What an MBA won’t teach you is to start your own business and be successful at it. Yeah they teach you how to write good business plans and make expert presentations to prospects. They do teach you branding, positioning, pricing, or for that matter accounting and finance. But not everything is gelled out for you to take it out and go start a business right after you graduate.
Don’t get me wrong, at least a quarter of the students (in any graduating batch) are there for the ‘badge of honor’ as they say. They want to have the MBA credentials on their resumes to be able to negotiate salary and a good bonus structure. MBA is not for entrepreneurs. MBAs want to quickly justify the cost of their education and often make hasty and reckless decisions. Oftentimes this is a bane to the entrepreneur and his business, which ultimately ends up failing. On the flip side, I am not saying that having an MBA does not make sense. It definitely does! I have one and I am a successful entrepreneur. But I have taken life experiences versus totally relying on bookish knowledge.
It all boils down to one’s experience, passion and penchant for going solo. It is years of experience which gets you there! Your college Entrepreneur 101 course will not teach you how to cope with failure. Life will teach you that.
Starting a new venture and failing is far better than not starting at all! Yeah, some time and money is invested. But you have a satisfaction of achieving solid accomplishments. You gain valuable industry experience. That is far beyond any salary structure or bonus.
Yes, I said it! Search Engine Optimization or "SEO" for short is the most abused tech jargon today. A while back it was Web 2.0 and Consultant. Everyone and their brother was an IT consultant or a Web 2.0 expert. A couple years prior to that were the "Y2K experts" and specialists who cashed in at the right time.
Fixing the Y2K or the millennium bug (for those who remember) was a huge cash cow for IT consulting companies. Year 2000 Computing Crisis started off with the discovery of a two digit year in computer systems. Had the computer programmers initially programmed systems with a four digit year (19xx) we wouldn’t have a problem. But back then due to memory, space and resource constraints, computer programmers abbreviated the four digit year (1999) to two digits (99). The problem came when in the year 2000 the dates would move from 99 back to 00.
Millions, perhaps billions of dollars, were spent to fix the Y2K bug worldwide. Almost all industry sectors were hit. Among them the most prominent being banks & financial institutions, government, utility and healthcare. Smart IT companies and "Y2K consultants" cashed in on the spending spree.
History is repeating itself again. SEO has taken over Y2K now. "SEO Guru" is someone who is conning his way to happily cash in your bank roll. Okay, so before all SEOs get up in arms, and start writing hate mails, let me clarify: I am not talking about the genuine folks who would like to help tech-challenged clients for little or no money. But for people who are slightly above average in technical skills, this is a DIY. Optimizing a website for Google or other crawlers or bots for effective search indexing can be done relatively painlessly. The caveat here is that the person should be relatively tech savvy.
Most everyone thinks they are cool and knowledgeable enough to be SEO experts. Little do people know how easy it actually is to optimize your website for search engines? But then again, not everyone is a technology expert. For fear of backlash, I will not exactly spell out here how to optimize your website, but it is fairly easy.
On a similar note, branding and PR are two other things where people seem to be experts. I talked to a few "experts" and quickly realized they were clueless. They did not know the basic difference between Advertising and PR. Go figure!
Advertising is NOT PR and Public Relations is definitely not Advertising. Similarly, Branding is not Positioning and vice versa. I will let you intelligent folks discover it to your satisfaction using your favorite browsers and search engines.
Go out and enlighten yourself...and please stop getting duped.
A lot of people feel, and sometimes actually voice, that Peter Drucker's "Management by Objectives" is deeply flawed. For those who don't know, Management by Objectives is ' the process of agreed upon objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they are in the organization.'
MBO is measured by the SMART criteria:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-Specific
Management by Objectives is a systems approach for aligning project goals with organizational goals, project goals with the goals of other subunits of the organization, and project goals with individual goals.
