The thrill of the thrifty hunt

Hey hey all! Hope you had a lovely weekend! I got a ton done on the powder room, just one more coat and then I get to start “fluffing” – finally! I’ll show you this week! I seriously cannot believe the room is finally in a (mostly) finished state.

This weekend a girlfriend and I went to a local barn sale and found a few goodies that I wanted to show you, and I realized I hadn’t shown you a few others I’ve gotten while thrifting over the past few months.

I love the “hunt” – I think it’s so much more fun to shop antique malls and consignment shops and second hand types of places! You never know what you’ll find and what you find is most likely something that’s unique to your home.

I got these big marquee letters a few months ago and still haven’t decided on where they’ll go:

I’m planning on putting them in two different spots, and I may try to light them! (There’s a hole in the back where I can slip in some lights.) How fun is that?

I found these beautiful coasters this weekend and couldn’t pass them up:

The bonus is we actually needed coasters. ;) So we’ll use them a lot. Aren’t they pretty?

I got this one a while back, I can’t remember where, but I love changing up the use for things. This vintage floral “frog” sits on my desk and holds pens and pencils:

Including my DIY flower pen that the Bub made me for Mother’s Day. ;)

My friend found a little succulent in a vintage container this weekend, and I was inspired by it’s cuteness! I grabbed a succulent at the nursery and stuck it in part of a vintage creamer set I found at Goodwill:

Adorable, eh? I love it!!

I found this old oar recently too, and I have an idea for a little redo:

It’s in rough shape, but I like it that way. ;)

I LOVED these old wood window screen/frame things I found this weekend:

I’m trying them out in a few places and will let you know where they end up. They’ll get a paint job eventually too. It’s so hard to find big art and these are awesome to fill a big space!

I found a cute hanging basket too – perfect for a few (of my meeellions) magazines:

I swear I looked it over so well and missed a broken part at the bottom, which doesn’t really bug me. Then I got it home and realized the whole top row was busted up. So I just cut out some of the slats that were still there to make it look like it was supposed to be like that. ;) 

So there’s a few of my favorite thrifting finds lately – do you love the hunt too? If you don’t know of any sales or shops near you, do a quick internet search -- you may be surprised at what’s nearby! Some of my favorite places are little spots that I found just by searching “antiques” on my iphone map!

I’ll be back with the bathroom reveal this week! Holla!!

Month in review and hydrangea update

Hello all and WHOOT for Friday! We’re having a blast so far this summer, hope yours has been great! I’m back with another month in review for May, and I’m a little behind. Whatevs.

I’m trying to keep up with questions in the posts too, so if you’ve had any in the comments on these posts, go back and take a look – you should see a response! Or you will by the end of the weekend. :)

First up was a super yummy, super easy dessert I found:

Only two ingredients and it’s SO GOOD! I tried it with cherry filling too, but I still prefer the pineapple. YUMMO.

We had an interested discussion about shopping Goodwill and how the prices have changed:

I guess I wasn’t the only one who has noticed a change! I will continue to shop there, it’s just not as often as I used to.

There was a lot of powder room progress, finally! I shared some of it here and the new paint color here:

And my cheater crown molding method here:

No, I haven’t abandoned the room again. Well, kinda. It’s thisclose to done!! I just have to finish painting some trim and I’ve been putting it off. It WILL be done next week, stay tuned for the reveal!

I shared a small change that I thought made a big difference in the living room:

Go here to see what it was. :)

I celebrated five years of blogging in May and shared my thoughts, advice and what I consider my top five projects here:

Ripping the carpet off those stairs was high on that list. :)

I have a favorite resource for inexpensive and fun knobs:

Their selection is HUGE too!

Towards the end of the month I showed you our backyard garden, as it is now:

We’ve already added a few new things back there, but what I’m most excited about is the hydrangea progress! If you remember back on this post last summer, I told you how I cannot get them to grow! I moved them around last year and they did OK, but still didn’t bloom.

