter that actually did.

Appearing just another unintentional or deliberate error of judgment in isolation, the context around the ‘helicopter incident’ is summed up well by Rekha Basu, columnist for The Des Moines Register, in her writing ‘Williams adds stain to media credibility’:

Decades ago, news anchor Walter Cronkite, with his steady, reassuring presence, gave Americans of all persuasions a trusted ally even when he brought us bad news. Now, at a time when universal trust in any news source — or anything else, for that matter — is a vanishing commodity, Williams had it and he blew it. And it will be harder for anyone in this business to build (emphasis mine).

The example is not about my suggesting that news media hasn’t been gradually battling a fall in credibility. Far from it; Williams just revealed himself to be the latest name in a modern day game in which news credibility is defined by means of either the popular or the partisan.

As an Indian, disbelieving television news anchors feels more like an instinct that evolves as a part of the growing up process – if it is not the government controlled newsroom, it most probably is the corporate house dictated one.

The broad difference between the two is that while it is easy to arrive at the discount percentage for India’s sole official / government news channel, it becomes impossible for anyone to know the extent of the ‘shaping of news’ under the guidance or pressure of principal advertisers / sponsors of news media vehicles.

Case in point with regards the latter is the ongoing ‘Essar links’ saga, which concerns alleged planting of stories in influential news media by senior journalists on behalf of Essar Group, an Indian multinational with interests in steel, energy, infrastructure and services sectors.

Alongside, even as I write this, newsrooms in New Delhi are abuzz with stories about a document of the country’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) that suggests out of ordinary funding arrangements of a media house – and the corresponding fretting of the big-ticket journalists and anchors who benefited from it. Expect an ivory tower or two to come down in India this summer.

You would think that it would be big news in India. But the only place where it is buzzing right now is Twitter – that new platform / medium for news as it happens. The rest of the country shall, as in the past, never learn about the details. It doesn’t care either, perhaps.

Unfortunately, everyone in the news media landscape knows that ‘Essar links’ are the kind of dealings that keeps many, if not most, organisations float above about 82,000 other news / journalism media titles (Source: 55th Annual ‘Press in India’ report) in India – and consequently survive for a new print.

So then, if many in media believe that ‘links’ with large business groups is part mode of ‘ensuring return on newsroom investment’; if large part of the readership today gets its news via Tweets and Facebook shares – only the 140 characters and / or headlines, mind you – rather than through purchase of the actual news sources, and most part of the society doesn’t care about who reports (‘writes’) what for whom and for what reason, how would you rate a NEW news product as a viable business proposition?

This is not an essay in pessimism. This is just to reflect upon and invite thoughts/ideas about succeeding in a scenario wherein a most vibrant product category might actually be a great platform for sowing seeds for glory but not really for reaping rewards of honest risks.

This musing was published on LinkedIn here

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Entrepreneurship LinkedIn

Entrepreneurship Shorts Series: The First Four Letters

ABCD

[The article was first published on LinkedIn here]

There’s always some distance to travel before you take the first step. It holds especially true for first-time entrepreneurs. So, it’s good practice to get A, B, C and D correct before hitting E, the first letter for every business adventure enthusiast:

‘A’ asks “A Plunge or A touch?” √

When aided by wings of a dream, life always seems much easier than what it eventually turns out to be. Nowhere does it read truer than in the life of a first-time entrepreneur. Yes, an idea can wreck your life – temporarily anyway.

So the first thing for you to decide is whether you can afford to do it full-time or bow to circumstances – both current and future – and secure your financial status first, and then begin your entrepreneurial journey – one small part-time step at a one.

Remember, in most cases, money does NOT start flowing in immediately (read ‘in the first year’). Moreover, venture capital / angel funding does not pay for your salary. On the contrary, you might have to pay for salaries of others even to get the project going.

And yet,

‘B’ beckons “Better Early than Best” √

Many a reams of paper have played host to advice about the best time to enter the market. Many of those routinely go through questions like “are you sure you want to do this (motive)”, “are you / your team capable of doing this (know how)” and “who are you doing this for / who would be your *first* customers (market)”.

Those are all extremely valid questions. But the purpose of no question should be to tie the respondent down. In fact, questions should set the respondent free with the resulting knowledge.

Also, we are way past the age when there used to be a lead period. What you are thinking is being simultaneously thought by many others. And what you believe is a perfect product, may still require a whole series of modifications – either to make the product better or just simply to suit the needs and whims of the market. So, why not get a real feedback from the market and work upon it?

But to be able to reach there,

‘C’ commands “Clarity and Crystallization” √

Once you address the ‘who’ (would do), ‘what’ and ‘why’ part of the exercise, you reach the absolute crux of the challenge – how to do it.

You would be surprised to learn just how much the ‘how’ part affects the other three aspects – and help you fine tune the idea.

Once you reach that stage, you would be so clear and convinced about your idea that you would be able to explain it to your younger sister – and her friend who you fancy – in a matter of a few minutes. That is exactly what the people who you would be meeting for finance appreciate too.