This could single handedly be a Program Manager or Functional Manager's best tool...or is it? A Program Manager could make use of this while allocating projects to his portfolio. Functional, Line and Human Resources Managers could effectively use it to define set goals and objectives for their staff.
A lot of companies have [effectively] tried the SMART goals in employee evaluations and appraisals. But there are proponents of the theory that the SMART criteria are defective.
Some of the best known disadvantages of MBO I have collected on the Web can be summarized as:
1. It may lead to sub-optimization: People or departments are not stimulated to look beyond their own objectives and help each other.
2. Innovation is not stimulated.
3. The time and paperwork involved is burdensome.
4. Potential misuse by superiors who simply assign (rather than negotiate) objectives.
5. Subordinates may try to negotiate easy goals.
6. You have to watch out for unrealistic (too high) expectations about what can be reasonably accomplished.
7. It is inflexible and rigid.
8. It over-emphasizes the setting of goals over the working of a plan as a driver of outcomes.
9. It underemphasizes the importance of the environment or context in which the goals are set.
10. Companies evaluated their employees by comparing them with the "ideal" employee. Trait appraisal only looks at what employees should be, not at what they should do.
11. It did not address the importance of successfully responding to obstacles and constraints as essential to reaching a goal. The model didn’t adequately cope with the obstacles of:
(a) Defects in resources, planning and methodology,
(b) The increasing burden of managing the information organization challenge,
(c) The impact of a rapidly changing environment, which could alter the landscape enough to make yesterday’s goals and action plans irrelevant to the present.
William Edwards Deming, in his Common Cause Variation demonstration, proved that MBO was deeply flawed. Dr. Deming also mentioned numerous cases of employees meeting their managers' objectives by violating policy, regulations and resorting to ethical violations.
In the age of 360 degree feedback and overall evaluation, is it really useful to use the SMART goals? How flawed can it really be? How can we fix this? Is there a better way out?
For those who live in the United Kingdom, or have ever been there, know what I am referring to. "Mind the Gap" is prominently displayed in the railway stations. Street vendors and shops also sell t-shirts that prominently display "Mind the Gap" logo. I own one myself.
"Mind the Gap" is a warning to train passengers of the sometimes significant gap between the train door and the station platform.
Due to the rough economic times there has evolved a significant gap between entrepreneurs and venture capital firms who fund their startup dreams.
How do we mind this gap right here in the Unites States of America?
For those who live in the United Kingdom, or have ever been there, know what I am referring to. "Mind the Gap" is prominently displayed in the railway stations. Street vendors and shops also sell t-shirts that prominently display "Mind the Gap" logo. I own one myself.
"Mind the Gap" is a warning to train passengers of the sometimes significant gap between the train door and the station platform.
Due to the rough economic times there has evolved a significant gap between entrepreneurs and venture capital firms who fund their startup dreams.
How do we mind this gap right here in the Unites States of America?
Thought I’d share this cool scam making way into our homes:
It starts where someone "accidentally" leaves you a voice mail giving you the best stock tip to buy that red hot stock that will triple in value.
Here is a transcript from of such a call from the SEC website:
"Hey Tracy, it's Debbie. I couldn't find your old number and Tammy says this is the new one. I hope it's the right one. Anyway, remember that hot stock exchange guy that I'm dating? He gave my father that stock tip on the company that went from under a buck to like three bucks in two weeks and you were mad I didn't call you? Well I'm calling you now! This new company is supposed to be like the next really hot clothing thing. And they're making some big news announcement this week. The stock symbol is ... He says buy now. It's at like 50 cents and it's going up to like 5 or 6 bucks this week so get as much as you can. Call me on my cell, I'm still in Orlando. My Dad and I are buying a bunch tomorrow and I already called Kelly and Ron too. Anyway I miss you, give me a call. Bye."
If you get a message like this, it's not a wrong number at all. Instead, it is from someone who is being paid to leave these messages on a whole lot of answering machines. The people paying for this message to go out on hundreds or thousands of answering machines own some of this stock.
