Directing Business — Book Summary
I am happy and privileged to write the book summary of an author with who I collaborated 15 years back, Lakshmi Narayana Garu — Thank you for sending me your wisdom as a gift to me. I love reading books and what a great gift to end the year, 2022.
About Author:
Lakshmi Narayana is a movie enthusiast, technologist, and business leader. In his 25+ years of experience, Lakshmi/LN has handled a variety of senior/middle management roles with a special focus on the internet and media/entertainment. He has also been an entrepreneur and over the years, has managed to keep this streak intact.
You can find the book at this link
I will write a brief summary and key takeaways from the book here, I recommend reading this book, it is a short read. I completed it in 2 hours.
Note: The book has amazing co-relation and examples to movies, and tv series for each piece of wisdom, and I will keep that movie surprise element for the readers to read the book :)
I will just keep a high-level essence of the subject shared.
My praise: Directing business is such an interesting book, it has a sweet co-relation and references to movies, tv-series, and character dialogues that resonates well and makes it an interesting read. My favorite chapters are “Is my business doing ok? and “Drive your time”, I’ve added some movies to my watch list after reading this book. Thanks, Lakshmi garu!
Why read this book (in the author's words)?
The book is not meant to teach you management skills or how to run a business. It also does not teach you how to be an entrepreneur. Think of this book as a reminder of some of the best techniques you already know. If this book urges you to learn more and watch more movies from a learning point of view, I feel that it has achieved its purpose — Lakshmi Narayana
Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter introduces the first teachers in the author's world, it started when the author was 7 years old, and he compared 3 different stores to buy goods. The author made decisions based on the shop-owner mindset.
- An angry shopkeeper — whom he nicknamed “shidku” i.e. forever angry in Kannada (an Indian language) — The author avoided this store as the owner is always angry.
- Fancy Store — Who doesn’t care about the customers — Who he only visited when he has to.
- Marwari family shop (customer friendly) — treats customers very well, and prioritizes a first come first serve basis despite the author being 7 years old. The author loves to visit this store.
This experience was the author's first teacher of entrepreneurship.
Chapter 2: It all begins with a pitch
This chapter introduces a pitch that is not limited to the company, but is needed at every stage, in a variety of situations ex: from presenting to investors to hiring a star employee. The pitch starts within yourself first internally, make it attractive to yourself first, and then share it with others, once it is shared with others, it may be iterated many times and become a vision for a company or product, etc. However, it starts with you internally.
Chapter 3: Financials and Annual Reports
This chapter discusses the importance of Financial statements for entrepreneurs. Financial statements help us decode the company's success and learn from its mistakes. Anyone aspiring to leadership should read annual reports of their choice in both the industry they operate and they would like to benchmark against. Annual Reports is a great place and it is free.
Chapter 4: Business Plan… Do you need one?
This chapter introduces to the business plan and when it is needed, in a summary the author mentions that you don’t need a big plan, once you internalize all details and make up your mind, you are good to go. However, you will need a business plan at some point in time.
An entrepreneur has to internalize and have a business plan for the first two questions in every scenario.
Scenario-1
- Is the market good enough and growing for this product/service?
- Who are the current competitors?
- If they can do it, can I do it too? How do I go about it?
Scenario-2
- Which pain point is this new product or service addressing? Which existing business segment is it disrupting?
- How big is the market for it?
- I can do it, How do I go about it?
Scenario-3
- I know this is a great product/service and customers will buy it
- I have to create a market for it (Will there be a market for it?)
- I can do it, How do I go about it?
Chapter 5: The Itch of an Entrepreneur
This chapter compares entrepreneurs to heroes in movie characters. In Sanskrit, it is captured as “Iccha sakthi, gnana sakthi, kriya sakthi” i.e. Power of desire, Power of knowledge, and power to execute — an entrepreneur has to keep an eye on all the three.
Some selected steps that are common between entrepreneurs and heroes in movies
- Call to adventure
- Meeting the mentors
- Tests, allies, enemies
- Ordeal, death, rebirth
- Return with the elixir.
Chapter 6 — Is My Business Doing Ok?
“What gets measured, gets managed” — Peter Drucker
This chapter uncovers a great question, What about applying the doctor-like approach to business (similar to how a doctor verifies all information prior to letting you know you are doing well or not)? If you run a business or manage a team, you need to become your own doctor and prepare a list of health indicators and layer them, identify metrics at various levels and work on them. You need to analyze metrics as
- Historical data: Previous data
- Real-time data: What's happening now?
