ACCELERATE OR DIE

| Aditya Sehgal

In a previous post, I had shown that business (and bacteria) grow in a S-shaped curve
https://adityasehgal.com/2014/07/13/business-and-bacteria-how-things-grow/
https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140713150608-9138224-business-and-bacteria-how-things-grow?trk=mp-reader-card

Both, old businesses, (eg. the PC business) and new business (eg. Apple) follow the same shape of the curve. In the chart below, the cumulative penetration of Apple devices, (driven by the iPhone) has almost caught up to cumulative Windows devices by 2013. Both grew on the S-curve. Clearly, the iPhone has done very well since launch !

Now, in the next chart comparing the iPhone vs Android and you can see that Android significantly outpaced the iPhone, while also growing on a S-curve. Why does the iPhone look so slow here ? Android is growing on a quarterly pace on the S curve, while Apple was growing on an annual pace. Clearly, Android did even better than the iPhone !

We all know the Android charge that unseated Apple’s dominance of smartphones was led by Samsung – but Samsung did not post the most stellar results recently (http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-warns-2h14-will-be-tough-as-it-reports-weak-q2-results/).

They referenced new competition – from Chinese players like Xiaomi.

The next chart shows the user growth of the Xiaomi mobile OS (MIUI) – It is also exploding along a S-Curve, but this time the acceleration is driven monthly.

In a few short years we have gone from a market growing along the S-curve in decades (PCs) to annually (iPhone) to quarterly (Samsung/Android) to monthly (Xiaomi).

While the smartphone example is drastic, I believe the same trend is also impacting other industries.

In competitive markets, the rate of change itself may be growing along a S-curve.

The small piranha is now eating the shark which is in turn eating the whale. As the piranha grows it becomes the shark and the shark becomes the whale.

The predators are growing into their prey – companies that are growing fast today lose their way tomorrow and are eaten by smaller, nimbler competitors.
This is the essence of the Innovators Dilemma as laid out by HBS professor Clayton M Christensen.

But, why does this happen ? Surely large companies can see the small predator coming ? Surely they have more resources ? More people who are more experienced ? Wal-Mart saw Amazon coming from the day Amazon launched. Post office employees were probably using e-mail at home as soon as it was available – why then is the dominant e-mail provider not a national post office ? and why is the No 1 e-retailer in the world today not Wal-Mart ?

One answer is that businesses work at an internal speed, a cadence which is built up by systems and processes which grow as structures, from past success.
Speed of growth along the S curve is driven by accessibility of product/service (driving availability) and virality of message (driving awareness). The internet and other disruptive technology accelerates both awareness and availability.

In the smartphone example the faster fish (monthly acceleration/cadence) are eating the fast fish (quarterly cadence) which in turn are chewing up the slow fish (annual cadence) and these in turn have already gobbled up the slowest fish (feature phones which moved at a glacial cadence in relative terms).

Large businesses work at annual speed with a 12 monthly cyclical cadence.

In large businesses, there are many managers. Managers like to react in ‘planning cycles’. There are as many opinions as there are managers, and all these opinions are validated with data.
It takes time to generate & analyse data – and even more time to decide what to do, between the many stakeholders.
There are systems to improve ‘chances of success’ through research and following manuals. Most large organisations have BBF programs (bigger, better, fewer). Anything that doesn’t follow the process or is not approved by ‘the system’ is sent back. Without the right data, senior management is ‘unable to reliably decide’ whether the initiative is good or not. Gut feel is not good enough. After all – it is not validated !
Everything important is approved by an ‘Executive committee’ which meets at best monthly and has an agenda backlog of 3 months.
Employees with entrepreneurial instincts are crushed under the weight of management and process. Many vote with their feet – to go and create the new companies that attack and eat up their former employers.

Managers have an inflated view of their invulnerability and the superiority of their ‘team’ and ‘process’.
While the competitor is small, and is refining their product and service, there is contempt for the newcomer. There are a million good reasons why they will fail. Managers are smug in their superiority.

