Thursday, March 31, 2011
Indian company in top 50 innovative
An Indian company in Fast Company's top 50 most innovative companies - Shaadi.com!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Do More Faster
If you are an entrepreneur or a wantrepreneur (want to be entrepreneur), please read the book 'Do More Faster.' Especially if you want to do a web startup. I have ready 1/10th of it and I am already so inspired by it, and have learned so many great lessons, its amazing. One of the best books I have read ever, by far.
Speaking of Entrepreneurship, I am learning Ruby on Rails right now, and might code and launch an application soon to test an idea. What, learning coding in B School? Yes. Life has a way of going around in circles.
Speaking of Entrepreneurship, I am learning Ruby on Rails right now, and might code and launch an application soon to test an idea. What, learning coding in B School? Yes. Life has a way of going around in circles.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Business school lingo
I am working on a video on Business School lingo. It is spring break, so I am lazy and so it is taking forever. Till then, enjoy this related video I found on youtube
Friday, March 18, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Feedback and Rypple
A few days ago, I was talking to some of my Kellogg friends, and we were discussing good ways to give feedback to each other. Kellogg does have a standard survey that any student can send out to his/her group mates for that quarter, but the rates of people filling out the survey are dismal; I have tried sending it out for two quarters, and have gotten a grand total of two responses.
My Leading and Managing Teams class taught my Professor Apfelbaum was a completely different experience. Professor A mandated that each member of the team think of five positive and five negative pieces of feedback for each team member, type them up in a template that he provided in a font that he specified, and then tear each section apart and put in the person's envelop, thus making the feedback anonymous. The feedback I got from this exercise was invaluable. Thinking of ten pieces of feedback for each member of the team wasn't fun, but it was a very valuable exercise in the end.
So back to what I was thinking - I thought why isn't there a way to give anonymous, constructive feedback in companies? Why cannot people recognize each other for a job well done? After all, aren't we giving each other feedback in some way via Facebook likes, Twitter retweets etc?
Enter Rypple. According to their Crunchbase entry, they were founded in 2008 in Toronto, and raised 7 million dollars in Series A funding in 2010. The software promises to get rid of performance reviews that "suck" and instead brings a culture of constant feedback and learning to employees. I can see such reviews and feedback items being extremely helpful, and bringing in a useful perspective on yearly performance reviews. I love the idea. However, I see some issues with this product as it is right now:
1. First of all - Rypple up being another social network for the enterprise; and there can be just one. Yammer and Chatter (from salesforce.com) are going head to head against each other; Rypple needs to find a way to work with them rather than standing alone.
2. I think that the product is missing an initial hook to bring in users. It uses a Yammer like go to market approach, where anyone can sign up for a free account, and the organization can 'claim' the network later for $5 per user. However, if I was in Rypple's place, I would try to provide value right out of the gate; for example, what if I could sign up for Rypple, then send a feedback request to anyone in my company, and they can give me anonymous feedback without needing to sign up? I get immediate value, and people who give me a feedback get an opportunity to sign up for an account. As they hear more and more about rypple, they eventually sign up and there you have people up and running on it!
3. The name - why is the name Rypple? Don't get it.....
4. Last, but not least, implementing Rypple will involve a sea change in how a company works. I guess others - like Yammer - have made that change in companies, but I would argue that Rypple involves an even greater change in how we give feedback to each other, how public we make it, how often we look for/want feedback.
On the positive side:
1. Love the inbound marketing approach. They already have videos with several customers up and running
2. Product design is fairly good, though a lot of features do make it somewhat confusing
Good luck Rypple. Excited to see where this goes...
My Leading and Managing Teams class taught my Professor Apfelbaum was a completely different experience. Professor A mandated that each member of the team think of five positive and five negative pieces of feedback for each team member, type them up in a template that he provided in a font that he specified, and then tear each section apart and put in the person's envelop, thus making the feedback anonymous. The feedback I got from this exercise was invaluable. Thinking of ten pieces of feedback for each member of the team wasn't fun, but it was a very valuable exercise in the end.
So back to what I was thinking - I thought why isn't there a way to give anonymous, constructive feedback in companies? Why cannot people recognize each other for a job well done? After all, aren't we giving each other feedback in some way via Facebook likes, Twitter retweets etc?
Enter Rypple. According to their Crunchbase entry, they were founded in 2008 in Toronto, and raised 7 million dollars in Series A funding in 2010. The software promises to get rid of performance reviews that "suck" and instead brings a culture of constant feedback and learning to employees. I can see such reviews and feedback items being extremely helpful, and bringing in a useful perspective on yearly performance reviews. I love the idea. However, I see some issues with this product as it is right now:
1. First of all - Rypple up being another social network for the enterprise; and there can be just one. Yammer and Chatter (from salesforce.com) are going head to head against each other; Rypple needs to find a way to work with them rather than standing alone.
