And Vijay Says…

Happy 2014 everyone !

I have no new year resolutions – those don’t work very well , at least for me anyway. I do have some hopes though for the new year

First – I hope the US becomes a less divided country . We should stop letting MSNBC and FOX dictate our value systems . Let’s fully involve in Church and State , but keep them away from each other . Let’s not blindly believe what “our party” stands for today – and do a bit of critical thinking on what we choose to take and what we choose to throw away . Let’s unite against violence of all forms – within and outside this country . Let’s live and let live without extreme prejudice . Let’s try and fail , and try again till we get things reasonably right .

In India – I hope AAP will change the face of politics for good . The fact that they won against Congress and BJP is excellent news in itself . India is used to a socialist governance model – and AAP has a very socialist agenda , including their plans for economy . I can only hope that they don’t go back to the subsidy and reservation culture of yesteryears . In any case – a welcome change from incumbents , and let’s hope they can scale across India . I hope the anti-gay laws in India are taken away for good . I seriously hope they just don’t kick the ball between Judiciary and Executive and Legislature . It is legislature’s job to get it right for good. I also hope India becomes safer for women in 2014 – we certainly don’t need more gang rapes . This can’t be done by government alone – this needs society to do serious introspection and go through a painful change in how women are looked up on .

Between US and India , I hope they do away with the diplomatic issues quickly . World has more important problems that need these two countries to work together . Take away “official” maid service for diplomats – if the rest of us can wash our clothes and cook our dinner , a diplomat can do that too .

On IT front – I hope companies get to a better mix of services and product development . Let’s not spend 2014 mostly on “my puppy is better/faster/cheaper than your puppy” – let our “pups” aka products and services speak for themselves . Especially for Indian IT companies , I hope 2014 will see better employee satisfaction . In general – I seriously hope I don’t see another CIO vs CMO or Business vs IT rehash. There are no new angles here and I am so incredibly bored .

I have no expectations of cloud , databases , mobile, BI etc to do something earth shattering in 2014. They will all no doubt grow in the right direction – assuming we get the hype out of the way . IT World doesn’t need another SOA type cycle , if you know what I mean .

On personal front – I hope like most parents that my daughter continues to grow up into a responsible person , and enjoy her childhood . I also wish I lost some weight . I will definitely try to spend some more time with family and take all the vacation I can . I hope my older dog Boss continues to be in good health , the 5 year old Hobo continues to be the kind hearted good that he is , and the little guy Ollie grows up to be a well socialized dog . I would like Ollie to also be a good show dog – but that is not a deal breaker . I hope I can help my wifey a little more around the house in 2014 🙂

That is it – no resolutions , just some hopes and dreams !

Have a good one folks – cheers

A big luxury during this time of the year is that I can have a siesta free of guilt . As I came down the stairs and turned right to the kitchen nook – I saw my little Golden puppy Ollie at his favorite. “Thinking spot” in the back lawn , acting as if he is figuring out the meaning of Christmas 🙂

And that set me thinking – what is the meaning of Christmas ? And then on to – does Christmas mean anything to the world of Enterprise Software ? I think it does mean something .

To me, Christmas is all about giving , exchanging and sharing . These are not the first three words that normally come to mind when we think of enterprise software world . These things , barring a handful of cases, are (at best ) after thoughts.

Enterprise software world is mostly a place where every company is out to go all the way alone . Partnerships do exist – but usually in a very tactical sense. Just like in politics – there are no permanent friends and enemies in enterprise land either . Those that partnered in the past would go at each other’s throats , and sworn enemies will make bed fellows . I readily admit that I have taken it for granted too for the most part that this is how things ought to be done.

Every vendor in enterprise space swears they will do what is good for the customer – and sadly, it generally translates to doing what THEY think is right for the customer .

