10 things CEOs can learn from Rahul Sharad Dravid,my RoleModel - Idol !

Rahul Dravid’s consistent performance - coupled with his impeccable professional and personal conduct – offers great lessons that can be applied across a variety of careers.

You can see more on Yahoo Finance

Thanks.

Insights For Startup Founders

Readers,

I, with Husen Daudi am an owner of a startup Serpent Consulting Services as of today(Jan 31 2012). I would like to share some thoughts. There are some rules which should be followed by a fresher owner.
 

1. Seek transparency and understanding with your partners early.  Issues get harder as time passes

2. Startup founders work long hours for a reason.  There’s more work than there are people.  If you’re seeking balance, seek it elsewhere.

3. Bad customers will drain you of passion.  Really bad customers will drain you of both passion and profits.  Unfortunately, most bad customers will degenerate into really bad customers if you don’t do something about it.

4. If you’re changing direction often, worry a little.  If you’re changing people often, worry a lot.

5. It’s lonely at the top, but even lonelier at the bottom.  In the early days of a startup, hardly anyone wants to talk to you (except some desperate vendors).

6. Eventually, your product will need to work and do something useful.  No amount of marketing or strategy will get you around this.

7. At the end of each day, ask yourself:  “Did the product get better for customers today?”.  If you don’t have a good answer, stay up until you do.

8. Until you are profitable, time is working against you.  Once you are profitable, time is on your side.

9. Learn to take calculated risks.  The market rarely rewards safe bets.

10. To improve the quality of your output, improve the quality of your inputs.  Read, converse and connect with the right people.

11. Force yourself to write, as it will force you to think.  

12. At least once every year or so, your startup will almost die.

13. The problem you solve should be ugly.  The solution you build should be beautiful.

14.  Even the most successful startup ideas had 100 reasons not to pursue them.  There is no perfect idea.

15.  If the pain doesn’t kill you, it just hurts a lot.

16.  You choose your destiny, because you choose your team.  

17.  Be who you are.  Do what you love.  Join people you like.   

Hope you enjoyed them.  Feel free to share your own in the comments.  Would love to hear them.

If there are particular ones that resonate with you, and you’d like to read more, leave a comment.  There’s a potential article behind each of them.

Courtesy

Importance of Resources and their efficient use!!!

Today, I got a chance to discuss few policies with Manan Vora and Husen Daudi.

 

You can always become better. - Tiger Woods

 

While deciding some policies, Our Chief Operational Officer Manan Vora (having a strong experience working in USA and now serving SerpentCS) spoke the words as below and all the members of board of directors gave standing ovation.

 

" It Doesn't Matter How Many Resources You Have. If You Don't Know How To Use Them, They Will Never Be Enough !!! "

 

It says a lot really. Rest of the things are simply hard to express in words.

Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment, management, and the direction of the people in the organization. Human Resources management is also performed by line managers.

Team Building

People in every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team and my team, but few understand how to create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team. Here are twelve tips for building successful work teams: Context, Commitment and culture!

Work Dress Code

Your Company's objective in establishing a business casual dress code, is to allow our employees to work comfortably in the workplace. Yet, we still need our employees to project a professional image for our customers, potential employees, and visitors. All casual clothing is not suitable for the office. Business casual dress is the dress code standard

Employee Recognition Letters

A simple thank you letter, that recognizes specific employee contributions, goes a long way in helping employees feel recognized and rewarded. In fact, an employee recognition letter that accompanies a bonus check or a gift magnifies the recognition an employee experiences. Some employees experience such gratification that they post the thank you and recognition letter in their cubicle, office, or workstation for years.

Ways to Be Happy at Work

Working at Google sounds very cool. I'd be the first to tout Google as a motivating employer: free food, engineers who spend 20 percent of their time on their own projects ... Google and other Fortune magazine top 100 employers provide best workplaces. At the same time, perks that enable employees to spend all their time at work exploit people and destroy work - life balance. So, even the best employer may not be best for everyone. These are factors that will help you find happiness at work.

