Vivek Srinivasan's Blog

Spoof Ads

2012-02-06T02:43:00.001-08:00

In corporate rivalry one often notices the arrival Spoof and Jab advertising taking pot shots at the rival company. I was watching the latest Samsung super bowl ad, again taking a shot at the queues of crowd waiting for the iPhone. It made me realise something fundamental.

Most companies that decide to go after their rivals with spoofs generally do not have anything of their own to sell. Why would a company buy the most expensive air time in the US just to make fun of another.

Samsung uses Android which does not allow them to create a unique experience for its users. The hardware is not unique either. This leaves them with nothing to sell.

I feel sorry for the company.

Apple after Steve

2011-10-11T02:34:00.000-07:00

The passing of Steve Jobs has probably been heavily talked about over the past few days. Along with that there have been some questions that have been raised about the current leadership at the company and the ability of the company to produce game changing devices going forward. People have called him a great visionary and one of biggest change agents in recent times.In all the noise, people seem to have lost sight of one point; apart from the Macintosh in 1984, Steve Jobs had not come up with any idea which was not already present in the market. Macintosh was a game changer. It was ahead of its times, it was not like anything that was there, it was new and unique. Microsoft copied it and made Millions... Sorry Billions.There were hoards of MP3 players in the market when the iPod came out. The only thing different about the iPod was the user interface, which was revolutionary and it was marketed like candy to a child.There were several touch phones in the market when the iPhone came out; multi-touch user interface was the big innovation, the product itself was not new or unheard of.Similarly, there were tablets in the market already when iPad came out. The only thing different about Apple was that they were able to provide a user interface that was much better and integrate the other facets of selling such as with book publishers and magazine publishers.The only great difference between all that the market had to offer and what Apple made available to its customers was the design of the product and the user interface that they created. Apart from this, their ability to sell, particularly Steve Jobs ability to make people drool over every Apple product was the main differentiator. On the design and user interface front, I am certain that Apple will be able to hold on to the processes that have already been put in place. There is not going to be a huge difference in the design philosophy that would creep in post Steve Jobs. And, by the looks of the iPhone 4S presentation, I feel the 'art of the drool' has been firmly imbibed in the entire top management of Apple and will get passed down hereon. I am sure Apple will pull through without Steve. The last time he did not know that he would be leaving, Apple was not prepared. It is not the same case this time around.

Democracy

2011-08-17T00:28:00.000-07:00

Democracy is form of governance, by the people, of the people, for the people. How it normally works is that the people of each constituency of the democracy elect a leader to lead them and put forward their point of view. That leader then represents them in various forums such as the Parliament, where laws are made. The laws are debated by all of the representatives and based on a majority it gets passed.

Politicians and corrupt and therefore the entire system under them is corrupt, this needs to be stopped? How can this be achieved? There are two schools of thought to this:

Anna school of thought - Let us continue to elect crooks and criminals as ministers. Create a watchdog agency that will watch over these guys. The crooks would suddenly develop culture and refrain from bribery.

Was the CVC also not there for the same purpose? When the CVC could become corrupt, why not the Lokpal?

My guess. A watchdog agency with infinite powers is created. Then these guys will start bribing the watchdog agency and continue to do whatever they have been doing. Anna Hazare will be first Lokpal in India, he will also clean a few bucks after he assumes that position and stash it in Swiss Bank accounts.

The other school of thought - Disenfranchise the crooks and criminals. Take away their ability to stand in elections. Make education a pre-requisite to lead. Increase salaries in government to the level where talented individuals are attracted to work for the government. Cleansing shall be systemic.

This bill will not go through the parliament easily either considering its composition. But this is the right way to do things.

What Anna Hazare is doing is getting a bunch of boisterous clowns together and demanding that he be allowed to dictate the terms of laws that are to be formed?

I would like to understand who determines that Anna Hazare is the gold standard in law making?

A group of about 1000 people standing on a road or fasting unto death is blackmail? This is not the way to form the law. If Anna really cares, let him take his ideals and float a party, get elected and then bring about all of the changes that he wants to do.

What is currently being done is not in the least democratic. If at all it is the most undemocratic act in the history of this nation.

There is another way to solve this - Plebiscite. Conduct a country wide plebiscite on what the Lokpal bill must have and even the Parliament does not need to get involved (don't know if this is constitutional but it is very democratic).

If what Anna is doing is to be considered Gandhian and agreed upon, then, tomorrow if Dawood Ibrahim was to land up with about a 1000 people outside some park in Delhi protesting the ban on smuggling, the government should bend and fold.

It is a criminal violation of democracy.

Anna Hazare

2011-08-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

Some 5 months back one obscure figure, who had apparently sworn to rid India of corruption shot to fame on national media. His apparent weapon an obscure bill called the Lokpal bill, which I am sure none of us has read, but believe will rid this country of corruption. The only problem being that the government does not quite seem to agree with him and he has made an ego issue out of it.

Before we delve any further, I would like for you to be able to ponder about a few questions:

Why doesn't Hazare protest against letting people with criminal records stand for election? That is a bad thing is it not?
Why does he not protest for those with a record of wrong-doing in politics to be barred from contesting elections? They should be shouldn't they?
When the IAS officers who work for the government, under the ministers, need to pass such grueling exams, why cant education be a pre-requisite for becoming a minister? Why does the blind get to lead a man with eyes in this country?
Why was he absolutely silent about the indiscretions of BS Yeddyurappa while being extremely vociferous about the Congress ministers?
How does the Lokpal really solve the issue? They can be hand and glove in corruption?

First things first; how do you know that giving someone the 'License to kill' ensures that it will mend the system? The only thing that will happen for certain is that this power drunk agency will misuse this power. This is precisely the reason why there is no Spiderman, Batman or Superman in the world. If they did get that kind of power, they would be putting it to much selfish use. Also, all power drunk agencies have a negative image, FBI, CIA, MI6, Mossad, etc.

To illustrate this point better, let me take the law on dowry. There was injustice, unfair practice, to eliminate it, this law was enacted. Today every husband in India has to wish and pray that the wife is not insane enough to go and file a dowry case. Irrespective of your background, caste, creed, history; you and your entire family can land up in jail if a woman decides to file even a baseless case. That is how beautiful the law is. It needs more thought for certain and in the current form it is absolutely one-sided, which has had negative consequences.

So coming back to the point, the government does not wish to create a one sided bill of this nature and Anna has a problem with it.

Now coming to the more important question. How does 'Mr. I am Gandhian' coming from an obscure village in I don't know where, suddenly get recognized and covered so heavily by media. Me sitting in a city like Bangalore with all the social network and internet and media at my disposal can't get more than a sympathetic nod if I were to take any issue up and make a hue and cry about it.

Obviously, somebody bought the media and bought the coverage OR Anna Hazare is the best PR Agent known to mankind and he should start a PR Agency and give every top PR firm a run for their money. Anna Hazare does not seem to have such a strong background in PR so it is safe to assume that there is money backing him.

Just to compare, Baba Ramdev, a TV celebrity having crores in the corpus (and Hundreds of Crores at that) and a huge fan following, due to his yoga; needed to travel all over the country to gather support. He had been travelling and meeting opinion leaders for about 4 months and then he had to buy media time with his massive financial resources. Then he had to go on an all out 360 degree marketing campaign before the fast. Despite all the money and arm-twisting, he got whacked by a cane out of the Ramleela Grounds and got sent back to where he belonged. This for a man who had Hundreds of Crores at his disposal.

So again, how much money and power is really backing Mr. Hazare?

Anna Hazare is not fighting for corruption, I am sure even he has not read the Lokpal Bill completely, only parts and excepts. He is doing this show for some political party that wishes to soil Congress's image (as if that needs so much work). I will give you 10 guesses to guess which political party.

This bill will never be passed. This noise will last till the next election. This entire campaign is a subterfuge.

The Myopic Indian Cricket Team

2011-08-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

Harbhajan dropped from the Third Test. He has not been bowling to his potential and if you look at the graph, his wickets haul this year has been the lowest in his career.

Having said that, one might also consider that he is probably only player other than Raina, who has been chosen to play for the country right since the World Cup... What about all of the these clowns who took rest??

Dhoni has displayed the worst batting performance since the beginning of his career. Not only that he has been rather ordinary behind the stumps as well.

Zaheer, bowled 13 overs and injured again!! (We don't need porcelain dolls)

Nehra, yet to return, at least he was hurt playing for the country and making an extra-ordinary effort in the Semi-Finals.

Sehwag, yet to return, Abhi tak maa ka ashirvaad nahin mila.

Gambhir, what an elbow!!

Sachin, Aura!! Aura!! Can't say anything about his batting. Bullshit... He has been playing like a high school kid and a bad one at that.

Dhoni says too much cricket, while he should say, we shouldn't have been playing fucking IPL.

The Indian cricketers have a very myopic view on this. They get to cash in thanks to IPL but their careers will come to an end far sooner. The IPL, is a high pressure format with excessive amount of travel and a terrible shortage of rest. They need to play and then jump around with famous monkeys at night and then travel by morning. Not to mention sponsors obligations and ad shoots in the middle of this. The players cannot cope with that kind of a schedule

The team is burning itself out by choice. Somebody needs to put an end to it.