I hope you haven’t fallen for that kind of scam. In fact, our venture capital firm Xuture LLC is funding a startup to eradicate such Internet scams. Not everyone is as smart as you and me, and sometimes do actually fall prey to these nasty tactics.
Buyer beware...caveat emptor! If it’s too good to be true...it probably is.
The United States of America is massive, and other than the 3,000 miles that divides us coast to coast, we see a lot of cultural difference between states. I personally live on the West coast but have worked extensively on the East coast. I have seen a huge cultural divide between the two coasts. No offence to anyone, but things become progressively uptight as you travel from West to East.
Look at the early morning rush hour at Wall Street and you will see people wearing mostly dark colored suits. On the contrary, early morning rush hours in California you will see mostly laid back clothes, jeans, sneakers and sometimes even flip flops. You will almost never see a person wearing a tie, unless the person is an East coast transplant or a tourist.
The logic is simple: You don’t want to entrust a gen Y-er wearing tattered jeans and a ball cap to allocate your hard earned 401k in mutual funds. Similarly, on the West coast, you cannot really have a whole lot of expectations from a guy in a pin stripe suit applying for a creative or engineering job. You would immediately think, "If this guy spends so much time and effort on his looks and clothes, how will he stand up to the long hours and hardships of the tech world?"
Both East and West coast of America are in the same country divided by roughly 3,000 miles. For all you number crunchers and keepers of useless facts (like me), the actual distance is 2,500 miles from Los Angeles to New York as the crow flies. It is 3,073 miles using US highway 50 and 2,925 miles using US highway 80. From Virginia Beach, VA to San Jose, CA it is about 2,990 miles. Okay, so I guess it is safe to say that the distance between East and West coast is approximately 3,000 miles.
So why is it that we have so many differences between the two coasts? Things change drastically when you travel East or West. West is, and has always been portrayed as laid back and easy going. East coast, on the other hand, has always been more uptight, rigid and conservative.
We have the New York Stock Exchange and financial markets on the East coast. West coast boasts cutting edge high technology centers and startups in Silicon Valley and is the tech capital of the world. From the bohemian culture of Berkeley, CA to tech geeks of Santa Clara, CA, West coast has a lot to offer. And the same goes for the East coast.
I personally think that both the coasts (apart from their obvious differences in culture) work in tandem like a well oiled machine.
If you live in the 50 states within the country and have a bank account, 401k, mutual fund or CDs, you are DIRECTLY promoting our economy. Get this: Your money, from your bank or mutual funds is allocated by the money managers sitting on the East coast to Venture Capital firms in the West coast. VCs in the West coast fund high technology startups in Silicon Valley...think Google, Oracle and Yahoo. When the companies hit big, they go public and are listed on the East coast. And the circle keeps going. I call it "The Money Circle."
So no matter where you live, YOU are directly contributing to the success of our economy. The world is indeed becoming smaller with the advent of technology.
December 21, 2012 has been prophesized by the ancient cyclical Mayan calendar as the apocalypse...the end of the world. Our search engine trigger-happy fingers will definitely lead to a quick web search of "2012" and it will most definitely yield more than 300,000 results for doomsday.
According to the Mayan calendar, doomsday will be on December 21, 2012. Catastrophe or apocalypse is what waits us on this day. Is it true? How can we tell certainly? Unfortunately, NASA has predicted a sharp increase in sun spots for the year 2012.
Fortunately very smart people at NASA and Silicon Valley, apart from others, are already researching on this; umm...let’s say...fallacy or hearsay?
Support new entrepreneurs and companies by investing in solar, celestial, green, clean tech and healthcare sectors. That new entrepreneur could be your colleague who was recently laid off, your own kid, your neighbor, or for that matter even you. Seed them money to venture out and pursue their dreams. In doing so, you may carve a name for yourself by being the "(wo)man behind the (wo)man."
