Thursday 19 March 2020

Bootstrapping a Startup


Bootstrapping a Startup

Dr. Amartya Kumar Bhattacharya
BCE (Hons.) ( Jadavpur ), MTech ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), PhD ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), Cert.MTERM ( AIT Bangkok ), CEng(I), FIE, FACCE(I), FISH, FIWRS, FIPHE, FIAH, FAE, MIGS, MIGS – Kolkata Chapter, MIGS – Chennai Chapter, MISTE, MAHI, MISCA, MIAHS, MISTAM, MNSFMFP, MIIBE, MICI, MIEES, MCITP, MISRS, MISRMTT, MAGGS, MCSI, MIAENG, MMBSI, MBMSM
Chairman and Managing Director,
MultiSpectra Consultants,
23, Biplabi Ambika Chakraborty Sarani,
Kolkata – 700029, West Bengal, INDIA.
Website: https://multispectraconsultants.com


Bootstrapping is building a company from the ground up with nothing but personal savings and with the cash coming in from the first sales. The term is also used as a noun: A bootstrap is a business an entrepreneur, with little or no outside cash or other support, launches. The word bootstrapping has come to be used for a variety of other self-starting processes. It describes the creation of complex software programs in successive and interdependent stages. The term "booting up" for starting up a computer's operating system may come from bootstrapping. Bootstrapping has its origin in the early 19th century with the expression "pulling up by one's own bootstraps." Initially, it implied an obviously impossible feat. Later, it became a metaphor for achieving success with no outside assistance. Bootstrapping is a tough way to go. It places all the financial risk on the entrepreneur. On the other hand, the entrepreneur is able to maintain total control over all decisions and the business itself. Bootstrapping is building a company from the ground up with nothing but personal savings. The bootstrapped entrepreneur retains total control of the business and makes all of the decisions. It is rarely a quick way to turn a profit but bootstrapping can be a way to start slowly bringing in revenue. Bootstrapping allows business owners to experiment more with their brand as there is no pressure from investors to get the product right the first time. Bootstrapping is an attractive way to launch and run a startup for many founders, primarily because it gives more freedom to the founders than getting investors to invest in the company.

Bootstrapping a business is difficult, but it is by no means impossible. With the right amount of hard work, collaboration, and passion for your company, it is almost easy to give up a chunk of your personal life today for the sake of your future. Ultimately, bootstrapping is making an investment in yourself that will pay off for your company in the long run. Finance your own business and keep 100 percent. Bootstrapping a startup means starting lean and without the help of outside capital. It means continuing to fuel growth internally from cash flow produced by the business. Bootstrapping your startup means growing your business with little or no venture capital or outside investment. It means relying on your own savings and revenue to operate and expand. Bootstrapping a business is a lesson in hard work and flexibility but ultimately it can help accelerate a company’s success. By definition, the term bootstrapping generally refers to a “self-starting process that is supposed to proceed without external input.” In the world of entrepreneurship, bootstrapping a startup refers to launching the enterprise without external funding. But for most founders, bootstrapping a startup really means launching without seeking venture capital, angel investors or other types of investment capital.

The Pros of Bootstrapping Your Startup

1) Ownership of Your Business
As a solo entrepreneur, bootstrapping means you can continue to own 100% of your business. Even with a much smaller company and revenues, your share may be worth more than if you raised money to achieve a billion dollar valuation.

2) Control Over Direction
As soon as you take outside money you take on exterior pressure and responsibility to satisfy other people’s interests. Those may be very different from your vision. Their timeline and values can be different than yours. There are solutions like super-voting rights that can give you more control when raising capital. Though, if artistic direction and control over decisions is a top priority for you, bootstrapping is probably the way to go.

3) Keeping Your Business
If your idea is to keep this as a lifetime business, then bootstrapping is what you want. Otherwise outside investors are going to put you on a clock for achieving a sizeable exit. Normally within about 10 years.

4) Sense of Accomplishment
For some entrepreneurs, the ability to one day look at this venture and say “I built that” is where they get their sense of significance.

