Platform Vs Service

There is confusing in my mind to actually figure out what do you actually mean by a platform and what is a service ?
My visualization is getting a little blurred because of the confusion ...
A platform is a concrete space available for doing something. Launch a service ..may be...
A service is focused around a customer where you deliver value for some return.
Actually these definitions are also vague in my mind...
A want to see myself as a platform but always my definition about me happens as a service ... will update this space once a clarity emerges..

Amazing Biometric experience with RTO

I had been to the RTO office today at andheri for getting my learning license done ...It was far better experience than I imagined it would be . I am so proud of the Mumbai RTO . Though the office opened and 1 hr late than it's scheduled time , I am impressed at the way my details got captured in the RTO records..
I was made to sit in one place . There was a thumb impression recorder next to me . I gave my left hand thumb impression on it. In front of me was an Iball handwriting Capture device . On which I was asked to sign . My signature got recorded on the computer in front of me. Then I was asked to look up straight into a camera which captured my picture... I was asked to verify the details being shown on the computer screen . She narrated the details and I confirmed and that's it without a pen and paper my details got registered in the RTO System through bio metrics.

The only problem was while signing . Since i couldn't see what I was writing on the hadwriting capturing device I dint know where to put the dots in my signature. Apart from this there was no error what so ever...

I will be getting a smart chick smart card as my driving lincense and all penalties will also get attached to it later on I was told !! Amazing !!

Way to go RTO .... ME TRULY PROUD TO BE A MUMBAIKAR !!

What is faith ?

I am exploring this aspect of my life which i had ignored for years together. I used to come from a school of thought that 'Everything in life is in my hands and I can make it happen '.This thought in life has made me run ,run and run very hard in life so much so that with relationships as well I run hard. Never created a space for myself in life at all. Now , I have made a choice to have faith in the power of the universe to make it happen for me. It's a struggle a real BIG struggle as it means for me to stop running and wait for things to happen in my life . For a person who has always been running ,waiting and that too indecively is a struggle . I want to go through this struggling experience in life now. I have started having faith in all places where collective faiths recide and i can see the power in that. At inorbit mall I saw post its of people wishing wishing and wishing and there near those post it's i could feel faith of so many people . My faith is still fragile , it tends to break at the slightest of resistance .I understand that i can't put it back together . It is fresh beginning everytime my faith breaks. I thinks faith becomes stronger as the number of instances breaking it increase and number of times it gets recreated.

'Riyaaz' done by Software Professionals

It has recently dawned on me that I am a 'Software Professional'. The later word 'Professional' is what hovering over my head now . When I see and read about other professions like sportsman , actor ,singer ,dancer I see myself not so like them. The common things among these professionals is 'riyaaz'( practice).They are not dependent on their sponsors for giving them practise ...telling them where they need to improve..It's a constant inward journey they keep doing to be excellent professionals.... For that matter a doctor practises ,so does a lawyer ....but do I as a software professional practise anything ?

So the next question is if the software professional is supposed to do riyaaz in order to be called a professional then what do I practise ? For the first time in my life I am trying to learn to pick a new technology from scratch ..no class room sessions ,no hands on training .... I am learning it on my own with a little guidance from my mentor in life..... ohh boy what an effort it is !!!

What are the other 'riyaaz' do excellent software professionals do ? May be gather knowledge through magazines.... keep a track of Role Models in the industry....If you have come across some true professionals in your life who genuinely practise then please enlighten me so that I can pick up some tips and tricks ....here and there.....

The Invisible Solution Architect !!

I had an opportunity to witness a few individuals solve a problem for the Customer.
They were supposed to make presentations on the solution provided by them and I got the privildge of watching the same.

In the morning, a collegaue of mine had told be about the book 'The Invisible Actor' which is about a japenese actor teaching us how be an actor. And according to him ' A good actor is the one who makes the audience visualize the moon ( if the scene says so) . For Eg: Tabu is a good actor as she effortlessly makes you see things in the scene that she is supposed to convey . Take any scene from 'Chini Cum' and you will get what I am trying to say. According to the Japenese actor if the audience says ' What an amazing way to show the moon!!' ,the actor has failed as a good actor.
Eg: If we see 'Amitabh bachan' in sholay and not 'Jay' then amitabh has not done great job as an actor.At leeast in sholay i saw 'Jay' and not 'Amitabh'

Now you must be wondering ,what this has got to do with solutioning ?
Yesterday while sitting through to those presentations I realised that a good Solution Architect is the one who is successful in creating the picture of the solution without his traits in solution. Only then can we do justice to the solution and it will truely solve the problem. For eg: If I am writing a piece of software with the view that 'I have written a great piece of software','I am a pro microsoft guy', 'I am pro open source guy','I feel Project Management is the key challenge to address in this' ,there are high chances that the software will not solve any problem of life. But if I write the software with the sole aim to address the problem faced by the customer ,align all decision points with not what I believe is true but what the problem is making me believe as true ,then the Solution Architect will become invisible and real solutions will emerge.