Often, the small player has a slightly different product/service. They establish a small new consumer preferred niche/segment that they are able to grow at turbo speed by making inroads into the dominant market segment.

The large company realises too late that they need to compete in the new segment of the market. There is still supreme confidence that their brand will become market leader in the new segment as soon as it is introduced – after all, don’t they have the brand with the best equity ? Unfortunately, by the time they get their act together they are the underdog in the segment – their ‘process’ slows them down further and they are always reacting to a fast improving competitor. They can’t understand how the competition is moving so fast.

On top, their new service is now competing with their old service and cannibalising it – often they make less money on the new service at the start so their financials are under pressure. The vast majority of employees are still in the ‘old’ part of the business – there is tremendous internal resistance to putting so much resource into the new business and ‘starving’ the old business. A fog of indecision and despair descends. At this point the entrepreneurial members of the team get sick of pushing water uphill and leave. The bureaucrats thrive.

The gap with the competitor widens. Management now starts missing targets and there is growing internal pressure. Eventually the company loses market leadership. It is now the beaten leader and a drastic turnaround plan is instituted to cut costs, reduce layers and make it competitive again. Many employees lose their jobs and a once-proud business stands humbled. Shareholders punish the company’s leadership.

The victor in the struggle keeps growing till the point where it too falls victim to a smaller, nimbler, less bureaucratic competitor, operating at a faster cadence.

How can the large fish avoid being nibbled away alive by the smaller fish ? There are many books on the subject and a comprehensive answer is way beyond the scope of this post. Some points to consider, however, are :

1. Understand that different things in the company should work to different cadences. Run processes in parallel rather than sequentially and focus resource on cutting cycle times of long lead time items. Ask the team for ‘impossible’ deadlines. Even where long term R&D/regulatory barriers cause unavoidable long lead times, initiatives can be started in parallel and phased to mature quickly one after the other. An example of this is how China has built its railways and cities – to the outside world it looks like a new city or high speed line appears every 6 months, but internally this is the result of many years of large, long lead time projects running in parallel, maturing quickly – one after the other. In summary – put lots of projects into the innovation funnel so you can have lots of speed later. The opposite of BBF.

2. When competing with a small fish (but one which has sharp teeth), drive the response at a completely different cadence – make sure the team understands that the ‘regular process’, ‘validation’ can be junked. Lead the response top down – with the project driven as the single focus of a senior director. Ensure the whole organisation understands the urgency of the problem. Expect – not twice the regular speed, but 10 times the regular speed and tell the team they can break any rule if they get the speed. Find entrepreneurs to lead the team, and then make sure you clear the decks and don’t slow them down. Change the metrics to daily, weekly, monthly from quarter, annual, 3 yearly. Incentivise as aggressively as you expect results.

3. At the first sign of success, pour in disproportionate resource to scale up. Plan to drive the new business to be the dominant proportion of the business even faster than the competitor. Don’t be afraid to cannibalise yourself with a slightly inferior product or financials – your competitor will cannibalise you if you don’t cannibalise yourself. As the business grows, aggressively cannibalise the ‘old world’ part of the organisation for talent and retrain them on the job as the business grows.

4. Don’t wait for perfection – Launch if you are 80% of perfect (except where human lives/health are at stake). Improve as you go. Roll out frequent, incremental product improvements every few days/weeks. every few months (or longer depending on the product life cycle and cycle time to gain critical mass in awareness/availability) consider launching variants or improvements of the product.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the business is invulnerable – that the chances of success of a disruptive new player are small. Don’t think – ‘It wont happen to me’.

Remember the lesson of the sperm – the chances of a sperm fertilising an egg is about 600 Mn to 1.

But thats not the important point.

The world has about 7 Bn people today – clearly, 1 sperm has made it past odds of 1:600 Mn at least 7 Bn times !

Even with very low odds, given enough time, and enough tries – someone will disrupt your business – when that happens, you must accelerate or die.

