As product entrepreneurs, every hour of our time is important. We run businesses that can succeed or fail depending on our choices. One of those choices is the time we spend on the eco-system. Yet I have chosen to spend a lot of time on the ecosystem. Here is why. 1) Learn from mistakes and successes: How much ever you say that you are doing something unique, you will be surprised to see...
User acquisition is a prerequisite to startup success. Startups often see user acquisition as an act of sourcing traffic to a destination and converting traffic to users. Almost every web business has a destination: a website, an app etc. The destination is often seen as the product in its entirety. Talk to a startup about their product and they will often think of it as a website or an app that...
SandHill’s questions on predictions as to how the software vendor landscape will change in 2013 found agreement among industry observers about the changes facing legacy software powerhouses. The questions also sparked tirades about Microsoft. Dive into their perspectives on the difficult challenges and necessary “rebooting” ahead. Q: Which three to five software vendors will face the most...
MNC Structures can impede innovation flows…. In the mid-1970s, the Xerox Corporation faced the first real threat to its domination of the photocopying industry. This threat did not come from IBM or Kodak, the large American companies that had entered the industry. Instead it came from Canon and Ricoh, at that time relatively small Japanese companies. Xerox had fortified the technological lead it...
I really loved being there because: You meet and get to know some really cool people (Sharad, Avinash, Mukund, MR were just a few cool people I met at these events first). There is a bigger list but this will give you some idea of what I am talking about) The quality of conversations is one of the best in the industry. I have been to several conferences in US and India. This one beats them all...
As NASSCOM Product Conclave 2012 drew to a close, Sharad Sharma reiterated that product technology will eliminate poverty in India. The social consciousness and import of this statement, usually reemphasized as electoral slogans of gharibi hatao by politicians, points to envisioning a future in which the role of product technology encompasses not only growth of global companies, impacting the...
On day two of the NASSCOM Product Conclave, nine ‘Product LaunchPAD’ companies were announced. These companies were recognized for their high-quality, emerging products. The gathering, which took place in the ‘Agenda’ hall at the Vivanta by Taj, comprised representatives of the selected companies, industry veterans, the co-hosts of the event (Sharad Sharma and MR Rangaswami) as well as members...
A broad sweep of the first day of the NASSCOM Product Conclave gives rise to emotions of a day that rose in energy, stayed sober at the reality picture, and then gave a reason for cheer as the day drew to a close. On the shore of Big Blue ocean breakfast session opened up the world of possibilities for Indian product technology. IBM-mers Peter Coldicott (Chief Product Architect), Robert High (IBM...
The kind of conversations that you heard around product companies are changing. From an ambitious “billion dollar companies” born out of India (the overarching goal of NASSCOM Product Conclave last year), the focus is shifting to the bold prediction of product software’s robust growth, in the coming decade and half, eliminating poverty. In his opening remarks, Sharad Sharma, NASSCOM Product Chair...
Wow, what an energetic first day of the NASSCOM Product Conclave 2012! The ninth edition of the NASSCOM Product Conclave began with an opening address by the two co-hosts, Sharad Sharma and M.R Rangaswami who welcomed delegates and introduced them to the theme of the event this year, which revolves around the emerging technologies of Cloud, Mobility and Big Data. Some important points that Sharad...
