Are we losing our edge as we grow older?

Dear Mr Kumaran,

I'm Haikal from the Tampines Junior College Hat Programme.Thank You very much for the inspiring speech during our Annual College Day.Its good to hear that you are doing well in business.I would like to ask you some questions sir.You mentioned that you were mentored by bankers when you were starting up your business.I really wondered how are you able to do that as not many people have the privilege to be mentored by a banker when they are starting out.Secondly,to be a successful businessman,how long do you think we should work in order to gain expertise and knowledge before we venture into business.Thank You very much for your time.I look forward to your reply soon.

Warmest Regards,

Haikal Mohd Noh

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Hi Haikal,

As it turns out, I am also a good sales man and very successful people have an uncanny ability to convince people to do things for them.

The thing is, starting a company is a risky business and it is hard to predict which one comes to you first - fame or fortune. If you get fortune, you are lucky and if you get fame followed by fortune, you are lucky twice. But, rarely do entrepreneurs start a business solely for the reason of making money, they usually start cos they want to make a difference to the world. Fame and fortune comes as a by-product.

A mentor doesn't suffer from the consequence of bad advice - the mentee does! Even though I had a privilege of being mentored by a top-banker, I suffered a great deal from his bad advice and I paid the price for it. Anyway, he is still a good friend of mine and he also parted some words of wisdom along the way... This brings me to my first opening remarks, which is, you are your own architect. While the mentors can show you the way, you will still need to choose the path that you want to take.

There is no fixed formula for number of years you need to work before starting a business. Some of the successful businesses were founded by very inexperienced people. After 1 or 2 years in the industry would give you enough exposure to start getting your feet wet. Start young cos if you do fail, you'll have plenty of time to recover from your failures. Ironically, older people bring their own set of baggages from their experiences and tend to be over cautious and risk averse - they are the tamed ducks!!! To tell you the truth, I take lesser risks today than 10years ago.

Good luck in your endeavours, Haikal. I'm glad you found the speech inspiring.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Kumaran

Punctuality is a Virtue

Dear Chosunghye,

Its good to hear from you and it was my pleasure to meet young and brilliant minds like yourself. I confess that it makes me reminisce my college days - some of the best days in my life.

As I look back, since my college days I have had the privilege of having very spectacular successes and equally spectacular failures in my life. Over the years, I have realized that it is both the successes and failures that are portrayed in my public persona. It defines me.

There is one thing that I like to share with you - a lesson that I had learnt later in life but I thought that I could get away with it as a teenager:

I used to be regularly late for assembly in the mornings and this was due to the limited bus services that were plying between Bedok South and Tampines JC in 1987/88. I had to take two buses to get to college. I'll be arriving right on the dot at 7.30am even if I took the first bus in the morning.

My Civics Tutor called me up one day and she was very angry that I was always late. I tried to explain to her that it was not my fault and that it was the fault of the transportation system here. Obviously, she did not accept my reasoning and said that I will have to be punctual even in the adult world. I didn't think much back then, but I told her not to worry and that I will own my own business someday and I can go to work anytime.

True to what I said as a teenager, I run my own enterprise today but I have realized that punctuality is even more important to me now cos I pay people to work for me and if I make them wait, I'll have to pay a price for it (cos I pay them salaries). So I am kinda forced to be punctual and early and so Miss. Yap was right after all.

As a teenager, I was very rebellious and thought that I could change the world. But, as I grew up I understood there is a reason why people do the things they way they do. The world changes and progresses no doubt. But, our fundamental human value stick around for a long long time. All the best in your endeavours.

P/s- I am mentoring some college students from Tampines Junior College. This is my response to one of the students. Do email me at cumeran@gmail.com if you need any advise.

The World’s Greatest General

Mark Twain told a wonderful story about one man’s search for the world’s greatest general. The man spent an entire lifetime looking for the general and finally the day for his last journey. When he arrived in heaven he walked over to St. Peter and said, “I’m looking for the world’s greatest general.”

St. Peter said, “I know, we’ve been expecting you and I have good news. If you’ll look over right over there, you will see the world’s greatest general.”

The old man excitedly looked over and said, “That is not the world’s greatest general. That man was a cobbler on Main Street in my hometown!”

St. Peter responded, “But had he been a general, he would have been the greatest general ever.”

The moral of the story is that sometimes you need someone else to tell you who you are and what you are capable of. There is a hidden talent in all of us – the unpolished gem. Go discover it!!!

GTM Strategies: Going the distance

When I first started doing business, I used to read a lot of books written by business leaders like Charles Handy, Thomas J. Watson, Peter Drucker, and Guy Kawasaki. If there was one thing that I learned from them was their absolute dedication to a single mission – some call this strategic focus.

