Picture Source: http://moneymint.in
Networking is extremely important for entrepreneurs. Most of the startupreneurs are restricted in time and resources, therefore a good network can help them access suppliers, markets, information and guidance necessary for their startup’s development. I understood the importance of networking while working as an intrapreneur at the beginning of my career and since then have been able to build a robust professional network that I leverage and get support from now as an entrepreneur.
Start your networking with people you know. Among them, look for key characteristics like competency, dependability, and helpfulness that can be useful in your entrepreneurial venture. Focus more on proactive networking and reach out to people. This will also help you in tapping into other people’s networks. Over time your network will grow through reactive networking of others in the ecosystem. Typically your start-up network should have people from your suppliers, customers, service providers, industry ecosystem including your competitors, financial services, government officials and policy makers, colleagues and key contacts from your past work places, key connects from your alumni groups, industry specific experts and professionals, among others. However, your focus should not be on building a very large network, but on the intensity of the network. You can build the intensity by selecting the right people and communicating with them regularly to keep the network alive.
While communicating with your network, remember to project your ideas as professionally as possible, be prompt in returning calls and replying to e-mails, refrain from talking bad about people, do not reveal and talk about your flaws, and don’t whine. Keep details of your network contacts handy and periodically update the key information. Remember that its not only ‘who you know’ but what really counts is ‘what they know about you’ for building and managing an effective network.
Some best practices of effective networking are,
- Establish a relationship with people much before you need them. People who have known you for a while will be more inclined to help you.
- Understand what you can do for others as this will help you set your expectations right while asking for help from your network.
- Attend conferences, trade shows, social events, lectures, etc and meet people. Making the first impression is the key here. So do not talk too much, ask smart questions and let them talk. Never forget to carry your business cards and pass it while you are introducing yourself.
- Unless you are rock sure of your points, do not contradict others.
- Read stuff beyond your direct professional subject, and expand your information horizon. This will help you connect with a wider audience while engaging them in intelligent conversations.
The final tip: Grow it. Nourish it. Reap it.
The after-success story
Most entrepreneurs want one thing, and that would be being called successful. The definition of successful is highly subjective, leading from getting a lot of fame [and no money] to getting a lot of money[and little fame]. Some do manage to achieve both, we have candidates like Mark Zukerberg, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey and quite a few in the recent past. There has never been a better time in history for nerds to achieve both fame and money at such a young age.
What intrigues me the most is the stories that get spun post the success. The prime example is that of twitter, its projection post-success is that of a broadcast model of democracy! I highly doubt the initial founders had imagined this small pet project as such a nuanced concept. Another simple case is that of Facebook, the founders wanted very human things out of it and it ended up becoming a “social graph”. It is again very clear that is not the goal they started off with.
What I am getting at is how we make our lives rather complicated by trying to model success. There are no defined models, if there were one no-one would ever fail at this game [which is clearly not the case]. You need to learn the best traits and not necessarily attempt to replicate the final assessed model. So, the best thing that Facebook taught me was the fact that you need a great initial set of users to start something of this nature. Without the initial Ivy league groups, Facebook would not have the kind of quality users it had initially. The lesson one learns from twitter is that never underestimate the capability of simple ideas, whenever the world tends to absurd complexity one twitter[or iphone] does happen and it shocks us !
The art is in creating utilities that are easy to use, so stop trying to model success. Get on the creation wagon, let the fittest survive.
Team Functionality & Conflicts
Individuals from diverse backgrounds face perpetual gaps when they come together to work as a team. Since conflict within a team exists, it must be managed. I believe that collaboration is the key to managing that conflict. The first step is to identify whether the conflict is based on task disagreements or personality related issues. Task conflicts can often be beneficial during the design and preparatory phases. Personality conflicts tend to be detrimental to the team as a whole, interfering with the project at hand, taking valuable time away from the efforts, and at times exacerbating personality differences that prevent team members from communicating at all. The goal is to minimize personality conflicts and manage it outside the start-up environment. Team building exercises through social activity is certainly a good way to build confidence and cohesiveness.