Hamilton: Collateral Damage

2011-06-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

I found the article below in one of the Formula 1 News websites and decided that I had to write about this...

After Sunday’s race in Montreal, triple title winner Niki Lauda was particularly vocal of the Stevenage man, claiming that he was endangering the lives of himself and those around him on the race track.

“Lewis is a passionate racing driver and he has to go for things,” Team Principal Whitmarsh told the Press Association. “He's clearly had an unfortunate run, whether you look at it statistically or objectively. I suspect I'm not the most impartial; I want Lewis to attack and obviously I don't want him to have contact with cars.

“But at the same time, if he holds back for fear of having contact then he won't be the great racer he is and do the job he has to do. I'm sure he'll continue to be a very tough racer and have many successes ahead in his career.”

Somewhere, the fact that this is a sport where highly skilled drivers are driving machines at 200 to 300 Kms/Hr on road layouts where you and I would fear to do even 100 Kms/Hr is lost. Yes a sport requires you to compete, to get ahead, to forge your way, but not at the cost of endangering others.

Lewis Hamilton takes attacking the car in front quite literally. This is how 'Attack' is defined in the man's dictionary.

Attack: -verb- To unnecessarily drive into any vehicle in front of you. To put your car in strange positions on the track and expect the other cars to disappear or drive into the grass to let you through.

He just does not have the ability to understand what can be pulled off and what cannot be. Incidentally, if he tries these moves when a Williams or some other car from the mid-field is in front, they generally get intimidated and let him through and he comes off looking good. The same does not apply with a car which is a front-runner. Which is where he seems to run into trouble.

In Monaco, it was his desperation not to get lapped, which led him to cause the massive pile up, which brought out the Red Flag and ruined the last 10 laps. It was the desperation to in terms with the Red Bull that caused him to do a lot of stupid things in Canada, including running into his own team-mate.

Lewis Hamilton is a egoist and a senseless fool. It is a crime to let him continue to drive on the F1 track, akin to collusion for murder.

The Victim Scamsters

2011-05-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Reading the newspaper in the morning, I was rather surprised by the kind of portrayal of the 2G case that I had been witnessing. Kanimozhi, the person in question pulled of a 200 crore rupee bribe, not to mention the losses caused due to the fixing of licenses that Raja did.

Kanimozhi had tears in her eyes when she was arrested, why? When she was swindling the crores she had smiles did she not? She will be kept in single person prison cell. Considering the state of Indian prisons that is indeed a luxury, she should be happy.

The projection of these politicians by media is at best appalling and more so troubling since there always a nexus between the press and the politicians. How much of what is printed can really be believed?

Osama

2011-05-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

Osama is dead apparently.

President Obama made the announcement in the death of the night and the Americans celebrated by the hoards.

The real question has to be; how many American lives were lost after 9/11 in order to achieve this? (In Iraq and Afghanistan)

Who benefited from the war in Iraq? Where are the weapons of mass destruction? What connection did it have to Osama? Which were the private American enterprises which benefited from the war in Iraq? Are they footing the bill for the war in Iraq?

Osama was sitting practically in plain sight outside Islamabad. Would Pakistan have not known about this? Had so many men to die for this, while America continues to pour Billions to save the Pakistani economy and in effect the Pakistani government? This despite the fact that the country was (is) in deep recession...

Although, more than Obama, it is Bush who needs to answer this question; is there any kind of accountability? For Pakistan? For Bush? For Obama? or For any future leader of any of the nations in the world?

It affects common people like you and me!

Sai Baba

2011-04-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

I read today's newspaper and it said Sai Baba is critical and his liver has stopped responding. Along with that, the forces are being rushed to Puttaparathi, in order to control the rush of devotees in the event of his death.

Now, I know many will not like this; but what I can infer from this is that there are more people who wish to see the man dead than alive!

One Black Sheep

2011-04-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the last few months I have been travelling like crazy. As a result, I have been staying at various hotels across South India. Last week during my travel, something rather unpleasant happened, which immediately sent me to the computer to type out some expletives about the hotel. It was then that I stopped to think...

Over the past 2 months, I would have stayed at 11 different hotels, all in the 3 to 5 star segments. At each of the properties that I visit, there is a certain baseline expectation that is already built up within my head (or a guests head). Incidentally, all of this travel was being undertaken in order to help setup a hotel business. This meant that there was a constant focus on details and weighing up of the expectations of a customer from a property or a brand.

Last week, during my stay at a top end hotel, I had reported a problematic gym equipment to the reception. One of the employees (I hope she was responsible for the gym) came to us during breakfast the next morning and; let us say, interrogated us about the problem and further told us that the problem was being faced only by us and that the equipment was not faulty; instead of just saying, "We will look into it".

Now, if the property is owned by this individual, I can understand this (they tend to take it personally); but coming from an employee of a hotel chain was another thing altogether.

Till that time, everybody in the hotel had been extremely co-operative, courteous, polite and kind to us. The property was not all that great but it was not all that bad either, it was passable.

No sooner had this incident happened, not only did we check out of the hotel and got ourselves into another one. I also used the free internet service the other hotel to log onto tripadvisor.com and post a scathing review of the hotel.

Now, as I think, in retrospective, it was probably a knee-jerk reaction and was not required. By the way, the hotel manager called up and apologised personally for what had happened, courtesy the feedback form.

It also makes me think anger such an active feeling, you want to do something about it immediately and happiness is such a lazy feeling, you just want to wallow in it. Probably why a bad word spreads faster than a good word.

It also makes me think; one bad experience is all you need to trash the entire system and write scathing commentaries about it.

One black sheep is all it takes to make a mess of it.

FIA and F1

2011-04-15T01:12:00.000-07:00

In light of some of the more ridiculous non-sense up in the air in F1, I thought I will write this post.

I have been following the sport since 2000. Probably the first couple of seasons that I watched were the best ever that I have come across. After 2002 FIA went berserk with rule changes and I have seen no abatement since.

In 2000 Michael Schumacher won his third championship. Till then everything had been fine. When he managed to win two consecutive championships, voice began to grow that Formula 1 had become boring. This voice belonged only to a small number of correspondents who belonged to France and England. Then in 2002, FIA, the Paris based governing body began some radical changes to the rules, which began with the change of the qualifying format, they have just been changing things ever since.

I personally felt, F1 was fun. You should have asked the millions of Michael and Tifosi fans, if the sport had become boring? The answer would have been a unanimous 'NO'. The problem was that here was a German driver, in an Italian team whopping everybody else. The other teams (French and English mostly) were not getting it their way. Reminds you somewhat of the second world war, does it not? So FIA got into the act and ensured that there was no way for this domination to continue. They changed every rule in the book, over the next two years. The only thing that remained was that there were drivers, who drove cars around a circuit. They changed qualification format, engine specs, aerodymanics, the right for a team to act as a team, car configuration, the works. Everything was changed.

All of this culminated in Michael and Ferrari being dethroned. Though it was not the rule changes but the additional tyre company, Michelin, that had made it possible, FIA took all the credit for it.

All the FIA had done was to increase the cost of participation and made it increasingly difficult for the smaller teams to co-exist. In the midst of the recession in the last two years, this resulted in auto majors like Honda and Toyota bidding farewell to the sport. The commercial rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone was not too pleased to see this happen.

So they went ahead and banned in-season testing. This meant more dependence on technology for car development. More hours on wind tunnel, more simulations, etc. Again, smaller teams were threatening to quit within a year. At this point, they introduced budget caps on how much a team could spend on its operations. All said and done, they have no right to control this aspect and again they are deceiving themselves into believing that they are in control, while that is not the case.

Then the issue of overtaking being non-existent came to light last year. Their solution for the same was to introduce a bunch of technologies, which is going to cost teams a lot more. Way to go about cutting cost. Now, they are proposing to make F1 a formula which will use 4 cylinder engines so that the costs are lowered. So much for being the pinnacle of motor-sport. There are private series run by Audi which use 8 cylinder engines, and this is the vision they have for the so called "Pinnacle of Motor-Sport".

FIA is a stupid organization, which has not the slightest hint about motor-sport. They have eroded the brand value of F1 and are going to very soon destroy the formula altogether with their pin-headed thinking. In order for F1 to survive, the first thing that needs to happen is that FIA should go. They should be given an unceremonious send off. But Bernie does not want this, since he believes that the FIA is the only thing between him and the teams taking over the commercial rights of the sport.

Bernie's greed disallows him to do the right thing for the sport. FIA's stupidity is running the sport into the ground. As far as I can see, the only team that depends heavily of F1 for marketing is Ferrari, since they do not go mass market. The culmination of this entire story is going to be the reduction of Formula 1 into a pony race and the complete erosion of its commercial value. Those companies that really care about making fast cars and racing will continue to do so without being involved in this nonsense, there are several examples such as Lamborghini, Bugatti, etc. The rest of them will continue to waste their money.

Hampi - A Crying Shame!

2011-03-13T23:42:00.001-07:00

So, last week I had to go to Hampi for some work. I had heard a lot of blah blah on how good the place is and how it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and all that. Quite frankly, it was rather disappointing and I was very irked to see the state in which most of these monuments are in Hampi.

