Polygamy and Business

This was the title of a talk I delivered in Bangalore last week. Coincidentally, this was also the day that Tiger Woods decide to come out into the open and admit to his philandering ways! The title was chosen to provoke and energize the audience (owners of small and medium businesses) to get out of their comfort zone, and to consider the fact that they may well be poised for some breakout growth, and to figure out how they would go about getting there.

I started my talk by describing how, a pubescent young man sees the other gender with only thing on his mind. As we all know, this is a simplistic and naive way of approaching adulthood and relationships. As he grows into adulthood, and begins to get closer to getting married, he realizes that what he is actually looking for in a woman who is could become his wife, actually needs to provide him 'a complete package' which includes companionship, financial, social, spiritual as well as mental support in addition to physical needs. Once married, he slowly realizes that his spouse is indeed capable of providing all these things, and very well at that. While women tend to be more supportive and inclusive, this argument holds good for them also, and they too look for a wide range of support from their husbands.

Against this backdrop, I then described how this model relates to business. Entrepreneurship is different from marriage; because of this things do not quite work the same way..

In the early days, a young aspirant to entrepreneurship decides that he (or she) is not going to work for anyone, but be one's own boss and control his own destiny. As he gets closer to his dream of embarking on an entrepreneurial venture, he realizes there is more to starting up than just getting excited about entrepreneurship; he needs help with domain expertise, understanding of technology, corporate issues and a host of other matters. And so he resorts to finding all of that in one person, one mentor or adviser. As he progresses through his entrepreneurial journey he realizes that not only do his needs vary and change with progress as well as time, but also that one person just cannot be an expert in all domains, functions or matters. And if the mentor is seasoned enough, she would very soon tell him in which areas she cannot be of help. But since she has been around for a while, she will surely direct you to others in her network who may be in a better position to guide you in various areas that you seek input. This 'polygamous' model is the basis of the MentorSquare delivery mode.

We have assembled for the guidance of our Members a broad and comprehensive network of Mentors from across the globe who are specialists in their respective domains and can provide ideas, guidance and input across varied business domains. Hence, there are no questions or concerns or challenges that a member could bring up that would completely stump the collective experience of the group of Mentors invited to the conversation. The MentorSquare platform is therefore an invaluable asset that the Member can leverage to best advantage even as he or she forays into new products, services, markets and business models. Besides, the rich pool of talent, knowledge and experience of our Mentors on the MentorSquare platform also facilitates your plans for raising capital, generating leads for market expansion, upgrading technology and enhancing your team.

Hence a polygamous way of tackling business challenges...

How Do Fish Mate? - A Case for Executive Mentors

So how do fish mate? The female fish lays her eggs in a secure place in the water and the male fish comes and sprays the general area with sperms. After which it is left to chance based on the sperms finding the eggs and fertilizing them.

We studied several business advisory and mentoring organizations, and therefore understand what it takes to make the MentorSquare CompleMentor service more useful to you. One of the major findings of our research is the process of matching mentees (persons seeking business advice) to one or more mentors who could provide relevant and contextual advice was, in most cases, arbitrary as well as serendipitous. Not too much different from how fish mate, I am confident you will agree!

In order to make our process more effective, predictable and structured, we have evolved a unique delivery model at MentorSquare.

Every Member who joins the MentorSquare CompleMentor program is assigned an Executive Mentor (EM). An EM is a senior mentor with several years of experience in business who can serve as a General Physician for the Member, and is the first person that the Member connects up with to consult and discuss a business situation that the member might wish to get advice on. Your EM will be automatically included in every conversation you post. You may also dialogues with your EM via the platform or by mail.

The EM may be able to help you analyze the issue and provider pointers on how to proceed. In cases where the EM cannot resolve the situation or feel that there are other Mentors who can add value to the conversation, the EM will recommend inviting other Mentors to the conversation. The EM will help frame the situation in a fashion that brings the best engagement and responses from other Mentors who are coming into the conversation cold. The EMs will also recommend a list of Mentors to invite into a conversation to get the best set of viewpoints. And finally, the EM helps converge the varied viewpoints to a coherent plan, and will recommend when a conversation needs to be closed, or migrated to a new conversation.

The EMs are the face of MentorSquare for the Members. The EMs work to understand the member's situation, their challenges and their enterprises as best as possible. They are the first to reach out to the Member to bring him or her on-board. They will work with the Member to best develop and post their profiles, create background document and get conversations going in order to create a rich learning and interaction experience on the platform. They are the Members best friend, guide and philosopher.

It takes two hands to clap; while your EM will do his best to maximize your leverage of the MentorSquare platform, you need to invest the time and effort to work with the EM in providing information, and following the guidelines and processes that you jointly agree to follow.