Difficult People

Difficult people do exist at work. Difficult people come in every variety and no workplace is without them. How difficult a person is for you to deal with depends on your self-esteem, your self-confidence and your professional courage. Dealing with difficult people is easier when the person is just generally obnoxious or when the behavior affects more than one person. Dealing with difficult people is much tougher when they are attacking you or undermining your professional contribution.

New Employee Welcome Letter

A welcome letter to a new employee who has accepted your job offer confirms the employee's decision to accept the position. The new employee welcome letter helps the new employee feel wanted and welcomed.

 

Develop an Employee Handbook

Prepare list of the policies, procedures, and professional behavioral expectations in an employee handbook. This sample employee handbook table of contents also covers pay, benefits, performance expectations and legal issues.

Job Analysis

A job analysis is the process used to collect information about the duties, responsibilities, necessary skills, outcomes, and work environment of a particular job. You need as much data as possible to put together a job description, which is the frequent outcome of the job analysis.

How to Develop a Policy

You want to have the necessary policies and procedures to ensure a safe, organized, convivial, empowering, nondiscriminatory work place. Yet, you do not want to write a policy for every exception to accepted and expected behavior. Policy development is for the many employees not for the few exceptions

Conflict Resolution

As an organization leader, manager or supervisor, you are responsible for creating a work environment that enables people to thrive. If turf wars, conflicts, disagreements and differences of opinion escalate into interpersonal conflict, you must intervene immediately. Conflict resolution, with you as mediator, is essential. Conflict resolution is an immediate priority for your organization.

Organizational Culture

People in every workplace talk about organization culture, the mysterious word that characterizes a work environment. One of the key questions when employers hire an employee explores whether the candidate is a good cultural fit. Culture is difficult to define, but you generally know when you have found an employee who appears to fit your organizational culture

Performance Improvement Plan

The Performance Improvement Plan (PDP) facilitates constructive discussion between a staff member and the supervisor and clarifies the work performance to improve. It is implemented, at the discretion of the supervisor, when it becomes necessary to help a staff member improve performance. The supervisor, with input from the affected employee, develops an improvement plan; the purpose of the activities outlined is to help the employee to attain the desired level of performance.

360 Degree Feedback

360 degree feedback is a method and a tool that provides each employee the opportunity to receive performance feedback from his or her supervisor and four to eight peers, reporting staff members, co-workers and customers.

Trust Rules

How important is trust in your organization? Without trust, you have nothing. Trust forms the foundation for effective communication, employee retention, and employee motivation and contribution of discretionary energy, the extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work. When trust is present, everything else is easier.

Nonverbal Communication

Is there ever any doubt in your mind as to the mood of a coworker upon their arrival at work? Nonverbal communication is the single most powerful form of communication. More than the voice or even words, nonverbal communication cues you in to what is on another person’s mind. The best communicators are sensitive to the power of the emotions and thoughts communicated nonverbally.

Make Meetings Work

People spend so much time in meetings that turning meeting time into sustained results is a priority for successful organizations. Actions that make meetings successful require management before, during, and after the meeting. If you neglect any one of these meeting management opportunities, your meetings will not bear the fruit you desire from the time you invest in meeting. Take these  meeting management actions to guide meeting attendees to achieve expected, positive outcomes.

Say Thank You at Work

You can cultivate an attitude of gratitude in your workplace by thanking employees and coworkers frequently for their contributions. Saying thank you is one of the easiest and best forms of employee recognition.

Leadership Values

Leaders know what they value. They also recognize the importance of ethical behavior. The best leaders exhibit both their values and their ethics in their leadership style and actions. Your leadership ethics and values should be visible because you live them in your actions every single day.

Identify and Live Your Personal Values

Values are traits or qualities that are considered worthwhile; they represent your highest priorities and deeply held driving forces. When you are part of any organization, you bring your deeply held values and beliefs to the organization. There they co-mingle with those of the other members to create an organization or family culture.

