Khuram Malik

Things i find in my travels and other musings

The Anti-Swiss Army Knife - Part II

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Since my last post on my thoughts about great product development, I've realised that my argument was flawed and the title of my post was mis-leading.
My main argument was that, the key to creating a great product is focus, and that, focus comes from taking an anti-Swiss army knife type of approach. This was a poor observation in hindsight.

Some of it was to do with my partially vain attempt to popularise a new term. I was taking the Seth Godin approach (not the vain bit) on inventing new terms to describe an idea. Some of it was to do with giving the thoughts and ideas more time to crystallise.

Since receiving feedback through the comments and some conversations on twitter, I now realise what I should have said; so here are my corrected ideas and thoughts below.

While my stance remains on the fact that the key to a great product is focus, what I should have said is, that the key to this focus is the goal of the product. i.e the definition of the problem.

I think it's the art of doing a great job of defining the problem that really matters in creating a great product. Going back to the examples from my last post of the butter knife and the Swiss Army Knife, thinking about what the inventor might have said to him or herself when creating the butter knife. I don't think they would have remarked to themselves and said "I need to create a butter knife" , but they probably thought "I need a solution that helps me spread butter, that is simple, easy and convenient". 

Again, with the Swiss Army Knife inventor(s) I don't think they would have said to themselves "We need to create a Swiss Army Knife" (mind you, i'm not great on my Swiss history), but probably thought to themselves "We need a portable tool-kit, that's compact and lightweight as well as versatile and convenient, and that's suitable for the odd job that doesn't require serious tools".

Once the problem is defined exceptionally well, it easy to see which features should be considered and which should be discarded. When you define the problem of the Swiss Army Knife as I have as above, it's pretty clear to see, that adding a set of, detachable cuff-links feature, on a Swiss Army Knife, just doesn't make sense, even though you probably do carry them in your luggage in the same space as the army knife. Again, I don't mean to be patronising with the way I am elaborating this.

This is also why I think Apple has found much success with the iPad, even though there had been attempts on creating tablet like devices from great giants like HP and Microsoft before.

Apple defined the problem. To my mind, they clearly thought long and hard about it, and really tried to understand what it is that people really want or need.

'Do they want a portable PC, or do they want something that has some capabilities of a PC in that, it allows them to remain connected to the 'net, to do simple, everyday tasks like, checking email and browsing the web in a manner that is quick and convenient?'

When you define the problem closely to the way it is defined above, it's easy to see how they came up with something like the iPad, rather than something like a Tablet PC. I imagine, when Microsoft and other giants like HP were going through the product development stages of their Tablet devices, they probably defined the problem as "people want a tablet PC" or, "people want a PC that's portable and lightweight". Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Many of us have portable PCs already, they're called Laptops.

People wanted a device that was quick and convenient, and by quick, I don't mean something that has copious amounts of processor power and RAM, but something that is quick in terms of convenience. Who want's to wait almost a minute for their Tablet PC to boot Windows XP or Windows 7, when they just want to quickly reply to a Tweet on Twitter, or a post on Facebook?

I think that if giants like HP and Microsoft had defined the problem in the way that Apple did, they would have come up with something just like the iPad over 5 years ago, because let's face it, we had the technology for them to pull something like that off, even then.

Jobs describes the iPad as a Post-PC device. Most of the target audience already has a PC in their home. They don't need another PC in their hands. Just a basic portable toolkit. If you think about it, it's a bit like a Swiss Army Knife for computing tools - This is why I said there was a flaw in my argument, because if you've done a good job of defining the problem, and the solution merits a swiss-army knife approach, then that is exactly what you should do.

Anyway, these are just my personal thoughts (above), and a lot of this came from observing Jobs' train of thought in action at the iPod launch. This has also been a great wake-up call for me regards Critical Thinking skills. Don't just accept everything you read on the web as a foregone conclusion.

Photo Credit: AtomicShed

The Anti-Swiss Army Knife

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I've been trying to get my head around product development lately. I've been thinking about the idea of a 'product that delivers on its promise', and how that's become far more important in marketing than ever before. So I wanted to learn about, what it is that truly makes a good product. 

