As MindValley grows in new people and new ventures – how can we maximize happiness and profit?

Let’s tap the brain of a guy who funded 80 startups with a total of about 200 founders, with a pretty good hit rate (conception to acquisition / profitability).

Yes, it’s Paul Graham. One of my favorite brains to tap.

Read his essay “You weren’t meant to have a boss” as he talks about

• Optimal group size for work
• The way humans naturally work in groups
• Struggles in designing a structure to avoid becoming a “big company”
• Lions hunting in the wild

In the article, he ponders the same problems we are trying to solve….

“A large organization could only avoid slowing down if they avoided tree structure. And since human nature limits the size of group that can work together, the only way I can imagine  for larger groups to avoid tree structure would be to have no structure: to have each group actually be independent, and to work together the way components of a market economy do.

That might be worth exploring. I suspect there are already some highly partitionable businesses that lean this way. But I don’t know any technology companies that have done it.”

~ Paul Graham, from “You weren’t meant to have a boss”

Personally, I want to solve this problem. Not theoretically, but I want it to work in action. It’s a great problem to solve, as the solution (perhaps lessons other organizations and startups can use) will unlock a world of talent, innovation, and happiness at work.

Solving this might take some fancy experiments with organizational structure, radical thinking, consistent hard work, a bit of patience, and a group of people who dare… which is why I’m grateful to solve this with MindValley.

We’re doing some crazy stuff right now, but I’ll only talk about it when we have RESULTS. Till then, do share your workplace experiments and thoughts, if any.

(By the way, usually blog posts like this and this go on the MindValley blog, but to reflect how my so-called work and personal are in perfect harmony, I figured I’ll republish selected pieces about management, marketing, and designing optimal work/lifestyle here too.)

What happens when you form a partnership between

• Customers
• Suppliers
• Media
• And society?

I’d like to think you’ve got a brilliant business model. Especially when many conventional businesses tend to think only for themselves.

Easier said than done?

According to Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist, Web2.0 businesses aren’t the only ones pulling this off…  read his article, How Facebook Is Like Ikea

Thanks for the engaging session today! I can tell you, I really enjoyed the conversations we shared, and hope to continue our exploration here.

Any constructive feedback for me? This is the first time I’ve ever been paid to speak. Did you learn something you can use to win the Taylor’s Business School Business Plan Competition (and the RM3,000 cash)?!

As promised, you can click here for the list of relevant links.

And read on for a summary of the seminar. Please leave comments and questions! Or, you can email your abuse to Samuel. haha

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Good morning!

In this competition, you have access to enough knowledge and information.

Your competitors have enough knowledge and information, too. Quite likely, your judges will not be able to take all of it in.

How to get across to the judges? We have a secret which helped us win this format of competition. It could help you win, too.

What is it?

Tony Robbins studied of human behavior for more than 29 years throughout his career as a motivator. He tells us, that humans are emotionally driven creatures, who rationalize things with logic, later. Click here to see his video presentation.

Matthew Gladwell, author or The Tipping Point, in his latest book, Blink, presents research which reveals how humans make “snap judgments”, relying on subjective means to make decisions, even when they ought to be objective. Click here for a summary of the book.

Ok ok so what’s the big secret?

Having a great business plan, and presenting well will increase your chances of winning for sure. That is NOT the secret.

Evoke emotions in your judges, engaging them on an emotional level… Call it the “X Factor” or “Bribery” or whatever.
You’ll have more than “a winning chance”… We attribute this EMOTIONAL FOCUS as the #1 reason we beat 1,700 of our regional competitors, and managed to capture the hearts of our judges.

How did we do this?

We’ve identified 5 keys you can take action on, right now.

1. You must have a killer introduction.

Your introduction can be as long as you need it to be. Why? Winners give the “This group sure win one” Effect. If you give them a REASON to root for you as winners, your job is much easier.

• Does it make the judges thirsty? Dying to hear the full story?
• Does it give them a WOW effect, unexpectedly impressing them?
• Does it give them the impression you have structure and clarity?

