Guy Kawasaki (Reflection)

Guy Kawasaki's Art of Start

One of the activities that we need to accomplish is to make a reflection with regards to Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the start. In his 5o minutes video clip about his Art of the start, he talked about the elements in starting an organization. Guy Kawasaki is an American marketing specialist, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and an author. He has an extensive knowledge of innovation, entrepreneurship, social media, and marketing.

Kawasaki is an evangelist. The word “evangelist” comes from a Greek word that means "bringing the good news." He brings the good news for Macintosh and currently brings the good news for Canva, which is an online graphics-design firm. He aligns with companies and causes that empower people, foster democracy, and make the world a meritocracy. In addition to his work at Canva, he is a writer (he wrote thirteen books), He’s an ambassador for Mercedes-Benz , A board member of Privy, and an executive fellow at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

In the video, Guy Kawasaki said that the very first thing that he learned and figured out is that the core and the essence in entrepreneurship is about making meaning. He noticed that companies that are fundamentally founded to change the world and make it a better place are the companies that succeed compare to those companies that are only founded just make money. He said “If you make meaning you’ll probably make money, but if you set out to make money you will probably not make meaning and you won’t make money”.

According to Kawasaki, there are 11 key elements to follow in starting an organization and these are listed below.

1.      To make meaning

To make a meaning is considered as the core reason in why you are starting a company. There are three ways to make meaning and these are:


 Increase the quality of life

Guy Kawasaki used to be a Macintosh division of Apple Computer. And he said that they were not motivated by making money, they were motivated by changing the world to make people more creative and more productive. They were trying to increase the quality of life for the Macintosh user and that was the great motivation that kept them going through many different difficult periods. Every day, they are waking up in the morning thinking how they could change people’s lives and make it better.

To right the wrong

The second way to make meaning is to Right the wrong. To right a wrong is simply finding something that’s wrong in the world or you noticed something that’s wrong and you want to fix it and find a suitable solution for it.

 Prevent the end of something good

The third way to make meaning is to prevent the end of something good. It is like seeing something that is beautiful and something wonderful and you want to stop it from being eroded, changed, and ruined. It is like preserving something good. 

As you start a company, you should have at least one of these motivations or more to make meaning. But if you don’t have any of these motivations, you should rethink what you are doing, because these three things are the keys in starting a great organization.

2.      To make mantra

      The second thing that you should learn is to make a mantra. Many entrepreneurs considered as one of the fundamental things that you have to do is to figure out a mission statement. So what they do is they grab the core team, from marketing, from sales, from engineering, from production, finance and HR and they go off-site and they craft this mission statement and everybody has to put their ideas and thoughts because this mission statement has to be workable for employees, for shareholders and most especially for the customers. Guy Kawasaki recommended the one should not make a mission statement as a start-up, because a mission statement usually ends up crap ‘cause it is too long, it is impossible to remember and it cannot even focus the company which is what it should do. Guy Kawasaki gave an example mission statement from Wendy’s. The mission statement of Wendy’s is “to deliver a superior quality products and services for our customers and communities through leadership, innovation and partnerships”. Wendy’s mission statement is a bit long and it is impossible to remember and their mission statement leaves a lot to be desire, by contrast you should do a mantra, because it’s only consist of three to four words that captures the essence of a certain organization. Guy suggested that Wendy’s should use the mantra “Healthy fast food” because this three word mantra is something that is very easy to remember. Another great mantra that he gave as an example is for FedEx and it is “Peace of mind”, because when you positively and absolutely want something or someplace you think of FedEx. One of the best mantra Kawasaki gave as an example is from Mary Kay which is “Enriching women’s lives”. This is a good mantra because it worked for two groups, the customers of Mary Kay who buys the Mary Kay products and the also the salespersons of Mary Kay because it enriches both people’s lives.

3.      Get going

The third element of the Art of start is to get going. We have three recommendations about get going and the first in the list is to think different.

      Think different

As an entrepreneur you have to think different or think outside the box just like what our Technopreneurship facilitator keep on telling us. Your goal as an entrepreneur is to not to do fifteen to twenty percent better from your competitors it is to do something ten times better and building the products and services you love.

Polarize people

The second point about get going is “do not afraid of polarizing people”. Many entrepreneurs are afraid to polarize their customers from the fact that many people might not like what they do. Because of this scenario, entrepreneurs tend to create a product and services that everybody likes which is impossible.  Entrepreneurs must be able to find the balance.

