Change

cheat sheet for starting and running your own business

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 02:36:00 +0000

Accountability

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Stop doing whatever you are doing for a moment and read this. It's worth your time and who knows, you may even stop doing that boring job of yours permanently and start doing some thing you love. Go get it...

Steve Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:34:00 +0000

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

- Steve Jobs
(1955-2011)

In search of a Domino Street Team

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 03:04:00 +0000

If you think you are cool, Register here...

Entrepreneur in Residence

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:47:00 +0000

Entrepreneur in Residence. What a lovely 3 word sentence.

An open letter to the people of the world (Must Read)

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:33:00 +0000

Click here...

10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:31:00 +0000

Click here...

iPad, iPad & iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:18:00 +0000

iPad fever every where. Apple on one side and Application/Content Providers on the other side to cash in on the iPad fever. iPad may disrupt the status-quo or may not. But Apple (or is it loyal Customers?) is positioning iPad as a niche product. Let's see how it goes. Might be a game changer.

Did you pre-order one? or are you going to stand in the line at Store? or both for fun?

Custom Fit

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:57:00 +0000

Most of the big companies expect you to fit into their Eco-system once you join them and will expect you to do what they asked you to. During initial days things may excite as you were trying to learn their systems and fit in. And later on this will clip your horizon and limit your scope to the boarders of your company. One way this is beneficial for the company you are working. But not for you, especially when things suddenly change (like last year recession).

How do you deal with this?
How do you keep your Horizons expanded that spans the boarders of your company?

Try not to fit-in.
Do things your own way.
Disrupt the status-quo.
Ask questions.
Keep up with Industry trends.
Be a change agent.
Actively participate in your domain of expertize.
Help others achieve their goals.
Be a continuous learner/listener.

What's your Platform?

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:11:00 +0000

Creating a new Platform or Seeking an existing one to enhance it?

At any point of time, we are either working on creating an entirely new Platform from scratch hoping to disrupt the dynamics of the Market. Or working on an existing Platform to stack up additional value to the Customer.

Given an opportunity, which one do you choose?

I choose both. Because both are critical for the Market. Without new Platforms, you can not have Value Added Service (VAS or mushroom) providers. And without mushroom providers, your Platform will not have an Ec0-System unless you choose to provide every thing (Can you?). Its Mix-n-Match.

Develop the Core of your Platform and Open it up for Crowd to play with it the way they want it.

So what are you working on? Creating a new Platform or Enhancing an existing one?

Weekend Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:13:00 +0000

Know about behind the scenes of running a popular web service...

Big Companies & Black Holes

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:23:00 +0000

Big Companies & Black Holes: Both have the same characteristic of sucking what ever enters their eco-system. It is difficlut to come out once you are in.

If you really want to disrupt the status-quo join small or start small. Period.

Happy New Year 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:21:00 +0000

I Wish You All A Very Happy New Year !!!

THANK YOU !!!

The hierarchy of success

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:39:00 +0000

See here...

Getting Things Done

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:22:00 +0000

1. Set Goals
2. Focus on the Task
3. Crossing Hurdles (Assured that It is not going to be a cake-walk. And this is what differentiates YOU from the Pack. Go extra mile and be persistent)
4. Achieving Results

Go back to Step 1 and Repeat.

if you are a single person, it is easy to get align with the Goals and also it is easy to forget them. But if you are a team then you will have to pass the DNA to each and every one in the team. Energize them, Charge them, Motivate them, Stretch them, Give them the courage to deal with un-certainties, and Show them how the end results will look like.

Do NOT ever Manage your team. Instead, Lead them. There is lot of difference between Managing and Leading (Manager & Leader).

What you say, what you do and who you are

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:43:00 +0000

See here...

Your time is limited…

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:16:00 +0000

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma–which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

– Apple CEO Steve Jobs

Integrating Amazon’s Engine with Public Library Systems

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:42:00 +0000

I am sure some one might have thought about this. Integrating the beautiful Amazon.com’s engine with Public Library Systems. By doing this, Libraries can help the users with more relevant search and product recommendations based on their history of transactions.

Here are few of the Amazon.com’s features that help Libraries…

Book Recommendations (based on check out history of a user)
Customers who bought (read as “checked out” for libraries) Items in your recent history also bought
New for you
Coming soon for you

Think of personalized service at Libraries (online or onsite). Beautiful world. Disclosure: Library is the second most favorite place for me to sit and think/work. First place is of course Starbucks.

Divide & Conquer

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:04:00 +0000

Divide & Conquer is some thing like finding a perfect Niche for your products/services and positioning them in that area. The narrower the niche you are trying to address the broader your audience will be. And you will be spared from big brothers because the niche you are trying to address is too narrow for them to step into. Finding a perfect niche is also related to Market Segmentation.