This was one set of plants as they were in that post:

And this is them now, just two weeks later!:

Those are BLOOMS people!! 

We have had the MOST glorious summer so far – seriously amazing. Low temps, lots of rain – they LOVE it:

 

That one has a ton of blooms going on it, and the others are flowering as well:

Here’s the area on the back of the patio before:

I took out the one that had died and replaced it with a new one, so I can’t take credit for the large one on the left:

Well, I guess I can take credit that it’s still alive and blooming. ;) But the others are doing much better. Oh yeah, and there’s a tree there now too. We put it there for shade on the patio, but I’m hoping it gives those hydrangeas some much needed relief from the sun in the hotter months as well.

Have I mentioned how happy I am that for the first time ever…I have blooms!!:

Awesome, eh? I am so excited!! I have hope hydrangeas don’t hate me anymore.

Finally, I finished off the month with a spot in the master I call the “man nook”:

That corner used to be dark and gloomy, now it’s a pretty spot that the hubby loves to use! I’m starting on some big changes in this room this weekend!

That’s it for the month of May – did you miss one? :) How has your summer weather been so far? Have a great weekend peeps, I’ll see you back here next week!

Where in the world have we been map

So this is yet another tale of it-was-sitting-in-the-garage-for-three-months-before-I-did-it. There are a lot of those, if you haven’t noticed. It is how I do.

I’ve mentioned like 50 times that one of the things about our basement that I LOVE is the potential for the walls – there are a ton of them. There are not in the rest of the house (open concept, few walls without windows, I’m really not complaining, it’s a great problem to have).

But I do love having a space that has expanses of wide open walls ready to be decorated in the basement. There’s this one that you see when you get down the stairs:

Gloriously empty. And big.

Months ago on a trip to IKEA (I think I got this six months ago?), I picked up one of their huge wall maps. It wasn’t necessarily cheap, but for the size (more than six by four feet), it really wasn’t too bad.

I’ve known I wanted to put it that spot but wanted to change it up a bit. At first I was going to cut the map down into three equal sizes and then mount it somehow – just for something different.

But I knew I’d need something large to mount the maps to, and I didn’t feel like spending the extra cash on big sheets of particle board and all. So it stayed in the garage. (It also lived in the dining room/library and in the mud room for a while too – I like to change up the scenery you know.)

I also had an idea I wanted to implement on the map – I wanted to make it personal and interactive for us. My plan has always been to figure out a way to note where in the world we’ve been – a way to mark where we’ve each traveled. But I didn’t want to use pins that would ruin the map and I wanted it to be safe for little visitors. I mulled over the idea for months and on the flight home from Disney last week it hit me – I knew exactly what I was going to do!

So the other night I started putting the map together…finally. It was VERY easy:

I didn’t get the map as taut as I wanted, but it’s fine. It was easy to put together but not so easy I was willing to do it all over again. :)

I got it hung and you know my middle name is Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone, so I knew it needed a little something. I got some of the cheap, thin lattice boards at Lowe’s, stained them and then cut them down to make a huge frame around the map:

I started out by trying to glue the wood around the edge of the map, but it wasn’t secure enough so I ended up just using my nail gun and installing it that way. The metal frame is so thin and lightweight I knew the nail would go through easily.

It worked great! And I was so happy I added the dark frame – it was the perfect way to finish it off!

The final step was to take a hole punch and some random vinyl colors I had around and start punching:

As I mentioned, I wanted this to be something personal and fun for our family, so the little dots represent each of us (red – me, silver – hubs, yellow – Bub) and I started placing them on the map. I don’t know why it took me so long to think of vinyl instead of push pins, duh, but it worked!

Hubby has been to the coolest places by far:

  

Together we’ve been to some pretty amazing spots too:

 

And the kiddo isn’t doing too shabby in his U.S. travels, considering he’s only six:

That’s not even filled up yet -- I realized quickly that the dots are going to be too big. I am on the lookout for a smaller hole punch so I can keep adding to the U.S. map. :)

I love how the whole thing turned out – I stood back and realized the colors in it(blue, green and yellow with the touch of dark wood) are the exact colors I’m using throughout the basement.