Find a few soul mates

The last point in get going is to find the perfect people who will help you and will bring out the best in you.  These people will pick you up when fall down and when you feel cold these people will hug you and keep you warm. For Bill Gates there was Steve Ballmer and for Steve Jobs there was Steve Wozniak so find a soul mate that will keep you warm and will pick you up in times you are down.

4.      Define a business model

The fourth step is to define a business model. This is an essential step which most entrepreneurs skipped from 1998 to 2001. Business models nowadays, are very different and these are the qualities of a business model that are listed below.

            Be specific

           Guy Kawasaki said that in making a business model you need to specific and straight forward. Start by asking yourself “Who are your customers? How do I get your money out of their purses?” be specific on who are you target clients to generate income from them. 

            Keep it simple

          Keeping your business model as simple as possible helps your business do well. And it will not give your customers a confusion since it is easy to understand.

           Ask women

Guy Kawasaki believed that women are genetically superior to men in many ways in particular when it comes to business model because men has a genetic defect called the killer gene. This killer gene makes men predisposed in making a decision. In contrast to that, women don’t have this genetic flaw. So this suggests when you come up with a new idea for a company, ask women about it . Ask women about the product, the services and the business model and don’t waste your time asking men according to Kawasaki.

5.      Weave a MAT (milestones, assumption, tasks)

The fifth key element is to weave a MAT which stands for milestones, assumptions and tasks. Guy Kawasaki compared a start-up company to an ice hockey rink. He said when you start-up a company you don’t have a high tech machines or furniture, you don’t have the employees and you don’t have a crappy office and it’s just pure virgin start-up just like the ice rink or the ice surface in the ice hockey which is completely empty. So what happens in this situation is that since you’re just starting a company there is so many fun things that you want to do that makes your priorities whacked out. So this is about prioritization. The first priority is to create milestones for you company. When we say milestones these are the things or goals that you want to achieve like finishing a design, finishing the prototype, and the like. A milestone is something that increases the valuation of your company. So, creating a milestone is a top priority. The second thing is to write down your assumptions, these assumptions creates the business model. And the last thing to do is to create a task. These tasks is used to either test the assumptions you wrote or it is used to complete a milestone

6.      Niche thyself

The sixth element is to niche thyself. This is the marketing you ever need to know. It’s also probably all the R and D and product design you ever need to know.

7.      Follow the 10/20/30 rule

The next thing you need to understand is the art of pitching. Pitching is usually used to raise money but pitching more generically is about the process of seeking agreement. You can seek agreement for money, you can seek agreement to recruit, you can seek agreement for partnership and you can seek agreement for sales. There is what we call the 10/20/30 rule. The 10 part of the rule is the optimal number of slides for a power point pitch, you may exceed up to 15 but 10 slides is enough for a pitch. The second part of the rule is the 20, this refers to 20 minutes time limit that you have in explaining your slides and the last part of the rule is the 30 and it is the font size that you are going to use in your slides.

8.      Hire infected people

Next recommendation is to hire an infected people. And these are the guidelines in effective hiring infected people.

Ignore the irrelevant

Ignore what’s irrelevant and find the relevant and that is the people’s love for a product.

Hire better than yourself

If you’re an A or you’re in a higher level, you tend to hire someone who is lower than you which is a B, and there is also a possibility that, that person you hired will also hire someone that he/she thinks that is lower than him/her which is a C. And if that chain will continue there will be possibility that will make your company surrounded with bozos or ineffective and not competitive people.

9.      Lower the barriers to adoption

Flatten the learning curve

Do not ask people to do something that you wouldn’t

Recruit evangelist

In starting a company you need to recruit an evangelist because these are the people who see your products and services as a way to make the world a better place.

10.  Be a mensch

Mensch is a Yiddish word to describe a person who is admired, who’s trusted, whose word is soft, whose opinion is sought and who is sort of like a saint. The first element to be a mensch is to help people who cannot help you. A mensch helps other people for the sheer pleasure of helping people. The second element to become a mensch is to do the right thing, the right way. It is not about who can shred their corporate documents faster than Enron, it is about whether you’re doing things right and you’re doing the right way. It talks about morality. The third point of being a mensch is that you desire to pay back society. To truly be the greatest entrepreneur you would be a mensch, you would do all the right things, you would help people who cannot help you and you would fundamentally pay back to the society.




          Guy Kawasaki's Rules of Revolutionaries

Guy Kawasaki had a speech at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference. The title of his speech is the rules for revolutionaries. In his speech, he imparted some of his wisdom that he acquired through his experience, he gave some of advices to the audience and shared some of the things that he learned in the hard way, so that his listeners will become a revolutionary and will be able to revolutionize the software business which is the session is all about.


