All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 4 Comments
Statutory Warning:
At this very moment , there could be an article being written on similar lines on some other blog or there is already an article published on some other blog, than why have “Same wine in a new bottle”-the reason to this , later in the article

Back to Blogging business:
Over a period of time, when a blogger regularly updates his/her blog , (s)he may feel that his/her blog has unique content and (s)he is the first person to blog about it. But ideally, none of the blogs would have really UNIQUE content and this is the primary reason why many non-bloggers(including avid blog readers) don’t feel like having their own personal blog cry

After taking collective feedback from non-bloggers , below are the top four reasons why people don’t blog:

Blogging – a geeky stuff :
This is one of the most common misconceptions that non-bloggers have about blogging.Some feel that blogging is really a geeky stuff and you need very high technical expertise to blog.IMHO,the bare minimum equipment for blogging is FireFox[& some of the required plugins that monitor the loading time of the page as well as that can edit the HTML code(considering the simplest case)],than you are ready to blog surprised So, as a first step remove the misconception that Blogging is only for geeks but after blogging, you would definitely consider yourself a bit Geeky !!!

What and when to write:
Most of the early stage bloggers are confused about “What do I write?” phenomena.Just try noting down your interests in a sheet of paper and pick a topic(or a mixture of topics) for your blog.You need not be an expert on the topic but the bottom line is “The quality of articles (that your blog features), would reveal the dedication with which you blog“.The reason for this is: Readers are always smarter than the blogger him/her self.So, start a blog only if you know that you would dedicate sometime for your blog, best solution is make a blogging time table. Depending on the availability of time,you should update your blog.

Also, one more important thing is , if you cannot dedicate time to blogging than create a MeMe where you just accumulate links , which would be a repository of information for the user.

No one reads my blog:
This is one of the most pathetic problem for any blogger.Oh I am blogging since past two weeks but no one(including my friends) is reading my blog.The fundamental reason behind blogging is not to show others about your capability but to capture your thoughts in a safe place,which is a Blog in this case biggrin If you are the one who is writing something with dedication & interest than definitely readers would be hooked to your blog.But the crux lies in creating good content.Also, whatever you write for example:on Startups, Entrepreneurship, Blogging Tips…. ; you would find that information on every alternate blog but that should be a hindrance for you.

Just write your heart out while blogging and if you cannot, than take a post from some other blog and give a linkback to that post.Some bloggers feel that every post should be original but even if you linkback,that post is original and this is how the entire Blogosphere expands and you produce readership for your blog biggrin

Oh Lord .. I am exposed:
This is the fear that most of the part time bloggers have in their mind.When you blog,you always want that when someone is doing a Google search for you,(s)he should get to your blog(as one of the search results).Now you are scared since you are now on a search engine and you are (more) visible to everyone.But keep this worry aside since, if you are blogging for a constructive reason than you have every right to get more visibility !!!

Trust me, if you write your heart out(taking the feedback from your avid readers into consideration) , day won’t be far when people would recall you by your Blog URL and not your name….Your blog will be your identity !!!

(If you have some more points(reasons) , kindly add them in the comments section of the article)

So,go ahead and blog..Let others know that you have also taken a plunge into this ever expanding Blogosphere but be sure to return to this Blog wink !!!!

|In: Business|Last Updated:
1. Peter Drucker on “Enjoyment of work” –

Those who perform love what they are doing,I(Peter Drucker) am not saying that they like everything they do;but there’s something quite different.

Everybody has to do a lot of routine,there’s an enormous amount of routine.Every great pianist has to do three hours of playing scale each day and nobody would tell they love it,but they have to do it.It’s not fun but even after 40 years you feel the experience.
Pianists have a wonderful expression I heard many years ago,I practice till I have life in my fingers.I am sure it is a dull routine but you enjoy it.