Segment the market based on various parameters and see if you can address any of their problems with your innovative solutions. No matter how small your idea/solution be. There are finite ways to segment a market. At the outset, start with these ...

1. Consumer (Individual) Products/Services
2. Enterprise Products/Services
3. Government Products/Services
4. Non-Profit Products/Services

You can further divide each of them into multiple sub-segments. For example:
1. Consumer Products/Services
1.1 Addressing Kids Market
1.2 Addressing Teen/Young Adult Market
1.3 Addressing Baby-boomer Generation Market
1.4 And the like

2. Enterprise Products/Services
2.1 Addressing Industry Specific Market (Retail, Healthcare, Insurance, Financial, IT, etc)
2.2 Addressing Operational Specific Market (SCM, ERP, CRM, etc)
2.3 And the list goes

These are just examples and you can divide them in any way you want to target a specific group.

Go figure out your niche area.

Keywords for change

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:43:00 +0000

Co-Creation
Crowd Sourcing
Participation
Wisdom of Crowds (Collective Intelligence)

Please add relevant keywords in your comments…

Sandbox is ready

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:15:00 +0000

Thanks to Economy for rebooting the system. It has even removed virus, spyware and malware. Now you have a clean slate to play with. What do you want to do with it?

Word of caution: before you start playing with the clean slate, please keep in mind all the lessons you have learnt in the last decades and do not repeat the same mistakes again. New mistakes and new errors are most welcome. And the system reboots again when it is full with these new errors.

As per statistics, the system takes approximately a decade to differentiate between Good and Bad. Once it does, it panics causing loss of data (read loss of jobs) and then reboots to clear the mess.

The Cycle Continues...

Creating Value for your Customers

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:31:00 +0000

Each and every organization in Business thrives to give some kind of value to their Customers. And they get paid for the value they create. The core at the center is "Value for Customer". Business cease to exist when they stop the value creation cycle. There may be some business that destroy customer value instead of creating and again some one will get paid for restoring the destroyed part. Complex matters, indeed.

What is it that you want to give (Sell) to your Customers, as an Individual or as an Organization?

The more and more Customers want it from you the more you can sell and charge. And vice versa. Laws of Supply & Demand. You can create and sell some things as an Individual. And some you can not as an Individual. So you form/join a group/organization that works on a common purpose of creating a form of Customer Value.

If you are working as an Individual you may not need organizational policies, culture and processes. But when you are in an organization, the organization needs to have Culture, Policies, Tools, Leaders and the like to keep every member on the same page and help them to reach their common goal. These passive elements (Culture, Policies, Processes etc) should help your organization to reach its active goal (Customer Value). The better they (Passive & Active Elements) are integrated & aligned the better the results would be.

So what do you sell to create Customer Value? A Product, or a Service or a Complete Package?
How do you make sure that the Product/Service serves it's intended purpose (does not destroy Customer Value)?
What do you do to keep your Product/Service transforming over the time and sustainable?

Values as Foundation Stones

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:09:00 +0000

President Obama said: “Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.”

Develop a Game of Your Product

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:58:00 +0000

If you are going to launch (or already have launched) a Product in to the market, help yourself and your customers by developing a game that is fun to play and will have your product logic embedded into it. Host this game on your website and let the prospective customers play with it to get to know about your product.

The purpose of the game should be to help your customers in learning about your product/service and in return increases conversion rates for you.

Make the game as simple as possible and fun to play. Embed your product’s core logic into it for a fun way of exposing it to customer. Having a game of your product will give you an edge over your competitors. If you think developing game is expensive, stick to the old game of dull product demos, screen-casts, screenshots or whatever it is.

VC money is scarce? So what?

noreply@blogger.com (Peddi Kanumuri) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:48:00 +0000

There are reports on every nook and corner saying getting money from VCs is much more difficult than earlier. For the record: Getting money from VCs is always difficult and it is no different now and the guys who pitched their ideas to VCs knows that better than anybody else.

There are instances where startup teams spent most of their time raising money than working on their product. Follow these rules if your idea is closely related to Web 2.0, or Mobile Applications, or any Software Application. These are less capital intensive.

#1: Never bother about VC money if you are in seed stage. Bootstrap from family and friends for bare necessities and develop your product.

#2: Give VCs a shot if you are in early stage and need some capital for scaling your application to the next level. No matter what, your primary task still is going to be your product.

#3: You already have customer traction and you are in growth stage. Now is the time to run after VCs. Go and get them.

Other good alternative is raising money from community. Crowd source the money from people who believe in your product. Wikipedia has successfully raised more than $6M from crowd. It takes time though. But its worth it.