Allvoices.com - A refreshing approach to news and events

Each day, I visit dozens of websites including blogs, news sites, forums and even social networking platforms. The purpose is keeping tabs on various technologies, events, and of course to see what else is going on around me. Whether it is political, sports, IT or even finer side of life, I prefer to find it online. And sometimes, I even write about some of it (like right now) at some forum or on one of my blogs out there…

Allvoices.com is one such startup out of the valley that has caught my attention and has literally made some of my surfing easier. It not only organizes information professionally of everything that I want, but also gets my point of view out there faster.

The first thing that you see is not textual information, but a world map. As a user, you choose the region that interests you and it takes you to the news and events related to that region directly. Remarkable. For example, the story of sudden death of Benazir Bhutto spread around the world like wildfire. There was hardly any website, blog, newspaper, TV, radio that did not cover the event in detail within minutes of its happening. Even CNN listed found Benazir's death as the most sought after event on its website. Within two days of its happening, it has probably achieved the notoriety of becoming the biggest news story for 2007. But allvoices.com seems to have found a way to filter and bring the best of these stories out for its readers.

http://www.allvoices.com/people/Benazir-Bhutto

I get to read what the other newspapers are talking about, view comments left by people and also add my own blogs/feeds/comments to this list. Wonderful!

As another example, I was watching some news story on TV and a name Miliband came up in UK. I clicked on the map of UK on allvoices.com and got complete details about him, including a link to Wikipedia of his entry.

I think this is the future of how we shall gather news, read, and comment. It is a mix of traditional (imported news items from major players including fox, cnn, bbc etc) with a blend of blogs and viewers comments. CNN is trying to do something similar with iReport, but so far allvoices.com seems a better effort. Good job guys.

Successful Strategy

Good strategy is the key to success of any enterprise. Failing to create or execute one could mean disaster, regardless of the size of the company or the qualifications of the people leading it.

Tips to Formulating a Good Strategy

• Primary Focus: A well formed question as to what is the strategy of the company. For example, how do we expand nation-wide in the next 6 months? How do we increase our revenue by 30% in the next year? How do we make our new product number 1 in the market by 2009?

• Understanding Current Situation: One must know what is going on around the enterprise. For example, know what the competitors are doing. Are there any new players in the market. Has anyone become more aggressive in the market? Where the market is heading. Is it moving to on line purchases from stores? Is it slowing down as compared to last year? Customers. Are they satisfied with the services or are considering choosing others.

• Timeline and Targets: Must be clear of what you want to achieve in which steps in a fixed amount of time. There is no point in having an open ended strategy with no targets. Every target and strategy should be absolutely time bound. The goals should clearly be defined. For example, that the six billboards for our new product shall be up in the city by the end of February 2008. Similarly, the new product release shall hit the shelves of retailers before the Christmas shopping season begins.

• Understanding the Future: Must know where the market, customers, suppliers (and other critical factors like economy, political scenario etc) will be when the strategy is executed successfully. Say, if we are going to launch a new desktop software in 2 years that is slated to capture a niche market. But will the penetration of Internet based products eliminate the desktop software market? Would Google or Microsoft also get into this market with their cheap or free web based products? Will the political instability cause an economic shakeup?
  

• Measuring the Performance: Must gouge and measure your strategy every step of the way. For example, have the revenues increased significantly in the past two quarters to show that we shall achieve the targets by the end of the year? Is the product development meeting the milestones on schedule so that we can achieve our target of launching the new release by Christmas?
  

Factors to failure

• Lack of Communications within the team: Communications within the various departments in the enterprise. One of the most common reasons for failure in strategy is breakdown in communications and not sharing and seeking critical information from each other.

• Being reactive rather than proactive: Spending too much time in firefighting, resolving issues, following up on opportunities and not allocating and spending time on strategic thinking.

• Thinking short term, rather than long term: Most of the time, we think of a few months ahead and not worry about where we will be in the long term. Short term is usually reactive, focuses on doing and is customer driven. The long term is where you want to see your company and what you would like to achieve by that time. It also sets a clear direction and vision for the company.

