Tag Archives: seap

Tech Events this Week: Intro to Python; DrupalCamp; Ruby Hackathon; Docker; WordPress

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Here is a list of technology events happening in Pune over the next few days. To be informed of these events in advance, you should subscribe to get the PuneTech calendar event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe.

BioPune Seminar: Commercializing Technology – Retrofittable Digital Radiography Systems

  • Date: Fri, 4 Apr 4:00pm – 5:30pm
  • Location: Training Room, Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park, Pashan Road

BioPune Seminar Series Talk # 5

Taking technology ideas from concept to commercialization: The case of Retrofittable Digital Radiography Systems by Dr. Sreeram Dhurjaty, President, Dhurjaty Electronics Consulting LLC, and Co-founder, Jeevtronics Pvt. Ltd.

Abstract

During the last 10 years, retrofittable radiography systems have created a revolution in Radiography. These systems that are the thickness of screen films have allowed traditional “Analog rooms” to be converted to “Digital Rooms” easily and seamlessly.

This talk traces the development of the first ever digital radiography system, first developed by Eastman Kodak and now sold by Carestream Health. One of the primary inventors of this system is the Author of this talk.

The evolution of the concept will be discussed. This will be followed by the challenges in the various technologies that were needed to realize the product. These include mechanical challenges, power conversion, the scintillator and detector, automatic exposure detection, and wireless, to name a few. Other challenges include the effect of temperature differences on the image. Image processing and rendering techniques as well as image transmission will be discussed. The challenges of commercializing this technology from the research lab to a commercial system will be detailed. This system has been a trailblazer which has instantiated various companies into selling retrofittable radiography systems. Recent advances in this field will be detailed during the latter part of this presentation.

About the speaker – Dr. Sreeram Dhurjaty

Ram held senior positions in engineering and research, in medical systems, at Eastman Kodak Company, Analogic, and Bose Corporation before embarking on a career of full time consulting. He was educated at IIT Bombay and Yale University and has degrees in Civil Engineering, Fluid mechanics, Electronic Instrumentation, Biomedical Engineering, and Control System Theory. Over his career he has designed medical systems such as Patient Monitors, Defibrillators, CT scanners, Fetal Monitoring systems, Digital and Computed Radiography, Telemedicine, Telerehabilitaion and precision analog circuitry for medical systems.

He has 15 issued patents in areas of medical devices and systems. He is passionate about affordable medical devices and is working on a hand-cranked defibrillator. He works closely with the Engineering World Health Organization (EWH.org) developing medical devices for undeveloped countries. He also consults on, in addition to power supplies for medical systems, efficient power supplies, and converters for small wind turbines.

Ram is also one of the co-founders of Jeevtronics, Pvt Ltd., Pune and is developing an affordable hand-cranked defibrillator for low and middle income countries.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://vcevents.pandaform.com/pub/m8qggl/new

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

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Python Pune Meet: Python 101: Introduction to Python

  • Date: Fri, 4 Apr 6:00pm – 8:00pm
  • Location: BMC Software, Tower A, ICC Tech Park, SB Road

This month, we are conducting a Python 101 by Rudrasen Sitoleh

The tutorial will be conducted using Python 2.7, make sure you have python installed on your laptops, before you come for the tutorial.

To install python, you can follow the instructions given on python.org. Make sure you install the latest version available in the Python 2.7.x branch. Please do not install Python 3.x series for this tutorial.

Note:

  • Follow all instructions given by BMC staff
  • Kindly keep your laptop serial numbers handy, as you will be required to enter them at the BMC reception.
  • Please ensure that you are at BMC reception, a minimum 15 mins before the event starts.

About Python Pune Group

Python Pune is a group of people interested in Python development. You can join our mailing list for the discussions, and we have regular meetings. See the Python Pune Website for more information.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/PythonPune/events/174633282/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events.

DrupalCamp Pune 2014: 5/6 April

  • Date: 5- 6 Apr
  • Location: SIMS (Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies), Range Hills, Pune

Drupal in Pune started back in February 2009 as Pune Drupal User Group (PDRUG), with an objective to strengthen the local Drupal community in Pune. The first meetup saw 3 Drupalers, in last year we have been able to engage Drupalers in monthly code sprints where focus is on on D8 core contributions. In addition to code sprints, Pune community has also organised global training days and specialized workshops for Pune colleges.

The first Drupal Camp Pune was organized back in 2009. In this first camp there were 300+ attendees. One of the fun highlights of the Drupal Camp Pune 2009 was the Drupal Song which featured in Dries’s blog :), we soon followed up Drupal Day/Hackathon in presence of Addison Berry (former documentation lead, Drupal). Between 2010 and 2014, Drupal community has been focusing on a lot of Drupal meet ups and now its time to have a bigger event: “Drupal Camp Pune 2014.”