Can our IT industry have Invisible Solution Architects ? I am surely striving to be one ....

Doing things in the present moment is worship

My blog is turning out to be more of a manifestation of my philosophical side so be it ...as me going to write to only about the questions that surface and if these are questions that are coming to mind i am not going to stop but just play with them,ponder over them,try answering them.

'Doing things in the present moment'. I am struggling with this a bit too much..... The thoughts in my mind remind me of past, tell me about today and worry me about the future. Taking one day at a time becomes genuinely and truly most difficult. Earlier i used to try and struggle by not letting these thoughts come to my mind. But sooner i realised that just by mere observation the thoughts vanish. Now i try pracitising by categorising thoughts into past ,present and future. Just shere awareness of these thoughts makes me aware of their futality. Make me feel foolish for having succumbed to these thoughts earlier in life and reacted to them .

I don't know what worshipping truly means as honestly never worshipped anything in my life with a true heart. But if worshipping is meditating ,concentrating on something to be in the present moment and enjoy ,then i guess for me dancing is worshipping as i am definitely in the present moment with no thoughts of any kind surfacing and only the awareness of the rhythm of my self and the music .

How do you make an organization continuously delivery unique Value Proposition in an environment of Competition by biggies in a mature industry?

Let me first start by explaining the question as there are a lot of layers in this question.

Firstly I am trying to ask:
Can one ordinary organization delivery Unique Value Proposition in an industry where everyone is talking same stuff!

Can this value Proposition be continuous in nature? If yes then how?

The biggies of the Industry have the capability to make your Value Proposition common in no time. How you fight that?

If you think that you will get all the answers to these questions in this blog, then DO NOT read any further.
I am just trying to pose a lot of questions, observations and discussion with colleagues which made me ponder. I truly believe that if you are asking the right questions, the solution emerges on its own from these right questions.

Let me start with a small observation:

A had been to an Irani joint a few days back. ( I don't think any 5 star can give you the anda bhurji that you get here.) As a habit i asked for a tissue paper to wipe my hands after my meal . To my surprise the tambi gets a cloth napkin telling me that it's a clean napkin and I can wipe my hands comfortably with it. I surely did wipe my hands with it and my purpose got served.

At another incident, I happened to be in a 5 star hotel with a lot of colleagues. One of my colleagues had a severe head ache and asked for a disprin. The reception lady told us that they can't give her as they do have the permission to do so. Probably they did not have a process for this scenario.

The question that came to my mind was " What makes these Customer Interfaces (Tambis in the Irani joint case) to go all the way to solve customer's problem? Where does this humility come from? Why does this kind of an incident not happen in a 5 star? Why does a tinge of arrogance set in a large successful organization (even in hospitality Businesses)? Why does this humility get lost in the lower levels of Customer Interfaces of the Organization? Definitely putting a process to handle all exceptional scenarios is not the answer for creating a VP (Plzz read VP as Value Proposition as me bored of writing these words again and again!!)

Arrogance is mostly seen at the bottom level interactions . Relationships at the top most levels are very humble said a friend when discussing this point. Whatever value an organization proposes is not maintained by these bottom levels. Arrogance sets in because individual at all levels of interaction are not evolved to the level of people who have taken the organization to the level which it is at currently. One of the ways they see to fake the same level of evolution is to be arrogant. This may not be done consciously but happens very subtly.

Taking the theory on arrogance as given, the next question that comes to my mind is then “How do you make so many individuals reflect or strive to deliver the same VP?”.
The answer is definitely in people’s ability and not efficient processes.

In almost all civilizations we have seen people strive for a particular cause collectively. This cause is so higher that personal interests are sacrificed in the process. What made so many people follow Gandhiji? It was not only his efforts but strong role models around him who followed his philosophy to deliver freedom as a Value to the nation. Also the people of India were bound together by a common disparity i.e. discrimination done by British towards Indians. So a ‘Common area of Pain’ and strong Role Models helped Gandhiji bring a transformation in every Indian to deliver the VP.
Another example is today’s Terrorism in the name of Islam. The terrorist are speaking and exploiting a ‘Common area of pain’ in all Muslims over the world. The pain area is so exploited that people are ready to die for that cause.
So applying the same theory in case of Organizations too, unless we have a ‘Common area of Pain’ which has the capability to bring employees collectively and also strong Role Models who live the Values, it is not possible to deliver VP at every level of Customer Interaction.

So the advantage for a small player is that, there is lesser number of people to touch so transformation becomes a little easier. But transformation is not an easy job. The question that organizations need to answer for themselves is whether they have the perseverance to get into this game? Whether they can see that far? If yes, then are they in the right frame to view people as not mere resources that need to be used but are viewed as individuals with shared purposes who in turn become harbingers of VP.

The biggest question is " What is that 'Common Area of Pain' which will bring all the employees of the organization give in their best and make sacrifices of individual interest (if required) for delivering that VP. The fact is : It is not easy to find 'Pain' in prosperity . And in a mature Industry 'Prosperity' is given.