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  • Suppliers: A boon that could be a pain…

    Entrepreneurs starting their ventures often try to build a complete solution themselves. This approach of building the complete product/solution by yourself, has been increasingly debated. While it provides a completely proprietary platform on which you could build your product, it could not just delaying the launch of the product into the market but also potentially distract the entrepreneur from what is to be necessarily pursued. A good search in our surrounding would help us identify many aspects of such an approach might not be needed. 

    With the increasing availability of technology or readymade components/products/services, the need to engineering a technology solution for a market gets be reduced to an intelligent assembly of the available components as a solution that could be taken to the market, and validated for its utility. The focus thus could be more on the business generation dimension than on the technology.

    This necessitates today’s entrepreneurs to work with a numerous of vendors/suppliers and choosing the right supplier/vendor definitely would be essential. It would be important to note that the term vendor/supplier is not only being limited to those who provide goods/services in the traditional sense alone, in the context of a start-up world, I would also add in players like incubators, accelerators etc who come in as a bundle of offerings.
    Here is an example using the incubator/accelerator services that would help set the context better for the points made later on:
    Incubators and Accelerators are an important player in the startup ecosystems (especially in the context of developing countries), in that they provide an isolated ecosystem that offer number of benefits. In addition to the access to physical infrastructure including office furniture, meeting/discussion rooms, they could also make available a lot of tacit benefits like – a peer group of companies, mentoring, legal and accounting services etc. In short, the isolated ecosystem is like nursery where plants are built to be effectively transferred to a new environment later on at growth stage.

    Assuming that incubators/accelerators only provide a basic office set up that could help the entrepreneurs and their team focus on the work rather than being distracted by the daily pressures of utility services, could blind entrepreneurs to look beyond this. Many incubators/accelerators constantly hold reviews about the progress you have made on your idea – this could be a double edges sword. Frequent reviews could give rise to a very precarious situation.

    Entrepreneurs often choose their start ups as a representation of their independence/identity – often to do what they intend to do, and being closely monitoring might push the entrepreneur off comfort of working at a steady pace. Alternatively, there are some other incubators/accelerators that allow the entrepreneurs only access to the resources and it is up to the entrepreneur to make the use of these. 

    The choices made by an entrepreneur would have to be defined by what suits the expected direction of the product/service and the entrepreneurs’ personal working style. Here are some caveats for an entrepreneur when thinking of vendors/suppliers for your firm:
    • What do I want from the vendor’s product/service? 
    A clear understanding of the client space is generally hard when one is starting his/her venture and this emerges only over a period of time. Thus, keeping a tab on the large number of vendor products and choosing one from these would be difficult if an entrepreneur isn’t in a position to identify his/her needs clearly.
    While the clarity of the client is difficult, the entrepreneur would benefit from being specific about the requirements from the product/service that is to be tested in the market, and yet note that flexibility of replacement is important. If the direction of the product development has been positively validated, then tying up with your vendor for a long term commitment would be best – till then, tying up with a supplier deeply could prove a difficult proposition.

    [Note here: Deeply embedding oneself to the vendor product could be a potential pitfall in case you want to revisit the hypothesis of choosing to acquire than build the solution.]

    • Do you think the solution from the vendor has the features I am looking for?
    The outcome of the first question could be a list of features that the product/service could have – the next act is to validate if the vendor/supplier has the components or whole of features that could help build the product/service. In addition finding a vendor who comes in with not just the features but a willingness to work closely with the start up is important. The apt question thus is:
    Is the vendor open to working with you on towards co-creating your product?
    Having a vendor who doesn’t just offer you a set of features that was requested but really adds value in multiple ways would clearly be preferred [yes, the size of the supplier could play an important role here]. In addition to the above, would (s)he support your venture at a minimum with the following:
    • Commitment towards the agreed terms of delivery
    • Technical expertise to extend the current product offering
    • Insights from personal experience that could benefit my start up
    In some exceptional cases, there are instances of vendors who have moved beyond the contractual requirements to not just bear the delays in payment, but also support the entrepreneurs through some sorts of funding.

    [Note: Often, the transactional nature of the vendor could limit the growth of your start ups.]
    • Am I the only client for the vendor?
    If one is to look out for such a vendor, the most common responses would be from people who think they have a spare capacity. The spare capacity could arise from not having anything else to be occupied with rather than the spare capacity being available through an efficient process of management. Thus, there are many people who would try to build their businesses in a necessity oriented manner completely dependent on your business, and not expanding it to include others.

    This aspect in my opinion would be a paramount factor for the entrepreneur to consider. If there is one thing that start-ups need to remember at all times, it is that the vendor whom you engage with is not building his/her business completely on your expectations (you would better hire a full time employee or consultant in such scenarios!).
    The risk that your company takes in such scenario is not limited to that of your business but also compounds with the risk of your vendors’ business, and this could be extremely catastrophic! [Imagine: A contractual vendor breathing down your neck and waiting at your doors step pressing for the payment on the deadline, when you know that waiting for a 2-3 day could ease the complete cash crunch!]

