Osama's Death reminded me of Freedom at Oracle

Let me start with the below line from my earlier post Infosys Loaded with its 3.0 Version - Part II

"I am not a regular television viewer (more due to living out of home since last 12 years) but i do consider myself just lucky enough to catch the historic ones - from IC 814 hijack to 911 to Obama's election to Egypt crisis to almost all the general elections in India post the famous riots at Bhagalpur. "

and extend it further. 

I am not a regular television viewer because i never had one during the last 12 years of my life plus the almost ubiquitous internet accessibility ensured that there was no need of it. But now after landing up in Bangalore in a 'furnished' accommodation with fixed monthly bucks to pay for it and with a television right in front of me, i subconsciously seem to be trying to make up for it. To the extent that its always on. Yes the first thing i tend do in morning is check my mobile and switch on the tv. The same happened on the Monday morning (on 2nd of May, 2011 to be precise). Having a usual incomplete sleep (just check when the angry bird blog was posted, the clueless act of grouping the objects on Prezi was the culprit ), i hurriedly left my place around 8:30 in the morning.

I reached office around 9:45, though the official hours start at 8. Now if you are an MBA graduate that too a fresh one that too from TAPMI (yes , time is still the religion there; you can be late for your date and still make up for it but not to a lecture there) and when your manager inadvertently (read always) arrives before you perhaps to check on your just-got-late excuse, it should be a crime. I will make up staying late, thought me but again if you are part of the Indian IT setup , that should be a norm. Nevertheless, i squeezed though my desk and started pretending to work perhaps like most other folks.With a printer behind and people gushing in there for their share of this facility , it was difficult to open my morning dose of Linkedin (yes that's the only social/professional networking site which the sensors allow here), The Social Canvas Daily (thanks paper.li for making access to the twitter-se-posted links so easy and that too without logging into twitter) and other sites to which i have almost got addicted to. Only around 11:30ish, i was able to browse through Time of India headline and headline it was - President Obama confirms death of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

That was it. Series of googling and series of write-ups on how it all transpired - let them note if they want to - the rebel inside me declared. You can browse through n number of pages but catching it live on the box has its own element , if only there could be one around. The dear Oracle cafeteria was being missed. That Lehmann Brother collapse, the Mumbai 26/11 attack and the Tendulkar's century with India winning in Chennai a month after, the Satyam scam and the stock market crashing - i had watched them all in those cafeteria's TVs. And it was not me, a whole lot of their employees did - the good part was no one minded those so called loss of productive hours or questioned it in any way. Trust was the key (and still it is i am sure) at Oracle. Loved the freedom being provided. There was no concept of swipe-in and swipe-out for logging your attendance to office. You can come and go to office anytime. There is no dress code attached. No blocking of the social network sites. No one checking your bag while you leave the office.

Yes, when you have whole bunch of talented people , the best of IT land, you should consider them to be matured enough to prove their worth and give back the returns on the salaries they receive. And who don't want to be a liberal soul. The age cohort of Indian workforce says it all:

Generation Bharat (Born between 1960-1975) characterized by

• Collectism and conformity
• Strong family values
• Do not question authority
• Believe that higher education is the only way to success
• Deep-seated economic insecurity
• Lack of optimism
• Cynicism and lack of empowerment

Generation India (Born between 1975-1990)

• Characterized by high confidence
• Capacity to process information very fast
• Urge to develop a career fast
• Tendency to expect to be given high responsibilities immediately
• Individualism
• Impatient
• Bold
• Tendency to overestimate themselves (arrogance of ignorance)
• Tendency to expect employer to adapt to them
• Roaming in cynicism-optimism paradigm
• Living in duality

General Globalized India (Born after 1990)

• Characterized by awareness of the world
• Environment conscious
• High technology literate
• Multitasking ability
• Urge to grow up fast
• Disrespect for elders and authority
• Lack of proper role models and references
• High self-confidence
• Optimist by nature
• Sees plurality as a way of life

A U.S company seems to have understood this Indian cohort better than its Indian counterparts.

