Archive for 'Business Models'
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 23 Jun 2008, 6:01 PM - 1 Comment
I was at a cafe this afternoon and ordered a chai. The sleeve for the coffee cup had an advertisement. I am not complaining about the advertisement – they have to take up every bit of real estate anywhere to communicate to us, right?
The content of the advertisement, though, was funny
Here is what it said
“I don’t know what you are doing, but keep doing it”
“Nothing starts your day like coffee and a little positive reinforcement”
On the same lighter note:
First, if what you are doing is not working, there is no point in continuing to do it. Second, if what you are doing is taking you nowhere, positive reinforcement and coffee will take you to nowhere faster.
GMC might have made this work just because there may be other people like me who may have a conversation about this ad. However, GMC could also have gotten better attention just by providing something really valuable – think about something that will make someone throw away the cup but actually collect the sleeve of the cup. I am sure they have spent a fortune to get their name on those sleeves. Spending a bit more to make it memorable would be just worth it.
Have a great week ahead!
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 23 Jun 2008, 11:34 AM - 2 Comments
You want to be an “also ran” in the rat race? If so, no worries – technology will help you do that. Quickly.
There are many ways to do it. Really. I have an example of a Business Development email that I received (unsolicited, of course) a while ago. You can read the entire email filled with cliches and claims that are “very common” from vendors of that category.
First, an unsolicited email rarely does the job for a long-term relationship. I think the better way would be to get an introduction from someone. This would mean lot more work upfront. Hence people resort to the aid of technology and blast emails en-masse and hope that a “small” percentage will respond favorably. In fact, a small percentage of them may respond back – almost validating their original premise. In turn motivating themto continue to do what does not work really.
Anyway, back to the point, please read through the email and you will notice that the sender tries his or her best to be one among the many. He or she has followed all the best practices and the current buzzwords to ensure that he is “compliant” with the crowd – in the process eliminating himself out of the race. What is lacking in the email is simply that he or she has failed to show why the offer is “relevant” to my business and failed to establish a relationship prior to adding me to the list of recipients.
Technology provides a great competitive advantage if used right. It will also prove to be a “competitive disadvantage” if used wrong.
Have a great week ahead.
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 20 Jun 2008, 2:49 PM - Leave Comment
Discipline really shows up in the details.
In our last trip to Los Angeles, Paul and I had an interesting experience with Avis. After returning the car, we were waiting for the shuttle car for a looooong time. Not only did the people know the status of the rental car, even the clock that is supposed to show when the next shuttle car was to arrive was also broken
The sad part was nobody seemed to care about this and nobody seemed to think that people do notice details.
Discipline is in the details and people (especially customers and prospects) do notice the details even if you don’t!
What about your own business? What are some details that you have not paid attention to but your customers and prospects are noticing? And, more importantly – what will you do about this tomorrow?
Posted under Business Models.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 11 Jun 2008, 9:03 PM - 2 Comments
A product is successful when it sells hundreds and thousands of units.
A product is insanely successful when it creates an industry around that product. iPod is one such product as there are companies (and there are divisions of large companies) that make products just around iPod.
A product is insanely-unbelievably-extraordinarily successful when companies try to design and roll-out products that are possibly used only by a small percentage of people.
Take a look at the two products that are in the Skymall catalog related to iPod
One of them is a case where you can secure the iPod and it can float along side with you in the swimming pool or wherever appropriate
|
 Second one is an iPod jacket that is water resistant up to a few feet in the water. I think just in case you need to listen to the songs when you are swimming under water. |
As you can see, these manufacturers thought that (what I think is a small percentage) the subset (people who will use iPod in swimming pools) of the entire iPod universe is BIG ENOUGH to go and create the adjacent products in that area.
Posted under Business Models.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 27 May 2008, 10:04 PM - 2 Comments
Think of a typical startup and you will see three kinds of people involved:
1. Bedrock: These are people that will make and fulfill the promises of the startup. These are the people at the core of the startup
2. Getters: These are people who will make money when the offers made by the startup are being accepted.
3. Givers: These are people who will give the money to the startup (and in turn to the Givers) by accepting offers that are made by the startup
Take for example CDBaby. One of the core offers made by the startup is to sell music by independent musicians. The people who work at CDBaby (may be employed by CDBaby or may be not) are the Bedrock of the company. Independent musicians are the Getters and the customers who buy this music are the Givers.
When entrepreneurs are validating the startup idea, entrepreneurs may get into a trap of validating only with the Getters and forgetting the Givers. Getters are always excited about good avenues for getting their products out and making money. So they will most probably support you with your idea. Day in and day out if you focus on “Getters” you will continue to get positive validation.
Ultimately as you know all three categories of people are important and for a startup to gel well you need to focus on all categories of people.
Wish you the very best.
