Disrupt – Luke Williams

Content taken from the book: Disrupt – Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business
Author: Luke Williams

In chapter 2 Discovering a Disruptive Opportunity, this book introduces on the topic of contextual research. So in taking action, the book highlights on three main things, observations, insights, and opportunities. He states the importance of what each element involves.

In chapter 3, one part that left an impression was on p.82 when he quotes someone saying “We don’t need any more ideas; we have too many. We don’t have them written down or anything but we discuss them a lot.” The author highlights the fact that this is the problem in a nutshell that we talk about ideas in general terms but abstraction makes it harder to understand the idea and remember it.

Observations feed insights. Insights feed opportunities. Opportunities feed ideas.
When putting down descriptions use the template:

A ___ [label] that allows ___ [user] to ____[benefit] by ____[method].

Chapter 4, the aim is to explain to the reader that it is not enough just to come up with something disruptive but it has to be disruptive in ways that are valued by users. Practical solutions require actively involving end users to test and review. Listen and observe users reactions. Value in prototypes is more towards the interactions, conversations, arguments, collaborations they invite.

Looking at prototype, you are designing an experience. Ask yourself, “what kind of interactions do I want to create?” Create storyboards of step-by-step pictures of how people will accomplish specific tasks when interacting with your offering. Draw a separate picture for each action the consumer takes while experiencing the key aspects of your idea.

After this your create a mock-up of the overall structure of the product (inclusive of functionality, service and information components).

In chapter 5, Luke Williams talks about the 9 minute & 9 slide pitch being the most effective time frame and content in delivering one’s message. He also does a breakdown of what each slide should be about where he highlights the importance of the hook of building empathy (what are the changes) and tension (why) at the beginning but also providing high concept analogy to buy in understanding from the audience through juxtaposing two ideas from non related industries.

This is _____ (analogous example) for _______ (your category).
This is the Volvo XC70 for inkjet printers.

We’re doing for ______ (your category) what ______ (analogous example) did for ______ (alternative category).
We’re doing for sock what Nike did for running shoes.

The 9 slide layout format:
1) The Status Quo – state the problem in industry here
2) The Observations – focus on the consumers, what are the tension points, explains why this is an issue
3) The Story – creates empathy and how that’s frustrating the target customer
Slides 4-6 building tension
4) The Insight – say what they don’t know
5) The Turning Point / Opportunity
6) The Analogy – make it familiar
Slides 7-9 make the audience believe
7) The Solution – solution name, brief description, visual on how it works, key points of difference than what offered is different. Describe components, features and functionality
8 ) The Advantages – make changes appealing in order to persuade. Shift the focus from the need to motivate the change.

Look at who are the early adopters (graph is introduction, growth, maturity and decline). “Introduction stage – focus on early adopters to refine and tune the solution before going anywhere mainstream. You never start in the mainstream markets so don’t talk about targeting these people “revolutionary goals but evolutionary steps”.

Second look at key stakeholders (especially those you’ll need to implement the new system). Suppliers, partners and alliances. Need to show them advantages in adopting your idea and convince them the change is worthwhile.

9) The Ethos – leave them on a high, a mantra of some sorts.

I found this book a good read. I guess with all such books reading about it is not sufficient. You still have to get your hands dirty and throw yourself out there just to see if it works. Give it a go and would love to hear whether it works for you.

As Luke quotes Marc Andreesen, “If you believe human wants and needs are infinite, then there are infinite industries to be created, infinite businesses to be started, and infinite jobs to be done, and the only limiting factor is human imagination.” Sometimes it’s not only about focusing on the problems – things that don’t work and need fixing but there are other ways in looking at the process. It is a mindset of looking beyond, looking at things that have been consistently overlooked or underserved.

Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company

Written by: Robert Brunner, Stewart Emery and Russ Hall
Image taken from: http://www.dreamplusstudio.com/blog/wp-content/do_you_matter.jpg

I’ve always had something for business design books. I know they say don’t judge a book by its cover but the orange background with the bold contrast of the font was too intriguing for my eyes to not notice.

