Brick-And-Mortar meets Bits-And-Bytes

Good news for small business owners everywhere, local boutiques like mine (Pashma) and mega shopping districts like Union Square in SFO which rely on real people with real feet that wander around, shop, eat, laugh and play to create ambiance and a festive atmosphere.

Amidst all the hype around the benefits of e-retail, Bonobos, so far only an online clothing retailer, recently announced a partnership with Nordstrom, embracing the brick-and-mortar selling model. 

Nothing replaces touch and feel when it comes to the joy of shopping and this announcement is a sign of times to come; back-to-the-future you might say. Change often generates a mentality of replacement - video will replace movies in theaters, online ads will replace paper advertising or e-selling will replace brick-and-mortar. 

Well not so fast! To quote Mark Twain, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated".

Stanford E-Week : Idea to Implementation - Media X at the intersection

Get an insider view of the Stanford research ecosystem where , technology begets social transformation -   Join us during Stanford E-week:

Monday, March 5, 6:00 - 7:30 PM #100 Cordura HallIdea to Implementation - Media X at the Intersection

Media X panel during the Stanford Entrepreneurial Week

Neerja Raman, moderator

Chuck House, Chancellor Cogswell College, Emeritus Media X

Franny Lee, Assoc. Dir. Stanford Intellectual Property Exchange

Chao King and Hiroshi Tomita, Konica Minolta Systems Lab

   How does a research project evolve to a product? The Stanford Intellectual Property Exchange provides an example.

Google, SUN Microsystems, Yahoo - just a few of the highly successful companies with research roots from Stanford University. Sometimes the business community pulls ideas out of the university. Sometimes the university pushes them out. Along the way from idea to success, many organizations and individuals get involved, providing talent, information and capital. This innovation ecosystem of relationships, catalysts and resources is part of Stanford's secret sauce. 

   This panel will highlight some of the critical entrepreneurial enablers that have given life to a research idea introduced in 2006 and developed into a technology that is transforming the way people can monetize and use online content created by themselves and others.

Is All Entrepreneurship Social?

Carl Schramm makes the case in a Stanford Social Innovation Review article that all entrepreneurship is social. "Let’s not overlook what traditional entrepreneurs contribute to society" he worries and provides several cases (largely in a US context) to support the thesis.

This is a question I used to struggle with but in the last year I have developed a position: All entrepreneurship is not social. That is because we do not live in an ideal world. The cost of development is disproportionately born by the poor (think toxic e-waste for one), often willingly, in the name of progress. In India, despite high growth rates in the last 10 years and a burgeoning middle class, the poverty indicators as measured by opportunity (i.e. basic food, education and health-care access) have actually declined- creating social tension that rips the very fabric of the unique Indian ethos. So like quotas and affirmative action - in an ideal world we wouldn't need them; but till there is equal opportunity for all we do. Similarly ideally, all entrepreneurship is social - but only if there is equal opportunity. Till then, it is merely obfuscation to blur the line between business motivated by social impact and business.

The irony is that in India where entrepreneurs actually do social good, creating local jobs, innovation and creating a market at the bottom of the pyramid, the term social entrepreneur is relatively unknown and if known draws wonderment - because isn't all entrepreneurship social? In their case I agree. It takes a lot of guts to be an entrepreneur in a developing econnomy because the cost of failure is high while there is safety in a job or joining the family business that serves the developed economy.

Entrepreneurship and Kal Penn

Pop culture and Politics - that's what I thought "An Evening with Kal Penn" event was about. Hosted by Sanskriti at Stanford University the blurb said: "Kal Penn looks at the intrinsically political nature of pop culture. He also gives us a glimpse into the darker side of the entertainment industry, full of prejudices and comically misguided casting agents ("Where's your turban?"). One of the few Indian-American actors -- so far -- to break into Hollywood, he looks at how pop culture can reinforce, but also challenge and overturn, racial stereotypes." In actuality there was less about politics than there was about entrepreneurship. In person he turned out to be charming and while there was humor, there was no negative energy. And I think that is a key to his ability to break barriers. For example when asked repeatedly about his opinions on Slumdog Millionaire he laughed and said "why? like I can't have an opinion on Milk?" All in all, he was candid and open with the audience and his top three entrepreneurial skills, that came through in several of his stories were:
Passion - It was clear that Penn was passionate about his acting career but at the same time understood the barriers he faced and was willing to tackle them.
Flexibility - Penn took on some roles because "he needed the job". They allowed him to continue working even if not perfect roles
Communication (Ability to Dialog) - when he got some unfavorable comments (a letter about his role in Harold and Kumar) he wrote back positioning the film from the characters' perspective explaining how that forces us to see beyond the ethnicity of the two characters.

