Vendor-Client relationships November 14, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Innovation.Tags: absurdity, client, conti, Cost cutting, Culture, Ideafarms, Innovation, negotiation, outsourcing, partnerships, provider, vendor
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Whatever one may try in building relationships with customers, it always comes back to negotiating prices the way it was done in the industrial (material) age. This hilarious, in-your-face video says it all. Is our client listening?? Can they laugh as loudly as we at this beautifully captured absurdity
Read Ann All’s post “Squeezing Vendors Isn’t a Good Idea“
Designers w/o Borders September 30, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Companies of the future, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, Globalisation, Innovation, Thought leadership.Tags: Design, Ideafarms, India, Indo-Dutch collaboration, Industrial Design, Industrial Designers, Innovation, International Design, New Business Models, Sunil Malhotra, Sustainability
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World Trade Centre, Rotterdam, 25th September 2009. Indo-Dutch collaboration summit focused on Industrial Design. Hmmm … (Design Crossover).
- A view of the audience
- That’s me on the right!
- Raijmakers & Oberdorf
Why they invited me to speak is still somewhat of a mystery considering I dropped off the Industrial Design radar towards the end of the last millennium. I guess it could’ve been because my company, Ideafarms, has been able to maintain a growing relationship between India and Europe over the last 8 years through projects and partnerships with Dutch and German corporations.
I’ve never been a champion of networking – I’ve actually often criticised some of my friends for using networking to get ahead – but am quite overwhelmed having been in the midst of some of the most ‘conscious’ designers of today. Jeroen
Raijmakers of Philips and Jos Oberdorf of NPK Design are inspiring to say the least. I’m grateful to Ruchita Puri for the opportunity to meet them at the event.
From whatever was presented, it looks like good design can be really good business. There’s a case to be made out for a design collaboration without borders. Couple of good reasons here …
1. European design reflects high quality, the idiom being minimalistic and functional. Whereas India’s design sensibilities are more embellished. Their combination will raise the aesthetic appeal without compromising design values.
2. Pure economic tenets come into play when we see the sheer number of people both on the supply side (design talent is plenty in India) and the demand side (India is emerging as one of the largest markets). Leveraging the ‘great Indian talent pool’ is an opportunity.
3. The life sensibilities of India’s cultural make-up have always been in the mould of sustainability, something the world has woken up to only recently. Add to this the rich craft-based traditions and you have a universal design paradigm that’s as powerful as Buddhism.
Jump into this conversation folks. You don’t want to be left out. Really!
Innovation 101 – Death of the VC January 24, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Companies of the future, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Innovation 101, Sustainable Innovation, Wisdom of the leaders.Tags: Business model, Entrepreneurship 2.0, Future of Business, global meltdown, Ideafarms, Innovation 101, Thingamy, Thought leadership, VCs, Venture capital
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Thingamy’s Sigurd Rinde’s great post here. From the post – Goodbye VCs, it’s been a pleasure
Betting on markets is not business building, it’s not innovation, it’s financial crap shooting.
Many of the reasons I did not choose to have Ideafarms funded by Vulture Capitalists are so lucidly captured in his post.
1. On exit strategies
And my favourite – Andy Grove and the “payday” mentioned above:What really infuriates him is the concept of the “exit strategy.” “Intel never had an exit strategy,” Grove says. “These days, people cobble something together. No capital. No technology. They measure eyeballs and sell advertising. Then they get rid of it. You can’t build an empire out of this kind of concoction. You don’t even try.”
Did Microsoft, Google, Intel, Dell and Amazon spend time on “exit strategies”? Doubt it.
Exit strategy is something to pooh pooh at. Makes a money lender holding your home to ransom look like a saint! The VC community cannot even imagine the damage they have done to genuine entrepreneurship. Some of it will not be undone for generations.
2. On the role of the VC and the ‘passenger’ investor
I love Sig’s allusion to the investor being the passenger. How irritating to have a passenger sit in the back seat while you’re driving, giving you instructions about when to step on the gas when he has never even learnt to drive.
I’m not against delivering the best possible value to the venture investors, quite on the contrary, but there should not be any doubt that the best shareholder values delivered over time have consistently been delivered by those who can create a great value for their customers while keeping a good margin.And the customer is the start-up, the VC is the vehicle and the investor is the passenger. The passengers are always much better off if the driver keeps his eyes peeled on the road.
I join Sig in wishing VCs farewell and hope they will never return. RIP



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When I coined the phrase “Heart Capital” a few years ago, I didn’t recognise it’s prophetic undertones. Here’s a ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=ae589b1b-0d1e-426d-bc92-baa8b14553dc)

