Insights from Business Innovation!

First of all, this class was totally a new experience for me. Coming from a finance background, I have always had to take courses related to numbers. Every question had a ‘right’ answer, and hence it was not too hard to figure things out. But this class was very different. Being ‘creative’ is what I have heard many people speak of, but I had no clue I would taught mechanisms to come up with creative solutions business school. Yes, being creative is one of the core skills I learnt in this class!

Coming up with our persona for the Target project, and the process of how our persona evolved was such an interesting process. I never knew I had to think of in depth details of a persona while coming up with marketing strategies. My internship my project at Dell was to recommend a sales strategy for the security product offering. I had no idea what a persona even meant; it turned out to be small business entities. This was in contrast to the effort and detail we as a team put into our persona for the Target project – Racheal. Firstly we thought of Rachel’s age, interests, education, income level, but in addition we also learned about her best friend. When the professor suggested us to do this, I had no idea why. But it was during the midpoint of our project, I realized our solution to Target was based mainly on the characteristics our interviewees said they admired the most of their best friend. For example, one interviewee said – I love the fact that my best friend remembers the most important events in life. Not only does she remember to wish me on my birthday, but once she sent me the right flavors of Tiff’s treat cookies I loved. This made me feel so special. Why was it important to consider what she felt about her best friend? Well, we inferred that remembering her birthday and receiving a customized gift made her feel so special and remain loyal to her best friend. Therefore our solution was turned out to be - providing loyal customers with a customized gift during special life events such as birthdays and graduation. This would greatly help Target in getting a loyal customer base with time. 

The second take away from this class was again related to being creative – coming up with a prototype. I always thought a prototype was the final perfect model of the real product. I was surprised to know that a basic first sketch could be a prototype. We had two prototypes for this project – the smart panel and a shopping app. We first drew a rough sketch of the app and the smart panel. The next step was for us to think of a nice way of making them both user friendly. We never came up with that ‘perfect final prototype’ I always thought existed, but the process we followed was quite amazing.

We brainstormed within our team, and always tried to draw things as we spoke, usually we drew things on a white board or sketching software. Fortunately we saved each of these sketches and it is quite nice to actually be able to see how the prototype evolved – a rough sketch, to a sketch with the right products to finally a prototype with bundled goods students would like to purchase. Finally we thought of the places with high student traffic to place these panels. We actually walked around the entire campus on a freezing Friday afternoon (we were unfortunate to have done this on a day with freeze alert) and imagined the panel being placed at different points within campus, and thought if we were undergraduate students, would we order groceries from a panel at that location. We followed an iterative process all along.

Putting together the final presentation for this project was also a new learning. The presentation slides I have done so till this point, have been big on data and pictorial representations of data. But this particular one was very different. We did video recordings using our mobile and recorded one of our team member’s voice over it. Also coming up with the script to speak, places to shoot, and pictures to record was very creative. We ended up talking quite less during the presentation and instead let our work - the video - do most of the explanations. If I had to do my internship project all over again now, the approach I would take would be very different. I would change my mechanical numbers based approach to a very innovative one. So yes – being creative was the key skill I gained working on this project.

I did not feel that any part of the project was not useful, as in everything we did helped us learn more in terms of coming up with an innovative solution. But if I could change one thing, it would be the time lines. The time lines were so tight, that we could not come up with a properly functioning prototype, we could have done much better had we got more time. But I do understand considering it being a one semester long class, it would be hard to fit in longer timelines. A suggestion I could think of is to try and fit in more in class working hours for the project, if that was a possibility. Also we spent a large amount of time conducting generative research using the two concentric circles, but we never figured how to fit those findings into our final solution. It would have been better, if we were able to incorporate those findings into the project.

The emotional reactions my team went through were similar to a roller coaster ride! There were times when we had a large number of arguments, especially because of the tight timelines and contrasting views. We all came from different backgrounds – one from the gaming industry, one from advertising, one from writing and I from finance. So our thoughts were so different. I always try to think of things in a structured manner, but my team mates would pour in ideas. I loved the way our team finally put all this together. We would eventually agree on something, by choosing the idea which had the most number of votes. Our team meetings turned out to be fun rather than manual. I liked the fact that we got to work with non MBAs – Megan was a student pursuing a degree in advertising, and the ideas she came up with were so unique. The way she opens up her MacBook immediately, and starts sketching out whatever we spoke about amazed me. I doubt I could have done even 10% of the work we did, if I had to do it myself. I just loved the team I worked with, and if I had a choice to work with them again – I definitely would!

