What's with the Juggler?

Recently, my daughter enjoying Tom & Jerry cartoon - in which Tom plans an incredibly complex scheme to trap Jerry - a Robe Goldberg Machine.

Years ago, I had taken my daughter to a circus - where there was juggler juggling 12-15 balls, clubs, knifes etc..,  He went on to do the same juggling while riding a unicycle. For me, doing any of those individual acts: Juggling or riding unicycle itself is an impossible challenge.

It was no surprise that the juggler was able to capture audience's undivided attention and admiration and he makes a living with his unique skills.

The two incidents - a Robe Goldberg Machine  and the Juggler acts had me thinking. Why do we humans admire them. Why do we watch in awe when people do something so complex?

This behavior to admire such complex acts which has no inherent benefit is unique to humans. While animals don't seem to admire such things, but then I have seen my dog watch hunting scenes on National Geographic channel with full concentration. Monkeys watch other monkey jump or climb and grab food. Young monkeys watch older monkey and learns from that - so there are benefits. But humans have an inbuilt, genetically hard-coded nature to admire complexity.

Why we admire complexity?

Yes, we humans are genetically built to admire complexity - buy why?

I think, its due to the nature and the survival of the species was in great part due to our ability to conquer complexity. Starting from coordinating as a group for a hunt, to creation of tools, agriculture and Cooking - to the modern world of Industrialization, Aviation, Space travel to Internet.

Economic Value of Complexity

Human civilization has always been measured by its ability to conquer complexity. Countries that have conquered very high levels of  complexity are considered more developed. Conquering complexity has its financial rewards - Developed countries are richer than developing countries.

In business, companies are able to charge very high premiums for products that solve very complex problems. Products such as SAP, or Jet Engines etc. command a hefty premium - resulting in healthy profits for manufacturers

What's my learning?

There are two main learning for me from this. One as a father and one for Product Management and Business.

As a product manager, the next generation products that I build must solve more complex problems than the previous version and increase the value of the product for the customers If the product does not solve a complex problem, then the value of the product goes down.

As a product manager for a IT Cloud infrastructure management solution, the next generation of software products must solve & conquer some of the most challenging and complex problems: Such as Software Defined Data Center, Big Data Analytics, Virtulization and Security. The solutions must be comprehensive and complete. Never go to market with an incomplete solution.

After all - nobody likes to see an error prone juggler who keeps dropping the balls!

Second learning as a father is to give a sense of curiosity to my daughter, to evoke her curiosity and make her admire at complex things in life - such as classical music, painting, classical dance, chess, etc., and then eventually go on to train her to solve extremely complex problems.

First step is to expose kids to complex arts and make them curious and then appreciate complexity, later on they can learn the necessary skills to solve complex problems and that will make her succeed in life.

Victory for Innovation - Novatris loses it's patent case in India

This week, Supreme court of India struck down an appeal to extend the patent protection for its cancer drug Glivec.

Supreme Court of India has refused protection for Glivec on the grounds that it is not a new medicine, but an amended version of a known compound. Indian Supreme court rightly dismissed the appeal - as Novartis failed to show that it had done any new innovation - on its existing drug, and minor modification of the drug was just a trick used to extend the patent and market monopoly over the drugs.

The cost of Glivec is $70,000 per year, while the generic version costs about $2500! There is this huge premium being charged by patent holders over the patented drugs - that has made such drugs unaffordable to 99% of the world population - so extending the patent for 20 more years will mean a death sentence to millions around the world. No wonder doctors all over the world welcomed this ruling.

Even, Dr. Brian Druker, inventor of Glivec welcomed this judgment.

On a separate and unrelated event, Daniel Vasella, the outgoing CEO of Novatris just had to turn down a $78-million severance package – reacting to public outrage in Switzerland. After all, a company that can afford such golden handshakes for their CEO in the first place can't be suffering too much loss from this court ruling.

Patents and Innovation

Patents & patent protections are awarded to inventors as a financial incentive for their hard work. In case of pharmaceuticals, this patent protection regime has been converted into a profit machine by charging enormous price for patented drugs.

