Crowd funding - SEC change the rules for good

Please make sure everyone can invest small funds to new ventures and have stock ownership.

This is less risky for everyone and good for overall economy.

Please make it easy.

Joseph Herscher - The Kinetic Artist

Random thought

Rich & powerful will continue to dominate & exploit the world as it did from the very beginning. Ethics & equality are always the looser.

No revolution can change this  - because even the so-called 'successful' revolutions only changes the profiles of rich & powerful and not this rule.

Unknown Knowns & Unknown Unknowns to solve Known Unknowns

There is a 4X4 matrix -


1. Known Knowns - Solutions exist as of today and we know the solution. Example - we know the Television or Internet works


2. Unknown Knowns - Solutions exist as of today but many people do not know due to lack of interdisciplinary application oriented collaboration - example we may know how to treat cancer using super-foods but many cancer patient do not know it due to lack of knowledge sharing(may be intentional push by pharma lobby)


3. Known Unknowns - We know the problem & we know we do not have a solution yet. Example - Game theory Problems


4. Unknown Unknowns - We even don't know what we don't know. Example - Nick Bostrom on new dimensions of human experience


I think we need to concentrate on Unknown Knowns & Unknown Unknowns to solve Known Unknowns. Let's explore.


Importance of Unknown Knowns - 


We are under-utilizing human potential and not attacking big problems in a systematic way. We are wasting many human minds in pushing them to do things which can be avoided. Lack of collaboration & information exchange is a huge problem. Multiple people working on same issues - synergy, information sharing & collaboration between all these people can create magic. 


Huge amount of human knowledge has been created over time - we till now we have not managed that knowledge properly. There are so many Journals, IPs, Patents created - but we still don't have an effective way to explore these. I am aware of Patent Search and other Internet Searches - but many of the times the access is limited available to Subject SMEs or they are so technical people from other backgrounds can not appreciate the wisdom. We need a platform for easy to understand knowledge sharing so that people from cross-functional background can appreciate and apply those thoughts. I am not suggesting we will not allow monetization of patents but rather we need to push for better utilization of those IPs(Knowledge available in Patents & Research Journals).


I have gut feel if we can just improve on the area of Knowledge exchange and application of that knowledge across different domains we will be able to solve many Known Unkowns - probably there are many solutions already existing but we don't know that they exist.


I am yet to find such a platform at a large global scale but there are some model platforms(such as TED and Edge) which can be scaled up to provide the needed support.




Importance of Unknown Unknowns - 


Probably there are many things we don't even know exists and finding those can help in solving problems we don't have a solution yet. I am suggesting the application of disruptive new findings in a completely different(cross functional) domain.


As this article suggests many of our problems can not be solved by just improving the existing technologies - we need a generation of disruptive scientists. We need to fund those big, promising but not necessarily money making research activities. This is challenging when funding is scarce, judging a new scientist's capability is tough and there is no guarantee that the research project will really have any meaningful benefit. One solution to that problem can be allocating resources(funding and best quality people) to experimental projects in an International collaboration model to solve the big problems challenging our society. This is high-risk-high-reward effort and hence it needs appropriate scale and risk-reward sharing. I strongly feel start-ups & market based innovation is not appropriate for this kind of projects and need backup and collaboration from governments. Many people can consider this crazy(considering the poor knowledge, decision-making & goodwill of our national leaders and government bureaucratic processes) but remember Manhattan Project would not be possible by a single company. 

Help Me from Reply All

We spend considerable time drafting and reading emails. While sending the email we are not always sure who all should be the recipient and hence sometimes we add more people than required(organizations have created tools like Distribution lists etc. to facilitate the collaboration process). This way we waste many people's valuable time who need to at least take a glance at the email and delete/file it. Similar way others waste our valuable time sending emails which are not related to our interest. Worse - people use Reply All button and thus a series of conversation starts. This is a huge waste of human energy. 


That's why I suggested Pmail - a vision to change the way we make email communication. Today I am suggesting something more easy to implement but still having huge impact - 'Block Reply All' button and 'View the Conversation' button. Here is how it should work.


You receive an email which was sent to multiple people. You find that the subject does not interest you. You click 'Block Reply All' button for that email and no further Reply All will be sent to you - but the same time sender will not receive any failure message(to to keep things straight from legal perspective in the sent emails the recipient list will be updated only to the people to whom it was sent). 