Learning from professor Walls was also a very unique experience. He did not stop with just lecturing, but he showed us real life experiences and also allowed us to practice the frameworks he taught us in class. For example – the exercise we did on coming up with a prototype using materials provided in 30 minutes was challenging yet super fun. The best part was - Professor Walls never would say an idea was bad, but would suggest ways to improve. It was very pleasing to hear, ‘I love that idea’ from him, and yes he said that to me twice J

The Love for Big Data!

Analyzing Big Data is one of the biggest technology trends right now. What is Big Data? According to Wiki, Big Data is a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. Using business analytics tools, big data can be used to determine customer trends and thereby provide targeted marketing strategies. Big data has revolutionized customer analysis approach.  

Pricing, Out of home advertising, finding customer behavioral patterns are a few examples of what big data could be used for. In the olden days, marketers sought to identify consumers and spend millions to catch him/her at the right time, in the right place, with the right message. Therefore the probability of being successful was comparable to wining a lottery. In the digital age, marketers identify a target markets and bombard them with banner ads, online videos and tweets. Slowly things changed, and now it is said that Businesses sit on Data Goldmines. Big Data has gotten a lot of attention over the past 18 months as retail, manufacturing and technology companies realize the gold mines they are sitting on and rush to scour them for competitive advantage. Amazon is the best example I could think of. Using customer information, amazon has built a gigantic database of customer interests and history of purchases. Though competitors could potentially mimic Amazon’s business model, it’s still seems impossible to compete with Amazon solely because of the rich customer big data Amazon has built over time. Target, for example, has figured out how to data-mine its way into a girl’s womb, to figure out whether you have a baby on the way long before you need to start buying Diapers. Surprising part was, ¹Target found out a teen girl was pregnant even before her parents knew about it.

If it is so useful, then why does big data create large amount of controversies? This is mainly because of the ethical implications behind it. Who really owns this information? What are the privacy issues and obligations? Face book and Google are one of the top 10 sources of big data. Google in fact knows every user in and out, through Gmail, Google + and Google search. Google then uses Google Analytics to predict customer behavior patterns. Then this information is sold to retailers such as Target, in order to help them improve customer reach. Is this not intruding into the privacy of a young girl? In my opinion it is.

Apart from the big companies misusing big data, security of this data is another big issue. ²Adobe was a victim of cyber-attack, resulting in 2.9 million customer information. Adobe sent out an email to customers saying that customers must reset their passwords. The thieves grabbed credit and debit card information. Should Adobe not be severely punished for this? Why should the customer suffer for Adobe not having high levels of security implemented? Though government has placed strict regulations in place, such as HIPAA for health care, organizations still seem to not follow these, just to save on the system security implementation costs. Another example of a data breech was ³Advocate Health Care- who lost social security numbers of more than 4 million people because of losing four unencrypted laptops. Not only did they not encrypt the data, but they were careless enough to lose them. Eventually the people impacted due to such incidents are the end users. This leads us to our topic, is it ethical to gain customer insights using big data. Of course not, if you do not know to protect such big data in the first place.

Privacy is the next biggest concern. Customers end up filling surveys, posting information in public sites such as face book, not knowing the implications. Companies such as Facebook, knows the data to day activities of through the pictures posted, location tracking and chats. It annoys me sometimes, how Google and Facebook misuse my searches. Yesterday, I goggled for some Nike products, and surprisingly my Facebook feed is filled with Nike deals and product offerings. As if this was not bad enough, Google even tracks the emails people send out. Once I mailed my friend about fit bit, and next minute I know, my Google page is full of fit bit advertisements. I feel this is intruding into my privacy. The minute you search for something on the internet, it is public information. The use of computer technology has increased dramatically over the past few years. It has become common for users to share personal information online everyday using PC’s and smartphones. This data, along with credit card purchases, medical records, and other material is stored in numerous powerful databases. As a result, the importance of privacy protection for consumers has grown substantially. How can firms balance between using the big data to gain customer insights and at the same time not intrude into his/her privacy?