The idea is this: Can you sum up the idea – from product to customers and the process – in a single tweet (140 characters)? That restriction is not necessary, but is immensely helpful.

Example: A premium day-time vegan takeaway in CBD of New York that caters to employees of UN and other nonprofits in the neighbourhood.

In merely 125 characters (including spaces), it informs readers about the business, its location, its customers and its price range.

Finally,

‘D’ determines “Duration of the Dare” √

In our sales meetings, I often use the oft-quoted wisdom “targets without deadlines are merely dreams”. Put it in any words that you desire and it would still be true.

But my point here is not as much about tying down success to a demanding time limit as it is about you accepting and interpreting the results in time – to allow yourself to either change course or start afresh.

Late American actress Tallulah Bankhead had famously said: “If I had my life to live over again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.” The thought, obviously, is not about wanting to make the same mistakes all over again but about having more time for other actions.

So, pre-decide a duration (rarely longer than 18 months) not just for *the* plan, but for that plan, its Plan B and even Plan C. If all of those fail within that duration, stop and re-evaluate – or relinquish the current pursuit. Taking a few steps back is often the first action towards acceleration.

Did you just tick all of the first four letters? Congratulations – you’re ready to hit ‘your first letter’ now! :- )

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LinkedIn

Who Can Give You Advice?

[The article was first published on LinkedIn here]

Hassled journeymen and harried first-time entrepreneurs have one thing in common: They are ripe for accepting direction, or assurance, from any seemingly informed soul who is eager to stop and listen to them. And as their luck would have it, most people do want to play guide!

Overstatements aside, many first-time entrepreneurs, in their natural enthusiasm, tend to lap up advice of readily accessible experts – without first evaluating the guidance against the necessities of the overall contexts.

Not that seasoned pros are not known to fall prey to such quick fixes. In his book Our Films, Their Films, celebrated Indian filmmaker and Academy Award winner Satyajit Ray narrated an interesting anecdote about the propensity:

“I had planned on a medium close-up with a normal lens. […] We had with us on that day a friend who was a professional cameraman. While I pondered over the shot, I had a fleeting glimpse of our friend fiddling with lenses. What he had done was take out normal lens with a focal length. ‘Just take a look at Durga (the actor who was to be captured) with this one,’ he told me, as I came to have a look through the viewfinder. What the finder now revealed was an enormous close-up of Durga’s face, back-lit by Sun… It was irresistible! I thanked my friend for his timely advice and took the shot.

A few days later, in the editing room, I was horrified to discover that the scene simply did not call for such an emphatic close-up. […] This taught me, at one stroke, two fundamental lessons of film making: (a) a shot is beautiful only if it is right in its context, (b) never listen to advice on details from someone who does not have the whole film in his head as clearly as you do.”

Note that the impracticable advice in the example was given to Ray not by a novice, but by a seasoned professional who not only knew the craft, but was also informed and aware about the various possibilities within that.

Clearly, utility of an advice isn’t a linear function of the excellence of the adviser alone. The business of counseling operates upon the GIGO principle of computing: If you put semi-context in, you get semi-utility out.

First-time entrepreneurs, however, possess an inherent inertia to sharing business details with external experts – because they are perennially mortified about someone ‘stealing their idea’. Remember, we are not talking of a scenario that would have a Y Combinator in the mix.

Sounds like a catch-22? No; believe it or not, it is a good place to be in. No edifice of entrepreneurship has ever been built upon a single resource of expert guidance anyway.

If there is a person who must know the absolute configuration of your business idea – lock, stock and 360 contextual barrels – it is only you, my first-time entrepreneur friend (includes equal co-founders).

Don’t even try to invest resources into explaining the complete nuts and bolts of your idea to an external expert. On the contrary, you should turn the ‘Blind Men and the Elephant’ story around and present, to chosen experts, every major limb of the idea as a complete animal. The key lies in first choosing the expert well and later providing allied context to every standalone counsel of those experts; thereby building a launch pad that has all its pillars on a strong footing.

Recently a childhood friend and a first-time entrepreneur started restaurant business in my home city. I know nothing about the business, but I know a fair bit about the city and its idiosyncrasies related to food. So I was able to share definitive views about the specific social-political challenges that the various neighbourhoods could pose to his proposed venture.

He did not involve me in any other aspect of his venture – even though I have been running a business ever since I completed my education, while he, as I mentioned earlier, is a first-time entrepreneur.

It seems he believed that my strong background (I was the first one to publish an English print magazine about the city) and understanding of the local society’s attitude towards food was ofgreater unique utility in his context than my experience of running a business per se.

A trendy hangout is now up and running. I see that his final selection of the place agrees with my assessment.

So, the next time you plan to seek advice from an expert for your proposed startup, opt not for experience and knowledge, which are a given, but for a unique insight that can be applied to your context. Fortunately, the only person who can advice you about that first pursuit is you.

Wish you luck for your first venture!

