Tropical Gringo

Anoche, durante la fiesta de cumpleaños de mi esposa, me escapé y escribí el próximo articulo en KienyKe (cuidado con decirle algo) sobre lo que está pasando en EEUU en terminos de apoyo para startups.  Primero, menciono el nuevo programa de Obama donde el gobierno invertirá 2 dolares por cada dolar que invierte el sector privado en esta iniciativa.  Segundo, menciono la noticia que dos inversionistas estrellas se compremetieron a invertir USD $150.000 en todo emprendimiento que se gradua de la incubadora Y-Combinator.

¿Porque tanto interés por parte del gobierno en promocionar a las startups?  La razon tiene que ver con el tema sobre el cual he escrito mucho: innovación digital.  Como Mark Zuckerberg, CEO de Facebook dice, cada industria tiene que ser “repensada” para tomar en cuenta lo que es posible con herramientas digitales como medios sociales.

En Colombia, veo buenas iniciativas para emprendimiento pero no vi nada realmente con esta visión de producir startups cuyo principal objetivo es ser empresa grande a traves de la innovación digital.  Esta es una de las razones que decidí que Colombia necesita trabajar con una incubadora global como el Founder Institute y entrar al “juego” de una vez con startups de talla mundial.

No es pequeño acontecimiento que la expansion regional del Founder Institute comienza por Colombia (y no Brasil, Argentina o Chile).  El primer grupo de emprendedores Colombianos comienza el 29 de abril y contará con algunos mentores CEO’s de EEUU.  El primer paso es indentificar los emprendedores con mayor potencial a traves de su aplicación y un examen especial que, en este momento, no tiene costo.

Si usted es o quiere ser (puede ser empleado en este momento) emprendedor digital con interés en estirarse (stretch) y lograr cosas impactantes debería aplicar ya mientras el examen no tiene costo.  Haga clic aquí para aplicar.

TechCrunch acaba de publicar un articulo anoche sobre el Founder Institute y su expansion por el mundo y la escritora del articulo cuestiona porque se le ocurrió a Adeo Ressi, creador del Founder Institute, comenzar con Colombia.  Dicha escritora, en el pasado, ha tenido una pelea de palabras con Brasil y su gobierno por problemas que hubo con concederle su visa.  Al fin le tocó posponer su viaje a otra fecha y terminó cosas buenas sobre su visita a ese país.  Aunque es buena escritora su estilo es a veces bastante criticado como cuando entrevistó a Mark Zuckerberg, CEO de Facebook.

Ahora, yo entiendo porque ella cuestiona esta decisión.  Obviamente, con lo que está sucediendo en terminos del gran crecimiento de start-ups é inversión en Argentina, Chile y, especialmente, Brasil, no es obvio porque deberá Adeo comenzar con Bogotá, Colombia.  Sin embargo, me encantó la respuesta de Adeo (la cual me lo mencionó hoy durante nuestra conversacion).  Su respuesta fué que sea lo que sea, Colombia ha respondido con mas personas que han aplicado al programa mas rapidamente que cualquier otro pais (una semana después del lanzamiento).

Es posible que la escritora tenga razón en su implicación que otros paises en la región son mas obvios como puntas de lanza pero prefiero pensar que Adeo va ser justificado en su decisión de comenzar por Colombia.  El cree mucho en este país y acaba de traducir casi todo el sitio al español precisamente para el semestre que se va dictar en Colombia. Por esta razón, les pido a todos los interesados (en todas las ciudades de Colombia) que apliquen al programa de una vez.

Para usted tiene un beneficio porque, si aplica ahora, podrás tomar un examen especial sin costo que ha sido tomado por empresarios por todo el mundo para medir su aptitud para emprender.  Mi instincto me dice que los Colombiano(a)s tienen una aptitud alta para ser emprendedore(a)s (mas de lo común).  Lo que les vendría muy bien es un poco de enseñanza en mejores practicas.  Ningún examen es 100% (este tiene una predictabilidad de 73%).  Sin embargo, el examen también dá buena retroalimentación general sobre sus fortalezas como potencial emprendedor(a).

Por el lado del programa, me parece que entre mas personas aplican esto demostrará la determinación de Colombia y los Colombianos en ser un jugador global en cuando a start-ups.  Tambien, nos dará un panorama mas completo sobre donde están los emprendedores de alto potencial en el país y cuantos hay en cada ciudad.  En otras palabras, el primer paso es la identificación.

