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Abstract Submission for E-Asia 2011 Luna Ergonomics India

Answers to Questionnaire from Lt Col Sumeet Shahi, for a project at SPJIMR, Mumbai

1.

What is your unique selling proposition in Luna Ergonomics Pvt Ltd?

It was very difficult to accommodate a way to type in Indias languages on the mobile phone. Firstly because they have so many characters each that a keypad on a phone cannot accommodate them. Secondly, there are so many of them. Including one in a printed keypad is always at the cost of noninclusion of all the others. But it was very important, because we are a country with over 650 million phone users and only 10% know English. The others cant type on the phone and hence they cant store an address book, cant send a text message and cannot participate in the numerous digital enablement possibilities that the phone on every hand today offers as a distinct possibility. Luna Ergonomics solved that problem in a most extraordinary manner. It invented a new way to type. This was an intelligent dynamic responsive keypad where characters were not on the keypad but on the screen. Only a limited number of selected characters are shown by the system at any one time, that which becomes very easy to choose through the numeric keys of a basic phone. And is only simpler on a touchscreen phone. The intelligent system tries to constantly predict only characters that the user could be typing at any point of time. And that intelligence comes from mining the statistical correlation within the language. Large amount of text of each language (called Corpora) was mined to arrive at this preestimated linguistic predictions to make this new usability possible. So this has offered a means to support any number of languages of the world on the same phone without the need of a printed keypad and yet it offers unprecedented ease and speed in composition of complex words, within or outside the dictionary, because this is a dictionary less technology. It has been developed and offered in all Indian languages called the Panini Keypad and for about 15 global languages as diverse as Arabic and Korean and is called CleverTexting. It has been offered in all phone platforms basic phones as well advanced phones like Android or iPhones and a million people already type in this manner. It has been described as a breakthrough by all eminent quarters including the International Telecommunication Union and as a new bicycle to type on the phone. Virtual keypads have been there in the past, this is the first intelligent keypad and it reduces the efforts and keypresses drastically through that intelligence. 2. When did you realise you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

After I left the Army, I was working in a start up and I wasnt happy due to the politics that was also within it. One night I read a book Rich Dad, poor Dad. I finished this book in one night because throughout the book, I kept finding echoes of my own thinking. No one had ever spoken to me like that. It told me that all the weird things that come to my mind, arent that unique. That kind of aspiration is legitimate, other people have the same thoughts and it is just that thing which is called Entrepreneurship. The desire to go it alone even when the risks are so high in it. To do something that you yourself believe in and the joy in it even though there are these tribulations. I was thrilled and
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started looking for an opportunity to be an entrepreneur. This one isnt the first one I did. I tried many things, wasnt a big success in any of them but had tried my best each time and hence came back with a lot of learning. 3. How did Army life add value to your life post retirement?

Army is all over me. Perhaps, it is more today in certain ways, than it has ever been. The first model I picked from the Army is the good style of leadership that I have had some opportunities to witness, where the individual leads from the front and how he manages his subordinates rather sternly but is able to pull it off merely due to the exemplary personal sacrifices that the leader is already making. How it is a mix between love and sternness. And nobody can misunderstand love. Then it is about productivity, how I have always known how things got done very well and things that never got done and what had really made that difference. What kind of motivation gets the most extra-ordinary work out of an individual, how he easily surpasses himself to his own disbelief. The preponderance of ethics and fairness that is to be found all over the organisation that gives the right man so much of peace. And the siege like perseverance that the team can put up with for years together through hardships while finding no successes and the leader unperturbed. 4. How is Luna Ergonomics going to stay competitive in todays challenging market?

Luna Ergonomics does not have any competition. What it fights with is industry apathy. That is also something that will happen if you are in a blue ocean scenario where you have a monopoly. Gradually what Luna Ergonomics will face is imitation of its technologies from companies small and the largest. We have patents all over the world and we have ubiquity by our side. So for someone to steal, he will have to be known as a thief. That cost he would have to pay. In the long term, it would be advanced speech technologies which would take away some of the needs to type. But some needs to type will always remain. 5. What were the initial challenges you faced when you begin your start up?

The biggest challenges are on the days when you are in an empty room all by yourself, very little savings and you know you have left everything to come here to start something. You dont know what lies ahead and you are really very lonely. I would prescribe this stress for the individual, so I am not a big supporter of whether companies should be necessarily formed by founding teams. 6. Where do you see your company 10 years from now?

It is our objective to solve that problem. That people will be able to type in their own languages very fast on their phones and we would be very happy if it is our system that is used. That objective, when fulfilled is huge in its ramifications social, economic, governance, commerce, convenience and so on. If we are talking of a utilitarian model measuring the unit utilities of it everyday to hundreds of millions, potentially billions of people worldwide the number would be very high indeed. We might be able to monetise a small part of it as a company by licensing our technology to device manufacturers and other ways. There have been a couple of companies like that in the past in the world who grew very wealthy because they successfully monetised some of that utility.
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But whether we monetise from it ourselves or not, that is really secondary, the measure of the business success is based on the net utility of the venture. Why was it worth doing? Why was it worth all that sacrifice of so many people, including our investors. We would be very happy to see that day when an Indian innovation became the new reigning paradigm as a design option when it came to input on digital devices that are designed to be used by people all over the world. That is what we wish to see. 7. What are the key values as a leader that you bring to your organisation? How do you keep your employees motivated? I am only sincere. And expect others to be the same. I try to keep them motivated by making them feel that they are really doing something very special and its a privilege. That none of us are doing this for money. They have freedom and are encouraged constantly to be creative, innovative. They are encouraged to take time off to learn something else that will eventually help us in some other way. And they are inspired to exceed their own selves in terms of what they can achieve and next day aim even further. And I make it look like it was the only thing that was expected. I share how to think innovative with them, how to find ideas. They learn a lot. Its fun. I sit with them all the time to give them company, just like my mother used to sit with me if I was doing homework. I know that makes a lot of difference. Still, I am not always successful, some of our good guys have left to join other companies, sometimes people have even complained about something or the other that I do, but I dont blame myself for it. Its just that real life has got so many strains that fairy tales can only take you for some distance. 8. form. Are you getting support from any other organisation like government or corporate? If so in what

By being present in Delhi, it has helped us in keeping a close association with a lot of industry bodies, professional bodies, govt organisations, media houses, events, conferences, competitions, even trips to the Ministry etc. We also got many legitimate opportunities to showcase. In this manner it has helped to get a buzz about our technology blowing all over the place. This is no mean achievement for a start up which does not spend on marketing, branding or advertising. However, we already live in a world where there are hardly any people left who will carry the cross of another if he doesnt see any personal benefits for himself. That apathy, on the part of all the eminent people we see today is shocking and reveals the true state of those that we treat as celebrities. Still, we have met a kind soul occasionally. I could do without it due to my age and experience but can imagine younger others who could have died without this. This keeps happening. We have benefited largely. 9. What is your message for the entrepreneurs today?

Do only that about which you are completely convinced. You are the prime believer. Do only that which would be so much fun for you that you would do it even if you were never going to earn anything from it, quite certainly. The journey is going to be so hard that it may kill you, as it has done to my best friend,
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also an entrepreneur. And preferably bring something new to this world. And then just dont give up. There are no winners or losers. Only those who tried and those he didnt. Dont listen to the experts, you are the expert. Most often they are the ones who will shoot down good ideas. Good ideas make them feel insecure about themselves. Listen to only the one who knows as much about it as yourself. Hear all, but do only that which you feel is the right thing to do. Be confident. You are already a big winner. Because you tried.

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