Haaallooooo – perfect!

And I just love that there’s a little extra something that is significant to our family:

You don’t really see the dots until you get up close. I think it will be fun for the kiddo to show his friends where in the world he’s been. :)

If you’ve been around for awhile you know I’ve been using a lot wood tones down in the basement – I’m going for a comfy but ever so slightly industrial/funky vibe down there. I didn’t notice till I was taking pics how well the wood frame ties in with the wood planked wall on the stairs:

I meant to do that. ;)

I’m loving maps lately, obviously – I realized after it was all done that I have two hanging right next to each other down there. OH WELL. I’ll deal. Are you digging maps lately? I’ve seen them used in all kinds of new and fun ways over the past year or so. Love it!

Haven Giveaway!

Hey all!! Hope you are having a lovely Tuesday! I loved reading all of your Disney comments on my last post. ;) We were considering a trip around Christmas and now I’m determined more than ever to get back then!

I’m back today with the last of our Haven Conference ticket giveaways! If you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say Haven, go here to check it out. I’ll wait. :)

We have ONE more ticket to give away and I’ve got it! WHOO!

If you’ve already bought a ticket, you are still welcome to enter – you can sell your old ticket! There are a ton of people waiting to buy one, check out our Haven Facebook page to find someone who may want to attend!

If you are attending, don’t forget to add the button to your site!:

Can’t wait to see you all there in two short months!

To enter, just leave a comment here! (Remember to include an email if you don’t have one attached to your account.) The giveaway will be open till this Thursday, June 13 at noon.

Guest Blog: Hamsini Shivakumar on Innovation and Branding

Hamsini Shivakumar is a co-founder of Leapfrog StrategyConsulting, a firm that focuses on informed imagination for breakthrough solutions. She has more than 25 years experience in premier marketing and advertising companies like Procter and Gamble and JWT.

Innovation without strong branding is incomplete

In this blog post, I wish to put forward three ideas for intending innovators in India, to consider.

a)       A supply gap is not a demand gap. 

b)       Innovation without strong branding is incomplete.

c)        Even a radical innovation, which by definition is highly differentiated, needs to be well positioned and well branded to generate demand and grow consumption. 

In my experience, many professionals and entrepreneurs in India are good at spotting ‘gaps’ in the market.  However, the problem is that these are often supply gaps, spotted due to the entrepreneur extrapolating from his/her personal passions or capabilities.  As India is an under-supplied country in many areas still, it seems perfectly reasonable to believe that supply will generate demand automatically.  Or that it is a matter of concept ‘selling’, viz, pushing hard(er).

A couple of examples will illustrate this point.

E.g., I am interested in coffee being from a coffee growing area or agriculturist family, I travel abroad and see some specific types of coffees or coffee making products and I think to myself, these are not available in India, why not be the ‘first mover’ / ‘innovator’ to bring these in? 

E.g., I travel in the interior villages of UP, see how people struggle with power cuts and shortages and think, why not provide them with solar lamps – as far as I can see, solar lamps are not easily available here. 

E.g., I see full families travelling on two wheelers and think there must be a market for a Rs. One lakh car, if only someone were to make it. 

E.g., I see that there is no forum or portal for marketing knowledge to be shared and discussed, so I propose to launch India’s first and only marketing portal.

All of these ‘well-spotted’ supply gaps talk to the entrepreneur and innovator’s need to blaze new trails, be a pioneer, do something innovative which has not been done before and hence is exciting, with the seeming potential to grow into a big business over time.   

The million dollar, unanswered question at this stage is, will there be demand for this innovation?  And assuming that the innovator team could identify a set of potential target consumers for the innovation, would those consumers be able to give a reliable answer to the question of whether they would want this innovation or not – when they can’t see it, smell it, taste it or know it in a concrete way; hence clearly appreciate the value that it can bring to their life, vis-à-vis existing alternatives.  Concept testing may be valid for known categories and established markets, but does it really work for the radical, the new, the somewhat unknown?