This book discusses on how it is possible for companies to adopt a design centric framework for their products and services (functions such as customer experience supply chain) giving many examples of successful and failed business ideas.

The authors have organised to answer the question of “what is it that people really want out of life?” and they propose that “People are seeking a great experience of being alive”. They highlight the importance in embracing the humanistic aspects into business and making the primary element that needs to be considered to take into consideration the human element. The change involves people “wanting things that are engaging, fun, personal. useful, productive and desirable. And emotionally rewarding.”

Using the word FLAVOR (Focus, Long term, Authentic, Vigilant, Original and Repeatable) as the mnemonic to identify core aspects to create a design for customer experience supply chain management, they highlight three key takeaways:

1) Design matters,
2) Design is a process, not an event, and
3) If it was easy, everybody would do it.

Going into design, all this involves significant cultural change and takes time.

Notes on “The Ten Laws of Enduring Success” Part 2

6. Adaptability

Old notions are to some extent in our blood. We can’t magically make them disappear. What we can do, though is open our minds and embrace change, even when it is slow in coming.

“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change” – Charles Darwin
The lesson of evolution is not just that change is necessary. The pace of change is also important. The organizations that ultimately succeed will be those that can develop the right formula over a period of years so they can effectively deliver content to a receptive audience.
Always look for ways to educate yourself about and engage in new technologies.

“Don’t fall in love with theories and fail to recognize that the winds are changing all around you” – Marty Lipton. Learning to let go even of one’s most treasured ideas, is fundamental to succeeding through crisis. It can be difficult to do especially if you’re a founder and the business is your “baby”. But survival requires it.
Nostalgia has a place. It’s fun, and it feels good. Just don’t get stuck there.

Know what you don’t know.
Never stop learning, no matter what industry you’re in. There is a commitment one needs to do in training.
“A thirst to learn is a key to success. You’ve got to want to get smarter every day. I am thirsty to learn. Everywhere I go I want to know what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, why they’re doing it. It’s the most exciting thing in the world. When you’re soaking up new information, you’re also reinventing yourself. You’re becoming more you.” – Jack Welch.

Don’t wait for a crisis to discover whether you have the ability to adapt. Life throws unexpected curves during the course of every day. If you work at handling the small stuff, you’ll be more likely to copy when you get hit with the big curves. Flexibility is required, and it’s something you can learn.

Find a hundred mentors. Different people bring different qualities to the table and assimilate the wisdom of different people. Look for them wherever you are – in or out of the office. Make a chart of the areas where you need information, references, training or other kinds of support. As you meet new people, fill in the chart.

Everyone’s ideas have value, and that sharing, compromising and adapting strengthens rather than undermines our potential. Being able to gather with people whose ideas and experiences are different from yours. Always strive to find new perspective and don’t be afraid to be challenged.

Planning for the future, should not ask what job you are going to have rather should say what ten jobs am I going to have? Chances are one will wear many different hats during their lifetime. Why not anticipate? Take the time to consider how you can build and diversify your skill set. Examine your portfolio of knowledge, figure out where the holes are, and fill them in. Broad base of experience allows more security and greater opportunities. Look around and ask yourself: where can you get experience in another facet of your business? Make your list and open your mind. Don’t limit yourself to standard markers of professional experience. Our economy has changed and continues to change. It is vital to stretch yourself and obtain as many new skill sets as possible.

The economy is changing and in order to compete, it will be vital to adapt to new leadership, new jobs and different growth. Take a look at where the holes are in your own personal portfolio and think about what skill set you may need to thrive in this new normal – adapt.

There is no limit to the number of times you can hit the reset button in  your life. Once you realize that, there’s a tremendous freedom. One is never done learning and adapting.

