TiECON East Largest Global Innovation Conference

Playing the Cleantech roulette (contd.)

2009-02-10T07:08:00.001-08:00

View more presentations from CleantechVC. (tags: greentech alternative)

Playing the Cleantech roulette

2009-02-10T06:45:00.000-08:00

If you want an insight into the investment thesis of the current Cleantech venture investors, I recommend the following quote from a leading investor:

"There are many such things going on that are radical, implausible - each individually (is) somewhat implausible, on the aggregate (it is) highly plausible that one plan will work. That's the key to the solution."

- Vinod Khosla

Here is a commonsense translation. "I know that my investment look, and is, funny to you. But hold your breath. From this mass of chaos, an intelligent plan will emerge. I cannot tell which investments will make money, but somebody somewhere will be alright. Take my word."

This comes from a thought leader of the industry. Where he goes, others rush in. Not surprisingly, smart people are questioning if the current investment approaches are working. We have already lived through damaging hype cycles in fuel cell and ethanol, and now working through disasters in solar and algae. When do we stop and say? "Enough carnage. Let's rethink what we are doing and explore if there are sensible alternatives to investing in the Cleantech sector."

SIGs at TiE

2007-06-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

Did you know that TiE-Boston has numerous Special Interest Groups that cater to a wide variety of interests... ranging from vertically oriented ones like software and services, capital markets and finance, life sciences and healthcare, social enterprise, broadband, clean energy, wireless technology to horizontal ones like business case & communication, women's initiative, young entrepreneurs, and small & medium businesses.

Thats a wide spectrum of economic activity. So, head on over to TiE Boston and pick a SIG that works for you!

Its a wrap!!!!

2007-06-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

After two and a half days power packed days, like all good things, TiECON East 07 came to an end. The day started with a thought-provoking keynote on "Global Innovation: Whats next?" ... to be followed by an absolutely expansive and deep discussion on the current Energy crisis and opportunity. The three tracks, Technology, Health and Enterprise each had panel discussions that packed their respective rooms with standing room attendees ... and provided perfect momentum towards the last event of the day where Boston's own stars from the entrepreneurial sky cast their glance upon the audience, reminding us about their journeys, regaling us with their stories while remaining strong and resolute in their belief about the potential and possibilities that arise out of entpreneurship!

If you did miss TiECON East 2007, come back to the fold next year. "Why?", you might ask, considering that the Boston local scene has quite a few events around the year... well, here's some food for thought ... they are all comments by CEO's, founders, executives and financiers I polled during the event...

"In 2 days, I tripled by 'rolodex' in quantity and quality"
"I am amazed by how open people are to my ideas and what my company offers"
"For a moment, I forgot that I was speaking with someone worth half a billion dollars... he made me feel so much at ease"
"I thought TiE was about Indian entrepreneurs alone... you have a veritable United Nations out here"
"Unlike trade shows that are vertically aligned, the cross section of folks that come here is unique and there is something for everyone"

"I am just amazed... I just saw a deal being struck right before my eyes"

Join us, be part of the action. TiECON East 2008 is closer than you think!

sai at obviousideas dot com

Day 2 at TiECON

2007-06-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

What a packed day ... with engaging panels ... and almost a 100+ people at each session in across 3 concurrent tracks ... there was active networking throughout the day ... and a lot of star studded presence ... with Senator John Kerry dropping in ... Ram Shriram from Google giving a rare interview to Tom Asbhrook of NPR 'On Point' fame ... and of course, a classy banquet dinner to boot! If you missed Day 2, it is not too late. Head over to Day 3 ... and see TiE tackle some unique topics like 'Karma Capitalism' and 'Building the 21st Century Company'...

TiECON East 2007 and beyond... be there.

sai at obviousideas dot com

Conference Opens

2007-06-14T17:04:00.001-07:00

It is 8 PM and the conference was officially opened by Vinit Nijhawan, Raj Alur welcomes us all and Al Kapoor has got us started by introducing the speakers for tonight. Mike Grandinetti from MIT Sloan School has formally set the tone for the evening, introducing Rod Randall, Senior Managing Director at Vesbridge and the key note speaker, Reed Hunt, Board Member Intel.

LIVE FROM TiECON EAST

2007-06-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

It is 6:30 PM now and TiECON East 2007 is alive and kicking!!!!

PowerPitches is underway... where entrepreneurs are going to take 2 minutes to talk about their companies and services.

Keep checking back in over the next 3 days to get live real time updates! Of course, head over here to the Hynes Convention Center and take it in all "LIVE"!

I will be updating the comments section constantly with live updates...

The New Silk Road

2007-06-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes one wonders where the new Silk Road starts and ends. Does the global commerce caravan travel through China as an agent for cost-effective production, or, is China the principal player to whose tunes the world unwittingly dances?

How did China feature in the US Senate TODAY?

If you care about this dialog, deepen the discussion THIS SATURDAY ... come listen to Tarun Khanna, the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School deliver the lunch keynote on Saturday June 16th. Here is your chance to figure it out in his keynote titled "Billions of entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping their Futures and Yours"

The once 'far away Communist country' has now emerged as an economic powerhouse with vast influence in commodity, capital and currency markets (amongst others). It is a country that sees big green while retaining its deep red core.

With huge trade surpluses and an appetite for foreign investments in discrete sectors, China seems to have found a way to successfully retain its communist core while nurturing various layers of creative and compelling capitalism around it. With a slow, almost studied approach to transforming its economy, it has deeply integrated itself into the global marketplace without breaking down like the Eastern European countries and former USSR. All along, it has also managed to empower its vast human resources to become hyper-efficient agents of commerce without the promise of a commensurate reward system that capitalism offers.

Are you ready to be part of the new bandwagon of economic growth that winds its way through this ancient land in warp-speed? Do you think the 2008 Beijing Olympics will mark a milestone for global attention and further growth?

Or, do you feel that this growth will be tempered by recent U.S. moves to influence the Chinese to revalue their currency? Some estimate that the Chinese Yuan is 40% devalued allowing it to flood other countries' markets with super-cheap products, hence enjoying an unfair trade advantage.

Allright, enough of this e-dialog... show up at TiECON East, meet a few leading thinkers and practitioners and engage in a healthy mind-meld on where the Chinese economy is headed. Be part of the action. Or, become a part of forgotten history because you did not visit http://www.tieconeast.org/ and jump on the caravan!

sai at obviousideas dot com

Innovative Models for Social Change

2007-06-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

A recent Op Ed piece in the Boston Globe had the intriguing title “Too Many Do-Gooders ?” The gist of the article was that as the number of “well-intentioned, not-for-profit agencies” were growing, the number of corporate donors were declining. All this happening while the need for services has never been greater. An adjacent Op Ed article titled “Big Brothers vs. Big Sister” highlighted the issue by describing the competition for dollars among the two sibling organizations.

The authors, Kevin Phelan from Meredith & Grew and Chad Gifford of Bank of America via FleetBoston, are well known in the community for their philanthropic support and so their observations carry credibility and weight. The authors contend that by spreading limited support around piecemeal, it propagates duplicative services, resulting in inefficiencies and a senseless competition for dollars. They appeal for a new solution, a new paradigm to address this issue.

Fortunately the world of philanthropy has also been evolving. Organizations like New Profit calling themselves a “Venture Philanthropy Fund” focus on providing long term strategic and financial support to evolving social entrepreneurs. By pooling philanthropic resources, grantees are assured that their ‘investments’ result in high-quality, scalable organizations. Others, like Ashoka invest in emerging social entrepreneurs, serving as early stage seed capital in VC-speak, leverage their multi-hundred ‘company portfolio’ to propagate common learnings among its ‘social investments’ and invest in building and spreading common infrastructure across social entrepreneurs. Calling themselves a non-profit venture fund, The Acumen Fund uses a rigorous process for selecting and investing in socially driven enterprises and measures their portfolio companies in financial and social terms.

Will these new approaches to supporting emerging social entrepreneurs help address the issues raised by Messrs Phelan and Gifford? How does one balance the needs of the many with a focus on a few successful social innovators?

At TIECON EAST, we are fortunate to have a distinguished panel that consists of representatives from Ashoka, New Profit, The Acumen Fund and the Hunt Alternatives Fund that will help you cut through the clutter and hear first hand from these innovative, cutting edge philanthropists. Join us for a session on “Innovating for Social Impact” on Friday from 2: 45 to 03:45 PM.

Raj Melville

Building The Next Billion Dollar Company in Massachusetts

2007-06-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm participating in a panel this weekend at the TiE conference on the challenge in Massachusetts of building the next "billion dollar company". It's an interesting and timely topic, to say the least.

We seem to have an inferiority complex in Massachusetts on many dimensions beyond the historical trials and tribulations of our beloved Red Sox. We stand in the shadow of New York City as a financial center, despite having a few strong private equity firms and hedge funds located in the Bay State, such as Bain Capital, Highfields and The Baupost Group. And we are a distance second to California in attracting job-creating venture capital, with $13 billion invested into 1,495 start-ups based in “The Golden State” as compared to $3 billion in 380 Massachusetts start-ups in 2006. It’s not too shabby to be in second place to New York and California, considering we are only America’s 13th largest state as measured by population, but who wants to settle for second place? With our mix of world-class academic institutions, hospitals, venture capital and technical talent, one would think we would have the potential to generate even more industrial horsepower. Our performance in creating industrial leaders is particularly discouraging, as we have produced a mere 10 of the country’s Fortune 500 companies that call Massachusetts their home state. Why haven’t we been able to create more billion dollar companies as opposed to numerous minnows that get gobbled up by the bigger fish out of state?

To analyze the situation, it is helpful to look at a few historical case studies of successful companies that have indeed broken out. Two oft-cited role models who have “made it” are EMC and Boston Scientific.

EMC is arguably the kingpin of the Massachusetts information technology scene. Founded in 1979, the company has achieved enormous success in the information storage market, with a market capitalization of $33 billion, 2006 revenue of over $11 billion and 26,500 employees. Boston Scientific holds a similarly exalted position in the medical technology market. Also founded in 1979, the company’s success in medical devices has led to its growth to a market capitalization of $24 billion, 2006 revenue of $8 billion and 28,600 employees.

