What you sell and how you sell is important.

Understanding your market and segmenting it always helps you to focus better on “who to sell” and “how to sell”.

A more recent example is cars- Honda Jazz (Honda known for its efficiency) and Fiat Grande Punto (The Punto engine known for its innovation and uniqueness). Both these are launched for the Indian Roads and for Indian conditions, yet they are not the cars for everyone and anyone. The price range for these cars is also in a certain bracket and carry with them their respective values and company legacy.
This is a simple example of how two companies, when competing for market share in a country, project and offer their value to prospective customers.

When I decided to jump into entrepreneurship and started Obelisk with my Partners, we too were faced with this challenge- we knew the space and the service, but had to work on our positioning, segmentation (though I would admit this is still Work-in-progress) and creating the “Wow Factor” for the prospective partners. What one needs is a long-term thinking process, keeping one’s eye on the future, innovating and most importantly “Partnering”.
Partnering has its pros and cons but the overall experiential value and steep learning curve can be very exciting and challenging.

I have always been very perplexed (coming from a non AEC/ Design background) about why is it (and based on my limited understanding of this industry) that anyone would want to outsource their drafting/ drawing production, be it CAD or Revit. We spent days on research and weeks in discussions, to finally understand- “No sane business person, now or in future, would like invest heavily in personnel and infrastructure and would not mind/ look forward to, outsourcing to earn more value from the money spent there on and focus their attention in areas of creativity and designing, leading to more money for their businesses. As far as the routine drafting and drawing production is concerned, they can leave it with the specialists and experienced, trained resources, which just focus and do that. This made sense to me and I started selling it. I would admit- it has been no mean task, but the daunting realisation of the necessity to keep a lean structure, boot strapping, outsourcing any non-core but essential activities, is finally settling in their visionary business minds.

My mentor tells me- Entrepreneurial aspirations and projects are not based on what you were or on what you are, but on “What you want to become”. This always guides us in stormy nights. I would love to hear back from you- the reader on your comments, thoughts, ideas, suggestions or any reaction- good or not so good. Reaction is important and confirms life. Cheers.

Paper to CAD ..................... CAD to BIM

Remember the days when all the drawings and drafting was done on paper and to make one simple change required the whole drawings to be redrafted or scratching of old sheets & redrafting over them. What a waste of time and effort.

Then CAD came along and took over as an effective drafting tool. To change a wall just required typing 2-3 commands and, WOW!!! It was done. However, the transition was not that easy. There was a lot of resistance from the architecture community and it took a lot of time to be widely accepted.

I remember in architecture school some of us who were proficient on CAD were not allowed it to use for submissions by our professors and we ended up taking plots on CAD and then extended lines with our drafting pens to make it seem as hand drafted.

In the present day scenario we can't think of life without CAD. CAD helped us improve our efficiencies but it still was a tool and not what you can call an intelligent platform.

PRESENT DAY: ENTER BIM (Building Information Modeling)

Again to define it simply BIM is an emerging technological and strategic approach for the AEC industry. It has positioned itself as an approach to address many of AEC’s numerous inefficiencies.

But, do we see the same resistance as we saw for CAD.......................... maybe more.

What a lot of us have not realized is that shifting from paper to CAD in principal was much simpler. You were doing the same thing on the computer which you initially did on paper. It was more of a platform and technology shift. Putting it very simply, CAD just facilitated your drafting.

BIM on the other hand is just not about drafting or documentation. BIM IS NOT A DIRECT REPLACEMENT TO CAD.

To move to BIM is just not about a CAD upgrade but more like a strategic and business decision by the firm’s principals. A firm needs to understand how BIM will impact it at all levels. The primary aim of the platform however is to create, share, contemplate and apply knowledge and to take the concept of 3-d modeling to an infinite number of dimensions.

In my subsequent posts I would be discussing effective pointers on understanding & implementing BIM within organizations, let me know your views and suggestions.

BIM CAPABILITY & BIM MATURITY

An interesting read on BIM Capability v/s BIM Maturity. This article describes that even though after achieving BIM capability organizations are still not ready to take on projects.

Paste the link below in your browser

http://changeagents.blogs.com/thinkspace/2009/06/bim-episode-11-the-difference-between-bim-capability-and-bim-maturity.html

(Source: The source of this information is the changeagents.blogs.com posted on June 03, 2009)

This blog, including any attachment(s) hereto, is intended only for the visitors of this blog. Any comments or statements made in this are not necessarily those of Obelisk or any other Obelisk entity.