For a very interesting opinion on the chances of you existing, go to :http://members.shaw.ca/tfrisen/chances_of_you_existing.htm

References :
http://technode.com/2014/06/20/xiaomi-software-integrated-whole-lot-third-party-services-users-engaged-ecosystem/
http://tabtimes.com/feature/ittech-os-ipad-ios/2014/01/15/why-apple-ios-device-sales-are-set-catch-windows-2014
http://www.nateriggs.com/smartphone-adoption-iphone-android-app/
http://www.asymco.com/category/industry/
http://books.google.com.hk/books/about/The_Innovator_s_Dilemma.html?id=SIexi_qgq2gC

Apple vision pro – as transformative as the iphone

| Aditya Sehgal

On Jan 9 2007, when Steve Jobs launched the iPhone at Macworld, he changed the world. Sixteen years later, on Jun 5, 2023, when Tim Cook said ‘one more thing’ to introduce the Apple Vision Pro and spatial computing, he changed the world again.

I got my hands on the Vision Pro soon after it launched, and I’ve been using it for a few weeks now.

I’ve been blown away by the killer feature – Presence.

Apple has built a machine that transports your presence into another environment or someone else’s presence into yours. And it’s incredible how well this works.

To demonstrate this, Apple has created new ‘immersive video’ content. It’s beyond 3D – it’s as if you are there. I gasped as I watched Faith Dickey fall off a high line 3000 feet over the fjords of Norway – it was as if she was three meters away in real life. I experienced the ‘real’ presence of Alicia Keys in a recording studio. It wasn’t just about seeing her on a screen; it was about feeling her energy and passion as if I were standing beside her. I couldn’t help smiling in wonder as the virtual butterfly fluttered and parked itself on my finger.

My favourite workplace has been on the Moon for the past three weeks.

Yes, you heard that right – the Moon.

The Vision Pro has an immersive lunar environment, which is now my go-to place when I want to work in peace. Of course, it helps that I can set up a 100 ft tall, immersive screen there to watch my favourite Netflix show.

I recently went to watch Dune 2 in an IMAX theatre in London. The screen felt small, and the experience was underwhelming compared to my theatre on the Moon.

Movies, concerts, and tourism will be changed forever with Vision Pro. We will go from being passive observers to fully immersed in the experience. I’ve already felt the excitement of a live concert and explored far-off destinations from my home; Vision Pro has opened up a world of possibilities.

But Vision Pro isn’t just about entertainment. It’s also already transforming the way I work and collaborate.

As I work on developing Asgard.world, I’ve overlaid digital tokens in the real world through AR on my phone and Vision Pro. It’s been wonderful to experience firsthand how Vision Pro can bring digital tokens to life and give them a real presence in human perception.
Adding a real presence while collaborating with coworkers in the same virtual space, regardless of physical location, will make telecommuting more efficient and connected.

And the personalized experiences that Vision Pro offers are truly remarkable. Whether trying on clothes virtually or exploring architectural designs in 3D, Vision Pro will allow us to interact with digital content in ways that were never possible.

Screenshot

We know that technologies evolve along an S Curve, starting slow, then experiencing rapid growth, and finally plateauing as they reach maturity. The current version of the Vision Pro is just at the start of its journey along the S Curve. As it continues to develop, it will become more accessible and convenient to use, reaching a point where it becomes as ubiquitous as smartphones are today. A decade from now, I can fully see a world where a more efficient, slimmed-down version of the Vision Pro (perhaps 2X the weight of a pair of goggles) and Android variants will be attached to every face like smartphones are attached to every hand today.

The intersection of Vision Pro with VR/XR and AI represents the convergence of presence and prediction. VR/XR technologies serve as presence machines, allowing users to bring their presence to other places or bring others’ presence to them.

On the other hand, AI acts as a prediction machine, enabling better predictions and actions.

When combined with tokenization, which allows physical objects, content and services to become tangible and tradable, we enter a world where prediction and personalization engines operate within an environment where everything can be tokenized and traded at scale.