What do these two homegrown industrial titans have in common? One interesting observation: EMC and Boston Scientific were not classically venture-backed companies. In both cases, the founders controlled the company through the IPO and had the fortitude to persevere throughout the early lean, start-up years without succumbing to the temptation to sell too early. Patience in both companies on the part of investors and the entrepreneurs was a virtue. EMC had its IPO in 1986 and hit $1 billion in sales in 1994, 7 and 15 years after its founding, respectively. Boston Scientific had its IPO in 1992 and hit $1 billion in sales in 1995, 13 and 16 years after its founding, respectively. In a nod to Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great”, where he cites the importance of steady, consistent leadership, it is worth noting that the two founding leaders, Richard Egan and John Abele, were in their positions for 13 and 17 years, respectively. Another common attribute is that once they had achieved a strong position in their initial core market, both companies made bold acquisitions to maintain leadership and market supremacy: EMC in the case of Data General and then numerous software companies, such as VMWare; Boston Scientific in the case of Guidant and numerous smaller device companies. In other words, the two companies did not rest on their laurels but instead took risks and aggressively sought to broaden their reach.

What are some of the inhibitors to replicating these two local success stories? Beyond the lessons cited above, we would also observe that there are subtle differences in the way Massachusetts entrepreneurs and investors approach company-building as compared to our peer elsewhere. Massachusetts entrepreneurs and investors prefer to push for early exits, exhibiting a predilection for taking their chips off the table early. To be clear, none of us are beyond reproach here. Beyond cultural conservatism, another driver of this behavior is the shallow pool of local senior management talent. When Massachusetts boards consider selling or holding on, one of the key questions they ask themselves is, “Does my current management team have the horsepower to take the company to $1 billion in sales?”. In the absence of having numerous strong training grounds for executives to learn how to run operating units greater than $100 million, the answer is too often no. You can’t swing a dead cat in Silicon Valley without hitting a high-tech executive with experience at an operating scale of greater than $100 million, but in Massachusetts there is a depressing dearth of such talent.

With the quality of our talent pool and the caliber of our business and political leadership, it’s not all doom and gloom. With home-grown powerhouses like Genzyme and Biogen leading the way, our position as a biotechnology cluster appears to have strengthened recently and we are increasingly attracting out-of-state employers who want to tap into the world-class scientific talent residing here. There are early signs of hope that we are well-positioned to lead in the nascent but potentially robust Green industry, with companies like Evergreen Solar and EnerNOC leading the way. And one of our most promising information technology “up-and-comers”, Akamai, appears poised to achieve the magic $1 billion in sales in the next two to three years, dominating the Web content distribution market.

I am hopeful that we are on a stronger path in Massachusetts than ever before, so long as we have the continued leadership of the business, financial and political community to show the way.

Musings on the globalization of talent

2007-06-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Vinit Nijhawan--Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist

It is astonishing how fast salaries for the top of the pyramid are becoming equal around the world. A software manager in Bangalore makes about the same in dollars as one in Boston. Venture capital and private equity firms in India and the US are offering unheard of salaries to McKinsey and Goldman associates. MBA graduates of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad are commanding starting salaries that are similar to Harvard Business School graduates. Experienced technology startup CEOs are in short supply everywhere.

Entrepreneurs and startup CXOs have global opportunities formerly available only at multi-national companies. Having dual residency in Boston and Bangalore is the stamp of a globally arrived executive!

TieCon East in Boston will be the gathering place for these global startup executives in mid-June. This is an opportunity for New England entrepreneurs, financiers and corporate executives to connect into this global talent pool.

Tom Ashbrook, the host of the popular NPR radio show On Point will be moderating the banquet keynote panel with Ram Shriram, Google Founding board member. Tom himself has a global background: raised on an Illinois farm, attended Yale University and worked as a surveyor and dynamiter in Alaska's oil fields before becoming a foreign correspondent. He spent ten years in Asia, jumping between India, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. At The Boston Globe, he served as deputy managing editor until 1996, during which time he directed coverage of the end of the Cold War and the Gulf War.

Perhaps Ram will give us a peek at the upcoming Google mobile phone (see my blog entry on the Google phone: http://entremeister.typepad.com/vinit_nijhawan/ ). Or perhaps Tom can tease out from Ram how Google will topple Microsoft's reign with Office. Google is rapidly expanding around the globe to tap talent, with its Boston presence growing in leaps.

Looking forward to meeting you at the Global talent bazaar also known as TieCON East!

Vinit Nijhawan
www.nijhawan.com

Who will YOU meet at TiECON East 2007?

2007-06-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

<= 10 days to go

>= 100 speakers

2+ days of insightful + incisive + engaging discussions

What's your equation for success?

Who will you meet at TiECON East 2007?

Make the TiE network yours

Share a thought, spare a moment, spend a minute ... blog your pre-conference, and post-conference thoughts at http://tieboston.blogspot.com/

Venture-backed Companies Line up their IPOs

2007-05-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

I still see too many entrepreneurs who believe that the U.S. capital markets will never again roll red carpet for venture-backed technology companies. Guess what? Markets have always been cyclical and things are turning around, particularly for the venture-backed technology companies. Witness the recent filings of New England companies founded by TiECon members including Airvana, BladeLogic, Netezza, Virtusa, and Starent.

Venture-backed technology IPOs came back in vogue in the latter half of 2006 and produced good market returns (difference in the first-day closing and the offering price,) signaling that the public is showing more appetite for technology companies than before. As a group, technology IPOs posted a very impressive 37% average return from the offer price. Notable tech IPOs this year include Mellanox (Infiniband interconnect, rev. $44M,) Clearwire (WiMax network, rev. $95M,) Sourcefire (network protection, revenue $41M,) Salary.com (rev. $17M,) BigBand Networks (video network, rev. $140M,) Glu Mobile (games for handsets, rev. $39M,) Comverge (power management, rev. $24M,) EnerNOC (power response management, rev. $23M,) and Aruba Networks (enterprise wireless, rev. $73M.)

Revival of the Capital Markets: The capital markets have been on a bullish streak. The Dow Jones index surpassed its previous peak reached in 2000 late last year while S&P 500 is almost back to its closing record of 1,527 of March 2000. But the Nasdaq Composite Index, which is dominated by technology stocks and lost the most of any major index in the bear market, would have to nearly double to return to its old record of 5,048 of March 2000 - a sign that the technology investors are optimistic and rational, not overzealous and speculative.

The IPO market experienced the best first quarter since 2000 in terms of volume and proceeds. Overall, IPO offer amounts by venture-backed companies dropped to about $2B in 2002 and then slowly climbed back to $5.2B last year. We expect that this year will be a particularly strong year, easily outpacing the amount raised last year. The total number of Nasdaq IPOs for the first quarter, 42, was the most since the same period seven years ago.

Healthcare and IT: 2006 was a good year for the healthcare sector. However, most of these listings were priced below their ranges. Technology and telecom companies accounted for about 22% of the IPOs and produced good market returns. Riverbed Technologies, a WAN optimization vendor, was the top performing IPO, producing 215% return. Other solid performers included Ominture (web analytics,) Isilon (clustered storage systems,) Techwell (fabless IC designer,) and Synchronoss (VoIP software.)

Alternative Energy IPOs: Solar Shines
As the buzz surrounding solar investments peaked, a quartet of solar power products manufacturers raised $822 million in proceeds. The notables included Canadian Solar (+35%), Trina Solar (+2%) and Solarfun Power (-20%) that pitched China-based operations. First Solar (+39%) is very active in Germany, the second largest solar market in the world.

While Ethanol Runs Out of Fuel: Used as a fuel additive since the 1930’s, ethanol’s recent rise to prominence has been fueled by a favorable regulatory environment and the phase-out of competing fuel additive MTBE. While market conditions appeared ripe, investors were concerned about long-term viability. After strong initial trading, VeraSun and Aventine both plummeted amid concerns over narrowing ethanol spreads. Similar concerns led Hawkeye Holdings to pull its planned IPO in November and forced U.S. BioEnergy to price its offering at a -13% discount, according to IPOHome.

VC Firms optimistic: The venture firms in Boston and Silicon Valley have a clear sense that this is a very viable market for technology companies. 2007 should be a big year for venture-funded tech companies. I expect VC-backed technology and internet-based companies to continue their IPO revival in 2007 as many companies that got off the ground in the aftermath of the tech meltdown are now maturing. Proposed changes loosening the burden of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) should also entice more technology IPOs where such costs can take a large bite out of their profit margins before their business models reach full scale. We do see segments of the technology sector strengthening their presence in the IPO pipeline on a sustained basis. These include cleantech, mobility, and multimedia applications and infrastructure.

How do you view the future of venture-backed technology companies in the U.S.?

Necessity, the mother of invention?

2007-05-25T21:32:00.001-07:00

Is necessity truly the mother of invention? Or, do we invent needs?

Today, Sony announced a breakthrough in TV technology, with a working model of a flat-screen, thin full-color screen that bends like a piece of paper! It has been reported that Sony is yet to decide how it will commercialize this innovation. A wearable TV-fabric and wrist-wrap TV are amongst some early application ideas being bounced about. One thing can be certain, once Sony invents a need, the anticipated customer demand will accelerate the creation of complementing products and programming to piggy back on this technology.

For all the technical innovation in broadcasting technology supported by FCC mandates on High Definition transmission, the form factor of current display unit limits where and how one can enjoy the medium and the message. Plasma TVs are bulky and fragile, while LCDs have viewing angle limitations. We end up getting these newer generation TV's and hosting them in a 19th century fashion, rooted to a spot around which we congregate; rather than having the flexibility of letting the TV follow us to where we want to 'enjoy' it.

Ideal application? Thin-screen large TVs that weigh no more than 5 pounds, wall mountable on simple picture-frame mounts, with user-swappable designer frames with fully-integrated HD antennas, wireless connectivity with peripheral AV equipment and powered by rechargeable batteries that can be swapped out. Further, imagine if TV's became as portable as laptops and reach the level of personalization that we are used to with computing technology. We might take to switching TV sets out as fast as we switch the channels on the flipper!

That, indeed, would be a need invented.

Of course, when you head over to TiECON East 2007, you will get to hear about The War for the Digital Home with Rod Randall (Partner, Vesbridge Partners), Nandhu Nandhakumar (SVP, LG Electronics), Jeff Binder (Senior Director, Motorola), Gunjan Bhow (VP, Marketing & Product Mgt, Actiontec Electronics), Ofer Vilenski (CEO, Jung Software) and Brian Mahony (VP, Marketing, Espial) sharing their thoughts on Saturday June 16th.

The conference starts at 6 PM on Thursday, June 14 at the Hynes Convention Center with Reed Hunt, Intel Board Member / Former FCC Chairman / Author kicking off the event.

Can you afford to miss this and spend the next 365 days until the next TiECON fretting over it?

sai at obviousideas dot com

Vroooomm – are we Ready for the Electric Muscle Car ?

2007-05-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this video. It is really cool – if you blink you might miss the motorbike disappearing in a puff of smoke in the distance going 155 mph on the straightaway at the Firebird Speedway in Arizona.