What to expect?

In Drupal Camp Pune 2014 you will meet some of the earliest contributors to Drupal in India from around the country. For developers and students, the event presents opportunities for learning, getting involved in community contributions via code/ review/ QA for Drupal 8. One of the main objective of this camp is to engage students more personally in a ladder like workshop. For the business community there will be an opportunity for learning from sessions based on case studies of Drupal websites, meeting representatives of the leading Drupal companies in India, and some of the brightest individuals working on Drupal.

What should I bring in Pune Drupal Camp?

Just come with Open mind and laptop with Drupal 7 installation. You can follow instruction over here.

Keynote – Jacob Singh

Jacob is the country head for Acquia India where he manages all alliances, business development and services in the region. He is an experienced trainer, project manager, developer and scrum-master with 14 years of experience building great web experiences, seven with Drupal.

One of the early Acquians(2008), Jacob holds the distinction of working in the most departments. He has been an integral part of the Acquia Search and Drupal Gardens products, a recognized Drupal trainer and consultant and a solution architect.

Important dates:

  • Call for Papers starts on 12th March, 2014 and ends on 27th March, 2014
  • List of Accepted sessions to be announced on 29th March, 2014
  • Actual event is on 5th and 6th April

Call for papers

DrupalCamp would love to get your proposals for sessions to be delivered in Drupal Camp Pune. You may select any topic from the poolof development, design or anything interesting that you would like to share. Last date for submitting your proposal is 27th March, 2014.

Call for papers: http://camp2014.punedrupalgroup.com/session/add

Call for Sponsors

Not only does a platform like Drupal Camp make the community stronger, but it also contributes to grow economic ecosystem. By Sponsoring Drupal camp you show your commitment to Drupal and the community at large.

Become a sponsor: http://camp2014.punedrupalgroup.com/sponsor-camp

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://camp2014.punedrupalgroup.com/user/register

Event website: http://camp2014.punedrupalgroup.com/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events, or follow @punetech on twitter

(Paid) Pune Ruby Users Group Meetup: One day offsite at Lonavala

  • Date: Sat, 5 Apr 10:00am – 6:00pm
  • Location: Velvet country resort Lonawala, Vikas Valley, S. V. Road, Near P.W.D. Resort House, Khandala

Talks

  • 10am – 12.30pm: Hackathon on Brails http://brails.org
  • 12.30pm – 1.30pm: Lunch
  • 1.30pm – 4pm: Hackaton on Brails.
  • 4pm onwards: party time & networking. maybe go for a swim, play cricket etc.

About Pune Ruby Users Group

Pune Ruby Users Group is a Meetup Group for all developers interested in Ruby (not necessarily Rails). For more information see the meetup page: http://www.meetup.com/PuneRailsMeetup/

Fees and Registration

Expenses : Rs. 800 per person excluding travel charges. Please pay the organisers when you arrive there.

This event is open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/PuneRailsMeetup/events/173779012/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events.

SEAP Book Club: New Age Leadership – by @MaheshBaxi

  • Date: Sat, 5 Apr 10:00am – 11:30am
  • Location: Hall 5, A Wing, MCCIA, ICC Towers, SB Road

Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) has a Book Club that meets on the first Saturday of most months, where one of the senior executives from the Software Industry in Pune gives a presentation based on a popular book.

This month, Mahesh Baxi, (CEO and Founder of PurpleGear Software, previously, MD of Thoughtworks India), will talk about his own book “New Age Leadership”.

About SEAP – Software Exporters Association of Pune

The Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) is an organization that consists of large to small software export companies in Pune. SEAP acts as a single body representative for the software companies and puts forth its proposals and demands for larger IT related issues with the concerned authorities. SEAP also provides an umbrella under which various technical and marketing issues can also be discussed along with a learning opportunity provided within the member companies. SEAP promotes itself and its activities to the outside world (both within and outside the country) in order to boost the software business from within the Pune region. SEAP publishes and distributes material necessary for the promotion of its existence and objectives. Finally SEAP also endeavors to increase employee interaction within the member companies by organizing various sports events, cultural and extra curricular activities whereby a healthy competition between the various companies can be maintained.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Register by sending a mail to rsvp@softexpune.org.