Entrepreneurship and Improv: Two Peas in a Pod

Entrepreneurship is a contact sport and social entrepreneurship is extreme contact sport. The keyword here is contact - its as much about the other as it is about you. Different, for example, from heli-skiing where it is all about you. So last week, when I saw two amazing Improv plays (not stand-up comedy), I remembered that Improv training is great entrepreneurial skills training. Its the way to maneuver the "contact" aspect of the sport. You learn to "act" on your feet while gauging the audience; you learn to create laughter out of adversity to build camaraderie and most important you learn not to take yourself too seriously -for entrepreneurs are sustained by passion and social entrepreneurs by extreme passion (that burdens them with an un-endearing righteousness). Two snippets from the Improvised Shakespeare Company production I saw provide illustrations. At the start of the production the group leader asked for a play title - the answer from the audience was "King Lear Goes to Jail". In laying the foundation for the story, there was wordplay around "retire" - as in retire from job or retire for the night. The audience laughed so the players built on the theme to the point of introducing a new character called Webster (as in dictionary) and Webster was a huge hit. Another obvious aspect of Improv is that players switch roles frequently - in this case each player had multiple roles which were conveyed by getting into character with diction, body language, gestures- convincingly enough that the audience couldn't caricature the player into any one human trait (clever, conniving, fool etc).

Just for fun or just for work, this summer, do something for yourself: sign up for an Improv class and watch your entrepreneurial skills improve. That's because we learn by doing and Improv theatre provides a "safe" place to do.

Brand IIT: Quota Controversy and My Opinion

"Ending uncertainty over the controversial law providing for 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in central educational institutions including IITs and IIMs, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld its validity but ruled that the “creamy layer” among the backwards would not get reservation" reports the Hindustan Times on April 11 2008.

I agree its a risky move. I agree with everything that everybody- academics, students, administrators - is saying about why the move is flawed and won't work. Lets also take it as a given that same facilities, same resources (teachers, funds) and more students, some less qualified as measured by the tests will put a huge strain on the system.

What is at Stake? - Brand IIT
What is to be gained? - Brand India (wealth creation through social/education inclusion)

Taking the long term view: What choice does India have? Home to the world's richest AND the poorest, the most educated AND least literate, the best health care AND the worst, what is next?

Why it will work: It all really depends on IITians (students and alum) and they are a smart bunch. They have an opportunity to make lemonade from lemons - prove that they can not only create new wealth but they can create it in areas where it has not been done through normal capital channels.

Additionally - I offer two arguments:
1 - resource issue is a red herring - average spend per IIT student is a pittance compared, to lets say, an MIT student and IItians claim they are the best. Since adding 50% more students changes this ratio not a whit. - why should it matter?
2 - student quality degradation is a red herring - It has been proven in business that employee diversity is a business asset for the different kinds of thinking and viewpoints it brings. The superhuman IIT exam barrier has self selected a narrow slice of intelligentsia into IIT's - the new student pool will bring, at a minimum, - new market knowledge. Hopefully that translates into local markets and technology innovation, like alternative energy, for local consumption.

BTW - I am a proponent of a high tech version of a Peace Corp type program for India to bridge the urban rural divide. This could a stop-gap measure. After all the ruling will be under review in 5 years.

I post this knowing full well the battle that awaits at home ...

Good Times for Entrepreneurs says Guy Kawasaki

Yesterday I went to the talk: "By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content,Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09" by Guy Kawasaki, whose latest venture is the website Truemors.com (http://www.truemors.com/). While it was as expected, great marketing and entertainment in typical "Guy Style", I got what I went for- breakdown of costs to launch his website (website = business) which is: 5k legal, 4k software, 1K domains, 0.4k for logo and that's about it. Run rate is what it costs to host the website - on yahoo it would be about 30/month. This means good times for entrepreneurs! (no need to beg VCs to prove your concept - versus old days when it would take a million).
And here's my point - this is now affordable for social entrepreneurs who often pay for stuff themselves (like me) and must prove themselves far longer than a standard for profit business. I have been thinking I can get going for free - design my own logo, etc and so now I know it can be done. Now if I could only get the kind of marketing clout the name "Guy Kawasaki" brings! Help?