Four C's for Young Generation

I happened to listen to views of two great individuals during the week, one the CEO of social networking giant Mark Zuckerberg and the other of a media fame “Neeya Naana” C.Gopinath. Both offered good views to an ever persisting question on my mind over what I must tell my kid when he grows up. What future holds for him and what he needs to look up to? I would be a very bad role model for him but I would serve my purpose as a personal guide and provide him with loving shoulder to lean on whenever he need to. Looking at some of the rapid advancements in the digital world and how every industry is transforming for good, whatever ideals and the yardstick that I looked up to would be idealistic for his generation but not pragmatic. Landscape is completely changing that highlight “Survival of the Smartest” for his generation more than ever with AI’s taking over workloads of many of my generation.

The speech from Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University on graduation day highlighted the very importance of sense of purpose being much bigger than oneself for the millennials. The purpose is what drives other people to hop on to the bandwagon aligned by the cause.  (http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/05/mark-zuckerbergs-speech-as-written-for-harvards-class-of-2017/). Our mind is tuned to think about social causes such as poverty, food security and health systems when we think about the cause and they are important. Today, we have people with great ideas working on these issues unconventionally. I read something about the “plant factories” to provide clean food in the neighborhood in china and the model is being tested by some restaurants to grow their own produce (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-05-25/-plant-factories-churn-out-clean-food-in-china-s-dirty-cities). The other point that Mark made during the speech is the importance of community. This also ties back to the previous point on the sense of purpose. We have seen professionals quitting their jobs to help farmers on organic produce and connecting them with consumers and market. Young generation is interested in working with the community. Likewise, within education we have seen people working with communities. There was this Edex edition from Indian Express on Monday 22^nd May 2017 about teachers and professors who made difference with the student community. One could sense the passion for community from Zuck's speech and his growing interest for philanthropy. 

The other speech that I happened to be there in person was the felicitation speech by C.Gopinath on 21^st May 2017 at a school in the neighborhood. The guy has the knack of collecting topics from the audience and delivering his view on those topics which in most of the cases are already found from his research or from his earlier occasions or some of these can be taken up in his “Neeya Naana” Programme. Nevertheless, I liked the pace of his speech, message and his love for networking with people. One of the key concerns expressed by the huddled crowd was on “How we need to prepare the current generation for future as our generation went into the job driven economy?” A valid concern in the minds of every parent with no organized approach to tackle the problem and a big struggle out there. I second the opinion expressed by Gopi on how the confidence is gradually taken away from our generation being driven in swamps into jobs. As the world is becoming more uncertain which is echoed by everyone and also in the speech by Mark Zuckerberg, it is driving lot of people behind in terms of hope and direction. He hinted that we are wealthy than our previous generation but lack a lot in hope compared to our previous generation. Gopi rightly mentioned one thing that we need to nurture into the minds of young generation is on “Confidence and Hope” to handle any challenge in an uncertain world. 

Today, I am struggling with yardstick on which we could measure success for the future generation. My generation probably most of them would agree on material status that one achieve within a society could be a barometer. I am not sure how far that is sustainable for the next generation which is already highly networked and looking beyond just material and platonic measures. Now, coming to the question that I started with and the answers that I skimmed from these two speeches at different parts of the world, I thought 4C’s in terms of cause, conviction, courage and community could become more important for the young generation. Again, borrowing some of the thoughts from these leaders. Cause in terms of defining a large purpose for you and society, conviction in terms of bright ideas and hope to solve larger problems, courage to step out of shades and start on the work and community in terms of bringing larger section of people to work on a common cause could be a way to guide the young generation. Technology and money are tools that would be in abundant and we need brighter generation that has the courage and conviction to apply these tools to solve problems within their community and their field of interest. I am beginning to question the relevance of formal education if they ever will be able to guide students on these principles and build in them the 4C qualities. At the least, maybe we as parents as they gain knowledge on their field of study from formal education, we need to inculcate some of these thoughts to prepare them for the new world. We may need to selectively choose encounters (speeches, books, debates, discussions, field visits, stories, and meeting new people) that could seed these thoughts in their minds and allow them to grow on their own stead. There could be no material yardstick but it is in the satisfaction and happiness that you would get from the shared purpose be it social, environmental or friendly encounters in life that defines the future generation. 

Happy Beginning!!!

