Design lessons from Nature

"Life in 3.8 billion years has created an enormous number of blueprints, designs, chemical recipes and technologies," said Janine Benyus of the Biomimicry Guild. 

 

Courtesy of Kellar Autumn and Steve Scherf

So why can’t we learn the design from nature, well that’s what every one is trying to do now.

 

John Roach contributed one of the best programs to msnbc.com – on “Ten innovations inspired by nature”.

Plan B Fund Raising?

Guy Kawaski gives you a very good insight on raising the funds for the second round – Plan B in the Open Forum Blog - Check it out by Click Here.

 

It’s the best one to read and implement if you have any plans!  

How to sell?

Wiktionary defines Persuasiveness as “The capability of a person or argument to convince or persuade someone to accept a desired way of thinking”.

Do you want to learn the art of selling by using – “persuasiveness” …then better you read this article…..

The Richest Indian

Anand Giridharadas wrote an interesting article about Mukesh Ambani comparing him to father of nation – Mahatma Gandhi in one of his daily columns "In the last century, Mahatma Gandhi was the most famous and powerful private citizen in India. Today, Ambani is widely regarded as playing that role, though in a very different way".

Recently, New York Times carried very insightful article on functioning style of Mukesh Ambani and his ruthless domination of petrochemical business in the India.

Read the complete article here……

Lou Gerstner – Man who made Elephant Dance!

Werner Heisenberg stated a principle of uncertainty in physics which won him the Nobel in 1932, that is, you cannot simultaneously assess the location as well as the future movement of an atomic particle; to do so, you have to hit it with another atomic particle and that act changes both the position and momentum of the target particle. It is similar with leadership where it is difficult to simultaneously judge a person’s leadership attributes as well as future leadership behavior.

What was said of medicine at the turn of the last century by the father of modern medicine, Sir William Osler, could be said of leadership, “If only all patients were identical, medicine would be a science, not an art.” Leadership has too many uncertainties.

On the same lines of Leadership qualities, making an elephant dance is difficult as IBM’s Lou Gerstner found out while transforming the 112 year-old IBM into a service company during the mid-90s.

Recently, Lou Gerstner was awarded with Legend in Leadership award at the Yale CEO Summit in New York. At the podium, Gerstner, CEO of IBM from 1993 to 2002 and now chairman of private equity giant Carlyle Group, dished up some wise tips on the topic he knows best: how to transform a Fortune 500 company. Here’s an edited transcript of his advice:

1. It’s very important to distinguish between a transformation and a turnaround. A turnaround involves a company that has fallen off the rails and has executed poorly. It takes a driven executive, but it’s not that bad. A transformation is truly difficult. The company must fundamentally change its model. It’s very, very problematic.

2. If you’re trying to transform a dodo, you’re not going to make it. I agree with Warren Buffett’s rule: “When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact.”

3. It’s all about culture. You have to transform the culture, not just the strategy. Culture is what people do when no one is watching.

4. Integrate as a team. When I arrived at IBM, there were “Team” signs all around. I asked, “How do people get paid?” They told me, “We pay people based on individual performance.”

5. You have to understand what people do everyday — the processes, the values, the rewards. It requires immense involvement by the CEO. If you’re a CEO who tells employees, “That’s it. You know where we’re going,” you’ll find yourself with no followers.

Source: Fortune

Painting the Picture

Painting is a skill that can be mastered if one understands the medium that is being used. One must learn to control the paint and master it. There are different techniques involved in the painting. No matter how good the painting is you should know how to create buzz out of it, so that you can get its true value when you sell it off!

Can you apply the same painting logic to your business also? Well, you should have great product like a great painting to create a buzz.

If you are really interested in learning the art of creating buzz like Apple does, you better follow the Guy Kawasaki advice.

Creating buzz for your business means having a great product. Creating that great product, however, is an art…..Guy Kawasaki.

Lots of people ask me the question, how can I get people to evangelize my product? Bookmark this: The key to evangelism is having a great product. It is easy, almost unavoidable, to catalyze evangelism for a great product. It is hard, almost impossible, to catalyze evangelism for crap. (The word evangelism, after all, comes from the Greek word for "bringing the good news," not "bringing the crappy news.") So what are the characteristics of a great product? DICEE.

DEEP A great product is deep. It doesn't run out of features and functions after only a few weeks of use. Its creators have anticipated what you'll need once you come up to speed. As your demands get more sophisticated, you discover that you don't need a different product.

INDULGENT A great product is a luxury. It makes you feel special when you buy it. It's not the least common denominator, nor is it the cheapest solution in sight. It's not necessarily flashy in a Ferrari kind of way, but deep down, you know you've rewarded yourself when you buy a great product.

COMPLETE A great product is more than a physical thing. Documentation counts. Customer service counts. Tech support counts. Blogs about the product count. A great product has a great total user experience.

ELEGANT A great product has an elegant user interface. Things work the way you expect them to. A great product doesn't fight you--it enhances you.

EMOTIVE A great product incites you to take action. It is so deep, indulgent, complete and elegant that it compels you to tell other people about it. And you're not necessarily an employee or shareholder of the company that produces it; you're bringing the good news to help others, not yourself.

If you want a smashing example of a DICEE product, you need look no further than the iPod . . . Deep: It can house thousands of songs, videos and podcasts, plus third-party add-ons that have expanded its functionality in ways Apple never anticipated. Indulgent: Yes, you could buy a cheaper MP3 player, but that's not the point, is it? Complete: It includes total integration with online buying, Apple's support (other than a battery or two) and online support from independent websites. Elegant: What could be more user-friendly than one wheel that does it all? Emotive: How did you first find out about it? Someone probably told you about it or showed you theirs.

So if you want raging, inexorable, thunderlizard evangelists for your product, make sure that product is DICEE.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com

SlideShare presents - The World's Best Presentatio

Frame work for effective presentation skills can be mathematically expressed as

Technique (skills) + Style (individual expression) = Effective presentation skills!

Presentation skill is an integral element of the complex craft of teaching, do you agree with me? Well, if you believe you have this in you - Slide Share is organizing the World Best Presentation Contest.

Best Presentation Awards include –
1st Prize MacBook Air
2nd Prize Amazon Kindle
3rd Prize iPod Nano
Honorable Mentions Presentation Zen - the book

Prizes for Each Category
1st Prize iPod Touch

Honorable Mentions Presentation Zen - the book

You can try your luck here!

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