5) Being Forced to Build a Business Model That Really Works
If you are going to bootstrap, you are forced to quickly build a business model which really works and which can produce positive cash flow and profits right away. That is a good thing. Everything else can be built on and scaled from there. Find a model that makes money. Sounds like a no-brainer but it needs to be said. The businesses that use the bootstrapping model the best generate money quickly. Not all businesses are equally ripe for bootstrapping. The most successful bootstrapped companies have a business model that generates cash as quickly as possible. Without any cash inflow, you will burn your reserves before gaining any real traction. Focus on operations. Bootstrapping is about focusing on the nuts and bolts, about putting all the pieces in place so you can get to where you need to be, eventually.

This could mean making a minimum viable product that you can introduce to the market and even hope to bring in steady, if not high, revenue while you continue to pilot test other ideas.

Know Your Target Market
You might think that you have already done the work to define those people likely to buy what you have got to sell. However, early sales numbers should be the jumping off point you use to make necessary adjustments.

Branding and Marketing
Once you have defined what your company does, what it offers and the problem it solves, you must focus your attention on the branding and marketing of your company.

1. When trying to secure press mentions with media channels, carefully analyse the publications you are targeting and ensure that they are a right fit for your company.
2. Once you’ve determined which channel will publish your company's story, establish a strong relationship with a journalist who writes articles related to your industry.
3. Remember, media channels only publish stories that are newsworthy, so ensure that the story you pitch to publications would interest as wide an audience as possible.
4. Restrict your pitch emails to two short paragraphs or less when engaging with your media contacts to pique their interest without boring them.
5. Establish yourself as a well of industry knowledge and an expert in your field to increase your chances of attracting more attention from journalists.
6. When managing your startup’s social media account, stay active and be consistent with your posts. Also, make your posts fun and engage with your followers - no one likes social media posts that look like they were written by robots.
7. Refrain from posting only about you and your company, so make sure the bulk of your social media content is about industry-related articles that your audience is interested in, sprinkled with content about your company.
8. Research your industry to develop your startup’s unique selling propositions. Remember, all of your startup’s messaging should employ these USPs as their focal point.
10. Your startup’s content strategy should be built around whatever it is you want your visitors to do once they arrive on your site, so be sure to optimise your website’s internal pages for conversions.

Sales and Traction
Sales and traction are what startups need to start bringing in revenue and are important metrics of success. How can you generate sales and traction without burning up too much money in the process?

11. Highlight the benefits and value of your product to your customers, instead of just showcasing the features.
12. Create a blog and develop a strong content marketing strategy to attract more potential users to your company’s website.
13. An effective e-mail campaign targeted to your offering’s demographic can be very powerful in convincing your potential customers of the value of your offering.
14. Cold call potential customers in order to reach them quickly and get a response without spending much money.
15. Host contests on social media and provide your product as a reward as this will help increase awareness and boost user engagement.

Startup Legal and IP
Legal work can be cumbersome, especially when you are trying to focus on the your core product or service.
16. Designate intellectual property to your company early on during the formation of your startup.
17. Protect and file intellectual property claims from others (patent trolls) with Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks.
18. Choose the correct legal entity carefully to protect liability for your company.
19. Take care when drafting the terms of use documents for your product or service.

Naming and Positioning
Naming and positioning your company can seem like a daunting task. A name will be the forefront of your company. Eventually it will become synonymous with your products, services or brand. Along with this, you will have to position your company in order to differentiate your products or services from the rest.

Positioning
Positioning your company helps establish your company’s brand in the eyes of the consumer. Here are some questions to consider when positioning:
20. What makes your company different from your competitors? Create a list of what makes you different. This can help narrow your target market and understand the benefits your company offers that another does not.
21. What makes your product / service unique? Figure out what makes your company stand out so you can use it as an advantage.
22. What are your customers really buying from you? Besides the actual product / service, think about the other benefits a consumer receives. These are characteristics like quality, aesthetic, brand name, etc.

