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The Week in Review #30: Death to the Performance Review

Nearly 5 years ago I started my business IDENTIFI. The goal was to build software that helped companies attract, recruit and retain their best people. In the earlier part of our journey we focused on the top end of the funnel, dealing with recruitment and employer branding. This is a space with lots of competition. Within the first year we started focusing more on helping employers retain their key employees. At a time when loyalty to employers is at record lows, every company is figuring out ways to keep their best people. One of our solutions that caught on with many employers was assistance with their performance review process. We would help them conduct these annual or bi-annual reviews and build development plans for their staff. We managed to close very large clients and do this day still provide this service to employers all across APAC.

However the winds are changing. With the influx of Gen Y and more importantly millenials into the workforce, the age old performance review process doesn’t work. Employees want feedback immediately and  a need for immediate recognition. Most of our large customers are now debating how to change a process that has been embedded in their culture for a very long time. Large companies are the ones that are struggling with this change the most. Many of them have built compensation, development and growth opportunities into their review processes.

For us as a company this requires us to also fundamentally change the service we provide to our customers. The one constant that remains is the need for feedback and building of development plans for your staff. The variable that changes is how this process is conducted moving forward. Several of our forward thinking customers have moved away from the annual review to quarterly and some with monthly check-in’s with their staff. This requires a new set of software that is light weight, mobile friendly with a low cognitive overhead.

I am excited to start this next phase of our growth as a business and look forward to sharing in greater detail how we are going to be solving for this change.

Accenture To Nix Performance Reviews And Rankings For All 330,000 Employees The featured article of the week is how Accenture is abandoning its review process. Microsoft and several other companies have followed similar suit. This helps other companies who are hesitant about the switch to take the leap of faith.

What Hollywood Can Teach Us About the Future of Work This is a great read about how Hollywood is staffing studios and sets. Structuring work around temp employees and short term projects. We are already seeing this proliferate into many other sectors. Making me very bullish on marketplaces like Upwork and Workmarket.

Lessons learned building & managing a remote team Building on the previous article, this essay talks about how to get started building a remote team. Several costly mistakes can be overcome as there is a learning curve involved in both building and more importantly managing a remote team.

First Round – The 10 Year Project First Round Capital is a top tier seed stage venture firm. They have invested in some of the most successful enterprises including Uber, Square and Warby Parker. This is a round up of the 10 major lessons they have learned in the 10 years they have been investing. Several interesting lessons and some that will most definitely surprise you.

A Slide by Slide Guide to a Killer Investor Pitch Pitching to investors is a key part about being an entrepreneur. This article walks through the core components of the deck. One thing that I would like to see added to this would be the story behind why are you doing what you do. This is critical, especially for early stage startups. The key thing that investors are looking for is whether the founder(s) have the perseverance and passion to see things through to the end.

How to Prepare Yourself to Be a Great CEO Starting a company is easy, becoming a great CEO is a completely different ball game. Jason Lemkin is a very successful startup founder and in this article he shares the 5 things that you need to do to improve your abilities as a CEO.

Applying to Startup Jobs The days of sending your resume with a cover letter are over. This strategy doesn’t work very well for large companies and fails completely at startups. The primary goal is to be able to stand out among the sea of applicants. This is a comprehensive guide to greatly improve your chances of getting hired not only by a startup but most other companies as well.

Wishing everyone a great week ahead!

The Week in Review #14: The Power of Authenticity

Imagine being able to live everyday, doing what you love. The one thing that not only brings you joy, it helps those around you.

Being true to who we are, is a rare gift. We are constantly putting on a slew of masks in our attempt to fit in. Changing our habits and interests based on those around us. This blocks our ability to live a fulfilled and meaningful life. The day we unshackle ourselves from the imaginary chains that society holds us by, we are able to truly live a life worth living. The highlighted article of this week is about a company called Lynda. A business which was started to help people equip themselves with the skills they need to succeed. The founders have a truly aspirational story.

lynda.com and the Power of Authenticity The big news this week was the acquisition of lynda.com by Linkedin. This article provides a good overview of what made lynda.com stand out and the secret’s to their success. There is also a great short video embedded about the power of design and problem solving by the founder.

What I’d tell myself about startups if I could go back 5 years. Recap posts are among my favorite type of blog posts. These are the posts where we get to learn directly from people as to what worked and what didn’t. With over 63 bit sized pieces of advice, this article doesn’t disappoint.

Consistency and discipline over motivation Procrastination can be a real threat to our productivity. This article talks about the times when we lack the motivation to get something done. I am sure this is a feeling everyone of us has experienced at some point. The author talks about how to remove the need of motivation and replace it with discipline. When we are able to make the shift, there is a dramatic increase in our productivity. Having personally practiced this, I can attest to the fact that it works.

