Certainties & Serendipities

My brother-in-law gifted me ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Isaacson, owing to my love for everything Apple. I can’t tell you why I couldn’t put the book down before completing it – is it my curiosity about Steve Jobs or the easy-to-read style of the book. Either way, it was a fascinating read.

Enough is already written about the book, so I’m not attempting to write a review of the book. Rather I present here those points I noted from the book. These are not word-to-word highlights but my understanding and interpretations:

On Creating Products

• That he is a genius is proved beyond a doubt by disrupting not just his primary industry but seven different industries; and not one smash hit but many others even until his death;
• He empowered his customers by taking away features rather than giving them boatload of features. They loved him for that. He proved his mantra, ‘things often lead to the opposites‘;
• He not only created new markets, but created new type of customers – evangelists. His idea was to create products that his customers will go on rave about, that their friends will feel stupid not to own those products.

On Marketing

• I have read a lot about Apple & Steve Jobs but never read about their marketing principles set out at the initial days of the company by Mike Markkula. It goes like this:
  

  1) Empathy : an intimate connection with the feelings of the customer: we will truly understand their needs better than any other company
  2) Focus : In order to do a good job of those things that we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities
  3) Impute : People do judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.

If there is anything that CEOs and companies want to learn from Apple or Steve Jobs, it should be these principles. Not his idiosyncrasies.

On Company Development

Despite his big blown ego, he didn’t want Apple to be only about him. He wanted to build a company that will out-last him. Media overhyped his eccentricities but didn’t do justice to his ability to develop a company. Here is my view of range of factors he displayed in building Apple:

• Leadership models: He had wide range of leadership style. He wasn’t ‘nasty and demeaning’ boss to everyone. He expected that if you are passionate about your idea, then you should defend it even if the boss dismisses it.

• Hiring: He said,

‘A’ players hire ‘A’ players. But ‘B’ players hire ‘C’ players so that they can feel superior. Soon you got a ‘bozo explosion’ in your company.

In the pretext of cost cutting, he didn’t hire B & C players. He had the knack to seduce the best to join his team.

• Succession: He didn’t say, ‘when I’m gone, world will return to dark ages.’ Rather, he ensured a proper succession was in place and groomed his successor well to take over from him. I admire him for it. How many founders / CEOs are doing that?
• Do people matter?: Yes, he did hire ‘A’ players and avoided ‘bozo explosion’. But when he was unceremoniously thrown out of Apple, it had the same people. But they couldn’t produce what Steve Jobs produced. So people matter, but leadership matter more.
• He didn’t buy companies rather improved supply chain: With all the money that he had, he could’ve bought all his rivals. But he marched on with a single focus of building aesthetically pleasing and ‘just works’ products.

On Personal Life

Living in India, all that I know about his life is through this book and other news media. So I’m not going to pass any judgement. Enough to say, his life is a quintessential Hollywood movie – given for adoption at birth, raised in a middle-class family, dropped out of college, hit a jackpot and became a millionaire before thirty but went into obscurity only to come out to change the world forever, managed to find love both in personal and professional life and importantly was lucky enough to live out his passion to the last minute. Tell me, who would’t want to be Steve Jobs?

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Drawing on his own years in McKinsey as well as extensive interviews with current and former McKinsey-ites, the author takes us through the proven approaches used in McKinsey for solving business problems.

Through out the book, the author emphasizes the rigorous training of Mckinsey-ites to be structured in every aspect of their approach to finding solutions to business problems – be it thinking or working or selling of solutions.

Also there is a magic number of three in every approach. As the author notes, everything comes in three in the firm (how he calls McKinsey). This again is a form of bringing structure into every dealing.

I have drawn a map of the (relevant) concepts mentioned in the book on problem solving.

Concept Map of the book 'The McKinsey Way'

Thinking about business problems
When you start with problem solving, gather as many facts as possible. Most consultants are generalists, even the experienced ones. For such generalists, facts compensate for the gut instincts. Further facts give credibility when dealing with the stakeholders.

When gathering issues that cause the problem, be exhaustive but avoid overlaps (what McKinsey calls mutually exclusive and completely exhaustive).

With the facts and MECE issues, generate your initial hypothesis. Never be afraid to frame a hypothesis. And then test your initial hypothesis. How do you test? Brainstorming. That is why problem solving should not be a solo venture. You need others to pick apart your ideas. Later in the book the author also warn never to invest your ego with your hypothesis. After all it is a hypothesis.

Working to solve business problems
On a day-to-day basis the problem solving model includes research, interviews and brainstorming. You should browse trade magazines and annual reports of the client. They give you the idea of jargons, best practices and current issues the particular industry faces.

Magazines and reports can give generic informations but the specifics of the problems are in the heads of front-line people. Listening to their experience and anecdotes provide essential insights into the problem. So go talk to them.

