Now what should I get - Health Insurance or Credit Cards

Applying for healthcare coverage in America is a blast! Picture these scenarios:

1. Getting a new credit card - you either get pre-approved offers in the mail, or you simply enter your Social Security Number and some details on a web form, get approved in a few seconds, and there - you have your card!

2. Apply for Health Insurance - First fill in atleast 30 pages of form. All health information since you were born. Then do a verification phone call with the underwriter (which sounds like undertaker). And often get rejected for ridiculous reasons - Mono, which I have had personal experience getting rejected with (Imagine the statistic from Wiki, well over 90% of all adults are exposed to at some point in their life!) or Acne (someone from a forum reported getting rejected for THAT!).

Now why is health insurance not as easy to obtain? Why do I need to enter the same information several times. Just like a credit history, who don't I have a centralized health history? How can America, the most powerful country in the world, have such a broken health system? Something's gotta give...

The Leadership Program has a new website

Check out http://startupleadership.com/ - the new website for the Leadership Program. Originally launched 3 years ago in Boston, we are expanding to Bay Area this year, and potentially San Diego. I completed this program in 2008, and then stayed on as Program Manager for class of 2009 (read my post about it here). I see this becoming a national program in association with local TiE Chapters, and hope to take this program to Chicago next year.

Productization

I recently heard a talk by a senior officer from my company (let's call him John Doe) on his vision for our products and services. He drew a comparison to Apple, and coined a concept he called 'productization.' This is how he explained it.

A couple of years ago, he felt that he should go buy an MP3 player. He went to the obvious choice - an apple store. There was an apple associate that greeted him - not just any electronic store sales guy, but a person who had the right combination of 'geekiness' and 'likeability,' to inspire respect from the customers. John could tell that this guy had a lot of passion for Apple, and its products.

Typically, the sales guy would take the customer right to the product. But this salesperson took John over to a mac, and showed him iTunes - the store where one can buy a song for a buck, and the moment when one plugs in the ipod, it is automatically synchronized. Next, the salesperson took John to the genius area - the part of the store where you can bring in your ipod or laptop, and ask any sort of question to the experts, who know all about apple technology. And in fact, you can schedule the appointment online or over the phone, so that you have a guaranteed slot when you do come in! Next, he took him over to the accessories area for the ipod - with cases, earphones, and speakers which can be used to play the music at home, in the car etc.

Now at this point John had not seen the product - the ipod. However, he was ready to buy it there and then. He didn't care how the product looked like, or how much it cost him! This is 'productization' - adding great service and the right complimentary products, to a a solid product, which makes the value proposition of the whole ecosystem so compelling.

This experience had its impact two years down the road. John's old dell laptop crashed. All he needed to do, was to buy a low-end Dell laptop for $400. However he went to the apple store to see the Mac notebooks, and happily shelled out $1600 for a Macbook Pro. And he is very happy that he made the decision to spend four times as much for similar configuration, but superior design, service and complementary products. All's well that ends well (atleast for Apple).

Hack Wall Street

I have a T Shirt which says 'Hack Wall Street,' from a company known as Tower Research Capital. The company specializes in quantitative trading and investment strategies, activity that can be argued to have contributed to the financial crisis. But when I wear this T-Shirt on 'Main Street' I get different reactions.

The other day I wore this on my flight to Atlanta. I got two compliments from 2 different women aged between 50 and 70, about how much they loved the shirt. I guess this is reflective of the mood; wall street is interpreted as a group of suit-wearing, MBA degree carrying, greedy workaholics. And my T-Shirt is interpreted as a protest - a war cry - against the stereotypical Wall street types causing the mess that main street is dealing with. While the T-Shirt is from a firm very much a part and parcel of Wall Street. As, the irony of interpretation.

Linkedin vs Facebook

I cannot help but compare the 2 social networks I spend most time on - Facebook and Linkedin. While Facebook is typically considered a more 'fun' network, and linkedin way more professional, I find that the lines are blurring. A lot of my professional network is also on facebook, and vice-versa. But in terms of level of engagement, I use facebook so much more than linkedin. Linkedin has much to learn from Facebook


1. Ease of Use - Facebook and Linkedin both ask the question - What are you doing now. But facebook has made it so much easier for me to post what I am doing - through use of Tweetdeck. Sometimes I want to post a link to an interesting article that I have read on linkedin, especially as it might be more suited to my professional network. But I don't take the effort to go to linkedin and post it.

2. Fun - no doubt Facebook is so much more fun! Understandably so, given the more professional focus on linkedin. But who says professionals cannot have fun? There need to be more easily discoverable applications on linkedin, to gain the same level of engagement. I do not expect people to start posting pictures on linkedin, but reports like conference experiences etc. would be welcome

3. Applications - While Linkedin has opened its API in response to Facebook, the kind of applications available on the site do not rival Facebook in any way. There needs to be a way to encourage developers to develop more applications, such as revenue sharing/generation opportunities.

One Dish only in this restaraunt

My wife and I ate at the Le Relais De Venise L'Entrecote restaurant on our mini-moon. I was amazed to find that it has just one dish - a delightful steak dish with their special sauce, and fries. Served with a starter walnut and wasabi salad. And this the 5th location of this restaurant. Talk about doing one thing really well!