                                  

One approach would be to balance between risk and innovation. Big data represents massive opportunities to benefit business, education, healthcare, government, manufacturing, and many other fields. The risks, however, to personal privacy, the ability to manage our individual reputations and online identities, and what it might mean to lose — or gain — ownership over our personal data are just now becoming topics of discussion, some parts of which naturally generate ethical questions. To take advantage of the benefits big data innovations offer, the practical risks of implementing them need to be understood. Customers must be informed about the risks of tying in information before companies use such information!

Source - 1 - http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/ 2 - http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/10/adobe-data-breach/index.htm 

My Views on Creativity

Creativity. Wikipedia says “Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created.” Dictionary.com says “Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like and to create meaningful ideas, forms, methods, interpretations etc.; originality, progressiveness or imagination.” And if I search really extensively, I can probably get numerous other versions of how creativity is defined. This is because creativity is not an exact science. It is one of those things that cannot be limited to the confines of a definition but can mean so much and so many different things for different people. An inventor’s idea, a comedian’s joke, a writer’s story, an artist’s painting, and a musician’s music – all portray creativity. But these are some of the traditional examples, things that can be either readily seen or heard or read. A new approach to an old problem, being able to extract new information from simple data, handling a situation when you kill two birds with one stone – these are some of the less conspicuous but equally relevant portrayals of creativity.

 People are inherently creative, to varying degrees of course, but nonetheless creative. Even a three year old child knows how to manipulate his parents to woo them into playing his favorite cartoon on television. Some can physically create something and for some, it’s a part of their thought process. I see myself belong to the second category. The most recent example that comes to mind is ‘cracking the cases’ while preparing for consulting interviews. It requires a certain combination of creative and logical thinking to be able to come up with a solution in a limited amount of time; and which like music, art or writing gets better with practice. And not surprisingly enough, there are bouts of extreme creativity at one time to absolute blankness at others. External factors play a huge role in shaping the thought process and that’s why a music piece created when happy sounds ‘happier’ than a music piece created when upset. I would like a share one of the most creative piece of art done my dear friend Archana. A painting which portrays one of the Hindu goddess name ‘Kali’. I believe creativity is inborn when it comes to art.

Individual creativity may or may not translate into organizational creativity. Though at an organizational level, it can be a part of the work culture, the presence of which may result in huge successes and the lack of which in ultimate failure. Given the excessive competition in any and every industry, innovation leads to competitive advantage and we all know what that can do for the organization. When I worked at Dell this summer, I could truly see why this company succeeded in the first place – through its innovative supply chain management processes. I can write another entire blog on this one. Going forward, when a new direction is required for the company to change its practice and remain competitive, they are not afraid to go private. When it is practiced at work, it is engraved in the daily routine and becomes a part of being.

Even when working as a team, in a group, creativity starts with an individual. With someone who asks a simple question, someone trying to find a solution for a problem, someone who doesn’t want to stick to status quo and wants to do things faster, smarter and profitably. It may need reinforcements in terms of complements but still, it takes one creative individual to start the bandwagon rolling. Innovations begets innovation and there, we have a creative group in an organization. Let’s take a very simple example. A team of engineers designing the latest chip for Intel microprocessor. This is definitely a result of most creative minds at work and the goals are achieved by leveraging every individual’s skillset to achieve a common objective for the organization.  

I would like to now elaborate on a situation where I used my creative hat at work – After graduating from my undergraduate degree; I started my career as a business consultant with a large Enterprise Resource Process implementer. All new recruits had to go through an intense three week training program. It was really hard for me, to sit in the same room day after day listening to senior consultants explain the system. Surprisingly the senior consultants were not happy either. They had no time to train us during their normal working hours, which meant the tasks related to their projects were being affects, which translated to very unhappy clients. I saw a bottle neck here, and I suggested an idea - digitalize the entire training process - to the top management. They were happy with the idea and asked me to implement it.

The process I followed were

-          I divided and allocated the different training materials amongst the senior consultants.

-          Each of them was asked to record the process, for example – record the process of creating a customer order using free software called i-demo. Once the recordings were completed, they were able to edit them and also add comments if required.

-          I then converted these recordings into flash video files and stored them in a database which all the employees had access to.

-          New recruits are now trained for 2 weeks, of which one week involved senior consultants lecturing and the other week was a self-studying process using these recordings.

-          Not only did this idea reduce the training time, but it had other benefits too. If a consultant from finance wanted to learn about a process in distribution, he/she could access these recordings to help. Even the clients started using these videos to help them learn about modules.