Once you have got these basics down, you can start preparing your image:
23. Craft a positioning statement: In a few sentences, summarise what your company provides for your target demographic and what sets you apart, if not above, your competitors.
24. Create image-marketing materials that encapsulates what makes your offering so unique and valuable.
25. Use the positioning statement in written communication to your consumers to establish your startup as a leading company in your market.
26. Test your position statement on social media platform to see if you are attracting the right market and if the imagery that you are using is boosting user engagement.
27. Make your company’s name memorable. Users need to be able to remember the company name in order to share it with others.
28. Make your company’s name spellable. If users cannot spell your company name, they will not be able to find it when searching for your products / services.
29. Make your company’s name engaging. Think about what your users will associate your company name towards? What feelings does the company name evoke? Will they associate the name with the image of the company?

Social media is one of the most cost-effective ways of marketing your startup. In addition to providing a platform for growing your brand, it offers an easy medium for promotion and customer service opportunities.
1. Be frequent and consistent: Social media is a way for you to build your brand’s voice. You should not only post regularly, but there should be a uniformed identity to your posts. Additionally, do not over post or deviate from your brand’s message.
2. It is not about you, it is about your customer: Most brands use their social media accounts only for promotional purposes. This is a failed strategy as it provides no value to their followers. Instead, find and share information that your customers want to see and occasionally mix in your promoted content.
3. Engage with your followers: Social media is a way for your startup to interact with current and future customers. Leverage your followers and make them feel like valuable members of your brand. Also, do not be afraid of social confrontation, approach any complaint as an opportunity to show your brand’s customer service capabilities. Lastly, do not hide from failures, you are a startup and are bound to face some hurdles along the way. Strategically approach these as opportunities to win over customers with good customer service and express your brand’s long-term vision as frequently as possible.

Content is still king.
Why is content so important? It is the vehicle for conveying your brand’s message. If your content is not clear and message not well-formulated, you will undoubtedly struggle to succeed. The value of a strong brand in today’s crowded marketplace is worth its weight in gold. Your brand is what makes you different. It attracts new users and gets people’s attention among all the competition out there. Use content-marketing tactics to attract users. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach new people. You need to maintain a strong brand presence and keep a watchful eye on expenses.
1. Critically think about your message: Content marketing should not be a process of throwing messages against the wall and seeing what sticks. To effectively brand your startup, you should engage in industry research and formulate unique selling propositions. Your message then needs to keep these USPs as the focal point. Avoid focusing on your features and instead sell the benefits.
2. Do outreach yourself: One of the most important steps to an effective content marketing strategy is content promotion. After you produce an incredible piece of branded content, you need to amplify that piece of content as much as possible. Leverage your social media profiles, reach out to LinkedIn groups or industry forums and contribute to other popular sites that your consumers might visit. Invest a few hours a week to outreach or off-site writing and your startup will begin to gain traction.
Running a startup on a shoestring budget is hard enough. If you can keep marketing costs down while capitalising on successful digital opportunities, you will be able to improve your brand’s visibility without squandering a large budget.

Watch Your Cash Like a Hawk, Daily
Evaluate every expense carefully. When the money is rolling in, some expenses become an after-thought. If you let your guard down and start freely spending, it can cause a problem down the line if business slows or you face a challenge. Being financially responsible is key. You also develop a business survival mindset when you are constantly cautious about expenses. Reduce overhead costs as much as you can. Overhead expenses are the number one money-drainer of any new business. So with limited funding, your first priority is to keep your expenses lean. Part of reducing costs is doing as much as possible by yourself. Ask the question, “Is this really necessary?” Before adding a line item to your startup budget ask yourself if the expense is really necessary and more important, be certain you know what the return on that investment will be and how it will help you move forward. Do not add expenses to your budget unless they really are necessary.

Cut Personal Expenses
Without a salary, you will not have money to spend – so do not expect to live a posh life when first starting your company. Consider every purchase and only spend what is necessary. Staying frugal when you first start out is a great way to learn the financial ropes for the times when you start to make money. Do not think about the salary you can draw when you are a startup - think about reinvesting the cash to grow the business. Whatever your salary or budget is, get used to living frugally during the first few years of your startup.