Seth Godin says that a product should be remarkable, that people should want to remark on it, and share the story with others. While I understand the premise (I haven't gotten round to reading 'Purple Cow' just yet, in which he elaborates on this idea), it didn't help me to understand how one goes about creating a product that actually invites such a response from the consumer.

I asked the question on Quora about a week ago, but didn't get any responses. That's either because my question was worded poorly, or few people know the answer. I don't honestly know which of those cases is true.

I also watched Steve Jobs' informal chat at the Apple WWDC 1997 to see if I could get any more clues, and certainly it did get me thinking. And then I came across the Swiss Army Knife on the cover of Lukas Mathis' new book on usability design which inspired me to finally form a possible conclusion.

So here it is, and feel free to disagree with me, or share with me your thoughts. I apologise in advance, if you consider this very obvious information, but it hasn't been so obvious to me.
Steve Jobs said in the video, that the key to focus is about saying no to customers. That tells me, that the key to a great product is focus.

So how does one focus when it comes to creating a product? I guess it's about taking the Anti-Swiss Army Knife approach. We'd take a Swiss Army Knife when we're out camping, but you wouldn't use it to spread butter on your toast day in, day out, right? Even though, you feasibly could, there is a specific product category out there that has been designed to solve this particular problem that does it much better. There are plenty of butter knives out there, long ones, short ones, steel ones, maybe even gold ones. They all have their individual characteristics, but they focus on one thing. Helping you to spread butter.

It seems to me that the reason Apple has succeeded so well of late is that, even though the problems have been complex, they have focused long, and focused hard on a solving one key problem at a time. This is probably also the reason the products have been worth remarking on, since everyone wants to share the story of how their life has become easier or better as a result.

So I guess the next question is, figuring out which problem needs resolving and doing a grand job of defining it? - I'm still thinking about that

Photo Credit: AJ CANN

What fasting taught me about energy management

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Year after year, scores of muslims around the world participate in what is known as the holy month of Ramadhan.
This is a process whereby each person fasts between the hours of sunrise and sunset. No food and no water. Zilch.

I've never had a problem with the fasting in itself, but one thing that has always affected me is my productivity levels during the day.
This year, I was especially worried since sunrise was starting around 4am, and sunset was around 8.30pm (GMT,UK).
That means, no food between the hours of 3.30am up until 8.30pm the same day.
Being productive all day while fasting is no easy task.

On the one hand, one could assume that one would be more productive, as there is less (during the day) time spent preparing food, eating food, making and drinking tea etc.
So in terms of time available for work, fasting gives access to more, during working hours.
But in terms of energy, that gets severely compromised due to lack energy from a food source nearer to the end of the day.

Now i'm a disciple of the Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz school of thought. That, Energy is the key to productivity, and not time.
[See the book (not an associate link) - The power of full engagement]

 So before Ramadhan began I worked out for myself a simple energy management plan. As part of the fasting ritual, I had to be up at 3.30am and fill myself with some food before sunrise.

I had to be at work at any time between 7 and 9 am, and could finish anytime between 4 and 6, and then I would break fast around 8.30pm.

Managing sleep was also going to be a problem as I cant handle any type of phased sleep patterns at all. It's a simple 8 hours stretch per night that works for me. Anything other than that, and it always lands me in trouble.
So that was another concern regards managing energy.

So, as part of the plan, in the first week, I decided I would do the following.

  • Be in bed by 10.30pm the night before.
  • Wake-up at 3.30am and be done eating by 4am (incl preparing food)
  • Go back to bed at 4.45am
  • Get up again at 8.30am and aim to be at work for 9am.
These (above) were the timings, but in between I also incorporated what Tony Schwartz calls 'rituals' to foster renewal of energy.

  • Before going to bed at night, I would spend 3 or 4 minutes doing simple breathing exercises. Inhaling for 3 seconds, exhaling for 6.
  • Before starting my meal in the morning, taking a quick bath with water at below room temperature but not freezing (it was summer, so cold water wasn't an issue) to 'wake me up'
  • In the morning, just after my meal, I would spend around 30-40 minutes listening to some relaxing audio (usually an audio-book on history or similar)
  • Then, again, 3-4 minutes of breathing exercises before jumping back into bed to catch some sleep before going to work
  • 30 to 60 minutes on the xbox in what would ordinarily be my lunch break

Additionally, I made the following conscious choices regards my dietary intake

  • A minimal amount of coffee throughout the whole month
  • Plenty of water when breaking fast at night
  • A meal filled with carbs and fibre in the mornings
  • A light meal at night (not too much protein or carbs)
My first few days were the most difficult. I think I had a very real sense of panic as to whether a) this strategy was actually a sound strategy, and b) If I could in fact pull it off.