7. Humility

“If you’re a successful person in a position of leadership, you can’t let it become all about you.” – John Surma
The leaders who get in trouble are the ones who forget that they’re just there for a time, and they’ve got to do the right thing and then pass it along to someone else.

The following is critical to success, to cherish your opportunities and to be grateful for them. It’s important to have a sense of awe and gratitude.

What attributes to the longevity of a business?
“Interest in the business. Waking up in the morning and being rarin’ to go, to finish something I didn’t finish the day before. Or having a new thought, and itching to get down here and take a look. Just the anticipation, the challenge of creating something. It’s all about having responsibility for something. I have always had some responsibility. I also have persistence. I love to persist and see them through. I see so many people who are successful, but they don’t love what they do. They are unhappy. You have to love what you do to stay engaged. I am engaged.” – Paul Bond

What we take for granted are the most important things in life: love what you do, work hard, be happy, be a good person, be engaged, get exercise.

8. Endurance

Be passionate about everything you do in work and in play. Doing too much is ultimately self destructive. If you push yourself too hard, something will suffer. Maybe it’ll be your health, maybe your relationships, maybe your professional excellence.

Consider your motivation. Motivation comes from having strong personal aspirations. Not talking about external motivations (wealth or position or long term goals). You have to know there is a connection between what you do and what you achieve. Ask yourself:
What motivates you on a daily basis? – What gets you out of bed in the morning?
What motivates you on a yearly basis? – Learning a new skill or rising up a notch in the company?
What motivtes you on a long term basis? – Where do you want to be in ten years?

Conventional widsom – learn from your mistakes.
Garry Kasparov – “Most people scrutinize their mistakes and say ‘I should have done this’ ‘I should have done that’ But one should scrutinize their victories and ask themselves what they did right and what they could have done even better.”
Scrutinize your victories and draw out the lessons for the next “match”.

Stress does not exist if you’re doing what you love and if you maintain your balance (family, career, and society).

S. Ramadorai – “The bedrock of my success has been keeping cool, having an open mind to new ideas and opinions, and having the patience to listen and learn at all times. In tough situations, it is all the more important to get different perspectives. Agility is another key trait that is required, which allows one to move from one problem to another and not get bogged down. Tough times allow one to do things that are not permitted during strong growth periods – to step back, reflect, and ask fundamental questions “Am I doing the right thing?”"

Need to have the ability to get inside the hearts and minds of your people, having them pull together for a common cause.

Deepak Chopra – Reducing the stress in your life and building endurance requires taking care of yourself in very specific ways.

Leadership
When there’s turbulence on a plane and passengers start worrying that we are going to crash, I have to be the one smiling and making sure everyone is calm and no one is freaking out. I walk around the trading desk and I say “It’s okay, this is why we get paid. Let’s do it. Let’s work.”  Then I go back into the office and close the door and say, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening!” Never showing any anxiety in front of the team.

Cornerstone of endurance is discipline. Could be about being prepared, having short and long term plans. Life management tool by asking yourself:
How is this going to impact me in the next 10 minutes?
How is this going to impact me in the next 10 months?
How is this going to impact me in the next 10 years?

Ability to listen and absorb information for as long as it takes. Immerse yourself.

A secret to living fully is dying young, at an advanced age. A crucial element of enduring success is physical and mental strength. Protect it.

9. Purpose

Finding and embracing the core purpose of your life will protect you during the upheavals. Your purpose is that which does not waver with hardship. It is not based on what you have, what others think of you or whether you succeed or fail from day to day. It’s knowing the why for your existence and will be able to bear almost any how.

If you’re a leader, you have to think of all the people that you will affect. If you really want to have a successful business, focus on your team. Make sure that your people are involved. Make sure that your employees are healthy, creative, and fulfilled, even in their personal lives.

What do you want?
Who are you?
How can you make your lives more fulfilled?
Come together as a team to develop the vision and then actualizing that vision.

