Assume that a human, a car and a bike are standing on a traffic signal with intent of racing. When the signal turns green on an empty road, the human would lead in the first 10 feet, the bike would lead in the first 50 metres and the car thereafter. If its rush hour, the biker would bend and cut across the traffic and stay infront of the car; if the path turns around a park, the human would cross the park and reach the other side quicker than the others.

Using the vehicle as a metaphor for business, it is immensely important to know and understand what is your business, a bike, a car or a pedestrian. Don’t judge it by size; judge it by manoeuvrability and by strength(hp).

A broker or a trader is most likely a pedestrian. He can change his product portfolio comparatively quickly and he makes lots of money by selling somebody else’s stuff (travel far by hitchhiking in a car). A small product company is most likely a bike, cutting across the cluttered market looking for spaces that they can fill up; reaching places where cars can’t reach.

So next time you are driving, observe the cleverest drivers on the roads and learn how you need to run your business!

Opportunity or Distraction

Like all toddlers, my eight month old daughter usually takes anything she can lay her hands on and puts it in her mouth. Be it a grape, or hair-brushes or cell phones or TV remotes, anything she can hold, she tries to eat.

I feel most start-ups function in a similar way, the eating anything a child can grab analogous to jumping on every opportunity a start-up gets. Such temptations are still avoidable during the initial period where the steam is high, but they start looking enticing when funds begin to dwindle and the belief needs reinforcement.

When my daughter puts a grape in her mouth, we let her; when she puts a cherry, we check if the cherry has a seed in it or not; when she puts a cell phone, we don’t let her and things like knives and forks, we keep out of her sight and reach. We, the parents and the grandparents and the family are the ones who are deciding for the child, guiding her, ensuring her safety and well being.

Who plays that role of guiding us, when we are a business? Who ensures that we do not chase something that may bite us later (Let’s call them distraction for simplicity sake), even though it looks tempting right now? In the case of Research Endeavors, time and time again we have looked at our value statement for answers.

Every day, there are new questions that come up, new decisions that need to be made and we do not have the resources or the time to deliberate extensively on them. Moreover, there is a question of consistency, of ensuring that our decisions remain the same even when the same distraction comes disguised as another opportunity. Also, how do we separate the wheat from the chaff – to give those important opportunities their due deliberation?

Our simple parameters are whether the opportunity is consistent with our value statements? If it is not, we simply discard it. No time spent on arguing, no effort consumed in explaining it, no begrudging regret later on. A simple validation to our happily ever after.

No Contradictions

Let me put across a simple example. When we started; we had several chances of picking up outsourcing work. RubyOnRails expertise was in demand, years of Project Management experience in addition to that expertise allowed us per-hour rates that were enticing. We instead decided to put all our resources and energy into building up our products. Why? Because as per the value system on which we have built Research Endeavors, we put long-term benefits over short-term earnings. Similarly, we did not simply stop at building just one product (CRM or ERP), we went to build an entire suite. Why? Because of the same guiding principle – long-term over short-term; because businesses do not want to operate in a piecemeal approach with several disparate systems, they do not want systems which do not talk with each other. Our coming up with non-integrated, do-only-one-thing application would have put us into the same rat race without serving any additional benefit to our customer.

Now the most amazing bit; we started doing implementation projects now. Integrating our apps with those of clients, maybe consulting him in how can we add value to more of his/her systems. We moved from being a pure product developer to product developer and product implementer. Why? Because the same guiding value does not contradict this decision anymore. We needed more resources while we built and tested our systems but now that most of these applications are already built up, we look for engaging opportunities for our people – let them leverage on their expertise and grow through interactions with more businesses. We remain honest to our desire to see our people grow.

The value systems is constant, our adherence is constant yet our decisions entirely different. Again, No time spent on arguing, no effort consumed in explaining it, no begrudging regret later on.  A simple validation to our happily ever after.

Values at Research Endeavors

1. Respect
2. Honesty and Integrity
3. Chasing the dream  (Persistence)
4. Long Term benefits over Short Term Gains
5. Contributing to the Society