Update every one of the issues, results of research and interview and let them form their own hypothesis. But the real work of problem solving starts only with brainstorming. Pick apart everyone’s hypothesis to arrive at a solution.

Selling the solution
The best solution, no matter how well researched, analyzed and solved, is worthless if your client don’t buy it. If they have to buy it you have to sell it. One of the components of that selling is a well structured presentation. But real selling doesn’t happen during the presentation. It happens well before everyone gather for the presentation. You should walk the audience through the major points beforehand.

Communication is the lifeline of a team-based operation. Internal communication as well as with those with client’s team should be short, thorough and structured.

Client’s team play a crucial role in any engagement and hence it is important to keep the client’s team on your side. Know that there will be politics and ensure politics favors you.

The key takeaway from the book is that there should be structure in your thinking, analysis and communication for effective problem solving.

This post is part of ‘Be a Problem Solver‘ series.

Consume-Produce-Engage is the model that I follow to build my knowledge. I ‘consume’ Books, Blogs and Journals and ‘Produce & Engage’ through blogging.

Like many bloggers, my interest is multi-fold. Even in the professional side, I’m interested in project management, business analysis, problem solving, e-Governance, process re-engineering, people management, product development, leadership and so on. I ‘consume’ in all of these domains.  Naturally I wanted to ‘produce’ in all of these domains too. That was not a problem for me since I consume in all of these spaces.

Before I started this blog, I read through many of the top bloggers like Chris Brogan, Men with Pen and Copyblogger. They recommended to stay with a single theme so that it doesn’t confuse the subscribers and readers. But then I will have to create many different blogs! I didn’t like the thought of managing many blogs and moderating comments in those blogs. So I blogged on consulting, project management, emerging trends in India and so on – all within this blog itself.

I don’t know if readers had a problem with blog entries from those range of topics. But I did.

I had assumed that with variety of subjects to choose from, I will never run out of topics for blog entry. I was wrong.

I was wrong because I wrote whatever hit my thought-stream and I didn’t have a flow. My mind kept wandering and I had many unfinished posts in draft mode. There was no coherence. I was stuck.

Since I was stuck, I took a break. I even considered creating multiple blogs. But that thought didn’t enthuse me. So I kept delaying getting back to blogging.

That is when I happened to read Guy Kawasaki‘s The 120 Day Wonder: How to Evangelize a Blog. He advised bloggers to think of blogging as writing a book. I got hooked. I told myself, that is what I should be doing. I don’t have to create multiple blogs. Just think of blogging as writing book. So stay with the theme of the book as long as it takes to complete it. Once completed, move on to the next ‘book’. If readers like the theme, they will subscribe; if they don’t like the running theme, they will unsubscribe. What a liberating thought! Guy is truly genius. No wonder he is what he is.

Then I debated on the theme for the first ‘book’. I am equally passionate about all the subjects. So choosing one was a difficult choice. When I thought deeply (and thought about what has been a common thread all through my carrier), ‘problem solving’ emerged as the theme.

So the title of the first ‘book’ is ‘Be A Problem Solver’.

Problem solving is a critical skill in any domain. I plan to write at least one article a week on this theme. I was excited as I created a list of possible topics. Now I got a flow.

Wish me luck.

Thank you for reading, commenting and being part of my ‘book’ writing.

I’m always on the lookout for a tip on improving productivity. So when it comes from someone who is a a serial entrepreneur, a regular HBR contributor, and author among many other things, I’m all ears.

Goals should be good journeys, not just good destination

Stever Robbins has released a new book called “Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More”. His team has put together a website from which you can download the first two chapters of the book for free and tons of other podcasts on the same theme.

I read the free chapters and I’m impressed.

When I’m faced with a huge task, I ask myself, “How do you eat an elephant?” And then I answer, “Bit by bit”. But in the second chapter titled, ‘Stop Procrastinating’, Stever says,

Taking baby chunks isn’t about breaking your project into pieces, it’s about breaking time into pieces….

With baby chunks, you’ll speed date the task you’ve been procrastinating. Set a time limit (preferably with an actual physical timer) and work 100 percent for that much time. Then get up and do something  else. From the moment you sit down, you’ll know that in just a few minutes, you’ll be free once again.

Since I read this, I’ve been practicing ‘breaking time into pieces’ and it has given me amazing results. Suddenly there is progress in ‘bitter’ projects. Hippie!

With that enlightenment, I sent out three questions to Stever. Walking his talk, he replied immediately. Here they are:

Q) There are plethora of self-help books in the market already. How is ‘The Get-it-Done Guy Book’ different from ’7 habits’, ‘Get it done’ or ’80/20′, which you also refer in your book?

Seven Habits and 80/20 both present specific principles you can use to improve parts of your work life. In the case of Seven Habits, there are seven broad principles, which you’re left to figure out how to apply. In the case of 80/20, you get a single principle and dozens of ways to apply it.

