What Not to do on a First Date!

Now that I have your undivided attention, lets talk about "Conferences". In the corporate world a conference is the equivalent of a speed dating session. You meet a lot of people, usually the food is good and you have a good time. However, there are a few who make the most of this...just like the times in college when a few lucky jocks ruled roost. That said, now lets talk about a few do's and dont's for a conference:

• Dress Well: And you are wondering why I say that. Well its simple. There are a lot of conferences where I have seen people simply not dress well enough. People are trying to size you up in a conference. A good suit helps establish credibility. But then, there is no point being an empty suit. Which brings me to the next point.
  
• Prepare Well: Don't show up at a conference if you have no meetings fixed. Its a colossal waste of time. Every conference has a published agenda of speakers listed weeks in advance. Make calls, set up discussions and prepare for these meetings. If you are not doing this drill, you are goofing around in a conference.
  
• Listen Well: In all conferences, I have been to till date, this theme is common. People want to talk and talk more. Let them do that. Listen well to people around you, and if you are a good listener, you certainly save energy and charm to talk to people who matter.
  
• Converse Well: Ask yourself, "How do I end conversations with people who are not suspects?" (aka "possible prospect"). Chances are you drop them like a hot potato, chances are higher that you don't even exchange cards. What about the old adage "People connect People". Be courteous, end conversations well and drop a note later. You never know how things may change.
• Never Sell: "Do you propose on a first date?" Hopefully you don't. You charm, you thrill and you listen to your date. You don't say "Marry me!!!". Then why do you make a jackass of yourself and pitch "long term relationships" and "commitment" in a conference meeting? Make friends, exchange cards, tell stories and talk a little business. Never Sell! There is a time and place for everything.
  

I have made friends with some really good people at conferences. Many of them have let to follow on conversations and a few to some business. However, the best gain out of these speed dating sessions is I have become a better story teller and a better judge of people.

Happy Dating!!

Conferences: Learning from the Learned

Sorry for a long hiatus from my side. Since my last note, I made a trip to the Middle East and India. I was also quite caught up in trying to make sense of the chaos on Wall Street. As someone told me recently, "We've put Obama in the office, so I can spend my time on writing again".
Over the past few months, I attended quite a lot of conferences held by organizations like the CII and Tie. In this blog, I want to share some interesting data points I gathered during these sessions:

Indian Economy Stats:
1. Indian Healthcare market is 18BUSD. Its expected to grow to 50 BUSD by 2012.
2. 51% of the assets of the average Indian household is in gold and property. Of this 65% is in CD's, Bonds etc.
3. Leverage in the Indian economy is the lowest in Emerging markets (Mortgages as % of economy India:8%, China 14% and Korea is 23%)
4. 225 of the Fortune 500 companies have Engg centers in India.
5. Indian Land Allocation Act is Based on the 1894 acquisition act. Hence we have Nano like situations.
6. Indian faces a shortage of 1 million hospital beds and 150k hotel rooms.

US Economy Stats:
Most of these are excerpts from a talk I heard President Bill Clinton deliver.

1. In the last 10 years,of the net growth in US economy 40% was housing and rest was Debt based growth.
2. American Cancer Association predicts 1 in 8 cancer patients will die sooner due to lesser quality health care.
3. Increasing number of Americans will not get MRI's (because they wont afford the copay)
4. Over the next decade Type II diabetes will double (especially in kids)
5. In Nevada (worst hit) 1 in 75 homes faces foreclosure.
6. Last year US had 1.5mn foreclosures. This year its 2mn. If stimulus does not work it will be 2.5mn in 2009.
7. Cost of 1 foreclosure is 250k (for the economy). With 2.5mn foreclosure do the math for impact to bail out package (its quite scary!)
8. Engines of growth for the US economy will be Energy ( for next10 year) followed by Biotech for the next 10.

Some Interesting quotes:
From a European on doing business in India "In India you will get patience if you dont have it. You will lose it if you have it"

Bill Clinton on delivering his views in public: "The good part about being an ex-president is that you can say what ever you want. The sad part is that no one listens"

Winston Churchill on Americans: " Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing....after they have exhausted all other possibilities"

Be Humble not servile!!!

There is this interesting concept of humility in our society. It gets expressed in many ways. In the social context you see (Hopefully) good examples of humility. Like giving your seat to lady in the train (you don’t see it much in New York, and its also confused for courtesy), apologizing when you are wrong (surprisingly you don’t see that all too much either) or listening to another point of view (or in fact listening itself)…

Anyways, I wanted to share my view point on this topic more from a corporate environment standpoint. First things first, what we see around us most of the time is servility manifesting as humility. My spiritual guide says that “Being Humble is synonymous to being Natural”. Quite on the contrary servility is often a manifestation of the individual ego with the sole purpose of doing something for the sake of something.