In this future world, Vision Pro, AI, and tokenization are driving forces that will transform our reality. With Vision Pro (and its successors) enhancing our perception of the world, AI providing insights and predictions, and tokenization enabling the exchange of tangible and intangible assets, we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift that will redefine how we interact with technology and each other.

Spatial computing, AI, and tokenization are all general-purpose technologies – they can have far-reaching consequences, and we often don’t see the possibilities. Very few people thought that the result of the iPhone launch would be the demise of traditional taxi services.

I advise readers that now is the time to lean forward into these technologies. Those who find use cases for them now have a good chance of being the disruptors rather than the disrupted over the next decade.

8 rules to win in China

| Aditya Sehgal

IMG_2628

After spending 7+ years in China, here are 8 learnings that can help you succeed :

1. In China, everything is possible, but nothing is easy

2. People want to help you in China – if someone says no, its only because you asked the wrong question. Change the question.

3. People don’t want to disappoint you in China – so they may say yes when they mean no. Change the question.

4. The way to get rich in China is first to help someone else to get rich, and then to tie your success to theirs.

5. The way to get very rich is to find many people to apply rule 4 to.

6. After the contract is signed – thats where the real negotiation starts. It never finishes.

7. Contracts are toilet paper. Relationships are key.

8. 8 is a lucky number in China. Never have more than 7 priorities (or rules)

Job satisfaction model

| Aditya Sehgal

IMG_1372

Rate yourself on the 4 parameters of this model.

IMG_1366

Significance : does your work make a difference ? To yourself, to the world, to anyone ?
Passion : do you love what you do ?
Value creation : are you creating value (monetary and non monetary) for yourself and for your organisation ?
Family : do you have a happy family life ?

Ideally you want a balanced model and high scores on all 4 elements. Plot where you stand today on the grid below.

If the model is unsymmetrical or you score yourself lower than 7 on any attribute, consider what you need to change.

IMG_1368-0.JPG

If you are looking to change jobs, plot both the old and new job on the grid. On what attributes is the new job better ? The answers may surprise !

Lessons in leadership

| Aditya Sehgal

10 rules final

One of the most effective leaders I know packaged a lifetime of outperformance in a 5 minute speech.
This post shares the essence of his leadership philosophy.

Lesson No 10 : You suck

Rule 10 - you suck
Constructively challenge your team – they can do better

Less No 9 : Bullshit

Rule 9 - bullshit
Authentic feedback and coaching. Honest. Direct. In your face.

Lesson No 8 : Mickey Mouse

Rule 7 - Mickey Mouse
The idea or proposal is too small. Encourage your team to think big

Lesson No 7 : Play hard and work hard

Rule 6 - work play hard
Every idiot can work hard, so play hard is much more important.
Play hard is important for two reasons. One is to have fun with your team, to inspire your team. Second is to live a balanced lifestyle to avoid insanity. Its important for your team to be effective, and its important for yourself to be effective, so play hard.

Lesson No 6 : Go back

Rule 8 - go back
Your team has not done its homework, the numbers are wrong, there is not enough attention to detail. Attention to detail is very important, especially in emerging markets.

Lesson No 5 : Be the lone nut

Rule 5 - the lone nut
Creating the right culture is your No 1 job. Do not fear to be the ‘lone nut’. Others will follow you.

Lesson No 4 : Strategy + People + Execution

Rule 4 - PEG
This is a very useful framework. Remember to spend 90% of your time on People, culture and execution and 10% on strategy. There are a lot of smart people who can figure out the strategy – you can always pay them.

Lesson No 3 : I trust you

Rule 3 - i trust U
Hire and surround yourself with the best people. Then show them your love. You leave them alone after the meeting to do a great job. Don’t pester them, annoy them, confuse them or reduce their motivation. If you trust them you will give them freedom. If you don’t trust them, ask them to move on. There are only two options.

Lesson No 2 : The fish stinks from the head

Rule 2 - fish head
Drive organisational change starting at the top of the organisation. If you have a problem with a company, or a function or a region, you don’t start with the little people – always start with the leadership of that unit and then make organisational changes top down.