Manage an Income Stream
Make sure that you maintain a stable income stream while you build your startup.

Do Not Outsource Jobs You Can do Yourself
When bootstrapping, hiring out for a job you could do yourself is an avoidable expense and a wasted organisational learning experience.

Invest in Your Website Domain and Incorporating
Incorporating and securing your website domain are major exceptions to the “price over quality” rule. Regarding your domain, do not think you can buy it later once you have more traction. Buy the domain outright from the beginning and start building brand equity around it from day one. While it is important to keep costs as low as possible, spending on your website is a necessary and justified expense. Do not skimp on this if this will give you the online presence that can be crucial for your business. Optimise internal pages for conversions: What do you want visitors to do when they land on your site? Your entire content strategy should be built with this question in mind. Once you know the action you want users to do then you can find affordable tools for perpetuating those actions. Optimise forms on your site to build a stronger inbound lead funnel. Find cheap and reliable cart services to sell products directly through your site.

Do Not Forget Customer Service
As a starting venture, you need as many satisfied customers as you can to get the word out about your brand.

Be Discerning When Chasing Revenue
While you chase revenue, you will randomly encounter tricky opportunities that achieve a significant bump in growth at the expense of modifying your operational model or product offering. Evaluate these opportunities before jumping on them: Seize them if they’re aligned with your long-term goals, and decline if they will become a huge distraction from achieving further growth. At an early stage, what might appear to be a revenue touchdown may distract you from building a real replicable business.

Do Not Take “No” for an Answer
When you are so small, vendors and suppliers will not want to work with you; it will take a personal touch to get what you need. Work to build personal connections with partners that may help your business in the long run. This may help obtain the resources your startup needs to get moving, at a price that will not break the bank.

The Cons of Bootstrapping for Startups

1) Chances of Survival
One of the top reasons for business failure is running out of money.

2) Growth
The main reason that entrepreneurs go out to fundraise lots of capital is to scale big and fast. For many, that is their strategy to survive and thrive. Without outside capital, you will be limited on your visibility, the marketing you can do and what you can do to serve your customers. All of that can stunt growth potential.

4) Hard Work
You are going to have to work a lot harder, work more hours and manage more roles as a bootstrapped startup.

Bootstrapping continues to be an attractive option for startup entrepreneurs. It can bring a lot of benefits. Just be aware of the risks.

© MultiSpectra Consultants, 2020.

A Review of Kaizen


A Review of Kaizen

Dr. Amartya Kumar Bhattacharya
BCE (Hons.) ( Jadavpur ), MTech ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), PhD ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), Cert.MTERM ( AIT Bangkok ), CEng(I), FIE, FACCE(I), FISH, FIWRS, FIPHE, FIAH, FAE, MIGS, MIGS – Kolkata Chapter, MIGS – Chennai Chapter, MISTE, MAHI, MISCA, MIAHS, MISTAM, MNSFMFP, MIIBE, MICI, MIEES, MCITP, MISRS, MISRMTT, MAGGS, MCSI, MIAENG, MMBSI, MBMSM
Chairman and Managing Director,
MultiSpectra Consultants,
23, Biplabi Ambika Chakraborty Sarani,
Kolkata – 700029, West Bengal, INDIA.
Website: https://multispectraconsultants.com


Kaizen is a concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen (改善) is the Sino-Japanese word for "improvement". Kaizen also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organisational boundaries into the supply chain.

By improving standardised programmes and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste (lean manufacturing). Kaizen was first practised in Japanese businesses after World War II, influenced in part by American business and quality-management teachers, and most notably as part of The Toyota Way. It has since spread throughout the world and has been applied to environments outside business and productivity.