Well that would not be that earth shattering if it weren’t for the fact that this motorbike was running on electricity. Electricity off of 990 Li-ion cells from A123 Systems delivering over 350 HP !! According to KillaCycle’s website, they can recharge the 161 pounds of batteries in a few minutes between runs using less than 10 cents of electricity.

Well you won’t see the KillaCycle but you do have a chance to hear David Vieau, CEO of A123 Systems speak at TIECON on June 15th and tell you all about where the next generation of battery technology, that powers these vehicles, is going.

Fast electric vehicles are not just for extreme hobbyists. The Tesla, unveiled earlier this year, promises to bring a high end, high performance electric vehicle to market in the next year. With a price tag north of 90,000 dollars, they have sold over 350 cars even before the first production model hits the streets. And speaking of hitting the streets, this baby can go from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds flat.

And if that was not enough, how about a battle of the supercars ! Here is a prototype electric car, the X-1 from Wrightspeed that takes on a Ferrari and a Porsche and leaves them in the dust.

If speed is what turns you on, there is even a site for Drag racing Electrics - http://nedra.com/ You can see more of these electric rockets there.

If you want to find out what’s next with state of the art energy and electric technology, then TIECON EAST in Boston is the place to be. Hope we see you there.

Raj Melville

Innovate or Imitate...Fame or Fortune?

2007-05-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

Contributed by Don Dodge, Microsoft's Emerging Business Team

Innovation drives our industry, attracts the best talent, attracts VC money, and wins fame for its leaders. Innovation leaders burst onto the scene, win early market leadership, but sometimes can't sustain the pace. Why do "fast followers" often jump in later and make fortunes? Is management responsible for the success or failure?

I have been on the leading edge, sometimes bleeding edge, of technology for most of my career. I have been fortunate to be part of start-up teams that have created "first-of-its-kind" innovations at companies like Forte Software, AltaVista, Napster, Bowstreet, and Groove Networks. All of these companies were first in their field, yet few of them realized the financial rewards one would expect. Is it all timing and luck? I don't think so.

Before exploring the reasons for success or failure lets review a list of innovation leaders and fast followers.

AltaVista -> Google
Napster -> iTunes
VisiCalc -> Lotus 123 -> Excel
Word Perfect -> Word
Netscape -> Internet Explorer
Apple Newton -> Palm Pilot -> Blackberry
IBM PC -> Compaq -> Dell
Double Click -> Google Ad Sense
Ofoto -> Photobucket
Compuserve -> AOL -> @Home -> Comcast & Verizon

All of these companies were innovation leaders and market leaders. Yet, they were eclipsed by fast followers, in some cases multiple times, who imitated their innovation. My belief is that the technology was outstanding...the management was not.

Clayton Christensen wrote The Innovators Dilemma which I reviewed in an earlier post. The basic premise of the book is that management optimizes around protecting their existing business and fails to recognize and react to disruptive threats. However, the examples in Christensen's book play out over 10 or 20 years. The above examples played out in 5 or less years. Are the same factors at work here? Lets take a look.

AltaVista was the first search engine and the clear technology leader. The management at DEC didn't understand what they had and didn't invest the necessary resources to make it a business success. Later Compaq and CMGI squandered the search opportunity and tried to imitate Yahoo, Excite, Lycos, and AOL in the consumer portal game. Big mistake. Fault management.

Napster was the first P2P file sharing application to bring together search, FTP, and Instant Messaging. Brilliant technical synergy. There are lots of reasons for failure here, mostly management decisions and unfortunate timing.

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet, invented by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. I know Dan fairly well but have never asked him why he thinks VisiCalc fell behind and Excel moved ahead. This topic deserves its own post. My memory is that VisiCalc was slow to adopt the DOS platform. Lotus 123 moved ahead on DOS and achieved market leadership, but failed to jump onto the Windows platform fast enough. Excel did make the move and the rest is history.

IBM created the PC revolution and was the early leader. Compaq was a fast follower focusing on "transportable" PCs and won huge market share. Dell came in later and trounced them all with a better business model.

Compuserve was the first dial-up service provider. Together with Prodigy they dominated the market. Later AOL entered the game with superior marketing and original content. AOL absolutely dominated in the 80's and early 90's. Then @Home created the cable Internet market and took the early lead. It wasn't long before Verizon, Comcast, and other cable providers owned the broadband market. AOL never really made the transition from dial-up to broadband.

In nearly every case the early innovators were eclipsed by fast followers. Why did the fast followers take over market share leadership?

Better business model (Google, Ad Sense, Dell)
Better market position (Word, Excel, Comcast, Verizon)
Better timing (iTunes, Flickr)
Better platform choices (Blackberry, Word, Excel)
Better management (all the fast followers)

It is overly simplistic to pin the success or failure of these innovators on one factor. There were a combination of factors at work. But in most cases the problem was not inferior technology, it was inferior management decisions.

So, were these early innovators led by technical visionaries who were not good managers? Will the imitators and "fast followers" suffer the same fate and be overtaken by new fast followers?

The list of "fast followers" above are more than just imitators. They have continued to innovate far beyond the original idea or feature set and have maintained market leadership. If you look closely at these companies they have a mix of technical visionaries and business management leaders. It takes a different set of skills to start a company than it does to sustain a company. This balance of skills, I think, is the key to sustained market leadership.

Cisco is an example of an early innovator that kept their market leadership position over time. Their technical founders brought in professional managers to take them to the next level.

There is a rare breed of technical visionaries who are also great business leaders. Bill Gates, Gordon Moore, Larry Ellison, and Scott McNealy are examples. They are truly extraordinary and rare. However, I suspect that each of them has a strong business management team behind them. Bill Gates has Steve Ballmer. Larry Ellison had Ray Lane. The early innovators who failed did not have the business leadership necessary to sustain them.

Lessons for entrepreneurs;

Never stop innovating
Build a well rounded management team early
Value sales and marketing talent as much as technical talent
React quickly to disruptive technologies or business models
Don't be too proud to imitate when it makes sense

Everybody's Going Green

2007-05-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

Within the past week a couple of articles popped up in quick succession that showed an interesting trend. On May 7th Wal-Mart announced that they would purchase solar power for 22 stores in California and Hawaii from 3 suppliers. Then within days Rupert Murdoch of News Corp called his entire staff together for a global video conference and declared that News Corp would become Carbon Neutral by 2010!

Now Rupert Murdoch has always been known to be a shrewd businessman and Wal-Mart has made cost cutting its mantra. Although altruism and publicity might have played some part in these announcements, you can be sure that cold hard economics was what was driving these decisions. Increasingly businesses are realizing that going green is good for the bottom line too.

Both businesses have taken a hard look at the environment and have come to the same conclusion. A sound ecological foundation is increasingly necessary for sustaining growth and profitability in the future. In his remarks to his employees Mr. Murdoch said “Reducing our use of energy reduces costs”. One of the examples he highlighted was that just switching the bulbs on their exit signs would reduce carbon emissions by 200 tons equivalent to 200 flights from New York to LA. That’s a lot of energy and a lot of dollars ! And News Corp estimates its global carbon footprint is around 650,000 tons ! From converting to LED lighting in their news centers to replacing lights in their plants, News Corp is looking to reduce energy consumption across the board.

Beyond their immediate impact, Mr. Murdoch realizes the multiplicative impact of his global media empire. He made this very clear in his speech In his words “We can set an example, and we can reach our audiences. Our audience's carbon footprint is 10,000 times bigger than ours...That's the carbon footprint we want to conquer.” A courageous vision !

Wal-Mart is no slouch environmentally either. Its latest foray is just a part of its overall emphasis on sustainability. A major portion of its company website is devoted to sustainability and the environment and the message is coming down from the top.

With 4000 plus stores averaging over 180,000 sq. ft. squeezing energy efficiencies and using renewable energy is as much an economic necessity as an environmental one. When finally implemented, the total solar power of the 22 initial sites will be as much as 20 million kwhr per year. And this is the first step towards their goal of being supplied by 100 percent renewable energy. More importantly, Wal-mart has pulled this off by leveraging its buying power and offloading some of the costs to its suppliers. As reported in Red Herring, the price of electricity generated by the solar systems will be less than what the company currently pays for electricity from the grid because the suppliers will be fronting the capital costs of the solar systems. Always low prices, always!

What are some of the other new business initiatives and models that need to be put in place? Are there emerging technologies that will change the landscape? And will it be soon enough ? Fortunately we have a panel that will help you figure this out at TIECON. On Saturday June 16th, Jeff Andrews from Atlas Ventures will bring together a panel of experts from diverse fields – Solar, Cellulosic Biomass, Electron beams – and probe into the future of Energy. Hope to see you there.

Raj Melville

Technology and the Quality of Life

2007-05-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

I was flipping through the channels today and a shot of two old ladies in wheelchairs swinging away at a monitor caught my eye. So I froze the clicker, shifted brain into listen mode and watched as the ladies were shown the intricacies of the Nintendo Wii. Apparently 24 year-old Nintendo fanatic, Ethan Bechtel, realized the Wii would be a great tool to help seniors relive playing sports, like bowling and golf, while providing some physical stimulation and exercise. He setup a website, collected some money and now works with the seniors, like Elsie Tourville (85 yrs. old) and Alice Dubois (96) at the Green Mountain Nursing Home in Colchester VT. It is a pleasure to see the intensity and determination in these retirees as they duke it out over golf. This is possibly one of the more inexpensive ways to get people physically engaged. The unexpected popularity of the Wii beyond the hard core gaming crowd has caught every one by surprise. But more importantly it is surprising how it is stimulating interaction, dialog and even some physical exertion among a mainstream audience. Adieu, couch potatoes!

On the other side of the globe, Amir Hasson Alexander and his enterprising band of ‘Motomen” are busy bringing the internet to the remotest parts of Asia. Using buses equipped with WiFi, Amir’s company, United Villages (http://www.unitedvillages.com/) , provides web content to computers with no internet connection. A small box, with an antenna, onboard the buses or motorcycles, communicates with the rural computers. Every time a WiFi bus/motorcycle rolls by the village, the web content on the village kiosk computers is updated and email delivered. In remote locations with no wired connections, villagers can communicate – albeit asynchronously – with their cousins in faraway lands, order parts, lodge complaints, or review the status of their claims. With every kiosk Hasson’s company makes the world a little smaller and better place.

We are lucky to have Amir Hasson Alexander as one of the speakers at TIECON, a conference that highlights how breakthrough technology can be used to enable innovative connections and collaboration. We also have Dean Kamen, inventor par excellence, on a panel discussing what’s next in technology.

Dean’s inventions have always been people focused. From his insulin pump, to his IBOT for the physically challenged to the Segway, he has always looked at empowering people with technology.