Over the last 3 months, I had the fortune of meeting and having some good discussions with some industry leaders and CEO’s. Some of them lead industry leading companies and some are in the launch pad well fuelled to a great take off. Here are some incidents that revealed the very DNA of their leadership: “Charismatic personality backed by rock solid value system”

• I was travelling with our President to meet the CEO in a industry leading hedge fund in New York. When I had called him and left a message, he took the initiative to locate my number in his EPABX and call me back! When we reached his office, he was at the door to receive us. All the while during the discussion, he gave us all his attention and valuable advice. While escorting us back, he mentioned that he was leaving for Bangalore. I said “Hotels there have become frightfully expensive”. He smiled and said “Oh this time luckily its taken care of. I am going there to inaugurate a 5 star hotel me and my partners built on the side”. This gentleman worth millions taught me that “No matter how much you make, always treat a guest like you would like yourself treated”

• On a late Thursday afternoon, we were finishing off a meeting in a leading Wall Street firm. The President of this firm walked by. He knew that there was some discussion going on with our company. He also knows the President of our firm well. His first question “Hey, when would you be free to meet with me? It would be good to discuss. I am keen on meeting you”. When a CEO of a company to which you are trying to sell to, catches you off guard this way, there is a profound lesson to be learnt. “You are never too big for any one and every meeting is not just about buying or selling”

I would like to know what you think of this approach to genuine, natural behavior in a corporate environment? Would that make you vulnerable or shatter all the vulnerabilities around to make you a more solid corporate citizen???

No one kicks a dead dog!!

Last year on Valentines day, Jet Blue (high value low cost airline in the US) reset their systems. As simple as it sounds, this was a major debacle from an operational standpoint. The airline just didn’t start-up like a well oiled machine. People were stranded at airports, missed meeting loved ones and the business media was quick to make this a chart topping news item….It took a total of 48 hours (I think it was more) to get the operations and passengers back on schedule.

The shares took a beating and so did the enormous goodwill and brand that JetBlue had built painstakingly over the last many years.

The management response however was classic….The CEO came up with something called a “Passenger Bill of Rights”. This document was made public in a matter of 72 hours. All the fares of stranded passengers were refunded. The bill of rights came up with suggestions and ideas to empower the customers.

In parallel, JetBlue made sure that all the media covering the debacle also applauded the Bill of Rights. Overnight the JetBlue stock rebounded and more importantly, JetBlue used a crisis it created in the first place to its advantage.

Something similar happened to United last year. I think there are still passengers trying to get out of the O’Hare airport. I for one, spent overnight in the airport doing the Tom Hanks in the Terminal routine by brushing and shaving in the airport and enjoying the luxuries of an early morning Mac Donald’s breakfast.

A more recent example to share is Netflix. I have been using the service for the last 3 years and they are simply awesome! Great service, excellent value, super movie collection and a very engaging online experience sum it up for Netflix.

Thestreet.com reported a crash in the Fulfillment system in Netflix and as a result the customers did not receive CD’s. I realized that I was also a day delayed in the delivery of the dvd’s. Everyone from bulge bracket analysts to national reporters wrote about this mishap and how some other online media delivery systems are better.

Two things to clarify here….1. Netflix online delivery model has taken off and for sure they have a winner again. 2. In all these years of service if the system blipped just once, I must say the reliability is state of the art.

The moral: great management’s use the brickbats thrown at them to reinforce the foundation of their enterprise.

Where Art Thou!!!

To all my readers, apologies for a near two month hiatus. I was busy managing change and charting out a new course in my career. I have made some significant changes to the way I will be playing the sales game going forward.

But before we get into all that a quick update on what the last 8-10 weeks have been all about:

1. I read nearly 4 new books mostly focussed on my spiritual Masters writings.
   
2. Saw quite a lot of movies, some of the important ones I mentioned
3. Spent a week in Denmark with my spiritual Master
4. Have been thawing out in the New York summer
5. Moved on from MphasiS to a start-up company focussed on KPO services

A few pointers to anyone trying to make a shift in career.

1. Follow your heart. Makes you a better man (hopefully if you able to take the ride)\
2. Never leave an organization with a bad taste. Give ample time to transition, make sure you accommodate everyone's wishes and leave as if you just changed a cubicle. (Trust me this cant be done in a two weeks notice. Took me 6 weeks)
3. Doubt is the enemy of success. Dont let it creep up once you've made your mind.