Thankfully, it worked out much better than I expected on both accounts, for the most part. The only real problem I had was getting up for the second time in the morning to get ready for work. The high load of carbs in my system gave me a dizzying effect in the mornings, and it would take up to an hour for that to go away when starting work.

I monitored other people that were fasting during that month too, and I found that my energy levels were far better than theirs.
My business partner would often have much more energy than I in the morning, but his levels would start to drop off very quickly after 5pm and then he would almost completely crash by the time we got round to breaking fast in the evenings. I saw that with many others too.

I, on the other hand had much steadier levels through out the day, more like a flat, slightly declining line on a graph, and an inverted steep curve for everyone else .

It was a bit like the tortoise and the hare comparison.

Overall, I think it was probably my most productive month, since I was so readily focused on my energy levels, I did as much as I can to manage them.

After Ramadhan finished, I (wrongly) assumed that my productivity levels would increase even more, since I would have more energy available more readily from food sources, but I actually found this not to be the case in practise.

I had been struggling for the last couple of months to maintain similar energy levels to help me with my productivity.
To be fair, I dropped some of my renewal rituals too. Maybe because I thought they were not necessary, or maybe I was just complacent. I don't know.

Some of the rituals, I just couldn't re-incorporate. For example, the cold water baths were getting harder and harder since we're now fast approaching winter here in the UK. I also wasnt going to be eating at 3am.

So, in the end, I tried a number of things, only to discover that the two rituals that have helped me get back on course are the breathing exercises, and listening to something relaxing when getting into bed before going to sleep.

As it turns out, what I have learned is that it's the quality of sleep and not the quantity of sleep that has the greatest effect on your renewal, which in turns helps in terms of energy.

Quality of sleep comes from being in a relaxed state of mind before drifting in to sleep. Incidentally, I have found that being excited before going to sleep, is just as bad as being stressed. Either way, if your mind is busy and pre-occupied, you are not going to catch good quality sleep. So even on days that i'm excited to be at work the next day, or looking forward to an event, I'm now taking the time to 'switch my mind off' to get quality sleep.

Turns out that during Ramadhan, the greatest contributing factor to my great levels of energy were in fact quality of sleep.

picture by Vramak

I really wanted to like WP7

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I'm not someone that ever gets taken with media hype, so when the first iPhone came out it wasn't even a blip on my radar.

However, when the 3G version was announced at the Apple keynote speech that year. I was intrigued by Apple's offering.
Incidentally, this was the first keynote speech by Apple I had ever seen. To be honest, I was oblivious to the company as a whole. Just goes to show.

When the iPhone 3G launched in the UK, I decided to go have a quick play with a demonstration model in one of our local stores.
Due to the keynote speech, and my interest in the information presented on the Apple website, I was familiar with what the device was capable of, so it was just a matter of 'seeing it in the flesh' as it were, to see if it lived up to the hype.

That device had me convinced within 30 seconds that it was everything Apple was claiming it to be.
What appealed to me the most, was the UI. It was more intuitive and amazingly responsive compared to anything else I had ever seen or used as a mobile device.
I just had to have one. 

Overall, I've been very happy with my purchase. I do have some complaints. I hate the fact, that I have to spend £50 to buy a TV-Out cable, when the one I bought on eBay for £4 was working just fine until I upgraded to iOS 3.0. There are other nuisances too, but I digress.

Since the release of iOS 4.0 i've been increasingly frustrated by my iPhone 3G. It's lost the essence of why I fell in love with it in the first place.
Its nowhere near as snappy, it's much slower in operation than it used to be and the camera app is still no faster.

'iPhone, I'm just not attracted to you anymore. Maybe we should see other people.'

When the Windows Phone 7 was announced, I was genuinely very excited about its launch and eagerly looked forward to it.
I know this is Microsoft we are talking about here. The company that delivered the abomination that was Vista, and fostered the manufacture of a number of smartphones that would lose all their data completely when the battery died.