A few weeks ago, I was at a TIME sponsored conference at Bentley where Dean spoke of two of his other projects. For a while he has been struggling with the fact that over a billion people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water, and an estimated 1.6 billion don’t have electricity. He put his thinking cap on and now has a couple of devices, each about the size of a washing machine that can provide power and clean water in rural villages. His water purifier makes 1000 liters of clean water a day and his generator runs off virtually any fuel (including cow patties) to generate a kilowatt of power. He is teaming up with Iqbal Quadir - the same Iqbal Quadir who was on our Social Entrepreneurship Panel last year at TIECON and who fathered Grameen Phone - and is testing these devices in Bangladesh.

Whether it is Clean Energy. The next mobile offering or Innovations in personalized medicine, TIECON has always been an event to attend to find out how technology is being put to use to enhance your personal life.

Raj Melville

Women & TiECON

2007-05-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

Breaking through more than a thousand-year old tradition, the first female gondolier, Alexandra Hai took the oars in Venice this week – go Alexandra! Off to something else - well not entirely….

It is redundant to ask whether women leaders in all spheres face a different set of challenges. Women form just nine percent of the Boards of Directors at Fortune 500 high-tech companies and a 2006 study published by the University of California, Davis described the "paucity" of women CIOs.

Even though many women business leaders today enjoy their jobs and are able to make a difference, the bigger picture isn’t really rosy. Many still remain unsure about men and women sharing an equal level playing field, being in control of their careers and having their views truly heard and appreciated.

Despite all the underlying skepticism it is still encouraging to see current examples of exceptional women leaders in the world of business, academics and politics. TiECON East is proud to present such strong women including the Managing Director and VP of Strategy at IBM VC, Claudia Fan Munce, former U.S. ambassador and President of Hunt Alternatives Fund, Swanee Hunt and the newly appointed President of Bentley College, Gloria Larson.

Attend TiECON East and hear from them directly about strategy, execution and success - all from their unique leadership perspectives.

Also at TiECON, network and collaborate with other women leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals from across the nation and the globe. Register today at http://www.tieconeast.org/

Going back to Alexandra Hai – when asked if she was bothered by the thought that the other gondoliers might appeal the court ruling allowing her to steer her gondola, she merely quipped: “They can go to the pope!”

Indrani Ray-Ghosal
inmedia Public Relations Inc.

Competing on Analytics

2007-05-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Pithy prescient information. Pure fidelity in a sea of noise. The A-ha moments that open up new vistas and opportunities. Thats Analytics. A combination of art and science. A potent secret sauce that can help firms find actionable insights into maximizing business value.

Head over to TiECON East 2007 and listed to Thomas Davenport from Babson, Dr. Rama Ramakrishnan from Oracle and Prof. Ananth Raman from Harvard Business School discuss how analytics goes beyond pattern finding and trending.

Thomas Davenport's latest book, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, goes wide and deep into how firms can become analytical competitors, using the power of high-powered analytics to carve out competitive advantages in crowded playing fields.

I am attending the TDWI World Conference this week and am pleased to report that the conversations in this space are moving beyond tech-speak and looking at how Business Intelligence can help drive better business decisions. I find some of the world's leading corporations in attendance to explore how to invest in analytical capabilities that provide deeper insights across their value chain.

Many speakers cite sources that either directly or indirectly reference work done by Thomas Davenport, vendors like Oracle Corp. or practical research and case studies from top B-Schools.

HOWEVER, YOU CAN HEAR DIRECTLY FROM THE SOURCE!

If you care for a conversation that goes beyond metaphorical articulation of goals, semantic sense of strategies, pedantic process principles and other forms of canned construction that promise to meet real world needs, head over to TiECON 2007.

What do *you think* is the future of enterprise-wide analytics & intelligence? Will predictive analytics complement or challenge 'gut-based' decision-making?

Whether you are a startup, small business enterprise, services firm, Fortune 1000 corporation or consultant ... you are bound to find value in exploring and understanding how ANALYTICS MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

I know, I want to look beyond old standbys and hear from thought leaders, provocateurs and practitioners that can help articulate a horizon-vision on where you can go with analytics ... I will be heading over to TiECON East where Davenport, Ramakrishnan and Ananth Raman promise to set the vision on Competing.

Let's hear from the source!

sai @ obviousideas dot com

Start-up India

2007-05-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

Check out Boston Globe's exclusive feature on entrepreneurship from the Asian subcontinent.

Want to know more and meet these featured entrepreneurs in person?

Register TODAY at www.tieconeast.org

Head over to TiECON East 2007 and meet Ganesh Venkatraman, Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, Al Kapoor, Sean Dalton and others!

sai @ obviousideas dot com

'Time' to innovate, literally!

2007-05-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

Let us think about this for a minute, shall we.

How do you plan an organizational structure that encourages a culture of innovation, more so, one that can scale with the organization's growth? Set aside a day of the week to 'innovate', hoping that all the creative minds fire up on that day, every week? Let people organically generate ideas and build a mechanism to channelize them? Or, hire people that appear to be innovators and hope that they will strike gold when the sun shines through the open window on a balmy Summer day when the temperature hits 70 Fahrenheit?!

What have *you* have done to encourage innovation in companies 'n teams that you have funded and led? Tell us *your* story!

Google encourages its employees to spend 20% of their time on ideas and projects that are not necessarily tied to their jobs or job descriptions.

IBM has 'Think Fridays', when employees are encouraged to focus on innovative work, by freeing up their time to play with new technology.

Of course, the stories of innovation at 3M are legendary. The Post-It story, of course, being the most famous of them all, although the role of 'luck' is not cited as much. Check out Ralph Katz's book to know more. Want to know where to find it? Come to TiECON East 2007 and ask for .... Obviously. I will tell you, obviously, where to find the real story behind Post-It. What you read might shock you!!

Back to IBM, Google and ... Microsoft. Want to see Ram Shriram, Member of Google's Board in action? Want to hear Claudia Fan Munce, VP Strategy, IBM VC? Or, Don Dodge, Director of Business Development at Microsoft's Emerging Business Team?

You cant do that sitting at your desk or Googling for 'innovative ideas' during your innovation-hours at work :O!

Show up at TiECON East 2007, the LARGEST GLOBAL INNOVATION CONFERENCE and walk away with nuggets of ideas and insights that you can use to make a difference!

sai @ obviousideas dot com

Bloodless coups on the info superhighway!

2007-05-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Whew! Digg.com needs to dig itself out of quite a hole now. Caught between its 'loyal' Web2.0 customers who built the user-posted publishing behemoth and the long arm of IP-law; the future of Digg.com might in fact define the future of 'rules & rights of way' on the info-superhighway.

Digg.com's critical mass of devoted 'diggers' decided to revolt against the Website for deciding to comply with digital rights management interests and pulling down users' posts with code that would enable access to copyrighted HD-DVD material. The world of 'Web 2.0' customers ended up deciding that they had the right to have access to stories, regardless of which side of the law they lay!

This unprecedented display of power is at once both a testemant to the power of democracy and the unintended effects of unfettered 'people's wishes'. It highlights a very real legal (and almost ethical) question whether populist people's choices can overrule the letter of the law.

This issue is not about the spirit of the law or esoteric debates on the many shades of jurisprudence that might be open to interpretation. Users were, simply put, handing out free keys to the bank's vault ... and daring and defying the law to restrain their power.

Whew! Web2.0 ...

Is the customer always right? Should Digg.com have bowed under pressure and reversed its initial decision to take down messages with the 'crack code'?
Do such mass-populace community-based Web presences have any sort of sustainable advantage in the face of a fickle mass (one that finds solace in a collective anonymity that affords it the ability to flout the law)?
Is this a mere communication of 'a sequence of numbers and letters', protected under the First Amendment? (since there was no actual delivery of hacking software or decryption tool)
Or, is this collective voice of the community actually a clarion call to rethink how current laws are written?

Are these users time-travellers helping define the future by defying the present?

What do you think? Is Web2.0 too hot to handle?

sai @ obviousideas dot com

Innovation ... the real deal is here

2007-05-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

You bet! Head over to the Hynes Convention Center, Boston between June 14 - 16 2007 and get a chance to rub shoulders with Hon. Governor Patrick, Ram Shriram from Google, Dean Kamen who brought us 'it', Tarun Khanna from the B-School, Thomas Davenport from Babson College and many great speakers!

I could tell you how TiECON is an experience that is not to be missed! But unless you head over to http://www.tieconeast.org/home.html, register and show up ... you wont know what its all about.

So, why sit back and 'think about it' or 'try to decide if TiECON is for you'. Innovation and change is happening 24x7 across the world.

Catch a big chunk of it at the LARGEST GLOBAL INNOVATION CONFERENCE! Period.

In the meanwhile, keep coming back to this blog to keep the conversation going...

And, by the way, I shall sign of as, obviously ... because, obviously, we will be meeting soon @ TiECON East 2007!

Until then, sai @ obviousideas dot com

Get ready for TiECON East 2007

2006-06-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the blog of TiECON East, an annual event organized by TiE Boston. The conference, held once a year in spring, is attended by venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and anyone who gets excited by technology.

TiECON East 2006 was held in Boston in June. Dates for the 2007 conference have not been set yet. But why wait till then? I would like to invite you to learn more about TiE and join the organization. While TiECON East is held only once a year, there are several events organized each month in the Boston area.

If you have any questions and need help, please contact the TiE Boston office.

Information on the 2007 conference will be posted here as we make progress. In the meantime, if you wish to learn more about the conference in 2006, you are welcome to peruse this blog by using the navigation on the right.

This blog is run entirely by volunteer contributors and is expected to become more active once TiECON East 2007 planning commences.

- By Jay Dwivedi

Flattening world - What are you doing?

2006-06-07T08:36:00.001-07:00

Last month I spent a week vacationing at the remote island of Utila in the Caribbean. With a population of just 2,000 people, the island has only a handful of automobiles - we rented a golf cart to get around - and the ferry ride to the port of La Ceiba is infrequent and expensive. But I am not writing this post to talk about Utila's white sandy beaches or what a great place it is for snorkeling and diving. In fact, what struck me the most about the island was the large number of foreign entrepreneurs - they run over half of the businesses, in many cases without even speaking the local language.

So when I read a United Nations report that has found that nearly 200 million people now live outside their country of origin, I realized that Utila provides an excellent case study of how flat the world is becoming and how entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the opportunities. According to the report, the number of people who have left their birthplace is up 25% since 1990. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the foreign-born population of the United States grew by 57 percent between 1990 and 2000, representing 12 percent of the population. And as many of you already know, many business models today allow you to "work" in a foreign country without ever leaving your country.