See a Problem, Seek a Solution

I was taking this class one time at my University which had an elderly gentleman as the guest speaker for the day. The subject under study was the first things any startup would do to get things going. For some reason, the professor decided to ask me a few pointed questions right from the get go which I had to answer right away. Among those many questions, he was trying to inquire what would one do at the start of the setting up their organization. Naturally, I responded, as any business major would do with buzz words like, visions and mission statements, the goals the objectives and yada yada yada. And the professor would studiously jot all my points down on the white board asking the whole class to comment and add. Everyone started contributing and building on what I was saying. Suddenly, the guest speaker stopped us all. He went to the board, and crossed out everything that was written and looked back at us all with a stern look and said,

“This is not what you do. This is not how you start off with. You are all wrong!”

Everyone, including me were taken aback and had confounded looks on our faces. You could hear the pin drop in the room. Is this not what we are taught day in day out? What does he mean?

“You see a problem, and you try to find a solution to that problem. That is how you start. And that is how you build your company. These visions and missions come later, way later.” he replied in a quiet and gentle manner.

That elderly guest speaker was no other than, Andy Grove, the co-founder and ex CEO of Intel Corporation.

“When we started Intel, we had seen a problem. We worked towards finding a solution to our problem and we built our company around it. That is how successful companies get built and run.” he added while gazing at our empty and confused faces.

He was so right. I began to think back. In 2002, when I co-founded BrightSpyre, it was based on a problem that we had seen. There were no websites for job advertisements in Pakistan. We built our company around solving that problem and later that idea spawned a whole industry in the country. Today, five years later, a new job portal gets launched every few months in the country.

Moral of the story. Find a problem, something that needs a solution. Once you have identified it, then build your business around it. And you shall see your ideas will have better mileage than blindly following someone who spends lots of time on documents, business plans and presentations. These things are important and will definitely be required at some later stage. But during startup, they are not as helpful.

Positive Energy

Always bring a positive attitude towards work. Always smile even in adverse conditions. It is better not to say anything than to say something bad. Thinking negatively contributes very little to the organization. If you are a manager with a negative outlook, you are more likely to cause your team to slide downwards.

Always contribute positively

If you are given a task to do, give your 200% and nothing less. Take every task, no matter how trivial, as a challenge and accomplish it to the best of your abilities. If you lack in some area, always seek guidance from your peers and superiors. But never say never.

Be Proactive

Never wait for your supervisor to ask you on follow ups of the already assigned tasks. Never give them a chance to run after you and pester you for results and updates. Get reports in early and have your communication channel open, and keeping them abreast of all updates on the project and tasks assigned. Do not procrastinate on tasks and work.

Fix issues do not just point them out

Whenever an issue arises, try to find a solution or work towards one. There is no point in pointing out lots of problems and excuses for something that has gone wrong. It is very easy to point out issues, problems and mistakes within an organization, but very difficult to suggest solutions. The best of the lot are those who have suggestions and solutions to issues. If someone continues to point out issues, he/she will soon be branded a “whiner” within the organization. Also, the management will never consider that person for leadership role as he/she is more likely to fail.

Small minds find excuses. Great minds find solutions.

Starting Out

When entrepreneurs start out, they usually like to do it with in small teams. Usually, a fews guys and gals will get together to do something really interesting and innovative that will change the way things are done.

It is easy to start out with a bunch of friends, but it is quite difficult to last the distance. Especially, when the going gets tough. Here are some basic traits to look for when starting out.

Sharing the same passion:
You and your friends might be excited about a brilliant new idea. But not everyone will be able to believe in it with the same passion as you do. It is imperative that your friends and you are following the same dream, the same vision and have the same passion. Otherwise, sooner or later there will be trouble. In my personal experiences of starting up businesses, I have found on many occasions the startup teams move apart after a few months as they do not share the same passion and have different ideas of how to go about their business. This experience was also confirmed by other budding entrepreneurs.

If the partners do not share the same passion, vision and goals, there is every likely hood that the organization will move apart. Or for worse, will crash even before taking off. This must be cleared up and should be revisited on a regular basis. Visions and goals do change as the market dynamics change. But what ever the case, always discuss and get on the same page and be as inspired as everyone on the team.

Define clear cut roles:
In a startup environment, usually everyone does everything. But still, there needs to be some definition of roles and some responsibility assigned to everyone. One of the team members could take over the software development aspects, the other could manage the sales and marketing. A third could be the finance guru on the team. Defining what one will contribute will bring about major productivity gains for your startup. But make sure that the roles are not just on paper and are actually implemented. A good way to have a check is to have regular meetings and see how everyone is doing and contributing.