Infosys Loaded with its 3.0 Version - Part II

I am not a regular television viewer (more due to living out of home since last 12 years) but i do consider myself just lucky enough to catch the historic ones - from IC 814 hijack to 911 to Egypt crisis to Obama's election to almost all the general elections in India post the famous riots at Bhagalpur. But never saw a live corporate broadcast such as the Infosys' one yesterday. They have their own way of doing things. Everything scripted to picture perfect? Living up-to the transparent organization they are much touted as. 

Despite all the hoopla, the janitor example by Mr.KV Kamath was the most touching. It seems the first ICICI ATM was installed in the same Infosys campus from where the new leadership announcement was being made yesterday. One day Mr.Narayana Murthy asked one janitor standing in line of the ATM regarding what he thinks about the ATM. The janitor responded that he loves this machine because if he would have gone in the bank , the teller/cashier would give extra treatment/respect to the babus in the line , but the machine here treats everyone equally. This reflects the 'technology as a leveler' effect which the modern India is experiencing. This leveling on par behavior is being what is aimed when we speak about automating the NREGA process or the e-Choupal initiative by ITC or the introduction of UID - just reduce the manual touch points and get rid of the hierarchical society estranging  our India.

So here comes the first similarity between Mr.KV Kamath and Mr.Narayana Murthy - Both had brought social levelers in their own way/field. One by creating millions of employment/jobs (and honoring them all even in downturn) and the other by revolutionizing the banking sector in this country - both through technology usage and adoption. The other similarity comes from the nature of fields they come from - both IT business and financial industry have lots of similarity- ever changing and evolving fast with their own share of (cyclical) downs. Both these leaders are difficult shoes to fill in their respective spaces and now when one is putting on his feet on the other's, the movie should be worth watching.

Many see it as the toughest period for Infosys with the top management changes, founding members moving forward , their Global Delivery Model under test more than ever before and declining revenues amidst the transition. But forget that they started in the most unfriendly of the environment for doing business with limited resources and have now created an extraordinary setup of infrastructure and leadership.And the knack of Mr.Kamath to identify the next change/opportunity/trend will just add to it. The bigger challenge is motivating the team again after the recent media bashings holds the key for them

Where they lack is perhaps a little more aggression ; remember the Axon deal where they decline to re-bid on top of HCL's quote? They have done so many things first - listing on Nasdaq, consulting through GDM, center in China but in their quest of taking planned and thoughtful risk, they seem to be losing out. Perhaps the "'In data we believe and God we trust' philosophy needs a little tweaking. The declining gap with other Indian IT companies such as TCS is just a myth. One theory says that the gap is more because of they considering in their financial report the expiry of tax exemptions from the STP(Software Technology Park) scheme of the government of India leading to an increase in their effective tax rate which the other companies are yet to figure out like the government and NASSCOM itself. One point which media seems to be not pointing as of now is the dual leadership conundrum - At one point (merely 3 months ago) we saw Wipro breaking away from this model and now Infosys embracing it further by retaining the co-chairman space.

Perhaps a mix of continuity and fresh perspective was the call.

Click here for Part I

Infosys Loaded with its 3.0 Version - Part I

There used to be 'swayamvars' orchestrated by the Kings in India for their daughters to choose the men of their life-and-choice and the men had to coo the bride with their immaculate abilities. Then there are parts of India where still the women-to-be gets literally abducted and forced into the marriage. And till few years ago, i used to hear the Bihar's Shotgun Weddings where the reverse used to happen - yes, the guy being kidnapped by the family for their beloved daughter. None of these happened for N R Narayana Murthy's 30 year old "daughter-like" Infosys.