Por el lado egoista, aunque me encanta escuchar sobre emprendedores de startups por toda America Latina, también me encantaría interactuar con mas de estos en Colombia donde vivo. Entonces, si está interesado en este programa, espero que tome acción y aplique ahora.

The launch of the Apple iPad was tad underwhelming for a lot of analysts.  Nevertheless, for anyone who’s interested in the continuing saga of the disruption of the media industry, this was an important chapter in the evolution of what the new media industry will look like.  Nobody is better fit to be the principle protagonist of this new chapter than Steve Jobs, successful CEO of a digital electronics (aka, computer) firm and former CEO of a media firm (Pixar).

Apple has all the freedom it wants in creating interesting new devices and software.  Nevertheless, when it comes to dealing with book publishers, studios and the like, things can seem a bit, shall we say, confining.  These companies are scared to death of a further squeeze on margins and having their valuable content swimming around on the Internet for free.

With the iPad, Jobs has launched yet another device for viewing all types of content including, now, books.  As more and more millions of users consume media on one or more of these devices, Jobs is creating a gated distribution system where he can experiment with different pricing schemes.  As more and more publishers, studios and music companies come on board and accept this state of affairs, it becomes harder for the remaining companies to hold out.

I’m sure some of these hold outs correctly understand the incredible power that could potential be in the hands of one company (Apple) and shudder.  However, as Jobs continues to add more consumers and more devices, these companies will find it more and more difficult to stay away from his massive distribution system.  The Apple media consumption ecosystem will only become more compelling as it’s pace of digital innovation accelerates.

It certainly is an amazing thing to watch.  While many executives understand from a theoretical level that things are changing (particularly in the media industry), Jobs understands what he needs to do to take advantage of what’s happening.  While many focus on specific nuances of each beautifully designed gadget that he launches, they risk losing the forest from the trees.

A major transformation is taking place before our eyes.  Content creation in the form of books, newspapers, movies, and music as a business has been bound to specific distribution businesses for many years. Sometimes they reside in the same legal entity (e.g., newspapers) and sometimes have ties to well-established distribution partners and Jobs is accelerating the transformation of these distribution channels (in many cases physical channels) into one digital bit stream.

In the process, the actual content will certainly be transformed.  Just as music companies are able to provide added content through iTunes; book publishers, newspapers and others will be able to provide added value through these new channels.  There will be many players vying for a role in this new ecosystem, but Steve Jobs, with a growing minion of subscribers to his media consumption platform (e.g., iTunes, iBook, Apps, etc.) will be a difficult force for the any media company to ignore.

My Conversation with Zoho CEO, Sridhar Vembu

In my last post, I spoke about my conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho Corporation, an innovative software company headquartered in the US, but with most of their employees based in India and China.   I wrote mostly about the ingredients of the company’s success.  In this post, I’d like to delve a bit further into Sridhar’s vision and philosophy and its applicability to Latin America.

While I was speaking with Sridhar, I was reminded of John Hagel’s book, The Only Sustainable Edge.  In it, Hagel mentions two important areas touched upon by the Zoho CEO. The first one has to do with Zoho’s ability to offer customers value at an affordable cost which is in synch with Hagel’s assertion that technology innovations are opportunities to “create more value at less cost.”  Zoho’s location, recruiting, training and company culture paired with its bet on cloud computing make are certainly aligned to a goal of creating more value at less cost for their customers.  Additionally, Hagel points out in his book that managing across two cultures “can create new opportunities to enhance performance by drawing on the best of both cultures.”  Certainly, this is not news to Sridhar who lives and breathes it every day. (more…)

My Conversation with Zoho CEO, Sridhar Vembu

A couple of days ago, I had the opportunity to talk with Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho Corp, a strong player in the SaaS software market. The company’s corporate headquarters are in Pleasanton, California and the majority of it’s about 1000 employees are based out of India and China.  These and other characteristics make Zoho and Sridhar, who has spent half his life in India and half (presently) in the states, an excellent model for digital innovation in Latin America.

First off, what really struck me about Sridhar after our chat was the balance of three key characteristics of his personality that came across:   1) His passion for the “people aspect” of building a business, 2) his practicality and incisive thoughtfulness and, finally, 3) an underlying, intense pride (in his people, what they’ve accomplished, etc.) and competitiveness.   Incidentally, my own opinion is that this type of open personality, high level of intelligence, balanced outlook and strong personal drive will be key leadership traits for achieving success in the coming years, but that’s a topic for another post. (more…)