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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
What is entrepreneurship
I was at ISB Mohali this weekend. Fantastic experience – lovely new campus, enthusiastic bunch of students, wonderful weather, the ISB touch visible all across! One of the clubs had invited me for a talk on entrepreneurship. And I found it best to summarize what it was about, by walking them through their own journey.
It was in March 2011 that I went to ISB Mohali to capture the progress of the construction in my lens. Visiting the campus in its (almost) end state was a perfect salute to the start of ISB Mohali’s entrepreneurial venture. The ISB is truly unlike anything else we have seen in the globe, when it comes to education! Mohali is the 2nd venture and poised for as grand a success as its first one!
What your customers will never tell you!
The Internet has a fundamental problem. You don’t get to meet your customers. They only call you or write in. And when they do so, they only share what they have been through. What they will never share, is how they feel!
Experience is factual. Can be described, can be written about, can be talked about.
Feeling is emotional. It can only be felt!
Which is why I would never rely on a telephonic interview.
Which is why I would, if it were to me, have a customer event, everyday!
What next?
What next is an extremely easy question to answer when you are starting up. There are problems to solve, growth to be achieved, paths to be discovered and segments to be scaled.
It’s the hardest question when you are big.
Replace starting up and big with something new and something old – and you have a situation spanning everything in life. Relationships, money, career – whatever you can think.
I am guessing the ones that succeed are the ones who never ask what next. They just keep starting up. Even if it’s the same thing.
“I Understand” doesnt work
Its the most fucked up statement in the world. Doesnt mean anything and clearly doesnt show any intent.
Whosoever says “I understand” most likely doesnt. Else he wont be saying this in the first place!
What drives cynicism in customers?
On any given day, I receive 30-50 emails from customers. I would bucket them in 3 categories – positive feedback (about things that are right or wrong with crazeal – these emails basically help us improve), enquiries (please tell me how to) and complaints (I had a bad experience on crazeal)
The complaints category is the most fascinating. What stands out is the inherent cynicism. More often than not, a complaint to me is the first instance of the customer reaching out to us. But even in this first touch point, their starting assumption is that no one will hear them. So the emails almost always end up with a – you better solve this else I will report this to the customer court and splash it all over social media.
Why would they react this way? Why would the very first email end up with a threat? When you don’t even know if the company is serious towards solving your problem or not. I can completely understand the threat in the 2nd contact, if the issue remains unresolved or worse still not responded.
My only explanation is the fact that this complaint email is not the first instance, but the second. The first one was the experience itself. And we failed there. It makes our job harder because we rest a lot on the merchant to deliver the right quality. And if the merchant fucks up, we fuck up (and rightfully so).
Here is my humble request – drop the cynicism on the first instance. Give the company a chance. Just one. Maybe the bad experience wasn’t planned. Maybe the company wasn’t there out to dupe you. Maybe, just maybe, they didn’t mean harm at all. It was an honest mistake.
Experience doesn’t make you ask different questions
I met a good friend after ages yesterday. Clearly one of the smartest, sharpest and passionate guys I know. He runs a fascinating company called Akosha and we caught up for the same.
He had questions on how to grow, how to manage people, how to balance growth and expenses, how to free up his time for the most important stuff, what will be the next big thing for the company.
The exact same questions I ask myself everyday.
The exact same questions Zuckerberg asks himself everyday, I reckon.
We always think that successful people think of far more “strategic” things than us normal beings – who are busy with tactical stuff. I don’t think so.
Everyone is ALWAYS thinking of the same thing. Experience doesn’t make you ask different questions. It just allows you to answer them differently.
Experience gives you the confidence to back your answer. At times even false, but confidence nonetheless.
And most importantly experience gives you the ability to connect the dots. Doing this will impact that.
But here is the fascinating thing. Both confidence and perspective are not contingent on the time you have spent in the trade. One can easily replace it with gut/intuition and an attitude of “only one way to find out”.
Everyone has the same problems. And experience is over-rated.
Follow your gut and just do it. You might fail, but that’s ironically what people call experience!
What mark did you leave?
You leave your mark on every life you touch.
Mostly unconsciously.
Would you leave a different mark, if you knew what you were leaving?
10,000 hours!
Just realized that this month I will be completing 10,000 hours as a full-time entrepreneur. Ofcourse, I don’t have an excel that records the number of hours clocked per day, split into the nature of time spent, covering all days that I have worked and (rightfully) removing days when I wasn’t productive or not working. Jeez! Why would I maintain such a sheet
Am I supposed to experience some magic this month then? Is it Malcolm?
Let me manage you through your style!
Managing people has got to the toughest thing in the world. As you grow professionally, the demand to work well with your colleagues grows exponentially. At some point, I believe that people are paid to manage people rather their technical skills.
But it still amazes me how many manage through their managerial style. While its always easier to manage through the other person’s style. How many times has a manager asked his colleagues – “Tell me about your working style. I will manage you accordingly”
Every manager starts with the assumption that his colleagues know nothing and have to be told, micromanaged. A simple conversation will eliminate this pan-team requirement by half. Sadly it doesn’t happen.
It’s perhaps obvious. A blanket style (yours) is easier to work with. But then that’s not why you were chosen, why you are paid.
Manage people through their style. It’s immensely hard, but immensely impactful.
Culture is built floor by floor
Situation 1
A new (non-Delhi/Bangalore) joinee was part of the recently concluded Management Meet. On the 3rd day of the meet, I was in the conference room with my colleagues at 8am, working on a deal that was going live. He comes in and comments “Do you guys work this hard all the time, or is it only for these past days?”
Situation 2
Delhi is looking for a new office. The current one is just not enough anymore and spaces are being shared. One of the management guys commented that the new office should not be split into floors, rather be a large single unit.
2 different situations, but exhibit the same thing. In my limited exposure to building companies, my biggest learning has been that Culture gets built floor by floor. One floor will have a different culture from the other. And this keeps extending – as the company expands – cities, countries.
Nothing beats personal touch when it comes to building culture. But that isnt possible all the time. The challenge is always – how do I sitting in Delhi, get the same culture in any other city. And vice versa.
Which is why I always like movement of people. Its cross-pollination and works like magic. A personal interaction will always be more powerful than the Commandments hanging on the wall.
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