With these thoughts in mind, the innovator often has to make a bet and get down to the hard work of translating the idea or concept into a product or service which can be launched into the market.  And that is what he/she does, with full enthusiasm, often cheered on by an excited media audience.

However, the potential consumer for these innovations, sitting at the other end, is oblivious to all this new supply that could enter his/her life and is going about his-her life in their usual way.  Which means that the innovator has to think harder about who is exactly the intended consumer and why would he-she want it compared to his-her existing alternatives.  The innovator must be prepared to be surprised because, experience shows that demand for the innovation can come from unexpected places and the market for the innovation could be built in unanticipated ways.  And sometimes, in fact, very often, as the track record shows, the innovation that has been created with so much passion, effort and commitment meets with a cold reception and the consumer demand-market potential turns out to be far less than was imagined it could be.

One of the key reasons that the supply gap sought to be filled by the innovation does not translate into high demand is that the innovator believes that his creation is new and different enough to sell itself.  Or rather, if ‘sold’ through distribution channels, the demand is bound to grow.  However, a critical step between the innovation converting to demand is not marketing and sales, but positioning and branding.  Even a unique product or service, has to attract potential customers through perception enhancement viz branding.  It not only needs an attractive name and identity, it also needs to be well-positioned with an attractive image, to draw its target consumer.  It has to reflect the aspirations of its consumer and align to the cultural current of the place and time.  It needs a communication campaign and a conversion strategy that will translate interest into purchase.

Two types of errors lead to misguided positioning of the innovation.  The first is the innovators passion and conviction that he ‘knows’ the customer and what the customer needs, better than the customers themselves.  Linked to this, is the unwillingness to be classified and compared, looking through the eyes of the potential customer.  The pioneer is resistant to accepting that in the buyer’s eyes, his innovation may not be so radical or unique after all.  Or if its uniqueness is perceived and accepted, the buyer is unsure about what to do about it, given that it is so new and unfamiliar.

One of the common views of branding as image is that it is akin to stylists who dress the stars and give them the most attractive ‘look’ for the context of their appearance.  However, in reality, positioning a brand is all about classification and framing.  It is about understanding the mental classification and categorization that the prospective buyer makes and the conclusions and emotional meaning that he assigns to the innovation based upon that categorization.  If this is not properly understood by the innovator and his campaign team, not enough time, attention and effort is given to this stage.  The launch team follows the direction of the innovator in defining the positioning, sometimes this can be right and sometimes it can be spectacularly wrong.

These errors of judgment by innovator teams, of mis-positioning their innovation, are not just what individual entrepreneurs can make, they can be made by large corporations too.  The Tata Nano is a spectacular case study that illustrates the above.  The Nano is a radical innovation in cars, the first of its kind in the world and so on.  However, the consumer who it was intended for, the first time car buyer in India, rapid upgrader from two-wheelers, was left under-whelmed by the launch positioning of the brand.  It had to be re-positioned with a young and trendy image; sales are still less than anticipated.  This happened despite two years of media coverage from all around the world.  In the case of the Nano, mis-positioning issues were compounded by product safety issues as well.  Godrej Chotu-kool, a small, battery-operated refrigerator intended for small town and rural markets is another case in point.

Thus, in my view, the company that intends to move from opportunistic growth strategy or the ‘jugaadu’ approach to sustainable innovation as a source of competitive advantage must be willing to invest its efforts in two directions:

•              Develop processes for innovating more consistently
•       Give importance to completing the offering to the consumer, through adequate focus on positioning and branding.  To get this right, setting aside innovator ego and having adequate humility to respect the consumer and potential buyer’s perception and value frames is a must.