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event with the organizers. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events, or follow @punetech on twitter

Docker Pune Meetup: Intro to Docker; Docker Remove Client API

  • Date: Sat, 5 Apr 10:30am – 12:45pm
  • Location: Red Hat Software Services (RHSS), Level-1 Tower-10, Cyber City, Magarpatta City, Hadapsar
  1. Introduction to Docker – by Navid Shaikh (@SwordPhilic)
    • This session is aimed for folks joining meetup for first time or new to Docker.
    • This session will cover, introduction, hands on CLI for Docker,Docker Index, working with Docker Index, building an image from Dockerfile.
  2. Docker Remote API Client Libraries (python) – by Navid Shaikh

About Docker Pune Meetup Group

Meet developers and ops engineers using Docker in Pune. Docker is an open-source engine for building and deploying cloud applications as standalone containers which can run on any server – from the VM on your laptop to the largest EC2 compute instance, and everything in between. Docker is a great building block for deploying web apps, database services, service-oriented architectures, and so on. Learn more about Docker at http://www.docker.io

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/Docker-Pune/events/173706202/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events, or follow @punetech on twitter

WordPress User Group Pune Meetup

  • Date: Sat, 5 Apr 5:00pm – 7:00pm
  • Location: Cafe Coffee Day, Ground Floor, Gold Big Cinemas, Kalyani Nagar

Let’s discuss our love for WordPress and how we can contribute back to community

About the Pune WordPress User Group

This group is for anyone interested in discussing WordPress, be it users, developers, bloggers or beginners. We intend to meet every month, one of the item in every meetup would be to decide the agenda for next meet up .

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here: http://www.meetup.com/Pune-WordPress-User-Group/events/167954292/

Please double-check the date/time/venue of the event at the above link. We try to ensure that PuneTech calendar listings are accurate, but occasional errors creep in.

About the PuneTech Calendar

Get event announcements by email. Click here to subscribe (free) to the PuneTech Calendar of events, or follow @punetech on twitter

Startup Showcase PuneConnect on 23 November – Apply Now

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PuneConnect 2013 invites all startups from Pune or nearby areas to apply for a chance to showcase their products at to larger companies in Pune, on 23rd November 2013, at Hyatt (Ista) Pune. This event is free for all participants. If you are unsure of whether this event is appropriate for you or not, please go ahead and apply, and our selection committee will figure out whether you’re a good fit or not.

The idea of PuneConnect is to connect established Pune companies with the innovative startups on their doorstep. The hardest thing for a startup is to find early adopters that give them the credibility and experience that they require, and we believe that Pune’s established base of leading edge companies in Software, IT Services, KPOs and Engineering are the perfect early customers.  We want to make sure that a thousand innovative startups bloom in Pune’s Silicon Valley safe in the knowledge that there is a deep and caring ecosystem close to home to serve as mentors, customers, and as angel investors.  And for all of our established companies, the inflow of new ideas and technologies that these startups bring into our offices help to refresh us, energize us, and to make us even more ready for the global stage.

PuneConnect 2013 builds on the success of PuneConnect 2011 and PuneConnect 2012. See an Overview of PuneConnect 2011 Results and Media Coverage to get an idea of the benefits reaped by the startups selected last year (including getting funded, getting featured on TV, getting invited to national conferences, and newspaper articles.)

Benefits to selected startups include:

  • Exposure to Pune’s top companies, potential customers and potential mentors
  • Exposure to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors who are being invited to the event
  • Press and media coverage before and after the event
  • Winners of the event get automatic entries to other country-level events (e.g. those organized by NASSCOM)

PuneConnect is an initiative of:

SEAP Logo
SEAP (Software Exporters Association of Pune)
PuneStartups Logo
PuneStartups.org (Pune Open Coffee Club)
punetech Logo
PuneTech
tie pune logo
TiE Pune
mccia logo
MCCIA Pune
NASSCOM logo
NASSCOM
HIA Pune Logo
Hinjewadi Industries Association

PuneConnect 2012 application date extended to 19 Nov

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Since this is Diwali Week, and people are on vacation, we have received a number of requests to extend the deadline for submission. The deadline has now been extended until end of day, Monday, 19th November.

For details of how and what to submit, see the Submit A Proposal page at PuneConnect.com. For more information about PuneConnect itself, see [the original Pune Connect call for applications[(http://puneconnect.com/puneconnect-2012-dec-1-apply-now/)

Remember, this event is absolutely free for all participants, so you have no excuse to not apply.

(Note: all those who have already submitted applications, you should have received an email acknowledgement. If you have not received an acknowledgement, please re-submit your proposal, or leave a comment on this post and we’ll get in touch with you.)

Here are some selected testimonials from companies that presented at PuneConnect 2011:

Anand Kekre, CEO and Co-founder of Vaultize

Overall it was a good experience in PuneConnect 2011. We got some publicity as well as used the “Best Startup” accolade and ET Now coverage in our marketing. […] I would recommend such events to all startups.

Saurabh Jain, Co-founder, Intellista Software Studios:

The PuneConnect experience was really helpful.