          Guy Kawasaki worked for Apple Company twice, which shows a sign of his great intelligence. The first time he work in the Apple Company is from 1983 to 1987. He was actually apples second software evangelist, his job was to convince people to do software for a computer that had only 128k of RAM, with no slots, no color, no documentation, and has no native compiler. Kawasaki was assigned in the math division of apple where he worked with Steve Jobs, who is the co-founder of Apple in that year. He said when you work for the co-founder’s division the rules are different. Kawasaki joked about their arrogance because of the success they achieved. The company was divided into product division, the Apple 2 product division which basically made all the money and the Macintosh product division which he said is one who spent all the money. The people in the math division are trying to improve people’s creativity and productivity by bringing great new personal computer to the market.

            Our instructor instructed us to watch Guy Kawasaki's video and make a personal reflection afterwards. In his speech, Guy Kawasaki used the top Ten Format to explain the top ten rules for revolutionaries that a revolutionary must use. The reason why he is using this format is because some of the Apple CEO’s speeches of are too long and boring and he wants to make his speech more understandable.

1. Change the rules

So, the first thing you need to do, if you want to be a revolutionary is to change the rules of the game. By definition if you want to be revolutionary and you want to make great changes you have to destroy the existing rules. Kawasaki gave an example of existing rules about choosing the brand of a personal computer in 1984. He said that if you are an educator or a consumer or a hobbyist you would probably use an apple tools and if you were rich and a powerful business person you would rather use ms-dos. This is just one of the common rules that the Apple Computer Company wants to destroy. He also pointed out another example and scenario of destroying a rules and that is when the Federal Express (FedEx) destroyed the rules of shipping and it also destroyed the rules of pricing. Another one is the Southwest Airlines who destroyed the rules of how airlines fly around the country. These are just some companies that succeeded because they try to break the barriers and make a different approach to beat their competitors.

      2. Don’t worry, be crappy

    Don’t worry, be crappy can best be exemplified by Macintosh, and it is when they shipped Macintosh in 1984. How do you develop a product if you’re in this don’t worry, be crappy philosophy? Guy Kawasaki discussed the essential three steps in developing a product while you're in this don't worry, be crappy philosophy. 

Go with your gut

            first thing that you need to do is to go with your guts (no market research, no statistical survey and nothing that can tell you how to create a revolutionary product) just your guts. Just like what Steve Jobs did, he followed his gut in building his computing products. "Always follow your guts".

Design the product that you would want to use

         In designing a certain product, the first thing that you should do is to ask yourself the questions "do I want to use this product that I design?” and  “do I like what I am doing?”. I can relate this to my previous blogs which is about self-mastery and knowing so much about yourself. How can you expect someone to use your product if you yourself do not want or like to use it. All you need to do is ask yourself if you would want to use it and think that if you do not want to use it the consumer that will also probably will not too. 

Translating needs into statistics wants

        Aside from Guy Kawasaki's example, A good example for this is  the use of cellular phones. Before,when cellphones are not yet introduced to people, people can live without using it. But today, most people considered it as a necessity, that they are going to have a hard time when they do not bring it or lost it like their lives depends on it. Translating something into wants is the key. 

Ignoring is a bliss

           I realized that we should also know how to ignore what other people said to you especially the negative ones. There are people out there that are afraid to change the rule of the game. That is why you need to ignore other people if you know you have developed something great get on with it.

      3. Churn baby, churn

      Churn baby, churn is having this revolutionary shot and not worrying being crappy and then turning the product by listening to people when they tell you what was wrong.

Make and educated guess

         Guy Kawasaki said that we should make an educated guess. Imagine that if you have an educated guess and guts, it will surely provide a great outcome. Educated guess might be like researches of the product that you are going to deploy so that money and effort will not turn into naught.

Feel quick

          This is the most hilarious part of his speech, it is when he shared about how Macintosh are so good about feeling quick. He said that the difference between Xerox and Macintosh was that Xerox can’t feel quick and can’t even properly sue on time. It so funny and I can relate to this joke since I watched the movie Pirated of the Silicon Valley which I also created a reflection. That is why as a technopreneur you should learn from what had happened and feel quick between Xerox and Macintosh to avoid being deceived.

Eat your own dog food or use your own product

          Eating your own dog food means that you have to use our own product to test it and give it a feedback without any bias. It is the crucial step in churning.