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Entrepreneurship

Boardroom Lessons from Brazil’s Disaster on Pitch

“This is not a defeat. This is a nation’s pride and soul being destroyed,” remarked a senior Washington based news correspondent on Brazil’s humiliating 1-7 loss to Germany in the first semi final of FIFA World Cup 2014.

At ground zero, Luiz Carlos, a 52-year-old cook, told Bloomberg in Rio: “Brazil will never be able to erase that shame”.

This after the country spent more than USD 10bn to host the tournament. But even before the semi final had reached the half-way mark, the joy of reaching that far in the home championship had given way to jeers at the home team and President Dilma Rousseff.

It would be safe to assume that lessons would have been learnt by the Brazilian football officials and the hosting committee.

I believe that there are some very pertinent lessons to be learnt by businesses too:

  1. Structural Efficiency is a Must – Inspirationalindividuals can’t hide structural deficiencies. The current Brazilian team depended heavily upon Thiago Silva at the back and Neymar at front. There were gaps all around them, in all games. It’s just it was the team’s (and the nation’s) destiny for those to be brutally exposed when the stakes were really at the peak. Solitary leadership inspires, but you need a team to execute a vision.
  2. Play to your strength – Brazil was never known for its defence, but what hurt them was the goal scorers became suddenly unknown too. In the past they could always score at least one more than what they conceded. Unfortunately, the current Brazilian coach went for caution – thereby allowing the opposition the luxury to play in Brazil’s weakest domain. On the other hand, plenty more flair and firepower would’ve always kept the opposition on their heels.
  3. Change management is largely risk driven and entirely time driven – Brazil had let in five goals by the 29th minute. But the coach didn’t introduce the first change till the 45th minute. Some may even argue what was the necessity to wait till the fifth goal – since it was clear by that time that many on the pitch had proved to be ineffectual beyond redemption in the first 15 minutes or so itself. A faulty strategy or a faulty product (out in the market) has to be rectified in time, and not when “it is high time”.
  4. Emotions don’t always bring business – Crying at the rendition of the national anthem and wearing support caps for your injured star player is all fine, but the passion in itself doesn’t play the game. Whether it is nationalism (Air India, Ambassador, Maruti etc) or celebrity appeal (Neymar’s emotional video before the match), every emotion is secondary to product performance.
  5. Honest intent helps longer patron support – No player covered himself in glory in the match. Superstar David Luiz, who captained the team in the match, was especially appalling – playing pivotal, direct role in letting at least two of the seven goals. However, the crowd stretched their lungs to boo Fred the most. It is not a question of pitting a normal person against a nation’s heartthrob, but an illustration of people overlooking mistakes for genuine passion. Fred barely seemed to clock any miles in any of the matches.
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Entrepreneurship Startup Diaries

Take Pride in Your SoHo

Chances are that you read the latest movie reviews on a HP desktop; make presentations to clients on a HP laptop or maybe just take print-outs of images from a digital camera through HP laser printer. Yes, that’s the extent to which HP has permeated into our lives. In fact, that’s not even a representative range of the Company, which was, quite inspiringly, born in a garage!

HP is just one of the many examples of huge and trail-blazing  corporations across the globe that were born in a small room. Or even without a room.

So why can’t you house your idea in that small room of yours? Don’t you believe that limited physical space can never be a limiting factor for a mind space full of ideas?

Small or Home Office (SoHO) is a phenomenon that is making its comeback. Before the industrial revolution around the globe, nearly all offices were small offices and/or home offices, with only a few exceptions. The industrial revolution aggregated workers in factories, to mass produce goods; bringing along the need for large ‘office work’ by a big number of ‘white-collar’ professionals.

But the advent of the personal computer, and breakthroughs in voice and data communication has created opportunities for office workers to decentralize – leading to greater productivity at much lower overheads. And now, SoHOs make up a sizeable percentage of businesses across the globe.

Now several ranges of products, such as the multi-purpose computer desks and some cupboards are often designed specifically for the “SoHO” market. Several kinds of books are written and marketed specifically for this type of office, ranging from general advice texts to specific guidebooks on setting up such things as a small PBX for the office telephones.

Many top-notch consultants and the member of several professions such as lawyers, real estate agents or graphic design professionals operate from such home offices.

In fact, more and more large businesses across the globe are hiring professionals who work from home!

And it is not difficult to fathom why. ‘Normal’ offices find it difficult to adapt to new-age realities like outsourcing. The 36-hour or 48-hour cycles of much of software development have led many practitioners in this domain to do their work in home offices.

While it is still quite rare to be a part of a huge organization and yet get to work from home, the phenomenon of independent business-persons doing wonders in the field of their arena is fast becoming a visible trait of our society.
Of course, there would always be people who would suspect your ability to deliver – or worse still, your credentials. But if you can believe this, even the biggest corporations have to face apprehensions – in some form or the other – of future clients, partners or employees.

The fact of the matter is that while working from home might help you give your entire to your ideas and the business of ideas, biting more than what you can chew by investing big money into infrastructure might give you sleepless nights about the ways of early recovery of investment and probable repayment of loans. On the other hand, SoHO is safe, efficient and accepted globally.

Go for it!