Unfortunately, most of my innovative thinking happens only when it is not required by a competitionJ. For example, if someone said come up with a brilliant idea during a competition, it just does not happen with me.

Sadly with the current education system, numbers are given a heavy weightage. But in the real world, is that what matters? I personally believe the education system needs a change. Instead of having classes based on notes, students should be allowed to practice and innovate in the real world. During engineering, I was taught so many theories of transistors, but instead if I was taught to build circuits using transistors I would have been much more skilled.

Is creativity important for everyone to have? For sure, without creativity, there would be no mac, televisions, and laptops. Not surprisingly, this could be a reason why most successful entrepreneurs ended up being college drop outs.  So why not educate students to be creative and change the entire system? 

Using Design Thinking To Develop A New Fitness Concept!

The meaning of the word fitness to majority of women from Tamil Nadu, India and Sri Lanka astonishes me. I have been fortunate to interact with women from various age groups and an interesting thing I inferred from most of them was their definition of fitness – merely losing weight for an important occasion! It may come across as odd and funny to many reading this, but is extremely interesting for me to think of ways to change the perception of fitness that women seem to have back at home.

As a kid, I did not know what it meant to eat healthy and make physical exercise a part of my daily routine. Interestingly enough, initially even I became fitness fanatic only because I wanted to lose weight. Being a food-lover, I feasted on all the delicious food available when I went to India to study engineering. After six months of being there one day it became plainly clear to me that I had become much heavier than I was. This made me desperate to lose weight. I shed all the extra pounds, but thankfully, did not stop there. I started reading fitness magazines and learning about different ways to get a good workout. This thought process became an obsession, and therefore an indispensable part of my life.

But what surprised me is why women in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka merely see working out as losing weight for an event such as their wedding. They work out and diet extremely hard, till the biggest day of their lives – ‘The wedding day’ and get back to the business of eating and becoming fat almost immediately after. I have always wondered, should working out not be a part of the routine? Should it not be something you enjoy doing every day, or almost every day, rather than for the sake of achieving a trivial goal and then forget all about it?

Since this topic has always intrigued me, I decided that in the near future I would come up with an entrepreneurial venture in India, where women could come to work out because they enjoy exercising and being fit, not because they are merely supposed to or have to. It is funny how my friends decide to exercise only if they have nothing else to do. I can’t help but think, shouldn't it be a part of lifestyle instead. I realized the perception was not because of the place they lived in, but because of the concepts and wrong notions embedded in their minds as kids. For example: I am currently training for a half marathon. There are days when I have had so much work to do, yet I decide to go for a run. It surprises me how my friends end up saying statements such as – ‘Should you not prioritize your time? Is losing weight important or preparing for an interview? Why do you have to run? Why are you wasting time? Well, little do they realize, my running has nothing to do with losing weight. Moreover, working out is probably as important to me as my sleep. I need it to let my body function well, stay fit and honestly – enjoy my ‘me’ time with no distractions.

I would like to apply the different concepts and approaches we learnt in class to find answers to my question. Firstly – in this scenario my persona would be women between 22 and 60.  The most important thing for me would be to try and understand what fitness means to them. To me it is part of my everyday life which keeps me physically healthy and mentally focused. It is not a short term goal, rather a lifestyle choice. One possible reason I found out through my research was – lack of education on the significance of exercise. Next, I would learn about current means women have available to work out, and try to understand why these are not good enough. For example, having the same exercise routine for a 50 and 25 year old makes absolutely no sense to me.

‘Professionals should consider developing fitness programs for people of retirement age. As club chain has knowledge and use latest technology, help should be taken to educate new users on new trends.’’ – International Indexed Referred Research Journal

So the goal of my paper is to find out the root cause of majority of women in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka thinking that working out is to lose weight for an occasion. Secondly I would like to research on existing methods of exercising and come up with an innovative way of exercising back at home and hopefully change their perception about exercising and physical fitness. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to implement this idea and make more women interested in the fascinating world of fitness.  

Generative Research it is!

What I cannot live without?

Samsung S3 – For many years I have lived away from my loved once. At times this gets quite depressing, but my only way out is either to call them or contact them through watsapp. I have no idea how I would have survived if not for my S3. My S3 is pretty much used at least for 12 hours a day. Do not get me wrong, I am not really a mobile addict – though that is what my close friends call me J, it is just that I use it for other things as well – Running app, counting my calories, listening to music and mailing people. Definitely number one on my list of what I cannot live without!