Swayamvar in current ever-growing modern India sound too much of modernity. The only one i can remember is when first foreign coach of Indian Cricket team was being finalized and Greg Chappel was chosen. The rest is history as we all know. Infosys fared not-so-good in the last two quarters but have never reached to a stage where it can be abducted (read acquired). Its fundamentals are still strong as the pundits say. And doing anything like kidnapping is just out of the world and our thought for an institution of immense ethical standards. Is 'Lure' the apt word to say? Convincing Mr. KV Kamath to bring it back to glory?

Rather , the handover has been a perfect script as of now. A perfect marriage of past with present. Will it survive? Only time will tell. We still need to see how the Tatas fare in their leadership transition. Perhaps they will pick lesson from this rather-so-perfect 'vidaayi'.

Product Management Challenges - II

This article is continuation of earlier Product Management Challenges - I and highlights the tough road being traversed by this genre of managers.

Competitive Landscape in an “IT Doesn’t Matter” era

If we go by Nicholas Carr’s famous article, Information Technology as a whole is becoming a commodity which no more would give a sustainable competitive advantage. So , business acceptance of a software product for purchase considerations is slowly getting apprehensive. “Why to invest further on IT if they are able to go business-as-usual?” or “Today we are implementing Oracle Apps R12, tomorrow we need to migrate to Fusion, there is no end to it”. So any software product should provide ample value proposition to the customer which compels him/her to try/buy it. Add the competitors to it and your product sustainability and customer lock-ins are always at a threat. That’s why we see many product start-ups initially working in stealth mode, doing their own internal pilot testing , getting the relevant product and consumer insights to get a differentiatied offering which would outsmart their competitors.

Resource Crunch

This is especially in the area of user experience designing. There are very few visual and interaction designer and many times their scarcity limits the firm capability to form the crux of the product team. If there are no designers working side by side with the product managers & engineers, it will limit what each of them can do.

Consumerisation

In layman’s view , it refers to the blurring line between the consumer and enterprise technology needs. And many a times, a new technological product is launched first to ordinary end user and once the product gets popular amongst the masses, it is being offered to the enterprise customers with additional value layers. For example, Google’s Application products were first opened to the masses and then it came up with the enterprise version. Apple recently launched Joint Venture, a tech support offering for small businesses covering the products like Mac, iPhone, iPad -- the very same ones which got sold off to general consumer. The challenge is to formulate your product strategy and roadmap across these blurring lines , to accept that the B2B and B2C distinction of end product usage is fast getting extinct.

The Successful Company Trap

Seeing the Google making hoards of money and awed by the fantastic products line from Apple, are you thinking to do product management like them? Be cautious. The point to be noted is that while Google & Apple have their own models of product management, the same might not give you a success formula. Their model is fit for them (until their founders remain so deeply involved in their product offering).

Cloud : SaaP vs SaaS

Cloud is both a challenge as well as an opportunity. If the existing product line is not web-based , then the firm has the danger of losing out on its existing and prospective customers. This is particularly important in emerging markets where the consumer is not ready to pay too much for the software product and hence the rise of ad-supported freemium business model in these markets. With SaaS the switching costs are decreasing plus the anytime anywhere access of the product which brings newer challenges to the product manager to continually improvise on the product for customer retention.

Customer vs Consumer

Often the people that make the purchase decision are very different than those that actually use and and are dependant on the product. The product manager ends up being responsible for a product that will be sold to (or used by) people he has never met, to people that speak a language he doesn’t understand, subject to laws that he isn’t aware of, and pay by mechanisms he has never used. The platform product management is a good example - Adobe offers Photoshop which is being used by slew of designers to create media/flash applications which are finally ‘consumed’ by totally set of people.

Product Management Challenges - I

Coming in early , working relentlessly until late nights , day after day , week after week but still not satisfied and happy ; packed days with back-to-back meetings , burst of emails piling up , the changing customer dynamics, the race to catch up with emerging trends & technologies and the various stakeholders’ pressure for that one magic product expected out of your team – Welcome to the world of Product Management !