My colleagues in the EM community may take exception to my using the fish-mating analogy to describe their role at MentorSquare. So let me make another attempt with a more flattering explanation. Several thousand years ago when Hinduism was developing in India the majority of lay people found it tough to understand and practice Hinduism. Hinduism did not develop as a religion but a way of life, so there were no hard nor fast rules. With advent of people of other religions showing up in the Indian subcontinent and other structured religions developing in India, the elders of Hinduism needed better ways of connecting with the masses. So deities, idols, temples and rituals became more important to provide structure. So EMs are our local idols in the communities! Today MentorSquare has Indian idols, Singapore idols, Malaysian idols and American idols to help you become an ardent follower of MentorSquare :-)

A bad case of stage-fright?

I have been in several seminars where the moderator or speaker throws open the floor for questions and there is dead silence. I am pretty sure it is not because that the speaker was so clear that there was no need for questions. I am also sure that it is not because every angle and perspective on the issue was discussed that there was nothing left to discuss anymore. So is it because every member in the audience is overawed by the stature of the speaker? Is it a cultural issue? Is it because the participant does not want to look stupid? Or is it something else?

The stature of the speaker or the panel is most definitely a factor. But then this is the perception that you (as a member of the audience) bring to the potential interaction. Let me share a simple example; when I was in school, attending classes was mandatory from the perspective of my parents, teachers and peers. The teachers projected themselves as Gods of the subject and I considered them as such. I found it quite pointless to formulate a question, and even more pointless to muster the courage to ask the question. But all that changed when I was in college in the US. I was studying in a private university, working very hard as a Teaching Assistant and Lecturer to pay my tuition fees. I had chosen subjects and courses that were both relevant to my career, and of interest to me. I therefore had every reason to squeeze out every last drop of value from the classes and their teachers. My perceptions of and expectations from the institutions and teachers had changed. I would demand answers irrespective of the stature of the instructor or speaker.

My second question asks if the reticence to asking questions is a cultural phenomenon. It is true that people from some cultures may have more of this than others, and I have seen this to some extent in the US, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and other parts of the world. I don't think the cultural issue is a dominant one. No matter how dead the silence is after the discussion is completed, there is always a crowd around the speakers to ask question in person or create a connection for the future with the speaker.

The last reason for a person not wanting to ask a 'stupid' question makes the most sense to me. It is unbearable for your ego when people smirk upon hearing your question, or the respondent makes a critical remark about the question. This is what results in stage-fright; doing nothing to play it safe.

I should know. When I was about 10 years old, I was asked to read aloud an essay on some incident in my life. I nervously began reading my essay relating an incident where I was in a life-threatening situation and how my cousin helped me. When I got to the end of my essay, I was relieved but... I misread my last sentence. Instead of saying "... and so I owe him my life..", I said "... and so I owe him my wife..". The whole class, including my teacher burst out laughing. I vowed never open my mouth again in a large gathering. I had a severe case of stage-fright for several years after that.

How does this relate to our discussions on entrepreneurship? I was in Singapore and Malaysia last week. In the various meetings the common refrain was that the entrepreneurs were very shy and did not ask questions.

MentorSquare plays an important role for entrepreneurs looking to build world-class companies. Their learning and success in doing so is largely a function of the initiative taken by entrepreneur to observe, listen, question and therefore, learn. The horsepower for the interaction is provided by the hunger (or desperation) of the entrepreneur to succeed. It is important to have experienced advisors engaging entrepreneurs, challenging their assumptions, throwing light on new areas of knowledge and connecting them to the ground realities of a global market. If the entrepreneur can shed his or her stage-fright and engage boldly with the community of Mentors and Members in MentorSquare, they will come out winners all the time. The best part of it is that your conversations with our Mentors are in secure channels, and no one else will know whether you are asking smart questions or stupid ones!

Our Mentors are also very mature people, and will take the trouble to understand your true motivation in asking the question, and will respond in the correct context. No question is too small, trivial or irrelevant for them. I therefore urge you to question our Mentors on any and all subjects, and to any degree of depth, with the assurance that you will receive a considered as well as considerate response.

Before I sign-off, a thought for your consideration: Had I not gotten over my stage-fright, I would not be here talking to you about MentorSquare, let alone reveal an embarrassing incident in my life!

Bouquets and brickbats welcome at ravi.narayan@mentorsquare.com

AugMentor - Developing Strategies for Breakout Growth

You are no longer just tossing around ideas in your head, but you have locked in one of the ideas. You have spent a fair bit of time executing the idea. And now you have an enterprise, fairly successful one at that. The question is now what next? How do you expand into new markets and geographies? How do you add new products? How do you add professionals to the entrepreneurial team? How do you build a multi-location organization? How do you raise money to take the enterprise to the next level? How do you scale-up? You should consider AugMentor family of services from MentorSquare for that.