Implications of mobility

If we take the example of Utila, we can clearly see the advantages of mobility of people - and more specifically, entrepreneurs and capital. The foreign entrepreneurs have brought international-standard entertainment, dining and lodging options for tourists to Utila. They have also influenced public policy by pushing for investment in infrastructure for telecom and energy. In other words, the island is thriving because of investment from overseas.

How are you responding to a flat world?

If you need some thoughts on how to get started, I recommend that you attend two sessions at TiECON 2006. The first one is "Global Sourcing in a Flat World" and the second is "Emerging Trends: Cross Border Investing." If you want the venture capitalist perspective, you may also want to attend the session entitled "Can VC's Innovate in a Flat World?"

Related reading: How to approach investing in India?

How to innovate in a flat world?

How to exploit the Indian capital market?

Investment opportunities in India

Consumer market in India

Innovative business models for India

- By Jay Dwivedi

How to get the most out of TiECON?

2006-05-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

If you have not yet registered for the conference, remember that the discounts end at the end of this month. If you do not register by May 31st, you will have to pay full price.

Jay Dwivedi gave some tips on networking at TiECON in March, but Michael Weinstein of Nitron Advisors has some additional tips below on how to get the most out of attending TiECON.

"Dumb-down" your elevator pitch. Since conference attendees often represent many different industries, make sure that you are able to convey concisely and in laymen's terms, what you do, what your company does and why the listener should be interested so that they could easily repeat it to someone else effectively. Remember, it's not what you know, or even who you know - but whom THEY know!
Contact event speakers. Review the conference web site, read the bios, subscribe to the blogs and review the web sites of the keynote speaker(s), panel discussion moderators and other event speakers. For example, if you're interested in blogs, plan to check out the track called, "Emerging Trends in Social Software and Online Networks" and make plans to connect with Torsten Jacobi, CEO of Creative Weblogging.
Create a target list. Then, get to know them! Get the conference agenda, list of attendees, exhibitors and event committee list prior to attending and plan your schedule ahead of time. Plan to attend the panel discussions that will help you achieve your goals at the conference. For example, if you are interested in the areas that investors consider most attractive in the overall software market, be sure to go to the "State of the Software Industry 2006" track on Friday morning.
Offer a little self-promoting Q&A. One of the greatest and most efficient ways to let an entire group of people know who you are, is to ask insightful questions aloud at the individual sessions. If you are interested in outsourcing, for example, attend the track on "Global Sourcing in a Flat World" and ask, "As the founder of ABC Company, a developer of network security products for the financial services industry, what are the key areas of my business that I should outsource to reduce costs without impacting our excellent customer service?"
Become the all-knowing conference czar. Where are the big meetings? ...the private parties? ...the after-hours events? Review the agenda, contact the event coordinators prior to attending, and learn the details of the "behind-the-scenes" so that everyone will look to contact you as their information source.
Coordinate your own meeting. Do you know other people or companies that will be attending TieCON East 2006? Plan ahead of time to meet at lunch or dinner to facilitate introductions and offer to help each other. Looking for people who share similar interests that may want to meet with you at the conference. Check out the TiECON East Blog for some great discussions, comments and contributors.
Volunteer. Contact the event coordinator(s) ahead of time and offer to help out at the conference in anyway that you can. Whether making calls to confirm attendance, helping guide people as they are attending or simply letting someone know that you're available if you need them, offering to help is the greatest way to meet people, learn and build relationships - remember, you have to give to get!
Prepare your questions. Once you have set up meetings with the event speakers, exhibitors and other attendees, research their background and prepare at least 5 questions that you want to ask each person while meeting with them to make the interaction as productive as possible. Interested in learning more about social software and online networks? If you're interested in hedge funds and investment research, visit Nitron Advisors and make sure to connect with David Teten, CEO of Nitron Advisors, to learn more about these fast growing industries.
Join industry-related organizations. By joining local organizations, sites and associations that are aligned with the conference focus, you can gain access to other members, as well as invite them to attend with you while building a relationship. Most organizations can be joined online and can lead to great new avenues and discussions when attending a conference.
Become a virtual private detective. If you want to get to know someone and want to figure out how you can help them, start gathering intelligence online. Google them, review their web sites, go to online social networking sites and don't hesitate to let them know that you've been doing your research on them to explore ways that you could help each other. Curious what others might find out about you? Google yourself and see what you find! For more insights on how to use blogs, social network sites, virtual communities, and other online networks, read The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, by David Teten and Scott Allen. You can download the entire book for free at The Virtual Handshake.

Innovation is everybody's business

2006-05-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

I have been in dozens of strategy meetings with CEO's and other senior executives and have seen their blank faces when the discussion moved to innovation. Many would even find excuses to sneak out of the conference rooms using stupid excuses like "I have to check my email," or "Need to make a few phone calls," and some even more creative ones.

When I have confronted these people about their discomfort with innovation, I have heard even more interesting excuses like, "Oh, I have a great R&D group," or "Our CTO is on top of this," or "I need to focus more on sales and growth."

Ladies and gentleman, you have it upside down. If you are a decision maker in your organization - particulary, if you are a CEO - it is YOUR responsibility to drive innovation within your organization. Leaving the techies alone in-charge of innovation is not the best strategy - I have seen hundreds of cases of R&D group developing offerings that the customers did not want. Result: money/time wasted, business opportunities lost.

While keeping on top of sales and income should clearly be the #1 priority for any business leader, if you are not in charge of innovation, very soon you will be fighting with the Chinese on price. And that's no business - that's a dog fight that you won't win.

And in case you did not notice, the theme of TiECON this year is "Innovating in a flat world."

Relted reading

Innovation in biotech sector

- By Jay Dwivedi
Photo courtesy: PP Digital

Sanjay Kadaveru shares TiECON vision

2006-05-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

Sanjay Kadaveru, one of the architects of TiECON this year, recently attended the sister conference in Silicon Vallley and had a chance to speak to John Furrier of PodTech. Please click the link below to listen to the podcast.

Link for Sanjay Kadaveru podcast

Most conferences suck, but you should still attend them

2006-05-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

I am sure you have attended conferences that you thought were a total waste of time. And those of you who have already registered are probably wondering if attending TiECON is worthwhile. Those of you who are yet to register, I am assuming, are also struggling about the value of attending. Let me just talk about the problems with conferences in today's information-rich economy, why you should still attend some of them, and how to make the best use of a conference.

Why do conferences suck?

Rarely a speaker has anything "new" to say. In most cases, they simply regurgitate what they have written in a book or a research paper or market research report or taught in the classroom - or even worse, someone in their office actually wrote their speech. Many speakers get there not because they are smart but because they have an impressive title.
A half-hour Google search will typically tell you more about a topic than listening to some "expert" pontificate.
Executives of public companies rarely share useful insights since their speeches have been extensively censored by their PR/IR departments.

So why do I still keep going to conferences?

To share knowledge. Let me clarify. If you think that you will gain pearls of wisdom in a presentation at a conference, think again. You might be better off spending some time on the web. But not everything that you want to know in life is on the web despite the advances we have made during last ten years.

Early on in my career, I worked at a management consulting firm that developed market strategy for corporations by actually talking to their customers. The premise was that despite availability of so much information just about 2% of the world's knowledge is actually documented and less that 0.1% actually searcheable. So where is the rest of the knowledge? In people's heads. While blogs enable more people to share what is in their heads, it is still a drop in the ocean.

In other words, unless you talk to people, you cannot tap into that knowledge. And that is what conferences allow you to do. I have actually found that I get more out of a conference in the hallways and dining halls than during presentations.

How to make the best of your time at conferences?

Do not miss a chance to speak to someone.
Do not hang out just with people you know.
Try to go to a panel discussion than a presentation - if you can choose. Since a panel discussion is free-flowing, you are more likely to hear things that you would not hear in a prepared speech.
Don't be afraid to ask questions or approach people. If you get "rejected," you still learned something - that person is not worth doing business with.

Related: Tips on networking

- By Jay Dwivedi
Photo courtesy: Morguefile.com

How to approach investing in India?

2006-05-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

India has become "flavor of the month" for investors. Once I saw India on the cover of Business Week as the Next Great Market, I said "Uh-oh, now the money is really going to flood in". This is exactly what has happened over the past year and the market has rewarded those investors by seemingly scaling a new high every month or so. But, as those of you with experience investing in emerging markets know, the party ends at some point and usually ends badly. Here are a few thoughts on how to approach investing in India at these levels:

Take a long term view. An amazing statistic is that the majority of trades in India are day-trades. Taking a one day or even one year view can be dangerous when markets have moved up sharply as they have in India the past couple of years. You are best off taking a 3-5 year view on investments you make in India, whether in individual stocks or in fund managers (like us and others).
Avoid stop losses and price targets. Investing blindly with price targets or stop losses is, in my humble opinion, a foolish way to invest. Instead, you should focus on the fundamentals of the companies in which you have invested and focus in particular on the long-term strategy and on the management depth of the companies. This will help you build the conviction to continue to buys shares when the stock is down 50% and when the stock is up 100%. Remember that in a growth market like India, the best companies will return many times your investment if you have the patience to hold on through the volatility.
Invest within your circle of competence. Don't invest in a company simply because you hear a rumor about it, or because your cousin in Delhi has invested in it, or because you think the company has "buzz". Instead, invest in areas you understand and do your own due diligence on the company. If you aren't able to do this, particularly while living here in the U.S., then invest in a manager who can a large presence in India and can do this kind of detailed due diligence.
Invest in companies with the most scalable management teams. This is obviously a truism, but success for most companies boils down to management execution. This, in turn, is a function of their scalability, span of control, and philosophy around decision-making. Focus more on the management than on the product/service offering when evaluating the company. As we used to say in the venture capital industry, "a great CEO will take a mediocre business and turn it into a great business, while a mediocre CEO will turn a great business into an awful business".
Focus on management integrity and on how well management will treat minority shareholders. In India, you are most often going to be investing with companies that are effectively controlled and perhaps managed by individual families. Because of this, you need to develop a view about how this management will treat minority shareholders. Use past corporate actions as a guide.

Related articles

How to exploit the Indian capital market?

Investment opportunities in India

India is emerging as a consumer market

Opportunities for exporting to India

- By Gautam Prakash

- Photo courtesy: Jane M Sawyer

We should all be social entrepreneurs?

2006-05-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

That's right. If we cannot do it full time, there is absolutely no reason why we can't do our part by joining the movement and contributing in whatever we can. And I appeal to the TiE community to do their part because you understand the value of bringing solid business approaches to solving problems of the world.

According to the latest UNICEF report, India is among the worst countries in the world when it comes to feeding children under five. 47% of the Indian children are undernourished (compared to 2% here at home, though I still don't understand why this number should not be zero in the richest country in the world with two out of us clearly "over-nourished"). As many as 7.8 million Indian babies are born underweight every year.