Sample Paid Time Off Policy

The purpose of this Paid Time Off (PTO) policy is to provide staff with the opportunity to take paid time away from work that can be used for such needs as vacation, personal illness, family member illness, personal time, doctor appointments, school or philanthropic volunteerism, and other activities of the employee's choice. The company's goal, in providing PTO, is to reduce unscheduled absenteeism, reduce the need for supervisory oversight, and provide employees with flexible time off.

Sample Attendance Policy
Excellent attendance is an expectation of all employees of Your Company. Daily attendance is especially important for hourly employees whose customers and coworkers have the expectation of on-time product shipping and delivery. Emergency personal time is made available to employees for such unscheduled events as personal illness, immediate family member illness, and doctor appointments.

Severance Pay

Severance pay is money that an employer might want to provide for an employee who is leaving their employ. Normal circumstances that might warrant severance pay include layoffs, job elimination, and mutual agreement to part ways for whatever reason. Severance pay usually amounts to a week or two of pay for each year of service to the company. In some instances, a severance package might include extended benefits and outplacement assistance.

Bad Bosses

You're weary. You're frustrated. You're unhappy. You're demotivated. Your interaction with your boss leaves you cold. He's a bully, intrusive, controlling, picky and petty. He takes credit for your work, never provides positive feedback and misses each meeting he schedules with you. He's a bad boss, bad to the bone. Dealing with less than effective managers, or just plain bad managers and bad bosses, is a challenge too many employees face

Motivation: Wants From Work

Some people work for personal fulfillment; others work for love of what they do. Motivation is different for different people. Some people work to accomplish goals and to feel as if they are contributing to something larger than themselves. The bottom line is that we all work for money and for motivation reasons too individual to assign similarities to all workers

Demonstrate Respect

Ask anyone in your workplace what treatment they most want at work. They will likely top their list with the desire to be treated with dignity and respect. You can demonstrate respect with simple, yet powerful actions. These ideas will help you avoid needless, insensitive, unmeant disrespect, too.

What Employees Want

Every person has different reasons for working. The reasons for working are as individual as the person. But, we all work because we obtain something that we need from work. The something obtained from work impacts morale, employee motivation, and the quality of life. To create positive employee motivation, treat employees as if they matter - because employees matter. These ideas will help you fulfill what people want from work and create employee motivation.

Behavioral Interview

Want to know the best way to identify whether a candidate's characteristics and motivations match the behaviors needed for your job? A behavioral interview is the best tool you have to identify candidates who have the behavioral traits and characteristics you believe are essential for success in your open job. Find out more about how to prepare for and conduct a behavioral interview.

Leadership Success Secrets

Key leadership success secrets set great leaders apart from so-so leaders in organizations. Leadership style is learned from mentors, learned in seminars and exists as part of a person's innate personal leadership skill set developed over years, and existing, possibly from birth. Nature or nurture is a question often asked about leadership. I answer, "yes," because I believe the combination of natural leadership skills and nurture through leadership development defines leadership style.

Reward, Recognition, Award,...

Look for convenient, appreciated, reasonably cost-conscious ways to provide rewards and recognition, demonstrate your appreciation and say 'thank you' for contributions that people make at work.

Employee Motivation

Employee motivation is a continuing challenge at work. Particularly in work environments that don’t emphasize employee satisfaction as part of an embraced and supported overall business strategy, supervisors and managers walk a tough road. On the one hand, they recognize their power in drawing forth the best employees have to offer; on the other, they feel unsupported, rewarded or recognized themselves. My word to managers? Get over it. Employee motivation is always possible.

Paid Vacation Days Policy

Paid vacation days are time off work provided to employees as a benefit. Paid vacation days are generally accrued by employees based on years of service to the organization.

HR OneStop Center

Looking for information about any aspect of human resources, work force management and development, self development, or business management for your business or organization? You've found the right resource. Here are all the resources you'll need to effectively start, manage and develop your human resources department and all aspects of your business. Find information about human resources, management, and working with people at work.

Employee Empowerment

Looking for real management advice about people? You want to create an environment in which people are empowered, productive, contributing, and happy. Don't hobble them by limiting their tools or information. Trust them to do the right thing. Get out of their way; watch them catch fire. These are the most important principles for managing people. They reinforce employee empowerment, accomplishment, and contribution. These management actions enable the people who work with you / for you to soar.

