Leverage

Reframing the assets that we have

Abundance, assets, constraints, creativity, Leverage, possibility thinking, problem solving, Uncategorized

Inspite of the fact that I write about marketing,  product management,  finance etc. The fact is that I am also learning every day.  While I  have some theories like “Riding the Elephant ” , I am actually a Work in Process.

So when I  come across something which I  have used earlier and I read a book in which a similar  idea is written,  then it becomes a validation of my ideas.

In marketing you will constantly come across constraints.  Actually in life itself,  you will constantly come across constraints.  But in case of marketing,  I have noticed that Murphy’s law decides to become applicable at the most inappropriate times.

At those times you have to be as resourceful as possible.  One of the ways of becoming resourceful is to first identify all the assets at your disposal.

Next see how the same asset can be utilized in a different way.

Third “who” could benefit from the reframed asset and last

How could you benefit from the assets that person  or organization has and then go about showcasing them, about how it could be of mutual benefit to both the concerned parties.

One thing which I  have used very effectively is the spare technical manpower in our company.  I have actually gone and spoken to partners to check if they’re facing technical problems in going to the market. 

We have been able to work with partners because of just this one asset that we have and they can’t afford.  Due to that they take us to the market,  we help them sell and give us all the services.

Sometimes it could be the internal setup or processes or messaging that you have built,  which could be repurchased for the other side, in return for something that they have.

In marketing you always need to keep looking with an abundant mindset of how you could reframe the assets you have to get what you want.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

80/20 to improve on your weaknesses

Habits, Leverage, prioritizing

Its always better to focus on your strengths rather than wasting time on your weaknesses.  If over a period of time you eliminate all the activities except where you are excellent,  you can have an amazing life.

Now the above is something which I would work towards as my ultimate objective.  However there are times when you need to work with some of the weaknesses also because of business reasons.

I was never knowledgeable about legal terms of a contract.  But after I  came into my present role, I had to discuss on legal parts of a contract. Before this, legal language was absolutely Greek to me.

While marketing and sales is my forte, I had to build some capabilities on legal language. So I  identified some 20% items which were always a bone of contention in any legal contract.  So I  would just check  on those first and the other side was immediately engaged.

The other place where I am not strong is spreadsheets- initially when I  was stuck with studying business plans on excel sheets, I was all over the place trying to understand what was going on. Now I have identified a few key things which help me navigate the sheet and ask the right questions to my finance team.

With this I am able to achieve 80% of the tasks in any excel spreadsheet with ease. Its what I call small hinges moving larges doors.

Till next time….don’t waste your time in trying to strengthen your weaknesses. Identify the 20% that can meet 80% of the requirements.

Carpe Diem!!!

Scarcity drives Evolution

Human Brain, Innovation, Leverage

A lot of us have heard about the phrase Necessity is the Mother of Invention. The human brain works to finds creative ways to meet the necessities. That’s why the more brain power that exists in a country, the more creative the ideas that can be brought out to meet the necessities of the people. The US was among the first countries which built its immigration policies after the World Wars to ensure that they were able to attract the best brain power from other countries to create more innovation. That is one of the reasons that its still way ahead in creating more innovations.

Today I was reading a book by Steven Kotler – The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer. I have read multiple books that Steven has jointly written with Dr. Peter Diamandis like Abundance and Bold and I like his writing because he does a lot of research on the topics that he writes about. Some may find this kind of detailing boring.

Right in the first few pages of the book I read this statement. And its been going round in my brain. As per him its the scarcity of resources that has made human beings always innovate and evolve. He’s gone ahead talk about the biology of this and you can read the book to learn more.

However the reason that this statement has been moving around my head is that when we learnt the various theories of evolution they were primarily related to nature causing mutations, survival of the fittest etc.

What’s intriguing to me is why are scarcity of resources a reason for the evolution of human beings, while it’s not meant major evolution in the other pieces of nature as much. Lions and elephants I don’t think have changed too much in the last 5000 years or more.

In my blogs I keep writing about how human ingenuity will always find a solution to problems and surviving, what is giving the humans this capability. Is it just our brain power which has helped us survive much more larger animals in the jungles. Is it the fact the 5 figures in each of our hands can be moved and folded causing this. While no other animal stores resources for the future how did the human being get onto this journey of storing resources.

These are some very interesting queries about when the human race broke away from the animal kingdom. In the animal kingdom even now no animal accumulates resources. I will be on the hunt to find out a little more about this and will keep you all posted.

But this statement also has everyday uses in our lives. When a project has limited resources and a deadline is nearing the teams find ways to optimise. In marketing when we have a shortage of resources like most startups and small companies do, we find low cost methods to help. We identify leverage points.

As a matter of fact my last 2-3 posts on Riding the elephant were all about this.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Riding the elephant – using the power of relationships

Leverage, Marketing, Partners, Symbiotic relationship

I have always had the belief that when you are a small company, in the tech services market space, you don’t have the wherewithal to define the market, or challenge the incumbent with revolutionary new technology, then you need to use guerrilla tactics to get in front of the customers and get business.

When your company is small most big companies don’t want to deal with you, not because they have anything against you, but they just want to work with guys who are bigger and more stable. Big companies also have more inertia and no one wants to spend time trying to evaluate small companies.

One practice which I used very successfully over the years was to align with huge global behemoths in some specific niche product offering which they were either launching or were bringing new into the country. All these product companies have huge marketing budgets so they know how to get in front of the customer. That is your weakness. You are a small services company who can’t get in front of enough people.

So as an analogy, if you want to travel through the jungle on foot, you won’t last very long alive. But if you are sitting on an elephant, then where ever in the jungle the elephant goes, you can travel safely and enjoy the view. You however need to build a good relationship with the elephant to be able to ride on its back. in nature they call these as symbiotic relationships.

As I mentioned these global product companies have huge inertia, systems etc. which are a weakness for the sales person and marketing person at the local level to move the global organisation.

These are places where you can leverage on your being small. being a small company you can take decisions quickly, you can turn around solutions fast.

So you can offer these local sales people support interns of feet on the ground for technical support or do PoCs for them etc. There will be some people who you may find are selfish and take you for a ride. But in most cases the law of reciprocity – from Robert Cialdini’s Influence – comes in. Those sales people whom you help in winning the sale help take you in front of more customers. Obviously there are general ethics that you have to follow because partnerships take a long time to build.

Since these are global companies, you can also get references of other sales people and create your own network which can help you grow further. If the global company is growing with the product then you will have a long runway for your own growth using this methodology.

There is a downside to this method though. If the company decides to exit that line of business, then all the investments that you have made in terms of your technical manpower etc. go waste. So you need to find a way to utilise those assets while you are looking for then next global elephant on whose back you can ride into the next market.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!