Same is the case with people in business who enjoy the work,the routine is that it’s got to be done but still I enjoy the routine.This is not the difference between Mediocrity and Performing but between “A Learning organization where the organization grows(& than the whole process changes) and an organization that may be doing very well,but no one misses it after 5 o’clock !!! “

2. Bill Gates on “Team Building” –

While building a team, search for people who love to win;if it is difficult to find them, atleast look for people who hate to loose…

|In: Books|Last Updated: | 2 Comments
Everyone is a leader irrespective of the role they follow yet,there are some of the common qualities that each one of us need to follow to be a leader.As every big change is a combination of every small change, same is the case with leadership.Just happened to check out a book “24 Lessons in High Performance Management” ,where they have listed the top 10 characteristics of Leaders and if a leader meets all the 10 characteristics,than kudos!!!, he/she is a Great Leader biggrin

1. Uncompromising integrity:
It’s the foundation for quality and service to both internal and external customers.

2. Absence of pettiness:
The greatest drain of energy in an organization is pettiness.Leaders understand the difference between interesting and important.

3. Works on things by priority:
This results in stability under pressure and makes for an excellent problem solver.A leader who works by priorities prepares a daily priority list:he/she starts with #1 and doesn’t deal with #2 when finished, but instead deals with the new #1 and so on.

4. Courageous:
Leaders don’t lead life meekly.They know there is a deep well of courage within each of us,whether or not we use it.Their creed is “It’s always too soon to quit” so,keep on fighting and fighting..

5. Committed:
Leaders know that they won’t die an early death by working hard in a job they love.They never hear low achievers saying,”Slow down!You’re going to ruin your health!!!”

6. Goal oriented:
Leaders understand that a lack of goals starts the process of both physical and mental shutdown.Great leaders are always goal oriented(A lesson for me as well cry)

7. Unorthodox:
These are the creators,the innovators and the think-outside-the box types.They learn from their successes and from their failures.They are originals and not copy-cats.

8. Inspired enthusiasm that’s contagious:
Leaders grow enthusiastic as they achieve their daily goals,which are part of the larger plan,not just daily tasks.They are acutely aware that without this contagious enthusiasm whatever mood they have will be contagious.

9. Levelheaded in times of crisis:
These are the people who do not come apart and remain steady during the time of crisis.They know that conflict overcome is strength gained.

10. Desire to help others grow:
Leaders know there is no saturation to education and that passing along knowledge and experience build synergistic relations.Have a two way feedback so that it gives the leader more room for improvement.

Work hard to achieve these qualities and if they are not fulfilled then:

An organization quits improving right after the manager quits improving !!!

|In: BarCampBangalore 4|Last Updated: | 8 Comments
Has been almost close to one week after the collective edition of BCB4 and almost most of the bloggers have already blogged about the event.For me,I was thinking about what to blog about this unconference?This unconference, I was juggling between the Startups Collective and the blogger’s collective.Apart from networking,some of the things which were interesting(and worth mentioning) are given below:

a. Startup story of Sloka Telecom:
This is the first time,I heard Sujai Karampuri,CEO of Sloka Telecom speaking about his startup and believe me, it was the attraction of BCB4.Everyone(including me) was glued on the seat.He narrated his journey from US(where he stayed for 9 years) to India(where he started Sloka Telecom) through self-funding.The moments of his talk to cherish were:

1. His faith on the Indian Entrepreneurial ecosystem.Sloka is very confident about building a product ecosystem in India.
2. He spoke about how he had spent a huge amount of money for his honeymoon and the hardships that he(and his family) has faced during his Entrepreneurial jouney.One statement I remember(word to word) is “Two years back,when I(refers to Sujai) used to leave my house,I felt today is the last day of Sloka but I stood by the company(and gave faith to my people) that we would survive and do well…and now we are generating revenues !!!” He received a big applause when he told this(very openly and with all the emotions) in front of the crowd smile
3. He touched upon the most common topic i.e Services and Product companies in India about which he has already blogged here…The example was a quite evident one,Infosys,established way before Google‘s existence generates less revenues than its latter counterpart.So,if you want to move at a faster pace,than build a product which makes a meaning else investors are very happy to fund you,if you have a services company cry
4. Someone in the crowd asked “How do you recruit people for a startup?” and “How to you inject passion in them?” and his answer was universal “Passion cannot be injected !!!” …I also added a point saying “Only if the person is passionate than he would contact you to work in your company and these are the guys who are needed in a startup“
5. The talk ended with the future of Sloka where he clearly sent out the message “We want to be the leaders in WiMax” and Sloka has a long way to go(by taking small steps)!!! So,is Sloka growing to get acquired? No not all !!!

