What is Closed Loop?

I started working in the business in 2016, right out of college. I do not suggest it to anyone. Go out for a couple of years at least before you get in.

Interestingly, I was taking financially significant decisions within 4 months of joining full-time. In 2017, I was handed the task of implementing an ERP in the company.

• It took me 15 months to go live.

• I learnt writing SQL queries because the SAP partner’s coders were making too many mistakes in our reports.

• I learnt server sizing, creating virtual servers on-premise, UPS sizing, and set up redundant internet lines.

• I learnt what a Firewall does and set it up from scratch (we worked without one for 2 years. Yes, I was that clueless!).

• I learnt about backups (server, database, files). Every single (disastrous) thing that could have happened, did happen. I have a strong case for naming this “Testing Murphy’s Law”.

• I handled licensing demands from Microsoft that would cost more than the ERP license+implementation.

• I handled a limited ransomware attack (we were very lucky)

And this is just the first 24 months. It was akin to how kids pick up the most difficult skills of language, math, and physical-emotional skills in the first few years itself. It is a miracle that such difficult and wide range of skills are picked up in such a short period of time.

Now, an argument can be made that this is typical lala behavior - doing everything by himself, not letting professionals do the job. I agree with you. One part of me wishes I let someone better do it all. But here’s the thing: I did it all by myself because I thought our business was too small and could not afford it.

I did not know anything about our finances. I was also cutoff from the business news cycle. I did not know the expenses of companies, packages they were offering to employees, or how much things actually cost out there.

We were well-off but a 34K PS4 was the most expensive thing I owned and a 7L Ritz was the most expensive thing my family owned, apart from our 20L flat.

Every expense negotiation or a hiring decision was like the last one I will ever make: I must win this.

I thought we could not afford

• an SAP partner who would put more senior resources on the job

• cloud servers which would incur high recurring costs

• a senior system administrator who would manage the IT setup

But all said and done, I am proud and amazed at what I was able to do. We could have crashed and burned since most learnings were unplanned. I was learning and improving by mistakes, when something stopped working (जब कुछ फट जाता). I always gave it my best shot - researched till the 4th page of Google results - deployed it and everything went to shit. I/We were lucky. But in hindsight, I am glad that we did not hire those partners and people. I am glad that it worked out. Because just like Steve Rogers said, “Cuz I don’t know what I would have done if it didn’t (sic)”.

So, after learning, struggling with, and setting up the ERP where it did not break down every 3rd day, we had to now use it and get our money’s worth. And this is what this newsletter would be really about: implementing a system which is the heart of an organization - where everything comes together - people, sales, purchase, production, inventory, finance, banking - to make the company run well. I have learnt so, so much about systems, technology, and most of all human behavior over the last 6 years from implementing this.

Every single day, I preach about the following at work:

• Murphy’s Law

• Occam’s Razor

• Le Chatelier’s Principle

• Running a Closed Loop (Process Dynamics and Control by Seborg, anyone?)

I thought penning some of that down, sharing cases of theft and fraud in business, loopholes to avoid, loopholes to exploit, complaining about some laws (with reason), etc would be a good release for me (and maybe useful for someone, probably through an LLM which has digested this piece of content). So as Fabrizio Romano says: Here We Go!