    Past successes of entrepreneurs engaging with a vendor, word of mouth recommendations etc are important indicators that could help choose the right vendor/supplier. Start ups are a risky game – If the choice of the vendor/supplier is not carefully thought through – this could very well increase the odds against you.

    Reading the above points again, it becomes clearer that the entrepreneur would benefit better from calling the supplier/vendor as a partner in the progress and not really be known as a “supplier” or “vendor” in the classical interpretation of the word.  In many ways, an employee too is a vendor isn’t it? How about the investor! I guess looking at all the stakeholders from this perspective of being a partner could be the subject of another blog!

  • Communication – Communication Technologies & Behavior 2

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on looking at how communication technology affects behavior. In today’s byte, we continue this discussion.

    As mentioned in the last byte, it is clear that the modern communication means break the implication of hierarchy etc. In a group interaction settings too – this acts as an equalizer for the participants. The charismatic or higher status members have equal power as that of another member with a less power/authority. So it is possible that better decisions might emerge out of these discussion where everyone is on an equal footing, however it has also been found that computer-mediated groups take longer to decide, i.e. reach consensus compared to the face-to-face interactions.

    The ease of access to information at the click of a button also has another implication to the decision maker (let’s call a manager). This could just create a potential overload of information! The manager would now need to be more selective about the information accessed through these technologies!

    Another issue that arises through the use of this technology is the danger of intruding into the personal lives – managers can no longer get away from their offices unlike in the past – through modern technology they are more accessible to their coworkers, subordinates of bosses. The pleasure of an 8 to 5 job is not present any more!

  • Communication – Communication Technologies & Behavior

    In the last byte, we looked at the various technologies that were available today. In today’s section, we begin our journey looking at how Communication Technologies affect Behavior.

    Most of the technologies we discussed over the last couple of bytes form part of Information Communication Technology (ICT). ICT refers to the various technologies such as electronic mail, voice mail, teleconference, and wireless access which are used for impersonal communication. These technologies provide faster, more immediate access to information that any earlier technology. This instant exchange makes the concept of schedule and office hours irrelevant in the modern world – these considerations are less relevant if not completely irrelevant. Thus these technologies have an important influence on the behavior of people using these technologies.

    It is given that almost all forms of computer-mediated communication are impersonal in nature – the sender interacts with the machine (not a human being) and the receiver also interacts with the machine (not the human sender). As discussed earlier – flaming is definitely an issue in these cases. The tact, grace, etc are all lost and there is no element of interpersonal communication that would prevent the managers from being blunter when using ICT!

    The nonverbal cues that one relies to decipher a message is absent in the new technologies – gesturing, touching, facial expressions, eye contact are all missing so the emotional elements of message gets difficult to assess. Through Video Conferencing and the use of smilies in these communication means to certain extent this reduces – but there are still a lot of gaps present!

    It would be interesting to note, that the cues to the positions of power also disappears in the use of emails!

  • Communication – Information Technology 2

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on the various communication technologies. In today’s byte, we continue this discussion further.

    Continuing our discussion on the use of email in workplace communication, it is also been seen that the absence of face to face communication in emails could make some people feel much less inhibited when using email and could end up using e-mail and end up sending “caustic” messages! These emails containing caustic messages could also be called “flaming” email – given that these message have a hostile, abusive, or bullying content in them.

    Another technology that is available today is the “voice mail system”; these enable users to retrieve messages from remote locations! Fantastic right? However, timely retrieval of these messages is important – in case these messages are not retrieved in time – it could either be outdated (a message that you cannot act on given the delay in reading it). It is extremely possible that employees with a problem early in the day would feel upset with the slow response for their queries over the voice mail!

    Fax Machines are another piece of the marvel of information technology age – where immediate transmission of documents etc is possible. But with the increasing power of emails the use of these machines is slowly on the decline.

    Cell Phones we know today are completely a common place phenomenon – these permit communication while away from the office and commute too. With smart phones, the power of cellular communication is no different from a wired desk based communication! While the power of cell phones can provide us seamless connectivity, one would need to be careful about the use of cell phones while driving!

  • Communication – Information Technology

    In the last byte, we briefly looked at written communications tools generally used in an organization. In today’s byte, we look at communication technology in a bit more detail.

    Information technology that uses computers as a medium for communication is no more a tool that is built for the technical specialists – it has moved on to develop ability by which today’s managers can directly access information at the click of a button! Databases and ad-hoc queries are today commonplace – and these empower the manager with tremendous information that could help intelligent business decision making.

    Internet penetration is not just limited to just the access of databases – Electronic mail or simply e-mail that we so commonly use today is an extremely powerful tool. Face-to-Face or telephonic conversations are synchronous in the sense that they require both the sender and the receiver of the communication to be available at the same time; however e-mail frees up the requirement. The sender could leave a message and the receiver could access it at his/her own convenient time and reply. It also reduces the time-delays that are associated with the postal mail and has the potential to provide an immediate reply.

