NEW ENGLAND CAPITAL VENTURES

Martial Arts and Entrepreneurship

If you ask me what I really like to do in life if I had all the time and resources – my immediate answer would be – practice Martial Arts. Martial Art is a big part of me and has been since I was 10. What I practice today is known as Shaolin Kempo – the oldest and the deadliest form of martial arts used by Buddhist ‘warrior’ monks from the Shaolin Temple in China. The physical training is brutal and it is a true challenge of mind over matter in many ways. Shaolin Kempo in its purest form is supposed to be extremely fast, offensive, deceptive and aims to deliver multiple strikes in key physiological areas that will immediately disable the opponent.

A brief history lesson to set the stage . . . .

The art of martial arts as an empty hand combat started in India as early as 2000 BC. So where did China come from? This combat art was introduced by an Indian Buddhist called Bodhidarma who travelled into China during the Chou Dynasty in 525 AD with the goal of spreading the Buddhist philosophy and to see the Emperor. The history goes; Bodhidarma was the first ‘sensei’ ever. Today, the oldest Shaolin Temple dates back to 495 AD and still resides amidst the Shao-Shin Mountain south of Songshen, 50 miles west of Zhengzhou, of central China and still teaches martial arts to everyone who is willing. It is my goal to study at this temple one day.

The addition of Kempo (or Kenpo) came from James Mitose in Hawaii – a melting point of SE Asian cultures. It is said that Mitose most likely trained in the Japanese version of Okinawan Kempo and started his own dojo in 1942 combining the effectiveness of Japanese martial arts and the deadliness of the Chinese/Indian Shaolin forms. Grandmasters William Chow, Ed Parker, Adriano Emperado, Nick Cerio, Fred Villari and others are said to be carrying the legacy of Mitose.

Entrepreneurship is similar to this art in many ways:

• Speed: The art is in the execution. If you do not follow-up today, tomorrow somebody else will and you will be out of the market. Speed is key to becoming successful. Investors, customers, and your staff will loose patience in today’s environment if you can’t deliver what you promise. You will be cannibalized and forced out of the game. I want to strike faster than my opponent can think and even faster than what his hands/feet can block (beat the competition). I am trying to hit key areas (market penetration) that will disable him.

• Accuracy: It is useless to strike someone 10 times, even if it is within a few seconds, on the hardest and biggest muscle of the body. Especially if you put me against someone who is 6’4” 250 lbs. The idea is to deliver key blows (product/service) in areas (target market) which allow me to either escape (exit) or be in control (increase your market capitalization). No longer can entrepreneurs afford to have a large scope. Anyone who tells me that they are targeting a $50B market in the US alone becomes a red flag. Deliver in chunks, in small geographic areas and exactly what people want.

• Deception: I am no proponent for unethical behavior rather collaboration and transparency is something I encourage. But when Steve ‘CEO of the Decade’ Jobs becomes of the most celebrated corporate figures in history, I do take notice. Trying to get Apple to disclose their holiday line-up or their inventory holdings or even their app store’s screening process is impossible. They often talk in cryptic messages with the media creating speculation. Buzz marketing is nothing but deceptive marketing in some ways. Translated: I will give you a hint – which may or may not be entirely true and could potentially be completely different than what I originally said. It has become Apple’s trademark! In martial arts, I make my opponent think I am striking from the left when in fact the strike comes from the right thus evading any blocks that might make my strike ineffective.

• Offensive: If you put your hands up in an intimidating stance, for me, the fight has already begun and I will strike you (while that approach might not cut it in the court of law – this is purely for teaching purposes). When entrepreneurs notice their competition to change course, they take notice and leverage it to their advantage. If I am in the cloud space and Google comes out with a cloud offering, I don’t want to be disappointed. In fact I will immediately see what I have that Google does not and call the M&A guys at Google for an exit conversation or better yet – change my product mix. The cards you play to be offensive also depends on the size of your opponent and the kind of idea that you are going against. Think Indiana Jones and that sword guy! Think Japanese Sumo wrestlers – they are big fat monolithic giants but their 1^st (and only) strike is fast as lightening and almost always disables the opponent within seconds. Go agaist MS or Google or IBM – but only if it makes sense. Don’t be unrealistic and make bold claims.

• Replicate: The defensibility of your idea is directly correlated to the replicability of your idea. An idea executed in 1 company in a single environment is useless, even if it works perfectly well, if I can’t replicate the same idea in 100 or more different locations. This is across the entire value chain of the business. If it takes me 6 months and 2 FT sales people to sell 1 product in 1 location, that product better be a big ticket high-margin item generating recurring revenues otherwise there is no company here. If it takes me longer than my opponent to deliver the same strike at the same place, guess who gets KO’d first? Similarly, I want to make sure that my technique works in any environment – weather its raining or in snow or in the sand or weather I even have my shoes on or not and whether my opponent is 80 lbs or 300 lbs. I will execute my strikes with the same and increasing force and accuracy.

• Scale: If you plan to sell only 1 product and 1 idea, while that might work in the short term, its definitely not a sustainable business idea. Diversification is key. Deal with it – people get bored, new products come out that will render your idea obsolete, behavior changes, infrastructure changes and needs change. Besides, which company do you know that sell only 1 item and are massively profitable giving phenomenal investor returns – especially the venture backed ones? I would say none! Think about all the potential uses for your idea or current product and then think about how you can make that idea adaptable to multiple industries without large upfront customization or heavy product reengineering. If I strike only once, that may or may not disable my opponent. I need the stamina, training and technique to adapt and defeat my opponent’s moves.

• Stealth: One never thinks about peace loving frail looking simple Buddhist monks meditating in a monastery as ‘deadly force’ – until they strike you. Many entrepreneurs are great at marketing not so great at delivering. All the Tier 1 entrepreneurs I have known keep their big mouth shut until they have something tangible and really worthwhile to talk about. This is obviously the anti-thesis of buzz-marketing principles but imagine seeing your competition spend their dollars on something that you absolutely know will not stand a chance against your product? And when you launch, not only will your competition have no time to catch up to you but also no budget as they would have spent their money just launching their version of the latest offering.

All the examples I gave above talk about competition and execution. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer. If you haven’t already, read “Sun Tzu And The Art of War”.

posted by Janak Joshi @ 11/05/2009 03:47:00 PM