For starters, the monuments have settlements all around them. There are very few monuments that have been preserved the way they need to be and the only reason that one does not find settlements around such places is due to the problems of accessibility. The temple that forms the central part of the ruins, has been spared, but the rest that sprout out in the middle of bustling villages with 200 cows moving around on the approach road.

The place has lousy accessibility. The roads in the region are terrible and bridges that got broken a few years ago have not be constructed since. The road transport infrastructure is a crying shame. If a tourist does visit this place, he/she will not go back happy.

Let me digress slightly here. The area of Karnataka that we are talking is one which probably provides the most amount of revenue to the state coffers. The Bellary-Hospet belt has been indiscriminately exploited by miners (read certain ministers) for the purpose of their personal gains. The activity has been carried out so indiscriminately that every building in the city of Hospet has a tinge or red due to the dust that open cast mining causes. So, one of the most important economic center for the state has the lowest level of infrastructure development. The cities as well as the highways are in the most pathetic conditions. I am told that when Mr. Reddy is about to visit, a road is laid, two days prior to his visit and then, it gets washed away in the matter of days. It is just a stop gap arrangement.

The state of tourism development in the region is at best appalling. Just advertising the place through ad films across the world does not end the responsibilities of the government. It has to make sure that the tourists coming in have ample alternatives for commutation, for resting, for refreshments, etc. Unfortunately, this is lost on the chief minister, he is just too busy spending money printing his **** face on every bus in the state.

When you leave from the city of Hospet towards the Virupaksha Temple, the heart of the ruins, there comes a bridge that connects the ruins to the other side of the Tungabadra River to go to another significant town of Anegundi. The bridge that used to stand on the river broke a few years back. The government never bothered to re-build it.

It is amazing to note such apathy towards a place that is being promoted world-over as a heritage destination.

As I have been travelling across the south, mostly the two state of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; there is a stark dichotomy that I have noticed. Both states have some of the most corrupt politicians who think the government to be their fiefdom. They have been eating the people's money shamelessly. Though, there is one major difference.

I read once, there are two types of dictators; one who realises that in order for him to continue to eat in the future, he must invest back into his country and make it possible for the people to be more productive and ensure that the income of the state can grow; a good example of this is the Middle East. The other kind indulges in continuous plunder, till such time that the resources of the nation are exhausted; this kind is only worried about making sure that he is fed and has no long term plan in mind; a good example of the same being a lot of states in Africa.

Well a very similar dichotomy exists between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The infrastructure and economic stimulus for doing business in Tamil Nadu is very high. They wish to make sure that there is enough economic development to ensure that the politicians can continue to eat public cash in the long run. By comparision, Karnataka is a case of plunder. There is no investment being made back into the state. The representatives of the government wish to just fill up their pockets in whatever little time that they have at the helm of affairs. The present government has created an atmosphere where corporates are already beginning to flee Bangalore and entrepreneurs are resisting setting up further businesses in the state. Given this I have just one question to ask

The Iron ore in Bellary will get exhausted, just as the gold in Kolar did. Then what?

HR in Hospitality: Painful state

2011-02-09T03:22:00.000-08:00

Do you know the biggest problem that the Hospitality Industry faces as of date; Human Resources.

Well, I was aghast to find out that hotel operators are facing tremendous shortage of human resources (non-managerial) to run the operations at their hotels. In a country that has sky high unemployment, and hordes of people living below the poverty line, why might this be the case?

Indians do not like to work. We are probably the laziest people. 'The path of least resistance' applies to Indians more than any other. This is primarily the reason corruption is so prevalent in India. All you need to do in order to get a bribe is make things slightly harder for the opposite person.

Now, in order to work effectively within an organization, it is extremely important to be disciplined and to work hard. With the support staff that is recruited, most often the case is that they want life to be easy. When pressed to deliver, they normally disappear. They leave the job without even informing the employer. The reason that there is no incentive for the employees to stay employed is because of the number of freebies that the state gives away.

I am pretty sure, few would understand how freebies help. In order to secure votes during the poles, the politicians give away all sorts of things from clothes to TVs. Now the people are have-nots. They do not have the basics of life, they cant feed themselves regularly enough. To such people a TV is absolutely useless. They sell it and get a few thousands which is like suddenly awarding a Crore to you. They feel, there is no need to work and that the money generated will take care of them. They settle into a very easy life.

Money tends to eventually run out. At such time, they are in no position to work, because the government has taught them to be useless. They try to work, but resort to quitting eventually. The poverty in the country is not due to lack of jobs; it is artificially created by doing all of the above mentioned.

Empowering someone or eradication of poverty will not take place by distribution of wealth. The communist model has never worked. You must teach people to create wealth for themselves, that is the only way to eradicate poverty. There is no substitute to hard work and this is something that has to be made clear.

Till such time that political parties mend their ways, this issue will not find resolution. I pray for the hospitality companies till such time.

The much applauded bourgeoisie who divided India

2011-01-27T21:57:00.001-08:00

This Republic Day gave me an opportunity to watch some excellent documentaries about the Independence struggle of India. I knew most of the things about how India achieved independence. Honestly, I feel Hitler contributed more to the Indian freedom struggle than any of the idiots whose portraits adorn the walls of government buildings.

The Indian Independence was not fought out, it was rather negotiated across a table in plush British buildings in the mid 1940's.

There were two key actors in the division of the nation, both bourgeois. Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Jinnah. Both of them came from rich families, studied in the UK, had bourgeois habits and came to India at the most opportunistic moment with a hunger for power.

Mohammad Jinnah - Jinnah was only a second generation Muslim. His grandfather was a Rajput Hindu. His fore-fathers had been rich traders from Gujarat and he was another bourgeois who essentially pursued law because he saw a lot of money in it. This man became a part of the Indian National Congress, and did not wish for the British to leave, actually. The high nosed bourgeois thought that the British culture and educational system was needed for India.

He did not wish to join the Indian Muslim League initially since he considered it too muslim and did not suite his bourgeois style. Though later, he saw that he was not going to have any sway in terms of strength in the congress and decided to lead the Muslim League so that he would have an opportunity to wield some power. Further, when he saw that Nehru was going to have a greater sway, he started rooting for the need to protect the interests of minority muslims and started demanding for a separate state. He did not want sustenance, he cared less about the muslims still, all he wanted was the name tag of Prime Minister; no matter what the cost. The condition of Pakistan today and its long and brilliant political history is a testament to this fact.

Jawaharlal Nehru - His upbringing was steeped in great aristrocracy. Son of a rich Barrister, went off to London to study, he was a total wealthy elitist. Nehru's father was neck deep in politics and hence his induction into the same was no matter of great surprise. He was, what can only be called a complete British sycophant. He was another power hungry character, just like Jinnah, who had dreamt of getting himself to the Prime Minister's chair from the moment that the Independence of India became news. From the moment that Louis Mountbatten stepped on Indian soil and announced that he would be the last Viceroy of India, Nehru began his mission of shining Mountbatten's boots. I feel he worked more with Mountbatten than with the Congress during that period. When Jinnah announced the need for Pakistan, Nehru was equally certain that the need existed since the only other option was losing power or seat, as it is known now.

So essentially, for the need for a tag by the other two, this country was split up into three. As far as I can see, this has not helped the cause of anybody. Pakistan and India have been at war over Kashmir since 1948. Bangladesh is another kind of problem and China has been using Pakistan against India the whole time.

What a waste... All for the sake of power hunger.

Airtel 3G

2011-01-25T03:55:00.001-08:00

The Airtel 3G plans that were released for Karnataka today seem to be meant for making people utilise the Mobile Number Portability. The plan, leaving aside a few packages which are themselves quite restrictive and with very low download limits (considering the speed on offer), is essentially at 30p/20Kb.

This translates to Rs. 1.5 for every 100Kb or in other words Rs. 15000 for each GB of download. I get unlimited download on the broadband from the same company for Rs. 2000 at a speed of about 2Mbps. Now, on the mobile they are promising 21 Mbps, we all know that nobody is ever going to get that kind of speed. The broadband gives me a best performance of about 300Kbps on a line which is supposed to be 2Mbps. By the same standards, though I am expecting more losses in speed on the mobile phone, one should get about 3Mbps speed at this above mentioned abominable rate.

For all the re-branding and new tunes. ads and everything, Airtel will not be able to acquire any clients at this kind of pricing. Unfortunately, the launch of Mobile Number Portability coincides with the 3G launch for Airtel, (probably they wanted it that way). This is only going to result in them loosing customers and not acquiring any.

The Government of India is a Sell Out

2011-01-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

I always provide wrong information in almost all of the surveys and data collection forms that are presented in conferences and the likes. I do this primarily to avoid being spammed by various marketing agencies, whether on phone or email alike; since most of this data gets sold.

Every once in a while, there arises a situation when you cannot give fake information. These may include incorporation of a new company, giving a letter for a foreign national to make a business trip to India, etc. I am appalled to notice that the Government of India is selling information that would otherwise be deemed confidential.

Yesterday, my Private Limited got incorporated and within a few hours of that I got the following mail. Is the government just allowed to sell information in this manner to anyone?

Dear Sir,

Greeting from HDFC Bank !!!!

At the outset many congratulations for the incorporation of your new Company and we would like to welcome you to the world of HDFC Bank. HDFC Bank current account is designed to cater to your diverse & complex business needs. Now you can unlock the true value of banking with us, through a host of services and each one is a reflection of just how much we cherish your relationship with us.

