Tag: Uncategorized

Sustainable Growth – A Real Challenge For any Entrepreneur

growth1Like I said in my earlier blog, ” Copycat or Lack of Innovation”, any entrepreneur should have a strong concept before he starts his venture. New ideas and brand new concepts are very important to maintain the growth of any business.

A business could be product based or service based. This article was written on the service based perspective.

Initial Period

A software service company can be started based on two scenarios. There is a strong financial back up to build step by step and reach a sustainable stage, OR we already have a client who is ready to give projects  so that we can grow the company on back of that project.

On both the above two scenarios the initial growth is very steep. Risk level is low and building the team is not a big task or deal.

There is another scenario which is very rare. Business getting started by SME – Subject Matter Experts. Initial period of this scenario will be very tough and also the risk level is very high. But this will be a real Unique achievement.

Team Size Vs Revenue Ratio

On both the scenarios, one thing can be a common factor. We will never start a business as a 100 member initial team. It will be from 1-10 and then it will grow to 11-50, 51-200, 201-500, etc.

Initial strength up to 200 members is what we normally see from any start up company in the first 3 – 5 years.

Alternatively on the revenue side it is easy to reach to .75 to 1 Million dollar revenue in the first 3 -5 years along with 51-200 member company.

But there will be a stagnation stage at this level for every business. Either we will see the revenue remains the same for years along with the number of team members or the revenue will not change but the team size will come down to 120 – 160 level.

Both the above scenarios will require a total new business and operational change  with new set of clients and deal sizes. If a company is able to cross this chasm with in a period of 12  – 18 months then their growth will accelerate to the next stop gap at 1001 – 5000 member company and 12 – 60 million growth.

This science is a cycle and it will happen at each level of the growth.

What will make you cross that chasm?

It can happen only if we have a strong vision and all new Next Level Growth Plan with real leaders with you to implement it. It will be a real litmus test for any Entrepreneur at this stage and those who have the following commitment only can survive that and cross the chasm.

What are those Commitments?

“Dominate or Dissolve. No more Compete” 

Yes, we can take a tough stand to Dominate the market with our New Strategy or all new Next Level Growth plan or to Dissolve or windup the show forever. Because we cannot call ourself as an Entrepreneur if we Compete with others with a stagnated Revenue or Head Count or Same level of  Clients for a long period.

So remember the phrase “Dominate or Dissolve. No more Compete”, if you really want to get called or call yourself as an Entrepreneur!!!

Copycat or Lack of Innovation

copycatInnovation to Product

“Innovation” is one of the most coined word by many companies added with “acceleration” during the growth stage. But does that really suits them? Answer is almost No in many scenarios.

Innovation in a service company carries different meaning than the product company. Service innovation is mostly on process side and Product innovation is  on usability and functionality side.

If we take any new product on the market they will not be mostly their own brain child. They normally bridge the gap of the available product and brand as their new innovative one. Or at least their core or base concept of the product will be mostly from any of the other products available in the market.

One thing we cannot deny. After a point of time these products will totally change their identity from the base and  will become the so called innovative product by itself

But I am not earmarking every product that way. Because there needs to be some real innovative products to get as the base for the other new brands for sure.

Product to Innovation

On other scenario, the core or the base product needs to bring in more and more new features to handle the market sustainability. They are in more compulsion than others to bring in more changes to their product for their mere existence in the market.

What if they get in to lack of new innovation?

They will also start thinking or doing what the other product companies do. Just Copycat!!!

Example: iPhone. Apple released their first iPhone with their new innovation in the smartphone arena when Smartphone was not a must that time. But today the situation is different. To explain it more clearly I could say “Vitamin pills to Pain killer” difference.

iPhone was a vitamin pill when it was released. But since smartphone is a must now, iPhone is a pain killer now.

But today the new iPhone 6s got many new features which they claim as their new innovation. Innovation should be newly invented one and cannot be an inherited one. 

I have the following doubts about their new features.

1. 3D touch – Already available in Blackberry Storm2

2. Live Photo – Already available in HTC Zeo

3. 4K video – Already available in Sony Experia Z2 and LG G3

4. Flashback zoom – Already available in Samsung Galaxy

5. Hey Siri – Already available in Google Now and MS Lumia

6. Aluminium parts – Already used by Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge

so on an so forth.

So can we conclude that Apple didn’t innovate anything new of their own and they just consolidated the features available on several devices into one device?

This proves that the so called Father of Innovations also has to copycat the features or at least take the clue of new idea from others and make it as new feature in their upcoming products.

This is happening for the survival in the competitive market. Coming to the Top is harder. Being in the top is the hardest. So to be on the top we are even ready to Copycat which is exactly what was not our claim when we were struggling to come to the top.

Professional Loyalty a Myth

loyaltyWhat is Loyalty?

Have we ever thought of this word before. The answer would be yes. But the truth is “for others” and not when it comes to us.