2. You must stage a show.

Your entire presentation should be staged like a “show”. Why? Engaging and entertaining them will leave positive emotions they will remember, and react to accordingly.

• Do you make use of the stage?
• Are your emotions obvious?
• Does your show entertain?
• Do you have a full script?

3. You must have a full script

With every point, word, transition between points, emotion, movement, gesture…. Just like a drama. And FAQ script, too. Why? Presenting your plan alone won’t win. Presenting emotions will. The script preparation will help you visualize, build confidence, and remember it better, all of which help you execute a smoother presentation.

Prepare your full script, writing down

• Every point (idea)
• Every word spoken which elaborates that point
• Every transition between points
• Every emotion, movement, gesture

Start your script preparation with

• Skeleton structure
• Branch out into chunks of ideas
• Each idea with its own heading
• Less is more: remove words which aren’t relevant to the headings
• Practice your script and “show” with a webcam
• Practice your “show” without the script

Prepare your FAQ script with

• How to ask for more questions?
• How to accept a question?
• How to probe a question?
• How to address a question politely?
• How to end your answer?

4. You must have a story they want to believe

Present more than a business plan. Present a story you truly believe in. The judges are not fools. Give them a story they can visualize and believe, because they won’t remember your facts and figures.

Ensure these parts of your story are especially believable

• Financial assumptions
• Financial projections
• Proof of concept
• Market demand
• Sources of revenue

Do this to increase how believable your story is

• Call uncertain revenue streams “growth opportunities”
• Focus on financial assumptions before the figures
• Exit strategy gives the story a good ending
• Ride on proven stories (models)
• Include “testimonials” from big shots

5. You must have winning work habits

Realistically, you may not be able to take action on all the points. And you don’t need to. All you need is to know is what to do, and do it right: Your work habits determine how much actually gets done, and how effective it is.

Small steps to winning work ethics, and working smart

• Question every advice, don’t accept things without being asking why and how
• Question every “rule” – there are many false assumptions
• When you want to get something done, look for an efficient process first
• Don’t compromise with your team mates – debate!
• Encourage each other to bug each other to work!

BOTTOMLINE

Do what you think is right, and focus on evoking emotions, and let me know how it goes!

A smart HR strategy as well… how can you expect any less?

Open to ALL Malaysian students, you have until the end of this month to apply.

Designed and facilitated by young leaders from GE and McKinsey’s Kuala Lumpur offices. Workshop sessions will include topics such as What makes a leader, Personality types and influencing techniques, Applying logic to decision-making and Effective Communication….

Details in the application form, here.

I’m a huge fan of GE and McKinsey’s org-cultrue… So I applied anyway, claiming I am a student at heart! *fingers crossed*

The last time I came back from California, I brought back 58 used CDs for cheap, from Amoeba Music. It’s the largest indie record store in USA, and the most fun place to buy and discover great music. I used to spend whole days, crawling in there with my notepad and shopping basket.

See photos of it on Flickr

This time around, I only got half a day, and 13 CDs, from USD2 – USD10 each….

I Really Liked

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I love the way the voice just let’s go, catchy tunes too.

We Are Scientists – With Love and Squalor
I can dance to this! Playing in Zouk next month.

Grandaddy – Just Like The Fambly Cat
I am very sad they decided to stop making music as a band =(

Mull Historical Society – This is Hope
Mull Historical Society – Loss
Can’t help it – I’m a fan, and I have all his albums now!

Not as satisfied with…

Ours – Precious
Majorie Fair – Self Help Serenade
The Concretes
Barsuk Records - Treats
The Reindeer Section – Son of evil reindeer
Cursed Reindeer shit.. I only bought it coz of MHS was involved – but that Snow Patrol bastard spoiled it all.

New soundtracks to my life!

Phoenix – It’s Never Been Like That
First heard them on the beloved Lost in Translation Soundtrack. This CD had a hint of a bit of a hint of the lastes Strokes CD.

Small Sins
Wah! This dude reminds me of French Kicks with all the synth and bass emotion I’ve listened to this 20+ times so far.

