20'P's of Spectacularly Successful Start-ups! (3'S's!)

Due to technological advancements, especially, in communication and computing technologies, many disruptive opportunities have emerged and many more are emerging. Some of those opportunities are in cloud computing, mobile apps, the social media, e-commerce, amongst others.

  

Compared to the earlier opportunities, the new ones differ mainly on 2 aspects. The entry barrier continues to come down and the size of the opportunities have grown by multiple folds. In addition to these developments, the entrepreneurship ecosystem has already attained critical mass and is getting better. More over, the society's attitude towards entrepreneurs is changing. In addition, thanks to IT and ITES booms, younger entrepreneurs are emerging, as they have sufficient funds and better risk appetite for start-ups.

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Based on the observations of many spectacular start-ups, the following common characteristics are observed. A framework has been developed to help the start-ups to navigate their way into success.  Recently (Q1CY2011), I read Innovator's Dilemma, Innovator's Solution, Seeing What's Next by Clayton Christensen. I could find lot of insights, which find resonance with P20 here. I am adding those points in italics here. As the  entrepreneurs ride on the Strategic Inflection Points (SIPs); it will be helpful for the entrepreneurs if they are realistic about the chances & extent of success.

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Popular media claims that 'winner takes it all' opportunities have increased, which is true for many outliers. Even more opportunities are available, where smart entrepreneurs are thriving on complementary and supplementary opportunities created by these 'winners'. Most of the entrepreneurs do not succeed to achieve the 'outlier' success attained by the winners,- Google, Facebook, Groupon, twitter,... But, many of them can continue to thrive on the ecosystems created by such  outliers. The same entrepreneurs, while sustaining on their 'not so' successful enterprises are getting ready to ride on the next SIP for spectacular successes.

At this point, it may be noted that, many firms are directly getting acquired by biggies like Google, Cisco, Intel amongst others. This is in contrast to earlier typical start-up's funding stages, based on life cycle of Bootstrapping - FFF (ie. Friends, Family and Friends' friends) Investment - Angel Investment - VC (Venture Capital) Investment - PE (Private Equity) and IPO (Initial Public Offering). So, entrepreneurs need to keep the reasonable success criteria for their ventures rather than expect angel investment and venture capital investment to happen at the beginning itself.

 

When employees become entrepreneurs, they quit the rat race to pursue their dreams. Congratulations to the entrepreneurs, for getting out of the rat race. It just got more exciting for the entrepreneurs. Welcome to fashion parades! To make it big amongst the start-ups, the entrepreneurs need to enter into fashion parades. The following 20 characteristics (called P20) determine the success. Those P20 are discussed below;

P1 - Passion: The passion for the idea or the problem solved is the single most powerful factor for the creation of the start-up. The same passion also provides fuel & energy to fend off many challenges on the way. Whereas, the passion  nurtures the idea from embryonic stage and also becomes the soul of the venture;  the passion alone does not ensure the success. The passion drives the venture to grow into large enterprise and thus leads to spectacular success of the venture.  Passion is something which drives the people to achieve the pinnacle of success without any external motivation!

On larger context, a start-up is immensely effective organization at bootstrap budget. Hence, it is very much necessary to follow the  guidelines suggested for highly effective organizations as mentioned in 'Elements of High Performance Business Initiatives'.  Highly resonant ideas need to be relentlessly executed leveraging all favorable ground realities at the least budget to turn the ideas into spectacularly successful start-ups. No wonder, passion plays critical role!

Passion helps the entrepreneurs to conquer the fear of failure. Rather,  passion helps go develop equanimity towards the outcomes of the pursuit.  Since,  the fear of failure is the greatest factor dissuading the entrepreneurs; passion  drives entrepreneurs to take the plunge into entrepreneurship & pursue their calling.

In a way, an entrepreneur, destined to create spectacularly successful start-up, will be pursuing disruptive innovations and most of the times new markets are created. The new markets created through disruptive innovations are 'unknown' & 'unknowable', as mentioned in  Innovator's Dilemma. Only the person with tremendous passion can take the challenge with great pleasure in pursuing such markets irrespective of the results.

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P2 - Person/s (Promoter/s or entrepreneur/s or founder/s): The Person/s' capabilities, background, her/his/their brand equity within the venture's ecosystem plays a critical role in success. Her/His/Their business leadership skills determine the venture's success. For relatively new sectors, it may seem that the person's background may not matter.  (Probably, this  thinking is due to the fact that the emerging sector was not articulated, though it was evolving.) But,  according to a study done by Malcolm Gladwell in 'The Outliers', at least 10 years' persistent exposure has helped the earlier billionaires like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs...

The entrepreneur needs to be highly ambitious to achieve the greatest success in her/his chosen field. Additionally, s/he needs to be highly resourceful to leverage his talent, skills, network ... to her/his advantage to thrive on the realities,  both the  existing & the emerging, around him/her.

A person with world class execution capabilities can lead the disruptive innovations to create new markets. The new markets, in their  infancy, evolve based on the contributions of the pioneers limited only by the capabilities of the people leading & the realities around. The person also needs to sense the emerging realities around  and steer his venture for global dominance to shape the market. In my view, it is well proven beyond doubt by the likes of Andy Grove of Intel, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, John Chambers of Cisco,....

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P3 - People (Team): For a start-up to grow & attain critical mass, there is  a need for complementary team members. The team members need to share the hunger for growth and similar/complementing understanding of the market. They need to bring cohesiveness to the team to withstand the challenges within and without (ie. posed from outside) to hold the team together to chart the growth of the venture. Since, the venture goes through chaotic times before attaining predictable dramatic growth, there is a need for the team to stay together in the rough times. This is one of the reasons, smart investors ensure that the team members' knowledge of each other for reasonably long period.  

The disruptive innovations leading to creation of  new markets demand a cohesive team having exhaustive world class capabilities to pioneer the market.  A team of  high caliber leaders with complementary skills can only take on the challenge of creating the start-up to achieve global dominance.

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P4 - Profile of the Market (TAM, Competition, ...): Even though many entrepreneurs may not like it, when formal investors  even Angel Investors (and friends too!), in India, insist that the start-up entrepreneurs know about the Total Addressable Market Size. This is referred to as Tyranny of Total Addressable Market (TAM) by many start-up entrepreneurs. It will be a great help for a start-up to be well aware of the Profile of the Market, market terrain, for a start-up through classical Porter's Five Forces framework of the market as follows;

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_5_Force_Model

But, for early stage entrants in the market, there may not be well defined forces and  the contours of the terrains are ambiguous, to say the least. This is where the entrepreneurs' passion & gut feelings play a critical role. The rational individuals (non-believers, those friends, Angel  Investors and VCs) may not buy into your idea. Your passion, gut feelings, your capability to go against the world's thinking will help you to chart into unknown territories. 

