Social Health 3.0

I have been super busy with work and my second book. There is a fair progress on both the fronts, work and book (work - working on new and intresting product’s, Book – completed my 1st chapter, TOC and plan). It’s been little over 4 months that I started presenting about Social Health 3.0 (application of social media to healthcare) to various leading healthcare providers (hospitals) in India. Being a social media enthusiast I felt I should post this presentation on slideshare for my readers, here you go :)

Social health 3.0

View more presentations from Raghavendra Hunasgi.

The 12 rules of start-up

It’s been a different school of thought at Infy and I am enjoying my learning here. The work culture, the ethics, the environment and the hierarchy @ Infy is a class-apart :). Every time I am confused about anything literally anything @ Infy I know whom to ask for help – Balaji Desikamani (dearly known as Mr. Encyclopedia at Infy MKTG). Life is fun and learning at Infy is phenomenal. The only thing I am missing the most here is the start-up environment. It’s a different league game to be part of start-up, few things that come to my mind (the one’s I love the most) @ start-up include:

You don’t have to wear formals with tie (Unless you have a client visit) – No one cares wat u wear (LOL good for lazy humans like me).

You don’t have to wait for 3 – 4 levels of approvals to execute your idea.

You don’t have cabins and conf rooms.

You don’t have fixed timing (you spend majority of ur life in office :) ).

First thing first – priority matters :)

Sense of ownership – everyone feels it’s his company and he has to excel in his job.

The list goes on however why are start-ups in India not very successful? A recent study by Inc 500 shows 8.5 of 10 start-ups in India fail during first year. I have been reading many blogs on this and the one I loved the most is written by Mark Cuban (He is a serial entrepreneur co-founder and chairman of Denver-based independent cable network HDNet and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team).

These 12 rules are edited from his book. How to win at the sport of business: If I can do it, you can do it.

1. Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cure All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but aren't as expensive to pay.

6. An espresso machine? Are you kidding me? Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keep everyone in tune with what is going on and keep the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show him or her how to use the lock on the bathroom. There is nothing private in a startup. This is also a good way to keep from hiring executives who cannot operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over a personal secretary, run away. If an exec won't go on sales calls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the most inexpensive way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista, ask yourself why, then use it. It's a startup so there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

9. Keep the organization flat. If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.

10. Never buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo-embroidered polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, it's okay to buy for your own employees, but if you really think people are going to wear your branded polo when they're out and about, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money.

11. Never hire a PR firm. A public relations firm will call or email people in the publications you already read, on the shows you already watch and at the websites you already surf. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them a message introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communication with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

12. Make the job fun for employees. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. My first company, MicroSolutions, when we had a record sales month, or someone did something special, I would walk around handing out $100 bills to salespeople. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, we had a company shot. The Kamikaze. We would take people to a bar every now and then and buy one or ten for everyone. At MicroSolutions, more often than not we had vendors cover the tab. Vendors always love a good party.

One of my Infy friend and colleague (John dearly known as Lovely in the team for his wittiness) is on his way to experiment with a start-up. I wish him all the best and look forward to hear more lessons from him.

Facebook and Privacy

One of the questions that have been haunting us in recent past is:” Is Facebook Doing Enough to Protect Your Privacy?”

Over the weekend I have been watching some of the senior leaders of my company (board members) interviewed by various business channels. One question that was common to most of the senior leaders of this giant IT empire was: “Why is that you are not on Facebook or Twitter?” One common answer was I don’t feel it is safe enough to be on public domain. Being a social media enthusiast I was not too convinced with the answer. I felt may be the people from old school of thought did not wanted to be part of the next gen rush. But looking at the repeated privacy breach on Facebook I feel they were right. Result, I have deleted my FB account.

Here is a small right-up I feel you should review before you post an update on FB. FB has agreed to a settlement with the FTC over charges that the social network had deceived its users about privacy. The FTC had accused Facebook in an eight-count complaint of not living up to its own promises. Among them: sharing users’ personal information with third parties without their knowledge or consent, changing privacy practices without informing users, and claiming to have a program to verify the security of apps when it didn’t.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the settlement in a blog post, saying Facebook had proactively addressed the FTC’s complaints but that the company had “made a bunch of mistakes.”

Bunch of mistakes??? Dude are you kidding me?? Compromising on user privacy is bunch of mistakes?? Its heaps of offence.

With all these charges on FB, Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of $100 Billion IPO seems to be difficult. Here is a brief snapshot about their IPO update:
Facebook is preparing itself for an IPO that could easily top $100 billion, according to a new report.

At $100 billion, Facebook’s impending IPO would be one of the largest in history, quadrupling Google’s $23 billion IPO in 2004.

CNBC says the social networking giant is likely to go public during the first quarter of 2012, less than nine months from now. That falls in line with a May 2012 deadline when Facebook will be required to publicly report its financial information, regardless of whether it’s a private or public company.

The $100 billion valuation isn’t a surprise — there were reports last month that Facebook’s IPO could easily top $100 billion, thanks to huge consumer and investor appeal. In fact, if LinkedIn’s stellar IPO is any indication, Facebook’s valuation could hit the stratosphere the day it hits the public markets.

Goldman Sachs is in the driver’s seat to underwrite the IPO, thanks to its $450 million investment in Facebook earlier this year. Facebook and Goldman might want to hurry, though: The social network’s growth is apparently slowing down.

Keeping figures crossed for Mark, I am hoping they will atleast learn from their mistakes and ensure they re-build the FB brand.