Its not important that team members need to like each other, rather they need to respect each other professionally and focus on the task to get the job done. Once the focus is on disagreements about the job at hand, collaboration can take place. Through collaboration, disagreements can be altered into joint gains. Collaboration here doesn’t mean compromise or giving-in, but more mutually beneficial results based on more effective communication. Following three techniques could be used to support collaboration at your Startup,
1. Create a group atmosphere that supports team focus, the capability to solve the problem, trust among each other, and open conflict communication channels. Trust is the critical factor here.
2. Look for and act on opportunities for promoting joint gain between the conflicting members. It is also important that team members exchange factual information, that in turn can facilitate trade-offs across different issues. Exchange of views and insights thus becomes very critical, as usually people tend to “one up” each other and the conflict get worse and more personal. They key here is to recognise that this is happening and try to respond with a new tact, a direct response that brings the conflict into the open, or a more integrative and collaborative response that might shift the process back on track.
3. Develop and build an attitude of cooperation, collaboration and openness to creative thinking that can often lead to win-win situation during conflict, which often leads to innovative, superior solutions.
Collaboration requires interdependence on other team members. Negative emotional outbursts and attitudes such as frustration and anger tend to interfere with collaboration. These emotions need to be kept in check and resolved as personal conflict outside the work.
Oiginal versus innovation
If you are a builder, it is very important to see how the incremental approach to innovation eventually produces results that look like original creations. This was the case with Einstien who tied together already existing novel thoughts into a theory that changed physics. Ultimately, we end up building things that serve a particular use case.
The idea is not to force originality and for that matter innovation, it comes down to solving a problem or understanding something fundamentally better. If elegance is something that can be afforded in the context then it can look pretty. Innovation is basically incrementally getting closer to a problem by using known paradigms, making it something we can adopt and utilize as it deviates very little from our current understanding of our surroundings ! Being original however may expose you to adoption issues, that over time will erode away.
7 Value Attributes of Your Product
Breakthrough products are driven by a complex combination of value attributes that connect with people’s lifestyles. If you are conceiving a new product, you must conduct a value opportunity analysis that evaluates the current state of products against seven major attributes of value, in the market where the new product requires significant improvement. This is an essential step in any new product development. Failure to thoroughly and thoughtfully complete this phase will have a negative impact down the line.
During the period of mass marketing, good value was based on the lowest cost-maximum features combination. The goal was to keep cost low, profits moderate, and sell in mass quantities (like Big Bazaar, K-mart etc). Value in its true sense, however, is lifestyle-driven, not cost-driven. So a product is valuable if it is useful, usable, and desirable. While cost is still an issue in the times of market segmentation, the more powerful factor is the consumer’s need to connect their product purchases with their own personal values. The higher a product’s perceived value, the more people will pay for it.
The seven attributes that adds value to any product are,
1. Aesthetics that builds a positive association with the product.
- Visual appeal
- Products must be tactile
- Elimination of all undesired sounds from the product
- Agreeable smell
2. Emotion that a consumer experiences with the product. There can be several emotions that a product can bring about, and they key ones are,
- The product promotes excitement and adventure
- Freedom from constraints
- Feeling of safety and stability
- Luxurious experience
- User’s self assurance about handling the product
- Feeling of supremacy
3. Ergonomics of your product that chiefly focuses on ‘ease of use’, ‘safety’, and ‘comfort’ of your target customers.
4. Impact of your product through phases of development to end use. You should target your product for improving the social well-being of the stakeholders. Take care of negative environmental effect that your product might create, through green-design that focuses on minimizing negative impacts on the environment due to manufacturing, resource use and recycling.
5. Product Identity that also supports your brand identity. Your product should have the ability to fit among yet differentiate itself from its direct competition. Your product should also have a connection with the rest of the products produced by your start-up. Your product must be designed to fit into the context of use.
6. Quality in the precision and accuracy of manufacturing process, material composition, and methods of attachment. Your product should be made with sufficient tolerances to meet performance expectations over time, and must hold up to the expected life of the product.
7. Technology alone is not enough, but technology is essential. Your core technology must be appropriately advanced to provide sufficient features to your product. Remember, consumers expect technology in products to work consistently and at high level of performance over time.
Keep in mind while working on a new product that it should be aimed at fulfilling a fantasy by facilitating a more enjoyable way of doing something.