I take this opportunity to give more details of the product and HDFC Bank.

Exclusive Benefit's for the HDFC Bank Account holders:-
• Payable- at par cheque book facility
• Free inter-city fund transfer across our network.
• Free online real- time Net Banking.
• Free collection of outstation cheque, payable on HDFC Bank locations.
• Huge savings on Bank charges.
• Cash pick-up at a nominal cost.
• 24 -hour phone banking access
• Business Debit Card
• Finer FX rates, Customized FX solutions & Telegraphic transfers
• CMS (Collections, Disbursements, At Par, Demand Drafts in large volumes)
• Free DD, Pay Oder.
• Free RTGS / NEFT
• Zero balance Salary Accounts with salary up load solutions.
• Payment gateway services.
• E-net Facility for TAX payment.
• Merchant Services (EDC Machine)
• Net banking – Manage your accounts from anywhere any time.
• Phone banking – Talk to a phone banking agent for all your queries.
• Mobile banking - Access, transact & inquire about your account
• InstaAlerts – Get account updates on mobile or e-mail.
• Term loans, OD, CC , Property mortgage

• Loan – Auto, home, Personal
• On-line tax payment.

In today's fast-paced world, your business regularly requires you to receive and send funds to various cities in the country. HDFC Bank Current Account gives you the power of inter-city banking with a single account and access to more than 819 cities and 1765+ branches.From special cheques that get treated at par with local ones in any city where we have a branch, faster collection of outstation cheques (payable at branch locations), free account to account funds transfer between HDFC Bank accounts to Free inter-city clearing, our priority services have become the benchmark for banking efficiency. Our country is going to become a great production and trading hub in the map of world, Bank shall definitely participate in the same , With the motto to provide fastest International banking services to our Importers, exporters and all other business houses.

Request you for an appointment to discuss about our Key account product for Newly Incorporated Companies. Please feel free to contact me or Mr. Nagaraj on +91 9164404753 for any further clarification.

Thanks and Regards.

Shabeer. P.

Manager
HDFC Bank Ltd.
Bangalore.
Mob: 9379185775.

HDFC Bank declared 'Best Private Bank in India' in the Euromoney Private Banking Survey 2010.
____________________________________________

Disclaimer:
"The information contained herein (including any accompanying documents) is confidential and is intended solely for the addressee(s). If you have erroneously received this message, please immediately delete it and notify the sender. Also, if you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this message or any accompanying document is strictly prohibited and is unlawful. The organization is not responsible for any damage caused by a virus or alteration of the e-mail by a third party or otherwise. The contents of this message may not necessarily represent the views or policies of HDFC Bank Ltd."

Ok Ok. Private Limited companies are public entities and therefore, the information might have been available to the bank.

I had a similar instance last year when an associate from Europe had asked me to send a letter across to him, so that he could procure a business visa to come to India. The day that the letter was submitted to the Indian Embassy in Brussels, the same day I got a call from HSBC asking if I wanted a forex account. This is extremely confidential information is it not?

I feel the Indian Government is selling out every single piece of information that they get. Can this be allowed? Is there no way of addressing this?

Why Winter Froze Over? (2)

2011-01-14T23:47:00.000-08:00

I just got some links from the net on the winters caused volcanoes. Just putting them up in addition to the post that I had written yesterday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/iceland-volcano-eruption-brings-tourists-colder-us-winter.php

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/stothers_02/

Why Winter Froze Over?

2011-01-13T22:22:00.000-08:00

Usually, I do not write pieces such as this, but well...

The winter this year has been unusually cold and there has been mountains of snow piling up everywhere, one is tempted to ask the staunch proponent of global warming to do a naked dance in New York, just so that they realise that it ain't that warm at all.

Just before writing this post, I did a short search on what most 'Experts' have written about the same. I found a lot of wind speed, ocean currents, solar activity, arctic sea ice concentration,etc.

The actual reason for the cold winter is an unpronounceable volcano. Eyjafjallajökull!

In the earlier part of 2010, this volcano blew up in great fashion and hit air travel, to and from Europe for about a month. The eruption was a massive one, which sent tonnes of ash and gas into the stratosphere.

In the year 1991, Mount Pinatubo in Philippines had erupted much in a similar manner, which is the second largest volcanic eruption in recorded history.

"The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10 billion metric tonnes (10 cubic kilometres) of magma, and 20 million tons of SO2, bringing vast quantities of minerals and metals to the surface environment. It injected large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere – more than any eruption since that of Krakatoa in 1883. Over the following months, the aerosols formed a global layer of sulfuric acid haze. Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F), and ozone depletion temporarily increased substantially"

This is a point that was also debated by Mr. Nathan Myhrvold, in the book Super Freakonomics. He describes the effects of the Pinatubo eruption and also proposes, inducing SO2 into the stratosphere as a possible solution to global warming in the future. Large volcanic eruptions are known to have the potential to bring down global temperatures. The effects of the same tend to last a few years. This is a proven fact.

Therefore, the next few, at least couple of winters, will remain rather cold before things normalise and the global warming groups can start creating a fracas again. Though, there is agreement in the scientific community that this might not be last that we have seen of the Icelandic volcanoes and Katla, the big brother of Eyjafjallajökull, and also the largest of the Icelandic volcanoes might be getting ready to blow up. In the past 1,000 years, all three known eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull have triggered subsequent Katla eruptions.

Bank of America

2010-12-18T00:31:00.000-08:00

Just saw a post on twitter by Wikileaks pleading people to stop doing business with the bank.

Wikileaks said that they have dug up some dirt of BoA and the bank said that they will not process any payments intended for wikileaks.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/17/2528138/bank-of-america-says-it-wont-process.html

I wonder, why one would have accounts or for that matter any kind of transaction with a bank that they are bent upon digging dirt about. I would rather steer clear of it completely.

As an afterthought, interestingly, event Mastercard, Visa and Paypal are not processing payments meant for Wikileaks. Why is the site not asking people to stop doing business with these agencies as well?

Tata Jumps In...

2010-12-14T03:57:00.000-08:00

In the last month, a set of audio tapes with the taped conversations between Nira Radia (I am not impressed with the extra 'i') and certain journalists, came into the public domain. Subsequently, Mr. Ratan Tata went straight to the Supreme Court asking for the government to make sure that the tape(s) that have been gathered over the course of the CBI surveillance, not be allowed leak into public purview.

A few observations:

By doing this Mr. Tata has made it quite obvious that he himself has quite a few skeletons in the closet. All the bull about 'I did not start my airline because I was asked to bribe and I could not go to bed knowing that I had bribed'; was all media stunt and nothing else. He is neck deep, if not more, involved in bribery, probably the T&C with the aviation minister did not work out back at that time. It probably was not a 'Win-Win' situation.

Either that or, Mr. Ratan Tata, is the bellwether for privacy protection for those people/entities who happen to be certified frauds.

Corrupt India

2010-10-07T01:46:00.000-07:00

There have been several occasions when I have heard countless people in India crib about that fact that we do not seem to have an honest government. The ministers are corrupt, the officials are corrupt, the assistants are corrupt, so much so that even the peons are corrupt. All in all the entire system is corrupt.

Why is this the case? Is there no solution to this?

Some call for martial law, some dictatorship, some even for civil war, some kind of revolution that will put an end to all of this.

Well, let us look at some facts. Lets take the case of a ministry and work it out.

Telecom ministry

The telecom ministry has generated 45000 Crores in this year alone. Let us assume this to be the revenue of the ministry. Now the salary of the Telecom minister is Rs. 30,000 per month. Don't jump at me, I know there are a few perks, some calls, house, pension, air travel and the likes.

Now, if we consider the Reliance Group, Mukesh Ambani who is the CEO of the company, which has a turnover of roughly 1.2 Lac Crores; gets a salary of about 44 Crores annually.

Where is the parity, by these standards, the telecom minister should have got, 15 Crores per year, instead he is getting less than what an MBA pass out would get. Why would there not be corruption in the system?

They make a furore over the fact that the Indian government expenditure is a 1000 Crores on all of the ministers, it is supporting an economy of USD 1.16 Trillion. Let us say Reliance was making that kind of revenues, would there not be salary expenses to such tune? In fact it would be several times that figure.

Salaries of this nature are incentive to corruption. Well, I am managing 1.16 Trillion USD, would it be wrong if I get one percent of that as service charges, which by the way works out to 55,000 crores. We are nowhere close to paying that kind of salaries.

When Lee Kuan Yew first took over Singapore as an independent country, the first thing he did was to make sure that every minister had a top notch salary, if not at par with private sector, at least close. This was essential to attract the best talent in the country and abroad to manage the show. We have some of the worst politicians that the world can see primarily for this reason. If you are talented, why on earth would you get into politics? It pays peanuts.

Now the next argument will be that the politicians are corrupt not because of need but because of greed.

Well some of them are, no denying it. It the entire corporate world, there had to be a Ramalingam Raju who had to show that there always is room for greed. But he does not define the system; that is not what corporate India is all about. There is more to it.

Similarly, if the salaries of the people who are a part of the government improves, you will root out the incentive to go after more. The incentive for risking ones image and reputation will outweigh the additional money that they can make. Furthermore, the enforcement can also take place more effectively. Currently, enforcement officers are some of the most poorly paid government employees. It makes it easy for those wish to bribe their way out of a problem.