The Japanese word kaizen means "change for better", without inherent meaning of either "continuous" or "philosophy" in Japanese dictionaries and in everyday use. The word refers to any improvement, one-time or continuous, large or small, in the same sense as the English word "improvement". However, given the common practice in Japan of labelling industrial or business improvement techniques with the word "kaizen", particularly the practices spearheaded by Toyota, the word "kaizen" in English is typically applied to measures for implementing continuous improvement, especially those with a "Japanese philosophy". The discussion below focuses on such interpretations of the word, as frequently used in the context of modern management discussions. Two kaizen approaches have been distinguished:

Point Kaizen

It is one of the most commonly implemented types of Kaizen. It happens very quickly and usually without much planning. As soon as something is found broken or incorrect, quick and immediate measures are taken to correct the issues.

These measures are generally small, isolated and easy to implement, however they can have a huge impact.

In some cases, it is also possible that the positive effects of point kaizen in one area can reduce or eliminate benefits of point Kaizen in some other area. An example of Point Kaizen could be a shop inspection by a supervisor and he finds broken materials or other small issues, and then asks the owner of the shop to perform a quick Kaizen (5S) to rectify those issues.

System Kaizen

System Kaizen is accomplished in an organised manner and is devised to address system level problems in an organisation.

It is an upper level strategic planning method which results in a number of planned Kaizen events over a long period of time. It is in contrast to point Kaizen which generally happens as a result of identification of a small issue which is resolved in a short period of time.

Line Kaizen

Line in this context refers to a structured spreading of Lean from point or discrete to the line. For example, Kaizen might be applied to a process (point), but also to the downstream process. Those two points constitute a Line Kaizen.

Another example might be in Lean implemented in procurement, but also being implemented in the planning department. Here in this case, planning is upstream from procurement and Kaizen is performed at those two points, which thus forms a line.

Plane Kaizen

It is the next upper level of Line Kaizen, in that several lines are connected together. In modern terminologies, this can also be described as value stream, where instead of traditional departments, the organisation is structured into product lines or families and value streams. It can be visualised as changes or improvements made to one line being implemented to multiple other lines or processes.

Cube Kaizen

Cube Kaizen describes the situation where all the points of the planes are connected to each other and no point is disjointed from each other. This would resemble a situation where Lean has spread across the entire organisation. Improvements are made up and down through the plane, or upstream or downstream, including the complete organisation, suppliers and customers. This might require some changes in the standard business processes as well.

Kaizen is a daily process, the purpose of which goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process that, when done correctly, humanises the workplace, eliminates overly hard work, and teaches people how to perform experiments on their work using the scientific method and how to learn to spot and eliminate waste in business processes. In all, the process suggests a humanised approach to workers and to increasing productivity: "The idea is to nurture the company's people as much as it is to praise and encourage participation in kaizen activities." Successful implementation requires "the participation of workers in the improvement." People at all levels of an organization participate in kaizen, from the CEO down to janitorial staff, as well as external stakeholders when applicable. Kaizen is most commonly associated with manufacturing operations, as at Toyota, but has also been used in non-manufacturing environments. The format for kaizen can be individual, suggestion system, small group or large group. At Toyota, it is usually a local improvement within a workstation or local area and involves a small group in improving their own work environment and productivity. This group is often guided through the kaizen process by a line supervisor; sometimes this is the line supervisor's key role. Kaizen on a broad, cross-departmental scale in companies, generates total quality management and frees human efforts through improving productivity using machines and computing power.

While kaizen (at Toyota) usually delivers small improvements, the culture of continual aligned small improvements and standardisation yields large results in terms of overall improvement in productivity. This philosophy differs from the "command and control" improvement programmes (e.g., Business Process Improvement) of the mid-20th century. Kaizen methodology includes making changes and monitoring results, then adjusting. Large-scale pre-planning and extensive project scheduling are replaced by smaller experiments, which can be rapidly adapted as new improvements are suggested.

In modern usage, it is designed to address a particular issue over the course of a week and is referred to as a "kaizen blitz" or "kaizen event". These are limited in scope, and issues that arise from them are typically used in later blitzes. A person who makes a large contribution in the successful implementation of kaizen during kaizen events is awarded the title of "Zenkai". In the 21st century, business consultants in various countries have engaged in widespread adoption and sharing of the Kaizen framework as a way to help their clients restructure and refocus their business processes.