Alternatives to a Holiday Office Party

Nixing the blowout office party for the holidays this year? Here are ideas to create the merry, merry in the ho-ho-ho season, without committing a lot of employee time, hard earned cash, or energy. Your employees and their families will appreciate your low key alternatives to an expensive, energy-consuming office party. Here are the ideas you need for a happy holiday without that expensive office party.

Checklist for new office setup

Setting up a new office needs lots of stuff and here I am sharing my experience of setup a new office.



Very important things needed are: Guts, Self-Confidence and Vision.



Other lists are as below:

No.	Stationery Items
1	Printer & Fax Paper
2	Box & Spring Files
3	All type of folders (Blue & Pink color)
4	Calculator
5	Calendar
6	Computer Disk
7	Custom Stamps
8	Glue Staplers (Big & Small Size)
9	Scale,Pen,Pencils,Eraser,Sharpner
10	Envelope,Paper heads
11	Markers(Black & Red)
12	Note & Massages Pad(Small & Big Size)
13	Packing Tapes
14	Courier Cover
15	Diary & Telephone Diary
16	Attadance Register
17	Rubber bands
18	Scissor
19	Paper Clips
20	Red Tag
21	High Lighter
22	Whitener
23	Punching
24	Weight Keeping
25	Card Holders
26	Plastic Rack to keep papers
27	Pen Holder
28	Planner Book
29	CD Holder
30	Push pin for Soft boards

No.	Pantry Items	Qty.
1	Tea & Coffee Mug Set	1 for staff
		1 for Clients
2	Bowl & Dish Set
3	Spoons
4	Steal Glasses	1 set
5	Glass Designer Set	1 Set
6	Tray
7	Tissue Paper
8	Toilet Paper
9	Toilet & Room Freshner(Odonil)
10	Toilet Brush
11	Phenyl Bottle
12	Broom & Mop
13	Toilet Brush
14	Vim bar Dish Cleaning Soap
15	Dettol Handwash
16	Mirror
17	Dustbin	Per table & pantry
18	Dustbin Polythin
19	Door Mat	4
20	Front Door Plastic	1
21	Rest Cotton Door Mat
22	Colin for Glass cleaning
23	Yellow napkin for Table & Comp. Cleaning
24	Salt & Paper
25	Hit
26	Use & throw Glasses
27	Dust pan
28	Bucket Tumbler
29	Toilet Plunger
30	Plastic Broom for toilet cleaning

I will keep sharing the checklist

Your Company Is Your Product; Get People to Do the Right Thing

“You will have meltdowns on a regular basis. You will have those moments. Make sure you have people you can talk to when you have those moments.”

That was Brad Feld, the tech entrepreneur-turned-venture-capitalist, on Friday afternoon, speaking to a room of Boston and New York entrepreneurs and angel investors, at an event organized by Silicon Valley Bank. The setting was the Microsoft NERD center in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA. Feld was talking about the experiences that all founders (especially CEOs) go through with their companies.

Feld is the co-founder of Boulder, CO-based Foundry Group and TechStars, the seed-stage startup accelerator with programs in Boulder, Boston, Seattle, and New York. He relates very well to early-stage tech entrepreneurs, because he’s been there and done that himself. In his typical style, Feld spoke casually (and candidly) about the challenges of building a company. None of it was particularly earth-shattering, but it’s interesting to revisit these sorts of tips every once in a while, because different things jump out at you at different times.

Feld’s advice boiled down to two things: products and people.

1. “Be obsessed about your product.”

“The most important thing to focus on, early in the life of your company, is your product. In year two, it’s your product. In year 20, it’s your product,” he said. “If you focus on your product, most of your other problems will go away.”

But he has a broader definition of product—it’s not just the software you release, or your technology, or even your interface with customers. “The whole of the company becomes the product,” he said. “The whole lifecycle of what you do.”