Lesson No 1 : Bottom feeder

Rule 1 - bottom feeder
Have a clear performance rank and competition in place. The bottom 20% on a repeated basis will leave the organisation or retire. There is a very strong correlation between performance and growth in organisations and you must reward performance.
If you are yourself the bottom feeder for too long, think about whether you are holding the organisation back.

Alibaba and the Chinese dream

| Aditya Sehgal

2014-09-10 at 22.49.15

With the Alibaba IPO, there has been an explosion of interest in the company.

Speculation has reached fever pitch in the media – ‘There will be a battle of dominance between Amazon and Alibaba for the global e-commerce market’; ‘With $160 Bn in valuation at IPO, Alibaba may, at some point, challenge Apple as the most valuable company in the world’; ‘Alibaba is just another Chinese copycat – when it meets ‘real’ competition as it expands globally, it will fail’.

There is a desire to understand more about Alibaba and its business model.

Is it really bigger than Amazon and eBay put together on GMV (Gross merchandise value) ?
How is it so profitable when Amazon makes so little money ?
How did Taobao become the second largest ‘retailer’ in the world so quickly, just in China ?
When will Taobao overtake Walmart globally on GMV ?
Is Taobao like eBay or Amazon, is Alipay anything like Paypal, What is Taobao and Tmall ?
Is Alibaba a China focused operation, or does it have its sights wider ?
Why is Alibaba making investments/ acquisitions/partnerships in the video space (Youku/Tudou) and in social (Sina Weibo) ?
Whats behind the spate of global acquisitions ?
Why has Jack Ma stepped down as CEO ?
Why is he investing in logistics chains and brick and mortar businesses in China ?

In this post, I am not going to address any of these questions. Enough has been written about these issues and I attach some links at the bottom of this post for those who are interested to read more.

I will focus instead on the core philosophy behind Alibaba and what has most fascinated me about Alibaba – its power and mission to harness the Chinese dream, and thereby change the world.

One of my core learnings in 6+years working in China is that, if you want to have sustainable success, it is critical to build true partnerships and structure your business for success. This means that you create a way for your partners to make money, but you tie in a mechanism so that as they make money, you make money as well. Once you have done this, to scale your business, all you need to do is find more partners, and focus all your efforts into helping them make money, secure in the knowledge that you end up driving your own business as well !

This is the core of Alibaba’s philosophy and the key driver of its success.
jackma_alibaba_xinhua
Jack Ma built “a company that can serve millions of small businesses”. Alibaba’s mission is “to make it easy to do business anywhere“. Jack Ma says “At Alibaba, we fight for the little guy – our role is simple – through our ecosystem we help merchants and businesses find each other to conduct business – on their terms. We help merchants to grow, create jobs and open new markets in ways that were never before possible“.

Alibaba/Taobao has lived this philosophy for 15 years. To illustrate how successful they have been, consider that there are now more stores on Taobao (6 Million) than in the real world in all China (4 Million)!!

When comparing Alibaba with Amazon or any other western commerce business the core difference is the philosophy.
Alibaba ‘serves’ ‘small businesses and entrepreneurs’, it does not ‘sell to consumers’.
Alibaba ‘provides an ecosystem’, it does not see itself as a retailer.
Alibaba ‘fights for the little guy’, it is not a mechanism for big companies to sell to small consumers.

Alibaba is not about the short term. Jack Ma said “We want to be a company that last 102 years. We have 87 years to go“. With this scale of vision and the mindset to emancipate millions, Alibaba has the potential to change the world, not just more than any retailer, but perhaps more than any other company.

This difference in philosophy explains why Alibaba’s revenue model is so unique and why their business model is more virtuous. It explains their focus on enabling payment solutions and faster logistics. At heart Alibaba is a company that serves and hence, their focus is on things that can improve their service KPIs.