Pursue excellence and ignore success.
Focus on excellence, success will come.
When you feel happy at doing your job and fulfilling your goals. Feeling content is true success.

Always take time to appreciate the unexpected gifts that come your way, because the people who send them may not be around tomorrow.

Life throws curves that can change your priorities in a flash. That’s just the way it is.

“We are a relationship society, not a consumer society. True fulfillment comes from inner peace and creativity and fulfillment and meaningful relationships.”

People are misled that to believe that if they make enough money, they’ll get what they want that will make them happy.

10. Resilience

Resilience is the ability to bounce back, and it starts with having confidence that tomorrow can be better, even when there’s blood on the streets today. Taking control of your own fate and participating in the outcome. Resilience is the ability to see possibility in the face of catastrophe to say “You know what? This setback is only a blip in the scheme of things. I’ll learn something from it and go on.”

Key to resilience is knowing that success is fleeting. It’s easy to get so engulfed in your career and to think it’s so big, so enormous, that you can’t survive without it. If you lose your job, it’s traumatic, but that’s temporary too. The good times may not last forever, but neither do the bad times.

It’s true that crisis is a great motivator, you don’t have to wait for crisis to find you. Don’t wait for your bridge to collapse, because by then it might be too late to get back up. It’s hard to make changes when times are good, but it’s folly to leave your life to chance.

Experience of recovering from crisis creates inner fortitude. If you’ve survived one blow, you know you can survive the next one. The voice of experience is priceless in the comeback. If you do not have enough experience when trouble hits, be sure to surround yourself with those who do.

Resilience is also about being able to make an honest assessment of yourself.
“Why did I lose this job?
What did I learn from this experience that I can take somewhere else?
What am I good at?
What did I fail at?
How can I translate this to another game?”

“Success is a funny thing. We all want it, but once you have it, you have to repeat it.” – Joe Torre
“Sometimes its got nothing to do with physical well-being but a matter of willing yourself to do something.”
Find the right words to make it important for them. Don’t be afraid of success.

Being a champion doesn’t mean winning every game. But it requires the will to want to win every time and the resilience to come back from defeat.

Important predictor of future success is how a person handles failure.
Benefits to crisis, and one of them is that it creates a motivation for people to work together for success.

Qualities of survivors: patience, perspective, calm and confidence.

Outrage may feel good and it may even jump-start action, but it won’t solve any problems. Mostly it’s just an ineffective distraction. It’s much easier to stand on a soapbox than it is to do the hard work of figuring out how you will get back on your feet.

First step to recovery is learning to trust again in a system that has been badly broken. People won’t go back into a water until they see the shark is dead. This is the psychology of public anger. First “get mad, and then get over it”. – Andrew Cuomo

Failures be they moral, intellectual, or strategic, they are not the defining story of their lives.

How do you want to be remembered? What mark are you going to make on the world?
You can’t always control the way you are judged by others. Nothing is guaranteed. People may remember you for your bitter struggles rather than your remarkable achievements. But you can live your life in a way that makes you content and happy. This is true success.

Success cant be achieved alone. You rely on enduring support of colleagues, friends, family and others who have helped pave the way. The value of collaboraton.

Notes on “The Ten Laws of Enduring Success” Part 1

Author: Maria Bartiromo

“The Ten Laws of Enduring Success” would be one of my favourite books that really puts things in life into perspective. Below are all excerpts I have taken from the book.

Notes:

1. Self Knowledge

Always take a job because you love what you do. The money can follow, but if you don’t love what you do, you’re going to be miserable. And if you’re not happy, you’re not going to want to work.

If you took money out of the equation, what would be your ideal profession? If it’s different from what you’re actually doing or training to do, you face a serious dilemma – a conflict of self interest.
Measure the distance between your aspirations and your reality and start taking action to narrow the gap.
How much are you willing to sacifice to do the work you love?