Today, Drug companies are not really inventing new medicines, instead they are using their R&D capability to tweak currently patented & protected products and extend the patent for 20 more years. This kind of perpetual patent protection results in higher profitability for the company - but stifles innovation.

Drug companies are Companies are using host of defensive patenting strategies - such as patenting second generation products - which is an insignificant tweak over the original drug and then filing of numerous patent applications for the same medicine. This prevents other companies from developing potential new drugs that was based on an existing drug. Such predatory practices has led to steep increase in drug prices all over the world and has blocked the development of new drugs to treat more common diseases.

Global Impact

In the United States, companies can get a new patent for a drug by altering its formula or changing its dosage. The companies contend that even minor improvements in medicines — changing a pill dosage to once a day instead of twice a day — can have a significant impact on patient wellness. But critics say a majority of drug patents given in the United States are for tiny changes that often provide patients few meaningful benefits but allow drug companies to continue charging high prices for years beyond the original patent life.

Such practices has led to run away drug prices in the USA, which makes such life saving drugs unaffordable to billions of people around the world. It is in this context, the supreme court ruling has global impact. Companies can now make generic versions of drugs for which the original patent has expired. This low cost generic medicines will be affordable to more than 80% of world population. Now that India has taken a strong stand on drug patents, other countries such as South Africa, Brazil, Philippines, etc., will be encouraged to make similar rules - which will lead to more affordable health care.

Closing Thoughts

Supreme court ruling is a landmark ruling in global Patent protection regime. Drug companies can no longer play around the original drug, and maintain a perpetual patent for the drug. Companies are encouraged to develop new drugs that address hitherto unaddressed and untreatable diseases.

One of the reasons the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is so active in developing new drugs for the diseases of the poor (such as malaria) has to do with the fact that pharmaceutical innovation is too much driven by potential economic benefits of future drugs.

Drug companies will now have to embrace the bottom of the pyramid markets for growth and profitability.

Leader's role in Fostering innovation.

In my previous article "Leadership for Innovation", I had written about the importance of leadership in creating innovative culture in an organization. Continuing on the same thought, this article is about the roles a leader should play to foster innovation in an organization.

Essentially, the success of the organization is determined by the leaders ability to attract, retain, and develop people with right knowledge and skills and build a work environment in which employees can innovate and thrive, thus making the organization more competitive.

Leader's role in innovation is more about people management and providing strategic inputs. This typically breaks down into the role of:

1. Visionary
2. Facilitator
3. Assessor 
4. Advisor
5. Provider

Visionary

The most important role of a leader is to be a visionary.  A leader should be able to see ahead and tell his organization of what he expects to happen in future - which is of importance to his organization. This could be market conditions, market needs, competition, etc. Leaders should blend this forecast with their vision for future and direct their team to prepare for that future.

Successful leaders are experts in seeing what lies ahead and communicating this on continuously to their organization while constantly accessing their strategy and monitoring their tactics.

Leaders must see beyond their operational level to access the business environment and provide information and resources needed for innovation. This requires a deep understanding of the business environment and organization's internal capabilities.

In short, Visionary leaders:

1. Provide continuous information on the organization and marketplace to subordinates
2. Constantly access organizational capabilities
3. Continuously communicate their grand vision of the future.
4. Ensure that the organization understands the vision.
5. Never underestimate the impact of constant change.

Facilitator 

The second most important role of a leader is to play a facilitator. Having a vision, hiring creative & innovative people is not enough, Leaders must facilitate an active discussions around how innovations can help the organization, what those innovative ideas need to become a reality etc., Leaders must initiate & practice open communication with active listening, and provide ongoing encouragement as needed. By drawing out information from people, leaders may uncover a new set of capabilities and strengths that was not previously recognized.

Leaders play a very important role here by initiating an active discussion centered around innovation - particularly on what new things (products/services) the organization should do to capitalize on the future opportunities. Care must be taken to keep the discussions away from debating on the leader's vision for the future and all discussions must be centered on innovation and developing new capabilities to enable the organization capitalize on future opportunities.