The Simple Numbers That Could Change How You Hire Most recruiting articles follow an archaic process of listing down how you should hire. This article takes a different approach by breaking it into 4 parts supported by numbers. It walks you through sequentially on all the major stages and what you should be looking out. Lots of great insights to be gleaned and highly recommended for those hiring.

The best single lesson Bill Gates gave every startup & product manager Short blog post on the best advice Bill Gates gave every startup. In a nutshell it is, do not let perfection get in the way of success. This is something that I personally struggle with and am working to get over. The article mentions some interesting products that achieved greatness following this advice.

Why Startups Fail and How to Build Up Interest Before the Launch Building traction for a new business is always challenging. How do you go about getting ready to launch and build up an early following. This article goes through the process with some great insights and takeaways.

6 Reasons why a startup should invest in a brand strategy at the very beginningBranding is a topic that gets discussed rarely in the startup world. However businesses like Warby Parker have clearly shown us that it can be a central component of your success. This article discusses why branding is critical to your success and how to get started with it.

Wishing everyone a great week ahead!

Looking Forward to 2011

The last 2 months have been the longest that this blog has gone without being updated since it’s inception almost three years ago. I remember quite vividly, sitting down three years ago, towards the end of December and thinking that I wanted to start blogging. I do believe that it has been one of the best New Year resolutions I have made in life, to date, and if anyone is thinking about resolutions for next year, starting a blog should make the top of your list. It has been a huge learning experience and has taught me so much, amongst which are the following :

1. Discipline: Being able to write on schedule, according to a date on a calendar, without any leeway for making excuses, is tough. You will find a hundred reasons daily for whether you should post, or not. Much of the time they will be fairly compelling reasons. To be able to stick it out however and not give in, builds a sense of internal discipline that will spill over to other aspects of your life.

2. Consistency: Can you actually be dedicated to something over a long period of time? For a great number of younger people, who have not really had too much worldly life experience, this is the ultimate validation that you can stick to something when you say you will.

3. Personal Branding: Today, more than ever, investors, peers, employers and just about anyone who wants to know more about you, will google you. Build a blog and take it to the top of the search ranking for your name, as well as for other topics that you share an interest for. Learn about yourself along the way, you will discover new interests, likes and dislikes. It will help you to grow and shape yourself into who you really are.

With the year coming to an end, I find much to my regret, that I have really not kept up the continuity of this blog as I envisaged and I not only should, but I do really want to! A primary reason for this irregularity is that I had a ‘vague’ goal on blog postings for this year. The first two years it was daily posting, and then, one every second day. This year it was, maybe once a week if I had time!

I know I may look back on what I am going to say next as unrealistic, but I am upping the ante and moving back to a daily posting routine in 2011. The only condition is that they may not all be long posts about specific entrepreneurship issues, they  will certainly, include, quotes, video clips and excerpts from books that I am reading. But I really want to get back to the daily posting schedule, for myself as well as for all of you ,my readers.

If any of you want me to write on specific topics, please shoot them over and I will do my best to get through them slowly.

Wishing you all the very best of luck & success in 2011!

Jumping Ahead of the Gun

Yesterday I was talking to a young entrepreneur who is planning on entering an interesting niche space in the entertainment industry. The product idea he had was very interesting, and showed an ability to scale quickly. Three minutes into the pitch however he got into how he planned to order a huge inventory to start off the business, hire an agency to do the branding and packaging for his product, schedule road shows for his product, and launch a retail store. When I asked him how many products he had been able to sell so far, the answer was… zero.

Many first time entrepreneurs fall into the trap of jumping ahead of themselves before they really understand what they are getting into in the first place. Before you start up any business, ask yourself :

1. Why am I starting this business?

2. Am I truly passionate about the business I am about to start?

3. What do I hope to achieve when I enter this business?

4. Am I going to be able to achieve my goals through this business idea?

Next, figure out how to start, and how to make that first sale. Do not waste your time and money setting up all the fancy trimmings before you actually make a sale. The initial stage is all about developing a customer base for your product/service. The aim should be to get there as quickly as possible without spending or allocating too many resources, until there is positive feedback and response to justify such investments.

Objective Criterions

“Here’s the rule for bargains: ”Do other men, for they would do you.” That’s the true business precept.” Charles Dickens

Most of us have at some time, played the high-lowball game during negotiations. For example, a while ago I was attempting to buy a domain I wanted. The seller had a listed price of $500, I put in a lowball offer of a $100 dollars straight off the bat. The $100 I offered, had no actual basis and was nearer to the $200 or so I wanted to actually pay for the domain. The seller and I had a number of correspondences back and forth, and a deal was struck around $230. Did I get a good price? Was my reservation price, one that had a logic basis? Unfortunately I could not answer any of these questions.