Writing personal notes to people who did something smart or innovative is a confidence booster.
“The leader’s job is to touch everyone of those people so they know they’re free to think and do things better.”  – Jack Welch (GE)
Want to create a culture of individuality – “Be yourself. Have fun. Don’t be afraid to do what you want to do.” – Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)

Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO of WPP Group – largest advertising agency)
“Key to success – having an attachment to the business, a love for the business, and a passion for the business that a founder has. You are most successful in life when you are having fun at what you are doing…. when you set out to follow your heart and dreams, you become a sort of natural success story. You want to spend all you time doing it.”

When you are thinking of your own success: what are your personal measures?
Knowing this will give you a sense of control during tough times.

2. Vision

Vision is having a plan.

Surround yourself with curious minds or those that have similar levels of passion and intensity.
How to develop this? Step beyond your comfort zone. Surround yourself with people whose experiences are different from yours, read outside your field, talk to people whom you disagree with. This will help you challenge your own assumptions about what is possible and what you believe. It keeps you tinkering.

How powerful words can be – how eager young people are to be inspired and to hear that they have the potential, no matter where they come from.
Inspiring words can have a transforming effect on individuals and on the whole culture. They’re not empty if there is substance behind them. Martin Luther King didn’t say “I have a business plan”. He said “I have a dream”. His dream was the vision. Once you know where you want to go, you can begin to take others there.

At Google…based on the philosophy that when smart people are free to interact and exchange ideas, creativity happens. Trusting employees to experiment and enjoy the process, they are inspired to be more productive. A culture where people feel they can build things, that they can actually accomplish what they want. And ultimately, people stay in companies when they see they can achieve something.

3. Initiative

If you want to be successful, you have to imagine what you want and then go get it. You can’t hang back.
Irene Rosenfeld – “Ask for what you want.”

The only difference between the people who are first on the scene and the people who follow them is the commitment to act. You may need to knock on hundred of doors to get an answer. You may have to start at the bottom but the qualities to the key to success: to be driven, believe in oneself, willing to spend years listening and learning, and refusing to quit. Power of tenacity, hard work, loyalty, courage and integrity.

Attitude is the most important. “…Positive attitude produces a strong team.” – Herb Kelleher Southwest Airlines.
If you are not in the frame of mind, change it. Talk yourself into it. Make an effort to think about the positives of making the trip and push the negative thoughts to the background.
“I reminded myself how fortunate I was to have been asked to attend, and what an honor it was to represent such an important event. Cherish the opportunities that spring from having a positive frame of mind.”

4. Courage

Confidence – First you have to believe that you belong there. Don’t be a victim. Just do it, and do it well.

Initiative and hard work. If not you will always be vulnerable.
A young person needs to take the initiative and approach the people and tell them what they have achieved and describe their accomplishments and ambitions. Learning that there is a connection between what you do and what you get is a simple lesson that builds a foundation for a person. Success is fleeting. Money can be lost. If you don’t have a foundation of achievement and values, you’ll get swept away with the tide.

Process is also about building trust. Relationship building takes time and persistence but it pays off in the end. Build your Rolodex with goodwill. Don’t ask what others can do for you. Ask what you can do for them.

Courage isn’t a lofty ideal. Most of us aren’t called upon to be courageous in earth-shattering ways. In the ordinary challenges of life, courage is the voice that tells you to just do it.
“I don’t think you learn courage. You either have it or you don’t. You’ve got to overcome a lot of inner resistance in the beginning. I’d be stupid to say I never had fear… Fear is not something that you should be ashamed of, but you have to learn to overcome it. And once you do, it’s much easier. But you have to work at it. You have to grit your teeth and do what you need to do. And if you’re leading men, you have to realize that they won’t follow someone who doesn’t appear to have not just courage but also confidence. You can’t ask people to do what you won’t do.” – Maurice “Hank” Greenberg (man who built AIG).

Courage requires integrity. “You can’t tell people things you don’t believe yourself. You can’t bullshit people into doing things that are not going to work.”