History

The small-step work improvement approach was developed in the USA under Training Within Industry programme (TWI Job Methods). Instead of encouraging large, radical changes to achieve desired goals, these methods recommended that organisations introduce small improvements, preferably ones that could be implemented on the same day. The major reason was that during World War II there was neither time nor resources for large and innovative changes in the production of war equipment. The essence of the approach came down to improving the use of the existing workforce and technologies.

As part of the Marshall Plan after World War II, American occupation forces brought in experts to help with the rebuilding of Japanese industry while the Civil Communications Section (CCS) developed a management training programme that taught statistical control methods as part of the overall material. Homer Sarasohn and Charles Protzman developed and taught this course in 1949–1950. Sarasohn recommended W. Edwards Deming for further training in statistical methods.

The Economic and Scientific Section (ESS) group was also tasked with improving Japanese management skills and Edgar McVoy was instrumental in bringing Lowell Mellen to Japan to properly install the Training Within Industry (TWI) programs in 1951. The ESS group had a training film to introduce TWI's three "J" programs: Job Instruction, Job Methods and Job Relations. Titled "Improvement in Four Steps" (Kaizen eno Yon Dankai), it thus introduced kaizen to Japan.

For the pioneering, introduction and implementation of kaizen in Japan, the Emperor of Japan awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure to Dr. Deming in 1960. Subsequently, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) instituted the annual Deming Prizes for achievement in quality and dependability of products. On October 18, 1989, JUSE awarded the Deming Prize to Florida Power and Light Co. (FPL), based in the US, for its exceptional accomplishments in process and quality-control management, making it the first company outside Japan to win the Deming Prize.

Implementation

The Toyota Production System is known for kaizen, where all line personnel are expected to stop their moving production line in case of any abnormality and, along with their supervisor, suggest an improvement to resolve the abnormality which may initiate a kaizen.

The PDCA cycles

The cycle of kaizen activity can be defined as: "Plan → Do → Check → Act". This is also known as the Shewhart cycle, Deming cycle or PDCA.

Another technique used in conjunction with PDCA is the 5 Whys, which is a form of root cause analysis in which the user asks a series of five "why" questions about a failure that has occurred, basing each subsequent question on the answer to the previous. There are normally a series of causes stemming from one root cause, and they can be visualised using fishbone diagrams or tables. The Five Whys can be used as a foundational tool in personal improvement, or as a means to create wealth.

Masaaki Imai made the term famous in his book Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success.

In the Toyota Way Fieldbook, Liker and Meier discuss the kaizen blitz and kaizen burst (or kaizen event) approaches to continuous improvement. A kaizen blitz, or rapid improvement, is a focused activity on a particular process or activity. The basic concept is to identify and quickly remove waste. Another approach is that of the kaizen burst, a specific kaizen activity on a particular process in the value stream. Kaizen facilitators generally go through training and certification before attempting a Kaizen project.

In the 1990s, Professor Iwao Kobayashi published his book 20 Keys to Workplace Improvement and created a practical, step-by-step improvement framework called "the 20 Keys". He identified 20 operations focus areas which should be improved to attain holistic and sustainable change. He went further and identified the 5 levels of implementation for each of these 20 focus areas. 4 of the focus areas are called Foundation Keys. According to the 20 Keys, these foundation keys should be launched ahead of the others in order to form a strong constitution in the company. The four foundation keys are:

Key 1 – Cleaning and Organising to Make Work Easy, which is based on the 5S methodology.
Key 2 – Goal Alignment/Rationalising the System
Key 3 – Small Group Activities
Key 4 – Leading and Site Technology

© MultiSpectra Consultants, 2020.

