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The Game of Business v2.0. By, Bhavin Turakhia CEO, Directi ( http://directi.com ). “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” - Leonardo Da Vinci. Business is like a Game …. Build the best team Ensure that they make the right decisions most of the time. Principle 1 – “Hire the Best”.
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The Game of Business v2.0 By, Bhavin Turakhia CEO, Directi (http://directi.com)
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” - Leonardo Da Vinci
Business is like a Game … • Build the best team • Ensure that they make the right decisions most of the time
Hire the Best Can a hundred average high-jump athletes beat one Javier Sotomayor?
Hire the Best Can a 100 average musicians create what one Beethoven created?
Hire the Best Excellent Players + Poor Training = SUCCESS Poor Players + Excellent Training ≠ SUCCESS Excellent Players + Excellent Training = DIRECTI ;)
Hire the Best – The Directi Way • A “Rockstar” will • make 1/3rd the mistakes • require ½ the mgmt bandwidth • ideate 3x more • and deliver work 2x faster • than a average recruit COST VALUE
Hire the Best – The Directi Way Cost Comparison Graph A “Rockstar” costs 25% lesser * Cost of mgmt assumed at 4x employee. 1 Manager manages 10 employees * Opportunity cost of mistake assumed to be 1x salary * Cost of a Rockstar assumed to be 25% higher
Hire the Best – The Directi Way Value Comparison Graph A “Rockstar” delivers 140% higher value * A regular Employee creates value => 3x their salary and value of his/her ideas => 2x salary
Hire the Best Hiring “Rockstars” is 4x more profitable!!!
Hire the Best What takes lesser time? a. Controlling the quality of individuals you hire b. Controlling the quality of the work they do 365 days a year
Hire the Best – The Directi Way The Directi Way - “Spend extra time in getting the right person, so that we can avoid having to spend extra time in getting the job done right”
Hire the Best “Only hire candidates who are above the mean of your current employees” Hiring above the MIN Vs Hiring above the Mean Source: Google Lake Wobegone strategy
Hire the Best – The Directi Way “Expect to spend about 2x-3x the time in sourcing Top Talent as opposed to sourcing average talent”
Hire the Best – The Directi Way Smart Nice Articulate Paranoid about Perfection & Gets things done Out of the box thinker
Hire the Best – The Directi Way • Process at Directi • Don’t hire for a specific Project • Hire continuously • Multiple rounds per candidate (3-7) • Interview rounds are always one-on-one • Rounds <= 60 min • There is no MAYBE. Its either Yes or No • Everyone is IN or the candidate is OUT • Top Management spends 40% of their time on recruitment • I still take every final interview and still draft and finalize every interview process
Hire the Best – The Directi Way • Directi - Decision making pointers • Did we learn something from him? • WOW effect!! • Exciting Interview? How badly do you want him?
Hire the Best As a Manager expect to spend 30-40% of your time in Recruitment and Training
Hire the Best “Recruitment is amongst the most valuable activity you can focus on”
Hire the Best • Other Advantages • Smart people attract other smart people • Constant learning and knowledge sharing • Lesser Management time required • Compounds the fun
Everyone must know how to play “All the players must know how to play the game” OR
“When all the employees understand the dynamics of business, everyone can feel, think and act like management” Everyone must know how to play
Everyone must know how to play “If you COACH you don’t need to MANAGE”
Everyone must know how to play • At Directi - Technology is our friend when it comes to knowledge sharing • CR – Wiki • Mailing lists • Blogs • Microblogs • Custom applications • …
Everyone must know how to play “We are all Teachers, and we are all Students”
Share the Macro Vision “All the players are aware of the final objective” Win the season? Play for the nationals? Compete in the worldcup?
Near/Short term targets “Each season is broken into multiple games, each independent from the other”
Stop-gap vs Iterative development • Safeguard – Ballistic Missile Defense System Project • 1969-1975 – 5407 person years • Hardware / software went through rigorous design phase to avoid changes • Specs were set in stone • Project was delivered perfectly according to specs at a cost of $25 billion Operational for 133 days – terminated in 1978 By the time the 6-yr project was completed, the new missiles were faster than the anti-missiles
Goal Setting – The Directi Way • Bi-annual long term planning • Per-team Priority Log • Items added asynchronously by anyone • Monthly / Weekly Iteration meetings • Allows information seepage • Release fast and iterate (every week) • Learn constantly and evolve • Advantages • Fewer deviations • Agile to change • Reduces wastage
Keep Score “The Score is always visible on a public Scoreboard”
Keeping Score • Advantages • Statistics are fun • Numbers make work challenging – give a sense of purpose • Provide a sense of accomplishment • Numbers help set targets • Noone wants to fail a target – especially one they have set themselves “Scoring makes the game Exciting”
Keeping Score – The Directi Way • Critical Numbers per team • Multiple monitors – live reporting • LCD screens everywhere • Blow up the scoreboards – the bigger the better • Measure everything and publish it to everyone
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Weekly Support Stats of an Individual vs Team
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Average ticket handling times by Product and Business Unit
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Average phone call handling times
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Current Support Monitor
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Hourly Support Performance
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Sales - Weekly Minute by Minute views, clicks and therefore revenue
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Daily Sales chart for a LogicBoxes Product (2 weeks)
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Test result scores for trainees in a module
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Daily attendance of an individual in the company
Keeping Score – The Directi Way Daily attendance of a team