[…]

However, I thought the following were really helpful:

  1. Getting insightful feedback from many experienced and senior people from the Indian startup ecosystem – who have been there and done that. This is difficult to get for many young startups with few connections.
  2. We were short listed for the ETNow show – which as an interesting experience in itself 🙂 Taught us a few things on how to pitch, especially on the TV. The feedback by the judges helped too.
  3. We got to get the entire team out (even though it was just four of us) and everyone got to pitch and explain to other people what our product does. This is always helpful and provides good exposure to the team. And lets face it, how often do we get such chances?
  4. The format of the event was such that we did not have to spend a LOT of time preparing for it – maybe a couple of days. Which is always good – because you do not end up wasting time.

Overall, the event lived up to more than my expectations and we all had a great time.

Rahul Sawant, Director, BizPorto:

It was indeed excellent initial push for bizporto. One of the early recognition by 4 prominent organizations together gave us confidence to move ahead. Well, we couldn’t get into the ET Now session nevertheless the opportunity was big. The visibility through this event was big & it helped us networking with few industry dignitaries & we are getting an excellent guidance from them in running the business.

PuneConnect 2012: An event to connect Pune Startups to Enterprises – 1 Dec

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After the huge success of PuneConnect 2011, we are back again with PuneConnect 2012, a mega event for Pune startups to showcase their products and services to the world at large, and specifically to larger companies in Pune. PuneConnect 2012 will be on 1st December 2012, and the idea behind the event is to allow the best startups in Pune a platform where they can find customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates amongst Pune’s established companies, and successful senior entrepreneurs.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM. SEAP and NASSCOM have large communities of established companies, and PuneStartups.org, TiE Pune and PuneTech represent thriving communities of Pune’s young startups. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Any startup company from Pune or nearby areas, who has a product that they would like to demo, should submit a proposal by following the instructions at http://PuneConnect.com. A panel of selectors drawn from experts in the industry will select the most promising startups who will be allowed to set up a stall at PuneConnect on 1st December.

Benefits to selected startups include:

  • Exposure to Pune’s top companies, potential customers and potential mentors
  • Exposure to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors who are being
    invited to the event
  • Press and media coverage before and after the event
  • Winners of the event get automatic entries to other country-level events (e.g. those organized by NASSCOM)

PuneConnect 2011 showcased 12 Pune startups. All the companies got a lot of exposure to potential customers, angel investors, VCs and media.

Media Coverage: The Financial Express, the Financial Chronicle, Business Standard, and the top Marathi newspapers Sakal and Maharashtra Times all carried detailed articles about PuneConnect and the companies. All 12 companies got mentions in various articles. One company, World Without Me, got a half-page article in Pune Mirror as a direct result of being featured in PuneConnect 2011.

Entries to other prestigious events: 4 of the selected companies (InnovizeTech, ReliScore, DroidCloud, and AdMogul) were selected to be featured on an episode ETNow TV Channel’s Starting Up show. 4 of the companies (kPoint, Vaultize, InnovizeTech and DroidCloud) were selected for participation in a national-level conference organized by Zinnov, where they got to demo their products to companies from all over India. Two of the companies (BizPorto, and InTouchId) went on to be a part of the TiE Pune Nurture Initiative where they got in-depth mentoring in becoming ready for funding.

Funding: DroidCloud (now known as AppSurfer) got an invitation to the SuperAngels show on the ETNow Channel as a direct result of being in PuneConnect 2011, and a chance to win Rs. 1 crore in funding on the show. AppSurfer actually went on to win the show and secure the funding.

If you’re interested

Activities of SEAP – the Software Exporters Association of Pune

Featured

SEAP (the Software Exporters Association of Pune), the organization consisting of top software companies of Pune has been very active last year. On 27th July SEAP had its AGM, and at this, Gaurav Mehra, president of SEAP gave a report of his activities. This is a quick capture of his report – and should give an idea of the various SEAP activities in Pune.

These are the major activities of SEAP last year:

  • Advocacy. Represent Pune’s software companies at:
    • RAC Customs,
    • STPI, Hinjewadi
    • ESI Inspector
    • PF Office
  • Ideas Exchange and Education
    • SEAP Book Club meets on the first Saturday of every month – 10am at Sungard Aundh. 13 books have been presented so far, and this will continue
    • Breakfast series – 3rd Wednesday of every month -at Sumant Moolgaokar Auditorium, ICC, SB Road. Cover topics of interest to middle management and higher. Topics covered in the 4 sessions so far – Innovation, Security, etc.
    • Leadership Forum. 15 member companies trained on Crucial Conversations. Atyaasaa did a session on managing human resources in turbulent times.
    • SEAP Education.
  • Collaboration and Connection
    • Working with and expanding the eco-system
    • Working closely with NASSCOM to bring their events to Pune in a much more aggressive manner
    • PuneConnect (done with PuneTech, Pune Open Coffee Club, TiE Pune, and ET Now) put small startups Pune in touch with the established companies.
    • SEAP-Zinnov event.
    • SEAP’s Other collaborations with the ecosystem
      • TiE – exchange invitations and merge calendars
      • IPMA Pune hosted along with the SEAP Book Club
      • PuneTech – exchange of calendars and invitations
      • CSI Pune – exchange of invitations
  • Networking
    • SEAP Golf: Golf tournament and clinic. 50 players. (Thanks Dell computers)
  • Value Added Services
    • Research, communication and partner networks
    • Create SEAP Associate Members – a bunch of companies, who are “recommended” providers of products and services that are of interest to SEAP member companies.
    • Research and Publications: Compensation and Benefits study for Pune by Hexagon
    • Pune Advantage Study by Zinnov
  • Communication
    • Brand new SEAP website – with the help of Aadi Ventures
      • Member areas
      • Features for Colleges
      • Creation of Companies Directories by area
    • Facebook page
    • LinkedIn Group
    • YouTube Page
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
    • Hosted Bhimthadi Jatra in SEAP member companies
    • Supported Students FUEL
  • SEAP Advisory Council:
    • Creation of a SEAP Advisory Council consisting of past SEAP Presidents – Anand Desphande, Nitin Deshpande, Abhijit Atre, Chetan Shah who will advice SEAP on a formal biannual basis.
  • SEAP Ambassador in Silicon Valley Area:
    • Parag Mehta, of QLogic, past president of SEAP, is formally named as the “ambassador” of SEAP in the Silicon Valley. He will be the evangelist for Pune and SEAP there.

SEAP Book Club Report: “Good to Great”

Live Blogging, ,

This is a liveblog of the SEAP Book Club Meeting on 7th July, where Gaurav Mehra, co-founder and MD of Saba Software, talked about the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. The SEAP Book Club meets on the first Saturday of every month at 10:30am in Sungard, Aundh.

This book is the second in a series of books. The first was Built to Last which talked about why some companies survive for more than 100 years – while others die. Good to Great talks about what makes some companies special enough to jump far higher over other successful companies. The 3rd book was How the Mighty Fall – This talked about why some companies, which seem to be doing great, fail. And finally, Great by Choice, their latest book, pulls all these threads together.

Interesting points made during the talk:

  • Good is the enemy of the great. If you’re good enough you will not strive for greatness. Need to be constantly wary of falling into this trap.
  • What you need is disciplined people, followed by disciplined thought, and finally disciplined action which will result in breakthrough greatness
  • This book is based on a study over 30 years of some great companies, deliberately compared against very similar companies which were successful but fell short of greatness. The suggestions on the book are based on what they found empirically.
  • Level 5 Leadership:
    • Personal Humility combined with Professional Will
    • Darwin Smith of Kimberly Clark: “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job”
    • It’s always we not _I_
    • Usually not media heroes – not many articles will be written about them
    • Have ambition for company, not for self
    • 90% of such leaders come from within the company
  • Larger than Life leaders (Jack Welch, Lee Iacocca) are not good for a company at this stage. Characteristics of such leaders:
    • Took existing large/great companies – did not create the greatness
    • Set up successors for failure
    • Personal ambition trumps what’s best for companies
    • Large acquisitions, which might not make sense for the company
    • Note: the names mentioned above are not bad leaders. But they’re not the leaders who can take a good company to greatness.
    • Data shows that bringing a larger than life outsider into a company is negatively correlated with performance
  • Set up successors for success
    • Humble leaders with ambition for company, not self, do this very well
    • Larger than life leaders usually fail at this
    • Henry Singleton, co-founder of Teledyne was a good leader, built and ran Teledyne for a very long time, but the company did not do well after his retirement because he wasn’t able to groom a good successor
  • Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus
    • The great leaders did not focus on what to do. They focused on who should be in charge, and great things happened automatically
    • Having a genius at the top, with a thousand helpers (e.g. Singleton at Teledyne) is a bad idea. When the genius leaves, the helpers don’t know what to do.
    • It’s about whom you pay, not how or how much. The people should be there because they are passionate about what you’re doing, not focused on the salary. “Hire five, work them like ten, and pay them like eight.” This will lead to a lot of turn over, especially in the early stages, but in the long term, this will work best.
  • When in doubt, dont hire
    • Hire only A+ people. As Steve Jobs pointed out, if you hire B people, they will in turn hire C people and your company will go to the dogs.
  • Give your best people where the opportunities are – not where the problems are
    • The CEO of RJR Nabisco put his best person in charge of the international business, which accounted for 1% of the business – because that’s where the growth was. He went from controlling 99% of the company to 1% of the company. The result – RJR Nabisco became a world leader before becoming the leader in USA.
  • Confront the brutal facts

The Hedgehog Concept

The Hedgehog Concept idea is one of the most interesting parts of the book.