Who knows what is in store for us? We are mere mortals who can be annihilated with a single gesture from the Almighty. Live for today and leave the future to the Creator.
Have hope...keep the faith...pursue dreams...live life...do well.
Anyone, who is someone in the marketing or advertising industry, knows who Peter Drucker, Philip Kotler and Robert Lauterborn are. Needless to say not many of us actually know the difference between branding and advertising. Or for that matter, subtle advertising and buzz words.
Octamom, half ton mom, and Aqua-Man are perfect examples. In this country we are obsessed with branding and image recognition.
Subtle Advertising is when the product is conveniently placed in a television or movie scene so that its logo or brand name is further enhanced in a tighter shot.
Coca Cola on American Idol is the perfect example. Here oversized Coca Cola glasses are prominently displayed in front of the judges. This is prime real estate in television, where tight shots of judges are a must when they "judge" the contestants. Of course, in the close up shots those Coke glasses definitely stand out. There is nothing unlawful about it. Your highest paying advertiser gets the prime real estate. In fact movies have joined the band wagon too. Why is it that every movie you watch, the actor uses an Apple Macintosh computer and drinks Pellegrino water?
Jimmy Fallon’s new late night gig features ‘promotional consideration’ from Bud Lite, Apple and most recently Bing from Microsoft. Apple in particular is known to go after the celebrity angle. Once your idol endorses a product, you are bound to follow suit.
That is clever advertising. Why spend valuable money on countless radio and television commercials, when you can prominently display your product or logo in a blockbuster, right in the hands of an action hero? Definitely makes sense to me - both practically and economically.
The successful marketer will try to understand the target market’s needs, wants, and demands. The 4 P components of Marketing Mix are: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Robert Lauterborn suggested that the sellers’ four Ps correspond to the customers’ four Cs:
Four Ps ---> Four Cs
Product ---> Customer solution
Price ---> Customer cost
Place ---> Convenience
Promotion ---> Communication
Product manufacturers, advertisers and marketers who have understood the right correlation between the 4 P’s to the 4 C’s have been successful in what they do. Pick up any company, product or idea, and look for the clues above. You will notice that successful companies or ideas are the ones which have meshed their Ps to the Cs.
Anyone can write nowadays and over time become a seasoned blogger with a decent following. If you can construct two sentences together with minimal syntactical and grammatical mistakes, you could potentially be a blogger or a writer! The word "expert" has morphed into a not-so-clearly-defined muddy-in-the-water Mr.-Know-It-All definition of the new Gen-Y revolution.
The question you should ask yourself: "Will people pay to read my material?" "Can I be the authority figure on a subject?"
If the answer is yes, you should give yourself a standing ovation. Anyone can write. Even high school kids and college sophomores (not so) prudently write their online journals on social networking websites. Some of them actually do a pretty good job. If you have a knack and penchant for writing, get your creative juices flowing.
You will probably not be transformed overnight into David Ogilvy, John Kotter, Al Ries, Jack Trout or William Ouchi. But it is worth the try. Over time you could actually be an authoritative figure in something that you love to do.
Motivational speakers like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Dale Carnegie, Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins all have two things in particular: Positivity & Balance. "Balance" is the key to a wonderful life. All these individuals have harmonized their Yings with their and Yangs.
They ask sales people to listen to "tapes" (now mostly CDs) in their cars to motivate them into positive thinking and achieve higher results. Star Power is another common attribute they all share. Well, a lot of people think they are crocks and quacks but that is your personal opinion.
Companies like Google invite people like Seth Godin to give their employees pep talks. You may be skeptical at first, but if it is not in you, and someone has the innate ability to get it out in you, listen to them! Seth Godin does an excellent job and a lot of his books are available at a bookstore near you.
I say, follow your heard and delve deeper into your should to see what you would want to share with this world. Internet, social media and micro blogging has made this world a much smaller place. See what you can share with this world and leave your legacy on the "World Wide IntraWeb Superhighway."