2. I think that the product is missing an initial hook to bring in users. It uses a Yammer like go to market approach, where anyone can sign up for a free account, and the organization can 'claim' the network later for $5 per user. However, if I was in Rypple's place, I would try to provide value right out of the gate; for example, what if I could sign up for Rypple, then send a feedback request to anyone in my company, and they can give me anonymous feedback without needing to sign up? I get immediate value, and people who give me a feedback get an opportunity to sign up for an account. As they hear more and more about rypple, they eventually sign up and there you have people up and running on it!
3. The name - why is the name Rypple? Don't get it.....
4. Last, but not least, implementing Rypple will involve a sea change in how a company works. I guess others - like Yammer - have made that change in companies, but I would argue that Rypple involves an even greater change in how we give feedback to each other, how public we make it, how often we look for/want feedback.
On the positive side:
1. Love the inbound marketing approach. They already have videos with several customers up and running
2. Product design is fairly good, though a lot of features do make it somewhat confusing
Good luck Rypple. Excited to see where this goes...
High Level Rypple Demonstration from Rypple on Vimeo.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Career Leader
One of the key tests students take to understand one's suitability to different careers is called 'Career Leader.' I have taken this test several times; once a long time before B School, once in my first year of Kellogg, and once in my second year. The test is supposed to help decide which Career is a good match for you, and which is not.
While I found the career leader to be a great point of starting the self-reflection process, I did see that my suitability to various careers seemed to change significantly over the years. Here is an example:
2007:
2nd year after my summer internship in consulting: Notice that Management Consulting is now near the top of the list
A key determinant was my interest in 'Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking.' I believe that Business School education has changed this significantly; I have really enjoyed learning frameworks, thinking about Business Strategy through the frameworks learned in courses such as Business Strategy and Competitive Strategy. So will Management Consulting continue to be the perfect suitable career for me? We will find out in a few months...
While I found the career leader to be a great point of starting the self-reflection process, I did see that my suitability to various careers seemed to change significantly over the years. Here is an example:
2007:
2nd year after my summer internship in consulting: Notice that Management Consulting is now near the top of the list
A key determinant was my interest in 'Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking.' I believe that Business School education has changed this significantly; I have really enjoyed learning frameworks, thinking about Business Strategy through the frameworks learned in courses such as Business Strategy and Competitive Strategy. So will Management Consulting continue to be the perfect suitable career for me? We will find out in a few months...
Sunday, February 27, 2011
10 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2011
10 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2011
View more presentations from SIGMA Marketing Group
Happiness in negotiations
One of the courses I am looking forward to next quarter is Negotiations. Although I have to say, it does suck to negotiate - why? No matter how good an outcome you get, it is likely that you will not be happy. There is an inherent tendency to focus on what you left on the table, rather than what you did get. And since typically there is no way to determine exactly what you left on the table, you will always be unhappy.
A book that I am reading now (How we decide) sheds light on this phenomena in investing. Let's say you invest in a stock and it goes up. You sell. Then the stock goes up even further. What happens? You are upset that you lost that money. This disappointment is even stronger when losing money. Let's say you invest in a stick. It goes down, and you figure that you should sell, but you don't - because of a related phenomena called loss aversion; which is that when it comes to losses, we prefer uncertainty, but when it comes to gains, we prefer uncertainty. What happens because of this? You end up selling all stocks that went up, and end up holding that goes down - in short, you are left with a sucky portfolio.
So what's the solution? If you find one, please do let me know - when I do pay off these MBA loans and have some money, I will invest in your solution.
A book that I am reading now (How we decide) sheds light on this phenomena in investing. Let's say you invest in a stock and it goes up. You sell. Then the stock goes up even further. What happens? You are upset that you lost that money. This disappointment is even stronger when losing money. Let's say you invest in a stick. It goes down, and you figure that you should sell, but you don't - because of a related phenomena called loss aversion; which is that when it comes to losses, we prefer uncertainty, but when it comes to gains, we prefer uncertainty. What happens because of this? You end up selling all stocks that went up, and end up holding that goes down - in short, you are left with a sucky portfolio.
So what's the solution? If you find one, please do let me know - when I do pay off these MBA loans and have some money, I will invest in your solution.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Dear Kellogg prospective students
Dear Kellogg prospective student visitors,
We love having you visit the school. We love talking to you, giving you advice, learning about some of the interesting things you have done and plan to do in the future. And we love you visit classes. There is one thing that we do not love - if you attend classes, we are disturbed if you are completely distracted and on your smartphone all the time. We are distracted when you start typing up emails on your blackberry. And we don't like it as it shows complete lack of respect for the professor. We are guilty of this ourselves at times, but we try to refrain as much as possible. So please do us a favor; when you visit a class, keep your phone completely switched off and stowed away for the duration of the class.
Thanks
Kellogg Students.
We love having you visit the school. We love talking to you, giving you advice, learning about some of the interesting things you have done and plan to do in the future. And we love you visit classes. There is one thing that we do not love - if you attend classes, we are disturbed if you are completely distracted and on your smartphone all the time. We are distracted when you start typing up emails on your blackberry. And we don't like it as it shows complete lack of respect for the professor. We are guilty of this ourselves at times, but we try to refrain as much as possible. So please do us a favor; when you visit a class, keep your phone completely switched off and stowed away for the duration of the class.
Thanks
Kellogg Students.
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