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This is something that you, your team and your mentor/s have to take call. As explained earlier,  you may not hit the jackpot; but you may end up as sustainable venture & grow. Once the success is on your way, the VCs may chase you. At this point, you may be having enough money to afford to wait. The immediate successful examples, which come to mind are Mr. Sridhar Vembu's Zoho.com, Mr. Pallav Nadhani's  Fusioncharts and Sunil Maheshwari's Mango Technologies. While these examples are  about Spectacularly Successful Start-ups, I am sure, there are many firms, where the entrepreneurs have harvested great returns and still are below the media glare!

The start-ups can identify the market segments which are small enough so that the big players are not interested. At the same time, the same segments may be ready to take off due to disruptive innovations. These markets are unknown & and the future of the segments is unknowable, at least by traditional methods. The only way to find out is to experiment.  These are the segments which are not on the radars of most of the players. Start-ups have the benefit of experimenting through out the growth  trajectories to get the mega returns. Hence, the start-ups who chose the market segments with right profile will thrive on the  disruptive innovations. Zoho, tweeter, are some of  the examples.

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P5 - Projections (Business Model): After assessing the market, the entrepreneur will have an idea about how to scale up the business. Considering all the dynamics of the market, looking at he strengths, capabilities, emerging market scenarios, and many other relevant factors the projections can be built. The projections reveal the understanding of the ground realities, self knowledge, aspirations, in addition to other relevant factors. In short, it gives an idea about the perceived business model's projection into future, based on the current performance (which is better measure) or/and understanding.

    

One of the seasoned Angel Investor commented that, he had come across entrepreneurs, who are the Ambition Challenged, -who don't think sufficiently BIG!,  whom generally he drops. So, the higher the ambition, the better it is, if you want to seek VC funds. It is always better to be honest to oneself. At the same time it is necessary to see, whether all the growth avenues are exhausted before approaching VCs. The point is about pragmatically exhaustive understanding. The other entrepreneurs he drops from his list are the 'Improvisation Challenged' (Earlier had used the term 'Resourcefulness/Agility/Flexibility Challenged'. Hope, the new term does better justice, including what was conveyed in the earlier term.), who can not improvise enough to implement smart solutions even though many avenues are available!  Improvising helps he entrepreneur to smartly & tactically win the battles in ever-changing ground realities. This has the bearing in the next P, Period (Timing) 

  

P6 - Period (Timing): The period ('Timing' is more appropriate) plays an important role in a start-up's success. A start-up lacks resources, people, support, market access (amongst many other ingredients)  compared to well established behemoths. This is where Spectacularly Successful  Start-ups make the difference. They clearly follow the dictum of Sun Tzu's Art of War, that Timing and Momentum are important aspects of strategy execution and planning. The smart start-ups, enter early in formative period of the sector and build stealthily momentum by bootstrapping. This specific trait needs ample passion & tremendous tactical and strategic understanding of the terrain by the founder and her/his team. 

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P7 - Perseverance: As mentioned above in P6 (Period or Timing), it is absolutely necessary and critical to build enough momentum stealthily. As this is being done stealthily, getting funds through formal channels becomes more challenging. Additionally, the time pressure forces the founder & her/his team to have tremendous belief in themselves & their team. This is where, the team's passion for the venture is tested. Once the team goes through the Valley of Death and emerges victorious, the kudos follow. But, the Valley of Death puts great test on passion, person and people! Perseverance gets the start-up through the valley of death into the mountains of prosperity!

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P8 - Purpose: The purpose of the venture has to be sufficiently well defined to attract the talent and mobilize the team and money. As the time lapses, the market/sector around us may go through dramatic changes as the market itself is in formative period. So, the purpose of the venture should be broad and flexible enough to take care of the upheavals in the market/sector. Here, Zuckerberg's Facebook venture is a good  pointer. The purpose was to give the feel of the elite student clubs on the web. 

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P9 - Paraphrase: Paraphrasing is the articulation of the Purpose (P8) by the founder/leader/entrepreneur. As the team and venture experience the chaotic upheavals of the market/sector, the leader needs to articulate  (paraphrase) the purpose repeatedly to navigate the venture through unpredictable rough terrains into meadows of prosperity! The venture may go through near-death experiences, if the leader/founder doesn't paraphrase the purpose (if needed, change it based on the evolution of the sector  and venture). If it is not navigated well at this juncture, the venture may as well cease to exist!

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P10 - Proof of Concept (PoC): Soon after the idea's (concept's) inception, the next logical step is to quickly go through the Proof of Concept. Proof of concept needs to be as realistic as possible. On one side, it allows for all the team members to appreciate the concept. It also helps for lot of improvisation; thus leading to bring better offer to the market. It also helps in understanding the glitches involved and address them. In a way,  today, most of the  web based and software firms can afford to continue to fix the offering through out the life cycle. Thus the Proof of Concept gives quick reality check for the start-up and helps in defining the way forward.

  

P11 - Product/Platform/Service/Offering: The offering (either Product or Platform or Service) has to offer minimum '10X' factor of value to the target market to make a spectacularly successful start-up. In a way, the product offering has to be, in itself, a Strategic Inflection Point (SIP), which is defined by Andy Grove of Intel, who coined the term in  Only the Paranoid Survive, has to be causing minimum 10X change. A 5% or 50% improvement can be easily taken care of by one of the behemoths already in a leading position. The chances are, already, a 5% or 50% improved offering is in the pipeline (either in RnD or PoC) in the market leader's organization. The 10X  value delivery could be achieved by the same value at the tenth of the price or less.