The thrill of getting a successful product being used by the whole world comes with its own set of challenges to be faced by the product managers.  This article discusses a few of these challenges:

Lack of Role Clarity

Great software products come from the collaboration of product management, product design, engineering, and marketing team. One important aspect to the organizational design is that these teams should be equals but invariably we see one getting buried within another. The organisations have a tendency to mix/overlap the Product Management with the Product Marketing roles and responsibilities. Hence , many times we might see Product Managers striving to create their own niche space and acceptance within the organization, proving subconsciously that yes they are required and needed. My short product management stint made me notice a sort of humorous role confusion : The business team thinking that the product management guys are from the engineering side while the engineering team having a notion that they are from the business side ! So the role clarity itself becomes a challenge.

In a nutshell , we can have a very high level distinction:

Product Management	Product Marketing
Responsible for defining – in detail – the product that the engineering team will build.	Responsible for telling the world about this product
Defines Product Requirements	Defines Marketing Requirements
Activities include Product discovery, idea generation , ensuring that the product is useful, usable and feasible,  optimizing the end-user experience.	Activities involve : Pricing, Positioning and messaging, Promotions, Launching, Online marketing , Customer Acquisition Strategies.
Both should collaborate effectively for the product to succeed

Stakeholder Management , Buy-ins , trade-offs and Consensus Tendency

One of the biggest challenges is convincing others like the top management about any innovation's utility. Selling the product idea and concept to the internal customers who will fund the project for product development is not an easy nut to crack. Lack of required upfront support and funding increases the time-to-market.

A very effective way the product discovery team can handle this scenario is by creating a prototype which can be shown to the stakeholders. The nature of the discussion will be more productive when stakeholders can see a clickable prototype versus something just talked about in air or in some form of paper/powerpoint specification.

Within the organization , Product Managers need to aliase/interact with many parties : product marketeers , project managers, interaction designers, visual designers, usability engineers, prototypers, engineers, architects, QAs , cross-functional teams, etc. The decisions are being taken in concensus and become more of a group activity. The product objective shufts from coming up with something great, to coming up with something that keeps everyone happy and doesn’t get you fired which actually negatively impacts the product innovation. Seth Godin said: “Nothing is what happens when everyone has to agree.” While consensus is something nice to have, we basically need more of collaboration wherein the teams can work together closely and provide a fusion of customer value/functionality, usability, and technology.

High Expectations

Yes, the customers would expect your product to solve all of their problems and your CEO would want to roll out the new release at a breathnecking speed. And if you are an engineer plus MBA breed , don’t get surprised if you are being considered superhuman. The best way to tackle is to communicate a very realistic picture to your internal and external customers. If the expected deadline is too tight , break the work to be done in chunks and modules ,  identify the actual achievable roadmap and convey the same assertively. Using numbers, some sort of data crunching to prove your point helps invariably.

Product’s Success Metric

There is a lack on clarity on how exactly a Product Manager’s performance can be articulated except the fact that it naturally should be linked to the Product’s Success. But again , there is no best way to measure a product’s success. Should it be through the revenue generated? Or Profit? Or the number of end-users? All of these parameters can be useful but they don’t really provide the exact picture.

One simple business metric coming up recently (and adopted by the likes of Apple, eBay and Amazon ) is called the Net Promoter Score (NPS). The customers are asked how likely they would recommend the  product, on a scale of 0 to 10. Those rating 9 or 10 are called “promoters” (they’re out there telling others to adopt the product); those rating 7 or 8 are called lukewarm or neutral; and those giving 0-6 are called the “detractors,” which are not likely to recommend the product to others, and may even be actively warning against the product.