Redefining the Enterprise with Strategic Transformation Efforts

HBR recently conducted a detailed study on list of companies from S&P 500 and Global 500 to narrow down on top 10 companies that exemplify strategic transformation. HBR defined the transformation as someone who has pushed and repositioned its business model into newer strategic growth areas while carrying the legacy business along with it. HBR considered three criteria 1. New Growth from creating new products, services and business models, 2. Core repositioning of their legacy business and 3. Ubiquitous financial performance. Methods of objective and subjective analysis has been provided for quick reference in the article. (Refer to the HBR article on “What the Best Transformational Leaders Do” dated May 08, 2017, https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-the-best-transformational-leaders-do). HBR analysis throws up with some of the usual suspects such as Apple, Amazon and Netflix along with some traditionally entrenched business model companies such as Microsoft, Aetna, Danone and Thyssenkrupp.

While innovation has been in their veins when we take Apple, Netflix and Amazon either on their business model or on their products or the agility with which they were able to manage their customer expectations, the most important lesson is on how these as well as the other companies were able to navigate the S-curve to newer businesses without completely overhauling or disrupting their core legacy business. The ability of the leader to strategically reposition their company in the market as well as internally with their associates remain paramount. The analysis throws out some important factors that drove this transformation:

1.    Transformational CEOs Tend to be “Insider Outsiders”. This is applicable for many of the incumbents across industries looking at the examples of Satya Nadella or Shantanu Narayen who were with their companies for long but were largely focused on growing the new businesses that would pivot the growth of their enterprises in the future.

2.    Strategically Pursue Two Separate Journeys. This is what we call bi-modal organizations in IT Parlance where the organization has to do sprint as well as run marathon at the same time. While the legacy core business will take its time to reimagine and rethink on newer ways of doing business, the newer strategic business has to grow exponentially to reposition the company in the long run. While we have always heard of how Amazon was successfully able to form largest cloud company in the world, they have always been a digital company with a different culture. The challenge for an Incumbent would be to look at these two businesses differently and enable them to transform on their own turf.

3.    Use Culture Change to Drive Engagement. This again goes back to the first point about “Insider Outsiders” who knows the company culture and the one with whom employees can relate to. How the leadership at helm could infuse deeper cultural change and employee engagement can be seen from the likes of Microsoft (under Gates vs Ballmer vs Nadella) or IBM (Gerstner vs Palmisano vs Rometty). A good reference that I was able to appreciate this better in terms of cultural change was from this book on “The Silo Effect” by Gillian Tett. She takes the view of an anthropologist relating the human nature and culture on how they are organized within the society and within larger organizations. With increasing need for collaboration across the board this remains an important change management initiative to bring ideas and people huddle together to solve the large problem an organization faces.

4.    Communicate Powerful Narratives About the Future. This requires a greater effort from Marketing and Communication team to send a consistent and pervasive core message to the second line of leaders and cascade it down with customized messages appropriate to employees belonging to different business groups, story board the narrative to the investor and the analyst community and equally communicate it to the client and the broader society as well. CEO has to be the vanguard of this core message and take every opportunity to spread the consistent message to his broader organization so that it is slowly internalized and imbibed into the working culture. Every industry is undergoing its own digital transition, Life sciences towards personalized medicine, Healthcare towards Value-based care, Banking towards self-service digital banking, Insurance towards D2C models and usage based insurance, Manufacturing towards fourth industrial revolution or the Industry 4.0 and retail towards seamless Omni channel experience. All these business model and value chain transformation requires a well thought through business plan and well-articulated communication plan. The success hinges on getting both the flanks right with appropriate course correction as market dictates over the period but the importance of change as well as the big picture has to be felt and understood by the employees who would then be able to appreciate their role in the broader organization goals.

5.    Develop a Road Map Before Disruption Takes Hold. The article highlights an important point about the Transformation being not just about changing a cost structure or turning business processes into automated and digitized processes but it’s about an integrated strategy of repositioning the enterprise to capture newer opportunities in the ever changing market. It’s all about how good is your antenna to anticipate disruptive trends before they take hold of the market as well as how agile you are to capture the disproportionate market before others hop on to the bandwagon. We have been talking about the fast-follower strategy and how they had been successful for companies in the previous decades. But, today I think the destination is known but the direction is unknown to many and everyone has to experiment to find the right means to get to where we want to. You could look at the examples of Amazon or the Netflix how they redefined the cloud market or the entertainment industry well before others could figure out. As the catch-all phrase goes in the market, “Winners Takes it All”. We have seen actual businesses such as JPMC, BBVA, Citi and the solution companies such as Salesforce increasingly becoming externalized through partnerships and VC investments with the start-up community to get the pulse of digital transformation and be able to leverage these new ideas into their services.

