(img source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/89157267601160497/) It is becoming increasingly evident that companies should be establishing labs inside their entities, for exploring new deep tech independently. The labs should have the autonomy to go far-out into futuristic new deep tech without having to worry about current limitations. The research function should be independent and should encourage creativity. To a…
Category: leadership
Chief Customer Experience Officer
Follow-up to a mini post on a very pleasant customer experience with Bigbasket. I strongly feel that, any company which is interacting with customers on a regular basis, should have a Chief Customer Experience Officer. Penning down some thoughts on the same below. I did think for a little while, that this should be a…
Idea meritocracy
Was listening to this awesome podcast from the Knowledge Project (of Farnam Street fame) with Ray Dalio, where he talks about idea meritocracy. Found it fascinating. Such clarity in thought. “There are two things that one needs to do to be successful in anything. 1) Take the right decisions, and 2) Have the courage to…
Communication of bad news
I just read T.N.Hari’s excellent write up on “Firing someone you deeply admire.” Brought back a lot of memories of the last few days of Stayzilla. There were anxious moments, and then resignation to what had to happen, and the morbid planning sessions. Morbid because, they are just emotionally taxing, but it has got to…
Jeff Weiner on Employee Engagement
Inspire, empower, listen & appreciate. Practicing any one of these can improve employee engagement; mastering all four can change the game.
What are we shipping today?
Ask any of the PMs who have worked with me, they will say that this is my favourite statement. I ask this statement at least once a day to them. I was talking about this with one of the PMs who works with me, and I thought I would share some of the conversation highlights…
Hiring decision should not be democratic
A hiring decision should never be a democratic decision. The interview panel gives its recommendations -> and then the hiring manager gives his observations. It is the hiring manager’s single call – with the recommendations factored in. Some mechanics and rules (such as categorization between hire/no-hire/weak-hire etc) can be brought in to break ties and…
How to hire Designers
Portfolios: HR sourced UI/UX candidates for me. We took on only resumes which had pointers to their portfolio (in Behance or elsewhere). If they did not have a portfolio, I did not consider them serious enough to be applying to us. UI/UX designers vs Creative Designers: There is a fair amount of ambiguity that candidates…
Richard Branson: Life at 30000ft
Fantastic interview with Richard Branson at TED – Monterey. The humility of the man blows me away. My biggest takeaway quote from this: Genuinely, if I bought something or had a particularly bad service in something that I did, I would go and do something myself to fix the problem. Like the time, I flew…
Seth Godin on “Leaders vs Managers”
I have always been a great fan of Seth Godin. Awesome ideas. Straight forward. Talks from the gut. Passionate.In this short pitch, he talks about how different management and leadership is. Watch the video by clicking on the below link. (Embed permissions are restricted by the owners). Exclusive interview with Seth Godin from Leadercast on…