There may be a need in the future that you want to reference that email or you want to see what was the latest decision made on that conversation. You can then click on the 'View the Conversation' button in the original email and voila - you see all the history!

Tough Job...really tough Job!

I was watching a hindi movie 'Fashion' - it is a story of two Supermodels..their reaching to the top of the stardom, their various compromises and then sudden fall to nowhere. One of them was able to ultimately manage it, but other couldn't.

It is difficult to reach the top...but it is more difficult to stay there for long. It is so painful and lonely! Most of the world will envy you; try to bring down you. You will be encouraged to show-off. The noise of popularity will be enough to derail your focus. You will live in world of fear - a single mistake and you are out!

So hat's off to legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Bill Gates...they not only reached to the top but kept their cool & focus. The excelled in their profession but more importantly they were able to manage their focus, their own personality, their own life. It is tough...really really tough!

Patents help Law Professionals - and not Innovators

Huge waste of human energy...What do you think?




Source: http://frugaldad.com

commoditized

All Products and Services can be categorized into two types - Premium and commoditized.

As a buyer try to convince the seller that his/her Product/Solution is commoditized.

As a seller try to convince the buyer that he is getting a premium service and he need to pay appropriate price for it. 

Keep in mind, convincing is not easy if the claim is grossly wrong. So you need to position your play appropriately.

What HR heads can learn from Cruise and Airlines industry

Short answer...Loyalty Programs to reduce Total Cost of Ownership. Continue reading for the long answer.

Let me be very clear..this advice will not help all the HR Professionals. Many HR Professionals (Headhunters/Job Portal companies etc.) will actually hate the plan because if implemented properly most of them have to close down. 

Who will love the plan..I think everyone except those HR Professionals. Customers, Co-workers and Managers - nobody loves to work with a person who is new in that role and who do not have complete information. Nobody wants to train a person from scratch and then loose that talent one day and start the process again. Attrition is costly - and the cost is generally underrated. Depending on the industry and the role that cost varies - but I think most don't appreciate all the cost implications of attrition. We generally consider the substitution cost (extra salary/compensation (which sometimes are as high as 100% or more) which needs to be paid to attract similar talent to fill that position) but don't account for the loss in customer confidence, extra hours lost by co-workers in knowledge transfer process and loss in intellectual insight when a person leaves the organization. From an employee perspective as well it may be beneficial - considering the pain of relocation, adjusting to the new office work-culture and extra work needed to create a good brand image. So it is a win-win.

Problems understood, what's the solution? My view: Organizations need to implement the best practices from the Best-run Loyalty Programs in the industry - airlines and cruise industry. Airlines have one of the most liberal rewards (loyalty) program in the world which actually creates a lot of stickiness. Cruise lines offer something unique - they provide repeat guests VIP treatment by inviting them to special parties, bon-voyage gifts or Champagne, priority embarkation, great rates for the next cruise etc. Result - cruise industry enjoys a very high-level of repeat clientele.

Organizations need to understand there are two pieces for employee loyalty - monetary (tangible) and emotional (intangible). Monetary parameters are important - nobody likes to stick to the same company if he sees that even the best performance for next 10 years cannot match the salary he can gain by a single switch. Companies need to understand the market forces and go for more personalized, more real-time approach towards compensation(why not increase someone's salary 15% when you need to pay at least 30% more for a substitute talent) .

At the same time companies need to understand a very important piece of the puzzle which is seldom appreciated. How you treat people, how you give them more opportunities, how you empower them, how you respect them (here is great book on this), how you make their life more easy is as important as how much you pay them. Learn from cruise industry - create special benefits for the people who have shown loyalty - it may be extra leaves, special bonus rates, invitation-only parties - there are no limits on innovation in this space.

Caveat: Loyalty programs are not for everyone. Companies do not like loss-making customers or

Bad-performing employees and do everything needed to get rid of them - and that is perfectly acceptable (I love Jack Welch theory of eliminating bottom 10% every year). What is not acceptable is treating good talent without special recognition.

Rent a Toy!

Kids have interest for new toys only for few days if not for few hours.

Don't you think Toy renting is a wonderful business case?

But probably just want the parents to buy a new one for them..they probably don't care about economics.