Magnet – the Tourniquet
Better than the previous album! No joke.

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Ah… everytime I gush about CDs I wonder if I will ever, ever, buy anymore… new ones are so expensive. Still, Amoeba Music is still getting more and more profitable despite this online piracy BS!

For a deeper look, read:

+ FastCompany’s “What’s Selling in America
+ Businessweek’s “Amoeba’s Simple Music Formula”
+ “Talk About the Passion”

For other music+business related reading, I recently imported my old research into BlinkList.
Check it out.

Is the typical Malaysian student ready to contribute to a competitive workforce? Samir of thecicak.com probes further, sampling some local university student leaders in his article, “Thinking outside the third-world mindset”…

Rather than questioning what a first-world mentality really is, the UKM president went on mouthing off statistics and reading from his little notebook, like a little robot dressed in a blue batik shirt.

When asked whether it would be helpful to develop a first-world mentality by going overseas, the second youth panelist from Kolej Yayasan Melaka responded that there is no need to go overseas as we now have the Internet.

It’s obvious that he has done his research; after all, who needs to leave the country, learn English, absorb foreign cultures and develop a sense of independence when you can do it comfortably at home?

It’s a good article, click here to read it.

And it leads to a bigger problem…

42% of Malaysia’s youth are under age 20, and most of these kids will eventually end up in the workforce. Even though they can be led by a few super-capable leaders, if most of them depend on that forever – and don’t lead themselves, both in thought and action – Malaysia will not be able to compete globally.

I don’t enjoy telling people how they should be like etc – Malaysian youths can of course choose to be less critical, less proactive, and less demanding in their lives – but I doubt they will be happy with their personal choices if the friggin’ country was poor.

Okay, so this is my plan.

If a Malaysian organisation can become super-successful globally, and have its best-practices and business philosophies seep into other local companies and universities – it can show Malaysian youth what is possible – and HOW. That HOW is important – eg: case studies in universities, books written about the comapny, word-of-mouth storytelling….

This organisation must speak for a larger vision than the business itself, in the same way, say, Google, IDEO, McKinsey, affects an outsider’s aspirations. (click on the above links in red to see what I mean)

This fabled Malaysian organisation must actively manage their PR and CSR initiatives (rather than keep the success to themselves) to lead the typical Malaysian student to know when to lead themselves, and inspire the typical Malaysian student to be demandingly excellent in everything they do.

I am hesitant to say I am going to build this fabled Malaysian organisation, because…

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
- Henry Ford

But I won’t let that stop me from trying my very best. Do you want to join me in my mission? Find me a genius programmer to fill this position…

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao Tzu

All the very best with your journeys, too.

I personally refrain from blogging about my work – in the same way I would’nt blog about my girlfriend (even if I had one) – but something really hit me at work today, something worth sharing.

I’m a keen observer of the process to which things get done in my office. And when I reflect on my days at work, many questions would poke at me, such as…

When is it more involved, exciting, and effecient?
What communication styles are used?
What tools help get best results?
When to focus on what?

Above all, I’m trying to develop my own management style.

And it is interesting when Mike and Vishen (the co-founders, and my bosses) cannot be any more different. They work in a yin yang, constructive conflict/harmony fashion which is fun to watch.

So I discussed my observations in my 1 on 1 session with Mike, over lunch, and he was quick to focus my wandering mind on

1. Be authentic, above all
2. Be extra-extra sensitive to people

That really put a stake in the ground for me, as far as contemplating on management styles go.

Do you have anything to share with me? Something you learnt from a great boss, or mentor perhaps?

John Mayer commented at Dion Hinchcliff’s Web2.0 blog a while back, about universities paying its faculty to use the internet to collaboratively write open-source textbooks, which can be accessed, downloaded, printed, and shared by students for free.

I’d love to discuss this. Anyone thinks this idea has potential? Why, or rather, why not?

