Shivaji Mohinta
Guy Kawasaki, the chief evangelist of Canva, Brand Ambassador of Mercedes Benz, and noted venture capitalist at Silicon Valley, has shared some simple but powerful tips for business. He is also a popular author with several best-sellers under his belt, such as ‘Enchantment’, ‘The Art of the Start 2.0’, and ‘Selling the Dream’. Kawasaki’s golden rule of presentation — 10/20/30, which says 10 slides, 20 minutes of speaking and 30 font size, which make a (PowerPoint) presentation most impactful and memorable.
Kawasaki’s top 10 lessons from Silicon Valley, which are apt in the Indian context, and for young entrepreneurs and business managers, are outlined here.
#1 Don’t listen to your customers: It is one of the most surprising and contrarian tips. Kawasaki explains: “If you want to revolutionise your business, customers are not the right people to look for advice; they will only advice you to offer a “better, faster and cheaper version of your current product”. They can help you evolve but not revolutionise. Customers will tell you what they want and not what they need. They could not have conceived a Mac, they would simply have sought a faster, better, cheaper Apple 2.0.
Entrepreneurs can nip some brilliant ideas in the bud in seeking advice from the rich and famous
#2 Go to the next curve: Here he cites the examples of Kodak (Films), Polaroid (Chemicals), Wang (Data-Processing) and Smith Corona (Typewriters). All these companies do not exist today. The reason he says is they failed to leap on to the next curve. Kodak defined itself as a film producer or chemical company and not as someone in the “preservation of memories”. Similarly, Smith Corona wanted to stay in the typewriter business and could not see the evolution of computers. If they could have thought of the higher curve they could have gone to the next curve of digital photography or computers. Kawasaki gives the example of ice harvester, ice factory and refrigerator curve. He says neither the ice harvester nor ice factories could become refrigerator marketers as they all continued to do what they were doing. They were stuck in that and failed to jump to the next curve, that is, refrigerators. All of them became irrelevant as they focused only on the product and not on their purpose.
#3 Aim high: Kawasaki stressed on the need for entrepreneurs to aim high. Even employees want to work for companies that demonstrate a purpose. He gave the example of Macintosh which Steve Jobs positioned as a “battle to preserve freedom” not just selling Personal Computers.
#4 Invest in design: Although functionality is important, product design is key to making it a winner. People care for and love design. Kawasaki’s advice is to invest in design as customers love elegant products.
#5 Don’t worry be crappy: As an entrepreneur or a business leader, you need to ship out the first version of the product fast and then look back, cringe about it. That is how the product will go to the next level. After shipping out version 1.0 of a product, don’t be happy; be crappy to improve it further in functionality, design features and benefits.
#6 Let a hundred flowers blossom: Kawasaki had worked closely with Steve Jobs in marketing the Macintosh Computers in 1984; he says sometimes the consumer uses the product for purposes other than what it is conceived for by the marketer. The target audience or usage might change, but Kawasaki advises not to worry. He illustrated how Macintosh was originally devised for word processing, database and spreadsheets but customers used it for Desktop publishing.
#7: Keep it minimal: Kawasaki emphasises on the use of creatives and logos minimally to create maximum impact.
#8 Don’t be afraid to change your mind: Kawasaki favours changing one’s mind when required. If one conceives some consumer benefits resulting in value addition, one should go ahead and implement changes, even if they are contrary to earlier held belief. In 2011, Steve Jobs launched iPhones as a closed system with the objective of making it secure and reliable; but in 2012 he changed his mind and made it an open system that could host third-party apps. It is a sign of intelligence, courage and innovation.
#9 Market “unique value”: Marketing has two parameters — uniqueness in the Y-axis and value in the X-axis. In a 2X2 matrix, the bottom right corner (high value/nil uniqueness) you will always have to compete on price. Similarly top left corner (high on uniqueness and nil on value) you are simply playing stupid. The bottom left corner (no uniqueness & no value) is not only stupid but a crowded place to be in. The ideal grid to be present is in the top right hand corner (high on value & uniqueness). Kawasaki defines that quadrant as the “Holy Grail of marketing”.
#10 Ignore naysayers: Entrepreneurs can nip some brilliant ideas in the bud in seeking advice from the rich and famous. Kawasaki says they were merely lucky and jokingly defines them as ‘Winner Bozos’ who can grind you down. He refers to Ken Olsen, Founder of DEC, who said in 1977 that people will not have computers at home. He failed to see the emergence of personal computers. Suppose Steve Jobs had sought advice for Macintosh from Olsen, Apple would not have arisen. Innovators ignore naysayers. Many experts said Jobs was wrong about the iPhone and other products; the results proved otherwise.
The final and overarching lesson from Kawasaki is: Some things need to be believed to be seen. Sceptics say show it to me to believe; but if you believe in something, you will see them. A person going to a stranger’s place and a person renting his place to a stranger (an unimaginable concept) is something that was believed in and that’s how Airbnb was born.
That remains the most powerful lesson that can make other lessons effective.
The writer is a certified business coach, and can be reached at shiv_9807@hotmail.com.