“The best advice I can give someone who wants to take a chance on something different is to rely on your gut. Then you have to be a scrupulous planner. You can’t do it without planning and doing your homework. You have to put people around you who are smarter than you, people you can trust.”
“I think everything you do gives you an education. I gave it my best shot. If you don’t change and grow in every avenue of your life, you run into a dead end. It’s bad for your health and your happiness – win, lose, or draw. It’s dangerous to get complacent, and it’s easy to do if you are in the same area your whole life. If you don’t follow your heart and do what you love, you won’t get anywhere” – Ron Insana

The conventional path is not always the best path. If it doesn’t work for you, look for ways of expanding your options and trying a different route. It may be longer and end up at a different destination than you expect. But the journey itself is part of the pleasure and the achievement.

Being courageous means that you’re willing to take risks, but you have to do it with the knowledge that your decisions are going to affect others besides you. Get in the habit of checking the consequences of your choices and actions and it will become second nature to watch your tail. Do it early in your career, and you’ll keep doing it when you’re big. Right now, your tail might not be dinosaur-sized. It might only reach the people closest to you. But as your circle widens and your influence expands, the simple rules of generosity and empathy will position you to be successful, fair, and kind.

5. Integrity

You don’t have to cut someone else down to build yourself up. Focus on your strengths. Build your own credentials. Make a case for yourself. I live by this principle.

Everyone makes mistakes. You can’t be successful without having a few failures along the way. By taking responsibility for your failures, you open the way to solving the problems. Maybe it’s not a natural instinct to admit mistakes, but it’s a great skill to practice.

The Brand Gap

On the flight from San Jose to Boston stopping over at Denver, Colorado (3rd March 2011), I started reading a presentation done by Neutron LLC by Marty Neumeier called The Brand Gap How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design. The following are notes that I have taken down on my perceptions on branding.

Branding occurs when what people say it is (This could be done via viral marketing… people saying what it is). The entrepreneur, John Paul DeJoria saying if you want to sell anything sell the one with the best quality. This is because consumers base buying on trust.

Trust is achieved when you meet or do more that customers expect. = Reliability + Experience (happy)
Branding’s purpose? Get more people to buy more stuff for many years at a premium high price. So when you are measuring branding, you look at:

• Is it a price premium?
• Is it the customer preference?
• Replacement cost
• Stock price
• Future earnings

Branding = strategic tool strategy vs creativity. If built correctly, a charismatic brand is achieved. This is when there’s no substitute for it.

(1) Differentiate yourself to allow people to easily identify you from others.

In a world of personalization and answering “who you are” / identification. So we need to focus in order to differentiate your brand. When we say have focus, need a value proposition that encompasses in answering the following questions:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• Why does it matter?

You want “good brand extensions” – growing value of a brand by reinforcing its focus. Don’t deviate to chase short term profits in the expense of long term branding. Will not only lose focus but damage your brand value.

(2) Collaborate: “takes a village to build a brand”.

Model: “one stop shop” – resources to develop and steward the brand which allows easy management and consistency but not so much on choice of teams and no ownership.

Model: “brand agency” – hires the best firms to help develop and steward the brand which allows the choices of teams and consistency but little choice of ownership on the brand.

Model: “integrated marketing team” – internal with open collaboration among specialists. This is the solution to ownership of brands and you can choose the teams and a promise of consistency but the cons is that it is difficult to manage. Deep insights come from deep experience.

(3) Innovate

Execution is not strategy. Execution is where the rubber meets the road. Creativity gives brand their traction in the marketplace. It is creative if it scares the hell out of everyone.