Most people put a lot of emphasis on setting up an infrastructure for their new business. While basic infrastructure is the basic building block of any good business, setting up the superstructure is the basis of a great business. Infrastructure refers to the capital goods, tables and chairs, office space and so on. On the other hand, superstructure refers to the intangibles like partnerships, branding, innovation, capability or core competency. The intangibles are the hardest to build. Often building your superstructure becomes the strategic obsession.

For a startup company, the strategic focus is based on the key success factors of your business. In an industry that is highly innovative with low costs and low barriers of entry, our key success factor was gain leadership position in one key market segment. Ironically, doing this is contrary to conventional wisdom of spreading the risks by diversifying the business.

Depending on the financial resources available to the startup, the company at this stage can exercise one or more of these options:
1. Develop new capabilities in the adjacent vertical markets.
2. Develop new products and services in the horizontal base markets,

Most companies at this stage plunge further into their own micro-verticals to enjoy the fruits of their labour without any consideration for opportunities in the horizontal market segments. However, in a lot of cases, especially in mature markets, the company would be better off serving and dominating their own markets.

Transitioning into a horizontal market is like making the next big bet. The team needs to evaluate not just the financial ramifications but needs to make as assessment on the formation of new partnerships, product/service capabilities and execution time.

Don't ever teach a Pig how to sing - It is a complete waste of time and it annoys the pig!!!

I dont mean any disrespect to anyone who has worked with me or anyone else for I am just intrigued by this title and I hope you'll go on to read my post.

I used to run a startup before starting Protegesoft and it was a complete failure. Just as I sit down and reflect on what went wrong -- I just can't seem to put my finger on anything. There was nothing right about it from the word GO!!!

The company was well funded by the National Science and Technology Board, Singapore (now known as A*STAR). I had a professional Board of Directors, had $600,000 cash to develop a product. Hired a top class student to head the product development, a senior banker to manage the finances, an ex-banker to incubate the company and despite the best intentions and effort by all - the company failed to develop a product and ran out of gas!

I was new to business - so I got an Incubation Manager to manage my business. The result was nothing short of disaster. There was so much emphasis in recruiting a full management team. The priorities were all wrong. As a company focused on R&D, we should have spent more resources on product development and less on having a professional team.

Learning from these lessons, I have been extremely careful with the people that I hire. I insulate the engineers and the product development team from the rest of the corporate guys. I handle and direct the product development.

For the same reasons, I have also kept the company private and away from the venture capital firms. Having third party capital would put undue pressure on delivering revenue and profit targets with little regard for long term development of capability.

The structure of innovative young startups is very different from a large multi-national corporation. The corporate reporting lines are blurred and if you were to draw an organisational chart for a young startup, it should look more like a concentric model with the CEO/ Founder in the centre... because, the company is small and there is really no need to have formal reporting lines. This kind of structure also promotes innovation and invention through infomal lines of communication.

I find that smaller teams or groups are more effective and innovative than larger teams. Big teams are completely useless when it comes to product development. The most effective team sizes range from five to seven. Anything bigger seems to get too political and ineffective.

Unless you want to run your business aground - never ever hire a manager from a large company managing a large team to run your innovative startup. Somehow, they dont seem to appreciate that smaller innovative startups thrive on messy informal communication and organisation structures. They may be exceptions -- but you may need to kiss many frogs before you find your prince!!!

The Road Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

I read this poem as a student twenty years ago.... and after all these years I can really say that this is my favourite poem for the road that I have taken has made all the difference.

I do wonder from time to time if another career would have given me the same opportunities in life. It is hard to say but the path that I have taken was full of trials and tribulations.

The Great Depression II

We are currently undergoing one of the toughest periods in our time. Most of us weren't around when the last depression took place in the 1930s. However, from what we have recorded we can learn a few things from the past:

1. Protectionism will lead to a lot of societies being isolated from the global economy. This isolation may lead to conflicts and eventually war between some countries.

2. Expect prices to rise rapidly during the recovery phase. Currently, prices are depressed and at the first instance, firms will raise their tariffs to make up for their losses.

3. Opening of new markets. We hope to see new markets being nurtured and grown. This is a great opportunity to see wealth changing hands. The marginalised communities have an opportunity to participate in the next growth cycle.

4. The recession is nature's way of getting rid of the rotten apples. I will not worry if my business does not make it through the recession. And I am not worried to say the least if my client's business goes under either. We all have a way to survive this crises. The pain is only temporary. We'll survive this crises in the long run.