It explains why they have every chance of becoming the dominant retail platform in the world of tomorrow – their competitors can compete with other companies, but how can anyone compete with the focused, harnessed, entrepreneurial drive of an entire nation of 1.3 billion people ?

While Amazon and other companies have now got a significant proportion of their business going through a ‘marketplace’, unlike Alibaba, their aim is to benefit the end consumer through lower prices, and if their suppliers get squeezed, so be it.

For those who doubt Alibaba’s ability to win outside China, they should consider that Alibaba is likely to apply the same enabling philosophy wherever they go. Jack Ma says “We have become a household name in China and soon we will be ready for the world to know us.”

In India – a country with 4 Million retailers, Alibaba’s system be an inclusive way to connect them to the global marketplace, without the loss of jobs that organised retail could create.

Alibaba has the potential to create an Indian dream, an African dream, A European dream – where ordinary people could be given a platform to become entrepreneurs, and drag Alibaba along with them on the road to riches. The desire to be rich and successful is universal, and Alibaba’s philosophy can find traction everywhere.

In 1992, Deng Xiaoping encapsulated the Chinese dream when he said “to be rich is glorious“. The Chinese are a people with tremendous work ethic and a huge entrepreneurial drive. China, since it started opening up in 1979, created an environment which allowed this ‘Chinese dream’ to take root. While the 1900’s were driven by the American dream, there is every likelihood that the 2000’s will be driven by the power of the Chinese dream.

Alibaba is at the fulcrum of the Chinese dream. What’s more, Alibaba could be poised to ignite the Indian dream, the ASEAN dream and the African dream as well. In so doing, Alibaba could become a force for good – for positive change and the economic democratisation of the world order.

Jack Ma said “today is difficult, tomorrow is even more difficult, but the day after tomorrow is beautiful“. His dream for the day after tomorrow could just end up changing the world as we know it.

Jack Ma explains his philosophy in this video which was uploaded to youku.com

For more on Alibaba, click the links below :
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140908065624-13518874-who-s-on-warpath-to-overtake-apple-as-the-world-s-most-valuable-company?trk=prof-post
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140610130310-8549453-alibaba-rise-crocodile-in-the-yangtze?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A91382241410365998607%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5882109807384629248%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140509180346-8183750-alibaba-a-fruity-perspective?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A91382241410365955747%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5870593710290399232%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140909000839-115522836-the-alluring-tale-of-alibaba?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A91382241410365955747%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5914880539386458112%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140808235938-174887856-alibaba-is-here-to-change-logistics?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A91382241410365998607%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5903660507373518848%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140611105836-107304053-lessons-learnt-from-alibaba-and-jack-ma?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A91382241410366018255%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5882438004588429312%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name

Plants vs buildings

| Aditya Sehgal

plants vs buildings 3

Business leaders talk about the the need to ‘build capabilities’ – especially around new challenges like evolving into the digital world, or market entry into complex new markets.

To ‘build’ capabilities, their mindset is often the same as constructing a building.

The first phase of the ‘building’ process is planning and designing. An architect creates a design according to the purpose and aesthetics needed. This design is then translated into a cost estimate and resources are allocated. A civil engineer is found and various contractors engaged. Machinery is moved. Foundations are dug. Concrete is poured. Steel is embedded in the cement so the building is strong and earthquake proof.  A manager is placed on the construction site to oversee progress against the detailed time and work schedule. Once in a while the owner of the site comes to inspect progress. After a year or two, a shiny new building is in place.

By nature building designs are rigid and the designer must know exactly what to create before the workers create it – the process is not flexible mid-way if the needs change while the building is being constructed.

If you apply the building analogy to a complex new task like taking a legacy business into the digital world or entering a complex new market like China or India,  this approach may have challenges.

For a complex task in a world changing at an accelerating rate, we may just not know enough to create a rigid design that will be optimal at the point when the building is fully constructed.

Leaders who build capabilities using this model, run the risk to have the illusion of a ‘perfect plan’.  The project may be fully staffed up with smart managers and detailed KPIs/metrics, yet still fail because they may do things right, but not the right things !

