Aren't Fundoos enough that we also need Digital Deception?

In an age of such horrific acts as the Marriott incident and daily doses of attacks in Peshawar, one can only need enough to worry about before finding out that newer, more insecurity inducing entities lurk the dark corners that we seek haven in. 

In this advanced stage digital age, where security and trust are exchanged via digital data over highly encrypted high-speed connections, where handshakes happen at the speed of sound. Users of this elaborate technology barely have time to retreat once a command is given to process data. From the time you click the button to the time the data is received at the other end, there is little reaction time so one better be sure they trust the source they are communicating with.

Trust is probably the most undervalued and overlooked aspect of the virtual take-over by the Internet and electronic transactions. We assume that someone else is doing their job and ensuring the safety of our data. The necessity of person to person interaction is being replaced by digital products that now communicate on your behalf, as though representing you in binary numbers, with all your credentials pre-verified. But if you are required to ensure your personal information is legitimate, who enforces this upon the service provider? Just because they extend a service, does not legitimize their monopoly in the market. 

Unfortunately, a business that once seemed like a great idea, doesn't seem to be yanking the same set of trust and loyalty out of people as it once did. Yes, life is all about money and without it you are limited to all of the following (not in any particular order - dependent upon preference):

1. Begging

2. Lying

3. Cheating

4. Deceiving

5. Stealing

One could say these are the five cardinal sins of an untrustworthy entity. If your basis for providing services, especially financial, is primarily dependent upon the word TRUST (regardless of the language), the first order of business would be to understand how the service provider perceives the term TRUST. What does trust mean to the business? Does it mean make sure everything is OK at home before you walk out the front door to announce your life-changing solution to a problem? Or, do you jump the gun and announce your ability to change lives before ensuring your own stability?

Let's sidetrack for a moment and discuss another thought that might help put things in perspective. It's probably fair to say that most people have travelled in an airplane, especially one where safety is very VERY important to both the flight crew as well as the passengers. During the safety monologue, you may or may not notice (if you are like me and prefer the in flight entertainment) that the oxygen masks are supposed to be applied to the person they fall in front of before looking over and helping the person next to them, be it an infant or an elderly person. How selfish one may think. Or even, the child needs help first because he can't help himself. Well, consider the thought that went into the purpose of  ensuring your own mask is on before you reach out to help others; part of it is that your own sustainability is essential in order to be able to effectively help anyone else out and part of it is that if you cannot help yourself then you are endangering yourself and those you intend to help. 

Coming back to the previous point, if you are not sure of your sustainability, yet insist when asked that everything is A OK and on track, how does that work? You need people to trust you to ensure that your going to help them achieve success in whatever their problem is, yet you have not yet solved your own problem. That is also known as false advertising in the moral sense. Committing support to others is easy, especially when you really need them. It's like many shop keepers I have encountered; they sell you things they don't have in stock but commit to having it by the next day...which never really comes. 

Business is all about trust. Trust is an undervalued principle of delivering products and services these days, especially because it is easier to think on the mass level where quality can be so-so, rather than at an exclusive level where it has to be meticulous and flawless. I wish it could be like that at the mass level too but then that would not be feasible. But where does that leave a digital service provider, one that offers a free service for little or no fees and expects trust in return. Can you give your loyalty to a business that does not offer you the same in return? Here's Stanford's definition of TRUST. You would think they share this knowledge with everyone who passes through their gates. They talk in great clarity about why trust is important for society to function, or else there can be a breakdown at the core.

Let us take a tree and understand it from a different point of view. Assume that the roots, the trunk and the branches are all the core of the business:

A. Roots: The Senior Management and Board - those who agree where to find sustenance, i.e. revenue streams, business direction, etc.

B. Trunk: The channel of communication between the Management and the worker ants of the company. Also fair to say this may be the link of trust between the Management and Managers.

C. Branches: All the men and women who work for the business - The managers, The assistants, the team leads, the designers, the collectors, the salesmen, the engineers, the clerks, the accountants, and so on.

D. Leaves, Flowers and Fruit: The customers / the target market - those who show evidence of the success in the decisions made by the roots

It's almost like a (vicious) cycle. The roots need to make decisions that eventually bear fruit...proving that the roots made sound decisions in the interest of all those in between.

What is a business? A bunch of people who believe in an idea and legitimately offer it to the public for a price, be it cash or potatoes? I would think so...do you?