While India offers tremendous opportunities for new business, we cannot forget the importance of helping the poorest, particularly children. I am very proud of the fact that TiE community has responded to this challenge and all the way from charity work to impacting public policy, it has done its part. It is clear that social-entrepreneurship is taken as seriously as other areas of entrepreneurship. But there is still more to be done.

We have to agree that we collecitvely have more powerful voices and policymakers in India pay attention when we speak. In fact a few of them will be attending TiECON this year. I invite you to attend the session on Social Enterpreneurship and learn how you can be part of the process. We will have Vanessa Kirsch of New Profit and Iqbal Qadr, Founder of GrameenPhone to talk about how they are employing the principles of entrepreneurship for social change.

- By Jay Dwivedi

Photo courtesy: Faisal Sohail

How to protect your intellectual property?

2006-05-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

If you are merely worried about protecting your brand, patents, and other intellectual property, the following story should come as a shock. According to the International Herald Tribune, a company in China literally set up a parallel NEC brand in the country with links to about 50 factories in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This was not one of those basic operations in which a company reverse-engineers your product and starts selling fake products through underground channels. This group of people actually developed a complete line of consumer electronics under the NEC brand and then coordinated manufacturing and distribution while the NEC offices in China and Japan had no clue.

NEC, as you might know, is a global conglomerate (~$50 billion in sales; 140,000 employees) and had all the conventional systems in place to protect its intellectual assets but they never expected something like this to happen. They learnt about the scam only when they received complaints about products that they did not even know were sold under their brand name.

So what can you do?

Doing business successfully and profitably in a flattening world is not just completing the paperwork with the local government to protect your intellectual property. In addition to that you may need a full-fledged investigation and enforcement infrastructure to protect it since authorities in most countries outside the OECD do not have the systems that we expect them to have.

To develop a better understanding of these challenges and how you can navigate them, I invite you to listen to Ashley Wills, Senior International Business Advisor at WilmerHale (focusing on India and South Asia). His understanding of the business and legal environment has not been gathered from books and travel - he has actually lived in India for three years.

Why TiE members are scared of blogs?

2006-04-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

When you think of TiE, you think of people who live, breathe, and dream technology. However, there is one area of technology that has not caught the imagination of the TiE community: blogging. And here is why:

A survey early this year by TiE-Boston of its membership base to find out the number of bloggers elicited just three responses.
TiE Boston has never addressed the issue of blogging in any talk/speech/panel discussion - probably, one of the most remarkable technological developments during last two years.
The TiECON blog has been a disappointment on two metrics: number of links from TiE Boston members pointing to the blog and the number of comments left.

How to leverage blogs for personal and professional success?

There is enough information in the public domain about the value of a blog and I don't need to repeat that here. So here are some tips on how you can make blogging a part of your professional life:

If your boss/employer lives under a stone, or has never heard about blogs, or has never read/written one, and bans you from blogging, take the time to teach her/him the basics of blogs and how they are a great business tool. Cite examples of companies like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems that are very effectively using blogs for internal/external communication.
While you are encouraged to read your employer's HR policies, generally speaking, an employer has no control when you blog during your private time (though I consider blogging as a business activity if the blog's focus is related to your area of work) as long as you do not divulge company secrets in your blog. Thus, if you work for a semiconductor company, you can blog about semiconductors provided you do not share information that is not meant for public consumption.
If you would like to improve your writing skills, join a creative writings class. In the meantime, start a blog talking about your family or hobby or vacation. Great way to become familiar with the tools.
If you are cheap, open a blog at Blogger. Otherwise, get your own domain name and blog like a professional - I only spend five bucks a month for my blog.
And if you think bloggers are wasting their time, think again. Apart from the brand that I have built, I make a pretty respectable living.

So here is the challenge. Start your blog, come back here, and add a comment below pointing to your blog. Or even better, blog about this initiative on your blog. It will be nice to see a few more bloggers in the TiE community.

- By Jay Dwivedi, who not only blogs for himself but blogs for TiE too.

Is digital media convergence a meaningful concept?

2006-04-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Let me start off with a caveat. The discussion here will focus on next 6-12 months since I believe that with the pace of technological change in this space, to predict anything beyond that is merely entertaining ourselves with fantasies.

Convergence is a concept that has been pushed by technologists for years but consumers have largely rejected the concept. While there are numerous examples of how consumers prefer to consume their media to have the most enriching experience, let me just discuss one case study to illustrate the point that any discussion of convergence is more complex than it appears to be.

Camera phones

Camera phones started to become available on a big scale during the 2002-2003 period and by 2004, they took off - selling about a quarter billion units that year. I have not seen the final numbers for 2005 yet in the public domain, but the estimates range from 280 million to 300 million units. If you add it all up, some estimates indicate that there could be as many as one billion camera phones out there.

You would expect then that consumers must be going nuts taking pictures with their camera phones. On the contrary, if you take a look at Flickr, almost all photos are taken with a full-fledged digital camera. I think a phone camera does make sense when you are sipping a martini at "Pure" and Paris Hilton walks in. You quickly snap a few photos to post on your blog the same day or even blog by email almost immediately. However, when you want to build a good photo album online or to print your pictures, a digital camera is the only option.

And what consumers are indirectly saying is supported by Kodak research. The company found that nearly two-thirds of camera phone owners rarely, if ever, upload pictures to a computer. And 70 percent never (or rarely) send photos to other phones. In other words, consumers understand that mobile phones are best suited for having a phone conversation - not for taking pictures.

Where are we likely to see convergence?

Consumers are saying that they are willing to use some applications of convergence. For instance, most sane people do not watch "The Daily Show" on their computers, but if they miss an episode and there is particularly funny clip, they don't mind looking at only that clip (not the whole episode) on the web. I have seen people kill time playing games on their mobile phones while waiting in line at the RMV, but don't expect these game enthusiasts to abandon their PS2 or XBOX. There are numerous other instances of how convergence is happening on a limited scale.

What does it mean from an investment perspective?

Just because a bunch of technologists have come up with something they think is "cool," it doesn't mean that it is cool for an average consumer. Merely packing more features in a device may actually be counter-productive, making it bulkier, slower, less user-friendly, and expensive. So as you evaluate a potential new product and when you have listened to those entrepreneurs who think that their device will change the world (remember the refrigerators connected to the web - not many of them are sold each year), step outside the conference room and show it to a bunch of teenagers. You will get better data on the potential that way.

How to learn more?

If you are excited by technological developments in the world of media, entertainment, and technology, and want to find out where the business opportunities lie, I invite you attend a panel discussion on the topic of convergence at TiECON moderated by Josh Bernoff.

- By Jay Dwivedi

Biotech sector needs innovation, not government help

2006-04-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

If Christopher R. Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, is really speaking on behalf of the state's biotech/pharma industry, it is disappointing to see that the industry is running away from innovation and wants to use regulation as a way to protect its turf.

In an opinion piece in Mass High Tech "Drug importation is bad policy and bad politics," his arguments sound so outdated in 2006. Here we are living in a world that seems to flatten each day, and apparently the Massachusetts biotech firms are arguing for more regulation, rather than for opening markets globally.

Anderson argues against free trade in drugs for the following reasons:

It harms the state economy. In the short run, it absolutely will (companies that resist change may go out of business, some people may lose jobs, etc.), but the solution is not protectionism. The right approach will be to develop a more powerful business model that takes into consideration the new reality - a flat world in which drugs will soon move as freely as apparel or electronics do.
It puts patients in harm's way. First of all, this issue is not yet settled. Both the FDA and the GAO have admitted that amount of data that they have collected on imported counterfeit drugs is extremely small. Since it is illegal to import, many crooks are currently in business. In other words, if it were made legal, legitimate companies will emerge and do what is needed, and checks and balances would be put in place to guarantee safety. The way we have systems in place to assure safety of pharmaceutical ingredients (that's right, we import a lot of fine chemicals that eventually end up in prescription drugs) from overseas, we can also have the same safety systems for drugs.
It harms the drug discovery pipeline. No, it doesn't. To say so is to resist change and to try to transform your business model. If the cost of development of a drug is high (~ $1 billion), and that is a good enough reason to argue for trade barriers, somehow reminds me of the steel industry. We are seeing that in many other sectors (IT, software, business services, auto, etc.), where the cost of business has been fairly high, companies have found ways to optimize their supply chains and lower their costs to stay competitive.

The only good news is that some pharma executives can see the future and are already redesigning their business processes using some very innovative approaches. If you are a biotech executive and see the current business environment as an opportunity (rather than a threat) to transform your business, I invite you to attend sessions on "Cross-Border Models of Life Sciences: A View Across the Value Chain" and "Global Sourcing in a Flat World" during TiECon East 2006.

Recommended article: How to innovate in a flat world?

- By Jay Dwivedi

How to innovate in a flat world?

2006-04-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

Many business people that I have met have this wrong idea that innovation is something that techies need to worry about - something that needs to be discussed in the R&D group meeting rather than the boardroom. The concept of innovation is so powerful that it can be applied to each and every aspect of doing business - in other words, to the business model itself. And as we contemplate the theme of TiECON, here is an excellent case study of how we can all take advantage of flattening world to drive our costs down and enhance the customer experience.

According to a story in the New York Times, "The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order," Matt Richtel reports that when you drive up to some McDonald's locations, do not assume that the person you speak to to place your order is working inside the restaurant (old model). On the contrary, that person is a customer-service rep at a call center (in California). The order is transmitted to the restaurant almost immediately and is prepared for you during the time it will take you to drive to the pickup window.

How does McDonald's create value?

It lowers the cost of doing business. Employees who traditionally answer the phone can be eliminated or asked to do prepare the order in a shorter time.
The company can train a small group of reps to treat customers more consistently. For fast food restaurants it is a nightmare to train teenagers and employees (most of whom do not speak English as their first language) to be courteous and efficient.

Will the call center move overseas?

You bet. Since this is only a trial, I expect that eventually your order may be taken by call center employee in a less expensive location.

What a great way to make optimum use of resources scattered globally!

- Posted by Jay Dwivedi

Opportunities for exporting to India

2006-04-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

A big deal is being made by Indian politicians about the jump in their exports to 100 billion dollars (I think they are still measly compared to China at over $700 billions), but that is not what was interesting to me. I was actually more curious about what India was importing. Like us, India is also importing more than it exports. Of course, oil and petrochemicals have a role to play, but if I exclude those products, the market for foreign products in India is just shy of 100 billion dollars.

And what are Indians importing?

I found the list to be somewhat interesting. There were things that I did not expect. Here are the top five categories:

Natural or cultured pearls, precious or semiprecious stones, precious metals, jewelry, coins, etc. 18%
Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances, etc. 8.5%
Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts 7%
Iron and steel 4%
Organic chemicals 3.5%

- By Jay Dwivedi

How to improve infrastructure in India?