AugMentor is a Managed Advisory Service that helps you (a member) develop specific and actionable plans and strategies to achieve your medium term growth objectives over a the minimum program duration which is twelve months. You work closely with an assigned Program Mentor, who is a seasoned professional who has been around the block a few times, and therefore knows what needs to be done. The Program Mentor may add up to 2 Panel Mentors, each of whom are chosen because of their specific ability to address the set of issues you are dealing with. The Panel Mentors may be rotated quarterly based on the progress and evolving needs. In exceptional cases, Program Mentors may also be rotated, based on the evolution of the engagement. Hence, your AugMentor Panel consisting of a Program Mentor and 2 Panel Mentor bring together the firepower needed to make for an effective engagement .

The Panel begins the engagement with an on-boarding process which identifies the aspirations of the Member in the short and medium terms, along with the issues associated with them. The Panel helps the Member launch a series of well curated conversations for the Mentor Network to provide inputs. The Panel taps into the Mentor network to harness the knowledge base and varied experience pool of other Mentors. The Panel works with the Member and other Mentors through non-real time interactions over the platform and real-time interactions (audio and video conference calls) to develop a strategy for each of the issues. Over a period time the Panel will consolidate the nuggets of advice from these Mentors into an actionable plan to address your issues. In the process of these interactions, the Panel and other Mentors, may make certain connections that will help the member refine and action the strategy independently.

What does the AugMentor service not do? It provides the "how" of the solution to member issues . It helps develop strategies but does not implement them. It does not guarantee the efficacy of the strategies because that depends on the interpretation and execution of the strategy by the Member. The philosophy of the AugMentor services is to help the member learn to fish but does not fish for them!

Is this a service that you can use...

I will be delighted to receive your comments and suggestions , which will help us to shape and evolve the program to better serve our members.

ravi.narayan@mentorsquare.com

Brainstorming: The CompleMentor Service

When we mentor entrepreneurs, we do many things instinctively – brainstorming, educating them on certain business issues, helping make connections for business validation, working on specific challenges to help the entrepreneur synthesize specific solutions, etc….

However, when we were trying to package these varied activities for the MentorSquare platform into neat bundles for specific segments of entrepreneurs, we ran into a big challenge. Because the entrepreneur’s requirements are hard to compartmentalize into specific areas, geographies, industries and such like, and therefore required customization.

As we grappled with this challenge, we decided to do a very entrepreneurial thing – come up with the best possible solution given the constraints and our understanding of entrepreneurs’ needs. We have, however, left the door open for course correction as we go along. We decided to compartmentalize our services into three broad families:

- CompleMentor: Advice and ideas to help you make better decisions

- AugMentor: In-depth advice to take your business to the next level

- ImpleMentor: Helping you execute on your plan

In this post, I would like to share with you my rationale and thinking behind CompleMentor service, which is the service that most members have subscribed to.

CompleMentor: Advice & Ideas

Often an entrepreneur is faced with several choices, all of which appear to be equally attractive. Sometimes entrepreneurs need help in areas that they don’t know much about, and other times need help in areas that they don’t know that they didn’t know (!). Other times they just want to bounce their ideas off of somebody who has been down the path before and, therefore, in a position to provide advice that could help the entrepreneur validate available options. And there are times that the entrepreneur simply looks for guidance on what to consider or whom to talk to next before taking a decision.

We have structured the CompleMentor package to cater to these situations. This service provides to the MentorSquare member access to the complete set of Mentors and their vast experience, in-depth expertise and extensive geographical reach. We at MentorSquare believe that a single Mentor cannot provide guidance and assistance for all problems and all situations. The Member thus needs to select multiple mentors, thereby ensuring good and relevant responses. This also implies that the member needs to make informed decisions about how many and which mentors they should invite to participate in their conversation.

To help with this and to establish a personal relationship with the Member the network of Mentors is front-ended by an Executive Mentor (EM), and every Member is assigned an EM. Executive Mentors are the link between the member and the MentorSquare platform, and help facilitate the Member’s experience on the platform. They help on-board new Members, they help them start conversations on the platform, indentify the right set of Mentors, bring conversations to convergence and they monitor the Member’s progress on a regular basis. Member interaction with Executive Mentors could be on the platform as well as offline, whereas interaction with the Mentor network is almost always on the platform.

The CompleMentor product is not designed to be an in-depth, detailed solution service but is intended to provide comments, suggestions, advice, pointers, guidelines and feedback that will help Members develop their entrepreneurial muscles, find their bearings and refine their thinking, and use these as decision support inputs to take their businesses forward.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how this service meets the requirement of Members and how it can be evolved to serve them even better.

ravi.narayan@mentorsquare.com.

Step by Step ...