My book introduces the Nine Steps as big picture principles, and then applies those steps in several ways that you can instantly take and use as individual tips. If you’re reading for big picture ideas, you’ll find those in the book. But if you want a very hands-on, specific set of tools for making yourself more productive today, you’ll find that too. I’m much more actionable  than the other two books. It’s a reflection of my personality—I’m a big picture thinker with the ability to move from the big picture vision all the way down to the number of paperclips needed to implement the vision. The book is written that way, too.

The Get-it-Done Guy Book is much funnier than any other business book I’m aware of. Plus, it tells you how to use your file folders to organize a zombie army to take over the world. I’m pretty sure that Covey neglected that topic entirely in Seven Habits.

Q) You head many successful start-ups, write a weekly column on HBR, produce a podcast and now authored a book. These are more than what most of us do. But you mention in the book that ‘If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up working more than when you started’. So how does this line fit into your life?¨

You didn’t mention the Get-it-Done Guy Musical, which I’m co-writing with an Off-Broadway composer, producing, and will be performing.

Sometimes we teach best what we need to learn most. At the moment, I’ve consciously overloaded myself to produce the exposure to gain momentum with the book. It isn’t sustainable, and I know that. Step One in the book is Live on Purpose, know the purpose behind everything you do and know how it fits into the map of your life. I know where the book fits in my life map, and while it’s fun, it’s one small part of several larger areas of my life. Much of what I’m doing now supports the book, but aren’t related to other areas of my life. A few months from now, I’ll be ramping down many of my current activities that are motivated by the book, but don’t fit under my larger dreams.

And just for the record, my ultimate professional dreams are launching a paid media career and creating an information products business that lets me make a major impact in how people create the life they want.

Q) Most of the people in the west side of the globe believe, ‘Destiny is a choice’. So it is easy to say to those who live there, ‘have a goal, and work towards that goal’. But on the east side of the globe, we generally believe ‘Destiny is a chance’. How can we use the 9 steps you propose?

I am good at reaching goals. I’ve spent my entire life setting and working towards goals. Three years ago I stopped and asked whether setting and reaching goals was giving me a high-quality life. Upon reflection, the best things in my life were almost never explicit goal nor steps designed to reach a goal.

Now, I live more in the moment. The 9 Steps are still extremely useful, since they help you do things easily and freely whether you’re working towards a goal or just doing what you enjoy doing in the moment. For example, today I am writing several guest columns about my book using my grid techniques from Step 5: Stay Organized. Whether these guest columns are part of a master plan to make my book a best-seller, or whether they’re a spur-of-the-moment decision is irrelevant. I’m still able to work less and get more done, whether or not there’s a bigger goal I’m trying to reach.

In Step 1: Live on Purpose, I introduce life maps, which are hierarchies of goals that show how you organize your life. Your question has made me realize that in my life map, my top goals aren’t goals in the traditional sense. They’re things I believe will be fulfilling in the moment, and everything flows from that. I didn’t choose them because they seemed like good destinations, I chose them because they seemed like good journeys. And that, my friend, makes all the difference.

Investment literacy is essential for building and keeping wealth. But for most us the world of investment is “a parallel universe controlled by prophecy, mysterious symbols, obscure cycles, and strange ideas about how human beings behave.” It doesn’t have to be that way; it can be safe and simple is the message that Harry Browne is spreading through this tiny book.

The book encourages a commonsense based, practical approach to building wealth rather than on speculation. So you won’t find any tips about getting rich quickly or retiring in Bahamas.

There are 17 rules in Part I of the book. In Part II, the author provides more information on these 17 rules. For a glimpse into the book, I discuss three such rules.

Rule #1: Build Your Wealth Upon Your Career – I never heard this rule before and if you have not read this book earlier, you wouldn’t have heard it too. The author emphasizes that your career and investment together build a prosperous and secure future. Yes, investing will build wealth but it is your career that gives you the money to invest. So keep your feet on the ground and remember, you got to go to work tomorrow.

Rule #7: Invest Only On a Cash Basis – When you see a ‘golden opportunity’, borrowing money can seem like a smart way to exploit the opportunity. But borrowed money can just easily enlarge your loss as increase your profit.

Rule #11: Build a Bulletproof Portfolio For Protection – This rule is the crux of the book. According to the author, economic circumstances can be broadly classified into prosperity, inflation, recession and deflation. To be protected in all circumstances, there must be at least one investment in the portfolio that responds well to it. The author identifies stocks, bonds, gold and cash as the investment instruments for these economic circumstances. He also proposes an equal distribution of these instruments within the portfolio.

Other rules are as conservative as these. It is better to be conservative and preserve the capital rather than end up in the investment graveyard.

This is one of the book that defines my investment principle (others are about ‘Value Investing’). Because of these simple and safe investment principles, I sleep better at night.

I will finish with the often repeated statement in the book. Whenever someone pressures you to strike while the iron is hot, remember: When in doubt about an investment decision, it is always better to err on the side of safety.

Good luck with your safe investing.