It therefore got me thinking, that having objective criterions are necessary to ensure that both sides get an optimal deal. In the case of the above example, companies such as Sedo are able to calculate the true worth of a domain through several established criterions that include, estimate of the domain name’s value, list of recent comparable sales, search engine friendliness, branding potential, legal situation and even, possible buyers. This estimation establishes the true worth of a domain. If the had seller relied and gone with such a report from a trusted authority, stating the domain estimate at $500, I would have had very little room to negotiate a price which was substantially lower. We can therefore see, that by adding objective criterion’s to negotiations, we can optimize the value created on the whole.

It is therefore recommended, that whenever you enter into a negotiation, be it changing terms of payments with your supplier, a salary increase for your staff or the sale of your business to a private equity firm, do research regarding the metrics that can be used fairly, to add objectivity to the negotiations. It is important that the criterions proposed are acceptable to both sides. A key characteristic of skilled negotiators is, they are always prepared. They know their underlying interests, the options available,  available alternatives, and a list of objective criterions to reach an optimal agreement for both sides.

How to Position your Brand

“A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.” Al Reis and Laura Reis

When you walk into a supermarket with the intention of buying eggs, do you actually pay attention to the branding on the eggs or do you pick up whatever is available? I usually pick up whatever I find. However the decision is more complicated when I want to get a soft drink. Brands such as Coke and Pepsi have spent billions of dollars positioning their products as the only cola alternatives. A frame of reference has been created and no matter how many new rival products are introduced in this category, it is almost impossible to dislodge the current leaders. 7-Up did something very interesting with its positioning when it rebranded itself as the “Un-Cola”. Since it could not use the word cola in the customers mind, it reframed it’s positioning relative to its competition and took up a unique position in the minds of customers.

Naturally having the edge of being first in a certain category, has it’s advantages. However, competing in markets where there is already some competition, we need to figure out a way to convince potential customers, to use our product/service instead. This requires a lot of creativity and understanding for your target market and your competitors offering. As mentioned in prior posts, we have to take into account the sort of persona we want to project and what competitive edges we want to bring to the forefront. Take for example the rent-a-car business in America. Hertz had a large edge over the No.2 provider Avis. That was until Avis capitalized on its position by using the tag line “Avis is only No.2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder.” This statement dramatically helped the profitability of the company and more importantly helped customers develop a reference point between Avis and Hertz.

As a start-up organization we often cannot afford to pay tens of thousands to brand consultants to help us  develop positioning strategies. However all is not lost. The end goal is to own a word in the mind of the customer, or be able to communicate your business concept in 5 words or less. Much effort needs to be put into name selection and the use of words as discussed in the brand personality post. These will be discussed in greater detail in the next post in the series.

To get you started on what your product/service should be, there is a great positioning rule called the 4D Rule:

1. Desirable by the customers

2. Distinctive from the competition

3. Deliverable by the company

4. Durable over time

A well positioned brand will lie at the intersection of all four requirements.

Why should I choose your brand?

“A product is something made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by the customer. A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique. A product can be quickly outdated; a successful brand is timeless.” Stephen King

Yesterday’s step regarding the personality of your brand, should get one thinking of all the factors that need to be covered to successfully attract your target customer. The next couple of steps will cover essential components which need to be thought through clearly when building a brand. The component I will talk about today is the answer to the question above, namely, your competitive advantage. If one cannot answer why a customer should select your product over your competitors, there won’t be a business to build a brand for. To answer this question correctly, one needs keen insights into the internal selection process of your target customers. Communicating with your target customers and finding out what their needs and requirements are, is the only way to do this. 

For example, you want to launch a new web based product which aims to provide an ability to manage your contacts and communication logs. The market place is currently filled with such products, and include Highrise, a product I use for the same function. When this new service comes along, and they have essentially replicated existing product features and functionalities, there is little chance of success. Even if minor changes have been created, they stand to lose this competitive edge when these functionalities will be copied by existing players. This is an example of when business owners have not put enough thought into the reason for creating the service, for whom it is being created, and how they plan to provide long term value to the target customer.

On the other hand, take for example, the social networking space. Friendster started off with a bang and a small niche social networking site called Facebook, they entered the market, and addressed key concerns regarding, privacy, communication tools and useful applications to make the experience more enjoyable. They clearly addressed the question “why should I choose to switch to your platform?” This leads to an important conclusion, which is, businesses and brands have to be rooted in strong business models which address customer needs in an unique way. Our branding strategy needs to continuously communicate this competitive advantage to our target customers, reminding them of reasons they should choose us, over our competitors.

Related Articles:

– What is your competitive advantage?