- Mission control center: Centralized display of various metrics for the key stakeholders to track.
To get to metrics, you need to align those to the vision by:
- Translate the vision in to set of goals for the business team
- come up with initiatives/themes aligning with the vision
- create projects that fall under initiatives
- Prepare a set of metrics to track — input and output
- Display the progress for everyone to see and change course
Output metrics are tracked but there is not much that you can directly do to change them. ex: profit at the end of the quarter
Input metrics are the ones that lead to output, you can track them, and tweak them to get better output.
Chapter 7 — How to hire your Gunmen?
This chapter discusses the hiring process, ensure you spell out the vision of the company, team, goals, etc. in conversations with your new hire.
Make a good pitch but do not exaggerate, try to understand the candidate's roots, get a sense of comfort working with them, and focus on hiring them for what they are at currently but hire them for what they can be.
Chapter 8 — Building a Team
The chapter provides information on building a team. Some of the basic things that leaders follow to earn their team's loyalty and trust
- Display transparency in dealings
- Be tough when required
- Be one with the team
- Push the common cause and mission all the time
- Put integrity before anything else
- Have fun when you can
- Bring forth innate talents in the team
- Let the team build from within.
Chapter 9 — How to manage or how to be a manager?
“Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things” — Peter Drucker
This chapter describes some things that the author learned in his manager journey.
- Be transparent
- Learning is always an option
- Respect has to be earned
- Be tough when you have to
- Information is on a need-to-know basis
- Expectations management and Project management
- Say no to projects you feel like saying no to
Chapter 10 — Leadership in action
This chapter begins with the Ramayana and Squirrel analogy, on how a squirrel tried to help build a bridge and how Rama appreciated for its effort to step out of its comfort zone and attempted something big, a true trait of leadership.
“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked, leadership is defined by results not attributes” — Peter Drucker
- Leadership is all about character: Character here refers to what one is and how consistent one is in daily life.
- Focus on the job at hand: Ensure you are focusing on the job at hand as a priority.
- Hold the team together: Individuals in the team bring a certain set of dynamics and their point of view or their comfort, it is up to the leader to figure the whole mission out.
- Think on one’s feet: Be adaptable to changes quickly
- Take tough decisions and act tough, not heroic: If deep down, the belief is strong, it manifests appropriately.
- When it's over, you move on: Be humble.
Chapter 11- Process isn’t a dirty word
“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” — W. Edwards Deming
This chapter provides information on the importance of processes in many areas. There is generally resistant to the process but we can make it better by
- Clearly define core and non-core processes: Most often, the sheer number of processes put people off. Differentiate between standard operating procedures and domain-specific procedures.
- Make them part of the agenda in team meetings: Go over one particular process that helps everyone stay focused. It might sound boring at times but the Senior person giving emphasis on the process creates the right kind of importance for the rest of the team.
- Identify and nurture individual process champions, to create a sense of ownership
- Review and discard the processes that are not relevant
- Make the processes accessible to everyone
- Yes, deviations are accepted
Chapter 12 — Drive your time
This chapter is my favorite, provides information about how time is equal for everyone and each individual has to manage time best.
Your time should reflect what’s important to you
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities” — Stephen Covey
Our goal should be to spend time on things that is important to us, rather than thrown at us as being important.
Believe in preparation time for any task
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” — Abraham Lincoln
Control the start of the day
Devote some time at the beginning of the day, to be structured without interruptions in which you either finish a set of tasks or use it as preparation time.
Be frank about time wasters
Sometimes we tend to come across time wasters, you don’t need to be harsh with them, you can simply postpone the request to figure out the importance of the task.
Run a meeting like it has to end
One has to be mindful about sticking to the agenda. Prior to that, a meeting should have an agenda, and the entire lot should stick to it.
Things to do before the meeting:
- Is it the necessary form of communication?
- Have we shared all relevant information with the people?
- Do we have a clear outcome from the meeting other than a confirmation of the meeting?
Execute the day with a purpose
Purpose motivates us to spend time wisely and execute the day well.
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For each chapter, this book has references to movies, tv-series dialogues, and references that will enrich your reading experience.
Good read…
