4 amazingly granted tips to destroy your company or start-up

4 amazingly granted tips to destroy your company
or start-up

90% of start ups fail and 80% of product launches are not successful, and in this article you will know exactly how to join this number and fail your own start up as well.

In his book why do good companies go bad , Donald N Sull was able to determine what he called a dysfunctional mechanism or what we can call dynamic of failure.

The first approach to failure is strategic approach:

As human being we tend to have mental short cuts or cognitive schema in which we use to classify and categorize the world around us and business owners,

leaders and startup managers are no different than the rest of human beings, the way a start up or a business view the market and their own company is through mental schemes which are called strategic approach.

one of perfect examples to showcase such a concept is Firestone

“After seven decades of uninterrupted growth, Firestone reigned supreme in the U.S. tire industry in the 1970s.Then Michelin introduced the safer and more economical radial tire.

Firestone competed with Michelin head-to-head in Europe, but was blind to the threat to its core U.S. market, and so continued to produce conventional tires only. Firestone lost significant market share and was acquired a decade later.”

This is not just an example of business strategies this is an example of human thought as well, this methodology represents the fixed mind set process which deceives the human mind through ego-centrism that there is only one strategic approach to solve every problem and it’s  the only survival approach.

The second tip of startup destruction is the process:

At this stage you need to stick to the idea of transforming the process into rigid routines machine like and highly optimized a good example of this is McDonald’s.

“McDonald’s built its success on standardized processes, all dictated by headquarters. By rigidly following these procedures into the 1990s, McDonald’s lost market share to Burger King and Taco Bell, who were much quicker to meet customers’ changing desires for healthier foods.”

People in general are afraid of change let that be a change of situations, people, thought, change of hearts and for sure very afraid of change of process. Because when we as human know the sequence of things or the norm of specific process this gives us the illusion of control.

The fear of change is adaptive cognitive mechanism in itself; the fear of change is evolutionary in humans. Since times immemorial, man has liked routine. Our internal predispositions (heredity and genetics) teach us to resist change mainly to ‘always feel in control’. 

That’s one of the reasons people and businesses tend to stick to a specific process.

The main obvious downside to that these days is that we are living in a very dynamic environment and our ecology changes almost in a daily basis some of these changes are revolutionary to us as individuals and to our businesses.

I am almost certain that some of VHS, CD player store had a perfect process in terms of cleanness of the stores , customer care maybe loyalty programs yet this is all what it was. Just another process.

The third tip for the ultimate destruction is values:

I think this is self explanatory really how many times had dogmas or rigid beliefs destroyed companies, start-ups, life’s or a perfectly good cards game?

Bureaucracy  is a perfectly good example of a very important set of beliefs and values. The main idea is documentation of important events and rules that can regulate the work place to reach optimum efficiency,
yet what bureaucracy  has become is more of paper worship and it became a tool of destruction more than a tool to regulate and monitor.

By definition values are “the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.”

So the values o a company or an organization is regarded as useful when that specific institution has started after all they were put in place for a reason and these values contributed to the institution process of the institution,

however values can be solid and rigid as much as you can yet the trends , the tools or the whole ecology of an industry or a business changes in a consistent basis.

Companies that stick to rigid values are sticking to destructive code.

The fourth tip for you companies doom is relationships:

Now in general relationships can form some kind of shackles that will tie you in and hold growth. This could be relationships with constituencies—customers, suppliers, employees. When conditions change, however, these relationships can restrict flexibility.

The Example that was given in the book I am referring to here was apple

“Apple’s vision of technically elegant computers and its freewheeling culture attracted the world’s most creative engineers. Once computers became commodities, however, the company’s health depended on cutting costs and speeding up production time.

But Apple’s engineers refused to change, and the company’s relationship with its “star” employees damaged its ability to respond to market changes.”

This is not the only case or the only form of shackling in terms of relationships for example it might make sense now if you’re a marketing or digital agency to partner with an offline events company, they make the events and you make the online marketing buzz.

However on the long run when you have different demands from different clients alignment between let’s say telecom corporate (your clients) and wedding planners (their clients) might lead to an un healthy relation.

And there you have it these are the 4 amazingly granted tips or your own start up destruction

1-      Turn your strategic approach to a solid frames of thinking

2-      Turn process into rigid routines

3-      Turn your values into dogmas

4-      Turn relationships into shackles

Can you add more points to the list ?

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comment and we can always talk more on

Twitter : @fouad_khafaga

Google + : +FouadKhafaga

Familiraity breeds Creativity ( creative thought process ).

Familiarize 

Monsters of the wild and creatures of the sea adapt to the environment they live in as much as they physically can.

If they could not adapt or evolve, they go extinct. If the climate is changing, they change the immigration path, if it is too hot for them they try to move to a cooler place and vise versa.

Only humans had the creativity and aggressiveness not to adapt to the environment but use the environment and make it adapt to their needs.