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows only one thing. Focus on just that one big thing.

What you do, should be an intersection of these:

  • What you are deeply passionate about
  • What you are the best in the world about
  • What drives your economic engine

In other words, something is worth doing only if you can do it, you will enjoy doing it, and someone is willing to pay for it. If one of these is missing, dont do it.

Learn to say “No.” Stay with your Hedgehog principle and do not run after the new hotness. Like you have a ToDo list, you should also have a “Stop Doing” list. Your best returns come from having an undiversified portfolio (when you’re right).

Summary

  • Disciplined People
    • Level 5 Leadership
    • First Who then What
  • Disciplined Thought
    • Confront the Brutal Facts
    • Hedgehog Concept
  • Disciplined Action
    • Culture of Discipline
    • Technology Accelerations

Event Report: “Innovate or Die” – Suhas Kelkar, CTO-APAC, BMC Software

Event Report, Featured, ,

(This is a live blog of Suhas Kelkar’s talk at the SEAP Breakfast Meet. Suhas talked about his experience of building an incubator at BMC Software.)

Background

  • Suhas joined BMC Pune and was given the job of creating an innovation incubator within the company.
  • This was the second attempt at creating an incubator in BMC. A previous attempt had failed spectacularly. The previous one had been started with great fanfare, with a 100 people team, and over time, it went down to 80, to 60 to nothing. With this history Suhas started his incubator with zero employees, and minimal fanfare.

On Innovation

  • Suhas defines innovation as “Ideas to Cash.” This is important. The focus on cash, i.e. revenues, was an important difference between this incubator and the previous incubator, and also other research labs in companies around the world. Invention for the sake of invention, research for the sake of research is something that they definitely did not want to do. The wanted to ensure that everything they do has a direct or indirect revenue impact upside for BMC.
  • There actually exists a document called “The Oslo Manual” which is a set of guidelines for how to do innovation. It is a free PDF that anyone can download, and Suhas recommends that to anyone interested in innovation.
  • The Oslo Manual points out that innovation can happen in 4 different areas Product, Process, Marketing and Organization. Suhas adds a 5th category of innovation: “User Experience”

The BMC Incubator

  • Why does a product company need an incubator? Product teams get bogged down by tactical improvements for existing customers, and the larger vision (beyond 12-24 months) does not get attention. Startups innovate all the time, and BMC does buy innovative companies, but then integrating them into the company is a huge overhead, and fraught with risks. It would be much more efficient to do innovation in-house if it could be made to work
  • The incubator is a separate team who can focus on these issues. It is a small team (about 25 people) compared to the 200 people in just one of the product groups that BMC has. And these 25 people try various different innovative ideas, 9 of 10 of which are bound to fail. But even that failure adds value because that means there are 9 things that the 200 people product team does not have to try out – hence they’re shielded from dead ends and unproductive explorations.
  • The mandate for the new incubator (partially based on lessons learnt from the failure of the previous incubator was):
    • Don’t alienate the product teams – you’ll never succeed without their help and blessings
    • Understand the base products thoroughly. Superficial understanding of the issues, toy applications, will not earn the respect of the product team
    • Frequent communication with the business teams
    • File many patents

  • The Process

    • The incubator takes inputs from:
      • The office of the CTO, which strategizes and puts together a vision. Before the incubator team, the office of the CTO would hand over the long term vision and strategy to the product team, which was ill equipped to handle it. Now, the incubator fits this gap
      • Product Business Units
      • Customers and Partners
      • Academia (what is the latest in research)
    • The idea backlog is looked at by these three teams:
      • The governance team which meets once in 6 months
      • The alignment team which meets once a quarter
      • The execution team which meets once a month
    • The output of the incubator are:
      • White Papers
      • Prototypes
      • Delivery
      • Patents
      • Innovation Culture
  • Challenges for an Incubator
    • How to measure innovation? Number of patents is not a good enough metric.
    • Motivation: the motivation for the incubator and the people on the team must come from within. Creating the motivation, and staying motivated, in the face of 9 failures out of every 10 ideas tried, is difficult.
    • Difficult skill set: the team needs people who are smart, intelligent architects, but also hands on developers, with ability to switch context frequently, understanding the overall BMC vision, ability to sell/market ideas internally, and most importantly they need to be technology as well as business savvy. Finding people like this is a tall order.
  • The incubator only does small projects. There are two kinds of projects: “research” and “prototype”.
    • Research projects which are just 1 person 1 week, where that person is supposed to study something for a week and come back with a report.
    • Prototype projects are just 2 or 3 people working for a maximum of 2 months to build a prototype – not necessarily a shipping product. The prototype should prove or disprove some specific hypothesis, and there is a tricky balance to be made in deciding which parts of the prototype will be “real” and which parts will be simple mocked up.

