See today and tomorrow from multiple angles. Or in other words, dont be blindsided. Too often, we get all wrapped up in an artificial world that we create, and stop seeing the world around. That is why it is so important to expose ones ideas and oneself to the outside world. Let people criticise. That is what we want. Because their perspectives are different they see the world differently. That is exactly the test that the idea has to stand. This is where blogs can come in useful. By sharing ones ideas on the web, one is able to bridge the distance between people. I have learnt a lot reading the weblogs of others people whom I have never met, but whose perspectives have helped shape much of my thinking. This needs an openness of thought to accept other critical viewpoints and take the learnings from them to enrich the core.
Build a theoretical base for the ideas. Many times, the easy thing to do is to just jump in. Leaping into the pool is important without doing that, one cannot learn to swim. But it is useful to know some basics and theory first. This way, one makes fewer mistakes and learns faster. If the theoretical base for the idea is not sound, then there is no amount of smart execution which will make it go right. So, it is important to define the world of tomorrow that one wants to create through a series of statements which follow from one another.
Create a viral marketing element. This is because I hate to spend money on marketing. Id love it if an existing set of users can tell the other non-users about what my product. Maybe it is a mentality bred more on focusing on technology than marketing, or maybe it is that I have tried mass marketing (read: a few ads in newspapers) every once in a while. Or maybe, it is just that I think there are better uses of money. Not to say that viral marketing will work every time. It takes time. Besides, the product has to be really good to ensure that people will tell the others. I saw that with Samachar.com and Khel.com during my IndiaWorld days we built up all our traffic without spending any money on advertising. It was all word-of-mouth. Id much rather focus on creating a good product and letting it travel the network. And, guess what, the network travel time is reducing thanks to email.
Make the product / service a daily utility. Maybe I am in love with the word utility. I like to use it in many places for example, SME Tech Utility. But there is more to it. The point to think is how we can make the solution that we are providing critical to the life or business of the customer, so much so that it becomes a daily habit. That is why I update my weblog daily. I want it to become part of the daily routine of people. That is why we updated IndiaWorld with new content every day even when there were very few people accessing it. That is why we wanted to make Samachar.com as the home page for non-resident Indians. This is what I want to do with the new ideas make it a daily habit for people.
Tomorrow: Part 4
TECH TALK Reflections on Ideas and Entrepreneurship+T