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Roughly speaking, in this context, brand equity (bE) or Cumulative Value (cV) of an offering is directly proportional to the value delivered (Vd) multiplied by the number of units sold (U), where, value delivered is the difference between offering's value (V) and the cost incurred by the client (C).  cV or bE = f(Vd*U)

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P12 - Place (Accessibility): The place (accessibility) plays a highly important role for physical (virtual)  products. The regulatory restrictions play critical role for value delivery for both physical &  virtual products. For the products, the issue of place or location is not just about delivery or consumption point. This is also about the acceptability of the product, culturally and socially also; amongst other aspects which are specific to the products or offerings. It is always beneficial to try with the easiest market to access and operate, as the start up can address easily adapt & improvise to grow spectacularly without incurring huge costs. Once the initial location is won, the start-up can devise ways to capture markets where in relatively larger market shares can be won at the least cost. The guiding principle here is optimization within bootstrapping budgets, while prioritizing growth & expansion options.

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P13 - Promotion: In the socially networked economy we are working in, the promotion is extremely important  and critical. An effective promotion, optimally leveraging social network, decides the winners today. Whereas, conventionally, Public Relation entities did the job; for a bootstrapping  start-up viral campaigning, social media marketing make the difference. The pinnacle of success, for a start-up, could be getting mentioned in TechCrunch! and similar industry specific publications.

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P14 - Pricing: A useful template widely used in the market is, Free, Essential and Premium; often termed as FreeMium strategy. FreeMium strategy is the way to go in the present scenario. For completely revolutionary offerings, it makes sense to start with 'Absolutely No Ads' (no monetization) to enable users (mavens) to enjoy unbridled benefits of the offering and induce them to invite their network to the offering.  To be spectacularly successful, a start-up should  deliver minimum value of 10X, the higher the better, at the lowest price!

P15 - Positioning: For a start-up, positioning of the offering becomes very critical, many times it becomes more difficult than the offering itself. Additionally, if completely new market or segment is being created it becomes very complicated. The spectacularly successful start-ups have positioned their offerings as the best solutions in the niche segment, which is contiguous to larger markets. And then they grew the niche  market into  much larger market than the contiguous markets, this led to spectacular growth of the start-ups in turn! i-pad and facebook are the most recent examples of this kind of positioning. In a way, the start-up is creating a Blue Ocean opportunity of 'here & there'. Positioning also entails choosing & implementing the appropriate channel.

P16 - Packaging: Packaging involves mainly 3Fs, those are Features, Facilities & Flavors. Based on the target market segments, the features, which provide the best value, can be included optimally. The facilities within the features have to be judiciously included. A facility which matters the most for the user may not be  so helpful for his superior; vice-versa also may be true.  Based on the demographics, the flavor can be decided. Where as for a casual or fun user, flavor may be vibrant; for a professional or business user the flavor may be  business like. It is always beneficial to package the offering in multiple manners to satisfy as wide market as possible. 

The packaging & pricing can be independent or interdependent.  A call needs to be taken based on the market conditions, strategy & tactics amongst others. Eg.: The packaging may follow FreeMium strategy; packs the bare minimum for Free throws in some essentials for the Essential and the Premium package will come with lots of bells & whistles.

P17 - Paying Clients/Customers: Paying clients/customers are the ultimate proof of the  success of any business model. The sooner the paying customers are attracted, the better it is. It is essential for a start-up to start generating the revenues. The monetization need not necessarily happen through the end users. The monetization in consumer arena may happen through the advertisers or e-commerce.  The monetization in business arena may happen through the purchase of the offering. The solid, well established or well proven monetization model of the start-up will start attracting the Angel Investors.

P18 - Profits: The start-up based on the revenue generation can move into profits' zone pretty fast. The trends in increasing revenue generation & decreasing expenses are great news for any start-up. Once the start-up starts making profits, the VCs  start taking interest in the venture.

  

P19 - Pace of Growth: The start-up needs to scale up faster while generating profits. The pace of growth determines the potential of the venture. If the pace of growth is faster than the market by multiples; the start-up becomes the prize catch for  the VCs.

 

A word about difference between Projections (P5) & Pace of Growth (P19). Whereas, Projections (P5) shows the vision and aspirations of the venture; Pace of Growth (P19), which shows the delivery of results!

 

P20 - Patience: Patience is one of the greatest virtues of every entrepreneur. Nobody is sure, when things will turn better or when the time is right! After all the ingredients are in place, to achieve success one needs to wait. It can be compared to the process of pickling, after the cook puts all the ingredients, flavours need sometime before they emerge in pickling. This was recently nicely brought forward by one of the successful entrepreneurs, Mr. Manish Sharma of Printo.

 

So, the entrepreneur needs to keep on working continuously with the strong optimistic belief that everything contribute for spectacular success shortly. But at the same time the entrepreneur should be ready for no great success, worse still failure too. This is more in line with Krishna's 'Karmanye Vaadhikarastey...' quote, which means that 'one has the duty to act but he does not have the right to the fruit!' If one has such an attitude towards his action he or the human kind will be immensely rewarded. It may seem to be too difficult to swallow, the realities around us teach this lesson. It helps to start with this lesson!

  

As seasoned business leaders may note the above 20P's framework is an aggregation of multiple essential and desired characteristics of any high performance & high growth business entity. P1 to P3 (Passion, Person and People) define the idea, founder and the core team characteristics. P4, P5 and P6 (Profile, Projections and Period) define the market realities. P7 through P10 (Perseverance, Purpose, Paraphrase, Proof of Concept) define the execution capabilities of the firm.  P11 through P14 (Product/Platform/Service/Offering, Place, Promotion, Pricing) are essentially classic 4Ps of marketing mix. P15 and P16 (Positioning & Packaging) address Go to Market (G2M) issues for the start-ups. Ultimately, P17 through P19 (Paying Clients/Customers, Profits and Pace of Growth) represent the start-ups results and future potential and P20 (Patience) prepares the entrepreneur for the life's greatest challenges.

   

Efforts are made here to make the characteristics (20P's) in the framework Mutually Exclusive and Cumulatively Exhaustive (MECE). Your inputs will be always helpful to strengthen the framework and help the start-ups.

  

This is an effort to provide guiding light (however, feeble it is) to Spectacularly Successful future for the start-ups. It will be great if it helps at least a few ventures navigate successfully rather than faltering at the beginning itself!

    

 At embryoFund, we help you through the journey to become Spectacularly Successful Start-up by helping you thorough the 20P's framework. 

NASSCOM's Product Conclave 2010, the Watershed Event for India's Product Entrepreneurs

NASSCOM's Product Conclave 2010 held last week (on November 10th & 11th) was the best to happen for India's budding entrepreneurs! (I had promised my self to write a blog on it, but couldn't do it till now.) I will right away jump to juicy parts of the event I could participate in!