In short, a facilitator must:

1. Get everyone involved. 
2. Encourage and support active discussions
3. Ask open-ended, probing questions, using words like "Why", "What," "where," and "when." 
4. Avoid debates and discussion on the vision.
5. Avoid telling people what to do.  

Assessor 

During the process of facilitation, leaders will get a whole lot of suggestions and ideas. The role of leader in such situation is to provide candid, constructive feedback to keep the innovation on track.

Leaders must have the skills to access the idea and give a developmental feedback - which helps take the idea forward.  However, there will be ideas and suggestions that must be rejected. But even when rejecting an idea, the feedback must aid towards further development of options and ideas.

The assessment process must be quick and decisive, good leaders do not dither around making a judgment. A long drawn out assessment will kill enthusiasm in the organization, so leaders will have to move quickly and positively.

This is a "reality check" process enables leaders and employees to see all opportunities for developing and advancing the organization. A positive developmental feedback is so crucial in the innovation process.

In short, a Assessor must:

1. Assess ideas or suggestions quickly.
2. Provide specific, concrete, constructive feedback with examples. 
3. Keep the ideas/suggestions around the organization's strengths and developmental areas. 
4. Constantly act as a reality check within the organization - to prevent fanciful, futuristic ideas.
5. Must not provide wrong feedback just to avoid confrontation. 

Advisor 

Leaders need not be innovators themselves - but they must guide the innovation. As an advisor, leaders help organization to capitalize on opportunities that lies ahead with innovation. This involves goal setting - asking the organization to develop an innovative product/service within certain constrains: Time, Money and resources.

Leaders set multiple goals considering the dynamic nature of business today. The job of the leader is to set these goals and let the employees comment on the feasibility, blockers and limitations, and then facilitate the team to achieve the goal - by becoming a provider.

Once the goal is set, leaders must provide advice: direction and clarity when needed.

As an advisor, leaders should:

1. Guide the innovation process
2. Set hard but achievable goals
3. Make sure everyone understands the goals and the constrains.
4. Set multiple goals to meet the demands of market conditions
5. Provide direction and clarity when needed.

Provider

As the innovation idea gains ground, there will gaps identified in the organizational capabilities to meet the goals. As a provider, leaders must pitch in with useful resources, contacts, and connections as needed to help the organization achieve the goals set by the leader.

Leaders get the bigger picture and have a better tab on the available resources within the organization and even outside. So when the need arises, leaders will have to step up and provide the resources needed for innovation.

Leaders have connections outside their organization, so when needed they can open up collaboration with external partners and provide vital connections. At times, leaders may not have access to the needed resources - then it is the leaders job to step up and reach out to stake holders to help out. For example, a CEO may approach investors for additional capital.

As a provider, leaders should

1. Identify the need for resources for innovation activities
2. Identify internal and external resources
3. Provide links and connections needed
4. Step up and ask for external help when needed.

Closing Thoughts   

Successful Innovation needs a strong leadership. Leaders need to play multiple roles to enable innovation. The road for innovation starts with a vision for the future, identifying the right opportunities, building the right skills and capabilities  to providing the required resources.

Leaders role in innovation is neither simple or easy. It is tough and demanding one - which must be executed flawlessly to create a innovative organization to remain competitive and win.

OpenStack Vs VMWare - A Quick Thought

Recently, PayPal/eBay announced that they will be replacing VMWare software from some 80,000 servers with OpenStack. This must sound as a shocking news to VMWare. But not for me.

All this sounds like the good old story of Windows Vs Linux battle, where there were routine announcements of some big company replacing Windows with Linux. Even after a decade of Linux Vs Windows battle, both the systems are still going strong and Microsoft's revenue from Windows Server sales has actually increased enormously.

Being a product manager at EMC and knowing the IT infrastructure landscape so closely, I see that the real picture.

In actual world, OpenStack is not really free - one still has to pay tonnes of money to the "Consultants" who will implement & maintain the OpenStack   This is just like RedHat - which makes money from IT services and gives away Linux for free.

OpenStack is free - but it has several moving parts inside, so implementing and maintaining OpenStack is not easy or cheap. There will be costs involved and it carries risks - mainly security and IT infrastructure management risks for the end customers.