That means entrepreneurs should be totally passionate about what they are building—not just starting a company to be their own boss, say—and they should be true to themselves. Feld admitted that with his first company, he got bored after four years. “I didn’t love the thing I was doing,” he said. (He sold it after seven years.)

2. “You cannot motivate someone.”

“The idea that a CEO can motivate people is a fallacy. All you can do is create an environment where people are motivated or not,” he said. Companies will make bad hires—talented people who aren’t a good cultural fit with the rest of the team—and they should get rid of those employees quickly, according to Feld. “You can’t change them,” he said, and you can’t “try to motivate people to work harder” through things like performance reviews. That simply doesn’t work, at least not for small startups.

Instead, founders need to continually make sure they are bringing on the right people for their team, communicating openly, “building the language of the company,” and tying that formative context and culture very closely to their product, he said. This will mean very different things for different companies, and it’s certainly not an exact science.

Feld said he sees a common mistake in young startups. “The CEO ends up doing a lot of the work,” he said, and “the non-CEOs don’t do the right work.” The CEO’s chief responsibility, over time, is to make sure “everyone is doing the right thing.”

Oh, and one more responsibility: “Don’t run out of money,” he said.

Courtesy : Xconomy 

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Worth $1 trillion: The world's richest dinner party!!!

The heads of Apple, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter  -  oh, and the U.S. President, too. Has there ever been a more powerful power lunch? And who got the bill?

Enlarge  

From left-to-right (clockwise): Eric Schmidt, Arthur D Levinson, John T Chambers, John Doerr, Larry Ellison, Reed Hastings, John L Hennessy, Carol Bartz, Dick Costolo, Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Steve Westly, Ann Doerr

Who would you invite to your fantasy dinner party?

It's difficult to imagine a wealthier set of guests than those invited to the home of Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr earlier this year, in the mega-wealthy enclave of Woodside, California. Together they represent companies worth nearly $1 trillion.

By all accounts, Obama didn't have an easy ride - many of the diners are generous political donors and the President was criticised for slow progress on policy promises. The dinner lasted two hours, and is expected to be the first in a series that 

 Obama holds with Silicon Valley's leaders.

So what was on the menu? Chef Yigit Pura would only reveal that Obama said, 'Banana cream pie was solid,' as he kissed his fingers.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening was Mark Zuckerberg's decision to ditch his hoodie for more formal attire - normally, the only suits he's acquainted with are of the legal variety...

ERIC SCHMIDT

Title Chairman, Google
Worth $7 billion
Google market valuation $171.8 billion
In his ten-year tenure, Schmidt oversaw Google's transformation into the global internet giant that it is today. He stepped down as CEO last month and is now a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

ARTHUR D LEVINSON
Title Chairman, Genentech
Worth Earned $850,000 in 2010
Genentech market valuation $46.8bn
Founded in 1976, Genentech (now owned by Roche) pioneered using human genetic information to develop medicines, including cancer treatments. Levinson stepped down as CEO in 2009, and now sits on Apple's board of directors.

JOHN T CHAMBERS
Title CEO, Cisco Systems
Worth $1 billion
Cisco market valuation $96 billion Chambers raises his glass extra-high to Obama, showing that there are no hard feelings on the part of this co-chair of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid. He earns his seat as chairman of Cisco, the dotcom boom's most valuable company.

JOHN DOERR
Title Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Worth $2.2 billion
The host for the evening, Doerr is a tech investor with a knack for backing a winning idea. Back in 1999, KPCB led a $25 million investment in upstart Google. KPCB has participated in over $2.3 billion of investments since May 2010.

LARRY ELLISON
Title CEO, Oracle
Worth $39.5 billion
Oracle market valuation $177.6 billion
Currently the fifth wealthiest human being on the planet, Ellison co-founded Oracle in 1977. In true billionaire fashion, he splashed out over $100 million to ensure that his BMW Oracle sailing team won the America's Cup last year.

REED HASTINGS
Title Co-founder and CEO, Netflix
Worth Earned $5.5 million in 2010
Netflix market valuation $12 billion
In 1997 Hastings co-founded Netflix, an online subscription service for movies and TV which now has over 20 million members across North America. He once taught maths in Swaziland during a two-year stint in the US Peace Corps.