NPS = The percentage of promoters - The percentage of detractors 

Balance between Domain and Technological Expertise

Product Management requires skills like assessing opportunities, defining product principles, product discovery, and prototype testing. The whole idea is to discover a product-market fit and this requires a deep understanding of both the market needs and the technology’s capabilities. The challenge is how to keep pace with the domain/market trends and rapidly changing technlogies when the job requires your day-in and day-out effort. This is very critical while you interact with various teams and plan for product/feature feasibility. Even the product lifecycle is also getting shorter putting on you those extra worries to speed up in order to monetarily benefit from the existing product as fast as possible.

Network Effects Revisited

In network effect , the utlity of a product increases as more and more number of people use it. So the more ubiqitious the product becomes , the more valuable it is. Example includes mobiles , telephones, fax machines , Social Networks, web marketplace like eBay, Groupon (the higher the free subscribers the better are the chances to meet the minimum guaranteed number of purchasers for the deal to actually materialize),  Wikipedia, Stock Exchanges(yes , as the number of participants increases the transaction cost decreases). 

What about SQL?? (Why all/most databases use this as their basic language?)

The initial value of any of the examples mentioned above depends on the quality of its offering and not on the number of people using it. This is the value generated by the offering when there are no other users.The initial quality is the key to atract the users which calls on other users also to join say through word of mouth. The product overall value accelerates once a certain critical mass joins in and derives value from interactions/connections with each other.

Drawbacks

Firstly,  it leads to congestion and slowly after one point of time the value of the product starts diminishing. This happens in case of telephone/mobiles networks wherein if the infrastructure is not scaled at appropriate time , then each additional user will increase the load on the network and decreases the value for other users. Is this what we are seeing happening with the Google Search engine. As pointed out in the article 'Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google' , the search engine has become more of a jungle with spammers and marketers hunting around with their Ads and Sponsored sites and hence losing out on value. Thats what happened with Bill Gates who left Facebook due to huge number of friend requests pouring in; for him the value of the network started decreasing. Social Networking sites like Facebook surely will need to go an extra mile to safeguard the 'Spirit of Community' which will get destroyed with increasing number of friends/followers in one's network. The network will no more be social but again the same jungle of spammers and advertisers what Google is today.

The other drawback is that it causes vendor lock-ins wherein the customer becomes dependent on the provider for products and services and is unable to switch to another vendor. Microsoft has been doing that with its office products which required one to have MS Office to remain compatible with others many using it until Google Docs and OpenOffice's of the world came up and era of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) got some momentum..

If there are no competitors to a successful network , then the monopolism sets in and the network provider starts hiking its charges and put restrictions. These restrictions out of the monopoly nowadays are inspiring many firms with new revenue model. The best example being Linkedin which restricts almost everything except your capability to add connections(that will come soon ! its just the beginning , let them face some 'congestion'. There is certainly going to be an inflection point where each new user will make the life harder for existing users. Imagine twitters and facebooks of the world charging you for making a status update.What will happen then? Multiple networks will then compete on an even similar basis, the core product value will again gain prominence. Eg: There are more fax machines in the world now than ever before but its value has decreased because of other substitutes like email, scanner, faster courier , etc. So the numbers have lost value here while the product is inherently losing out with modern ways of communications).

And if there are competitors to a network , then the silos sets in wherein each player starts setting their own standards and benchmarks. Thats what we are seeing in Mobile Operating Systems war - from Nokia and , Blackberry to Google and Apple all players trying to form their own community which promotes their distinguised OS.

One other interesting drawback can be that the markets can adopt an inferior product in place of some superior alternative just because of the network effects. For example i feel that Macs PCs are superior to Windows one but still its the Windows who are dominating the market. Same case with Apple iOS and Android and its the Android which seems to be winning the race. And governments/regulators do realize that since markets cannot be matured enough to choose the best standards/practices/products/networks , its the government who should take the lead to investigate and monitor the firms intention of making any offerings. Hence we see so many antitrust actions !

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Take this one now - Consider IT as an offering , is its value increasing with more and more of its adoption. If we go by Nicholas Carr argument , then slowly its becoming a commodity with no strategic advantage. So does it mean that IT doesn't have any network effect?