Quarter 9 - Week 5

Half the quarter's over, the pace is getting quicker, and the subject matter deeper. Typically, if you haven't caught up with the class by now, you're too late. Unless you're a senior in the 2nd year like me, of course. Because you then no longer have to worry about the rat race. Even if you did extremely well, your grade isn't affected much. If you do poorly, ditto! You've already got your eye on the finish line, and you're just going towards it.

Consumer Behaviour

This week we discussed Diffusion of Innovation (essentially, new products). Now our prof doesn't give much of a damn to the 'Crossing the Chasm' funda. He's more interested in why the consumer would pick such a product. So we study about the types of innovation, and the amount of change required and seen from the user's point of view. The basic funda is that the product is not new or innovative unless the USER thinks it is. You might be doing a whole new cool technological advancement, but if the end user doesn't perceive a difference in the way the product is used... then you're not really selling a new consumer product. Maybe some behind-the-scenes chaps (the earlier product developers) might be interested in your advancement.

The second session allowed a couple of teams the chance to study this concept of 'diffusion of innovation' in TiVo. So while the guys come out and mention that this is what we found, and that is what we think it must do, and these are the underlying concepts that we noticed... it slowly became apparent that the problem with TiVo wasn't the coolness, newness or technology of it. It was to do more with the fact that the target segment hadn't been properly identified, and neither had the positioning. People weren't very clear about WHAT the product is. When people try and judge a new product, they need a frame of reference. If the frame of reference is vague, then people can't really benchmark a product to mention if they indeed think this is cooler than before. So, when you think the TiVo is a super-VCR, or that it is a Season-Pass based system, they're two different views (like the blind men and the elephant). When these two thoughts are described to end users at different points of time, they'll confuse the user. THAT's the problem, and that's one of the main reasons the diffusion didn't happen.

Strategic Leadership

This week, in our first session we studied about the emergence of iFlex. The history of it is pretty cool. As it turns out, it was initially CITIL, a part of Citibank handling their BFSI services. They had one product, which was a little old for its time, but yet they run around trying to sell it. Over time, they realize that a common financial product would be a hell of a lot more beneficial to the banking industry instead of the typical services being doled out. Add to that the fact that one of the driving forces realized that the services they had rendered for a customer ages ago for a pittance, was being sold for more than a hundred million dollars now! So, then the framework gets formed (in the mind of the professor).

If I haven't told you yet, the framework involves a triple-axes format with Ambition, Resources and Opportunities on the axes. These guys had heavy ambition, and they recruited people who thought the same way. And, obviously, while Ambition is not enough, they slowly went about scrounging through the resources and opps to keep at their main vision. They also made the hard choice of keeping the guys separate in Product and Services (well, they were not going to stop doing the second! It was getting the moolah!). So, now how do they position themselves? Product or Services? As it turns out, they call themselves domain experts. So irrespective of what the customer comes looking for, as long as it's related to banking, these guys are here. There's a lot more interesting information about how they went about getting the reputation and knowledge base that they did, but the critical part remained as to how they envisioned something that no one else was thinking of at that moment, and how that vision helped them with building the best financial product as of the time. And all this from India.

The second session was a guest lecture by the CEO/Co-founder at Tejas Networks. The interesting part is he speaks in the same language as us (Inflection point and all that...), probably because our professor's on his board! But his story again was very inspiring. He went on to detail how the market for telecom networks was in the 2000s, and how the Chinese players were investing heavily when the others weren't. Seeing an opportunity, these guys decided to get in as well... so when the whole world's cutting back on investments, these guys are going full-steam ahead, at 1/4 the cost. So he discusses the choices they made, and what they chose not to do, in order to become one of the biggest suppliers in the industry out here. As of now, they're in the top 10 set worldwide, which is a tremendous claim to fame for a company from India. Our class seems to have picked on the lessons within the framework, because they badger him with all sorts of questions related to how 'this aspect' or 'that aspect' must have been an issue, and how he faced it. He must have attended a similar private course by the prof, as he generously and amicably doled out all the info about how they faced problems of leadership, and definite strategy. It's always very inspiring and cool to hear these sort of talks, they tell you what you can definitely achieve!

Personal Interpersonal Effectiveness Workshop

This week's readings were from 'Feel the fear and do it anyway', and another few about meditation. The 'Feel the fear...' readings talk about how people have different fears, from small to big, ranging from 'I am afraid of swimming' to 'I am afraid of public speaking' to 'I am afraid of death' etc. What the article tries to say is that in order to get over your fears, it's important to understand one thing - that you have the capability to control the outcomes. As long as you understand that YOU can handle it, things will be all right. The moment you resign yourself to fate, because you probably have given up the sense of control, that's when things really get undone. So our class begins to discuss, from their experience, about how they've had certain issues with dealing with fear, and what they did to support themselves through it. While the discussions tend to go here and there, many of the thoughts had the same underlying worry - if I decide to just follow my heart, and do what I want, how do I support those who depend on me. It's always difficult to really answer that question, and I hope by the end of this quarter, we figure out how to make the decision.

The second set of readings had to do with meditation and happiness. The meditation articles were straightforward. They talk of how and what to do while meditating. The happiness article was a different take on how to achieve happiness. The author tries to say that happiness is a state of mind, and we've conditioned ourselves into thinking that happiness comes by fulfilling goals or meeting a certain objective. The author says that in order to gain happiness, we create some discomfort by setting such goals... and when we fulfill them, we feel at peace. It's like pinching yourself hard for a while, and then letting go. And then he sets a wonderful analogy -People are changing the way they view life, such that when they go fishing... they forget that it's not the fish they're after.

That's just powerful. It makes you look at things from a very different angle. So, if there's anything I'd like to leave with you for this week, it's that.... Why are you fishing?