    If one is to choose between face-to-face communication and electronic mails – the preference; research shows, varies with the nature of the decisions and may depend on the complexity and content of what needs to be communicated.

    We shall continue this discussion further in the next byte.

  • Communication – Written

    In the last byte, we looked at how modern technology is redefining the communication, before we look at these technologies in a bit more detail; it would be interesting to look at and classify written communication where internet could easily play a role and taking them online. This blog deals with such written communication:

    Written communication tools in a work place could be one of the following classes:

    1. Forms
    2. Manuals
    3. Reports
    4. Letters
    5. Memorandums
    We shall try to briefly look at what role each of these performs:
    Forms typically find uses when there exist some predefined characteristics of the process need an input from the person interacting. Forms typically have a pre-defined number of fields that reduces the need to actively engage someone else from the work environment. Manuals detail out the policy and process and how they need to be functioning. Reports generally provide a status update of the activities executed. Letters and Memorandum are generally used for a more formal yet personal communication in organizations. Letters are formal communications often with people outside the organization, while memo are used inside the organization,

  • Communication – Advent of Modern Technologies

    In the last byte, we looked at Positive Healthy Communication, in today’s byte; we look at how the concept of communication is changing with the advent of modern technologies.

    Thus far in we have discussed how nonverbal behaviors act as important cues in establishing trust in a work setting amongst colleagues, however increasing use of modern technology seems to be complicating the reception of cues which would generally happen in a face to face conversation. This is not to state that modern technology used in communication should be avoided – it is an essential feature of today’s management style. It is really hard to imagine a work place today without access to internet, telephone, etc!

    It is not just the reaction time that gets reduced by the use of such modern technology, it also helps reduce costs if effectively designed and applied to use – One could easily think of how much a supply chain company like – FedEx could save by shifting the tracking of calls from a physical scheme to an internet based tracking!

    Today’s business managers have access to more communication tools than ever before and it is important to get an understanding on the use, influence of these technologies in the workplace – this could enhance the effectiveness of the work itself! In spite of all benefits it would be also interesting to look at the role of information technology in actually addressing the ethical issues at work!

  • Communication – Positive Healthy Communication

    In the last byte, we looked at the table of common non-verbal cues from managers to employees. In today’s byte, we discuss – Positive Healthy Communication.

    To begin the discussion, let us define the concept of “communicative disease”. Communicative Disease in the contact of discussion here refers to the absence of heartfelt communication in human relationships leading to loneliness and social isolation. Such a behavior is seen to have adverse effect on heart and cardiovascular systems of the body and in extreme cases could also cause premature death.

    The term Communicative Disease was coined by James Lynch to explain the above mentioned behavior. He also says that heartfelt communication could be a healing dialogue and could act as an antidote in such cases. This means – the general thought that communication is a cognitive activity of the head would now need to be broadened to also include the role of heart in the communication process.

    Positive, healthy communication is an important aspect of “working together” – both interpersonal and interpersonal. A balance between head and heart is achieved when the individual is able to have a health internal conversion between his or her thoughts and feelings, ideas, and emotions! The external or inter-personal dimension refers to the cooperative work behavior based on positive, healthy, and open communication based on trust and truthfulness. Honest competition within the workplace is not inconsistent!

  • Communication – Listening

    In the last byte, we had an accuracy related discussion when one is to decipher non-verbal cues. In today’s byte, we show a table developed by C. Hamilton and B.H Kleiner from “Steps in Better Listening”, and has been adopted from the Reference book.


  • Communication – Non Verbal 2

    In the last byte, we looked at paralanguage dimension of non-verbal communication. In today’s byte, we discuss some study done on how accurately these nonverbal communication cues are decoded.

    It has been observed that many people including judges with several years of experience have a greater confidence in their ability to decipher these non-verbal queues than their actual ability to do so! This generally happens due to incomplete or inaccurate interpretation of the non-verbal cues.

    Expert trainer – Paul Ekman, who has trained judges, secret service agents, and polygraphists to detect lies; says that the best way to detect lies is to look for inconsistencies in the non-verbal cues. Disparities between the subject’s words, body languages, voice etc are some cues that could help in this direction.

    If one were to ask – Why is non-verbal communication important to managers? It is because it is important for the managers to understand the impact on the meaning of the message being communicated. Definitely the employees pick up various non-verbal cues in the following situation – when the managers looks away when the employee speaks with him, doesn’t acknowledge any greetings, etc.

    The Manager would therefore need to consider the total meaning of the message, in all media of communication. A message would have a greater meaning in specific context and the cues could be better and interpreted with an ease.

    It would be interesting to have a quick table of common non-verbal communication cues from manager to employees and we shall provide that in the next byte.