One of the important challenges that a large incumbent faces is on how to transition his decades-old legacy business model to newer business models to stay relevant and grow in the market. This is where the “Zone to Win” model discussed in our previous blog may come in handy for the companies looking to transform their business model with one leg on the present and the other on the future with transformation and innovation zones acting as the platform for net new growth opportunities for companies. This also enables company to ring fence their potential future opportunities from the day-to-day operations and P&L pressures of the enterprise. CEO would have to spend his disproportionate time on the transformation zone to drive down the importance of this new line of business for the entire organization. This is a decade-long transformation and it requires right building blocks to be laid now and catapult the future organization from this foundation.

Other References:

“What the Best Transformational Leaders Do” dated May 08, 2017, HBR , https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-the-best-transformational-leaders-do

“How IBM’s Sam Palmisano Redefined the Global Corporation” – Harvard Business Review, January 2012

“Gerstner: Changing Culture at IBM - Lou Gerstner Discusses Changing the Culture at IBM”, Harvard Business School

Managing Zones - A Strategic Playbook

I finished reading through one of the strategy (play)books by Geoffrey Moore titled “Zone to Win”. The strategic framework developed by Geoffrey Moore in this book are now being used by some of the leading companies such as Salesforce, Microsoft, Intel and others. This provides a sort of playbook for established companies to navigate through the age of disruption which are challenging their underlying core business model. To get a quick sense of the strategic framework, please look through the presentation in the slideshare - https://www.slideshare.net/rstrad1/zone-to-win-organizing-to-compete-in-the-age-of-disruption

Before we start, we need to ascribe on the fundamental shift in the organizational model of enterprises. The pyramid used by the author below is to describe the extent of disruption at different levels of the organization. Disruption could happen at the infrastructure level (led by Amazon’s of the world) or could happen at the operating model using better digital interface (digital only banks such as Atom, Moven, Fidor etc..) or it could happen at the business model level (led by digital startups such as Lending club, Betterment, SOFI in banking; Lemonade in Insurance). The pyramid is no more erect but increasingly getting inverted as companies are looking at revamping their business model to face the existential threat from the new breed of disruptive competitors. It is not anymore, “Let’s move some of my workloads to cloud” or “Let’s have a beautiful customer interface”. It has to cut through the entire value chain of organization with a collaborative effort from multiple stakeholders. CEO of DBS bank puts it nicely when he says, “it’s not enough to apply digital “lipstick.” (Excerpt from “The digital reinvention of an Asian bank” By McKinsey, March 2017). It has be an end-to-end digital transformation agenda for enterprises dictated by business model innovation.

Pyramid Inversion

The Pyramid inversion highlighting the increased direction and influence coming out from top of the CEO agenda is also exhibited by the representation from EPAM’s latest quarterly investor presentation. Here the new driven by digital which was once smooching the surface of organization is now becoming prominent across all the endeavors and driving or influencing majority of revenues as we step into the next decade. Whole IT action is now being dictated by digital innovation requiring multitude of specialized skillsets.

Now, coming to the core question on the relevance of the strategic framework. As we have seen the businesses are increasingly shaped by digital and the incumbents/established companies are in a tough spot to react and act proactively to protect their turf at the least. There are plenty of strategic frameworks and models which are being used by organizations. Take for example, three horizons of growth or GE Matrix or combination of multiple models out there in the market. A quick view of the framework is provided below. The zone management is a natural extension of the three horizons of growth (Near-, Medium- and Long-term) and provides you with the playbook on how to play offense and defense during the times of disruption by focusing on three horizons. You could get a quick assessment on the zone attributes and how to play offense and defense from the slideshare. https://www.slideshare.net/rstrad1/zone-to-win-organizing-to-compete-in-the-age-of-disruption

On the X – axis you would have the degree of innovation and on the Y-axis you would have the revenue generation and enablers to support this revenue performance. You would have a 2X2 matrix where the zone to the top right is the performance zone that is all focused on the established lines of business with market share leadership, etc…The zone below that is the productivity zone with the focus on improving the margins or the bottom line through improvements in efficiency and productivity. So the two zones to the right are focused on topline and bottom-line improvements where majority of the core business is concentrated. The zone to the top left is the transformation zone which is focused on building the net-new line of business with next-gen capabilities which has the potential to contribute more than 10% of the overall revenues within the next 3-5 years. This should be under the purview of the CEO to expedite and to drive the significance of the group to the overall organization. The zone below that is the incubation zone where the future business options are worked out. This zone includes investments in startups or on the next promising business idea. One difference that it has from the three horizons strategy is that it informs us that each of these zones need to have its own playbook with its own management team, structure, resource allocation to ring fence it from each other as each one requires its own timeline and investments. At the same time, each of these need to collaborate strongly in times of need to play offense of defense in the market with innovative offerings and capabilities incubated and developed over the period. So the business groups within the organization need to be aligned accordingly to drive independence as well as the investments to determine its own growth prospects.