Saturday 7 March 2020

How Enterprise Architecture Relates to Lean Startup


How Enterprise Architecture Relates to Lean Startup

Dr. Amartya Kumar Bhattacharya
BCE (Hons.) ( Jadavpur ), MTech ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), PhD ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), Cert.MTERM ( AIT Bangkok ), CEng(I), FIE, FACCE(I), FISH, FIWRS, FIPHE, FIAH, FAE, MIGS, MIGS – Kolkata Chapter, MIGS – Chennai Chapter, MISTE, MAHI, MISCA, MIAHS, MISTAM, MNSFMFP, MIIBE, MICI, MIEES, MCITP, MISRS, MISRMTT, MAGGS, MCSI, MIAENG, MMBSI, MBMSM
Chairman and Managing Director,
MultiSpectra Consultants,
23, Biplabi Ambika Chakraborty Sarani,
Kolkata – 700029, West Bengal, INDIA.
Website: https://multispectraconsultants.com


Lean Startup is a flexible approach to starting a startup that aids the product development cycle. As stated in Harvard Business Review, “It is a methodology that favors experimentation over elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional ‘big design up front’ development.” This is to say that to assess our businesses we simply go ahead with a Google form survey, instead of using complex business evaluation techniques like SWOT or STP analysis.

What is Enterprise Architecture (EA)?

But all this may seem too dreamy without a conceptual blueprint. EA is an ongoing management process that determines how an organisation can most effectively achieve and transition from its current to its future objectives. EA logically prioritises resources available and presents a framework of the organisation that enables entrepreneurs to think about different aspects of their business. It empowers them to link their existing strengths to see where they fit in the business canvas and can connect with the external environment. For instance, let us say there are three departments HR, Finance, IT and Marketing within an organisation. Enterprise architecture presents details about how every department can be strategically made to function in synthesis to maximise the potential of the organisation.

Integration of both our concepts: Lean Startup and EA

Both Lean Startup and EA are dynamic concepts involving continuous evolution but at the same time they are starkly different. While Lean Startup is about constantly revamping business models and making new strategies as per the needs of the customer, enterprise architecture improvises existing strategic plans to align business demands with IT. Both concepts when applied individually are conducive to business growth, but when used together they can move mountains.

The synchronization of the two equips entrepreneurs with a mindset to continuously renovate the enterprise architecture instead of building one that will take years to develop into a perfect ideal.

Global overview

Internationally, the driving force behind world’s most successful businesses such as Amazon has been its obsession with its customers. This fixation has led to intimate customer bonding which encourages them to not only stay loyal to the company but also give back to the company in the form of constant feedback about their expectations from it. Bezos believes that, “Everyone has to be able to work in a call center” so that they have insight into the customer’s perspective. As such, each year he and thousands of Amazon managers attend two days of call center training and field calls periodically. Taking customer opinion at the right time prevents wastage of time and resources.

Dropbox is another multi-billion dollar business that minimised the time of its product development cycle by a virtual display of the product seeking opinion polls. To estimate if the demand for their product was sufficient to go ahead with the actual product development they asked for e-mail addresses of potential beta users.

But how do we integrate the two?

Following are a few ways by which entrepreneurial teams can look at incorporating the two:

The melting point of an Enterprise Architecture and a Lean Startup comes in when the synchronization of the two equips entrepreneurs with a mindset to continuously renovate the enterprise instead of building towards a virtual ideal to be in the next few years.

Create an outline of IT assets and business processes with an objective to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the business.
Set in place governance principles that drive an ongoing discussion about business strategy and how it can be expressed through IT.

The Lean Startup approach aka ‘Build-Measure-Learn’, aims to increase the value to customers while using fewer resources:
a. Phase 1: Build
Includes launching a minimum viable product (MVP), which could be just a virtual representation of the product to gauge potential users’ interest. MVP revolves around the dominant question of our time: whether the product should be built and not can it be built?
b. Phase 2: Measure
After evaluating the level of interest, it is essential to determine if the demand is sustainable to:
>To continue product development?
>If it is continued, what attributes should be added or refined?
c. Phase 3: Learn
Finally, after compiling potential users’ feedback, the last decision making point is whether to persevere or pivot. It encompasses the critical factor of changing product strategy or shutting down development entirely. Eric Ries who coined the term ‘Lean Startup’, believes that the future of a startup must not be analysed by the burn per month but by number of pivot opportunities left undiscovered.