If we take the direct meaning of the word loyalty there are different ways to use it. First, in Confucianism, it is meant as “do the best you can do for others”. Second, in Christianity, “if loyalty to man conflicts with loyalty to God, the latter takes precedence”.

But what it actually means?

We almost correlate it with “slavery”.

How?

If my employee quit, its against loyalty.

If my friend speaks to my enemy, its against loyalty.

If I discuss into healthy debate with anyone of other company in my line of business its against loyalty to the company, so on and so forth.

But, hang on. Did we ever do a self analysis about us on this so called myth “loyalty”. No we won’t. Because whatever we do, it is all because of a cause and if the same is done by others then we immediately weigh it in Loyalty scale. This is not for you or for me. This is happening in most of the People I am able to acquaint with.

We forget that we were also working with someone else yesterday and will be working with someone else tomorrow. If we had worked with others and come to our present company then are we “not loyal?” . We won’t accept. Why accepting? We won’t even analyse us in that angle.

When we recruit people from other company we won’t question them for “loyalty”. We even go extra mile asking them to bring other people from their earlier company to our company. Some may even do that.

But when they quit, we first give lecture to them on so called “loyalty” and particularly we will advise them in a commanding tone about loyalty.

Is quitting a job means not being loyal?

First please understand. QUITTING is not anything against LOYALTY. When we feel something is not going to our comfortness or if we want  advancement in our carrier, we have to quit and move on. Else both our company as well as us are not going to advance, why advance, we won’t even feel comfortable in the profession.

What is loyalty then?

Loyalty is a virtue or we can say it is the top of all virtues. So it is not something going to do with Profession at all.

Just be “true” that is what required in profession. True to your profession and true to your work ethic. Non solicitation is the ethic of any job. Just don’t solicit anything which rightfully belongs to others.

According to me, Loyalty is a very bad quality against Professional and Personal Enhancement.

If you Boss or your company speaks about Loyalty rather than trueness then you are at the wrong place in your carrier.

Loyalty will bring in a slavery mentality within you which will stop you in coming out of the cocoon even though you may feel or want to.

If Loyalty defines to be “not quitting job” even if I am sure that I won’t advance myself in the current position, then I prefer to be Not Loyal.

If professional loyalty means “being true” to the position I am holding and held, then I prefer to be Loyal.

Growth Roadmap V/s Expectation Over-shoot

growthAs a startup our first requirement is the best team to work with us. When I say team, I don’t mention just human who are SME alone (Subject Matter Expert). We start our business with a vision. If we are not able to sow our vision and mission into our core team then we will surely cannot reach our goal at the correct phase.

So what is required? 

The main need to have a strong core team is to transform our vision and mission through them. If the core team, even one of them, is not convinced with our vision then our failure starts there.

Is it an easy task to implant our vision and mission to our team? The answer is NO. It is not an easy task. It will take months together or even years to build the core team with same vision. Once it is done we are all set and the team can take us to the goal and even beyond.

The real problem starts here again. The human ego or human expectation is not a stable target. Two moving targets are the toughest to handle. When we say we have vision and mission for our company, we have to accept every human has their own vision and mission of their life.

As a startup we should learn to bridge the gap.

How will we do that?

Universal standard is, we will show them the roadmap of their growth with us. In the initial period their goal of growth will be a constant target. But when they see their growth through us, their goal of growth will become a moving target. Can we judge this as right or wrong?

No again. We are not here to gauge the growth of anyone. The problem starts, when the shift of our vision is not in phase with them. So either one will get fed up with the other.

The solution is don’t feed them fully. Leave an acceptable vacuum on their goal achievement so that they will know the value  of what we are giving. Else they will expect to grab more than they deserve. Its not their fault. Its human psychology. If we are not able to maintain the acceptable vacuum on the roadmap of their growth, automatically their expectation will over shoot than what they actually can.

Eventually the fault lies on us. Since we are not able to gauge the growth vs expectation we start loosing our core team which will be the last thing we like to happen in our business.

Now correlate the title picture with this concept and you can understand this concept!!!

Time to – Not Upgrade

timeChange is the rule of nature!!!

May be this is applicable for human life. But does this need to be the standard for electronics and mobile?

Have we ever thought “it would have been better not to have an upgrade”.  Not every application or every mobile should have a continuous upgrade. We should come to a state where we should have a base version which can be used irrespective of any upcoming upgrade.

I would like to bring in the most beautiful phrase here. “Need and Want”. Time has come where we should differentiate between Need and Want of the upgrade.

An upgrade could be of two aspect. The company is upgrading it because they want to add new features into that app or device which are really essential to further use of that app or device OR they want to make some extra money out of the new release.

If we start thinking the real need of a new phone other than what we have now, then every mobile manufacture will delay their new Phone release by another two years for sure.

Who is not ready to save some extra dime out of cutting our expenses?