Digital Republic:India's RIse to IT Power

I first learnt about Dr Mathai Joseph (MJ) some 7 or 8 years ago. An article he had written on the nature of innovation in the IT industry popped up during an internet search. From what I remember of this article, he had argued that innovation in the software services industry was application and customer-oriented and therefore not like conventional R & D. At that time MJ was the director of the Tata Research Design and Development Centre (TRDDC) at Pune and I could sense from the article that he had more than the average IT company manager's insight into the dynamics of innovation.

 So, when Sanjiva Prasad, a good friend and distinguished professor of computer science at IIT Delhi, recently introduced me to MJ and suggested that he send me a copy of his new book, I was quite excited. Particularly by the title: Digital Republic: India's Rise to IT Power. At the same time I also wondered what fresh insights he had to offer - after all, the success of the Indian software industry (and its limitations as well) have been studied from every imaginable angle.

Once the book arrived, a part of the mystery was solved. "History and Memoir" is the second sub-title of the book, at the bottom of the cover, just above the author's name. MJ got into computer science somewhat by accident, it appears, after he completed his MSc in Physics in Bombay and entered a newly-founded programme at Cardiff. The enthusiasm of the faculty there rubbed off on him, and by the time he finished this Masters course, he wanted to learn more. He was admitted to a PhD programme at Cambridge where he worked with some giants in the then fledgling field.

I found the section where he describes how his supervisor allowed him to find his own feet and interests, and yet guided him gently to enhance the rigour of his work a wonderful lesson in socialization into the research process. This section also brings out how the pioneers of computer science and engineering strove to shape their discipline into a more scientific one. This would be useful reading for any research-inclined computer scientist even today.

TIFR and Warwick

After completing his PhD, MJ moved back to India to work at TIFR. MJ harbours mixed feelings of this period - pride from some significant achievements, but also rancour from the refusal of the "pure" scientists at TIFR to give computer science its due. This dissatisfaction ultimately led MJ to seek greener pastures at Warwick University. He clearly enjoyed his time there even though he now had to teach large classes and contend with the university bureaucracy. I didn't, however, get a sense of what was distinctive about Warwick - in engineering and management it is known for its strong application orientation and corporate relationships but I couldn't make out whether this held true for computer science.

TRDDC

After a decade at Warwick, MJ returned to India to head the TRDDC which was being seen as an important R&D backbone of TCS. Over the years, several prominent Indian researchers have made TRDDC their home - EC Subbarao, doyen of Indian materials science is one, Keshav Nori, a prominent computer scientist is another. MJ's account suggests that his role was to bring more focus to its activities, and in particular to align it with the business of TCS. He also enhanced the research depth. But I was hoping to learn more from this book about what TRDDC really does, and what it should be doing in the future. I was disappointed by a lack of in-depth discussion of this.

In fact this leads to my major grouse about this book. It’s long on charming memories of MJ's life, but short on details related to the book's title. MJ is a good raconteur and I can see that his interest in poetry and literature right from his college days have had a positive impact on his ability to tell a good story. But his observations on the IT industry in India provide few fresh insights. India's failure to understand the true potential of computers; restrictive policies on imports; and waking up late to the importance of software - all of these have been documented extensively and well elsewhere.

An Open Appeal to Dr. Mathai Joseph

I really hope that MJ puts his powerful mind and pen to address what should be done to enhance research and development in computer science and information technology across academia, industry and government in India. With his unique set of experience at TIFR, Warwick and TRDDC/TCS, I can't think of anyone more qualified to do so.

MNC Innovation in India revisited: New Challenges & Opportunities

The state of innovation at multinational (captive) centres in India resembles a kaleidoscope with multiple hues and colours, and a degree of flux as their fortunes wax and wane with changes in their parents’ strategies and performance.

Is “Emerging Market” excitement waning?

Much of the excitement about innovation for emerging markets that was visible a year or two ago appears to have been tempered by the challenges posed by the global economic environment. Market and investment challenges overshadow the technical ones. India’s failure to fulfill its growth and market potential threatens to cast a shadow on the growth plans of these captive centres. They now face the possibility of being restricted to their traditional roles of maintenance, testing and back office support, and even that may be at risk as our cost advantages erode and productivity levels fail to take off.