Curtain Raiser, the 9th November, 2010

The curtain raiser was held on the 9th November, and this was the best part; to start with.

There was Sramana Mitra, who exhorted budding entrepreneurs to take a deep dive into entrepreneurship. She shared her journey as a serial entrepreneur. She also talked about Tyranny of TAM (Total Available Market), the term used by many Venture Capitalists (VCs). There are lot many opportunities to leverage without getting into Tyranny of TAM! So entrepreneurs need not fret or self-doubt, if they are facing Tyranny of TAM! She also conducted the live version of her highly popular weekly Video Conference based workshop. It gave the taste of her insights into entrepreneurship. Her indomitable entrepreneurial spirit was quite infectious!

Prof. Wadhwa from Duke University shared his research on entrepreneurship with the audience. He busted the myth of 'Not-so-great Entrepreneurial Ecosystem' in India. (BTW, Sramana also told that India's ecosystem is good enough (comparable to/better than) to get into entrepreneurship). Prof. Wadhwa, told that Fear of Failure is the main deterrent even for Americans too! He told that, 0.67% Indians in US are responsible for 6.7% of the enterprises in US. Over and above that, he conveyed that the Indian entrepreneurs he meets in US are no different/better than the Indian entrepreneurs he meets in India.

Commenting on the differences, he said that every American student is burdened with huge study loans to payback. Relatively, Indian students generally get their education funded by their parents. Only issue with Indian youngsters is that, the family pressure to work for large IT/ITES companies to get better life partner through arranged marriage. (After this event, it looks like he came across many India based Indian entrepreneurs, who had crossed these hurdles too, visit his post event blog.) He promised to share more details in the event! (and he kept his promise too!)

Day 1, the 10th November, 2010

The plenary session started with Mr. Sharad Sharma's welcome address followed by Som Mittal's address. Amitabh Srivastava from Microsoft shared MS's Azure PaaS Roadmap. Mr. Sahrat Sharan of On24 talked about his journey as an entrepreneur covering the decision forks he navigated.

There was a session on opportunities opened by UID initiative.

The best part of the day was 'Traits of a successful product entrepreneur' panel discussion with highly energetic trio, Prof. Wadhwa, Mr. Vishal Gondal of Indiagames & Laura Parkin of NEN. Whereas Prof. Wadhwa shared some more myth busting facts about typical entrepreneurs especially average age of 39 & 40 and he is an immigrant from Asia (read Indian or Chinese!) Whereas, Prof. Wadhwa, based on his studies, stressed on education & experience for the success in entrepreneurial journey. Mr. Gondal said that he would bet his money on young entrepreneurs! Though they differed on a few points but both highly encouraged the audience to plunge into entrepreneurship! Laura Parkin ensured that the sparks of wit and, wisdom kept on bursting on the audience. This was a great Diwali fire show at the event.

At another panel discussion, the products for India's hinterland were discussed by successful entrepreneurs. There was an exciting open discussion to facilitate the search for partner companies for the start-ups. I should say that the hosts of the show, I call them Men in Black, as they sported black T-shirts, were at their best hospitality to ensure that the audience got the best from the event. And, they are no ordinary hosts, they are stalwarts in their chosen fields!

I, partially, attended special session on Selling Innovation. I was greatly enthused & influenced by Mangotech's Mr. Maheshwari & Orangescape's Suresh's Street-Smart tactics to bag the orders and partnership deals! That was one of the biggest take-aways! (in addition to the many more I have mentioned in the blog).

In the plenary session at the end of the day, Mr. Venkatarama Raja of Ramco shared his insights based on  cloud based ERP, they have launched. MRR (M. R. Rangaswami, Co-Founder, SandHill Group LLC.) moderated this session and other sessions so well, I was hoping that he will moderate most of the sessions. He brings great intellect  sharp wit and avuncular warmth to get the best insights out of every panelist. Polly Sumner of Salesforce shared insights on client adoption & 'cloud 2' initiatives in her firm.

Proto.in had arranged for five demos by the product entrepreneurs. All the five demos and especially, Pallav Nadhani's Oomph, were simply superb!


Day 2, the 11th November, 2010

I was seated a few inches away from Yahoo's CEO Carol Bartz! and a foot or 2 away from  Dr. Frank Levinson of Small World!



Carol Bartz shared her insights with Chief Microlander Pradeep Kar. She basically said how Yahoo is different from Facebook & Google!

Dr. Frank Levinson shared some street-smart tactics to bootstrap & grow big!

Sridhar Vembu of Zoho.com shared secrets of his success in the 3 sessions he spoke. His no-nonsense approaches to  marketing, hiring and biases in US are worth emulating for many entrepreneurs.

The biggest takeaway from the event: The Entrepreneurship in India is making Big Waves and the world is watching. The drivers are Cloud Computing, Mobile Apps & Web 2.... .... Web 3.0!

A big thanks to NASSCOM & the Men-in-Black!

Takeaways from The Social Network, the Movie

15th Nov., 2010

Very rarely, movies capture the legends in the making and that too right in the middle of the phenomenon. The Social Network is such a movie. This is a great insider (rather 'insiders' or 'outsiders') view of  Facebook's initial days. This is a must for all entrepreneurs. (No wonder, TiE, Bangalore was giving away complimentary tickets!)

As the movie is based on dispositions against Mark Zuckerberg; we get exposed to harsh truths/facts about facebook.  The dialogues are sharp, witty and show Mark Zuckerberg as nonchalant, in-your-face protagonist tackling all kinds of attacks singlehandedly.

The movie, since covers all the complicated twists and turns related to Facebook; poses interesting intellectual challenge to the viewer. The movie builds on the ongoing phenomenon,- Facebook, hence gets initial big draw. The movie empathizes with the entrepreneur is everybody. The movie is directed by David Fincher, the veteran of the movies: Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Se7en and The Game, amongst others..... (I will be writing further!!... after watching again tomorrow, thanks to TiE, Bangalore!)

18th Nov., 2010

Nearly, half of yesterday's audience was budding entrepreneurs from Bangalore. There are many lessons to be learnt from Mark Zuckerberg's  facebook venture.

Execution is Much Bigger than the Idea!: There were ideas like social networks existing already (MySpace and Friendster, additionally the social networks of respective institutes). Divya Narendra andWinklevoss brothers had come up with the 'idea of the exclusivity' for ivy league institutes.