© MultiSpectra Consultants, 2020.

There is More to Startups than Technology


There is More to Startups than Technology

Dr. Amartya Kumar Bhattacharya
BCE (Hons.) ( Jadavpur ), MTech ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), PhD ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), Cert.MTERM ( AIT Bangkok ), CEng(I), FIE, FACCE(I), FISH, FIWRS, FIPHE, FIAH, FAE, MIGS, MIGS – Kolkata Chapter, MIGS – Chennai Chapter, MISTE, MAHI, MISCA, MIAHS, MISTAM, MNSFMFP, MIIBE, MICI, MIEES, MCITP, MISRS, MISRMTT, MAGGS, MCSI, MIAENG, MMBSI, MBMSM
Chairman and Managing Director,
MultiSpectra Consultants,
23, Biplabi Ambika Chakraborty Sarani,
Kolkata – 700029, West Bengal, INDIA.
Website: https://multispectraconsultants.com


Each time an aspiring entrepreneur walks up to me and says “I have a brilliant idea that can change the world”, I start getting worried! Even a brief probe then, invariably reveals that the aspirant wants to pursue this idea because he faced a certain problem and could not find a ready solution and now thinks that the solution (which in reality is no more than an idea – yet to even arrive at a ‘proof-of-concept’ stage) is not only going to solve this problem but in fact, the whole world is dying for this incredible value position to arrive.

This is symptomatic of most technologists who get a ‘kick’ out of solving a technical problem and presume that there is a ready market waiting for their solution. The truth, unfortunately, is far from it. Starting out to solve a problem without listening to the ‘voice of the (potential) customer’ is a guaranteed recipe for failure. This is in no way to undermine the brilliance and technical capabilities that the individual and the team may have in building a very good product or service. However, most entrepreneurs (especially those who start off without any work experience or exposure to the real world of business) come to discover the harsh truth after having staked considerable time, effort, and money – more importantly career opportunities – in the hope that they will become a unicorn very soon, the media will write exciting stories about them and they would have ‘arrived’ in the name and fame world.

Getting under the skin of the customer is the most crucial part of any entrepreneurial venture - irrespective of whether it is technology-based or not. The more the entrepreneur understands and lives through the ‘pain-point’ of the customer, the more he is likely to craft an appropriate value proposition for the customer. And mind you, the ‘customer’ here implies not just somebody who sees/experiences/uses the value of the solution but has both; the ability, as well as the willingness to pay for it.

Working with customers in the earlier phase of ideation and iterating to fulfilling what might be the bare minimum customer expectation, is the starting point. No product ever arrives at the ‘final version’ in one go. It is often a long, painstaking journey with multiple iterations and tweaks even before one can ‘pilot’ it on an alpha (early adapter) or a beta customer.

With ‘products’ more particularly (as opposed to services), there is an emerging concept of co-creating - which means constantly engaging with the actual user all the time before one arrives at a reasonably acceptable PoC and probably have a few samples or mock-ups that can be ruggedly tried and tested under various user conditions. Productionising it and going-to-market is a completely different next big challenge and very complex as opposed to coming from idea-to-PoC.

My motivation to write this piece is that I increasingly find a number of bright aspiring entrepreneurs wanting to ride the band wagon in haste and unrealistic hope. While it is certainly good to dream and aspire to become a successful entrepreneur someday and make a difference to the world around us, one must tread the path with care and caution. Not every bright engineer or scientist is cut out to be an entrepreneur and neither does the ability to solve or crack a complex technical problem automatically guarantee that you turn out to be a successful entrepreneur. There is a lot more to entrepreneurship than merely being able to master technology.

For now, I wish to leave you with just one message – start with the customer and not with the technology that you think you are great at – your chances of success then, are likely to be so much better.

Good luck!

© MultiSpectra Consultants, 2020.