The same is also been stated in economics long back as the 'Decreasing margins of returns'. Currently the benchmark has been set so low, with salaries that could have been considered good in 1980, that corruption is prevalent.

Unfortunately, I don't see this happening. There is such a furore for a minor salary hike of government employees and our budgets are stretched hard due to the amount of money that we spend on oil and defense, that there is no room for such lavish increases.

One things I am pretty certain about is that, this is the only thing that can put and end to corruption in this country.

Raavan

2010-06-23T02:48:00.000-07:00

Every good director has to once in while dish out a shitty movie. Saawariya was Bansali's lousy dishing and Raavan is Mani Ratnam's.

The movie never manages to capture your attention at any point of time. It just flows very slowly through exotic scenery and unnecessary visual effects.

The actors have done their due, but the story never gets you going at all. Too much slow motion visual effects at all of the wrong times, takes the attention away from the story/situation itslef. Further, even the setting of the story is very unconvincing. The excitement and vigour that should be a part of a chase movie is completely absent.

The movie is not even worth a watch.

PVR - Ticket Loot

2010-06-23T02:36:00.000-07:00

Karnataka happens to be the only state in India, which does not have any ceiling on the pricing of movie tickets and PVR has been exploiting this fact to the hilt. Currently, during the opening weekend of a movie, the theater charges a cool Rs. 350 per head and even on weekdays, they are charging Rs. 250 per head.

The management has lost sight of the difference between pricing high and ripping people off. The thin line dividing the two has suddenly been erased.

Not only are the ticket prices high, PVR has also embarked on a program of bumping the price of pop-corn up by Rs 15 every 3 months. A large combo that earlier would cost Rs. 100 has jumped to Rs. 130 in the space of the last 6 months, through two price hikes. They buy burgers for Rs. 7 and sell it for Rs. 70. To top it, they are shameless enough to leave the vendor price on the burger.

The company is fast moving its revenue model towards what can only be deemed as rank extortion.

PVR - Remodeled Loo

2010-06-23T02:23:00.000-07:00

For the past 6 months one or the other bathroom at PVR Classic, in Forum, Bangalore, has been going under the hammer for the purpose or renovation. Once they did complete the renovation of one of the restrooms, I was aghast to see that there were no dividers between the urinals.

Apparently the design came from the woman, little wonder! When has she strut her modesty out to pee? Despite requests from the staff, the company is reluctant to do anything about the urinals, for which they have already spent a bomb (Rs. 30 Lacs, I am given to understand) and caused sufficient inconvenience to all.

Currently as the situation stands, its quite embarrassing to pee in PVR Classic cinema, Forum, Bangalore. The company that was once setting new standards for customer satisfaction seems to have gone astray.

Raajneeti

2010-06-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

As the heart of it the movie was quite good. There were some really good performances from various actors.

The movie is about a political family and the fight for power that ensues the moment the head of the family and the political party gets paralysed. Infighting ensues and two factions are formed.

The political moves that are played out thereon to determine who assumes power is the most interesting part of the movie. The performances by Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor are worth a mention.

Though I fail to understand why Katrina required so much of tutoring for delivering one line in the movie. She was just unnecessarily hyped.

Worth a watch.

Global Investor's Meet

2010-06-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

Last week, the government held, what can only be referred to as a chest thumping exercise, the Global Investor's Meet.

To begin with the only company that was not Indian was Arcelor Mittal. If one discounts this company for the fact that Mr. Mittal happens to be Indian, it was pretty much an Indian investors meet. So why call it Global Investor's Meet?

The entire two days, for which a whopping 1000 Crores were spent marketing, was spent signing MoUs. Nobody knows how many of these will actually get converted into real investments. The entire event was a waste and one that could have been completely avoided.

A poorly executed and miserable show.

Optician gone crazy

2010-06-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

I went to buy a new pair of glasses today, when I realized a truth about retail of optical solutions in India. Guess the price of a rimless frame!

Well if it has a brand name on it, it costs about Rs. 4,000 (USD85) and if it is one that is not branded it would cost about Rs. 1,500 (USD35). For two steel sticks which weigh less than 100 grams, the prices are quite ridiculous. The cost of fabrication of the product would be hardly a few hundred rupees, not to mention that most of these (branded and un-branded alike) are manufactured in China.

Understandably, a bulk of the cost goes to the retailers and channel partners. The margins that retailers and distributors get in this business are huge. Little wonder someone like Titan, who had no background in the business decided to foray into it through Titan Eye+.

It is just a shame that the margins are so high in a business that can be likened to healthcare solution.

Seb and Mark Crash

2010-06-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

Sebastian Vettel On-Board

Mark Webber On-Board

It is amazing how from a third person's perspective it becomes so important to pin the blame on one or the other.

Last weekend in the Turkish Grand Prix, the two championship leaders had a crash that they both must be shameful about. But when you take a look at the on-board camera views of the two drivers, it becomes very clear that neither is wrong. They just assumed that the other would not get in the way.

It was just a racing incident. Had it been between two drivers of opposite teams it would have been brushed off as competition, but since the drivers are both from the same team, it is being drummed up a lot.

I think the press should just leave them alone.

Shrek Forever After

2010-06-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

I often find that Animated movies are able to communicate subtle lessons in life much better than movies with real people; the same is true with Shrek Forever After.

At the core the movie is about Shrek's mid-life crisis; wanting to go back to the life he once had. Shrek achieves his wish, soon to realise that he has been tricked by Rumpelstiltskin. As he long to get back to the family that he once had, he realises the value of what he had.

A delightful film, though not as funny as the first two parts, since the donkey has a much subdued role; it is a major improvement on 'Shrek The Third'. I would recommend it as a must watch for those who have followed all of the Shrek movies.

My Name is Khan

2010-02-16T21:09:00.000-08:00

My Name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.

The statement alone echoes the thoughts of many Muslims who have lived or continue to live in the post 9/11 U.S. There have been many movies that have been made on this subject, but not one has been able to treat the subject with the same degree of empathy or sensitivity as 'My Name is Khan' has managed to.

Rizwan Khan, the protagonist of the movie, is not a American Muslim, he is not a guy who can blend right in, but gets spotted due to his name. He is a devout Muslim, the kind that reads all 5 namaz on time, the kind that constantly repeats a few 'Rakats' at all times. He is the kind that will get singled out as a Muslim quite easily, and one who is proud to put up his name; Khan. This movie portrays the after effects of 9/11 on one such man.

The movie itself is quite tightly edited and there are very few unnecessary scenes, which is a part and parcel of most dramatised Indian cinema. Shah Rukh Khan has pushed himself to the limit to put forward a performance which is unlike any prior to this. He has managed to carry the role of Rizwan Khan with great passion and given a moving performance. The writers and directors (I am sure that SRK made a great deal of contribution of the script) have subtly tried to use many of the teachings from the Quraan, to portray the true teachings of Islam.

One such instance that comes to mind is when he goes to a mosque and hears a doctor manipulate the story of Ishmael from the Quraan, to mislead a group of individuals, Rizwan explains the true significance of the story and while telling them that it was the devil who misled, SRK throws three stones at the doctor. This is the same act that is performed by every Muslim during the Haj, where they throw stones at a rock, supposed to be the devil itself. (Some people like Anupama Chopra, who know not better assume this to be a shout fest.)

The movie moves back and forth, between the past and the present, which is presented in the form of a narrative by Rizwan Khan as he travels to try and meet the President of U.S.

The seriousness is broken at various points with funny sequences, but the movie overall remains a serious affair. Kajol's acting is good, but completely overshadowed by SRK's performance.

One of the best movies on Muslims in U.S., post 9/11. It touches the crux of the issue at hand and takes a very strong stand. There are only two kinds of people in this world; Good People and Bad People. It is important to be a good person and shun all other devides. The movie manages to get this across in an excellent manner.

Undoubtedly, My Name is Khan is one of the best movies I have seen on a serious subject in a long time.

iPad and Keyboard

2010-01-28T02:28:00.001-08:00

Apple launched this new product called the iPad, which it says is in-between an iPhone and a Mac. They have finally got it wrong. I am surprised that a company of the caliber of Apple has failed to understand the primary issue with devices. KEYBOARDS!

No matter what fancy touch driven gadgets they bring out, as long as they do not find a way to dispose of the QWERTY layout and bring in a paradigm shift in input of data, they are not going to find that solution. All touch driven keyboards are bad. Anyone who has used them can testify for the fact. They need to make the sort of jump that the 'Mouse' made in the data input field. The mouse radically changed the way data is input into the computer.

The replacement for the keyboard will give us the next big device.

Tata Docomo - Victims of Success

2010-01-12T22:33:00.000-08:00

I guess when, Tata launched its GSM service with Docomo, they would have never thought that they would get such unprecedented response to their connection. The marketing done for the launch of the brand was very fresh and attractive. Along with that, the pitch of 1 Paise per Second, touched the right nerve with the audience. Paying for seconds that one does not use was a matter of great debate for a long time and they provided the apt solution.