You could get a quick glimpse on the operating of the model from the web or from the book. Looking more on the relevance of the model, few things strike. One, this combines the view from both top line as well as the bottom line and aligns us to focus on profitable business growth. Two, provides an investment picture in terms of how the savings and the revenue growth from performance and productivity zones can be used to fund the incubation and transformation zone through investments. Three, it helps us to have one leg in the present with the intent on optimization (Right of the model) and one leg in the future (Left of the model) with the intent to neutralize/differentiate in the next wave of disruption. Four, it drives the importance of churn cycle where a new idea from incubation gets rolled up into transformation zone and businesses from transformation zone gets into performance zone periodically. This could be a useful framework for organizations to better organize (structure), govern (metrics), manage (leadership) and drive (business ideas) growth potential for the future. This could be applied at overall organization or can be customized for individual business groups within organizations as well.

Happy reading the book and applying the principle as needed. 

“Flabs and Frills” Cost of Education

One of the questions, of late, running in my mind has been about the cost of education that was then and now, as my kid is getting into his pre-kindergarten this year. This is not something that bolted out of sky but a trend that has been in play for some years. I am not sure if I should call this trend a fallout of growing affordability either in their finances or in their mindset of parents. From financial perspective, if I have to look out at the inflation indexed salary hikes and the corresponding rise in the cost of education, I am sure they would be diverging and more so as we head into future. This is only my guestimate (lack of data except for some news reports on 20% rise on cost since last year) and I may be wrong on this. The growth in incomes has largely been led by the services industry. Most of us may be optimistic about the growth potential but with growing protectionism and the likely possibility of less workforce needed to do professional work with “automation creep” into services, I am bit skeptical with delicate rays of hope.

I am late to the “Parents Distress” party on educating their kids which I have been hearing about lakhs of rupees being spent every year right from kindergarten. My parents were lucky as they got away spending meagre sums to our education. I vaguely remember that my school fees has been between Rs.12K-15K per year for standard 12 which was in 2002. Even if keep the inflation at 10% average during 2002-17, the cost would have been about Rs.50K-63K. Now this is only the tuition fee. During our schooling days, school would ask for tuition fee and may be for books. But today, schools have become one stop business hub for all your child schooling needs. You have to buy school uniforms, notebooks, stationaries and there is a detailed documentation on what you need to wear, which type of shoes to slip on and what sort of food items to gulp on. It’s much more than a 4-star hotel etiquette being expected from children these days. They also take you on the tour to NASA. The purpose of uniform is defeated as not many parents could afford it now (mine included). It plants the seed of disparity in the impressionable minds of students. I heard from one of my relatives on how much they paid for their school books and notebooks at 3-4X of the original cost. You could imagine the kind of money that may be churning out at the back-end if you look at the bargain power of these schools with the publishers/distributors as they buy it in bulk and they sell it at 2-4X of original price to hapless parents (I am not blaming it on all the schools but based on what I heard).

The plight becomes much more remorseful when they are charged additional fees for special classes or coaching as they call it, for certain standards. The central or the State board have devised a curriculum based on their research and experience which should be completed within regular working hours of the schools. But I don’t buy the argument of the need for a special attention to studies. The kids in slumber hop on to their carriers to school at 7:30 in the morning for special classes as the morning pressure and sickness built into parent’s minds to send them off. The extra flabs and frills are engulfing the regular school curricula in the names of sports, dance, cultural, language and science labs. Not to mention the AC facilities within the school as well as for transportation. IIT entrance exams is another fad that parents are pushing their kids into algorithmic thinking right from standard 6. May be in the future there would be an AI chip that can be embedded into the child’s mind for enhancements as they are in gestation period  for them to become what we want them to be. “My Kid is born as a scientist” would possibly replace “I am blissful for my kid to be healthy and good”. May be one day, I would heed into this socially accustomed pressure but I would try not to accept it without a fight.

Recently saw a news article where parents were protesting against the increasing cost of education and demanding the roll back of fee hike by private schools in NCR region resulting in clashes with police¹. Quick googling resulted in one association for parents – All India Parents Association on the front page which landed up in a blog page. I am not sure if this an accepted organization where the grievances can be redressed. I need to start to do my research and talk to knowledgeable persons in this field. But at the outset if there are representations for labors, parties and communities, it may be better that we have a recognized board (apart from the government ministry for education) which can act as a collective body to represent the plight of education. Sarcastically, if existing farmer/other associations can’t get much of a help, we could only wonder the plausibility of such an association’s existence. If someone come across anything, please share/post it in comments for reference.