Too predictable = no surprise. No surprise = nothing new. Nothing new = no value

So brand = stand out name. Stand up name criteria:

• Distinctiveness
• Brevity
• Appropriateness
• Easy spelling and pronunciation: Likability, Extendability, Protectability

Package is best and last chance to make a sale (retail) o Notice the package – “What is it?”, “Why should I care?” – wants to be persuaded:

• Needs proof
• Provide info to match this sequence of thinking process: sells more effectively.
• Online? Same process.
• Provide only info customers need – don’t squeeze everything on page o Too much work for users = users will leave the site o Too much info on page 1 because
•  TURFISMO – every dept wants to be on homepage
• FEATURITIS – the belief of more is better (inexperience communicators)
• TECHNOPHOBIA – resistance of new media (experienced communicators)

(4) Validate – Bringing the audience into the “creative process”

Communication model shift: monologue to dialogue .
Question: how to test your most creative ideas before they get to market?

• Quantitative studies < buries the problem with unhelpful data.
• Focus groups < focuses on research and not be the research.
• Aim: Get a rough answer to the right question and not a detailed answer to the wrong question! Thus the CHEAP-QUICK-DIRTY test to banish the fear of stupidity
• A) swap test is a proof for trademarks.
• B) hand test is a proof for a distinctive voice < covered and cannot tell, brand is not distinctive
• C) field test is a proof for any concept that can be prototyped – audience can’t say your concept, you have failed to communicate it. Measures:  Distinctiveness, Relevance , Memorability, Extendability and Depth of Meaning

(5) Cultivate

Business = Process. Business is not an entity.
Brand is a pattern of behavior, not a stylistic veneer (an attractive thing covering and disguising the ugly)
New paradigm: Influence the character of a brand. 

What happens when you reach number one? Solution: Need a compass. This compass continues the brand education program.

• Brand orientation
• Brand seminars
• Positioning workshop
• Brand audits
• Strategy summits
• Creative councils
• Quarterly critiques
• Group brainstorming
•  Teamwork training
• Innovation clinics
• Design audits
• Brand manuals
• Brand publications
• Brand roadshows
• Teamwork tools

 A more distributed a brand is = stronger the management needs to be.
Need a human bridge between logic and magic – strategy and design.
You want to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

Idea Cycle

Reading the article at Squidoo on the top 10 reasons why startups fail, http://www.squidoo.com/starup_failures, it seems like it’s such a simple thing to conquer to ensure success of a startup. However, it’s never as simple as it looks.

The message that I seemed to be getting nowadays is that having ideas and having to make the service / product is easy in comparison of growing a company and sustaining it. I agree with this comment and Paul Graham writes a great article on his perspective on “ideas”:
http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html.

The author states how the creation of a startup is not the matter of implementing some fabulous initial idea that will make you a million dollars because once you think this way, coming up with an idea is hard. Paul Graham makes a very good point that startups end up nothing like the initial idea. This connects to point 2 – No Viable Market from the Squidoo article where if one thinks “build it and they will come”, the entrepreneur is planning to fail. One has to do research and validate the idea in how it will do in the market, and it is highly possible that the idea the entrepreneur came up with initially will have to be tweaked in order to be of value to the customers. Once the idea is launched and implemented, then comes the hard part: scalability and sustainability.

So in trying to understand the whole situation of the  matter and put everything into context, my belief of the cycle that one goes through is: you have the idea, you have the tweaking of the idea, you need to find a way to cross the chasm of reaching the late adopters in order to scale and then sustainability would be the innovation part (more ideas), which would would be the next S curve that one needs to adopt in order to capture more people and grow the business and then back to square one.

Wouldn’t this be classified as a vicious cycle and highly possible the wrong way of trying to visualize and make sense of it? Probably yes and it is probably incorrect looking at it this way. If you could sum it up, how would you see it?

Reading All Over the Place

I have been reading all over the place lately: on my laptop, on my iPad 2, articles being sent to me, people’s blogs, whitepapers, research findings but I haven’t had the chance to sit down and read one of the actual books or ebooks I have on me. I am skimming the headlines and just watching my twitter feed for all the good links people are sharing. But I have to admit, I wouldn’t get much reading done if it wasn’t for RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. RSS is a web standardized format where you can aggregate all the different pages you want to read into a software - RSS reader application so it can be viewed by many different programs.