Having said all of that, the network that they erected would have been done thinking that they would get perhaps tens of thousand of sign ups, whereas the sign ups ran into the hundreds of thousands. Now, the Tata Docomo network is one of the worst networks to be on. Almost every call has to be dialed twice due to frequent disconnections. The quality and clarity remains a huge problem with the network.

Tata Docomo; a victim of its own success. They are unable to support the volumes on their network.

One would have to give up to the fact that, they changed the paradigms of mobile business in India. Before you knew it, every single mobile telephony company was scrambling to change their plan to a per second rate. Even a behemoth such as Airtel, who claim 110 Million people on their network, had to make this shift.

Tata Docomo has managed to be the game changer but successful, I don't know about it.

Chetan Bhagat and 3 Idiots

2010-01-02T03:34:00.000-08:00

The story of Chetan Bhagat is one of sour grapes. He went ahead and signed a legally binding contract with the film producer prior to the movie, without reading the contract carefully enough.

Now that the movie has been released, he is crying about credit. Even if he gets the credit, now that the movie has been released, what is he going to achieve out of it. Did he not know that he was not going to get much credit, when he signed on the dotted line.

I think he is just trying to derive as much mileage as possible out of the given situation. If he had a basis for protest, he would have filed a case 2 days before the release of the movie and cashed out on the opportunity. This strategy has been used well by many to reap great rewards.

I think that what he is doing is just going to result in Chetan getting sued.

Mont Blanc

2009-11-21T22:34:00.001-08:00

I am the world most premium writing instrument maker. So I decide to take two actors who have not made any great name for themselves, who could be as far from writing, as 'far' could be and make them my brand ambassador.

I really wish to know who really put that ad together for Mont Blanc and who there was foolish enough to approve of the same. In a country with a population of more than a Billion people; they could not find one descent family that was into writing. I really want to know what great thing Anil Kapoor wrote.

It is quite obvious that Mont Blanc has spent quite a bit of money on that stupid ad. It really gets me thinking how many Ad companies really screw such brands over...

Run and Get Hit

2009-11-19T01:29:00.000-08:00

It appears strange to me that there is a 'Hit and Run' case, when someone jumps in the middle of the road and gets hit by car that is travelling at 100 Kmph. There should be a 'Jump onto the road and get Hit' case. Why is it that the person driving the car is deemed wrong irrespective of whomever's fault it may be? There is a desperate need for addressing this.

Today as I drove back from the Bangalore International Airport, there were several of these suicide attempts that I witnessed and the thought struck me, that if any of these attempts, succeed. The driver of that vehicle will be put through the pains of having to answer to the court, police, family of the deceased, etc. There has to be a means by which the victim can clearly be identified. Just because someone is safe or has managed to survive an accident should not by default render them as the criminal party.

Global Warming

2009-10-27T01:06:00.001-07:00

One of the key issues facing the world at the moment is Global Warming, there is a lot of money that is being committed by companies, industries and nations alike. There is a paradigm shift in the way business calculate costs due to legislations related to Global Warming coming into effect. The truth of the matter is that there is no empirical proof that can justify the cause and effect. It may not be necessary that cars are causing the warming, it might be that the increase in human population is causing the same.

It is a well know fact that there were ice ages and somehow the thaw happened, did it not, the ice ages went away and there were no cars at that time. The industrialization of the world had not taken place and neither had humans stepped on the planet. Then why is that the phenomenon of 'Global Warming' is squarely blamed on the same. Is it just a way of ensuring that people succumb to committing money to unnecessary activities and a new industry is spawned?

We may never know. The only one who would know the truth are the people presenting the 'Inconvenient Truth'. All I understand is that global cooling and warming has been happening on a repeated basis for ages. This is not something new. Then what is the entire fuss all about?

Or as George Carlin rightly put it "The earth is not dying, it has been here for billions of years and will continue to remain for another billion years long after we are gone... The earth is not dying, WE ARE..."

Nobama

2009-10-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

I had almost stopped writing blogs completely and then they gave the Nobel prize of Barack Obama. I simply had to write. The Nobel committee says that Obama has given great amount of hope for peace and hence he has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. If that is the case, then a lot of people who work for NGOs should also be given the same they also give hope. Every psychological rehab should be given the Nobel, the only thing they do it give their patients hope so that they can get better.

Nelson Mandela and many others who were given the same prize for a lifetime of work would feel like fools. They actually went that last time to create peace.

I just remember one quote of George Carlin's - Americans, we are war-like people. We just like to fight wars. Its exciting, its good for the economy. We are a country that is 200 years old and has already fought 10 major wars. That is an average of one major war every 20 years. We like bombing the hell out of people.

I think Obama is just being rewarded war not conforming to the same philosophy.

Obama - The best marketer of 2008

2009-01-20T21:22:00.001-08:00

Obama was the theme of 2008. The entire year he was involved in the process of marketing himself and his idea. First against Hillary Clinton and then against John McCain. He gave the Americans exactly what they wanted to hear; that he was going to bring to change to the country.

If we had to go by statistics, the likelihood of Obama having become the president of USA was very slim. To start off he was black(creamie), America had never had a black man for a president. Secondly, he was not someone who had a strong political or for that matter a corporate clout standing behind him. Agreed there were those who believed in his ability to take the position, but nonetheless; he did not have a strong clout of rich and powerful people behind him.

What he had, was the clarity of positioning. He positioned himself as a savior for the black people. He positioned himself as the one who can turn the nation around. He positioned himself as the one that did not have any bias or inclination which would force him to do the wrong thing. He used his disadvantages to his advantage over the course of the election campaign. His positioning appealed to a large number of Americans. He had cracked the marketing code that was required.

Now that he has taken care of the marketing end of the job and got himself into the white house, let us see if we can deliver on the promises that he has made!

Satyam Fiasco

2009-01-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

By now everybody in the civilized world is aware of the scam that is Satyam, from beginning to the end. What was reason for such a huge failure in corporate governance? More importantly, these so-called panels that were awarding Satyam awards for corporate excellence, what were they basing their judgement on? The point here is that it is not the failure of one, but all.

The accounting firm hired by Satyam, PWC might be breathing its last; with calls for banning the firm from all across the world, the odds of them surviving this fiasco looks slim. Though, it throws an even more important question into light, should the scrutiny of the accounts be left alone to independent organizations. Would this have happened if SEBI or a company that is under SEBI was responsible for verifying the accounts. I agree, humans have a horrible vice - Greed; and there is room for corruption here as well. Certainly, the magnitude of fraud would have never reached these proportions.

Satyam has shown that SOX act is also not effective at curbing corporate frauds, being listed on the NASDAQ, the financials had to meet the US GAAP Standards and also comply with SOX requirements. If there is a will; there is a way. So much for Mr. Sarbanes and Mr. Oxley.

The need is to come up with better solutions in order to prevent such frauds from happening. The board has to be more responsible to its investors. They can't just resign claiming ignorance. Technology enables us to have unlimited access and scope. We have video conferencing, ERP systems, classified access and all this if not used for the purpose of governance; then what? Vinod Dham sits in NY and says he was not aware of the accounts books, was he aware of the cash coming into his account? What was he drawing it for? The entire board independent or not must be held accountable for this.

Mr. Raju acquits everyone in his letter; Rubbish! How can the vertical heads not know how their businesses were doing? This is just unjustifiable nonsense.

Let us see what happens? 48 hours after his confession, he has not even been arrested thanks to the political backing that Raju has. Is he just going to walk away from this?

Grace in Defeat

2008-12-31T23:24:00.001-08:00

Why do people forget that there is grace in defeat.

Right from the outset a child is taught that he/she is supposed to win, to never come second. Everything is a competition and the one who comes first is the best. In any competition, in any sphere of life, there is only one who is going to win and others are going to loose. Now, how can everyone be that ONE?

I don't remember clearly, but this was the Ad for some Winter Olympics held somewhere around 2001; I think in Italy. What the Ad basically said was that 'it is the one's adversary that makes the victory worth the effort'. If the adversary is one who is not good enough to compete against you, then what good is such a victory? The fact that the adversary has the ability to defeat and still you win is what makes the victory sweet in the first place. Then why is there any disgrace in being defeated by a worthy opponent. It is the fact that the opponent can defeat you today which will make the victory sweet tomorrow.

Recently, Australia lost a test series on home soil to South Africa. Why is the reaction to such a defeat, so negative. Probably, its because the Australians are only good at that; Sports. But still, is the fact that the opponent is worthy and can defeat them so hard to bear. This is the typical unsporting attitude that will not help any team get anywhere. Not only on the field of play but also the game called life this one fact always remains true.

Capitalism Falling on its Face?

2008-12-12T00:48:00.000-08:00

Capitalism allows for the survival of the fittest and in most part this has been the principle that the American economy has followed. The fit survive and the unfit perish. But then why are so many companies being saved from going bankrupt. There should be left to face the music. Is this the end of capitalism?

The argument that these people offer for saving the companies that are not able to survive themselves, is that, "there would be job losses which cannot be afforded". Why is it that, these people who are so bothered about job losses, never reduce their own compensations to ensure that the jobs need not be cut. I think that increasingly the sense of ownership of a firm in the traditional sense is lost. There is no pride in ownership. A company is just a bunch of shares. Anybody can have as much as they wish to have, so long as they can pay for it. The true spirit of capitalism is lost.