Humans are able to cut through mountains, fly into the clouds, dive into the deep of the ocean not because they are the strongest or the most skilled, but because of their ability to familiarize themselves with the most abstract and most challenging situations their environment has to offer.

So how does one adapt? This technique is used by magicians, stand-up comedians, painters and different artist of all kinds.

Magicians are the masters of using this technique; it is the only way they function. From weird character concepts to magicians who cut people in half and artists who disappear in less than 30 seconds while they were chained in a pool cage filled with water.

Just to illustrate how early the magician’s circles adapted the concept of familirisim, here is a story from ancient times.

 In ancient Egypt, there was a magician called Dedi and the story goes as follows:

According to the Westcar Papyrus, prince Djedefhor brings up the story of Dedi.

He stands before his father, king Khufu, and says: “There are only tales of miracles which happened a long time ago, something known by past generations. Truth and falsehood cannot be distinguished here.

 But there is someone under thy majesty´s own lifetime who is not known, someone who is able to make a ignoramus become wise".

 Khufu asks: “What's the meaning of this, Djedefhor, my son?” Djedefhor answers: “There's a commoner named Dedi, living in Djed-Sneferu.

 He's a simple citizen, but 110 years old, eats 500 loaves of bread, a shoulder of beef and drinks 100 jars of beer every day. He is capable of resurrecting decapitated beings. He is also said to be able to make wild lions so obedient that the animal would follow him with a cord dragging on the ground. Furthermore, this Dedi has the knowledge of the number of I put in the wenet-sanctuary of Thoth.”

The pharaoh spent a good deal of time seeking for these chambers, planning to build something similar to his horizon. And Khufu orders: “You thyself, Djedefhor, my son, may bring him to me!”

Even in that very early start of humanity the magician was painted in a more of a mythical figure. He does not eat , drink or live in a normal manner and this lifestyle made him able to perform bizarre and abnormal actions. In other words the magician was able to familiarize himself with unfamiliar surroundings.

A great modern example of how we as a species are able to familiarize ourselves with the environment with disregard to how abstract the object in question is, would be the modern technical field of IOT. 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an environment in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

 IOT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) as well as the Internet. The concept may also be referred to as the Internet of Everything.

It is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. The following examples are to elaborate on the implementation of such a concept in real life and how we are again using our creativity to familiarize our environment;

Smart Cities

Smart Parking: Monitoring of parking spaces availability in the city.

Structural health: Monitoring of vibrations and material conditions in buildings, bridges and historical monuments.

Smart Roads: Intelligent Highways with warning messages and diversions according to climate conditions and unexpected events like accidents or traffic jams.

Smart Environment

Forest Fire Detection: Monitoring of combustion gases and preemptive fire conditions to define alert zones.

Snow Level Monitoring: Snow level measurement to know in real time the quality of ski tracks and allow security corps avalanche prevention.

Earthquake Early Detection: Distributed control in specific places of tremors.

Smart Water

Potable water monitoring: Monitor the quality of tap water in cities.

Chemical leakage detection in rivers: Detect leakages and wastes of factories in rivers.

Pollution levels in the sea: Control real time leakages and wastes in the sea.

This concept as shown above can be used in a variety of fields by listing the field , the topic , the story , the character or the industry on one side of the table and create a list of 10 unfamiliar tools, things , approach on the other side of the table. By matching, eliminating or just brainstorming a process with the creative team.

Some Final thoughts

According to Dr. Yuval Harari, there were three major revolutions in the history of mankind; a cognitive revolution, an agriculture revolution and a scientific revolution. It is of no coincidence that the three revolutions are made by the capacity of the human brain to both innovate and create. Creativity is a unique feature of our race.

 For far too long the human mind was lost in the woods of ignorance until the mind have let the light of innovation guide us through this dark forest. Innovation skills and techniques are observed in all the aspects of our lives from business to parenting, from survival to discovery and in both creating and destructing.

This book offers a crack to the code of innovation through experimenting some case studies and examples. Yet creativity in itself is just a tool that should guide to an ultimate goal. Just being different doesn’t mean it is useful, just being innovative doesn’t grantee success. The tools that are offered in this book should be used as youtility built that is making the process of reaching a specific goal easier, faster and overall more efficient.

This small E-book should be my personal guide to create another book under the same title both longer in length and deeper into the code of innovation.

So if you’re reading this and have any ideas, feedback or thoughts on what would you like to read in the next edition of the book feel free to contact me and send your thoughts.

twitter : @fouad_khafaga

Cut to the core ( Creativity and innovation thought process)

Cut to the Core

“I am a perfectionist; I look at things from each and every angel possible”. If I had a million dollars for each time I hear this statement I would have been a billionaire.

The idea that we need a thought to be perfect in order to express it , or wait for a business model to be perfect in order to implement it, or wait for a musical riffs to be perfect in order to put it down into an album. That is, sometimes, a destructive idea.