Travelling – Who does not love travelling? I am sure most people do, but in my case, I really cannot live without travelling. One of my main goals in life – Travel to a large number of places in the world. This passion does not end with merely visiting the places, but also to do as much of the outdoor activities as possible. Luckily for my, my husband’s goals align with mine :), so there is not a single long weekend we end up sitting at home.

What I care about?

Baking – This may sound weird to you, but I am quite serious. When I am stressed out, or need a break, what I usually end up doing is baking. My interest in baking made me take several classes on cake decorating this Sundays. A normal person would be sleeping late on a Sunday morning, whereas I was sitting in a baking class for 3 hours every Sunday morning, for 2 months. I definitely can live without baking, but definitely love trying out different recopies and amazing people with my cakes all the time. Now you know who to contact next time you crave for a cup cake :)

Digital Ecosystems

Web Search – Let it be buying a product or researching about news, the first thing I do is browse the website. I use different websites for different things. For example – when I wanted to buy a laptop, I went to Amazon.com, and did a feature – price comparison, ended up ordering a laptop within an hour. Clearly why I love searching the web as my first resort!

Online Friends – ‘I am a people person’ - that being said, there needs to be some trust before I could believe someone’s word.  If I had to buy something which is of great importance to me, I would need at least four of my close friends approving of it. I ask either my close friends online, or friends who are an expert in the field of product I am looking for. For example – if it is something related to fitness, my brother and husband are two people I ping online. I am too impatient to wait and call them whenever they get free. 

Catching the Bus to school

Usually I walk about ten minutes and sit wait for the bus for another ten minutes. This is when I listen to music, browse my face book, and check the weather for the day in order to plan my workout. Most of my planning for the day takes place during this time.

Talking to friends

I am pretty much exhausted by this part of my day, ie before going to bed. Fortunately for me, my close friends live in time zones, which is perfect for me to call. So I end up talking over the phone, either with my friends or parents. At the same time, I end up browsing for browsing for show times, cooking, playing some music on the background. Basically this is the time when my brain does not need to think as much.

Journey Mapping With Naveen

The person I interviewed was my husband Naveen. Naveen is known as the planning expert amongst his friend - just because he does not only love travelling, but is also amazing at planning trips. First thing that came to his mind, when I asked him about a trip he planned was Hawaii. He and his friends had always wanted to make this dream vacation which never seems to happen. But when I decided to join my MBA program, I wanted a nice break from the real world, before getting into the stressful life. So his primary influencer was me. :)

He said he started the initial planning process three months in advance. The first step was to book the flight tickets, since that always turned out to be the most expensive part of a trip. He said this was one of the most challenging part of planning, mainly because there were ten people in total who were supposed to go, of which two dropped out last minute, due to budget constraints. To make things worse, two of the travelers were from California, and the rest from Dallas, which was where Naveen lived. After great trouble of coordinating the process, he decided to book the tickets with his two friends in Dallas – Dimple and Daya and then sent the itinerary to his other two friends from California – Vidya and Mathan. Based on the itinerary, Vidya and Mathan booked their tickets. Naveen was super excited at this point, but little did he know, the rest was going to be super challenging.

He divided the tasks among the group members. He took charge of the accommodation and deciding on the activities. He used several travel websites such as 101 things to do as his source of information. In addition to this, he also spoke to a number of friends who had travelled to Hawaii before and narrowed down the spots to visit.  

The activities he deiced on were

-       Watch sunrise at Haleakala

-       Road to Hana

-       8 mile hike along the Napali Coast

-       13 mile ocean kayaking along the Napali Coast

-       Hike to see the crater in big island.

He said vidya was not happy, since all the activities were strenuous and wanted something easy. Therefore he added in a ‘dinner cruise’ in Maui.

He said he was immensely happy when all 8 people agreed on the spots and was relieved things were going his way. But then he had no idea how complicated things were going to get.

According to his plan the kayak tour was to be followed the day after the long hike.  The kayak tour was the part I was very keen on doing. Unfortunately Naveen was unable to get entry passes for 6 people for the kayaking tour. His friends said we should do everything as a group, and therefore not go ahead with the kayak tour. Unfortunately for Naveen it was a hard situation, since he had to decide if he should fulfill his wife’s wish or just listen to his friends. He said he was very confused, and was frustrated with planning such a long vacation. After great thought he decided to mail his friends about this kayak tour, and fortunately vidya and mathan dropped out, since it was too much of a workout for them.

