Open Coffee Club Noida - July Edition

Yesterday, I attended July edition of Open Coffee Club Noida. The topics of discussion included Machine Learning, Knowledge Management, Differentiation, Open-Source to Guitar Classes. I would capture key discussion points along with my insights:

1. Machine Learning : As defined by Wiki - Machine-Learning is a broad sub field of artificial intelligence, machine learning is concerned with the design and development of algorithms and techniques that allow computers to "learn". The major focus of machine learning research is to extract information from data automatically, by computational and statistical methods. Hence, machine learning is closely related not only to data mining and statistics, but also theoretical computer science.
It was debated that there are still a lot of systems where input and output are known, but we have no/limited knowledge about the process of transformation. It was also said that inferences based on heuristics need to be re-verified at regular intervals and may not translate into predictive modeling.

2. Knowledge Management & Idea Generation : It is imperative for any organization to manage the knowledge available within organization or with other stakeholders in best form. The use of knowledge helps in organization's growth in short & long-run. New ideas should be generated om regular basis to make improvements and expand service/product offerings. Organizations like 3M, Google & Bosch give high emphasis to idea generation and execution. The customer oriented organizations should involve their users to give creative feedback. The ideas which are worthwhile should be implemented by organization to improve offering and customer satisfaction. The whole idea of such initiatives is to involve inside/outside people and take actions accordingly.

3. Open-source : Few participants were apprehensive about participation of people in giving creative feedback. In their opinion, why should somebody invest his/her time to give ideas?. The premise of open-source is shared learning, removing re-work and improving existing processes. A lot of people are interested in making processes/systems better and hence would love to contribute at their own cost. Even simple examples like information sharing with TV/Radio channels and voting for good performers by common man justifies the whole point. Even small incentive programs can be used to get more people involved. A lot of people are interested in contributing at their own cost.

4. Differentiation Strategy : What would be best strategy while developing a product already existing in the market? Should we include too many new features?
A lot of people said that even if you are late-entrant, you should not think of making a product which may be perceived as a different offering. Product differentiation is possible up to a level, after which the other factors like Marketing, End-User Requirements, Environmental factors come into play. So you should look at multiple factors rather than just concentrating on making your product completely different from existing ones.

5. Niche Emerging Business : There are a lot of unexplored business areas in India, one of which being good professional trainers for musical instruments. At some places the people involved are too busy and costly while at some other places the quality of service is poor. There is pressing need of good companies offering such services at reasonable price and with good service quality. Once specific example is of a Guitar Training Company founded by group of IITians which is offering good training at reasonable price. Even in future they can think of extending their services to multiple locations using Franchisee model.

Overall, it was an enriching experience to hear and share good ideas. All like-minded people from different domains should definitely get-together here at no cost ( or at the cost of your own coffee).