The Game of Business v2.0

1
The Game of Business v2.0

• By, Bhavin Turakhia
• CEO, Directi (http//directi.com)

2

• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
• - Leonardo Da Vinci

3
Business is like a Game

1. Build the best team
2. Ensure that they make the right decisions most of
   the time

4

• Principle 1 Hire the Best

5
Hire the Best
6
Hire the Best
Can a hundred average high-jump athletes beat one
Javier Sotomayor?
7
Hire the Best
Can a 100 average musicians create what one
Beethoven created?
8
Hire the Best

• Excellent Players Poor Training SUCCESS

Poor Players Excellent Training ? SUCCESS
Excellent Players Excellent Training DIRECTI
)
9
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
10
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
11
Hire the Best The Directi Way
Value Comparison Graph
A Rockstar delivers 140 higher value
A regular Employee creates value gt 3x their
salary and value of his/her ideas gt 2x salary
12
Hire the Best
Hiring Rockstars is 4x more profitable!!!
13
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
14
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

15
Hire the Best
Hiring above the MIN Vs Hiring above the Mean
Source Google Lake Wobegone strategy

• Only hire candidates who are above the mean of
  your current employees

16
Hire the Best The Directi Way
Expect to spend about 2x-3x the time in sourcing
Top Talent as opposed to sourcing average talent
17
Hire the Best The Directi Way

• Smart
• Nice
• Articulate
• Paranoid about Perfection
• Gets things done
• Out of the box thinker

18
Hire the Best The Directi Way

• Process at Directi
• Dont hire for a specific Project
• Hire continuously
• Multiple rounds per candidate (3-7)
• Interview rounds are always one-on-one
• Rounds lt 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

19
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?

20
Hire the Best

• As a Manager expect to spend 30-40 of your time
  in Recruitment and Training

21
Hire the Best
Recruitment is amongst the most valuable
activity you can focus on
22
Hire the Best

• Other Advantages
• Smart people attract other smart people
• Constant learning and knowledge sharing
• Lesser Management time required
• Compounds the fun

23

• Principle 2 Teach them how to play

24
Everyone must know how to play

• All the players must know how to play the game

OR
25
Everyone must know how to play

• When all the employees understand the dynamics
  of business, everyone can feel, think and act
  like management

26
Everyone must know how to play
If you COACH you dont need to MANAGE
27
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

28
Everyone must know how to play
We are all Teachers, and we are all Students
29

• Principle 3 Define the Long term vision

30
Share the Macro Vision

• All the players are aware of the final
  objective
• Win the season? Play for the nationals? Compete
  in the worldcup?

31

• Principle 4 Set Short term Targets and Iterate
  rapidly

32
Near/Short term targets

• Each season is broken into multiple games, each
  independent from the other

33
Near/Short term targets
34
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
35
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

36

• Principle 5 Keeping score

37
Keep Score

• The Score is always visible on a public
  Scoreboard

38
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
39
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

40
Keeping Score The Directi Way
41
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Weekly Support Stats of an Individual vs Team
42
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Average ticket handling times by Product and
Business Unit
43
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Average phone call handling times
44
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Current Support Monitor
45
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Hourly Support Performance
46
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Sales - Weekly Minute by Minute views, clicks and
therefore revenue
47
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Daily Sales chart for a LogicBoxes Product (2
weeks)
48
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Test result scores for trainees in a module
49
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Daily attendance of an individual in the company
50
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Daily attendance of a team
51
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Health of our servers for a set of products
52
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Multi-dimensional Sales report
53
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Recruitment report
54

• Principle 6 Maintain a Playbook

55
Maintain a Playbook

• In Sports, the playbook is sacred

56
Maintain a Playbook
Knowledge sharing can be accomplished in 2 ways
Write OR Wrong
People Impacted Value
Read it yourself 1 100
Email to select Colleagues 5 500
Post on team mailing list 10 1000
Post in wiki 20 2000
Post in wiki and link it appropriately 50 5000
57
PDA

• Processify, Processify, Processify
• Document, Document, Document.
• Automate, Automate, Automate

58
Maintain a Playbook
Stats from our internal Wiki

• Our knowledgebase is 1,932,735,283 bytes (1.9
  billion bytes) on disk 3500 books

59

• Principle 7 Line of Sight

60
Line of Sight

• Each player can link their actions to the
  outcome of a game

61
Line of Sight The Directi Way

• Monthly PnL discussions
• Open Book Management
• Transparency
• Keeping Score (Everything is measured)
• Constant Communication

62

• Principle 8 Celebrate your Victories

63
Celebrations The Directi Way
64
The Game of Business

• Principle 1 Hire the Best
• Principle 2 Teach them how to play
• Principle 3 Share the Long Term Vision
• Principle 4 Set Near Term Targets
• Principle 5 Keep Score
• Principle 6 Maintain a Playbook
• Principle 7 Line of Sight
• Principle 8 Celebrate your Victories

65

• "A company performs best when its people see
  themselves as partners in the business - when
  they concern themselves not just with doing their
  jobs, but with the business objectives of the
  company"

66

• Would you rather be - a Business of employees,
  or a Business of Business-people

Play the Game of Business as you would any other
Game and build a Business of Business people
67
Questions?
Email me bhavin.t_at_directi.com Follow me
http//twitter.com/bhavintu Facebook
http//www.facebook.com/bhavin.t Blog
http//bhavin.directi.comWebsite
http//directi.com Download Slides
http//wiki.directi.com