Another approach, sometimes used by more ‘local’ companies and also by small, fast moving companies in rapidly evolving technology areas is more organic.

Rather than ‘building’ structures, treat capabilities like ‘growing’ plants.

In this approach, it is important to choose the right seed. These need to be planted in fertile ground. Once planted they need sunshine, water, fertiliser and patience. As the seed turns into a small plant and grows further into a young tree, it needs protection from pests and needs correction while young, if it is not growing straight. Eventually it grows into a beautiful tree.

The plant is predictable in a broad sense (the type of tree depends on the type of seed, the growth depends on the conditions) but it is unpredictable in a narrow sense (impossible to predict each twig, leaf or root). Each tree may look different depending on how it evolves to best thrive in its environment. On the other hand, the building is predictable – it looks exactly like its designers planned.

The approach allows a single gardener to sow multiple seeds to reduce the risk of failure and cover more possible eventualities. As plants grow, they create additional seeds which evolve in darwinian ways over generations to best ensure future growth of the species.

Both approaches require thoughtfulness at the start – but unlike the detailed, resource constrained, KPI driven building planner, the gardener needs to consider fewer details – just the seed and the conditions. It requires more patience and faith but less resource and no micromanagement.

Companies and managers may get locked into one of these two modes and are often convinced that their way is the ‘best way’.

I believe that there is room for both approaches – the ‘build’ approach should be used in stable, relatively slowly changing conditions where the designer is very sure of deliverables and the duration of the project. The ‘grow’ approach should be more used in fast evolving situations or when the designers knowledge is imperfect.

Depending on the approach needed in the role, companies need to decide whether they want gardeners or builders.

Both roles have different mindsets – putting a gardener mindset into a builder role can be very risky and putting a builder mindset into a gardener role can be very frustrating. KPIs for builders need to be very time-bound, precise and input driven, while gardeners need more holistic and output driven KPIs with more relaxed time scales.

Mastering time

| Aditya Sehgal

Time is a unique resource. Everyone has the same 86,400 seconds a day – whether powerful or weak, rich or poor, senior or junior.
Over a lifetime, time does differentiate – longevity correlates to health, genes and circumstance.

In the same 31.536 million seconds a year, how do some people get more done ?

Think of a person walking in a straight line vs. a person turning at random every so often.
After a while, the person walking in a straight line may have walked less, but will be further away from the start point than the confused rambler.


In time, the gap widens, and the rambler wonders – how did the other guy get so far ahead ?

We can not ‘manage’ time, we can only manage ourselves.
By managing our priorities we manage our utilisation of time.

To have a productive, happy life – maximise purposeful movement towards a goal. Minimise aimless rambling.
At the same time, have fun and enjoy the scenery and companionship along the way.
When done well, these principles gives the illusion of ‘mastering time’.

First, set ONE core goal in a year. (if one not possible, set max 3 goals)
If you start today, decide what you will achieve before Dec 31 2014.

It is super critical to select a goal which will make you super successful, if achieved.
Its OK if the goal is audacious or difficult, but it MUST have a material impact.

If the goal is professional, you may want to start by asking your boss a simple question
‘What is the one thing you want me to deliver before Dec 31 which will make you super-successful this year ?’
This is a great test for your boss. If s/he is unable to answer this question, consider your options for moving on and finding a new boss.

Next, identify your time wasters.
Anything that doesn’t take you towards your goal is a ‘time waster’.
In a work context, these come in 2 buckets :
1. Habitual behaviours – things that you have ‘conditioned’ yourself to do – e.g.. read email, check social media etc.
2. Meetings – these may be ‘important’ but may not take you towards your goal.

Every evening, plan your next day using your calendar. Make sure a specific task related to your big goal is top of the list.