But Zuckerberg's facebook went much beyond that to provide real life club feel for the venture. (In a way, there is a huge opportunity for all of us to re-create the Real World on the net!) Zuckerberg, with his relentless efforts, high intellect clubbed with programming prowess went on creating more capabilities to ensure that the site, 'the facebook' came very close to the vision. No wonder, within a few weeks the facebook became talk of the town! And caught attention of Napster's Sean Parker!

So it is not just the idea or knowledge (though they are the seeds and provide direction); what matters is the fulfillment through flawless execution relentlessly pursued against time! Actually, execution is the function of the leader and his team's capability, professed vision, profile of the market and pace of growth. I am working on 'Elements of Spectacularly Successful Start-ups', it will shortly appear in the same blog! You may refer to my blog on Idea, Execution and Realities

Passionately Pursue Your Dream: Once the idea got Zuckerberg, he was possessed by the idea. Nothing else mattered to him.He kept on pursuing it in a highly focused manner. The passion creates a clear vision of your dream.

In fact, Warren Bennis, the global leadership guru exhorts leaders to be dreamers while awake, and they are the ones, who dare to change the world and can change it! So Zuckerberg, could clearly visualize what needs to be done and how fast! 

Leverage Everything Around You: Zuckerberg leveraged the access to the data, resources available to him to build the website.  He sensed that Saverin could fund the idea and additionally the right sounding board as Saverin's thoughts genrally reinforced his thinking. Saverin also provided the right ideas, while programming. Zuckerberg fully leveraged everything around him.

At the same time, Winklevoss brothers and Divya Narendra might not have provided the same kind of reinforcements except for lots of money, if needed.

As the project progressed, Zuckerberg could resonate more with Sean Parker of Napster than Saverin. By the time Zuckerberg met Parker, he had already moved to the next level. And at that level/stage, he needed Parker as the sounding board.

Though Zuckerberg is portrayed as reckless dreamer moving ahead at the cost of friendships or earlier mentors, in reality it may be slightly different. Anyway, the takeaway here is,- at different stages you may have to change the content and structure of your leadership group. But, that needs to be managed in such a way that all the stakeholders understand the implications. It is easier said than done, especially when the pace of changes is so fast and all the stakeholders are so young.

Build A Great Team: Zuckerberg could intuitively understand that the talent he needs has to be more like him in programming prowess, hence he came out with the recruiting method of conducting the programming contest, spiked with gulp of beer at every few minutes. He could see the complementary skills of his friends and he would assign them the tasks which they could deliver.

The team leader also needs to understand the possible repercussions due to the team members' individual quirks. The leader needs to manage the repercussions at the earliest. This needs to be achieved with tact, patience and as far as possible, there is a need to involve the stakeholders. This might have gone little wrong here due to the time pressure and the overwhelming realities around.

Fast Scale-up: There is no substitute for fast scale up. The sooner the idea is scaled up, the better it is. Progressively, the Strategic Inflection Points (SIPs) are occurring at faster pace. If the idea is not executed well and not scaled up in time, another wave and/or competition may wash away all the efforts. In fact, this is what might have happened to the other players in social network market!

Relentless Focused Perseverance to Race Ahead: Though Zuckerberg is perceived and portrayed as nerd (which is/may be true, depends on how and from where one looks). Zuckerberg has been persevering relentlessly. At least, till date he has not given any leeway for any of his competition. Life becomes endless mission to achieve the goal. The 'life-work balance' may seem to be at odds. But for a passionate leader, the passionate journey becomes life of fun all the way!

Keen Sense of the Realities Around and Matching Execution: Zuckerberg could identify quickly, the Facebook's growing popularity, and could sense the potential of Facebook. In fact, the same was sensed by Napster's Sean Parker. I believe that such sensibilities are developed over a period of time by being in the thick of the action and also the great prowess in extrapolating the present happenings.

Zuckerberg and Parker started executing appropriately until the millionth unique user. (And, that continues beyond 500 millionth user too!) As I update in August 2013, Facebook has 1.1 Billion users!

So, the great journey of entrepreneurship may define and develop completely new possibilities. Today, I came across Richard Feynman's quote about the age of discoveries, as follows;

"We are lucky to live in an age in which we are still making discoveries. "
— Richard P. Feynman

Let's make more discoveries as entrepreneurs! 

Thriving on the waves of Cloud Computing, Mobile Apps, Web2+...

All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo

The world is going through Strategic Inflection Point (SIP) with respect to communication & technologies. In my view, the concept of Strategic Inflection Point is reflection of Victor Hugo's abovementioned quote on ideas.The main drivers are Cloud Computing, Mobile Apps, Web 2.0+ and more.

Whereas, Cloud Computing is leveraging availability of internet infrastructure to deliver the applications in OpEx (Operating Expenditure) mode, thus eliminating decision cycles for the businesses. As the cost of adoption of Cloud Computing Application is very low (or almost nil), the marketing overhead for the companies offering the Applications is drastically reduced. In a way, software companies can afford to play like '.com' companies in their heydays! So is the case for the Mobile Apps developers. The invasion of Cloud Computing & Mobile Apps has just begun! As far as Web 2.0+, there has been steady build up in internet arena. All these (where the lines are blurring!) are creating Tipping Point to deliver unprecedented productivity gains and ubiquity. So, the pace of changes is increasing at neck breaking speed! So brace for the lifetime ride on the fast roller coaster of chaos!

India has greater opportunity now. If IT revolution spawned the likes of Infosys, TCS, HCL..., BPO revolution spawned the likes of Genpact, Cognizant, Daksha (now, a part of IBM),...Internet revolution spawned the likes of naukri, MakeMyTrip,... The new tipping point is going to accelerate the creation of new companies in Cloud Computing, Mobile Apps & Web 2+ arena.

While the opportunities to create companies for global dominance is increasing, the barriers to enter the markets are coming crashing down. At the same time, entrepreneurship ecosystem is steadily growing to fund these dreams. Couple it with India's much talked about 'Demographic Dividends'. All these trends are creating a Sweet Spot, which India has been craving since long. we can easily say that heading towards the 'Biggest Bonanza'.

If India could grow dramatically on the back of IT Services, BPOs... The world has experienced programming & back office strength. Now, the world is getting ready for the wave being unleashed by India's entrepreneurial power. And, this wave is going to be much bigger than what we have seen till date.