JOHN L HENNESSY

Title President, Stanford University
Worth $31.4 million
Stanford endowment $15.9 billion
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford has a long association with the area's tech companies, many of whose founders  -  including those of Google, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo!  -  passed through the university.

CAROL BARTZ
Title CEO, Yahoo!
Worth Earned $47.2 million in 2009
Yahoo! market valuation $23.7 billion
Bartz, who joined Yahoo! in 2009, holds the honour of having topped a 2010 list of executives paid too much for running underperforming companies. Although Yahoo! remains a global internet brand, it's still considered to be in decline

DICK COSTOLO
Title CEO, Twitter
Worth $120 million
Twitter market valuation $3.7 billion
A computer science graduate and former improvisational comedian, Costolo sold FeedBurner  -  a provider of management tools for website owners  -  to Google in 2007 for a rumoured $100 million. Last year he took over as CEO of Twitter.

MARK ZUCKERBERG
Title CEO, Facebook
Worth $13.5 billion
Facebook market valuation $50 billion
The Social Network's complex antihero, Zuckerberg is 'trying to make the world a more open place by helping people connect and share', according to his own Facebook profile. Luckily for him, he's becoming filthy rich in the process. 

STEVE WESTLY

Title Managing partner and founder, The Westly Group
Worth $500 million
A Democratic Party supporter, venture capitalist Westly served as a California co-chair for Obama's 2008 presidential election campaign. The Westly Group has participated in over $178 million of investments since April 2010.

BARACK OBAMA
Title President, USA
Worth $10.5 million
USA $14.7 trillion (GDP)
Obama is noted for his love of technology: he embraced social media in his election campaign, and was reportedly gifted an iPad 2 a month before they went on sale. His aide Valerie Jarrett also attended the dinner (seated to Zuckerberg's right).

ANN DOERR
Title Philanthropist
The hostess, as the wife of John Doerr, is no stranger to technology herself, holding bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering. An environmental activist and trustee of the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund, she works alongside her husband in his philanthropic endeavours.

STEVE JOBS
Title Co-founder and CEO, Apple
Worth $8.3 billion
Apple market valuation $323.3 billion
Jobs has transformed the tech industry several times. After his pioneering early years at Apple, he left the firm to set up NeXT (which created the machine on which the Web was developed), before returning to spearhead the 'iRevolution'.

Courtesy: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1386409/Worlds-richest-dinner-party--including-guests-Obama-Mark-Zuckerberg.html#ixzz1asUWgPk8

10 realities of working for a startup

 

Mark Evans

MARK EVANS | Columnist profile

Last week, Heather Payne, head of sales and marketing for Pinpoint Social, wrote a column on ten tips for landing a great startup gig that offered solid advice on how to get into the startup game.
In the spirit of that piece, here are 10 more tips on what to expect once you land that great startup gig:

Startups pitch to investors at TechCrunch conference

1. Be prepared to work long hours.

From the outside looking in, startups are sexy and glamorous, but they also involve a lot of grunt work that happens in a 24/7 environment. That means being prepared to work late into the night and on weekends, and being married to your inbox. In other words, startups are not a 9-to-5 job.


2. Embrace the idea of multitasking. 
 
To perform only a single role at a startup is a luxury. Given that many startups are lean and mean, most involved will have multiple roles. One day, you’re coding, the next day you are helping to prepare for an investor presentation or setting up a booth for a conference.


3. Instability is a fact of life.

There really isn’t job security anywhere these days in the private sector but startups are not the place to map out a long-term career plan. Depending on sales traction or financing, your job at a once-exciting startup can evaporate overnight.


4. The pay isn’t great.

Don’t expect to be pulling in big bucks, even if you are working for a startup that has received funding. These days, new companies need to be careful about how and where they spend money, so staff are paid okay but not great. Of course, how much is the excitement of working for a starttp worth to you?