Indian Centres are no Longer Immune to Global Ups and Downs

At one time, Indian centres were immune to the layoffs and downsizing of their parent companies. That’s no longer true as is evident from the downsizing of General Motors’ R&D centre in Bangalore, the shrinking of Motorola’s R&D presence (particularly striking because Motorola was one of the early pioneers of offshoring software R&D) and Dow Chemicals’ reversal of its decision to set up a large R&D facility at Pune. When NetApp recently announced a global downsizing thanks to a dip in corporate profits, their India development centre saw a loss of jobs as well.

A Tough Time Ahead?

MNC R&D subsidiaries in India may have a tough time ahead. The cost advantage of Indian R&D manpower has considerably declined over time. At senior levels, employees expect to be paid at levels comparable to those in the parent; at the entry level the earlier 4 or 5x benefit is now done to around 2 or 2.5x. Many companies believe that labour productivity is lower in India, and that’s not surprising given the infrastructural constraints that employees have to overcome in getting to office and back! Attrition continues to further dilute productivity though the slowdown in the industry should have a sobering effect. And, as one senior MNC R&D executive told me recently, “Indian engineers today are not daunted by any challenge, but they have a sense of entitlement that prevents them from giving their best.”

But Opportunity as well…

However, there is opportunity as well. For one, the nature of R&D in some industries is changing. In telecom for example, the success of Apple and Google has brought into question the traditional paradigm of standards-driven or operator-directed innovation. Instead, innovation is becoming more consumer-driven and increasingly resembles the challenges faced by the consumer durables industry with some elements of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) thrown in as well. Google’s acquisition of the mobile handset business of Motorola (Motorola Mobility) exemplifies this changing trend.

New Innovation Approaches: The Case of Ericsson

Even highly “engineering-driven” companies such as Ericsson are feeling compelled to embrace a user-driven innovation approach. I recently had the opportunity to hear Gabriel Broner, Global Head of Innovation at Ericsson talk about his company’s new approach to innovation under the umbrella of their Innova innovation programme. Their innovation approach is based on a framework from the iconic design firm, Ideo: Inspiration, Ideation, and Action. The starting point is identification of unarticulated customer needs using a design thinking approach. Action is focused on rapid experimentation. A specially trained Innova Squad uses the design thinking methodology to solve problems as well as diffuse the process through the organization.

 

The innovation contest as a part of Innova is in its 3rd year. Good ideas get $500 card + 1 week of time to be developed further. Strong proofs of concept can get VC-style funding including 3-9 months’ time off to work on the project.

Experimentation is a major focus including “testing without building” the entire equipment. Focus is on value for customers – e.g. one customer said, “we understand that the network will go down on occasion, but more important is how quickly can you get it up and running again?”

Some employee-driven innovations have made big contributions like using a graphics card to speed up hardware simulation and a software solution developed for customers to avoid a costly hardware upgrade for LTE.

One of the challenges of the innovation program is obtaining a greater degree of strategic alignment. One way this is being achieved is by challenges thrown from the top - one such challenge got a very good solution from the India team that has been recognized.

During Broner’s recent visit to Bangalore, Ericsson had organized a design thinking workshop and an opportunity for teams to pitch their ideas with the possibility of on-the-spot funding. Innovation expenditure is currently at 0.5 to 1% of budget. Broner made an interesting comment during his interaction with Ericsson Bangalore employees: “We can’t afford something like the Google 20% rule – where will the RoI come from?”

Conclusion

It’s now upto the Indian employees of Ericsson and other leading MNCs to take advantage of such opportunities that come their way.

From a personal perspective, its good to see companies launching elaborate innovation programmes with a lot of emphasis on participation, user-oriented thinking and experimentation. These are some of the core ideas we have emphasized in 8 Steps to Innovation.