The same company, however, also brought us the XBOX 360, XBOX Live, Forza 2 (and 3!), Office 2007 and Microsoft Exchange and ISA Server. All truly exemplary products in my humble opinion.

So with Microsoft, anything is possible
I've been holding off my upgrade (that is long overdue) on my iPhone 3G as I was waiting for the Windows Phone 7. An upgrade to the iPhone 4 would have been pretty easy in retrospect.

A demonstration model for the HTC HD7 arrived in our local retail store earlier this week. Again, with this device also, I've been following the developments of WP7 overall. So I knew the technical specifications and capabilities already. In the blogosphere, many have been reporting that the interface is 'snappier and more intuitive than anything they've used before'. I thought they were interesting statements, since I never once looked at the manual for my iPhone (except out of curiosity but not to learn anything new) and I didn't think anyone could really improve on such a smooth and slick interface, that was quite the work of art.

So I had to go see this device for myself 'in the flesh'. My good friend Joel and I had a quick 30 second play with the htc hd7. As far as i'm concerned, 30 seconds is all it should take to convince you if this device is worth your hard earned money or not.

I have to say. I wasn't convinced. A few times, I had to tap my finger more than once to get a response from the OS. I also found it difficult to understand where I should be placing my finger for some of the menu options. Navigation was intuitive, but could be much better. I still had to 'think' about what to press or where to go next.

I don't want to 'think' when I'm using a mobile device. I don't think anyone does. (no pun intended)

Its hard to say exactly what it was that put me off, but suffice to say, the device didn't flow anywhere near as well as the iPhone OS does, and overall if I was to choose a closing statement, i think this would be it.

I did like the transitions however. They were a welcome and refreshing change, but for day in day out use, they could get rather tiresome.

However,I'm not ruling out WP7 completely just yet. I've seen many people tweet about their Samsung Omnia purchase. 
Unfortunately, none of our local retail stores had one for me to try. 

The thing is; It's entirely possible that the 'lack of flow' was down to a poor implementation from HTC, and maybe the Samsung runs better.
That could make all the difference in the world.

So I'm going to wait until I get to play with a Samsung, otherwise its iPhone 4 county!

Stay tuned.

I just met the dumbest salesperson ever

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I just met the dumbest salesperson ever, and the irony is that an occurrence like this is probably not as rare as I'd like to think.

I won't name and shame the person or the company. I do believe that what goes around, comes around, but still...

While looking for a cheap VOIP provider that may be able to offer me calls to mobiles as part of the inclusive minutes each month, I joined the 'Live Chat' on a VOIP Provider's company website.
I realise looking for a service like this, is a tall order but if you don't ask you don't get.

The sales advisor asked what I was looking for, even though I had filled the pre-sales chat registration form in (asking your prospective client to repeat themselves is really not clever at all), I asked, if they provided a service such as the one I was looking for, and he sarcastically replied that they don't offer such a service, but if "you find such a service, let me know".

I took it at face-value and didn't think much of it. It was the second response that really irked me. I mentioned that there i'm sure someone probably does do such a service and that I was just struggling to find a provider.

"Hold on, we do have such a service, it will cost you £444455588899999 per month. How many bundles would you like to buy?".

That's just the dumbest response I ever seen.
Many will say, he was probably just joking. And i'm sure he probably was joking, but in an economy like today we need every customer that we can get, and making risque moves like this is, for want of a better word, is just plain dumb.

It reminds me of a video clip I saw on YouTube called 'The Boss' by Earl Nightingale. It's well worth watching. This is sage advice from many moons ago and if businesses were to take this more seriously, maybe the so called economic downturn would be a little more palatable. 

Part I

Part II

photo by: 
Spencer Finnley

yes Master, I am your humble servant

Servant

I've been putting off doing one task in particular for the last few days. All in all it's a task that i felt would take me around 3 to 4 hours spread over at least two days, but today I got it done in about 50 minutes.


Basically, the task was that I had to prepare some evidence to mail into the courts for a counter-claim that we are making, but the kicker here is; I'm someone that can't work with detail. I find it impossibly hard. I can't scrutinise numbers, hate cross referencing things and almost always overlook minor details.
I studied software engineering at University, and this is exactly why i never took it up as an actual vocation, post graduation; lack of ability to pay attention to granular detail. Lesson learned

I had to substantiate our claim to the court as to why I am making the claim for the amount that I am. This meant looking at revenue numbers, analysing them and then presenting them. Ugh! Not my cup of tea at all.

