My unforgettable interaction with the legend…

Come tomorrow, Microsoft will be missing someone important @ their Redmond Campus.

That’s the legend - Bill Gates…

• A man who wanted his title to be "Chief Software Architect" for his founding company after being there for 25+ years!!!
• A man who had a vision to employ thousands of engineers to write programs!!!
• A man who realized his dream of his software running on everyone's desktop.
• A man who made it to the top and sustained as the richest person on the planet.
• A man who donated 29 Billion of his personal wealth to Philanthropy.
• A man who's Philanthropy work so believed, that Warren Buffet wrote his personal fortune to the foundation formed by him.
• A man who believed in true friendship, making his friend one of the richest non founder employees.
• A man who wrote 2 NYT best sellers "Business @ the Speed of Thought" and "The Road Ahead"
• A man who championed for a revamp of his home country's basic education system
• A man who worried about his home country losing out on innovation if foreign students that are educated at his home country's colleges not given opportunities.
• A man who planned his succession well in advance, when many would never dream of leaving such a powerful position.

and I could go on and on...

To me, for someone who worked @ Microsoft in the field as Architect Evangelist, his departure is sure a sign of missing a real evangelist for the company.

He would always make it to the employees’ conferences be it sales or technical. Even during the last 2 years, he made it a point to at least attend the conferences for technology personnel.

Here is an instance of my personal interaction with him.

I would never miss his keynote sessions and the following Q&A session where he would address each question however stupid, until the organizers step forward to take him away.

There was one such conference where I had a question, but ran out of luck before my turn. I couldn’t keep it and finally took all the courage and I wrote to him soon after returning to India.

Knowing the preciousness of his time and his questioning deeply on any subject, I felt like being bestowed “Nobel Prize” when he responded, also copying a Corp VP on the subject!!!

Bill, I am sure you will be working hard in your own ways to make the world a better place for the underprivileged and also be an "Insider ouside of Microsoft" from now.

All the very best to Microsoft without Bill and to Bill for following your heart...

Innovation = Thinking Simplicity

 

Today on NDTV Profit, I happened to view a story about Shinsei Bank on their turnaround strategy, particularly focusing on an approach towards IT

which uses mostly open Internet, small, off-the-shelf components and a way of breaking complexity into small pieces in the shortest time with limited IT spending.

What struck me was their thinking style of "Simplicity"

1. While financial institutions in the world use huge, number crunching central servers, this bank implemented their entire IT system using affordable small servers running Microsoft Windows Enterprise Servers.

2. ATMs typically use dedicated VSAT based network directly linking to the Bank's network for ultra security. Shinsei Bank used commercial Internet connections, reducing the cost of special equipment and communication infrastructure. Just to be sure they also used two network  providers at each ATM for redundancy.

3. Eliminated paper based transactions by converting every piece of information to digital. They had digital scanners to scan paper documents and modified their business processes to incorporate these scanned digital information.

4. They also restructured communications infrastructure and implemented necessary changes to accommodate "unified messaging" for data, voice and fax.

5. They leveraged intellectual, skill and cost arbitration by using Indian off-shoring vendors like Polaris and core banking products from Indian vendors like i-Flex.

6. All these resulted in 24 x 7 Banking with ATMs, Internet banking, call centers  available round the clock and finally they passed on the benefits to their customers by way of offering free ATM transactions etc.

7. They are also offering their methodologies to other needy banks by way of consulting.

This April, 2008, in order to disseminate their innovative methods freely and to garner feedback and ultimately for any improvement, they formed alliance with Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to design courseware that will accurately capture and relay their methods in the educational setting.

Looks like this entire story is on Harvard Business Review

Innovation = Opportunity Recognition

My first ever visit to USA was to work for Microsoft Technology Center @ Boston, MA and I landed on a day with 6" of snow. The sight of snow for a person form a beach city of Chennai in India was dramatic and unforgettable.

I lived there for 2 years and now, make it a point to visit US only during winter to experience the snow, the cold and the wind chills. Its also a perfect period to catch up with friends and talk to them for hours over a cup of coffee and dinner. Here is a picture of my Friend Ravi's home in the suburbs of Boston.

This summer vacation, my kids were insisting that we take them to a new show on the town "Snow Ball", an artificial snow world. So we went there and paid about Rs 150 per person (approx US $ 4)

The snow was splashing out of a hole 15 feet above and people were standing below this to let the snow shower on them, catching the snow in their hands and playing...

Knowing how snow is formed, my inquisitive mind was wondering how organizers could create snow in this hot summer and what kind equipment they would be using.

In the meantime, my kids were enjoying the snow on the slippery ice floor, the "snow starved" population thronging the place to see the glimpse of snow.

I was imagining some complex and expensive systems replicating nature behind the scenes and stepped out to find it out.

What I saw was crazy... "An industrial crusher and a fan"

They had this truk that brought large ice bars from factories outside the city and fed those large ice bars to the crusher that would spit out small ice crystals while the fan would blow them out through a hole into the arena!!!

Wow, they were cashing in on an opportunity from a population that never saw snow in their lifetime!!!

Personal Innovation

I have been researching the topic "Innovation" for sometime and use many references, techniques & tools at my work.

From these experiences for the past 20+ years of working for many managers and observing many leaders from close quarters, realized that these techniques could be applied to an individual's aspirations to redefine, to think differently, try new things to "Re-innovate", to move up in the corporate ladder.

In the coming days, I intend to blog about these findings under "Personal Innovation".

First, let us look at capabilities we need to excel in work:

• Academic Capabilities
• Professional Capabilities
• Cognitive Capabilities
• Emotional Capabilities

These skills come handy as you grow in roles and ranks in your career.

While the graph may not be accurate, as you move up managerial positions, cognitive and emotional skills become necessary to be successful, while academic and professional capabilities are taken for granted.

PS: If you do not agree to the "spiritual" aspect, you could replace it with "self realization"

God's Car - Muscle power Vs Machine Power

Last week, I had the opportunity to witness Brahmotsavam Festival held at the Varadaraja Temple at Kancheepuram (Kanchi).

This 10-day festival is held in honour of Lord Varadaraja and his consorts Sridevi and Bhudevi. Attended by thousands of people from across, the 7th day marks the Car Festival, when the deities are taken in a grand procession around the city travelling just the 4 grand streets (South, West, North and East) of the city back to its original position.

We got a vantage position on top of a 2nd floor building to see the car procession.

In early days, this would take 2 to 3 days for the car to be pulled by hundreds of people to complete its 4 street procession.

Now with the heavy machinery pulling and guiding it, the car leaves its position at 6.00 AM in the morning and comes back to its original place by 11.00 AM, just 5 hours.

My entire family was spellbound by the grandiose of the car and the excitement of such a huge vehicle being pulled by thousands of people.

Imagine, how the citizens of this Chola dynasty would have felt during 14th century...

N=1 and R=G: New Age of Innovation

Currently, I am reading a book by Prof. C. K. Prahalad and Prof. N. S. Krishnan on the subject, driving co-created value through global networks.

This book is about N=1, one customer at a time with R=G global resources.

"Is Apple iPod" a hardware or software or service? epitomizes this model.

With this, they argue, apple has created value experience for its customers a combination of hardware, software and service.

The central point is

"even if a company is dealing with a hundred million customers, each individual in the company must focus on one customer co created experience at a time"

Few aspects that they cover in this book are dynamic reconfiguration of talent, dynamic and flexible business processes and importance of analytics