     4. Divide and prosper

To divide and to prosper is very a counterintuitive thing to do, because most companies and people think that market share is the key to profitability. Market share indeed causes profitability since it is correlated with profitability. Usually companies that are profitable have large Market shares, however getting a large market share doesn’t cause you to be profitable. You need to divide your markets and prosper. If you divide the markets and serve enough markets you will end up where you can roll up to overall market share.

He also explained about a graph that is used in marketing. The vertical axis correlates to the company’s unique ability to provide something. That is why the higher you are on the graph the more it is that you can provide this particular thing. On the other hand, the horizontal line represents the value of your product or services. I learned that you should be higher in the what the graph represents, both uniqueness and value of your goods or services.

     

5.Make evangelists, not sales

 When you initially ship a product, you have to make evangelists, not sales because it is more important that you get people who believe in your cause. Turning facts into emotions just like what evangelists do is different from turning emotions into facts. In making evangelists, you need to find the right people you know. 

Find the right people

             You need to find the right people in to establish your own product evangelists. They will help you earn a lot of customer. These are the people who have a great knowledge when it comes to marketing a product. These people plays a very essential role in your organization.

Test drive or Demo

           Another thing to keep in mind in making evangelists is to let your customer have a product demo. This you will create and build trust among your customer and will probably end up buying the product. 

         Guy Kawasaki is truly a bright person because he said where I find a bit of a psychological aspect when he said that is not a good idea to force a person to become a customer because he has respect of their own intelligence, rather he will let you demo the product and conclude why they should buy it.

Provide an easy safe first step

              Having a big change in your organization will surely shock your company. Easy first steps is very ideal it might start from a simple department and up to higher departments. This way you will be able to cope up with the change and will surely help a lot of employees to get to know more about the new product or services you have offered.

6. Avoid the death magnet

Death magnets are the things that you know you’re not supposed to do but because it is so attractive it makes you decide to do it. It’s like a mouse trap. An example of a death magnet is the kiss of S.

The kiss of S

           The kiss of S,  is like a tree with an abundant fruit of opportunities and you wanted to pick it all because you are afraid of losing it all. Sometimes, we all want to do all different things at the same time but Guy Kawasaki clearly said to avoid what he called “The kiss of S.” It is important to look where you think you’re better and probably do the other slowly but not at the same time.

Monkey see what gorilla do

             Guy Kawasaki said that sometimes we want to be to have this kind of company not knowing that this is wrong. We are all different that is why we should think differently. Monkey should act as a monkey not a gorilla. Do not try to imitate or emulate other’s success rather make your own.

7.    Eat like a bird and poop like an elephant

Eat like a bird means that you need to consume information like going to the library, surfing the internet and sucking up all these information in any way that you can. And now you need to poop like an elephant. The reason why you need to poop like an elephant is because when you get all that information that you consume you shouldn’t keep it close to yourself. You need to share this information, you need to document it, you need to get it out and you need to create an open standards so that you bring the whole industry up with you as they say a rising tide floats all boats.

8.  Don’t ever ask the customers to do something that you wouldn’t

Guy Kawasaki lost a lot of money in an investment and partly it was because they were asking people to do something they themselves would not do. Before asking your customer to do something always asks yourself first if you yourself would do it. As an entrepreneur, we should always try to put our feet in their shoes to know what they would feel.

9.       You need to suck down not up

Ignore about titles or power

Guy Kawasaki said that a person with higher position or power will less likely to adapt change. They tend to make their way to have that person’s good side. One good advice from Guy Kawasaki is not to care or ignore about titles or position. Be more focus on people that gets your idea and wants to help you. 

Hang out with the people who really do the work

It is not only about being able to socialize with people who get to work in your business. This also helps to look at the perspective of a customer if they would like it, or what could be done. I find it very amusing that even the simplest things can really help a business do well.

           10. Don’t let the bozos grind you down

          There will always be people who likes to put their negativity to you, suck all your energy and make you feel miserable.These people are very toxic and you must keep yourself away from this type of people. So what I always try to do is to look at the people who are successful and positive every time there are person who are trying to discourage me. You should not let them ruin your life, instead you should show it to them that you can do well.

          To be honest the speech of Guy Kawasaki is quite long but I learned a lot from him because he shared all his knowledge without complexity rather in a most simple and comprehensible way. I really like the way he speaks because he always finds his way to connect with is audience and not to mention he was very funny too. I had a great time watching and listening to the lesson that Guy Kawasaki about the rules of being a revolutionary.