Since,I had spoken to Sujai in Proto,I knew he is doing a fantastic job but after this talk,my respect for him reached newer heights and as he ended his talk,he was given a huge round of applause!!!

b. Real Power of Blogs:
For me,blog is second part of me and I really love my blog…Being a shy person,it was difficult to talk to people but with blogging,that shyness has vanished and I dream big as well as sometimes,be a motivator for some people!!!This barCamp,I met many people(which I would mention in the networking part of this article),whose blogs I read and some who read my blog…But few things surprised me:
1. Blogging is really powerful:
Honestly,I have asked few bloggers for a direct link exchange and one of them is Alok Srivastava,the ex-alumini from ISB and the winner of the Startups.in contest(where I also won the book).Being from Delhi,I never imagined I would talk to him,that too face to face…But he recognized me in the BCB4 crowd and it was nice talking to him about business.If that was not enough,he disclosed about him joining a startup(name deliberately kept confidential) and I was the very first blogger to write about that startup on my blog surprised
2. Blogging as a recruitment tool:
I personally like to maintain a nice bonding with my readers and it was a great feeling when I got to know that Piyush Gupta– an Entrepreneur(in the making) has joined a startup.Sometimes blogs can be more useful than mass media wink .Nowadays, bloggers having excellent blogs are considered as ideal people for a startup and Piyush was one of the bloggers in this space…This news made me feel that “Blogging can be an excellent recruitment platform” !!!

c. Demo of BabaLife:
Interesting website and should not be termed as a social networking site…Check it out here.

d. My Interview with Mutiny:
Jerry from Mutiny found my introduction at Blogger’s meet very interesting and decied to take a small interview where the focus was blogging.The interview lasted for around 2 minutes and some people felt that I had mugged up everything sad You can check the interview here For me,the speed with which I spoke I felt as if I am making an Elevator Pitch to get more visitors to my blog wink

e. Networking,Networking and more Networking:
Apart from my old blogger friends Ashwin,Sridhar Rao, Vibhash, Anbu Sivam, Rajan, Rajiv ; BCB4 was an excellent Networking event and some of the interesting people with whom I interacted with are:

  1. Alok Srivatsava
  2. Ashish Sinha
  3. Suresh Bhagavatula
  4. Lavanya Vishwanath
  5. Entire Mutiny team (you guys rock !!!)
  6. Thejesh GN
  7. Hrish Thota
  8. Jayanth
  9. Ramjee Ganti
  10. The Entire Chennai crew Kiruba,Vijay Anad,Ganesh App …..

What other bloggers have blogged about the event:

  1. Piyush : Demoing the product at BarCamp
  2. Sridhar : BCB-4 Summary of my experience
  3. Genious@Play : BarCamp-4 Day-2
  4. Thejesh GN : Look Maa I am on Mutiny
  5. Jerry – Some moments from BCB4
  6. Lavanya – Some things only get better
  7. Ashwin – Entrepreneurship at Home
  8. Anbusivam – Day 2@BarCamp Bangalore 4
  9. Sharmaji – BarCamp Bangalore – 4

|In: Business Model|Last Updated: | 2 Comments
Just came across an interesting and pictorial presentation on Business Models development.Excellent material but my “very” favourite slides were:
  1. Open Business Models # Slide 58
  2. Business process outsourcing “up-side down” in India # Slide 62

Enjoy the complete presentation wink !!!

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 5 Comments
My current read “Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble Robert Scoble & Shel Israel” was one of the most awaited books in my library biggrin Scoble, the Channel-9 creator has truly touched on all the aspects of blogging and is must read for any blogger!!!

Chapter#12 (How not to get Dooced) contains “The Corporate weblog Manifesto” , is a must read for corporate bloggers and how they can use blogs to strengthen their relationship with customers.Below is the complete manifesto:

1.
Tell the Truth,whole truth and nothing but the truth.If your competitor has a better product than link to it.They might also do a link exchange.

2.
Post fast on both good as well as bad news.If someone says something bad about the product , link to it before the second of third site does-and answer it’s claims as best as you can.Same , if there is some good news about your product.It’s all about building a long-term trust.