There will be occasions when one of the members is not contributing enough. It is imperative at the early stage for everyone to be working over 110%. Hence, help the person move ahead and help him/her understand the role. Maybe, try reassigning the person and give him new roles within the organization. See what he/she is good at and make him do that.

If the person still does not improve, it is time to cut him off. Send him on vacation or move him out. A dead and non contributing partner will only slow things down and will cause the organization to slow down as well. His contribution will not be productive for the organization and can also cause other employees to lose focus as well.

Strong Communications:
This cannot be said enough. There are times, when the teams stop communicating completely. They tend not to share their feelings, especially if they have some wood over others. It is imperative that the members communicate and share all issues and problems openly. Keeping everything inside will not help and will only bring about further cynicism.

Strong communications is the foundation for a strong and growing organization. Have regular meetings and sessions and regular exchanges of emails, phone calls etc to be on the same page. The sales team should know what the software team is doing. The software team should know what the management wants and what are the targets and deadlines. And so on and so forth.

Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies

Someone recently asked me at a conference in the Bay Area, as to how has been my experience of entrepreneurship in the US as compared to the developing economies. My answer, which astonished him, was it is far more difficult to succeed in developing economies than in the US.

There are reasons for that and plenty of them, but I list here the three most important. To an extent they are true for all economies; from Bangladesh to Nigeria, from Philippines to Pakistan, from Sri Lanka to Kenya.

Political Instability:

For one, the political instability can play havoc with your plans. Say, if you were in Pakistan, Bangladesh, or even Nigeria, chances are that the political system is heavily dependent upon military and how it reacts to the highly mischievous politicians. Chances are that there will be one political upheaval every five or so years. Enough, to not make business plans and forecasts beyond five years regularly. In fact, I recently, met up with a Chairman of a multinational corporation in Pakistan and asked him precisely about this trend. He said, they used to make a 5 year plans for the country in the past. Now, they are down to 3 as it is difficult to see beyond that.

Government Oversights:

To an extent, if you are running an IT related business, chances are the government will not interfere much. However, that is just the illusion. The governments are slowly becoming aware of what is the all hoopla about this new technology and are becoming a major roadblock in its growth. Take the example of bandwidth. If you are anywhere in Africa, chances are you are paying by the kilobytes that you are using. Yes, not all you can eat, unlimited packages as we see in the US. Even if setting up a software company is cheap, it is too expensive to connect with the outside world on high speed bandwidth.

In Pakistan, the waters are further muddled, with the paranoia built by the government around VoIP. Now, if you are a call center or a software house, and want to use VoIP then you have to first register with the government (Pakistan Software Export Board), and then get a clearance from Pakistan Telecoms Authority (PTA) and this process could take an average of four to six weeks, if not more. And once you do get this clearance, you are still not allowed to do inter office communication using VoIP. You still have to use traditional telephony for that! Imagine that! And yes, they can raid your offices, lock up your staff and do all sorts of government bureaucratic bullying in the name of protecting you against the illegal use of VoIP.

Financing:

Now, this is where it gets really tricky. Numerous surveys conducted by various agencies including World Bank, United Nations has indicated that Financing is one of the major issues in developing countries for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) to survive and grow. The banking systems are also quite archaic in nature and have not really developed since the colonial independence. For example, it is quite difficult for them to finance anything without “physical assets”. Now that is fine, if you are an industrialist, but what if you are an IT company? There are only electronic assets and intellectual property rights. Sadly, such enterprises can secure no funds from any banking institution on these basis. And there are hardly any Venture Capitalists out there either. That leaves the budding entrepreneur with his/her own money or rely on some angel investor.

Effective Project Management

Projects fail quite frequently due to the manager's inability to manage them properly. Sadly, many projects initiated in the IT field miss their deadlines and are usually well over their budget. Good Project Managers are also hard to come by, especially in developing countries, which further complicates the situation.

Project management is not rocket science and nor are we born with it. It is easy to learn and understand. Here is a guide to which I adhere to when managing large projects.

1. Define scope of work: Develop a preliminary scope of work. It should be an overview and not necessarily a detailed specification for work. Try to identify major limitations and constraints that need to be addressed. Establish clear goals and objectives. Therefore, be clear of what you are trying to achieve from this project. Based on the above information, create a simple list of tasks and a basic schedule for delivery. Remember, this is not a detailed analysis. It is just a preliminary scope of work so that one can get an idea of what needs to be accomplished in what time and what issues can occur during its life cycle.
2. Identify core team disciplines: Based upon the scope of work defined above, identify all the needs and resources that are required. It should include the business, technical, support and any other that may be required to accomplish the project in the given time. Once that is clear, estimate the time and skills required to accomplish this project.
   