Set an out of office reply. Suggested text : ‘I am busy in meetings and will look at email only after 5 PM on XYZ date (next day). In case its a matter of life and death, reach me via text message/wechat/whatsapp’

Execute the following daily plan :

1. For the first 2 hours (most productive period) work exclusively on the big goal.

Refuse all meetings. Do not open email or log onto the internet. If you are in a cubicle wear  headphones or book a meeting room and use it in private.
Even if you have no tasks for the big goal, work on it anyway – think about it, improve your plan, find a better way to get there.

In the last 15 minutes, log on to the internet and scan any developments or trends related to your long term goal. It helps to set up a standard Google search, or use a service like Pocket, Zite or Pulse to aggregate news in your area of focus.

Once a week scan LinkedIn for people who have skills relating to your goal.

At the end of the 2 hours, your ‘real work’ for the day is done.

You can then spend the rest of your time doing whatever you want or ‘need to’.
While it seems counterintuitive that you can ‘finish your work’ in 2 hours a day, remember that in 300 working days, you can spend 600 hours focused on your goal. There are very few projects or priorities that can not be cracked in 600 hours of single minded focus.

2. Take 30 minutes to batch process and clear your emails. 

Force yourself to scan and deal with all pending email in 30 minutes.

It will be difficult at first but will become easy with practise.
Group emails by subject and look at the last email in the chain first. Look at the others only if needed.
Force yourself to either respond with a maximum 1 line answer or delete the email. In general don’t answer more than 10% of your email.
Remember – the less email you send out, the less you receive.

In case the email is very important, and you can’t answer in a few words, put in in a ‘pending’ folder. Have the discipline to not put more than 1-2 emails in this folder at this time.

3. Reward yourself for 30 minutes

Check your social media, do some of the things you like to do.

4. You are now open for meetings

Remember 3 rules for meetings :

a) Take 5 minutes before the meeting to write down your desired outcome at the end.
b) Limit each meeting to max 1hour, ideally 30 minutes. Where possible ask for a pre read and agenda. Start each meeting with the question ‘what so we need to achieve in the next 30 min’.
c) Have a conversation rather than a presentation. Steer the conversation towards your desired outcomes. Once achieved, leave.

5. Use lunch to have a ‘conversation’

Use lunch to have conversations which can help further your goal. This will infect other people with passion for your goal and will get you more support and ideas.

6. Do a daily walk around the office at least once

Chat with your colleagues. Often these interactions spur new ideas and help you develop an early waning system for issues.

7. At the end of the day, batch process email once again.

Clear your email including anything you put into ‘pending’ using the same rules as the morning.
Once your mailbox is empty, leave.
If you are unable to manage your mailbox to zero in the week, take a couple of hours extra on Friday or Saturday to manage the weeks accumulation to zero. Start each week with 0 emails in the inbox.

8. Every 2 weeks, meet someone new/external over coffee

LinkedIn is great to meet new people who have skills which can help with your big goal. You will be surprised how much new perspective and help you get.

9. Create a system to manage repetitive jobs 

If your job is repetitive, you have a great opportunity – expend one time effort to create a system to automate the work. Free up 80% of your time to follow your goal.

With practise and determination, you will be able to stick to this schedule for 70%-80% of working days – Expect days where you compromise for travel, meetings, reviews with the boss, offsite meetings etc. When back to normal, get back to the system – make it a habit and don’t slip.

When done well, in my experience, this system :
1. Gets you promoted because you deliver the big stuff and make a real difference.
2. Allows you to have fun at work. You spend a lot of time in conversations – which helps you build relationship and belonging.
3. Forces you look outwards – so you grow and develop. You find new and unexpectedly creative ways to reach your goal. You become a thought leader in the organisation.
4. Gives you job satisfaction – imagine completing your work in the first 2 hours of the day and being ‘free’ thereafter !

By managing your priorities, you project the illusion of managing time.
So next time, don’t say you don’t have time – say its not a priority.

To read some of my older posts, please click the links below

Accelerate or die

Turbocharge your impact with 16 apps 

Business and bacteria – how things grow

Failing to succeed

Colliding trends create mountains of opportunity

Chinese trains and Indian cars