2006-04-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

While I have been advocating investment in India, but one of the things that frustrates me as that when I try to dig opportunities there, the sad state of infrastructure in the country is a serious risk. The moment you land there, you realize that India has a long way to go. And I am not even talking about other things that make doing business in India so difficult - widespread corruption and clueless bureaucrats.

I do not intend to use this post to whine about inadequate infrastructure in India or the nuisances of doing business there. On the contrary, let me point out how you can make a difference this year at TiECon.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I am particularly delighted to know that we have a few folks attending who can actually do something about the infrastructure. That's right; we have several members of Indian parliament who will be attending.

While each one of you may have your own wish list and you are welcome to discuss it with them, but here are two broad guidelines on what you must definitely try to highlight:

No infrastructure, no investment: Unless the state of infrastructure improves, you will NOT consider making major investments. Like any risk management analysis will point out, a country that cannot provide reliable sources of power, transportation network, and telecom is low on the attractiveness ladder. It is not that we are playing hardball - it is just the way we have to manage our investment risk.
Deregulation and privatization to encourage investment in infrastructure: When investors allocate capital for infrastructure that should have been provided by someone else (not necessarily the Government) at a much lower cost, nobody wins. In other words, when companies set up their own mini power plants at their facilities, everybody loses. Therefore, the lead on this has to come from the policymakers in form of deregulation and privatization.

UBS did a report in which it found that ROCE in India during the 1998-2003 period was 17% versus 11% in China (the actual number may actually be much lower due to subsidized capital in China), and the productivity/competitiveness in India is far higher than that in China, but it still lags China in attracting investors. We should tell policymakers the reasons.

- By Jay Dwivedi

Photo courtesy: Tom Maisey (Used under creative commons license)

How to exploit the Indian capital market?

2006-03-29T07:41:00.000-08:00

First things first! A reminder that the discounted rates for registration will last only till Friday so if you would like to save, you must register right away.

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And now to more important stuff!

It is very tempting to think of India as a third-world country (which it is) that can only provide cheap labor, not just for BPO but also for value-added work like analyzing X-rays or pharma research or tax accounting. In our cost-cutting obsession, however, we may be overlooking what else India may have to offer.

Previously I have talked about tapping into the consumer market that is exploding in India. I have also emphasized the need for innovative business models to target the Indian consumer, but there is another path to participating - through investment into public companies.

As the chart below shows, the Indian stock market (Bombay Stock Exchange index in blue) is at an all-time high. When I plotted it against S&P500 (in red), the first thought that struck me was that for some of you it may already be somewhat late to enter. While I do not expect the market to drop in the near future, I do expect that it will continue to rise at a steady pace for one simple reason - it started from a very small base and only now it has arrived to a point that global investors are taking it seriously. In other words, it still has a huge upside potential though do not expect it to double in less than three years.

So how do you capitalize on some of the emerging areas of growth and maximize your return? How will the current economic policies impact India's growth? These are some of the issues we plan to dwell on during TiECon. And do not forget that this time we are going to have several Indian policymakers at the conference. And while they will get an opportunity to make their pitch on why we should invest in India and their efforts towards further liberalization in the financial and retail sectors, we also will get a chance to impress upon them the changes that we would like to see so that Bombay Stock exchange will be as easy to navigate as New York, London, and Tokyo exchanges are.

What do I recommend?

If you are a sell/buy-side portfolio manager or analyst, investment banker or an economist, TiECon will provide an excellent opportunity to get a first-hand understanding of the capital markets in India. And the session I recommend is the one entitled "Emerging Trends: Cross Border Investing" on June 16 at 0115 PM. And while many attendees find it difficult to attend sessions on Saturday, if you are serious about studying India as a potential investment opportunity, I also recommend that you come just for the "Investing in India" session right after lunch.

Related article: Investment opportunities in India

- Posted by Jay Dwivedi

Investment opportunities in India

2006-03-21T13:46:00.000-08:00

In my previous post I had discussed the somewhat gloomy investment climate in the United States. While we continue to make modest investments in highly promising ideas, we are taking lesser risk than we did just a few years ago. A lot of this shift in investment patterns is driven by the returns we are currently getting. As pointed out in the 2005 Venture Capital Report by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (a TiECON sponsor), a very successful sale today is a fraction of what we used to get. For instance, the report says, last year just two venture-backed companies were purchased for more than half-a-billion dollars and only 15 were purchased for more than a quarter billion. Ouch!

So where are the most attractive investment opportunities?

Apart from China, which continues to attract high levels of investment, India is another attractive market. Venture capital investment has crossed over $1B in India. And according to projections, the India biotech sector hopes to generate investments of $10B by 2010.

The country is experiencing GDP growth rates that are 2-3X of US GDP growth. The Venture Capital Report predicts that more VC firms will invest in overseas companies, sometimes with a local investment partner. I do not expect that most investments in India will result in billion or multi-billion dollar deals that we would like to see, but my research shows that the time horizons for an IPO can be relatively shorter and probability of a higher return on investment (ROI) higher in India during the next 3-5 years.

How can you get a first hand understanding of the investment climate in India?

As you plan your schedule for the conference, you might want to attend the session "Emerging Trends: Cross Border Investing" on June 16 at 0115 PM and another session at 0200 PM on June 17th that focuses specifically on investment in India.

Other related post: Using innovative business models for India

- Posted by Jay Dwivedi

India emerging as a consumer market

2006-03-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

If you have not seen Sanjay Kadaveru (co-chair of the organizing committee) around for a while, there is a reason for it - he is networking with Members of Parliament (MPs') in India. The Indian Parliament is like our Congress and its members play an important role in policymaking. MP's also make an effort to bring investment to their districts.

And here is the update. We have confirmation from as many as five MP's to attend TiECon East 2006, including Madhu Yakshi and Sachin Pilot. They will be the members on a panel on infrastructure and governance in India.

Why are we inviting Indian policymakers?

As many of you have experienced during last 2-3 years, TiE has gradually evolved into a conduit to investment opportunities in India (either directly through network access that it provides or through entrepreneurs that choose to have management teams based in the US while locating the development and other process in India). By providing access to Indian policymakers, not only are we ensuring that they understand what we need from them, we are also giving them a chance to demonstrate to us what they will do for us to attract our dollars as they highlight India's transition from a offshoring to a market opportunity.

India's role in global economy changing from a BPO center to a consumer market

India's recent entry into the global economy was triggered by our desire to cut costs by offshoring low-end jobs. While most experts agree that relocation of these jobs has benefited American corporations, there has been another unintended social/economic outcome - India can now claim to have a real middle class that has rapidly growing discretionary income. In many cases, they are already consuming what we take for granted. During a recent trip, my jaw dropped when I was invited to visit the Shipra Mall on the outskirts of New Delhi - it was better than some of the malls in the Boston area, according to my wife who knows this better than I do. And the prices were actually higher than those in the US for most product categories since these new malls predominantly carry luxury goods by Indian standards.

In summary, it may be the right time to look at the country as a growth opportunity. You might also want to read my thoughts on why you should build a new business model for India if you want to serve the Indian consumer.

- Posted by Jay Dwivedi

Five reasons to register now

2006-03-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

Al Kapoor and Sanjay Kadaveru, the co-chairs of the organizing committee, gave a very strong reason yesterday for you to register right away. Only the first 400 registrants will be able to reserve a seat in the special pre-event reception with Clayton Christensen - “How to predict whether your idea would succeed or fail.”

However, for those of you who are planning to attend, but have not registered yet, here are four more reasons why you should register now:

TiECON East is organized entirely by a group of volunteers. The longer you hold off on registering, the more we have to focus on marketing/advertising. Not only does this cost money, it also takes away valuable time of our volunteers who would rather focus on making the conference itself better, than making phone calls or sending reminders to you - not the best utilization of our talents/time. For instance, I would rather do the research to tell you about how to improve venture capital activity or how to start your networking now or why we need need new business models for India, than to write posts like this one. In order to keep attracting the best pool of volunteers each year, we want to make sure that they get to work on challenging assignments and focus on what is important.
TiECON is a not a profit-making machine. Whatever money we can save in marketing/advertising will help you, the conference, and the organization.
We do not have rigid cancellation policies. If you register now and realize later that you cannot attend the conference, just call the TiE Boston office. We are very accommodating.
And finally, while TiE gets a hundred bucks less if you sign up now, everyone is still better off if you register early.

Posted by Jay Dwivedi

How to improve venture capital activity?

2006-03-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

I just received my copy of the 2005 Venture Capital Report from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (a TiECON East 2006 sponsor) and a few things stood out. Over the next few days I will be picking a few relevant findings for you to ponder as you prepare to attend the conference which is just about three months away.

2005 was not a great year for financing of new ventures

As the chart below shows, while things have stabilized since the downturn started in 2000, we are still at the same level as we were in 1997. And if you are not depressed yet, the report says, "We do not see any developments of trends likely to result in a significant change in the level of venture capital investments in 2006." Ouch!

So what went wrong?

There are fewer high-quality investment options.
My research shows that investors have become better at managing risk and no longer trust the entrepreneurs as they did in the past. While it means better scrutiny of business models and working with more conservative estimates, it also means that some promising ideas do not get funded.
Lack of innovation. That's right. Those of us who watched what happened during the 90s remember very well that some of the best ideas came from innovation (not slick marketing). For instance, e-commerce, nano-technology, broadband, etc.

What can we do to energize the investment climate?

While a lot of TiE community members are too excited about globalization of venture capital activity and argue that merely investing in India and/or China will somehow solve all the problems in the world of investing, the reality is that smart investors do not invest in companies that plan to merely sell more widgets (at some point all markets commoditize). They are desperately trying to find the startups that come up with new business models.

In summary, as you work on new business ideas or seek funding for your existing business, take a look at the degree of innovation in your business. We often tend to forget the importance of innovation, as Clayton M. Christensen (a speaker this year) would tell you.

Posted by: Jay Dwivedi

How to start networking now for TiECON?

2006-03-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

So you have signed up for the conference and are planning to show up in June at the Hynes Convention Center. In the meantime, you have no other plans for the conference. If that describes you, here are a few tips for you to start your networking now and to get the best out of your investment in attending.

How to network prior to the conference?