So how did I get the job done so quickly? Well, yesterday I agreed with someone that they would give me 60 minutes of their time today to help me. This someone is far happier working with details (especially numbers) than I am. At 3.30 today, he came online on Skype, got the "facts" in terms of numbers together for me in less than 30 minutes, and thereafter, I proceeded to get the rest of the job done. I was all of a sudden inspired, since someone else did the part of the job that I was dreading.

This someone was actually my business partner to whom I am grateful for the idea (although we did take some notes from the idea of paired programming/coaching). This was our first trial of 'paired working' in our company. Each person in the company is now going to get a 60 minute slot twice a week where they can request the assistance of another employee to help them get their work done. We've geared it in such a way that everyone gets at least 2 slots a week, so i'll be giving 60 minutes to my business partner tomorrow.

The rules are....well, there aren't really any rules. The idea is, the person helping can be asked to do whatever it takes to help get the job done. I even offered my business partner that at the time I am giving him my 60 minutes, if the thing that will help him is, me, making him a cup of tea, and picking up his kids from school (not that he's taking up that particular offer) then so be it.

I'm also making the same offer to my employee. Whatever it takes to get the job done. All in all, the company doesn't lose any actual time, since minutes given to someone else, are earned back when its your turn to receive assistance. Everyone gives and receives an equal amount (in terms of time) of help. 

What the company gains, however, is far more. 

Staff that get a guaranteed morale and productivity boost at least a dedicated number of times a week.

Cant argue with that! and I honestly believe that the actual productivity boost amounts to much greater than the 60 minute period. The effects are higher yielding than it would seem on paper.

Of course, everyone has to let go of their pride, but since when is that a real negative.

What do ya think?

Next step, I'm working on GTD'fying our company. Will blog on it more when its in action, and i'm also taking notes from Facebook, Socialcast and Twitter on leveraging ideas from social networking to solve the problems of internal communication. I'm trying to solve both problems in an interesting way.

Watch this space!

What Parenting has taught me about Entrepreneurship

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In the last two days I've focused ten folds more on my business and I know what it requires and I have been able to perform as I have always wanted to for my business. I think business has a lot to learn from parenting. We often create a business and forget that it is no different to a new born child. 

(Two days earlier...)

You wait so long for the expected and unexpected you simply don't know when the call will come and the world will stop revolving (at least for you). 

Seriously that is what happens on the day of a new arrival. You leave your work where it is, you forget your lunch and don't care if you had a million calls to make and bills to pay. Something extraordinary just happens, you get your act together, you know the quickest route to your destination, you've worked out the entire if's, but’s and what-if's. You reach the scene and you know what to do. There is no room for errors, there is no second chance. Everything has to work first time for the new arrival. From providing comfort for the newborn to medicine, from temperature setting to handling, everything is perfected. You know you can't do much these days as it is the doctors, nurses and unnamed (and unseen) staff that do most of the work. Nevertheless there is a great burden on your shoulders, you know that you have to be alert for any arising “situation”. You know your body and mind is going to perform to its max. Why is this?

For me the best parenting example I've witnessed is that of the "Emperor penguins" in the documentary called "March of the penguins" (You might still be able to find it on BBC iPlayer). Somehow I feel just like a penguin right now, I know what to do and how critical everyone of my decisions and actions are, no matter how seemingly trivial. Is it because it is now relevant to another life or is it because there is a sixth sense that is guiding me(?)

(Back to today….)

When I started my business in a joint partnership, I guess i didn't give it the kind of baby treatment it needed. Just imagine, a new born not looked after, what kind of life he/she would have. It is the very early stages that really help us towards a healthy start, yet many of us don't treat our business with the same due care and attention.

When the child is born there are people in the hospital who know what their role is and start executing their role ASAP. This is not the case for any new business these days. Just because a new business was started there are no automatic helpers in place, there is no one who has worked out all the odds, planned for eventualities and considered all the options. It always seems to be about finding the fastest way to get to "doing what you love". Yet isn't this the key reason why most businesses fail? Because they don't care of the 'baby', the founders are more interested getting what they want from their business?