Future Directions

  • From technology incubation, they want to move to co-innovation, where they work in conjunction with product teams, and customers to innovate.
  • After that they would even like to do business incubation – where the product team is not interested in looking at an adjacent business, in which case the incubator would like to have the ability to go after that market themselves.
  • The Indian IT industry, from humble beginnings, is moving up the value chain.
    • First we were doing cost arbitrage (1990s)
    • Now we have process maturity (2000s)
    • The next step would be to get product ownership, and product management here (2010s)
    • Finally, in the 2020s we’ll be able to do innovation, incubation, entrepreneurship
    • The bottomline is that Indian IT industry should be focusing on taking on more and more Product Management responsibilities

Questions from Audience

  • Q: The incubator needs people who understand the current products thoroughly. Which means that you need to steal the stars from each product team, because you cannot really hire from outside. And obviously the product team is not willing to give up their stars. How do you solve this problem?
    • A: In general, trying to get stars from the product teams is not possible. You wont get them, and you sour the relationship with the product teams. Instead, what works is to hire the smartest outside people you can hire and then make them learn the product. These people are then teamed up with the right people in the product team during the ‘learning’ process. The learning process is still a bit ad hoc and we haven’t yet formalized it, but at the very least it involves doing some work hands-on.
  • Q: What do you answer when a product team asks what is the value you are adding?
    • A: We constantly worry about the value we are adding, and we keep pro-actively stay in touch with the product teams and constantly keep reminding them of the value we add. If it ever happens that a product team asks what value you are bringing, you are already too late
  • Q: How are you engaging in academia, and what else would you like to do?
    • A: Currently, we get interns from academia. This allows them to do look at projects that would not get “approved” as regular projects, because “it’s just an intern project.”
  • Q: Customers are in the US. Product Managers are in the US. And you cannot innovate unless you understand customers and have close ties with the Product Managers. How do you do that sitting in India?
    • The head of the incubator must be the ultimate product manager, and more. First, s/he must have almost as much understanding of the market and the customers as the product manager of the actual product. In addition s/he must have a vision beyond just what customers want, so that they are able to generate innovative ideas. Successful engagement and understanding of Product Management is key to success of an incubator.
  • Q: How do you ensure that the output of an incubator prototype is actually accepted by a product team, and how does the process work
    • All prototype projects require buy-in from the product team and other stakeholders, agreeing tentatively that if the prototype is successful, the product team will actually put that project onto the release schedule. Once the prototype is completed, it is incorporated into the release schedule, and the 2/3 people who worked on the prototype transition into the product team temporarily.

SEAP Book Club Event Report: MindSet presented by Gireendra Kasmalkar

Event Report, ,

(This is a live-blog of the SEAP Book Club meeting that happened on 4th Feb at Sungard Aundh. Gireendra Kasmalkar, MD & CEO of SQS India, talked about a book called “Mindset – The Psychology of Success.” The contents of this post are not directly related to technology, however, it is published on PuneTech since this was a SEAP meeting, and most of the people attending were senior members from Pune’s IT industry. Hence, we felt that it would be of interest to PuneTech readers to get an idea of what senior member of SEAP are talking about. Please note: this is a partial and incomplete account of what Gireendra talked about, and possibly has my biases. Also, since it is a live-blog, it will ramble a little and might contain errors.)

There are two different mindsets for humans: Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset. People with a fixed mindset use events as opportunities for assessment and validation of what they’re already doing. Those with a growth mindset use events as an opportunity to learn. Thus, the potential of a person with a fixed mindset is known, whereas the potential of a person with growth mindset is not only unknown, but also unknowable.

The key difference between the fixed mindset and growth mindset is how they think about natural talent vs effort. In general, as a society, we tend to value natural talent, and effortless accomplishment. But what’s so heroic about having a gift? Effort ignites ability and turns it into accomplishment. Note: just because someone is talented and can accomplish things effortlessly, it does not mean that we should think less of them. But we shouldn’t give them more credit just because they did it effortlessly.

A person with a fixed mindset thinks that if you need to put in effort then you’re not talented. And they are terrified of putting in an effort, because what if you fail even after put in effort? Thus, failure is a setback, and they tend to blame it on someone else. On the other hand success is about being gifted and is validation of being smart. They have a sense of entitlement. They get a thrill from doing things that are easy for them, and their self-esteem comes from being better than others.