This year – I have no direct sales responsibility . Otherwise , Q4 is the time when I get told repeatedly that every deal in progress needs to be made into a bigger deal . Many careers have been made and lost in this annual quest. As I look back in time – the best “deals that were made bigger” were the ones where one vendor gave up some short term business to another one (or a few others ) and went to the customer with a “deal you can’t refuse”. In the very best category are the ones where the customer is part of the deal making process throughout . Customers buy on price when the value cannot be expressed clearly and quantitatively in a way they trust . Trust is the operative word here . When customer and vendor trust each other – deals become boring and routine, and usually bigger . There is nothing I love more than routine and boring deals 🙂

No one software vendor has a portfolio to solve all requirements of a customer – yet, inexplicably it is only an absolute minority of cases where a vendor proposal includes products and services that are from someone else . That happens only when sales leaders of multiple vendors know and trust each other well , or when customers ask vendors to work together explicitly . Nether scenario is anywhere close to common .

Same is true for services . Everyone takes potshots at everyone else at the drop of the hat . Independents will say big SIs are out to get customers , who in turn will do every thing to keep independents away from projects , unless they are subcontracted through the SI itself . Product people will readily point a finger at services people – and vice versa – for every problem irrespective of merit . I have seen it from both sides – and it is exasperating , and funny too occasionally .

I have had this conversation with several software and services leaders over the years . The most common answer I get is “Power” – as in, the company with the most power (most marketing $$, best relations with customers etc) twists the situation to their sole advantage , and won’t share the “spoils”.

In my mind, nothing demonstrates true power like generosity . The ability to be generous – to give away for the greater good – is the ultimate power . This is true in the society we live in – and I strongly believe it should be true in the world of software too . The entire industry can grow by leaps and bounds if companies are a bit more generous with their products and services .

This is not to say competition should be eliminated , or that software should be open sourced all the time , or that profit making is a bad thing . Absolutely not – those are all fine and ok. My wish is only for some peaceful co-existence in the world of enterprise software .

Wouldn’t it be great if a good chunk of the vast marketing budgets of software companies are repurposed to product development , education , customer support etc ? Wouldn’t it be great to focus a little more on making ten things 90% right and resist the temptation of doing 20 things 70% right ? And how refreshing would it be to see messaging that “together we solve the world’s problems” than “my horse runs better/faster/cheaper than your donkey” ?

Will 2014 be the year when enterprise software companies get their Christmas spirit ? I will eat and drink to that .

Merry Christmas to everyone . Have a great holiday season . And more power to the ones amongst you who choose to be generous .

Compared to the time between 2008 to 2012, when I was fast tracking through an IBM career in management – I had a pretty relaxing year at SAP in 2013 on many fronts . Mostly, I have been in a learning mode – and I did learn a lot about how this great company works .

IBM was rather command and control driven to some extent – someone up top decided what needed to be done . I had the freedom to figure out how to do it – assuming I met the goal ethically . Well, meeting the goal didn’t count for much there – you had to exceed the goal by a long margin to be seen as a leader . Every goal we had to hit had to tie back to corporate goals set by CEO – very little vagueness prevailed . Not that all employees liked or agreed with what the goals were – but everyone knew what hills were marked for them to capture .

SAP works very differently – here we like to build consensus for all decisions . People a few levels down from the board members can still define “what” and not just “how” . And I love that balance of top down and bottoms up decision making .

Both companies are rather heavy on process – SAP is smaller in size compared to IBM. But there isn’t much of a relief on process – everything has a process , and it takes whatever time it is supposed to take . I guess that is the price to pay when any company gets to a certain size and scale – from that point , process doesn’t get better or worse . One might learn over time to optimize the constraints or you might just get used to the process and it becomes second nature . I haven’t done either yet – still figuring that one out .

I know IBM occasionally gets flak in the press for not pleasing some customer or other . But having worked there for a long time (actually pretty short time by big blue norms) – I know those are exceptions to the rule . I grew up in IBM with “when in doubt – do right by the customer” drilled into my head . That is thankfully the general policy at SAP too – everyone jumps in to solve Customer issues irrespective of their day job or title . Again – something I absolutely love . In IBM , I had to stay back and deliver what I sold to a customer. In SAP – I don’t have to sell anything , just focus on engineering and related topics . I miss a bit of the adrenalin rush that sales comes with – but I think I am a better techie than a seller . I can live this way for a while .