I think that if a company is not doing well, they should just go ahead and cut jobs and try and bring the company back into profitability. In the event that they are not able to do this well enough, they should just shut down. Just because over the years some companies has grown into an over-sized behemoth, does not mean that they have to be saved by the government despite all their shortcomings.

Capitalism should prevail!

Design is the new Strategy

2008-11-29T01:14:00.000-08:00

Over the past years there were a lot of experts who spent a lot of time thinking over strategy and how it impact businesses and makes them successful. They came up with many theories to explain these phenomenon. I think that these strategies are going to slowly fade away to give way to design as a the new strategy.

You don't need to do a set of things and think in a certain way to do better business, you just need to be able to come up with great design that is the thing that people really respond to. Look at the iPod as a great example. It is not the best product that is available there, but it is the best design that is available out there and it is successful.

Even if one looks at retailers, in order to be successful in the market you do not need to be the best retailer. You need to be the best designed store, which meets the requirement of the shoppers in a manner that suites them the most and you will manage to be successful. An example of this kind of a success is the Big Bazaar in India, its designed in a manner that suites the requirement of the Indian consumer so well that it is successful. It also happens to be a discounter but the main reason for its success over all other has been the way it is designed.

Not only in fields where designs are very much applicable but also as far as organizations are concerned, design plays a very important role in their success. If the design is rigid, it often breaks or gets destroyed over the course of time. The classic example of such destruction is the car companies of America. They will not get better till they change the design of their organizations and change the way they have been accustomed to think.

Design is going to play a very important role in the coming years and there is a need for organizations to prepare for this change.

Mobile Number - The New Address

2008-11-27T21:17:00.000-08:00

About 15 years back, having a cell phone was considered a luxury and times have changed a lot since. In todays date, the first thing that you ask a person is their mobile phone number. Think how ubiquitous this device has become and how much it has managed to pervade our lives. The day is not far away when, the mobile phone will become the only means of finding a person.

In recent instances I have heard of cops being able to pin point the location of a person using the signal of the cell phone. It has also been used to track the whereabouts of nefarious elements at times. The mobile is becoming the new address. Since the user carries along with them everywhere that they go, it has become a better way of keeping track of people than an address.

The mobile phone is becoming the new address, the day is not far when it would replace all other identifications.

Driving to Bankruptcy

2008-11-22T04:19:00.000-08:00

The car companies in US have been crying about the losses that they have been making over the past few years. All their strategies have been failing and the inevitable happens to coincide with the financial crisis that has currently engulfed the entire world. So do you think that they should be bailed out of bankruptcy.

It is not a question of jobs being lost but more a question of how much American people value their tax money. How constructively would they want it used.

The American car companies have done a horrible job as far as their strategies are concerned. They knew the situation with oil, they knew the situation with the world market. I am sure that Honda and Toyota entered the American market only after the big three. How come they are not filing for bankruptcy?

Sometime back in the 1990's Honda and Toyota realised that making large cars and gas guzzlers was not the right thing to be doing, especially keeping the oil demand and the prices in mind. They also realised that soon there would be the requirement of alternate technology. In the meantime 'The Big Three' were building larger and less efficient vehicles. They pursued the plan with a vengeance (both sides).

Hence the companies that made the right strategic choice came out on top, whereas the ones with the wrong strategic choices have gone belly up. The amazing thing is that they are still not correcting their mistakes.

Under these circumstances, does a nation want to afford, flushing another few billion dollars on these horrible businessmen. They are only going to take all that money and light it up on fire. I understand thousands would be jobless...

Why doesn't the US start a new car company with all of that money and put the cash to good use. (I understand that the plan is to throw in $25 Billions into the hands of these three companies. Is that not enough to start a revolutionary new company?) The thousands would still find employment. They would be working for what is going to sell. They will help America grow back towards the automotive supremacy it once held.

No no... instead they will just burn it up... give it to those who don't understand strategy...

Markets are Emotional

2008-11-16T22:55:00.001-08:00

The news over the past few days:

'Markets down on global crisis'

'Markets up on global cues'

'Crisis to last 6 months: markets down'

'Markets up on Fed Rate cuts'

The bottom-line, the stock market is an emotional animal, just as Warren Buffet puts it. It does not known what to do and where to go. It just acts on impulses provided by the outside world. There is no rhyme or reason for most of the fluctuations, they are just a result of how the "Market' is feeling. There are those who try to comment on what is going to happen at the stock market everyday, my question is does it really matter?

Markets are best when looked at from a long term basis and understood. Focusing on daily news and making your bets in the markets, is not the best thing to be doing. There is no point trying to explain everyday movement, it probably is a result of some emotions, rather than solid reasoning.

The best thing to do at such times is to concentrate on fundamental strength of the economy and the company to make decisions.

Internet and Globalization - II

2008-11-12T02:33:00.001-08:00

The industries which sold digital content of any sort, be it software, music, movies, etc.; have all woken up to the challenges and opportunities that internet has to offer. Many of them are taking advantage of this fact and making the most of it as well. There are still other industries whose marketing efforts put them in a place where internet has been able to play a large part in their success as well as their demise.

I will take the case of Apple. Apple has a very strange way of marketing their products. They usually do not stick to a lot of TV ads, at least not in India. They are very regular at releasing updates and also make a very public show of it. They are also one of the companies that is so closed to the outside world that their product can be considered a niche product (even though it is so ubiquitous).

Apple learnt somethings about marketing the hard way when it launched iPhone in India.

About a year back when Apple released the iPhone in the US, it was an instant rage. Everyone, including the presidential candidate was talking about the iPhone. It was a phenomenon like nobody had seen before and the mobile handset companies were all shivering. Fast forward 8 months...

iPhone was launched in India. A phone that had sold more than a million pieces a month and was stocked out across US, entered India with 2 operators unlike other countries, where it was distributed by only one operator. It failed MISERABLY! Although the company would not give details, according to certain estimates only 10,000 iPhones have been sold in India 3 months after launch.

What hit them? In one word the Internet (also the piraters to a certain extent).

8 months was long enough for Apple haters to figure out every negative thing about the iPhone and publicise it sufficiently. Also, there was a lot of information available about the phone on the internet and people were immediately able to see what were the shortcomings of this phone; that was touted as the best. The internet had transferred the initial US launch hype across the world, even though the company did not put in any effort a lot of marketing happened on the net; and though the phone was not launched in India, the excitement regarding the launch was the same.

Then through the piraters and smugglers, iPhones made their way into the market. Within about 2 months of the US launch, the die-hard Apple lovers had already acquired their beloved phones through wrongful means. These were the missing phones that Apple and AT&T kept reporting. Also, the internet has made sure that the pricing is extremely transparent. Knowing that, launching iPhone at almost double the price as that of US did not make any sense, but Apple did.

All in all, the Internet alone is to be blamed for the demise of the iPhone in India. The demise occurred even before the birth. Will Apple learn its lesson?

Internet and Globalization - I

2008-11-11T00:05:00.000-08:00

Globalization and internet has introduced a new set of problems for the marketers. No longer is it just enough to make a good product and create the right hype. It also becomes important to release the product simultaneously. In the following blogs I will look at how this has fundamentally affected the way marketers are forced to look at their markets and some mistakes that they still make.

Let us look of the paradigm shifts. In the past, the Hollywood production houses used to release the movie first in US, then in Europe and later on in Asia. This worked well for them, since they were able to use the earnings from one continent to market the movie in another.

In todays scenario, marketing does not happen in one continent alone, whether they like it not. They create the hype in America and people in India anticipate it. To make matters worse, after the introduction of the internet, they started noticing that pirated versions of the movies started becoming available soon enough in the other continents and waiting for a month before the release of the movie in the other continent meant that they lost out on a sizable chunk of box office revenues.

Matrix Reloaded was the first movie to be released on the same day world-wide. I attribute a large amount of the credit for the box office earnings that this movie had to this one fact.

In this day and age of internet and blogs, it does not take a lot of effort for a marketer to spread word about a product (be it movies or computer or whatever). The hype gets communicated across the globe quite quickly once the information gets onto the internet. The saying 'Word spreads like fire', has become quite literal in the internet age; in fact it spread faster and wider, than any fire ever can. This makes timing the launch and doing it simultaneously, very important. Marketers are waking up to this fact. This has also resulted in a lot of pressure being put on the financial requirements for marketing. Though there are those who manage to find synergies in this as well.

It is important to realise the reality that is internet and how it affects businesses.

Creativity and a Slowing Economy

2008-11-04T23:15:00.001-08:00

Right now is the time that most of the companies, especially the marketing teams in most companies should be looking at innovative ways of pulling customers. They can think up totally whacky ideas and rest assured that the higher powers will second it as well, in the hope that sales would pick up.

It is often in times when the economy is slowing that one gets to be at their creative best. When the going is good, most often companies, as well as executives do not wish to take any risk. Its easy to do fine by playing safe. Most companies play it safe and some out of the box idea which might be risky will not get the same kind of support for the fear of failure.

In a failing economy, failure is imminent. Therefore, risking failure becomes a lot more easier for the top executives. The way a risk is seen is different. Maybe this will avert the inevitable. Therefore the decision to go ahead with a plan that maybe seen as a creative risk, comes much more easily.