By contrast, a person with a growth mindset thinks of effort as the main driver of success. They are terrified by the idea of not capitalizing on opportunities. Failure does hurt them, but it does not define them. It is taken as an opportunity to learn and improve. So success is about putting effort and stretching yourself, thrills come from doing hard things, and self-esteem come from being better than yesterday.

So, in the long term, growth mindset brings more success, and also helps you stay at the top.

Benjamin Bloom studied 120 outstanding achievers over 40 years. After 40 years of research, they concluded that it is not possible to predict future achievement of a person from current abilities. Basically, that their research showed is that if one person can learn something then any other person can learn the same thing given appropriate prior and current conditions of learning (except for 2% of extremely gifted or extremely impaired people.)

Not performing up to standards should be seen as an indicator for further learning.

Psychological research shows that people who are told they were brilliant become more conservative (because they want to conserve their “brilliant” image) whereas people who are praised for their effort put in more effort the next time.

Bottomline: negotiators, managers, leaders are made not born. Any ability, including artistic ability can be learnt. And does not really take very long to learn.

Failure is the key to learning, and achievement, and ultimate success. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, gave a great commencement speech at Harvard talking about The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination. The basic claim is that success in school/college, resulting in a well paying job, is actually a deterrent to success – because you will no longer be willing to leave your comfort zone and take risks. Nitin Deshpande of Allscripts talks about an incident from the early part of his career: a person who was considering offering a partnership to Nitin asked Nitin whether he had ever failed at anything in life, and when Nitin said that he hadn’t really failed at anything, he was told that he was not qualified to be a partner.

Final thoughts:

  • If you think: “This is hard. This is fun,” then you have a growth mindset, and you’ll do well
  • Categorize people as learners and non-learners (instead of successes and failures.)
  • A fixed mindset will limit what you can achieve with your ability, whereas a growth mindset will help you realize the full potential.
  • You can and should train yourself to get into a growth mindset

SEAP Book Club Meet: “Mindset – The New Psychology of Success” – Gireendra Kasmalkar

Events, ,

Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) has a Book Club that meets on the first Saturday of every month, where one of the senior executives from the Software Industry in Pune gives a presentation based on a popular book.

This month, Gireendra Kasmalkar, Managing Director and CEO, SQS India, will talk about “Mindset – The New Psychology of Success”, at 10am on 4th Feb, at Sungard, Aundh.

If you are a professional in the IT industry, the SEAP Book Club is a good way to not only get a feel for the kinds of topics you need to worry about as you progress in your career, but also a place to meet some of the leaders of software companies in Pune.

More details about the book:

Mindset is one of those rare books that can help you make positive changes in your life and at the same time see the world in a new way.

A leading expert in motivation and personality psychology, Carol Dweck has discovered in more than twenty years of research that our mindset is not a minor personality quirk: it creates our whole mental world. It explains how we become optimistic or pessimistic. It shapes our goals, our attitude toward work and relationships, and how we raise our kids, ultimately predicting whether or not we will fulfill our potential. Dweck has found that everyone has one of two basic mindsets.

If you have the fixed mindset, you believe that your talents and abilities are set in stone-either you have them or you don’t. You must prove yourself over and over, trying to look smart and talented at all costs. This is the path of stagnation. If you have a growth mindset, however, you know that talents can be developed and that great abilities are built over time. This is the path of opportunity-and success.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. It’s on Saturday, 4th February, from 10am to 11:30am, at Sungard, Westend Center, Aundh. Register by sending a mail to rsvp@softexpune.org.

SEAP Book Club Meet: The Steve Jobs Way with Suhas Kelkar

Events,

Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) has a Book Club that meets on the first Saturday of every month, where one of the senior executives from the Software Industry in Pune gives a presentation based on a popular book.

This month, Suhas Kelkar, CTO Asia-Pacific, and Senior Director (Incubation Team) at BMC Software, will talk about “The Steve Jobs Way” by Jay Elliot.

Update: Here is the presentation Suhas used for the event:

SEAP Book Review on Prezi

If you cannot see a presentation above click here to be taken to the presentation page.

More details about the book:

The former Senior Vice President of Apple Computer and close colleague of Steve Jobs’s throughout his tenure, Jay Elliot takes readers on a remarkable tour through Jobs’s astonishing career. From the inception of game-changing products like the Apple II and the Macintosh, to his stunning fall from grace, and on to his rebirth at the helm of Apple, his involvement with Pixar, and the development of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and much more, The Steve Jobs Way presents real-life examples of Jobs’s leadership challenges and triumphs, showing readers how to apply these principles to their own lives and careers.

The meeting will be on Saturday 7th Jan, from 10am to 11:30am, at SunGard’s Aundh office (Westend Center One, in the same building as Reliance Mart). This event is free and open for all SEAP members and their friends. Register by sending a mail to rsvp@softexpune.org.