Because waiting for the perfect time, perfect place, and perfect people to achieve a perfect goal never happens; it’s too perfect to be true.

It is never a perfect time to start a technological revolution; it is never a perfect situation to start your business. In truth, most of the time it is not even a good idea and you will face huge obstacles on your path and those who are strong enough, creative enough and consistent enough are the ones who cut through.

Here are a few examples for people who didn’t wait for the perfect moment:

•        The co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems and Patron Spirits was actually homeless twice in his life. The first time, DeJoria was 22 with a 2-year-old. The second time, he slept in his car for two weeks while starting the now $900 million-a-year haircare business. Today,

•        The investor, founder of Micro-Solutions and Broadcast.com and owner of the Dallas Mavericks is now worth $2.3 billion, but Cuban wasn't always wealthy. In his book How to Win In the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It, Cuban candidly reflects on all he had to do to make his billions. Before he started Micro-solutions, Cuban was fired from a PC company for not telling anyone he was going to lunch to try to close a deal. At the time, he was living with five other guys in a three-bedroom apartment and didn't even have a bed.

•        Before Walt Disney died in 1966, his studio had released 81 films resulted in winning 32 Academy Awards. Today, Walt Disney's company has a market cap of nearly $104 billion and 166,000 employees. But before all of this commercial success, Disney was struggling to survive. He was fired from the Kansas City Star in his early 20s because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas".

 It was never perfect for Lincoln, Tesla, Jobs or Honda for that matter (who would sell Japanese motors to American markets after World War 2?). However, these examples and many others ask one question in the mind of creative individuals; if we don’t wait for perfection in our action, our thoughts our plans what should we do?

The answer to the ultimate perfection question can be found in Silicon Valley. They have cracked the code for answering this question. The answer is a model they developed which is called MVP.

In product development, the minimum viable product (MVP) is the product with the highest return on investment versus risk. The term was coined and defined by Frank Robinson, and popularized by Steve Blank, and http://bit.ly/1JnzRVi . It may also involve carrying out market analysis beforehand.

 A minimum viable product has just those core features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more. The product is typically deployed to a subset of possible

Customers, such as early adopters that are thought to be more forgiving, more likely to give feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from an early prototype or marketing information.

 It is a strategy targeted at avoiding building products that customers do not want, that seeks to maximize the information learned about the customer per dollar spent.

 "The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort."

The definition's use of the words maximum and minimum means that it is decidedly not formulaic. It requires judgment to figure out, for any given context, what MVP makes sense.

An MVP is not a minimal product; it is a strategy and process directed towards making a product and selling it to customers.

 It is an iterative process of generating an idea, prototyping, presentation, data collection, analysis and learning. One seeks to minimize the total time spent on iteration. The process is iterated until a desirable product/market fit is obtained, or until the product is deemed to be non-viable.

Steve Blank typically refers to minimum viable product as minimum feature set.

Purposes

•        Be able to test a product hypothesis with minimal resources

•        Accelerate learning

•        Reduce wasted engineering hours

•        Get the product to early customers as soon as possible

•        Base for other products

Guy Kawasaki the Silicon-Valley based author, speaker and entrepreneur had some improvement of his own to the model. He said to the startup grind interview that his view of the concepts adds two V’s to the mix.

MVVVP:

A- Minimal.

B- Viable: it is foreseeable that you will gain a profit that your revenue will exceed your coast

C-Valuable: that your changing the world, that you’re doing something significant.

D-Validation: it validates your vision in the future.

E- Product.

The concept of MVP or MVVVP is vital in boosting creativity especially to the “cut to the core” technique.

Cutting to the core technique is the act of revealing the core concept of a product or a service to enhance, modify or radically change the fundamental concept. A very clear example of cutting to the core technique is the green products and services.

 Starting from the packaging industry where the green cut to the core of grocery packaging and pushed for using paper instead of plastic.

Another great example for cutting to the core is the transformation of the automobile industry, Tesla motors provides a perfect illustration to the concept this is how they define the models on their website:

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers in Silicon Valley who wanted to prove that electric cars could be better than gasoline-powered cars.

 With instant torque, incredible power, and zero emissions, Tesla’s products would be cars without compromise. Each new generation would be increasingly affordable, helping the company work towards its mission: to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport.

Tesla’s engineers first designed a powertrain for a sports car built around an AC induction motor, patented in 1888 by Nikola Tesla, the inventor who inspired the company’s name.

The resulting Tesla Roadster was launched in 2008. Accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds and achieving a range of 245 miles per charge of its lithium ion battery, the Roadster set a new standard for electric mobility.

Tesla would sell more than 2,400 Roadsters, now on the road in more than 30 countries.

Notice that in the first line they cut to the core of the industry and provide their own model to revolutionize the industry, and who would cut to the core other than a group of engineers in Silicon Valley.

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