Posted under Business Models, Compelling Offers.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 15 May 2008, 8:15 PM - 2 Comments
Startups are not easy. Statistics prove that. The ones that seem easy on the news are just because they are exceptions and not the rule. First-time entrepreneurs have a bigger challenge because only few people bet on them.
Everyone knows that the team behind a startup is the most important aspect of a startup. The configuration of the founding team is complex.
Why?
Here are a few reasons:
1. Morphing along with the company: They say business model for a startup goes through at least three revisions in the first 18 months. In my opinion that number is way higher. How do you get people to morph with every business model change?
2. Multiple Hats: Team members have to wear multiple hats. Not everyone can do that.
3. Learning while doing: You have to do something but you have to be always learning. Some people are doers and some people are learners. You have to be the best in both and do it simultaneously.
and so on.
The big one in my opinion is how the roles get morphed with the changing marketplace. How do fellow founders handle someone who is in transition – meaning his current strengths don’t match the current requirements but he is quickly morphing himself to adapt to play a different role ?
Where you start and where you go in a startup depends totally on the founder. Will he/she have time to adapt to the changing conditions and will people around him/her (and the marketplace) will give the time required to adapt is the big question.
Posted under Business Models.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 12 May 2008, 4:22 PM - 2 Comments
“If Only We Knew What We Know” is one of the best books on Knowledge Management that I have read. I am re-visiting that book because the concepts there fits nicely with what we are offering with Rawsugar.
One of the chapters talks about the research findings of Gabriel Szulanski (from Wharton) on what are the barriers to knowledge transfer. Here are four reasons:
1. Ignorance: Those who have the “knowledge” don’t realize that others may find it useful. At the same time, those who could benefit from that “knowledge” have not idea someone in the company has it.
2. No absorptive capacity: Even when employees were not ignorant of the knowledge or best practice, they lacked the money, time, and management resources to pursue and study it in enough detail to make it useful.
3. The lack of pre-existing relationships: People absorb knowledge and practice from other people they know, respect, and – often – like. If two managers have no personal bond, no tie or link which pre-establishes trust, they’re less likely to incorporate each other’s experiences into their own work.
4. Lack of motivation: People may not perceive a clear business reason for pursuing the transfer of knowledge and best practices.
Now
<start commercial break>
If you are interested in having a conversation about how you can benefit from Rawsugar, please reach out to me
<end commercial break>
Regular programming continues…
Posted under Business Models.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 12 May 2008, 10:16 AM - 1 Comment
Last week I was at the EO San Francisco event. Ken Blanchard was the keynote speaker. In his engaging speech, Ken talked about one topic that resonated with many in the crowd. It is the concept of “ducks” and “eagles”.
Ken said it’s easy to notice ducks. They are always quacking. Examples
“The computer says that quack quack”
“It’s in the rule book quack quack”
“I don’t know quack quack”
“quack quack quack quack…”
We had a good laugh and remembered our own experiences with ducks in the past.
Actually, we didn’t have to go back to our past.
Next day Paul and I were in Los Angeles to meet with our potential partners and customers for Rawsugar and we got to see ducks in action. Paul had booked a rental car with Avis but unfortunately had forgotten to get his Avis Membership Card. We wanted to get down at the Preferred Member counter but the shuttle car driver wouldn’t stop the bus. When Paul requested him to stop, his response was
“I don’t work for you. I work for Avis. I am told to follow the rules”
Really, fresh from Ken’s talk, I heard it as:
“I don’t work for you quack quack. I work for Avis quack quack. I am told to follow the rules quack quack”
Paul and I ignored it and moved on to our meeting. The same evening we returned the car and for the next fifteen minutes there was no sign of a shuttle car to take us back to the terminals. One person was getting anxious (probably because she was getting late for her flight) and asked one of the Avis employees about the shuttle car. The response, as you can guess
“I don’t know”
and I could hear
“I don’t know quack quack”
I had read about the positioning genius of Avis “We try harder” and now it all makes sense to me. With shuttle car drivers and employees like this, they HAVE to try harder 
Posted under Business Models.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 08 May 2008, 8:41 PM - 1 Comment
I don’t use twitter but if you do are planning to do so, you will enjoy WebGuild’s Beginner’s Guide to Twitter.
Here is the link:
WebGuild: Beginner’s Guide to Twitter
Also, in the comments section (over there) you will end a few more links for twitter fans.
Enjoy!
Posted under Business Models.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 24 Apr 2008, 9:20 PM - 1 Comment
To copy or to mimic is low cost. And, it may work in the short-term. You save on the cost of innovation. If you are a fast “second mover”, you might have some advantages too (like you may not make the mistakes that your competitor made).
The big threat of blindly copying someone is the cost you will incur when that competitor does something to self-destruct. It can get messy.
Take care!
Posted under Business Models.
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