A team of entrepreneurs came to me with an idea on a power-point presentation. I found several areas of improvement, and gave them some suggestions to think over. As they were leaving I asked how much money they were looking to raise. The answer surprised me, they were looking for a whopping "4 million dollars"! This was not the first time that I had heard something like this. I decided to do something about it. So I sat the entrepreneurs down and shared my thoughts with them...

As exhilarating as the entrepreneurial journey may be, it is also quite agonizing if there is no sense of accomplishment. An entrepreneur may have a fantastic vision, a wonderful place to take the enterprise and create unprecedented economic wealth for all stakeholders. So, is the job not done until you get to the destination? Are you afraid to face your investors, your family and yourself until the job is done? Well, that is no fun.

As I described in my last blog "An entrepreneurial journey simplified" there are several stages or phases in getting to the end goal. When an enterprise goes to the next stage it completely transforms itself. A simple example is one where the enterprise goes from an idea stage to a prototype stage, from prototype stage to an pre-revenue stage, from pre-revenue stage to revenue stage, and so on... The point at which the enterprise transforms itself is an inflection point, a good place to energize a whole new set of resources including funding. Although the entrepreneur knows where he wants to take the enterprise, he has the greatest visibility and control over the immediate stage, and the definition of the next inflection point. Having defined the next inflection point he can work backwards to figure out what tasks need to be completed, how long those tasks will take, and what resources will be required.

The team that I was speaking to earlier that was in the idea stage, raising $4 million makes very little sense. To develop a prototype, as an example, would take about $200K - $500K. This will take 3 to 6 months. Once the inflection point is established, and the set of deliverable fleshed out, it forms the basis for discussions with investors. So in the process of raising the funds the expectations are set well, not only with the entrepreneurial team but also with the investors. Everybody knows how long it will take and how much funds would be consumed. With regular communications all the stakeholders are in sync. Hence when the prototype is done and the inflection point reached, it is time for a party! Why not? There is a sense of accomplishment, a sense of achievement that should be celebrated every so often in the long journey. Once the party is done, the next day the team is energized to take on the challenges of the next stage with the confidence that they were able to pull of a victory in the last stage.

A raise of $200K for a company in its early stage makes sense in terms of dilution as well, whereas a raise of $4 million would probably leave the entrepreneurs holding less than 10% of the company. In more ways than one, going step by step is a well established model for building enterprises. It provides clarity, predictability and direction for all involved.

Executive Mentors and Program Mentors at MentorSquare speak to the members at inception and on a regular basis to establish and refine the next set of goals that the enterprise should work toward. It is then clear to the Member and to the network of Mentors as to where the enterprise is headed so that relevant business advice and appropriate support is given by MentorSquare.

An entrepreneurial journey simplified

I had promised in one of my previous blogs that I would share with you a glimpse of the entrepreneurial journey from 10,000 feet. This will help the first time entrepreneurs and those are in the middle of such a journey get a high level perspective of where they are and what the next steps should be.

For purposes of this discussion I will describe the journey based on one product or service. Many companies have several products and several services. Such companies' journeys are an aggregation of such individual journeys.

An entrepreneurial journey is a study in risk management. Managing risks in an appropriate way yields the most optimal results. While the passion and the vision of the entrepreneur provides the thrust to move forward, reaction to risk provides the drag. A well engineered combination of the thrust and drag provides allows the product to take off.
An entrepreneur is faced with four primary risks - technology, market, execution and finance. In addition to the traditional definition of technology, it also consists of process, knowhow or competence (e.g. tight cashflow management). Market is the acceptance of a wide variety of customers/partners. Execution is the ability to team to consistently deliver desired results even as the product traction grows. And finally the ability of the management of the company to fund the growth through internal means or external means.

It is important for the entrepreneur to understand that as each one of these risks is mitigated, the product has moved to a different level. With this simplified view of the journey, an entrepreneur can plan his technology development activities, fund raising, expansion activities and other activities in a phased manner. It helps entrepreneur develop a well defined set of milestones to achieve. The entrepreneur has an opportunity to celebrate when an milestone is reached, rather than be in a constant anxiety of how far he is from the ultimate goal. At the same time, the entrepreneur has the ability through this approach to set and meet expectations of investors and other stakeholders.

I have included a visual representation of the journey at ... I have also mapped onto this graph the kind of investors that one should approach so the expectations and appetite for risk is calibrated appropriately. Several people have liked this visual as it captures the essence of this blog in one place. I would love to get your thoughts and comments on this matter. This diagram gives more details:
http://prod.mentorsquare.com/frameset.php?url=http://www.mentorsquare.com/articles/MentorSquare-Maturation-of-an-Enterprise.pdf

And in ways such as this, the Mentors at MentorSquare hope to provide Members of MentorSquare a perspective that is developed and matured over several years. The members then can plan their journeys much better, understand how to manage risks and be in the driver seat rather than letting other people and circumstance push their buttons!