3.
Use a Human Voice.Don’t get corporate lawyers and PR professionals to modify your speech. We can tell,believe me. Plus, you’ll be too slow. If you’re the last one to post, the joke is on you! If we don’t see an occasional typo , we’ll start to wonder if you are really human rolleyes

4.
Make sure that you support the latest software/web/human standards.If you don’t know what they are,find about them.

5.
Have a thick skin.Don’t try to write a corporate blog unless you can’t answer all the questions(good or bad) , professionally and quickly.

6.
Seek out as many grassroots news resources as possible so that you know what is being discussed in the areas of interest to you.

7.
Talk to grassroots first.The reason being , the mainstream press cruises weblogs looking for stories and looking for people to quote.People trust stories that have quotes from multiple stories , they don’t trust press releases.

8.
If you screw up something,acknowledge it fast.Also,give a plan to unscrew it and than deliver.

9.
Under promise and over deliver (Here,lies the key)

10.
Know your influencer’s, salesmen, connectors of your marketplace.If you can’t connect to them during the stage of crisis than you shouldn’t try maintaining a corporate weblog.

11.
Never change your weblog’s URL.If at all this is done,it would take several months to build up the same patterns and trust.

12.
If your life is in turmoil and/or you are unhappy than don’t write.This would affect the writing quality in subtle ways and your readers would notice.

13.
If you don’t have answers , say a no.Not having answers is human but get them and exceed expectations.

14.
Never lie.You’ll get caught and hence,would lose credibility.

15.
Never hide information.Just like space shuttle engineers,your information will get out and would loose credibility.

16.
If you have any information that might get you in a lawsuit,consult a lawyer before posting and make it fast.

17.
Link to your competitors and say nice things about them.Just try to be better than your competitors.

18.
Be nice to everyone.When a big fish comes along,most people do whatever to keep the big fish happy.It is better to be nice to everyone and not just the big fish.

19.
Be the authority of your product/company.You should know more about your product than anyone, if you’re writing a weblog about it.If there are others who know more than you, than better link them !!!

20.
Know who is talking to you.Use services like Technorati, Pubsub….to see who they are?

21.
Be transparent.Show you have nothing to hide.Blogging is a great way to build relationships with the other people, and nothing builds trust and confidence like people who demonstrate they aren’t hiding anything.

22.
Build relationships offline too.If people get to know you face to face , they’ll stick by your side more often than not.Spend time in blogger meetups and conferences.

23.
Disclose all conflicts and biases.Being transparent with your readers about your conflicts and/or biases will help you remain credible.Own a stock in your company,write about it.Get taken to dinner by a company or a person because your blog? Write about it….

24.
Don’t blog on demand.Your blog is your own hence , always make sure that it is you who is writing somethings and not someone else.You are responsible for the content that goes on your blog.

25.
Keep confidences.If someone says “This is not for your blog”, than don’t write about it.Set ground rules upfront for any conversation.It’s not fair for people to give you a demo and afterward say “You’re not going to put this on your blog, are you?”

26.
Be clear when you are speaking for your company.If you’re writing a personal blog,sometimes the company might want you to write something on it.If this happens than be very clear about the role change.Also,when you’re writing your own opinion of it, it is better to say “This is my own opinion” or some other qualifier to make sure your readers understand that the information is not vetted or approved.

27.
Demonstrate passion.Post frequently.

28.
Respond to your readers.Read your comments,check for your referer log frequently and link back to those who are talking to you.Link to others and they would return the gesture.

29.
Be ethical.Read and follow Charlene Lis and Allan Jenkins ethics policies.They would help you avoid ethical dilemmas.

30.
Realize that you don’t have free speech.Your writing will be judged under the legal standards for corporate speech,especially if you are an executive of the company, so you must take care to be acccurate in terms of Product claims.

31.
Have a conversation to your manager about blogging before you start and find out what kinds of blogging, he or she will defend.

32.
It is always risky to attack the boss.Do it sparingly.Do with your eyes open and expect backlash.

33.
Be careful with the legal issues.Commenting on legal issues is very risky.Be very careful when you comment in such blogs.Remember that blogs are read worldwide by people who might not see things the way they see them.

34.
If you want to change something about the world, than ask yourself “How will I best get the change I want?”.Realize it’s easier to change your company from inside than outside.