Intelligent People. Uncommon Ideas.

The Game of Business v2.0

By, Bhavin Turakhia

CEO, Directi (http://directi.com)
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
- Leonardo Da Vinci
Business is like a Game

1. Build the best team

2. Ensure that they make the right decisions
most of the time
Principle 1 Hire the Best
Hire the Best
Hire the Best

Can a hundred average high-jump athletes

beat one Javier Sotomayor?
Hire the Best

Can a 100 average musicians create what

one Beethoven created?
Hire the Best

Excellent Players + Poor Training = SUCCESS

Poor Players + Excellent Training SUCCESS

Excellent Players + Excellent Training = DIRECTI ;)

Hire the Best The Directi Way

A Rockstar will
make 1/3rd the mistakes COST
require the mgmt bandwidth
ideate 3x more VALUE
and deliver work 2x faster
than a average recruit
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
Hire the Best The Directi Way
Value Comparison Graph

A Rockstar delivers 140% higher value

* A regular Employee creates value => 3x their salary and value of his/her ideas => 2x salary
Hire the Best

Hiring Rockstars is 4x more profitable!!!

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
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
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
Hire the Best The Directi Way

Expect to spend about 2x-3x the time in

sourcing Top Talent as opposed to
sourcing average talent
Hire the Best The Directi Way

Smart
Nice
Articulate
Paranoid about Perfection
&
Gets things done
Out of the box thinker
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 <= 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
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?
Hire the Best

As a Manager expect to spend 30-40% of

your time in Recruitment and Training
Hire the Best

Recruitment is amongst the most valuable

activity you can focus on
Hire the Best

Other Advantages
Smart people attract other smart people
Constant learning and knowledge sharing
Lesser Management time required
Compounds the fun
Principle 2 Teach them how to play
Everyone must know how to play

All the players must know how to play the

game

OR
Everyone must know how to play

When all the employees understand the

dynamics of business, everyone can feel,
think and act like management
Everyone must know how to play

If you COACH you dont need to MANAGE

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

Everyone must know how to play

We are all Teachers, and we are all Students

Principle 3 Define the Long term vision
Share the Macro Vision

All the players are aware of the final

objective
Win the season? Play for the nationals? Compete in the worldcup?
Principle 4 Set Short term Targets and
Iterate rapidly
Near/Short term targets

Each season is broken into multiple games,

each independent from the other
Near/Short term targets
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
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
Principle 5 Keeping score
Keep Score

The Score is always visible on a public

Scoreboard
Keeping Score

Advantages
Statistics are fun Scoring makes the game Exciting
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
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
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Keeping Score The Directi Way

Weekly Support Stats of an Individual vs Team

Keeping Score The Directi Way

Average ticket handling times by Product and Business Unit

Keeping Score The Directi Way
Average phone call handling times
Keeping Score The Directi Way

Current Support Monitor

Keeping Score The Directi Way

Hourly Support Performance

Keeping Score The Directi Way
Sales - Weekly Minute by Minute views, clicks and therefore revenue
Keeping Score The Directi Way

Daily Sales chart for a LogicBoxes Product (2 weeks)

Keeping Score The Directi Way
Test result scores for trainees in a module
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Daily attendance of an individual in the company
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Daily attendance of a team
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Health of our servers for a set of products
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Multi-dimensional Sales report
Keeping Score The Directi Way
Recruitment report
Principle 6 Maintain a Playbook
Maintain a Playbook

In Sports, the playbook is sacred

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
 PDA
Processify, Processify, Processify
Document, Document, Document.
Automate, Automate, Automate
Maintain a Playbook

Stats from our internal Wiki

Our knowledgebase is 1,932,735,283 bytes (1.9 billion

bytes) on disk ~ 3500 books
Principle 7 Line of Sight
Line of Sight

Each player can link their actions to

the outcome of a game
Line of Sight The Directi Way
Monthly PnL discussions
Open Book Management
Transparency
Keeping Score (Everything is measured)
Constant Communication
Principle 8 Celebrate your Victories
Celebrations The Directi Way
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
"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"
 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
 Intelligent People. Uncommon Ideas.

Questions?

Email me: bhavin.t@directi.com

Follow me: http://twitter.com/bhavintu
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bhavin.t
Blog: http://bhavin.directi.com
Website: http://directi.com
Download Slides: http://wiki.directi.com