No wonder new start-ups die so quickly. I never thought that the birth of a child could teach me so much about my business. Looking back it now makes so much sense. 

A new born child doesn’t just do well on his own. There is a lot owed to people around him. Could a child survive on his/her own? The answer is so simple, yet when a business is started we forget how much care it really needs how desperately it is dependent on its founders.

Moving on from the most obvious I want to talk about another great lesson I've learned. When the child is born the emphasis is most on its health and functioning of various organs. Some would say that motherly love is the most important for a new born. Might be so?

I feel in the first few weeks the most important need of the baby is the functioning of all the organs. From heart to lungs, kidneys and brain, everything must work in perfect harmony to sustain life. Yet when we create a business we leave vital things out, thinking that we will get to them some other time. This is not the case for a new born. The moment the birth has taken place the emphasis is on functioning of the organs. You will never here the attending doctor say, "Give the new born it's mother's love", No, No and No!

He checks if the new born needs any life support and if all organs are functioning correctly. Should the staff find something wrong, all wheels of medicine and a great system go in motion. Every second counts and everyone is clear about what they need to do. It's a well oiled, well organised system.

Oddly enough the National Health Service has much to teach (through the way it does baby care) the small business and new Start-Ups. Not long ago I read a book called E-Myth by Michael Gerber, who stresses the importance of "Systems". This book created a major shift in my thinking pattern, and made me realise the importance of systematisation.

If you try these days to talk to a small business owner and tell them the importance of systems, you would get a strange look as if you just landed from Mars. Ok, before you nuke me for this, I'm not suggesting this is the case for all businesses. 

Going back to my point about parenting and entrepreneurship, the systems are visible both outside and inside for the new born. Although I can’t say this with complete certainty, I'm pretty sure that when a baby is born he's not looking for motherly love, but rather the life support he/she needs. This of course is the new eco-system the baby has just found himself in. I'm not suggesting in any way that a mother’s care is not necessasary, far from it. What I mean is that in the list of priorities for the new born, motherly love is not high up on the list (Maybe two months after the birth). Being able to breathe (functioning organs) is far more important.

Finally I want to talk about the role of father. I think "father" is a title that has to be earned. I don't think that the title "father" has anything to do with the biological relationship with another life, maybe in biological terms but not in ordinary terms. I think this is a title earned through the provision of ongoing due care. 

In business terms I think most people are quick to call themselves "Entrepreneur", not realising that this is a title that has to be earned. I absolutely hate when people call themselves entrepreneur and haven't got a clue about the basics of the responsibilities. Think of this, what is the responsibility of a father for a new born?

Let's see, he has to make provisions, he has to drive to places, he has to have money, and he has to have access to good doctors for the new born. Soon after he has to be a role model and be a provider when ever needed. Is this what today's entrepreneurs are for their new business in the first year?.Hmmm, not really. I don't call myself entrepreneur yet. I know what it means and I'm still long way from claiming this title. Please think about the importance of it, as one can be easily deluded.

Too often parents upon the birth of new child put him/her on a course that they either wished for themselves and/or had failed in achieving. You see yourself in the child and want them to act the way you would have wanted yourself to. The truth is, we forget that this is the birth of a new person, even though there is a biological link; we do not control the fate for the child or what the new child would want. In a new business often a person will reinforce their views onto the business and make it achieve what they couldn't. THIS IS DISASTEROUS, because the business is an entity on its own, it has its own needs and desires and it is the business that has to grow not the founder. Have you ever thought the idea of Limited company etc? What is that about? It is exactly this. It is an entity which is not YOU (The owner)

Make the business grow as an entity, ask yourself, what does the business need, just as you would ask a new born child, what does he/she want. So next time the baby is crying, concentrate on the baby’s face and see what he/she is trying to express to you rather than sticking a bottle of milk or mollycoddling him/her when he might just want you to take the blanket off. Watch your business, read it's facial expressions, "listen" (track and monitor data) when the business is operating to see where it really wants/needs/should head to.

I think I have understood what parenting business is. I think the businesses created for our own selfish reasons simply don't succeed because we forget that it is a “new born” and what nourishment and care it really needs. Businesses have their own identity just like a new born and have to be treated for their own wellbeing. The new born needs parenting and NHS staff and it’s systems ready to get them on the right track both physically and emotionally. Did your business get the right nourishment when it was born? Did it get it’s share of NHS systems? Did you have the doctors and nurses ready for it? If not what are you going to do to compensate as a parent? What have you done for your new born, i mean, business lately?


