Tag: Start Ups

Unlocking Value in Start Ups: Refocus on Operational Processes

I have been fortunate enough to work for Fortune 500 Consulting firms at one end of the curve to advising a migration non profit focused on cultural activism in Singapore at the other end. The bigger picture and the rhetoric, often boils down to dollars and cents during performance review, as donors/funders need to evaluate the ROI. We live in a business environment dominated by mega trends of political shocks, declining oil and commodity prices and flat value chains; where the consumer/client knows the set of data as you, the product manager. The information asymmetry between client and vendor has vanished. Machine Learning and Big Data is transforming the service economy, where specialists will dominate and entry-level jobs will disappear in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In this scenario, operations is often under rated in the every day running of the business. They maximize the leverage available make sure the product/service is delivered at the right price point to the consumer. Ideas are simply not enough; there needs to be implementation excellence to unpacking the black box called value, easy to define, harder to deliver though.

Non Profit Platforms and Business Start Ups need to move beyond the ‘idea’ that they are pursuing whether it is a cause or a product and invest into expertise. The disruption has to be backed by professional teams, which focus on long-term bets, in value creation. The ‘Big Idea’ is brand equity but operating teams have to aggressive in funding, program management and innovation. Building teams and products that the market needs is the simple truth. Non-profits need to invest in operations as much as for profit peers. Being sexy is not cool all the time. Think Rahul Yadav, and contrast it with Martin Sorrell of WPP, who built a holding company around which brands evolved (HBR, July/August 2016). Have patience and do the right thing otherwise being out of business does not take time; the same advice is valid for careers too. The career of the entrepreneur follows a particular product lifecycle too.

 

Why can’t there be more start ups that hack public service delivery?

Recently, i returned from Kolkata as a married man. I was out for lunch with my beautiful wife for lunch on Park Street, the tony shopping and leisure district. It rained intensely for 30 minutes and yes 30 minutes and the entire street was flooded till the knee. Me and my wife were mislead by the android phone GPS by 50 meters and had to walk in knee deep water for 200 meters  to Veda, for a lunch of Dhakai Murgi and Kebab. The lunch was spectacular with her. The silver lining in a  rainy afternoon. This experience has elevated my  thinking about the paucity of city level public service delivery in India, such as flood control, power access and basic sanitation & clean water. Bangalore has recently been feted as one of the start up capitals of the world by commentators in the global media. The Indian start up scene regarding e-commerce is damn hot. Flipkart, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder are everyday household names and money bags such as Softbank and Sequoia. Rahul Yadav formerly of Housing.com is a sex symbol for his radical antics. This media buzz regarding start ups especially Information Technology Driven have reached a frenzy that contributes to the myth of entrepreneurship. I believe that this myth does a disservice to the folks that creates products to meet a market need, and be accountable to the board of directors, consumers and the shareholders. Entrepreneurs are not responsible to the general public for anything else apart from delivering the correct product for the price rendered. Public Service Delivery involves Public Goods which lies exclusively in the domain of the elected representative aka the Government who swear by institutional memory rather than disruptive innovation. The United States Digital Service and its precursor comprised of tech geeks from the Silicon Valley had salvaged the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare website whose website crashing every two minutes did not render justice to the revolutionary legislation. The internet is the interface between the government and the general public in the ‘Internet of Things’ paradigm. Start Ups such as Social Cops based in Delhi  bring Technology and Big Data to decision making in India. Information Management is critical to designing and delivering massive protection platforms, and biometric identity schemes such as ‘Aadhar’ in India add data to the mix and linking bank accounts to these numbers enables governments to channel cash subsidies to the recipient directly, although the marginalised poor would rather prefer the rice which he/she would boil and consume, Can the conversation regarding start ups move towards building solutions for clean water and sanitation, renewable energy and public governance? That would indeed be a game changer.