Eyet Blogs: president

What is American?

Yesterday, my wife, Mamta, told me she was taping on our DVR, American President. One of our favorite movies – starring Michael Douglas as the American President. We also enjoy Harrison Ford’s movie where he stars as the American President and fights the terrorists on Airforce One… what an exciting movie! He beats the crap out of all those loonies one by one! My son’s favorite movie also.

From talking about the movie, Rohan (our son), Suhani (our daughter) and we started talking about different things. The other day, Mamta had asked whether we had enough American Cheese – I told her I call it “White” cheese or “Yellow” cheese. To that, my son said, that sounds “racist” dad. I told him, when I host my online innovation workshops. I show my customers presentation on the “whiteboard”. And I must have delivered about 100 presentations where I have talked about “whiteboard”, “black box”, “white walls”, “white collar”, “black pepper” and some even recorded. My favorite when we order “white rice” or “brown rice” or “fried rice” at Chinese restaurant, or if you go to Indian restaurant, we call it “Biryani” or “Pulao” or “Safed rice”. Our house has white walls and black furniture. The other day, my eight year old daughter Suhani comes home and asks me, “Dad are we white and do we have a black president?” We tell her the right thing to say is “Caucasian and African Americans”, and then I went on to explain to her about various differences, and that we are all Americans. We also talked about our plans for President’s day holiday (no plans, just relaxing).

So, this was a typical evening conversation at the Dalal Family dinner table. You are welcome to join us…

Welcome to America!

Coming from India ...

Our kids are born here, and are natural born American citizens. My wife and I immigrated from India, world’s largest democracy and a country of rich heritage and traditions. We are American citizens also. During the Christmas holidays – we also setup Christmas Tree, share gifts, and believe in Santa – we saw the movie SlumDog Millionaire – an amazingly tantalizing love story that has something for everyone. How many have seen this movie? Must see. My wife and I argued a bit about this movie. I thought it was great, and she enjoyed it too… however, she felt that it represented only a section of what India is all about, and again, the movie shows too much of the poverty and slums. And I do agree… but I told her the educated know India is much more than poverty and slums. Just like America, it is a land of dreams, freedom and opportunity. And the movie does go on to show that how even the poorest of poor can one day grow and win the highest prize! An underdog who goes on to win millions!

I was born in Ahmedabad, India in 1968 – born on October 31. I am a Halloween Baby… my mom did not know that… although my kids think I can be really scary. I call it CRAM – Crazy, Angry, Mad… just kidding! My daughter tells me “I have bushy hair”. I do…

I did my elementary, middle and high school in India. My proudest moment was securing a ranking within the top 50 students in the entire state of Gujarat in my high school exams – thereby providing me an opportunity to pursue any higher education in college that I would like. I also had a great time in my eleventh grade when a few of us friends went for an Oceanographic exploration at Goa, India – a must see beach city in the state of Maharashtra. The best time was going to Goa in a ship from Bombay, now Mumbai. Still fondly remember that trip.

I also spent about eight months of college in Ahmedabad before I moved to the U.S in 1987 with my sister, Situ. I started my undergrad in Electrical Engineering at University of Oklahoma, she began her Masters in Civil Engineering.

My father, who many of you met, provided me the opportunity to come to USA. He has been a great mentor to me over the years, and I am very thankful to him and my mother for their guidance and support.

My highlight when I was at OU: 1. Great education by my English instructor and Math professor Dr. John Albert 2. Securing first position in Putnam math competition, after getting inspired by Dr. Albert to participate. OU won the first prize after dozens of years. 3. President’s honor roll, and my very first job as Library assistant appointed by Mr. Wellburn.

One Saturday, as I was going to the library for studying, I saw this huge swarm of people going to the stadium, waving flags, high fiving each other, and chanting “OU, OU”… I got introduced to Football – American Football!! And I am a huge fan of Football now, albeit Texas Football and NFL. Why? I transferred to the University of Texas at Austin after my first year in 1988 because I got a scholarship from UT. And Texas, although boasting a huge football program as well, had better Engineering education.

It was at Texas that I met Mamta, my future wife to be during my second year in 1989 in the summer, when we were helping new students from India as they arrived for their education at UT. And we played lots of Volleyball together that summer. And the rest is history!

My highlight at Texas was getting EE scholarship, instate tuition, computer programming lab position nominated by Dr. Terry Wagner (thank you Dr. Wagner), Secretary position in Tau Beta Pi, Engineering Honors Society, and International Office Scholarship. The biggest coup: Becoming the Treasurer of India Students Association. My low-light: getting reprimanded for checking out professor notes over the weekend for a class that I did not take.

Professionally, I began my career at Honeywell Bull in 1992 after doing summer internship in the town of Seguin, Texas at Alamo Group.
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Part two of the story of Sanjay Dalal here...