These ideas are the driving force for our new venture; embryoFund.com, the Enabling Ecosystem for Early-stage Entrepreneurs

I end this blog with the following quote pointed out by one of my friends recently in Linkedin,

There is nothing harder to achieve, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to carry out, than to become a leader at a time when a new order is being established - Niccolo Machiavelli

So, come let's participate in this wonderful journey.

Innovations in India - a Perspective

This is in response to innovation in India v/s USA and; Europe.

US and UK have built institutions like financial institutions, judicial system and Intellectual property rights in the last 200 years or more. 

India, though geographically single entity, was divided amongst various states until independence. (Different institutions (in different princely states) were working at different levels of maturity, largely suboptimal level.) The above mentioned institutions (at global maturity level) are taking firm ground now in India. Thanks to IT revolution & reforms in 1990, we have now come to the present stage. 

In view of the above, India has done relatively well and will do better. To give perspective, does anybody talk about the same about Pakistan, Srilanka, ...(the examples were deliberately chosen to contrast.) 

It does not mean that we should be complacent. Understanding these soft structural issues will help in arriving at optimal solution and the road map. 

If our elders could do so well in spite of institutional hurdles; we should do much better. Now that, they already have proven that Indians are good in IT (Infosys, TCS...), management (Ram Charan, Nitin Nohria, Pandit of Citibank, Indra Nooyi of Pepsi), high end mfg. (Tatas, large no. of auto ancillaries..) 

I am sure we will deliver many innovative products within a few years. 

BTW, before Alexander expanded his empire, Greeks used to lament the same way. And Alexander conquered the whole known world then!  

In a way, it is happening. There are more than 26Mn. MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) in India. Out of them nearly 80% (approx. 2Mn.) are Micro enterprises. I am sure, many among them, have the ability to become the super entrepreneurs. 

The entrepreneurial ecosystem of Seed Funding, Angel Investors, VCs, ... is growing. Govt. has formed a task force to help these MSMEs.  

Whereas, we have lot of hopes in private entrepreneurial ecosystem. Government bodies are also joining hands with private initiatives as it is happening with Economic Times' Power of Ideas initiative. In this initiative already 850 are shortlisted in the first round out of >16K business ideas presented 

http://www.ideas.economictimes.com/FirstCutOffList.aspx  

TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) local offices are conducting events to galvanize the ecosystem. http://bangalore.tie.org/  

There are many such initiatives running currently at various incubators and under the guidance of many angel investors. Additionally, there are many seed funding agencies located outside the major cities. 

It's happening. People can provide their inputs & insights in such initiatives conducted by various associations including TiE.

Thoughts on Passion & Success

Passion:Passion is a strong inclination to achieve in specific field without affecting the others' rights and without neglecting our own duties. Whatever crosses these boundaries will be obsession.  

Success: Success, in my view, is a function of Ideas*Execution*Reality., ie. Success = f (Ideas*Execution*Reality) In management context, I have elaborated on the same for high performance organizations. (Kindly visit  ...Elements of High Performance Business Initiatives)

Reality: Reality, here is being referred to as the one which is generally termed as, 'Fate/Destiny/Karma'. We can't decide on our parents, country of birth, social status, initial education, genes, situations around us,... Reality (Fate/Destiny/Karma) has the greatest effect on success. 

Ideas, emerge from the person's passion, knowledge, creativity, wisdom, personal ability, his friends, family, influences (eg. debate on passion due to '3 Idiots' movie,..)... 

Execution is a function of passion again and capability (we may refer to it as talent or genius) 

Now, an individual needs to figure out success, dynamically, leveraging these dynamic (and a few relatively static factors) around here. 

Let us deconstruct Harsha Bhogle, (an IIM educated cricket fan, who is charting his career in Sports Management sector.) in this context (without getting into too many specifics). He has good 'managerial capabilities to build career around his passion cricket without he becoming a cricketer, where his natural talents do not lie in playing. 

We may take up Dr. Manmohan Singh's example here (again, without getting into too many specifics). He is one of the globally respected great economist. He possesses financial talent and background. His passion lies in leveraging his wisdom and talent for the larger good of his nation. He is not an accomplished politician. He is doing his best for the nation. 

In my view, we sometimes come across the reference to 'calling'. When we deeply look into our life in context with the happenings around us, we realize that 'calling'. This calling will be, intuitively (unconsciously) and rationally, based on all the above factors. When we follow our calling, our focus is on 'enjoying the journey' rather than undue stress on the results (success), which are/is determined by the realities (fate) beyond us. Of course, one follows this calling with the realistic expectation of survival (in the long run) but may be ready to sacrifice the comforts (even life). 

Such people, following their 'calling',  turn out to be great people like; 

Mahatma Gandhi: He went to pursue lawyer's profession in South Africa, but many incidents prompted him to follow his 'calling'. 

Narayana Murthy: He had failed initially in his earlier venture, he was pro-communism, a day in a jail in a communist country changed his views, Infosys even after 10 years after the establishmment was not a 'great success', where others were keen to sell the company, Narayana Murthy took a bet to continue to strive further... 

Almost every great person became so due to the 'calling'. 

Almost at the end of the movie, Raju and Farhan follow their callings, Rancho is always after the calling (Success ke peechhe mat pad! = Don't follow success!) The smart guys they are; though they are not as 'calculating' as Chatur, they are following their passion in a mature manner. 

So, I think, if we want to achieve something great in life, we need to follow our calling with detachment to results as is envisaged in Karmanye Vadhikarsthey....in Bhagavadgita by Krishna. 

We win (or expand) the areas based on our limitations, innate &/or acquired capabilities within that unknown territory. In my view, the challenge lies in turning your back to the world and take the first step and start moving ahead. 

I had read a story quite some time back; about God telling a man to take as much land as the man wants, which would be determined by the area covered by the man by the end of the day. 

Life is pretty much is the same. In fact, I go a step ahead and say, we can win/expand as much as we can run through out our life. 

In summary, to go that extra mile, you need the following; 

* Tenacity (against the treacherous unknown terrain of future in the selected field),

* Stamina (since it is a long haul & race against others & time),

* Seek pleasure in what we continue to do (amidst lot of boring & exhausting tasks)... 

If you have passion for the field, the journey is exhilarating and self invigorating. Thus, it helps in creation of virtuous cycle. 

In my view, passion, thus provides you extra fuel than the ones without passion. Thus passion enables you to achieve the pinnacle of success, while you continue enjoying the journey. 