Develop a list of specific individuals/organizations that you would like to contact. You can get ideas by reviewing the list of sponsors/speakers/attendees. If you are not sure about who to reach out to, just pick up the phone and call someone that you know within the TiE community or the TiE Boston office.
Identify the right individual. This is extremely important since chances that you will make the right connection will depend on who you try to network with. For instance, unless you are a C-level officer in a Fortune 500 company, you might want to avoid contacting Rajat Gupta directly. Identify someone who will benefit as much from you as you would from her/him. Peer-level networking is always the best way to get started and then you can find your way up through that initial contact.
Make the initial contact. Start off by establishing the TiECON connection (you/your colleague is speaking; your firm is sponsoring, etc.). Then quickly get to why you would like to establish a relationship (planning to run my business plan by a few industry experts; have an established business, but need growth capital; interested in investing in India biotech sector and need to identify investment opportunities; etc.). Suggest next steps (would like to email more information; set up a time to talk prior to/during the conference; etc.).

Hopefully, you will do fine from here on. Remember that almost everyone that is attending the conference is there to meet people that can help them succeed professionally. As long as you can make that happen for them, they will be delighted to network with you.

I will share more tips on networking at the conference in a separate article.

- Posted by Jay Dwivedi

Using innovation to do business in India

2006-03-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

Anu Chitrapu is right. India has been a lot in the news lately because of the World Economic Forum and the visit by President Bush to India. And it is very encouraging to hear that the President appreciates the forces of globalization and how they are likely to benefit the whole world. "People do lose jobs as a result of globalization and it's painful for those who lose jobs," the President said and strongly defended the outsourcing of American jobs to India as the reality of a global economy. He added that the US should instead focus on India as a vital new market for American goods. Which brings me to something that I want to talk about - Innovation!

Finding business opportunities in India

We in the world of investors, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs tend to focus so much on the ~300 million people (the so-called Indian middle class) that we overlook the rest of the population (~2.5X of this number). In my opinion, any idiot can sell to the Indian middle class by treating it as just another market segment that happens to be growing at 3X the US GDP growth rate. These people speak/understand English, desire American products, are seeing huge growth in disposable incomes, and are ready to spend it on consumer goods. But where is the innovation here? Where is the value created? In no time, India too will become like the United States (price-based competition in every sector leading to erosion of profits) and if there was no value proposition to begin with, your Indian business may be in trouble. We all know what happened to the so-called Asian Tigers.

Need for new business models in India - only true innovators will create shareholder value

What will distinguish the "me-too" businesses from the true innovators are the new business models are:

Products and services that can be consumed by a broader section of the Indian society, not just the middle class.
Offerings that are less susceptible to commoditization.

And both these elements of the business model can only be achieved if we wear our "innovation hats" and think creatively about a new value proposition.

So when President Bush is challenging American companies to stop fighting globalization and see it as an opportunity for innovation, he is alluding to cell phone companies that have made cell phones affordable to the Indian masses or the companies that are trying to sell the Rs. 10,000 PC or the Rs. 100,000 family sedan.

I am hoping that as we delve into these issues at TieCon East 2006, we will get an opportunity to hear about some new business models. In other words, how do we leverage innovation to create more compelling value propositions.

- Posted by Jay Dwivedi

India in the news

2006-03-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

It is amazing to see how much India is in the news nowadays. I don’t mean just now – that is expected with President Bush’s visit – but this past year I have seen more news articles than I could read on India. My favorite article is the one called “Davos days and Bollywood nights” which talks about India at the World Economic Forum conference at Davos this year. From being a country that was barely noticeable in Davos, India went on to center stage with a pomp and glory not associated with a third world country. The so called “poor” country was greeting all guests with a goody bag filled with great gifts from India including a pashmina shawl, some ayurvedic oils and an ipod with Indian music! The most striking thing was that India sent 115 delegates compared to China with 30.

Talking of China, there have been quite a few articles on India Vs. China too. At MIT Sloan we are now offered a course on India Vs. China taught by Professor Yasheng Huang, an expert in the field. There was also the New York Times editorial which talked about how the infrastructure in India is bursting at its seams. Airplanes apparently circle above the airports in Bombay and Delhi and waste precious fuel all because there are not enough runways and gates at the airports. But with all the FDI coming into the country I think it is just a matter of time before India fixes its infrastructure problems.

The TiECON organizing work is picking up intensity. We are all very excited with the keynote speakers. If you have not done so already check out our speakers.

Anu Chitrapu

Play quizzes, have fun, and network

2006-02-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

Over the years as we have organized the conference, a common theme that we hear is about more networking opportunities. Like other years, we are working hard this year as well to find new ways for you to meet the type of people that you want to.

If you look at the agenda, you will notice that there is plenty of time for networking (we will give more tips on how to network in a subsquent post), but how about starting some networking now.

Yes, we have just launched a quiz program for you to start networking the fun way. You build a team, participate in quizzes, and network in a more informal atomosphere. For those of you who cannot make it to the quiz, there is the option of an online quiz (you can participate in both quizzes also).

Ray Kurzweil joins impressive list of keynote speakers

2006-02-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

Who could have been a better speaker than Ray Kurzweil to speak on innovation? Not only is Kurzweil an entrepreneur (he has successfully founded and developed as many as nine businesses in such diverse areas of technology as OCR, music synthesis, speech recognition, reading technology, virtual reality, financial investment, and cybernetic art - in almost all cases leveraging artificial intelligence), he is also a visionary and futurist. And for a lot of people like me, he inspires us as a prolific writer and blogger.

Kurzweil joins what is emerging out to be an excellent slate of keynote speakers that includes Kofi Annan (UN Secretary General), Clayton M. Christensen and Howard H. Stevenson (both professors at Harvard Business School), and Rajat Gupta (senior partner at McKinsey).

- Posted by Jay Dwivedi

Marketing TiECon East 2006

2006-02-20T06:13:00.000-08:00

The marketing team finally had its first "real" meeting. It is amazing how much work can be done virtually. We all recognize that marketing TiECon in 2006 is a monumental task since we are looking to make a monumental improvement in attendance.

And who will market TiECon East 2006?

You! Being a non-profit organization means that we do not have the resources for advertising. Every dollar that is spent on marketing means that either we raise the registration fee (something no one wants) or we cut back on the quality of the conference (again, something that no one wants).

So we are relying on people who already know TiE as an organization or have attended other TiE conferences or events to reach out to their colleagues, peers, and friends. If you see the value in being a member of this organization or attending the events, particularly TiECon, then we ask you to let others know about it. And in doing so, if you need our help in any way, just ask. You can simply shoot an email to the TiE Boston office.

Posted by Jay Dwivedi

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Tags: tiecon - innovation - marketing - entrepreneurs

TiECON Blog

2006-02-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

Hello!

We are about 4 months away from TiECON 2006. Things are falling into place and the level of activity amongst the organizers has increased perceptibly. The flurry of emails, the weekly phone calls, the planning meetings – all of these have reached a new heightened level of intensity.

I have had numerous conversations with Sanjay, one of the co-chairs, on projects that I could be involved in and the one that seemed right up my alley was the “Blog” project (I am trying to come up with a better name for this but for now “Blog project” it is). I am an official blogger (if there is a term like this) for MIT Sloan. I maintain a journal on my life at Sloan for applicants, students and others interested in the school to know more about Sloan. It is fun to write a blog for many reasons. One, you chronicle your life digitally which is very cool, two, there is a high probability you will be recognized because of your blog and three because you will never be bored with nothing to do.

We have great plans for the TiECON blog project. We envision the blog site to be a place where business leaders will share anecdotes about their lives, their business endeavors etc. In addition, our charter members will talk to us about various things they are involved with. The coolest part is the podcast initiative. Given the fact that many of the potential bloggers are very time constrained, we thought of an easy way for them to blog. Instead of typing away at their computers and uploading document we figured it would be much easier for them (and way cooler!) to record their thoughts and upload them so we can hear them as podcasts. And for those who prefer the tried and tested interview method, we are more than happy to conduct interviews either in person or over the phone and publish them for all our readers.

As you can see this is not going to be a traditional blog site. Journal entries will be mingled with podcasts, interviews will be sprinkled throughout the site and our organizers will chime in every now and then with key learnings and funny anecdotes. Obviously, our blog project will become a success story only if we have readers and writers. I personally think it is the writers who will draw the readers. If you would like to write a blog or you know someone who you would like to recommend please do get in touch with me – I am always ON as far as email goes. My email address is achitrapu@sloan.mit.edu – I look forward to hearing from you.

Anu Chitrapu

TieCON East 2006 conference is being organized

2006-02-08T16:43:00.000-08:00

TiE Boston is organizing a conference titled "Innovation in a Flat World". This blog attached to the conference is another medium for disseminating information relevant to the theme of the conference.

Blogs will feature news headlines and news analysis that capture the essence of the conference theme. Enjoy, provide comments, and let us know what else you would like to hear about....

United press recently carried an article about the growth of entrepreneurship in India. There is a growing awareness that in order to continue the current pace of growth, India has to invest in education, infrastructure, and innovation.

Stepping beyond the traditional barriers attributed to a developing country, India is prepared to move ahead and do what it takes to get to the top, say Indian innovators and analysts. For more details, continue to read on Growing Indian innovation

TiECON East *Largest Global Innovation Conference*

Playing the Cleantech roulette (contd.)

Playing the Cleantech roulette

SIGs at TiE

Its a wrap!!!!

Day 2 at TiECON

Conference Opens

LIVE FROM TiECON EAST

The New Silk Road

Innovative Models for Social Change

Building The Next Billion Dollar Company in Massachusetts

Musings on the globalization of talent

Who will YOU meet at TiECON East 2007?

Venture-backed Companies Line up their IPOs

Necessity, the mother of invention?

Vroooomm – are we Ready for the Electric Muscle Car ?

Innovate or Imitate...Fame or Fortune?

Everybody's Going Green

Technology and the Quality of Life

Women & TiECON

Competing on Analytics

Start-up India

'Time' to innovate, literally!

Bloodless coups on the info superhighway!

Innovation ... the real deal is here

Get ready for TiECON East 2007

Flattening world - What are you doing?

How to get the most out of TiECON?

Innovation is everybody's business

Sanjay Kadaveru shares TiECON vision

Most conferences suck, but you should still attend them

How to approach investing in India?

We should all be social entrepreneurs?

How to protect your intellectual property?

Why TiE members are scared of blogs?

Is digital media convergence a meaningful concept?

Biotech sector needs innovation, not government help

How to innovate in a flat world?

Opportunities for exporting to India

How to improve infrastructure in India?

How to exploit the Indian capital market?

Investment opportunities in India

India emerging as a consumer market

Five reasons to register now

How to improve venture capital activity?

How to start networking now for TiECON?

Using innovation to do business in India

India in the news

Play quizzes, have fun, and network

Ray Kurzweil joins impressive list of keynote speakers

Marketing TiECon East 2006

TiECON Blog

TieCON East 2006 conference is being organized

TiECON East Largest Global Innovation Conference