Trivia

Revit was used entirely for modeling this building in a famous hollywood movie.

Can you identify the movie from the picture above?

AUGI AEC EDGE

AUGI has recently launched an online magazine called the AUGI AEC Edge (http://digitaleditiononline.com/publication/?i=17799) The first edition is out and you can view it by clicking on the link provided in the bracket. I got a chance to meet with the authors of the magazine at the RTC in Australia last week. The first issue is dedicated to Revit and I would personally recommend reading through it.

OBELISK@RTC 2009 - Melbourne, Australia

Maneck received an invitation to present at the Revit Technology Conference 2009, held at The Sebel Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia. The conference dates were

from Jun 18 to Jun 20, 2009.. He presented a paper on “Outsourcing Revit” (Collaborating with Andrew Harp from ARCHdoc) and shared his research on Industry standards, pros and cons, issues and best practises. The event was a big success and Obelisk got an opportunity to exchange ideas with the Australian AEC Partners.

Power of BIM

Obelisk had showcased one of it's projects at the AIA 2009 Convention. The animation was a great attraction for visitors and below is a link to the animation on youtube.

Please take time to view the 3 minute animation and post your comments either here or on youtube.

BIM Team

ANIMATION LINK

Interesting discussion on BIM

Hi everyone,
I came across this interesting discussion on www.linkedin.com and posting the link below.
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=98421&discussionID=3154297&sik=1242326665931&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=%2Eana_98421_1242326665930_3_1%2Eana_98421_1242326665931_3_1
It is a good read to understand the different point of views for BIM in the future.

At the AIA Convention 2009

Sitting here at the Moscone Center in San Francisco I am watching the contractor work on our booth as it comes up.
We have finally completed all registration formalities and Obelisk is a registered exhibitor at the AIA 2009 Convention and Expo. Lots of exhibitors and even though these are difficult economic times that doesn’t seem to dampen the spirit of everyone working & exhibiting at the convention.
The Convention starts on April 30 and I would keep everyone updated through the 3 days of the event.
Hope to be a big event with 22000 attendees.
More later.

Outsourcing and Recession

In a recent survey that was conducted on 600 small businesses to determine how the recession is affecting their outsourcing plans. Survey results showed that 41.9% said they planned to outsource more in the near future, either because they’ve cut full-time staff (7.0%) or because they’re simply unable to hire full-time staff (34.9%). They are also outsourcing more functions than ever before – 28.5% said they are now outsourcing something that they previously thought they couldn’t.

In light of such numbers, it’s hardly any surprise that 14.6% of them report that they have replaced employees with contractors in the last year, and 14.5% have hired a contractor who would have been otherwise unemployed or a victim of the economic downturn.

Outsource more in current recession: 41.9%

Because you have cut full-time staff: 7.0%

Because you are unable to hire full-time staff: 34.9%

Outsourcing something you previously thought you couldn’t: 28.5%

Replaced employees with service providers: 14.6%

Hired a service provider who would have otherwise been unemployed or a victim of the economic downturn: 14.5%

It should come as no shock, then, that many who have lost work recently are turning to freelancing. 32.1% of the 350 freelancers surveyed reported that they’d lost their job within the last year. A majority (59.0%) said that if they weren’t providing freelance services, they wouldn’t be able to meet their financial obligations and nearly a third (32.4%) said freelance earnings are their primary source of income. A vast majority said that there are enough freelancing jobs to meet their needs (73.9%) and feel they are earning fair rates (77.9%).

They cited “flexibility to live and work anywhere” as the number one reason for their survival, followed by guaranteed payment for hourly work and the ability to set their own hourly rate.

Lost their job in last year: 32.1%

Freelancing is my primary source of income: 32.4%

Wouldn’t be able to meet my financial obligations without freelancing: 59.0%

There are enough jobs under freelancing to meet my needs: 73.9%

I earn fair rates on freelancing assignments: 77.9%

American workers seem to be doing well in the global marketplace. 53.9% of the surveyed small businesses reported employing at least some U.S.-based contractors, while 84.3% of U.S. contractors are working for a U.S.-based buyer. Outsourcing nearly tripled during 2008, and the trend looks likely to continue.

These results certainly look good for the future and similar businesses.

(Source: The source of this information is the oDesk Blog www.odesk.com/blog posted on March 24, 2009)

This blog, including any attachment(s) hereto, is intended only for the visitors of this blog. Any comments or statements made in this are not necessarily those of Obelisk or any other Obelisk entity.