Let me give a few examples; 

Infosys' founding team, even after 10 years of operations, might not have thought they would emerge as one of the largest IT companies in India. But they did. 

Mahatma Gandhi, would have never thought that he would be leading India's Freedom Struggle, when he started fighting Britishers in South Africa. 

The point is the calling due to passion sets the direction of your life's journey. Our own strengths, weaknesses, dynamic changes in realities (fate?!) determine what we become. 

So the greatest success is NOT assured when you follow your passion; however, the RELATIVELY BETTER SUCCESS, JOY and HAPPINESS are assured. 

Takeaways from Inception, the Movie

Long wait for Christopher Nolan's movie ended. Inception opened to great critical acclaim and also great box office collections.

Ever since, Memento, Christopher Nolan has maintained his edge. Let me admit, though I have watched all his movies after Memento, except Insomnia. I just went through the synopsis of Insomnia, that too seems to be a great psycho thriller! He has been a great entertainer for both the intelligent and the masses.

Inception is a brilliantly made movie revolving around a path breaking intelligent idea. A crime committed at subconscious level in the mind by clever exploitation by a smart gang. No sooner than the release of the movie, there were comments using the lingo in the movie. That's a sign of the movie or franchise which is going to stay. In terms of potential success, as rightly put in publicity, 'Bond meets Matrix',- This tag was basically to draw masses to the movie, the franchise is intended to hit the combined jackpot of Bond and Matrix franchises.

Are there any  takeaways for business leaders?

Let's look at what Nolan must have had in mind while conceiving and executing the movie. He had smartly realized the following aspects to make a movie with great business potential.

1) Create a Great Maze As Cobb asks the apprentice to create a maze in a minute, which needs minimum 2 minutes to solve it! ...or something to that effect.

In all his movies, Nolan has created mazes (mind benders), which need much more time than the movie duration. The longer the maze takes to solve, the people will watch and re-watch the movie! Thus, you get repeat crowd. Already, many people have watched the movie repeatedly to find out exactly, what is happening!

He shot into fame from his first movie, Memento. It was so great, got remade into Ghazni in Tamil and re-remade into Hindi and raked in big money in all the versions!

In business context, develop offers as simple solutions to solve complex  problems for the market . More complex the problem and simpler the solution, the chances of success is higher. Eg.: Google search engine, Apple Devices, apps,....

2) To Succeed Spectacularly, Create Great Visuals (It has the effect of sedatives in the movie): Inception, Batman Begins and Dark Knight have great visuals. Well, that needs lot of money too! Batman franchise could easily support it through sets and/or effects, for  relatively less money, v/s real locations. Thus Nolan  uses Cobb to say some psycho mumbo-jumbo (Psychology enthusiasts, please forgive me for this!) to tell his apprentice not to use the real locations. The CG effects in the movie can be passed to the audience convincingly!

In business context, the offering has to be engaging. I hope the example of  iPhone, Pixar movies will fill the other details. Please note that this gyan does not disregard all other business management fundas. Wise business leaders will leverage all the knowledge and new insights to strategize and execute in flawless fashion to deliver results.

3) Ensure Initial Draw: Initial draw is ensured by star power; in this case,  by Leonardo Dicaprio (one of the Hollywood top stars) and Michael Caine (All time favorite). Batman franchise could provide the initial draw for Batman Begins and Dark Knight. By now, Nolan himself can draw crowds to the movie hall. This is a great combination for starting completely new franchise.

Relatively, Memento drew people through word of mouth. So was the case of Paranormal Activity,  which became a success when released second time (by Steven Spielberg).

In business context, Google, Apple (ie. Steve Jobs),... can draw huge initial draws. Lesser mortals like us have to build ground up as Nolan did. Remember Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, were virtually 'nobodies' (Well, once upon a time!).

4) Continuously Engage, Emotionally: In addition to all the above, the movie engages emotionally. The audience empathizes and sympathizes with Cobb through out for the loss in his family and craves to see his children's faces! In my view, the emotional engagement was slightly less in Nolan's The Prestige. But, that is a subjective call.

In Business context, the business leaders need to continuously engage the market emotionally.and utility-wise too. Eg.: MS Windows at V7 and V8 is being developed!

I think emotional engagement can be termed as charisma of business leaders. The leaders, whether in business or otherwise.

In terms of utility, the business leaders have to keep on coming with offers to provide better productivity and efficiency v/s other products in the market.

These are  some of the takeaways, I could guess. While trying to solve the spectacular maze of success in real business life; I am sure it's not so easy. More so, when executing the takeaways. Because the challenge lies in achieving all the above and still do it profitably so as to sustain and grow. Otherwise, we all would have got bored by now!

10 Challenges Before Today’s Business Leaders

Today, the business leaders face much bigger challenges than earlier. Additionally, the ground realities around are dynamically changing at faster rate than ever. The complexity is increasing exponentially. In such a scenario, to build sustainable high performance business the leaders need to prioritize, selectively . Thankfully, the management gurus have come up with some ‘must do’s to help the business leaders to focus on few priorities.

So, today's business leader needs to play the most of the following roles to lead sustainable high performance organizations.

1. Focused Strategist: Today’s business leader needs to be focused strategist. S/he has to handle all strategic issues related to the organization.

S/he needs to arrive at distinct value proposition for the company. S/he should ensure that her/his company can offer different value for clients in the sea of me too products/services. Such a value proposition needs to be proactive and effective response to the dynamic ground realities outside the organization. At the same time, s/he needs to develop this response based on the strength of the organization while leveraging the relative weakness of competition. S/he needs to communicate the strategy passionately internally so that the Strategic intent is well understood and implemented by employees. The strategy need to be formulated in such a way that the core competency of the organization gets strengthened further.

The leader needs to continuously keep track of the changes in the business environment, both immediate and distant. S/he needs to refine the strategy continuously to leverage the best for the organization.

2. Excellent Execution Practitioner: The challenge before the leader does not stop at formulation of strategy. In fact, the strategy is the beginning! Today's business leaders are tested for their execution capabilities.

The business leaders need to exceed expectations of their stakeholder while executing the brilliantly conceived strategy. The strategy needs to be executed in the harsh, ever changing battle grounds. This can be achieved only by empowering the front-line troop fighting the battle in harsh battlegrounds of the market. The dynamics of today's market are changing faster than ever. Additionally, the competitors and substituters are smartly leveraging their strengths to gain grounds. The execution needs to be proactively responsive to the changes around. This can be achieved only when the people in the organization are empowered to execute in excellent manner, rather than awaiting orders from top.