If the people who believe in the idea disagree with one another and don't give the team a full picture of what's really happening behind the scenes, that constitutes fraud and deception on the home ground, does it not? If the roots deceive the trunk and branches, there will be no fruit for anyone. At the end, the roots suffer the most because they need everyone else just like they all need the roots. One is no greater than the other, it's just that they all have their own responsibilities and each needs to ensure they are communicating efficiently and sufficiently with everyone so that there is a common goal in mind towards which all effort is directed.

Sadly, that is not the case with some businesses and that is when they need to realize that if a rotten seed is planted, the tree cannot be much better than the roots, no matter how good the idea may be. It's all about good management.

If you don't have assurance of the security being offered, 'You Should Not Proceed...'

ARTICLE REF: Start ups Vs. Upstarts

Start-Ups vs. Up-Starts

So for many people who know me, they are privy to certain reasons why I moved on from my previous life to a new one. Without saying too much, some things happened that forced me to move on and start again.

A lot has happened over the last two years, some of which was captured in photographs over the course of 2006/2007 but for the most part, I believe a majority of my avid readers have floated on since I managed to keep such a fantastically dry blog. One of my favorite readers, who celebrated her birthday the same day as myself is no where to be found and so my incentive to keep writing has gone from 0 to 100 in order to regain what I had once towered over.

My sense of humor may have changed, but then that is for the audience to decide. No, it has nothing to do with getting married. Quite frankly, I have definitely become more of the person I would want to be after getting married (make sure the wife is reading this one), but my desire to conquer the world, one low-income family at a time is still under progress.

Somehow, I find myself in start-up companies and I think whether I like it or not, my forte is now officially working in early stage start-ups that have some slight mandate towards affecting people's lives. With that said, each mandate may or may not be driven by profit-bearing incentives.

However, I have also come to realize that start-ups are not all they are made out to be. One must remember that the inherent risk of working with a start-up is failure due to poor management. While working with Acumen, among the many essential business tools I acquired, the one that holds the roots together is water-tight management. The product can be the most inspirational, the most useful and needed, the coolest or even just some modification of an existing product/service. Regardless, it's not the product, it's the realistic strategy taken by the management that drives the business.

The agri-business venture in Sindh has recently been invested in by Acumen and that to me is a success story. I can sleep so much better knowing that the hard work I invested in building the company, the team and working together to build the tracks for the train is all worth something more than theory. The investment readi-ness stage from 0 to 100 took a total of just under 2 years.

On the other hand, a recent venture dealing with mobile payments, has taken an opposite direction. After nearly 5 years of flip flopping with business objectives and revenue streams, while others such as Obopay have successfully raised nearly US$70 Million, Pakistan's version has barely touched US$ 1 Million in just about the same amount of time. One of the key requirements to working towards success, especially in a market as difficult as Pakistan is to make a decision, work towards it and stick it through with everything provided you have everyone's vote (everynone = board directors). The second, yet more tangible requirement, is a financial manager. This is pretty easy to find since Chartered Accountants are a dime a dozen in Pakistan and finding one who is good with financial forecasting and financial management is their key job. If you don't, you can fiddle about with budget sheets and hire a basic accountant and sink your business and the hard work everyone put into to get it up on it's feet.

The signficant difference between Agri-Business and Mobile payments are:
1. Agri products are more expensive to import, warehouse, install and sell
2. Agri industry players are cutthroat, highly experienced and very wealthy so competition is always on the high side
3. Agri-Business target market is dependent upon seasonal income which is hard to come by in regions of little or no rain fall so income is scarce
4. The telecom industry is booming so any value-added product has a 100% success factor if its managed and market correctly, especially if it's free!
5. Getting an investment from a partner is not difficult unless the requirements are rigorous as they are with all of Acumen's investments
6. Consistency with your message to the public is essential. If you change your strategy like one does underwear, there is something already wrong

Please note that I recognize agriculture and IT have little to do with one another, but from a business management perspective, although the caliber of the professionals required to run the business are different, the basic premise of running a business remains the same; to sell, you must first identify a target audience and market your presence and product(s), then ensure you have water-tight management in place for close budgeting and financial control - the most essential part of running a business, especially at an early stage.

I believe that Obopay succeeded primarily because they launched in a market that is conducive to out-there financial solutions. The FED is tough with companies and there are lots of banks willing to work with mobile financial solutions thanks to the precedent set by Paypal. When trust is an enormous issue, one must look to the avenues where you can establish the product and business before taking head-first risks that have very few mitigants, if any.

In principle, if you want to succeed with a start-up, try launching it with a simple approach and push hard but also be ready to cut your losses when you know you are sinking faster than you are floating. For your crew to stick through the storm depends upon how you treat them and how driven they are to succeed. The days of fuedal land lords or bunya seths where one man runs the show are over and it's time to look at models that work.