5. Not everyone is going to like what your company does.

The thing about a startup is that optimism reigns internally. Every start-p believes it is going to rock the world with a great product or service. Consumers, however, may not share your enthusiasm.


6. Don’t expect a big piece of the pie.

Unless you’re a founder or an early, early employee, you will, at best, get a minuscule piece of the equity pie. Many companies offer stock options but doing the math reveals you’re getting a token amount that won’t pay off the mortgage unless the startup sells for a gazillion dollars.


7. Life can be an emotional roller-coaster.

On a good day, the users flow in and TechCrunch gives you a glowing review. One a bad day, your website craps out due a technical glitch, and an influencer complains about a minor issue that gets lots of attention on Twitter.


8. There’s always a hot, new rival over the horizon.

No matter how good your startup is, consumers are always looking for something newer and shinier. This fickleness will drive you crazy because there is no explaining it.


9. Put swag in its place.

Swag, a fridge full of Red Bull and a foosball table don’t mean much if there aren’t enough customers coming in the door.


10. Be prepared to fail.

It’s not that failure is a bad thing because, in many ways, it is a good thing if it means learning valuable lessons. But the reality is that most startups fail. They fail to attract consumers, generate enough revenue to become a business, and or even to survive. It is a sad fact of life but it is part of the game that has to be accepted.

This list should not discourage anyone from joining a startup because it can be an exciting and stimulating place to work. At the same time, it is important to recognize the realities of working for a small business that can often be underfunded.

At the end of the day, startups are not for everyone. But for people who have an appetite for risk and an interest in being part of something new, startups can be awfully appealing. Just know what you’re getting in to.

Special to The Globe and Mail
Mark Evans is the principal with ME Consulting, a communications and marketing strategic consultancy that works with startups and fast-growing companies to create compelling and effective messaging to drive their sales and marketing activities. Mark has worked with four startups – Blanketware, b5Media, PlanetEye and Sysomos. He was a technology reporter for more than a decade with The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg News and the Financial Post. Mark is also one of the co-organizers of the mesh, meshmarketing and meshwest conferences.

Join The Globe’s Small Business LinkedIn group to network with other entrepreneurs and to discuss topical issues: http://linkd.in/jWWdzT

Courtesy : The Globe and Mail Inc. bit.ly/r5ejIY

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How to Manage ERP in Configuration Management

Looking for any of the standard services like OpenERP Offshore, OpenERP Support, OpenERP Training, OpenERP Development?

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ERP in configuration management is an important resource for thriving business markets.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is quickly becoming a growing field in today’s job market. With ERP, business owners and managers can integrate technology in management practices and develop techniques to incorporate software usage among employees. Particularly, ERP in configuration management includes developing new ways to maintain reliability in software and information systems performance.

Stages

1. There are some vital stages individuals who use ERP must follow for successful results. The most vital step in managing ERP in configuration management entails developing a system that both managers and employees can adhere to for best results. After development, management is encouraged to edit and revise the system for errors or glitches that may occur. The next step involves testing the system among management followed by construction and detailing the final outcome. Finally, training employees on the new system will ensure work is done effectively.
   
   
   
   
   

   Training

   One of the most vital aspects of managing ERP in configuration management is to successfully train employees on fully understanding and correctly using the system. Many thriving management teams begin this with a clear definition of business processes and procedures. Management must clearly explain what is expected of employees and clarify any misunderstandings if necessary. Other important aspects to consider during training include corroborating technical configuration and design and consistently evaluating performance.

    

    

    

    

   Protocol

   Define a detailed business process master list (BPML). BPML carefully explains business processes and transactions using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. This is critical to ERP's success. Management teams use BPML to illustrate organizational responsibilities and document coverage in real situations and training scenarios. Security profiles are also developed for each member in the work team.

    

    

   Implementation

   Once management teams and employees are comfortable with ERP, it is important that business duties and goals are efficiently implemented. Two main systems must come into play. The first involves configuring the system itself, while the other involves configuring the system that is combined with other components. Once each system has been mastered, they can be used interchangeably.