Today, the operational efficiency is the order of the day. It does not mean that the effectiveness can be given a miss. The operational efficiency and effectiveness need to go hand in hand to deliver the results. Only then, the execution of the brilliant strategy can be called as excellent execution. The stakeholders expect excellent execution from their business leaders today.

3. Builder of Enduring and Inspiring Culture: The leader needs to inspire his people to achieve the results to exceed the expectations of the stakeholders. We come across large number of managers working on the shortcut of conspiring to deliver the results. Such managers may meet short term gains, but end up affecting the culture of the organization in highly negative manner. Special care needs to be taken to weed out such managers.

The leader needs to reward the performance. Additionally, the performance measurement should be defined in such a way that the organization's high performance culture is not compromised.

The leader has the task of building an environment, which is highly challenging. The challenges should be such that the people taking such challenges should go through the 'peak experience' as noted by Maslow. The efforts should be to move towards 'plateau experience'. Thus, the leader needs to build 'exhilarating yet exhausting' environment for his people to lead them to self actualization.

The commitment to the values can not be underestimated. The values espoused by the organization need to be adhered to, at every step. The challenging times may put a great strain on the organization's values. This is the time the True Leaders are differentiated from the imitators.

4. Fat Trimmer: Today's business leader needs to look out for all kind of wastage and cut them to the least. He needs to identify and address any redundancies within the organization and the value chain. The challenge of cutting the fat does not end there. This has to be supported by bringing out synergy of various elements within the organization to boost the value delivery by the organization. Additionally, the business leader needs to put the best people in the 'Value Zone', wherein the real value is added for the organization.

5. Nurturer of Talent: Today's business leader needs to identify, tap and grow talent within the organization. He has to get the best talent to match the present and future requirements from the market too. If it comes to it, the leader needs to fight for the right talent to snatch away from the competition.

As emphasized in the paragraph about building inspiring culture, today's business leader needs to put her/his talented people to stretch themselves to reach the next level of performance.

Nurturing of talent should be supported by generous dose of Management Development Programs, OD exercises and trainings to prepare them for larger challenges as they come by. The efforts should be on to promote internal talent.

6. Developer of Leadership Pipeline: Today's business leader's responsibility does not end at nurturing the talent; s/he also needs to develop the leadership pipeline within the organization. The leadership in the organization should be people oriented. The leaders and budding leaders need to connect well with the people at all levels, as far as possible. The leaders in the pipeline should be capable of proactively identifying the opportunities and challenges ahead for the organization. There is a need for converting the challenges into opportunities for the organization. These traits need to be ingrained in the leadership and the potential leaders in the organization.

For the people in leadership position within the organization, large part of their pay should be based on the performance. Some of the organizations need to ensure that the directors have larger financial stake in the organization. Thus, their financial fortunes will be dependent on the organization's performance.

7. Innovation Incubator: Today's business leader needs to work as innovation incubator within the organization. The thrust should be always on bringing ground breaking technologies to the market. It may not be possible always to be the first to bring groundbreaking technology; in such a case, the organization should pursue aggressive follower position. At the end, the leader should strive to deliver the benefits of the innovations to the market at the earliest.

While innovating, for many organizations, there is always a question of whether they need to cannibalize the existing cash cows. In the present day environment, any delay may prove disastrous; somebody else may come out with the innovation and steal the thunder. A fine tuned execution in such situations may yield great results, yet milking the cash cows. A word of caution, innovation for the sake of innovation may actually turn out to be undoing of the organization. The challenge before the leader is to leverage both old and new technologies to achieve the strategic objectives of the organization.

8. Dealer wheeler: Today's business leader also has to be on the prowl always for the inorganic growth opportunities through mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic partnerships. Inorganic growth opportunities need to be pursued in such a way that the service to the existing clientele of both the players get better offerings from such arrangement. Joining hands with complementers enhances the value addition, largely. In all these efforts, there should be always efforts to leverage synergies for the benefit of the market.

9. Astute Decision Maker: Today’s business leader needs to be an astute decision maker. He needs to be a great judge of people and strategy. Her/his judgment capabilities are tested in the crisis time for the organization. The decision making is science and art. The leader needs to practice his decision making skills continuously to enhance his judgment capability. Great business leaders ensure that the decisions get continuously refined right from the conceptual stage till the end of the execution. They are never afraid of admitting mistakes at any point. Additionally, they go great length to proactively correct the course of action. So, today’s business leader needs to be astute decision maker. At the same time, s/he needs to have the humility to accept the responsibility for the mistakes and correct them.

10. Driver of Continuous Improvement: Leadership, whether in business or elsewhere, is not an entitlement. Leadership is a big responsibility. Many imitators may think otherwise. Every leader has to keep on investing on improving himself. S/he needs to question her/his contribution always and needs to improve.

The above list may seem to be a tough act to follow. Looking at the challenges, one is tempted to say that today’s business leader needs to juggle many balls in the air. The leader’s role is tougher than that; he also needs to walk on tight rope of public glare while juggling these balls. According to ‘What Really Works’, the leaders need to handle all the first four challenges and any 2 of the next 4 challenges. The last two challenges need to be handled as part of the leader’s responsibility.

After looking at the challenges, today’s successful business leaders of consistently high performing organizations seem to be super heroes. Probably, the trick lies in being really good at what they do the best and delegate well so as to focus on priorities.

Acknowledgments: 

Mr. Nitin Nohria (current Dean of Harvard Business School), and coauthors of the book ‘What Really Matters’ conducted Evergreen research to identify the practices contributing to sustainable high performance in organizations. They identified 4 primary ‘must’ practices and any 2 of 4 secondary practices contributing to the sustainable high performance in organizations. 

Mr. Noel M Tichy and Mr. Warren Bennis have identified the process of taking judgment calls in their book ‘Judgment’. 

Many other books, especially, 'Employees First; Customers Second’ by Mr. Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies and the management literature by Global Management Guru, Mr. Ram Charan, have helped identifying the high priority challenges before today’s business leaders.

PS: Yes, There are 9 balls in the figure above to show the challenges. The 10th challenge, Continuous Improvement, is represented by continuous juggling of the balls! BTW, the direction of the juggling of balls can be in any direction; as far as the balls are juggling in air ;)