By the way, it’s not that John Mayer. The comment was off a Web2.0 blog, not BluesGuitar 2.0. Anyways, this is his own words:

“What if all of the 4 year colleges and universities in the country (about 3000 of them) put up $1000 per year into a pool that is paid out in bounties to faculty to write open source textbooks – IOW, textbooks that are electronically given away free to students as PDFs, HTML or whatever?”

“Assume that each author is paid $10,000 per book which means this system would fund the creation of 300 new textbooks every year. That could cover a LOT of courses and would start saving ‘students’ thousands of dollars per year. Boom, you just lowered educational costs forever with pocket change from universities.”

“The textbook publishers go out of business, sure, but since the new textbooks are electronic and free – the collective intelligence of the teachers can be used to keep them up to date or to allow them to be “mashed” up in a rip-mix-learn/wiki sort of way.”

See the original post here: http://web2.wsj2.com/struggling_to_monetize_web_20.htm

Btw, check out theBigBazooka, which is also a online collaboratively written, free-to-use book about succeeding in the music scene.

The worst thing about all the Web 2.0 hype is the complete loss of business perspective – WTF2.0

From my own “business pespective”, a the term “Web 2.0″ is only worth using if the focus is on….

• How enabled users are to create value
• The value of what users create as a result
• How that value can be monetized

Cool stuff like mashups work only a means to this end

Areas of concern/ opportunity

• Information overload, micromedia explosion
• Shifting centers of trust and influence (Peers, Old media, New media, Experts…)
• Decreasing effectiveness of current monetization strategies
• “Online” apps converging with “offline” = “no-lines”

Summary of monetization strategies

• Advertising
• Subscription (eg. 37signals, eMusic)
• Transaction
• Value added services (especially offline services eg Brainreactions.net)
• Value added products (Wikipedia selling WikiBooks?)
• Charging for access to value you “own” (business pay to post ads on craigslist, users free)
• Monetizing positive externalities (donation mechanisms, merchandise)
• Focus on product/ core competency, with web2.0 as platform (see SkinnyCorp’s clothing lines, or Zazzle)

Having said that, this is how I would come in as a challenger/ new market entrant

Now it is easier to engage the mass market than ever. Which is why mass market is most competitive. I suggest capturing one differentiated segment at a time.
Eg. Naver.com kicks Google’s ass in Korea… 40% market share vs 2%!!! Would naver have achieved the same success attacking Google head on? Doubt it.

HOW? Secure user trust by helping communities evolve, then adding value…

• Understand who they are – and what they need (appeal to the essential needs like recognition, belonging, and most of all… hooking up!)
• Target niche – and grow from there (across the ends of the long tail) by making mass customization effortless.
• Enable them with easy and fun apps and incentives.
• Let community decide what impacts them (user invite other users?)
• Keep eye on incentives for participation! (Instant gratification with AJAX helps, skinnycorp uses $$$)

Examples of those who do this well?

• Craftster.org
• etsy.com
• threadless.com
• makeupalley.com
• More examples here

What do you guys think? What did I miss? I’m very interested in those which make users real happy AS WELL AS make some decent moolah.

“Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung”

That’s a malay proverb, which kinda means “Where your feet is planted on the ground, is where you hold up the sky”. Thank you Mr.Vijaya for the quote.

If I want to hold up my ambition, I must be realistic… I am only one man, and I still have lots to learn. In April, I will join MindValley.

We’re idealist. We believe the Internet is the greatest invention of our generation and has boundless potential to change the world. We build products that help harness this potential.

I will be putting my ideas and talents to the test, experiencing a silicon valley start-up expeirence, develop web-related skillsets, while learning from the eclectic, brilliant, MindValley people.

Getting paid is a bonus =)

I am REALLY glad Mike and Vishen took a chance with me – even though I did not bring any proven expertise to the table.

I guess this is only the beginning of yet another adventure!

… March will be spent preparing for the finals of HSBC Young Entrepreneur awards, and some major self-study in web analytics and web copywriting …

By the way, if any of you know any insanely bright people who wants to live for the pure joy of creation, and loves web2.0 an technology… MindValley is continuously hiring to feed their growth!