I will be hitting the circuit hard pretty soon and will fill you in with all the juiciest sales gossip! Stay tuned

Cheers
Uday

A leaders address

Recently our firm had a change in the leadership. The new CEO was in the sales office in New York for a Town Hall this week. Understandably, there was a fair mix of curiosity, skepticism, indifference and of course excitement. There were of course drinks to follow up the Town hall to mull over the messages in the evening.

The presentation which was more of an informal discussion lasted about an hour. It had all the elements of a good message. Right focus on priorities, values, direction with some good humor to fill in the gaps and break the ice with the crowd. I wanted to share some points that I found to be interesting. Also I think in any address that a leader makes to his team, this could be a good checklist to balance your message.

• Passion in an organization comes into play when intellect and emotion work in the right balance to produce results for customers.
  
• Any organization's cultures stems from their vision and values. Vision shows where we want to go and values show how we will get there.
  
• People are not in the middle of problems. Its always the process.
  
• Whenever clients buy products from you, the key question you need to ask yourself is "Why are they buying from us?" Answer to this question will help you make the corrections when they stop buying from you.
  
• Successful products are designed for the heart. You think of a product with the mind but you design for the heart!
  
• The secret to building great teams is "Hiring people who are better than yourself" and "People whom you want to work for"
  
• "Everyone in the company sells". If you have treated your janitor in a bad way, and he bounces into your client sometime in the corridor, imagine what he will have to say about your company. Always treat people with respect.
  

I personally found these messages quite thought provoking. One key action item that I have for myself is to come up with a list of things which have made me successful. This checklist will always be in my hip pocket to check when things are not all that rosy....

cheers !

Delivering a super presentation!!!

It has been quite some time that i have visited my blog. There has been a lot happening in the last few months. A couple of overseas trips for pleasure and business, a lot of travel in the US (braving all the weather in the US), a sales conference, a few home projects and in the middle of all this, trying to keep my sanity in place.
In these few weeks, on key aspect that I have been involved in is delivering client facing senior management presentations. Typically these sessions have been at the C-level, and they have involved globally distributed teams with different cultures, environments and of course needs.

In a way all of us are involved in presentations Its either as a contributor, presenter or as a SME..I wanted to share with you some good practices that have made my presentations really successful. Some of these might sound a little quirky, odd, but they are definitely worth a try! Here goes the list:

Logistics:

• "Have a bright room": Presenting to a dark room will avoid eye contact and not chemistry will develop in the room. Have a room that is well lit on the audience where you can have eye contact.
  
• "Try out the color schemes": Recently I was in a session where we were using a color scheme that was not tested before. We were using a really nice shade of Olive green. When this was projected in front of the client,it was really irritating fluorescent green! Beware of using unconventional colors. Usability plays a key role.
  
• "Good food and tea": In a presentation have some sweets and cookies. Sugar and chocolate are good mood lifters and its always a good idea to have some goodies!

Slide Decks:

• "Size does matter": No deck should be more than 15 slides for a 2 hour presentation. You can have slide separators etc. but the heart of the presentation should be 15 slides at most....
• "Dont be a victim of chair paralysis": Keep the dynamism alive in the room. Have a white board, let the client speak to a diagram, throw open ideas and challenge the discussion. Always remember, Intellectual thought leadership with humilty in the room is always respected by the client.
  
• "Adapt to change":There have been multiple instances when I showed up to a meeting and the client just wanted to have a chat across the table. Be well prepared mentally on the pitch. The environment should not be a hindrance in delivering a great story!
  

Tell a story:
All the great wisdom in the world has been transferred in mankind through stories and fables. There are Aesops fables, Tales of Narnia, Panchatantra etc. All of these stories carry in them a very profound message conveyed through a simple story. The bottom line is that all of us like to relate to a story and it creates for us a visual interpretation of the topic discussed.
When to present your idea to the audience, use some of these techniques:

• "Have a story analogy": Always have a story that the audience can relate to. For eg: if you are presenting on Web based applications, have a story about how you helped "Mike a really nice client and Director in IT in Minneapolis develop a solution that helped his global team collaborate and have more efficiency and fun at work". If you noticed, you would have already pictured Mike and his team. This is what I mean by Visual Interpretation....
• "Listen, hear and if needed speak": The key to a successful presentation is to have your client speak and share. The slides you present must have the right slide in's for the client to chime in a contribute. Remember, every one like to contribute to a winning solution! Let the client contribute and collaborate!
  

I have tried these techniques in various scenarios. Let me know if you have some other ideas to contribute. I welcome inputs and would love to do some experimentation!

Till next time a word of wisdom :"Take care of your customer.....or someone else will!"