Check out my Friend's Business

Comfort for your feet that fits in your purse. I find this is just an awesome idea, a great latent need for women which is being solved through these shoes. Just go out wearing pumps, and then when you get to class/workplace where you need comfortable shoes, get these shoes out and wear them. Now available in stores in Harvard Square

www.fitinclouds.com

Visual Creative Thinking

An interesting presentation on Visual Creative Thinking

Visual Creative Thinking

View more presentations from homehelper.

Frustuated Robots

I have been reading the book Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Don Norman, one of the directors of the MMM program at Kellogg. The book has a fascinating chapter on Robots, and how robots might affect everyday life in the future. Don sees several robots being present in the household, each of them dedicated to one or more tasks. They would not all look like human beings; instead, they would have a form based on their function. So a dish-washing robot would like a ...well...dishwasher!

Don also talks about the need for these robots to have emotion to effectively perform their tasks, and make appropriate decisions. We, as humans, use emotion to make several decisions without even realizing the fact. Robots will not necessarily have human emotions; on the contrary, they would have emotions specialized to their needs. Don discusses a situation in which the emotion of frustration might help the robots in deadlock scenarios, as described here.

Suppose there are 3 robots in the household; a pantry robot, to fetch things from the pantry; a dish-washing robot, for washing dishes; and a servant robot, who does common chores around the house. You tell the servant robot to go fetch a cup. The servant robot goes to the pantry robot and asks for a cup. The pantry robot does not have a clean cup, so he(at the risk of assuming that all robots are male!) requests the dish-washing robot for a clean cup. The dish-washing robot does not have any cups - clean or dirty - so he requests the servant robot to get a dirty cup lying around the house so the he could clean it. Now the servant robot is waiting for the pantry robot for the clean cup, so he cannot take on a new task. And so, we have a deadlock!

Now what if the servant robot gets frustrated, quits his task for the time being, and moves on to the next task? Problem solved! Now he listens to the dish-washing robot, gets him a dirty cup, and in a few seconds, the clean cup passes to the pantry robot and finally to the hands of the servant robot (who now experiences happiness!). All's well that ends well, even if it produces a little frustration in the middle.

Kellogg

Now that I have made this information public to my peers at my company, I am proud to announce that I am headed to the MMM program at Northwestern University, a dual degree program that will lead me to the MBA degree from Kellogg and a MEM degree from McCormick School of Engineering.

The application process for business school has been long and frustrating, but immensely rewarding. A few 'things' were invaluable in helping me get through it:

1. Friends and advisors - Several friends and mentors from work, my undergraduate college, the TiE Leadership program and at other business schools helped me with various aspects of the application: developing my story, reviewing my essays, preparing for my interview, and connecting me with current students and alumni of the schools I was applying to. And of course, my fiancee and other friends who kept me in good spirits as I was getting depressed doing the 10th round of the Why MBA essay.

2. Time - There is no substitute to starting early, and giving yourself enough time to do the essays. I had taken the GMAT a while ago, so that wasn't a problem. I concentrated only on the essays, and developed and changed my story several times. Ultimately, the applicaton process was an exercise in marketing myself, and plenty of time to craft the story helped quite a bit. Also applying in the second round to several schools helped. My Kellogg application was actually my last application, and I feel that I had been able to refine it on because of all the time I had. This brings up an important point - the perennial 1st round vs 2nd round debate. I strongly feel that both rounds are the same for most schools, and one need not submit a hurried Round 1 application.

3. Talking to current students and alumni - Doing this helped me really understood what each school stood for, beyond the brochures. It helped me understand Kellogg's social culture, Ross's laid-back students, and Wharton's rigor. Of course I did not get in everywhere, but gave it a good shot nevertheless.

4. Taking time off - Business school essays can be extremely taxing. Like in most creative endeavors, one needs to mix periods of extreme focus with periods of fun. Working too hard can be pretty harmful

5. Not listenening to everyone - Everyone has an opinion that they would share with you. If you are a B School applicant, you are reading my opinion right now. Listen to everyone, but then do your own thing. You know yourself best. I heard several conflicting opinions, and ultimately stuck with what I felt was right.

6. Energy during the interview - By nature, I am laid back in my social interactions. While this works well for me in several situations (helping me come across as an approachable person, for example), it wasn't the best strategy for the interview. My mentor, Anupendra, pushed me several times on this aspect, and challenged me to express my passion for the school when I interviewed. It clearly helped; my Kellogg interview was by far the best, and really helped me get through.

7. Not going to the Businessweek forums - they are evil! Avoid them like they plague, they will just make you nervous. I started going to the forums for a while in between, and stopped once I realized how I had become part of a group of panicky,nervous Type-A applicants who get pissed off and have useless arguments utilizing the anonimity that the internet provides us.

8. Why MBA? Why this school? - I struggled till the end in getting these questions answered in a concise, believeable, and interesting manner. Ultimately, I feel that I got accepted to the schools, which had special aspects that linked well to my career goals, background and personality. A great book that helped me craft this message was Made to Stick.