VMWare on the other hand offers a solid set of IT infrastructure management products - vSphere, vCloud Director, vCenter etc., and also has the latest cutting edge products - Software Defined Network (SDN), Software Defined Storage(SDS), Software Defined Datacenter products lined up, which will create a secure & seamless cloud scale, flexible IT infrastructure. Which in long run will lower the total cost of ownership.

VMWare along with EMC has a better road map for cloud scale IT infrastructure deployment and active management - to lower the total costs of IT.  VMWare also has the advantage of using EMC's technologies - such as RSA, GreenPlum, VMAX, VPLEX, VBLOCK, VNX etc., which makes managing large scale IT infrastructure easy and secure, and brings in the best technology in Big Data management.

OpenStack has its merits, It is free and for most part - easy to deploy. The main challenge with OpenStack is to maintain it - Both in terms of managing the upgrades/patches to the stack and the overall infrastructure management: Configuration, Availability, Performance, Security.

Companies such as Rackspace, Amazon, Google, Facebook etc - who have deep technical expertise and an army of IT engineers to manage their IT infrastructure, OpenStack can save money even in the long run. But most enterprises, don't have such capabilities and they are better off with an established VMWare solution stack for private cloud which can scale out to a public cloud when needed to create a hybrid cloud. See: VMWare Takes the Cover Off Its Public Cloud

Android PC - Is just around the Corner

Today, I did a test drive for Windows Tablet, ARM based Windows RT. Compared to my iPad, I found this to be sluggish and worse part is it lacks the choice of good cloud apps. Unless Microsoft puts its big guns behind Windows RT in marketing and get app developers and enterprise customers, Windows RT is heading for extinction. Right now, I see no value in Windows RT.

The x86 tablet - Acer Iconia W700   is better than Windows RT but sluggish - it lacks the CPU power and memory needed to run typical laptop apps - though I found it to be better in performance than the RT version. But when people compare the x86 tablet with the laptops - it lacks performance, and when compared with Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab, it lacks the cool apps. So in both ways the x86 tablet comes up short. If I were to choose, I would say the x86 tablet still does not make the cut. I would rather go with an iPad and ultrabook.

The Android Alternative

Few months ago, I reviewed the Android Mini-PC and based on my experience on Android, I think it is the right time to launch an Android notebooks.

Wintel has been dominating the PC market for last two decades and during that period, everyone has developed a strong need for a PC and there has been no real alternative to the Intel -Windows. MacOS is still a niche player and Linux is a non-starter for home PC. Android on the other hand has been a widely accepted platform. The user acceptance of Android plus new technologies - such as 64bit ARM processor & Virtual Desktops, will make Android PC a perfect solution for most home users and enterprise users.

Today's Tablets have few crippling limitations for a content creation - one is the limited data storage and lack of mouse/keyboard for user input & limited display size.

These limitations can be eliminated with a Android notebook: 32/64 Bit ARM processor. (See Big-Little ARM processor),  A 1TB Flash drive to store all local user files. Many users would like to have a BIG local off-line storage. A keyboard/mouse to quickly enter data, and ability to connect large external monitors, plus Wifi+4G connectivity.

Today, users are familiar with Android platform and are very comfortable with the apps. Android platform has a plethora of office/business Apps already available. For power users, Office 365, or the virtual desktop will be a perfect solution.

The Time is Ripe

For years, I have heard various manufacturers tout a low cost alternatives to PC - the thin PC, Sony Surfboard, Freescale smartbook etc. The time is now right for Android PC.

There is a general sense of disgust with the windows world and consumers are clamoring for something new. Personally I know a lot of people who have not upgraded their old laptops - because the newer laptops do not offer anything new. I also have a 6 year old HP running on Windows XP and I see no need to upgrade or buy a new Windows8 ultrabook.

The latent demand for an Windows alternative plus all the new technologies -  64bit ARM, Virtual Desktops, Solid State Flash Drives 1080p display screens - etc have created a perfect condition to launch Android Notebooks!

As on today, there is no Android PC in the market yet. Will Samsung be the first to introduce it? Lets wait and watch.