Excerpts of Sanjay Dalal's speech at the Rotary Club of Newport-Irvine when I was inducted a Rotary Member on February 12, 2009

Sanjay Dalal, Creativity And Innovation Driving Business announces the 2008 Innovation and Innovator of the year

The 2008 Innovation of the year: http://www.barackobama.com/, My.BarackObama.com
The 2008 Innovator of the year: President-elect Barack Obama and his campaign team

In November 2006, I read Senator Barack Obama's book "Audacity of Hope", and also read
about his experiences working in the Senate. At that time, I believed that he is a leader who will
make a run for the presidency based on the bold opportunities and innovations he wanted to introduce. Senator Obama announced his candidacy for U.S. presidency in early 2007.

Before Senator Obama gave his election speech on the night of November 4, and after Senator John McCain's concession speech, he sent out a brief note via email to every registered supporter:

Senator Barack Obama and his team created these key innovations along the four innovation pillars for this historical campaign that won him the U.S. presidency:

Product - www.BarackObama.com, My.BarackObama.com

Senator Obama's website www.BarackObama.com catered to all citizens of the United States - all states, all nationalities, all age groups, all religions, all
business types, all parties, all ethnicities e.g. People of Faith, Latinos, Rural Americans, Women, Kids, Students, Veterans, Military, Seniors, Sportsmen, Environmentalists, Disabled, Republicans and more.
The website clearly stated Senator Obama's stand, challenges, and opportunities on key issues such as Economy, Civil Rights, Defense, Iraq, Homeland Security, Education, Energy, Healthcare and more - total of 26 different issues wherein Senator Obama communicated on regularly. The website also provided adequate learning about Senator Obama's background, his wife Michelle Obama, Senator Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, and section devoted to In the News, latest Press Releases and Speeches of Senator Obama.
After a person donated to President Obama's campaign or signed up at BarackObama.com, the service automatically created a My.BarackObama.com page wherein the person can personalize his/her interests, create a profile, and participate in fundraising goals; find and attend local events, search for groups and group activities, and find and meet local people using My Neighborhood; create and find groups all over the nation and by categories, and connect with group members using My Groups; communicate with friends, find friends with like-minded interests, and invite new friends using My Friends; search for events, create and manage events using Events; write emails and messages to your groups and friends using the built-in messaging system, create, associate and publish blogs using the Blog tool; contact undecided voters and participate in callout campaigns using Contact voters; leverage other resources and tools to proactively collaborate in Senatar Obama's campaign. In short, the latest Web 2.0 and social networking tools and technologies were used wherein the person can interact at My.BarackObama.com and also use the latest social networking services such as Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more.
www.BarackObama.com and My.BarackObama.com acted as the central communication place for all of Senator Obama's communications to the voters all over the U.S., and citizens all over the world. The combination of relevant and timely information e.g. response to smears, personalization through My.BarackOabama.com, participation through many of the groups, networks and voter callouts, and social networking through events, blogs and the latest web products and services made this a top innovation of Senator Obama's campaign.

Customer Experience - Focus on "You", i.e. "We the people"

It is important to note that in late 2006, Time voted the person of the year as "You", i.e. "We the people". Senator Obama and his team understood this national trend very well in light of the developing Internet social networking technologies and behavior, and capitalized on this. The entire campaign was focused on "You". From the website that carried this theme of "You" everywhere, to Senator Obama's writings and speeches that addressed "You", "Us" and "We the people", and also the personalized communications that were emailed to every member who signed up every few days asking proactively "You" to donate, participate, and recruit voters. This focus on "You" reverberated with the central theme of Hope and Change. The results were fascinating and historic: About 4 million people registered through www.BarackObama.com, donated more than $700 million dollars to the campaign, more than the combined fundraising for the 2004 election by President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and helped recruit countless of new unregistered supporters and voters. In particular, the Obama campaign won over support from the young voters, students, minorities, first-time voters and Latinos. The total contributions for his campaign, national convention, transition and upcoming inauguration are nearing $1 billion dollars.

Processes - Nearly flawless campaign

Senator Obama had to run the campaign of his life to first overcome Senator Clinton's insurmountable lead, second win over Senator Clinton and her supporters, and third to win against Senator McCain. Each stage of the campaign tested him and his team. His campaign will go down in the history of U.S. Presidential races as probably the best run campaign of all times. In order to make this happen, Senator Obama embarked on the central theme of Change and Hope. His website captured this message prominently at the top:
"I'M ASKING YOU TO BELIEVE. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington... I'm asking you to believe in yours."
Voters were ready for Change owing to current President Bush's eight year term; Voters confidence, hopes and aspirations were declining rapidly with the decline of the economy. And Senator Obama captured this sentiment with the central theme of Hope and asking voters to believe in him. Senator Obama assembled the brightest people to help him advise and run this campaign, both online and in the media, from the very first day. These people included political advisers, economists, technologists, internet gurus, entrepreneurs, businessmen and more. And he stayed with this exceptional team with few changes until the very end. Key processes and leadership provided Senator Obama the vision and ability towards winning at key junctures along the campaign: Canavassing and getting the votes of super Delegates, getting the Kennedys proactive support and approval, recruiting Senator Joe Biden as his running mate, winning over Senator Clinton and President Clinton and their supporters, and obtaining the support of key Republicans including General Colin Powell. The icing on the cake: Senator Obama bought half-hour of prime-time network television to make a final argument to ask the people of the United States to vote for him using the money that his voters overwhelmingly donated.