Just to share the applications that I like using to read the headlines and websites:

Google Reader
Price: Free
Device: Not specific, application that can be used on computers, handphone, etc.
Website:
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=reader&passive=1209600&continue=http://www.google.com/reader&followup=http://www.google.com/reader

I like using the Google Reader for RSS feeds. The requirements for this is that a gmail account needs to be created. You get to keep track multiple websites in one central location.

Flipboard
Price: Free
Device: iPad
Website: http://flipboard.com/
I found out about the Flipboard app from this guy I lined up with for the iPad 2. I really like this app because I get to read different categories of news in business, tech and science, design, lifestyle, food and dining, travel, shopping and fashion, etc. If I could sum it up, it’s a digital magazine associated  with social media such as twitter posts.
News lately has been swarming around this product from TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/16/google-flipboard-killer/.

Zite
Price: Free
Device: iPad
Website: http://www.zite.com/
Zite is a more personalized magazine that tries to understand what the reader likes to read and pulls articles more related to it and aggregates it to compile a magazine for the reader. So the reader has to give feedback and say whether they liked the article or not (not compulsory) but based on the information collected, it will ensure to find articles that will be of interest to you.

Byline
Price: Free but with ads
Device: iPad
Website: http://www.phantomfish.com/byline.html
Byline is a Google Reader on the go. It associates with my Google Reader and lets me put it on my iPad. User experience of the app is like reading my emails. I did hear that Mr Reader is way better but it will cost $2.99 for the app. A good blog about it is at:
http://appsforipads.net/ipad-productivity-apps/rss-readers/mr-reader-google-reader-ipad

So how do you read all the blogs and articles that you have on the web?

The Yellow Diaries

http://lisaraniray.wordpress.com/

Lately I have been reading and following Lisa Ray’s blog whom has been diagnosed with cancer. It makes me think how we spend our lives day in and day out…. and the thoughts that may run through their heads. It makes me wonder what I am doing with my life.

Designing Information Systems Easy As Pie?

In designing an information system for some work process, it has to be done in phases whereby there is one centralise portal linking all these information systems together. The backend database is ideally one database whereby all information systems are updating particular sections of tables in it. These tables are connected to each other in some way where you have primary keys and foreign keys.

Funny thing is, users don’t really comprehend a programmer’s perspective in designing an information system. “How hard can it be!” is what they usually say. But users don’t comprehend what programmers go through when there are add ons from the original design.

It’s like having built a big round metal container for an oil refinery. A crane of 100 tons comes in and places the container at the site. A few years later there seems to be holes in the container, so the maintenance team comes in and patches it by just cutting a piece of metal and cover the hole by welding to the original structure. After doing that for so many years, then one day they decide to scrap the structure. So the maintenance team comes in with the 100 ton and lifts the structure. However the crane and structure topples. Why does it topple? It topples because all the metals covering the holes of the original structure makes the structure heavier than it originally was. The centre of mass of the structure is no longer the same due to the constant patches and add ons.

The same goes with implementing databases. If the database design originally did not consider including the idea in the original design and patches of add ons over the years are put in place, the database gets more heavier and it will be slower for people to access. This is invisible to the users and so users don’t understand the pain system analyts have to go through when users cannot decide what they really need.

She Shined In Her Moment

To my mother she was the lady who died of cancer that had a documentary about her shown on tv a few months ago. Her name was Shin and she blogged about her life of having cancer at:

http://shinscancerblog.blogspot.com/

Having her blog about her journey in life living with the disease, she has touched many people’s lives. Her strength and confidence and the look she has of acceptance in her eyes of what she was going through indirectly gave the people hope of what hardships they may be going through.

If she had not realise, she shined and touched people’s lives before she left this world on 27 January 2009. Even though her children are very young now but I do hope that they know that their mother touched many people’s lives and made a difference and lived life in her own way.