Entrepreneurship blaH blaH...

IDEA or EXECUTION

2008-02-16T12:50:00.005+05:30

This is in response to a question on a community site, "What Is it that you think is more important for any business to flourish? IDEA or EXECUTION? "

There are ample of ideas with people in business and non-business community, however a bad execution would spoil the hardwork to bring the idea into reality. Transformation of idea to a product is crucial. To convert this into a flourishing business one more important factor, which I think you missed out, is TIMING. I will talk about it towards the end of it.

Lets look at these components one by one. Let me also take an analogy with a tree.

1.IDEA : An idea is a seed. What you think it would require to grow and not just grow well but to the extent that it fetches profit to the owner is what you might call as a flourishing business. The important things would be,

a) RIGHT SEASON or CONTEXT - TIMING
b) RIGHT NURTURING – EXECUTION

You can sell your IDEA to someone who might convert it into a flourishing business. A common example of this is the ideas generated by employees of a company. These companies, in the name of providing the basic infrastructure for your 'IDEA', would get a patent. The company might use it in its own products or in other business contexts.

Another example of this is annihilation of small startups by bigger fishes in the pond to give them better appetite with either diversification or increased strength in the business area of their interest.

2.EXECUTION : So I will talk about the execution first as you had already mentioned it. Its the hardwork you put in to bring your idea to reality, lets call it a DELIVERABLE. The IDEA may be a dream, but unless you turn it into a DELIVERABLE you can not make money, the bottom line. I want to separate it from TIMING. As an example Alcatel in 1999-2000 came up with Optical Networks and was pioneering in this domain. The IDEA was great, the EXECUTION was exceptional, but the TIMING was wrong. Because of this, there was a huge burst in telecom industry in 2001-02 and other businesses directly dealing with technology suffered a hit.

3.TIMING : It is equally important, an IDEA in non-business community picks up only when the time of that IDEA has come. You might have heard it at places, "You can prevent an invasion of armies, but not an idea whose time has come' - by Nobelist Victor Hugo. Remember communist revolution, US revolution and in Europe after the 2nd world war. Change was needed and they went with different ideas of governance.

Coming to its business context as an example, the idea of xDSL was great, so was its execution. Many companies quickly took it while they were aware that it is only a temporary solution. Copper network would not be able to sustain in the bandwidth explosions of future, still it became popular in much of Europe, North America and part of Asia. They could harness the business potential of xDSL. There was a market potential of this IDEA, and much of it was created in rest of the world lately. Places, such as India, much of China, SAARC, and Africa, where the xDSL reached late, fiber is becoming popular.

To emphasis on TIMING, it is like the tree has grown, has excellent fruits because of great execution. Now it is time that you enter the market. If the market does not exist but there is a potential, create it. But if there is no market readiness, the whole preparation would probably mean nothing.

So if you are an entrepreneur, you must find a balance between these three to create a flourishing business out of your IDEA. Many startup fail just because one of the three is not well taken care of. They are equally important. Yet another thing not to be forgotten, innovation is highly important for sustaining a business at the 'flourishing' state, it might mean either business-innovation, technology-innovation or marketing-innovation. I hope this would be sufficient for you to understand the quest of an entrepreneur.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going !!!

2007-12-20T10:38:00.000+05:30

Dedicated to my brother...

I have these words to say for my brother. He is one of his kind, bugged up with so many odds in his life but as the proverb goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going". He is tough and he is going ahead and I adore him for that.

In the making...

2007-10-08T17:20:00.000+05:30

So bits and pieces are falling in place to make a ship... A ship that has to go a longgg way...

Just the beginning, I must say and still a lot more to go before the journey starts, i see some good wood and nails... and a kind of crew that might board it..

a) an inexperienced yet imaginative navigator
b) one to look at the service department, little experience but high in dreams
c) one to understand that all threads of the network are in place
d) one not so experienced but who knows what to run thru
e) a core engine expert, knowing a little of periphery too..
f) a sailor cum captain to put things in place and propel beyond the horizon

All are enthusiastic, but unaware of the existence of each other. A central contact point is known to all though. Most of them have dreamt either of big or the bigger or still bigger. What the captain is waiting for then. The captain is yet to charge the team but he has a doubt "will the rest accept him as the captain, the ultimate sailor.. "

The question still open, open for all of them and open for the sailor.. and if they team up and have the jest to go till the end.. then horizon is their, who can stop them... just as Eliot Ness..

"Never stop fighting, until the fight is done" - Eliot Ness
The Untouchables

Suhani, the little wonder....

2007-10-01T11:16:00.000+05:30

Yeah, i am talking about Suhani, the little wonder. Many of my friends know her well coz of me talking about her so much. Well, truly speaking, she has been a life line for me in the otherwise shattered life of Mumbai. Yesterday she went to market with her aunt. Guess what, she got two chocolates, one for herself and another for her chachu... how lovely. And on top of that, she doesn't give it to me, doesn't allow me to open it... she opens it up by her little hands and push it in one go in my slightly open mouth, pushes it with full force so that i have no chance to resist. Innumerous counts of such incidents.. You might call her up and ask how is she, she would respond back "Main to achchi hoon, aur chachu bhi achche hain.." isn't that sweet..??

You are a darling Suhani, a real sweetheart. Love you in loads ... :)

Changing world, changing hearts..

2007-09-27T11:27:00.000+05:30

Don't know what is making me write this, but this is what going within. The world going rough, feelings turning into matter, love has become momentary accomplishments, relationship means greed, workplace a battlefield, people have become commodity and life a misery and yet we call ourselves more cultured, socialist and ethnic then ever. The stone age is in its coming, just that tools, appearances and battlefields have changed, society that we called is in its ruins and will soon be obsolete.