My motto on team work is simple – success of a team is determined by whether the members of that team watch out for each other even after the people no longer work together . Not everyone works well with my style of leadership. I am fairly hands off – and I hold people responsible for an outcome. There are no marks given for steps – and neither does my team ever get a goal that I am not directly measured on . We succeed or fail together . That is not everyone’s cup of tea – which is why I said people still watching out for each other years after going through a hard project is how I determine true success. At SAP I think I have successfully talked many people out of joining my team full time 🙂

With most people I have worked with in past – I have the faith that I can call them at any time of the day and they will not only pick up the phone , but will also do their best to help me with my request the best they can . And they know they can expect the same of me . Just two weeks ago in India – two of my team mates (Nitish and Anupama) from 2008 came to my hotel late in the evening just to say hi to me and chat . I can’t express how happy that makes me feel . Not everything in corporate life is enjoyable – but this , building a team and seeing them grow , never ceases to be a fulfilling activity .

Compared to my time at IBM , my direct team at SAP is minuscule in size . But I have nothing but utmost satisfaction working with them – if you see us debating you might think we are eleven year olds arguing in a playground 🙂 . We challenge every idea – especially the ones that originate from me . But then we get things done . Our little skunkworks project to offer a free BW on Hana trial on AWS ( http://saphana.com/bwonhanatrial ) is a perfect example . With no formal project – not even a cool code name – we managed to get it done , and in a couple of months this trial has had more than thousand sign ups and more than 50000 hours logged . It was not just our little team – we got full commitment from everyone we requested across the company .

This was a complete déjà vu for me – when the SAP innovation center was formed at IBM, this is exactly how we did it . A small team of volunteers from across the globe who believed in the cause came together and we got it done – without formal budget , headcount and so on . That team is now a big part of IBM – ably led by Gagan Reen, my most trusted wing man those days . I am happy beyond words that this model worked just as well in SAP with Ingo, Rohit and other colleagues . It also reaffirms my belief that good things get done at great speed when small ad hoc teams get formed on the fly .

When it comes to my reputation(?) – majority of people in IBM knew me mostly as a solid technologist in the first part of my career and then as a consulting leader with good abilities in both sales and delivery . In SAP , I am most commonly introduced to other colleagues as a blogger that Vishal hired . It still amuses me to no end – but it has happened at least a hundred times . This leads to people asking me occasionally if I can blog about their product or retweet something they have tweeted . I am honored that some colleagues think I have enough clout in social media to positively amplify their work . However , this is not something I like doing – as an employee , I have very little credibility if I pimp something about SAP . That is best left to the ecosystem – if they see value, they will promote . If they don’t – they will criticize or ignore . While I continue to blog whenever I feel like it – it is rather rare these days that I blog about SAP like I used to before . If 2014 continues in this way – I guess I should interview with Jonathan Becher for a job in social media marketing 🙂

Perhaps the biggest difference between a software job and a consulting job is the org structure . In consulting teams are formed according to project needs – otherwise skilled people form part of a resource pool (I hate the use of the term resource to refer to human beings). In software , there seems to be more of a rigid structure of a team assigned to a manager for a very long time . Neither model is completely inflexible – some part of the team is always made up of people assigned from other parts of the organization . Having been used to working with the flexible resource pool for a long time , it is a bit hard for me to get used to the seemingly more rigid structure at SAP . It is most probably a factor of time – and I am sure I will get there at some point , hopefully soon. Or die trying 🙂

People have asked me many times this year on what is the one thing I miss the least from IBM days – and My answer has not changed . I am happy that I don’t have to deal with lotus notes any more . I never liked it – and I really hope I don’t have to use it again . I don’t ever want to choose between “do you want to delete ? Or do you want to remove” when I try to delete an email .I know there are many IBMers who love notes – more power to them . For me – no thank you !

No idea what 2014 has in store for me – but not going to worry about that . I could use the vacation time to train my dogs , and spend some much needed time with my family away from airports and planes .

Happy holidays everyone !