Harsh Jegadeesan's | VIEWS

Business Stripped Bare | Richard Branson

Written by Harsh Jegadeesan on 2:21 PM

I must confess, one of the best authors of business books I have read so far is er eh hm - 'Sir Richard Branson'. While his autobiography 'Losing My Virginity' made me his great fan and a follower, his short and sweet 'Screw It!, Lets do it!' was a tequila shot!

Reading his latest - Business Stripped bare - was like having a conversation with Mr. Branson in real. In my opinion, he is as unconventional as an author as he is a business tycoon. In this book, he has simplified business and really stripped it bare to the basics - People, Brand, Delivery, Learning from Mistakes, Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Leadership and Social Responsibility.

To me the most exciting aspect is, Branson's art of leveraging the Virgin Brand to setup businesses from mobile phones (Virgin Mobile) to space tourism (Virgin Galactic), to Virgin Cola. The fascinating part is how he succeeds in keeping his businesses small and entrepreneurial.

Virgin still oozes youthfulness and provides 'value for the buck' to customers. Look at how Virgin Mobile launched in India as a MVNO with its 'Think Hatke' campaign, boy what an ad this is:

Heads and Hands

Written by Harsh Jegadeesan on 3:16 PM

In my experience, every venture worth its salt needs two kinds of people in order to sustain, succeed and thrive. I call these people, Heads and Hands. Heads and Hands are genetically different, they are just wired differently. Heads have a "broad horizon view", they get excited and driven by ideas. Heads are the strategic thinkers of a venture. No venture can be conceived without the Heads.

Hands, on the other had are people with an eye for detail. While Heads get their 'high' on ideas, the Hands are not excited so easily. Hands are keen on delivering. Execution runs in their blood. Their job is to operationalize the strategy. While Heads conjure up ideas in the cloud, Hands ground it and bring it to reality.

A venture would be able to survive only when there is a right mix of Heads and Hands. While Heads ensure right things are done Hands guarantee that the things are done in a right way. One is not superior than the other. If you have more Heads than the Hands, the venture does not come to bear. More Hands with fewer Heads would lack a roadmap and a binding strategy.
than having the right mix in the team, Heads and Hands have to respect, trust and work well with each other for a successful venture.

N=1; R=G

Written by Harsh Jegadeesan on 12:58 PM

I am currently reading "the new age of innovation" book co-authored by C.K. Prahalad. The book talks about the interesting "equation" which represents the new age of innovation and value-addition through co-creation with customers - N=1; R=G.


N=1 - is about looking to target a market segment of size 1 with a single customer :0. Confusing? not really. What that means is personalization of a product offering to suit a single customer's need, to have an intimate understanding of a customer's unique requirements and addressing them with flavored offerings for a single customer. Work with the customer (delta revenue channel) to co-create products to address the segment of one. Bottom line, value your customer relationship like never before.

R=G - explains the business environment in the globalized world, where resources leveraged from a global context are used to succeed in business. Does this mean outsourcing to the far east? No it means, sourcing from global supply chains, engaging talent outside organization boundaries through smart crowdsourcing and outsourcing strategies and co-innovation with customers and partners in a business network.

In order to win in the N=1; R=G world, businesses must build strategic and operational capabilities in their business processes through social & IT architectures.

See C.K. Prahalad's interview in Business Standard

Notes from Subroto Bagchi's Leadership Talk

Written by Harsh Jegadeesan on 4:02 PM

I had the good fortune of attending Subroto Bagchi's Leadership Talk today. The great orator in Subroto teased my mind onto topics such as leadership, multiple intelligence and the next generation professional. His talk had an overarching theme - the "Next-Generation Professional Leadership".