If we pull in the statistics of kids passed out of certain school with certain background and see which kids have succeeded on their own terms and merits, I tend to believe that students from humble background may have done something different. I may be wrong but I have a strong feeling on this (without data). Even the IIT professors and professional organizations are saying that 75-80% of engineers are not employable². It becomes an exercise of discretion to provide a path for our kids that makes them strong on their minds and body where they can stay relevant and compete with anybody/anything (likely robots) in the future. Delhi court has recently passed a verdict to CBSE that schools associated with it should not indulge in commercial activities such as selling uniforms, books and stationaries inside the school³ It mentions that circular has been passed on to schools and who will monitor the compliance. The least we could do is to question on this credence. Arrogance in the attitude of some schools is disparaging the respect that once we had for education. I will be beginning my innings now and see what rights can be fought.

1. http://www.hindustantimes.com/gurgaon/parents-protest-against-fee-hike-by-40-top-private-schools-in-gurgaon/story-4qwNtAaV7GTaVGruUfXZZM.html

2. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/employability-of-engineers-a-concern-iit-heads/articleshow/58466513.cms

3. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/ensure-that-schools-dont-sell-books-uniforms-delhi-high-court-tells-cbse/articleshow/58479148.cms

The joy of rebirth!

Love nurtured in our hearts

Seeded a beautiful gene

Pleasant gift of our marriage

A Dream of another us

In otherwise concomitant life

A sparkle in the astronomical day

Being lost in thought

A Vacillation of joy and fear

Imagining every nuance of you

The way you would toddle

The way you would sniggle

The way you would talk

The way you would gaze

It’s a tussle of equals

Every growth being a fresh day

Enjoyed the full crescent of you

Growing well and dandy

Playing with the soul inside

Kicking to the music of love

Making impressions on the lining

Hinting at the time to deliver

Fears of gushing blood

Screams of boundless pain

Excited on your happy arrival!

Sound of your first cry

Sight of your blinking eyes

Yawn on your soft lips

Swirl of your tiny claws

Tears rejoicing its moisture

Holding you in my arms

Heaven kisses for the first time

Felt the joy of being reborn!

No Sunshine; No Rainbows

No Love; No Life

Match the joy of you

A Father; A Friend

A Model; A Guide

What do I Own?

Only the privilege of being with you

And, watching me grow again!

You made us more happy!

You are our dream all the way!

A Future Much Beyond!

There is a future

Much beyond what you think

When it happens

It happens too fast

Don’t get fooled

It’s a vicious loop

What remains of you

Is your heart and soul!

To race against the will of God

You make a Tough choice

To carry your convictions

You feel stranger than you are

To lead with the pack of one

You are your friend’s worth

To fight for the way forward

It’s a long journey onward!

Sometimes, you feel let down

To cross the delusion of bonding

You feel angst of human

To grow stronger conscience

You cry deep inside

To water seeds of hope

You burden solitary mind

To rise with purpose of you!

Thinking about the future

You see bright stars on the sky

It’s few and distinct

Shines at the time of gloom

You realize it is within you

To ride your own ship

Filled with joy and hope

Now, Future is much beyond!

Why Do I Think I Can Succeed in My Startup?

I was reading this book, "The Art of Thinking Clearly". Guess What, the first topic relates very much to the feeling I just shared with one of my friends a moment earlier. Whenever we think of something positive we think that it will happen or succeed. My friend told me about starting up on an idea and looked completely positive. We haven't questioned ourselves, why should this startup fail? We all read success stories that provides momentary motivation that carries us forward with our idea. I do understand that we have both risks and fortunes associated with any project. But the people who survived to enjoy those fortunes are not many and have been numbered in all those published books. Lets take a look at the success rate of startups for that matter. Estimates indicate that out of 10 projects, 3 to 4 fail completely while other 3 to 4 fail to produce returns. Of course, startups are risk takers and that should spark us to focus more evenly on risk assessment as much as we dwell on our idea. There was one of my friend who was more interested in stock trading. He left his job and got into trading business the whole time for about 6 months. He had to return back to his job having lost substantial amount. I am just saying that we should not be moved by the success rate of few while the lost ones are lost in memory sooner. Take a practical leap and get over this "Survivorship Bias". Many a times, asking negative questions sorts out the problem than 100 positive vibes. We can't always take a caluclated risk but getting prepared equally well for worst possibility without rushing up is prudent.