Sooo many things and soo less time

Life is becoming insanely busy, there is soo much of work in office:

My second book is eternally on hold (unable to pen single word)




PhD - suspend for 6 months (reason: No progress)

Paper to be presented - no progress

Cycling - frequency has reduced from daily to bi-weekly to weekly (I am hoping to atleast keep this going)

Photography - I have no clue were on this earth is my camera

Buy Tab - rotting on my wish list

Running - its been a month i got into my running shoes (This obviously means no marathons for next few months)

Body Fat - Working lunch, pizazz, coffee, ice-creams - Thank you - increased body fat and weight

Personal life - I used to have a great one

Blogging and writing - struggling to post/write :(

Conclusion - Get back to normal life in next 2 weeks.

A tribute to the Legend of our times – Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died last week and tributes are still pouring in for the departed soul.

Apple founder is being called the best visionary of our times Steven P. Jobs passed away on October 5th, 2011 after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was just 56 years old. We mourn his passing, and wish his family the very best.

He was the reason many of us got into this industry, or even care about technology at all. He made the computer personal, and the smartphone fun. Bill Gates may have put a computer on every office desk, but it was Steve Jobs who put one in every dorm room and bedroom and living room. And then, years later, he repeated the trick, putting one in every bag and every pocket, thanks to the iPad and iPhone. If you use a computer or smartphone today, it is either one he created, or an imitation of his genius.

He changed the way movies are made, the way music is sold, the way stories are told, the very way we interact with the world around us. He helped us work, and gave us new ways to play. He was a myth made man.

Prior to Steve Jobs, computers were alien to most of us. They were accessible to few people without an engineering degree. Not merely because of their complex operating procedures, but also because they were so cold and so inhuman. Jobs understood that they could be something more than that. That while computers would never be people, he could endow them with humanity. He could transform them into machines that not only anyone could use, but that everyday people would enjoy using thanks to the art of great design. He made them something that would be part of our lives. And he did that again and again.

His life story is familiar, but it deserves repeating. He was given up for adoption by his unmarried parents. He grew up in California, and was very much a product of that place and time. He took drugs. He got into phone hacking. Both were precursers to what would always be his interest: changing the status quo.

In 1976 he started Apple in a garage. Together with Steve Wozniak, he shipped the first true fully-built personal computer, the Apple I. He drove development of the Mac, understanding that it was the future of computers. The great thing that we would all see. He brought in a grown up to run the company. And that grown up forced him out of the company that he built and into the wilderness.
While he was gone, he started NeXT computer. The NeXT operating system would form the underpinnings of Apple's OS X, and iOS.

He also started the best movie studio of the past 30 years. Pixar's films were innovative, to be sure. It pushed the boundaries of CGI to such an extent that even today its early films still look great. But technology is only a tool. As with everything else he understood that great technology alone is not enough. It must be human to have an impact. Pixar movies tell stories. They make grown men cry. That was the impact of Steve Jobs.

He became a family man. He reunited with his biological mother, and his sister, the writer Mona Simpson. He married. He had children. He was, by all accounts, a great dad. It was his role as husband and father that helped drive his second act at Apple.
After his return to Apple, the company began shipping iconic product after iconic product. Products that defined a decade. The iMac, OS X, the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, the iPad. All of these were deeply human products. They reflected his understanding of how technology was used not only in the workplace, but in the home. In his keynotes, product demos typically showed not executives, but families.
He made Apple into the most valuable company in the world. He never met his biological father.

He accomplished so many things, in so many fields that it's tempting to compare Jobs to someone from the past. A Thomas Edison or a Ben Franklin or even a Leonardo Da Vinci. We tend to do that because it helps us understand. But it does him a disservice. He was unique. His own person. Our own person.

He was our emblematic genius. In 100 years, when historians talk about the emergence of the age of intelligent machines, it is Steve Jobs they will hold up as the great exemplar of our era.

They will remember his flaws, too. When Atari hired Jobs and Woz to write the code for the iconic Atari game Breakout, the pair earned a $5000 bonus for completing the work, largely done by Woz. But Jobs kept the bonus a secret, and only paid his partner $375. When his daughter Lisa was born in 1978, he spent two years denying he was her father. His denials forced her and her mother to support themselves on welfare. In the workplace he's often been described as temperamental and even petulant. He could be arrogant and unforgiving.

He was not a god. He was simply a man.

Yet for all his faults, he changed the world. He made it better.

He once famously asked of a critic "what have you done that's so great?" For Jobs, the answer to that question was very nearly unlimited.

Our world will be less interesting, less exciting, and less meaningful without him.
Goodbye, Mr. Jobs. We will miss you so very much.

Social media and healthcare

I have been busy visiting hospitals and presenting my ideas/thoughts on application of social media in a medium and large hospital set-up. I have also been busy commenting and micro blogging on leading healthcare blogs and magazines.

Today, I wrote about the social media and its impact on healthcare industry. The article was well received and published on Infosys blogs, follow the link below to read the article:

http://www.infosysblogs.com/healthcare/2011/09/improving_the_patient_experien.html?shr=twtm

I aim to keep my personal blog updated moving forward :)

Google's Strategic Mistake or Smart Strategic move (Motorola Buy)?

The most discussed and awaited tech news of this week: Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility. There have been hundreds of post's on this topic, but most interesting and contrasting that I recommend are:

Harvard Business Review Blog:
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/googles_strategic_mistakes_dro.html

http://www.planonpaper.com/2011/08/16/google-buying-motorola-mobility-smart-deal-but-is-it-a-smart-strategy/

I am very curious on the Android story now :)