3. Identify customer needs and wants: From the start of the project, continue to gather the basic set of requirements from the client. And use this information to define the initial scope of work. Keep the communications channel open with the client and have regular interactions till the scope of work is refined and finalized. And make sure that both sides have agreed upon mutually acceptable set of deliverables for the success of the project.
   
4. Develop plan of work: While defining the scope of work, interact and get regular feedback from the client as well as the team that will be working on the project. And based on the project requirements, finalize all key project objectives. Make sure that all tasks are prioritized and properly assigned. This will help in making sure that the team performs to its optimum and limited resources can be managed efficiently.
   
5. Approval and implementation of work plan and budget: Initiate and hold regular meetings with the client and the development team to approve and accept the work plan. Get their feedback and modify it accordingly. The feedback may affect the eventual budget and time line. Get the client and your team to agree on and approve the project timeline. Also make sure that the budget is approved with mutual agreement.
   
6. Ensure coordination and communications: This is one of the most critical and important aspect of any project. Ensure that communication channels are always open between the client, the team and all other parties involved. Have regular meetings and delegate responsibilities but hold them responsible for delivering on those tasks. And most importantly, keen an eye on the project deliverables and outcomes and make sure that they follow the schedule assigned.
   
7. Satisfy the customer: This cannot be emphasized enough. We have all heard the phrase, "customer is always right" and therefore, their advice and feedback is critical for the success of any project. Continue to hold regular meetings through out the life cycle of the project. Get their buy-in for all major changes and modifications. Make sure that all communications are documented, included changes and approvals. If there are any major modifications, get their justification as to why is it required at this time. Make sure to review the impact of changes on the project and if the work plan needs to be modified, get the client written approval for it.
   
8. Assess and adjust performance: Conduct regular internal project reviews. If required, work closely with each individual in the team to keep their productivity to the optimum. As project manager, one can improve the productivity of its team members by making sure that the team understands the scope of work (including modifications required). Keep a close check on the progress including monitoring the, actual work performed vs planned work. Make sure that you address all major issues, concerns and opportunities with your team members. Also, be quick to respond to any changing conditions. Identify them early and take prompt actions.
   
9. Indicators of success: Throughout the project life cycle and especially when it nears completion, make sure of the following questions are answered. Consider them as the guide to see if the project was a success or not.
   
1. Were the customer expectations met?
2. Was the project completed on time? Were all deadlines, milestones met?
   
3. Did the project complete within budget? And if not what were the budget overruns?
4. Were the customer's objectives and agreed upon deliverables met?
   

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The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker

I recently came across this book The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker and I recommend all budding entrepreneurs read it thoroughly. Especially those who would be managing a fledging startup right out of school.

Here are five things that Mr Drucker recommends all managers do.

1. Time: To be effective is to know "where your time is spent". Time is one commodity that cannot be replaced or changed. Once lost, it is gone for good. Therefore, all managers must be careful of what they do with their time.
2. Focus on results: A lot of us tend to work long hours but fail to achieve the desired results in a given amount of time. We strive to work really hard, rather than smart. We should set up goals before initiating a task. What needs to be achieved in what time. What results are expected. Once that is clear then we should execute the task.
3. Build on Strengths: Get the best out of the team by making them do what they are best at. Not all of us are able to handle everything. Some of us are good managers, others are great at taking orders and executing them. For example, in a typical software house, some are excellent software engineers but fail to see the finer side of managing a large project. While others may be weak in programming, but can manage large and dispersed teams quite well. Others can handle customer relationships and clients much better. Find what is the best among your team and give them the work that they are ideally suited for.
4. Keep a clear focus: Always be clear of what you want to do. Trying to do hundreds of tasks in a short span of time will not achieve desired results. Rather, you will end up behind in most of those tasks. It is better to prioritize and clearly focus on a few tasks that you can achieve in a finite amount of time. Do them and reassign the rest to others.
5. Make effective decisions: Never shy away from making decisions, but weigh them before making them. Always get everyone's opinion, but make your own judgment.