Business Model - Donations from "We the people"

Inspiring "We the people" i.e. "You" to donate generously and frequently. This was the hallmark of Senator Obama's campaign. Senator Obama made a key observation: If he was going to win the White House, the long road had to be through the majority of the people helping him get there. And in order to achieve that, he had to have a huge campaign budget i.e. an abundant supply of money. Senator Obama understood technology, growth of online non-profit organizations, and the Internet e-Commerce trends wherein people would donate online for a good cause. He made three key decisions towards creating the largest campaign contribution in the history of U.S. presidency: 1. No donations from lobbyists and interests. This clearly broke the political tradition, and importantly freed him from strict spending limits imposed by the government. Also, this would make more individuals to donate more money because of the resulting image created that "I am like you". 2. Inspire "You" i.e. "We the people" to join his movement for Change and Hope by using the Internet and traditional media, and register "You" online through his website. 3. Ask "We the people" to donate frequently to his campaign any amount of money by interspersing messages of Change and Hope and asking to donate simultaneously. The campaign frequently sent messages asking your friends to donate by simply entering their emails, recruiting equal donations from registered members by pledging simultaneous contributions, creating fundraising goals and asking everyone you know for help and even more creative ways to raise money for the campaign by offering campaign stickers, campaign posters and banners, campaign shirts, campaign mugs and all types of memorabilia, and invitations to join Senator Obama for lunch, dinner or key events to make "We the people" spend more money on the campaign. Big donors contributing more than $1,000 only totaled 47% of all donors. The business model of only asking the people to donate, not taking any money from lobbyists and matching contributions from government, and inspiring everyone to donate frequently through clever messages worked brillantly and helped Senator Obama create that never-empty pot of gold to spend on his campaign.

My personal story

I was inspired by Senator Obama's book "Audacity of Hope" and his campaign promise of Change and Hope. I became a U.S. citizen in 2008 to Vote, registered as a Democrat and registered to Vote, and voted for Senator Barack Obama in the general elections. I wrote about his book and experiences on this blog in November 2006 - Senator Barack Obama, Bold Innovations and Opportunities. Here is the starting paragraph from this article:
"If we act boldly, then our economy will be less vulnerable to economic disruption, our trade balance will improve, the pace of U.S. technological innovation will accelerate, and the American worker will be in a stronger position to adapt to the global economy," states Barack Obama, the Democratic U.S. Senator of Illinois, in his new book "The Audacity of Hope". Senator Obama lays out a vision for reclaiming the American Dream aided by a government built on our best traditions, representing our everyday lives, uniting our common hopes and dreams, and creating an unbreakable bond.

In summary, President-Elect Barack Obama and his campaign team are the Innovators of the year, and www.BarackObama.com and My.BarackObama.com are the Innovations of the year 2008.

About Sanjay Dalal
Sanjay Dalal is an innovator and entrepreneur with over fifteen years of experience in Silicon Valley and High Tech companies. Dalal is the founder of India Business Network. Dalal is the author of theFaculty eBook and Definitive Guide on Innovation, and has published over 200 articles in the last year and a half on the real-time state of innovation in business at his blog Creativity and Innovation Driving Business. Dalal introduced the Innovation Index in December 2006. Dalal was the president and managing director of the innovative investment company, Innovation Index Group, that systematically invested into the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Dalal has launched innovative products to market and grown businesses to the tune of $70 million plus a year. Dalal holds executive certification on Leading Management Teams from Cornell University, and is an engineering scholar graduate in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Dalal attended Arizona State University for graduate education in Computer Science. Dalal secured the first position in the 50th William Lowell Putnam Math Competition. Dalal, a philanthropist, volunteered as a basketball coach for Irvine NJB - 7th graders, as an art master for 2nd graders, and is currently the secretary in the School Site Council. Dalal is an appointed member of the Dean's Leadership Circle of The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine.

About Creativity And Innovation Driving Business
The mission of Creativity and Innovation Driving Business is to provide no-nonsense insights, strategy and solutions with proven processes that drive Creativity and Innovation at your business, create real market growth and success for your products and services, and achieve market leadership. We have considerable experience and expertise in working with small, growing and established companies, various departments and distributed teams.

Creativity And Innovation Driving Business is the leading Business Innovation Strategy, Consulting and Services organization.

We offer our industry leading Innovation eBook on Creativity And Innovation in Business that contains over 55 best practices, case studies and insights on the current state of Innovation in Business at Top Innovators.

We launched the Innovation Bootcamp to help would-be innovators and entrepreneurs jumpstart innovations at their business. By leveraging online web conferencing technology, we are able to share our insights and best practices to business professionals wherever they are in real-time. Signup for bootcamps today.

References:
http://www.barackobama.com/
Barack Obama: The Audacity of Hope. Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream
Chicago Tribune