[This post was actually written by my business partner, the 'Delphi Dude'. It's one small part in a book he is compiling of his journey on the road to successful entrepreneurship; Rising like the Phoenix (My Feng Huang)]

Dear Starbucks, here's a wacky idea!

Starbucks

For the last 6 months, every Tuesday of the week, I have been spending an average of 3 to 5 hours (in one sitting) at my local Starbucks Cafe.


As I understand it, it is customer policy that customers can stay as long as they want, provided they buy at least one item on the menu (I assume). This also comes with free Wi-Fi if you have a Starbucks Membership card. 

Yet, every single week, without fail, I get the odd suspicion that employees are hinting to me to leave after i've crossed over a certain length of time, by cleaning up around me. And I don't mean, just clearing up the next table, but actually clearing up the chairs, moving them out of the way, mopping the floor and even closing certain sections off, leaving me and my business associate sat, as if on a remote island, away from the rest of the Starbucks goers.

It really does turn into a bit of a strange scene sometimes, and I'm quite certain that the employees have come to recognise my face, and possibly don't take to nicely to my long stays. I have come to expect this little ritual every single week since my third regular visit back in October.

My reason for being there every week is that I have an informal peer-to-peer coaching session. It's partly an excuse to get away from the office, while still working on the business, but partly to get someone else's perspective and thoughts on how i'm going on about my tasks. When we get together, my 'peer' and I, each week, go through a list of things that we achieved during the previous week, celebrate those achievements, and then discuss the challenges we face for the next week.

The idea is to gain a differing perspective on the problems one might be facing, and to 'brainstorm' ideas of how to overcome that challenge. 

If you've ever come across the paradigm of 'the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts' that's essentially what this meeting is built upon.

Last week we invited a third member to join, and he really liked the idea of coaching and being coached by one's peers. Its all good fun, especially since it doesn't cost anything and has an informal style (though not without some structure). I'm actually looking to take this group up to four people. It works wonders for helping you stay motivated, productive and building on the foundations of other people's knowledge.

Now, I have no idea if the "cleaning up" really is done as a hint, or if it's part of the actual daily work schedule. Maybe i'm just paranoid, but week in, week out it certainly feels that way. And week in, week out, I keep thinking to myself that Starbucks could capitalise on this opportunity very well, if only they sought to connect with their customers a little more.

There must be thousands of business people out there, that want a place to 'hang out' away from the office, to either discuss ideas, work together, coach each other, brainstorm, co-working and who knows what else. A business hub, if you will. But these things require much more than a quick 30 minutes at the local coffee shop. I don't understand why Starbucks hasn't recognised this.

I, for one would gladly pay (a small) fee each month, if I could be guaranteed a few seats for myself and my peers for each session, where we weren't made to feel like we should leave after 30 minutes. If Starbucks was open to something like this, it could probably create scope for other service additions that would appeal to business persons, which i'm quite certain they would be attracted to, and would happily pay for.

To be fair, it's not just Starbucks, any multi-national operation (Subways, Macdonalds) has the scope to pull this off, but I don't know why they aren't doing it. Maybe the economics are not attractive, maybe its not operationally viable or ...I'd like to say there isn't enough demand, but for every business person I meet, I can tell that there certainly is, especially as more and more of us are able to work away from the office provided we have Wi-Fi. 

Maybe I'm missing something(?)

Why I don't think Microsoft has 'lost it'

Over the last few years I've constantly heard people say the same few things about Microsoft.

Things like 'Microsoft is too big to innovate', 'Microsoft just copies someone else's great idea and then makes it available to the masses at a cheaper price', 'Microsoft has no new ideas of it's own'.
I do wonder if Apple and Google's more apparent and disruptive innovations have caused people to think like this (about Microsoft) because, my own personal observations seem to tell a rather different story.