    

   Execution

   Finally, divide new projects into subprojects and clearly define the goal for each one. Split up projects among employees and ensure they have precise knowledge on its details. Encourage them to identify and implement ERP in these projects along with operational procedures. Keep a close eye on employees as they perform new tasks and correct any mistakes if necessary.

Read more: How to Manage ERP in Configuration Management

3 common mistakes made when training ERP staff !

3 common mistakes made when training ERP staff

When any new software or business process is implemented in the organization, the staff will need to be trained in order to ensure that they are capable of using the new system and implementing a new ERP system is no different. Staff needs to be trained on how to use ERP software otherwise they will not be able to use the ERP system to its full potential. That said there are a number of common mistakes made when training ERP staff. Here are three things mistakes that are commonly made when training ERP staff:

Performing training but no education

Many companies will train staff on how to use a new piece of software but will fall short when it comes to educating their staff. Training is when you show your staff how to use a piece of software, it will ensure that they are capable of carrying out their daily tasks efficiently and is a necessary step to ensure the success of the ERP implementation. However, if the staff are not educated on the deeper ins and outs of the ERP system then they will not be able to diagnose problems when things go wrong therefore it is essential that the staff some form of education on how the ERP system works as well as receiving training on how to use the system. 

Not preparing for resistance

When new staff joins an organisation, they go through the stressful process of having adapt to the organisations business culture and learning how to carry out their job the way the organisation wants the job to be carried out. It should therefore come to no surprise that staff should be hesitant to want a new ERP system to be implemented as they would need to discard everything they learnt in the past in order to learn how to use the new ERP system. To counteract this negative attitude you should show a positive attitude to using the new system and should try to get as many people on board. This will help to pit the negative thoughts about the new ERP system to bed.

Failing to identify teaching requirements and learning outcome

You should be aware that your staff are being trained to use the ERP system effectively and are not being trained to take an exam for a PHD in using ERP systems. On the other end of the scale you should also be aware that skipping vital information will result in poorly trained staff that are incapable of using the system to its full potential. To ensure that you cover everything that you need to cover in your training sessions whilst making sure that you don’t drift off into unnecessary topics, define a set of requirements of the learning outcome of the whole training scheme by identifying what the staff need to know and what they don’t need to know. Once you have identified the requirements, make a detailed lesson plan which will dictate what you should teach the staff in each lesson and most importantly, stick to it.

P.S. : If you have your comments to edit it, let me know.This article  will be edited if more details are found.

Looking for any of the standard services like OpenERP Offshore, OpenERP Support, OpenERP Training, OpenERP Development?

- You've been reading the Right name, Serpent Consulting Services, Here we are.

10 Things You Should Know Before/While Working in IT

Looking for any of the standard services like OpenERP Offshore, OpenERP Support, OpenERP Training, OpenERP Development?

- You've been reading the Right name, Serpent Consulting Services, Here we are.



Take it Light readers :) No need to be serious!!!

Considering a job in IT? I've covered some of the reasons that perhaps you shouldn't and what could be done about them. But there are plenty of good reasons to consider a career in IT. For example: good pay, better than average job prospects and the chance to work with cutting edge technology. However, there are a few things you should know before you get into the industry. ZDNet's Jason Hiner has compiled a list of 10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT.

Please note that Hiner's advice is for people like network administrators, IT managers, and desktop support professionals - not programmers and developers.

• The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you
• It will be your fault when users make silly errors
• You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day
• Certifications won't always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise
• Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs
• Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong
• You'll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones
• Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies
• Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business
• IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up

These about right, and you can read more about each "secret" in the original article. There are two things I'd add:

• Even though you'll hear a lot about how there are "so many" IT jobs, you and your colleagues will often have trouble finding jobs. Why? Because most of those positions will demand very specific skill sets that are hard to acquire without direct experience
• Even though the pay looks good, many IT jobs are temporary contracts with no benefits. And you may go months at a time without working (see above).

Career choices for IT Burnouts! (
(Need a career change? 10 options for IT-burnouts )

Disclaimer : Jay Vora is not responsible for the article :)