-With travel guides after the long ocean kayak tour

So Naveen said he booked the four tickets, and was glad he did this;

‘I still find it surprising that after all the planning; only you and I ended up doing the open ocean kayak tour.’

Finally he said, this was the most challenging trip he had ever planned, but it was also the most pleasing one. Till date, the seven people with him thank him for putting together such and amazing trip together!!!

Emapthy Map

It is easy to find men full of dreams and aspirations, but there is only one in a million who actually lives and achieves it. The person I am going to write is about one such person, let us call him Sunder.

He was born 55 years ago in a small island known as Sri Lanka. Like many others in his country his goal was to become a chartered accountant and eventually an entrepreneur. But fate had something else in mind.

In 1983 there was a racial riot in Sri Lanka, during which all of Sunder’s money was stolen. Most of the minority groups migrated to other countries to survive, but what made Sunder unique was his determination to excel in the country he lived in. The need for money made him quit his studies and set up his own business at an early stage in life. Today he is a successful entrepreneur who owns a conglomerate! He won the ‘most influential entrepreneur of the country’ award in 2012.

Time is what matters most to him. If he had to pay an extra $100 to get somewhere five minutes earlier he would do so. Don’t get me wrong – that does not mean he does not know the value of money. It just means that he has the concept of ‘time value of money’ mastered – 10 minutes for him is more valuable than $100. That being said, he is a very practical person, and does not have preoccupations about anything. Any product that seems to be most user friendly is what he would buy. Right now he owns, an ipad, mac book, I phone, Samsung S4 and a Microsoft tablet – clearly not a brand loyal person.

The next thing that matters to him is prestige.

What will the society think of me if I do XYZ? – A common question in his mind. 

Travelling for work is a major part of Sunder’s schedule. If I landed in Sri Lanka to surprise him right now, it would be a stupid idea, as he himself does not know when he would be travelling next. Apart from work, he spends his time with family and is involved spiritual activities. He values people for how genuine they are - trust once broken will never be forgiven.

He is well respected in the society he lives in. As people say,he is

-          A man of principles

-          Most disciplined man ever

-          Fun loving

Ironically this is not what immediate family members feel, especially his children. What they feel is

-          Why does he care about the society and what others think?

-          Why does he spend so much time on social services instead of just relaxing?

He is a very caring person – there have been many times, when students from India meet him out of the blue, and tell him how they do not have money to continue their education. Smart Move! Education is the single most important thing in a person’s life according to Sunder, and that is why he has an educational trust, through which he donates fees for undergraduate studies. 

Well his friends love to spend time with him- not only because he is easy to be with, but also because he is very knowledgeable. Most of the conversations involve currency rates, new business ventures, stock markets etc. It is very rare to see him without a calculator for more than ten minutes at most.   His wife often jokes saying - Were you born with a calculator in your hand?

He has NEVER been an employee ever,  since he was always an entrepreneur at heart. So a good question would be - what do his employees think of him. Not surprisingly opposite of what I have written so far.

His employees believe he is the most difficult boss to work with. Usually a task is given with a deadline of a couple of hours, but not in Sunder’s case. The work he wants to get done has to start next minute. There is no waiting time. And this brings us back to what I said earlier - time is precious for him. 

Influencers believe it is easy to be convince him provided the data is available. If you could prove that a product would be very useful, or could serve a purpose better than an existing product – the sale is made!

Fear does not exist in his vocabulary; I guess it does not exist in any successful entrepreneur’s vocabulary. Risk and fear do not go hand in hand. But this is compensated by the frustration he experiences the moment something goes against what he planned. In real world not everything happens the way you want, but that is not what Sunder believes in. If he wants something, or wants someone to do something - it has to happen in the exact way. 

Obstacles are his notion of prestige and living for the society & family. This prevents him from loosening up and at times enjoying life to the fullest. He hopes to see his children settled down soon – again from his perception of settling, which is very different from what his children think. And hopes to make as much profits as he possible can. 

Finally what do I feel about him – the most influential person in my life. No matter what goes wrong, all I have to do is speak with him for 5 min. He sees life very positively; every problem has a solution according to him. I feel blessed to have lived besides him for 28 years. There have been many times we have argued since we have different priorities and perceptions in life. But no matter what he says always turns out to be the right thing.If only I listened, not an easy thing to do!