I'll start with the xBox.
I'm not much of a gamer at all, but recently i've been playing a racing simulator on the xBox and last night I noticed something very smart. This racing simulator is called Forza Motorsport 3 which is made by Turn 10 studios, which in turn (no pun intended) is owned by Microsoft. Forza Motorsport was released a few months ago, and while I was quite impressed with the improvements in the game itself over the previous version I was quite annoyed with the limitations in the online playability (compared to the previous).
However, a few weeks into playing the game and Turn 10 studios updated the online playability features. A few weeks after that, they did it again, and then the same thing last night too. They introduced new ways of playing matches online, so not just racing against each other, but also like "Tag" (just like you used to play at school) and last night they introduced the "Last Man Standing" mode which is like a 'destruction derby type mode'. 

So now you have a game, that, although essentially is a racing simulator, can also offer you different motorsport experiences and really good ones at that too. They're not just some half-baked solutions.

But what's so smart about that? If you're a fan of Lean Startup methodologies championed by Eric Reis and Steve Blank, you'll know all too well this the best way of improving your start-up product offering i.e. to release a minimum viable product early to market, and then further iterate based on user feedback, as fast as possible.
Turn 10 did exactly seem to have done exactly that (and I am in fact guessing here). It would appear Turn 10 have been collecting usage data, and then providing online game modes based on their analysis of what the audience wants. Pretty smart if you ask me.

Compare that to the competition, which is Gran Turismo on the Playstation, whose development team has been working hard on the visuals over everything else, Microsoft has been working hard to give the audience what it wants. In the time that the competition has yet to release the next version of its best-seller, Microsoft has gone through 3 game releases already and kept its user base happy.

As far as I'm concerned, that is innovation. It's giving the customer what they perceive as real value.

The rest
And it's not like this on just its games, but I've seen Microsoft do this in a few areas. As far as I understand, the xBox is the first console to get 'in bed' with the two social media giants, Twitter and Facebook.

It's not even like this on just the xBox. I remember watching a video that was presented by the Project Lead for the Office 2007 development team. This project leader demonstrated (with examples) of how the (then) new Ribbon interface was in fact a result of hours and hours (thousands and thousands) of user collected data and analysis. They went through a number of iterations to find the right interface that would be the best blend of being easy to use, without compromising the feature set. It was a truly impressive and enlightening video, and I had no idea Microsoft was even capable of this.

(Remember, Microsoft is big enough to be able to do most metric collection and analytics with its own employees in-house).
There have also been innovations on other products. Take Microsoft Exchange for example. We use that in-house, and having worked with a number of mail servers over the years, I can honestly say that I am very happy with Microsoft Exchange 2007. The flexibility it affords us is actually very good. 
  • 64bit operation
  • Spam filtering
  • Business intelligence
  • Hub Transport rules
  • Powershell scripting
to name just a few of the things I like. To say Microsoft is behind the times is a little inconsistent in the case of Microsoft Exchange Server, considering Microsoft made it a 64bit only product.

and then..
Recently, I visited a client company that develop software for Internet Kiosks. They showed me a touch screen interface that was developed entirely using Silverlight/Windows Presentation Foundation. Now, i'm not a software developer, but for a company that has been using PHP and Flash for several years to jump ship to Microsoft Silverlight, to me, speaks volumes.

Dominance
I'm not a Microsoft fanboy (nor an Apple one) but I like to celebrate innovation and good business when I see it. I was really disappointed with Vista, Internet Explorer is awful, and their keynote speeches drive me crazy.

But all this just makes me think that maybe Microsoft is focusing it's energies on maintaining its leadership in areas where it knows it can remain dominant, rather than fighting hard in markets which have been heavily disrupted by others, such as Apple in the mobile space and Google in paid advertising.

Drucker on Apple

Drucker

Apologies for the poor picture quality. iPhone cameras are so rubbish (how ironic).

Drucker isn't actually talking about Apple here, but it made me think about Apple when reading this paragraph, especially in light of their new A4 Chip.

The text (If the picture is not clear enough) is as follows:

Again and again in business history, an unknown company has come from nowhere and in a few short years overtaken the established leaders without apparently even breathing hard. The explanation always given is superior strategy, superior technology, superior marketing, or lean manufacturing. But in every single case, the newcomer also enjoys a tremendous cost advantage, usually about 30 percent. The reason is always the same: the new company knows and manages the costs of the entire economic chain rather than its costs alone.

I could be wrong in my observation, so feel free to correct me.