All sort of things get done! New business verticals are launched; new ad campaigns are designed; products that have been on the shelf for years are given a go-ahead! Is it the right approach? Who cares! You get to be creative!

Levi's Square

2008-10-30T02:37:00.000-07:00

I think there are 3 Levi's squares in India. One each in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. A few days back I just happened to chance into one of the stores during a rather prolonged shopping trip with my sister. I have been to the Levi's Store often, during the time that I used to do shopper research and therefore was quite aware of the structure of the store.

Upon entering this store, the ground floor generally has the 'Red Loop' line of products, which is the higher end of the price line at Rs. 3000 and above. The second floor has the 'Sykes' line which is priced between Rs. 1500 and Rs. 3000. The top floor has the 'Levi's Red Tag', the lower end of the price line with products in the Rs 1000 range. I used to think that it was a good means of ensuring that the high priced Red Loop range got some hits.

When we went into the store to shop, my sister had a look at the Red Loop line and got rather put off and was at the verge of leaving the store. Were it not for the fact that I was aware of the lower priced range being available on the upper floors, they would have lost a customer. Is it prudent to make the shopper go through the most expensive offerings that you have before they can get to the not so expensive ones, I have my doubts.

An apparel store has only so much time to capture the attention of the shopper, when the shopper enters the store. If at first the best value is not offered, most often, shoppers would go look elsewhere. Besides, in this case their premium segment of clothing would be shopped by the high end crowd, would they not want certain degree of privacy, rather than a floor that is being used as a thoroughfare?

Nano-Technology - The Paradigm Breaker

2008-10-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

When the internet was taking its baby steps, people would have never thought that once day having an office without internet is going to be impossible. Today, living without internet would be the equivalent of trying to do business without an office in the 1980's.

Internet has changed the way business is done and the way many think about business. It has also given ubiquitous, a new meaning altogether. In effect, the world is no longer the same, because internet has been able to pervade every aspect of our lives. In a similar manner, the next thing that is going to change the paradigms that we live in is; Nano-Technology.

The above video is but, one of the applications of nano-technology, and I am sure that you would find it very impressive. Imagine tomorrow's world, where every thing that is around you is able to communicate with you. The wall of your house is a fluid display and also an input device through which you can track each and every thing in the house. When the shoe rack can know which shoe of yours required polishing and your wardrobe knows when your clothes need to go for washing. Imagine the boundless possibilities once such technology pervades our lives just the way internet has.

Now, imagine what this does to the way we do business and industries?

If clothing can be made with nano-technology... and if the cloth could take any shape and form that I desire for it to, I would just need one set which can take the shape that suites the situation, the environment and the need. It can take its bath as I take mine. What will happen to the clothing manufacturers and retailers. This is certainly going to be the next game changer.

It is going to cause the next paradigm shift, watch out for it!

Central Park

2008-10-05T00:53:00.000-07:00

Think of New York and one of the first things that come to mind is the central park in the center of the city. Ok, now think Bangalore ('Garden City' supposedly), most would picture M.G. Road in their minds. What is our problem with protecting heritages and glorifying them? I never seem to be able to understand...

Bangalore over the past years was known as the 'Garden City', till IT came to the city and the city became highly commercial. But does that mean that the city has to forget what it was known for. These large green belts in the city are the biggest source of oxygen and they can also serve as a great means for people to relax and spend their evenings. Although the entire city is being modernised, no efforts are being directed to ensure that, these spaces are beautified, given a better structure and brought back to their former glory. All of Bangalore hangs out at malls and pubs which by the way are closed at 11 P.M. Parks are such great places to spend time, hang out, engage in various activities and most important of all it makes the place more lively.

I think this truth applies to almost all of the cities of India. The biggest hangouts in the city need not necessarily be the a place where you need to end up shelling out cash for fun. Fun can be free as well! There are several people who can help make a difference to the situation at hand, but there is no initiative from the governments end. Also, most of these efforts are turned down and shooed away. How can this heritage be made to live on?

Luxury Trains

2008-10-05T00:52:00.000-07:00

India has been known for the luxury, that its kings and rulers have lived in. All of them left behind signs of their luxury, in the form of palaces, forts and even clothes in some cases. Many of these properties today are being managed by some of the top hotels in the world. There are so many luxury destinations in India. 2 of Oberoi group's hotels figure in the top 10 hotels in the world (both in India).

Barring Rajasthan, no other state of India has really seen the potential that this form of tourism brings to the state; or have made attempts to capitalise on the same. Rajasthan introduced the 'Palace on Wheels' which is amongst the most talked about railway experiences in the world. They created this experience through the understanding of the heritage and the inherent need for people to connect with that heritage of the place. The government of Maharshtra and Karnataka recently launched their versions of their own, and I guess in due course of time, if there is proper effort that has been put into creating a connection with the history and heritage of the place, these trains will also be successful.

There is such great potential that exists in the Indian Railways and so many opportunities going begging and it never fails to surprise me. I think that every state in this country should have a luxury train that brings out the best of that state. They say a lifetime is not enough to see France; in that case several lifetimes would not be enough to see India. India with its vastness and its beauty has so much to offer to the tourists who visit the place.

The Indian Railways is excellently positioned to cater well to there tourists and to give them the very best that India has to offer. The airplane does not do justice to all that is India and all that can be seen in India. I feel that the time has come when the Indian Railways and the states, start taking themselves more seriously and do something about creating remarkable experiences. Stop investing in useless ads and start putting together mind-blowing experiences for the people who visit the land, so that they can go back and talk about these wonderful trips that they had. Word of mouth is the strongest form of marketing!

Have you ever seen an Ad promoting tourism in Switzerland?

Less Business Brings The Best Out Of People

2008-09-15T04:03:00.000-07:00

The dearth of any particular thing, results in the increase of its value. Simple logic of demand and supply. It is interesting to note though, that the same logic applies so strongly to the behaviour of people and the way business is carried out.

On one of my recent visits to a small town in the north of India, I came across a branded pizza joint that I was familiar with. I was pleasantly surprise when I entered the store, to find that the service was head and shoulders above what I was used to getting in Bangalore. The waiters were very polite, showed us to the table, waited on us, offered suggestions (knowledge about the preparations; now that is one thing that I expected to be higher amongst their urban counterparts), asked for preferences in taste and then served our order. It was as if I had landed up in a gourmet restaurant, but just did not know. Often when I visit the same store in the city, I get waiters who are edgy, impatient and at times even rude if you are somewhat confused.

Is it the lack of business in the smaller towns that brings out the best in the people who serve you? Or is it just the large supply of people in and urban store as against a rural store; that the value of a customer falls? I don't really know why this happens, though I would love to know why.

India Railways Has A Better Value Proposition Than EURAIL

2008-09-15T03:49:00.000-07:00

In the opening scene of the movie 'Bachna Ae Haseeno', Ranbir Kapoor has a dialogue, which is insightful and at the same time hard hitting; he says 'I am tired of travelling by train across Switzerland, all you see is Cows and Grass'.

Are the Swiss not pure genius to have marketed green grass and black and white cows to the world so effectively that, every years thousands of people go flocking to Europe, to take a journey on the Eurail?

Recently, while taking a trip on our very own 'India Railways' from Bangalore to Jodhpur, I realised that India has such a huge variety of landscapes, sights and sounds to offer to a tourist. Every 300 Kms or so, the geography changes, the way the houses are built changes, the type of food served within the train changes... There is just so much happening outside that you can look at. There is just so much that one can take in through the course of a journey; it's like visiting several different countries, within this one, highly diverse country called India.

Is this more fun or is this more fun?

I fail to understand why this aspect never comes up in any of the 'Incredible India' ads. The value proposition that India Railways has on offer for tourists is much greater than, what any railway network has to offer in the world. There is opportunity that is crying to be exploited. There is just so much that one can do with this asset that we possess.

We have the longest, most vast railway network any country has and it works flawlessly, most of the time; except when we ourselves like to highlight the negatives and sit and cry about it. There is such raw potential that is waiting to be unleashed. Somebody has to come forward to unleash it. I would love to be the one.

Retail at the Airport

2008-09-15T03:37:00.000-07:00

When a visitor at an airport wishes to shop, what would he/she look for? I guess the retailers at the Bangalore International Airport never thought about that when they were setting up their stores. I find a lot of the merchandise that has been put on display at these stores are surely not the kind that an airport shopper would pick-up. Let us see why...

An airport shoppers is one who wants to pick up something that he/she:
1) Is going to utilizing over the course of the journey
2) Is going to present to someone as a gift
3) Is going to carry as a souvenir that is extraordinary or typical of the place which can be taken back. At least that is what I look to shop in an Airport.

Let us see what BIAL has done. The Raheja group came and booked a large space and BIAL found it convenient and gave it away for Crosswords and Shoppers Stop to be opened. A book shop is good, it works especially in the context of an airport. But a large part of the merchandise featured in the Crossword store in BIAL are coffee table books. Lets say, coffee table books are bulky, expensive, not easy to carry and most important of all a lot of weight added to the hand luggage. It does not make a for a good in-flight read, unless the person is travelling by business class (not to mention the ratio of allocation of seat for business versus economy in a plane and the profile of people booking those seats). So just because coffee table books fetch a higher margin, they place the books there and generate very little revenue from the same.

I don't understand the rationale behind having a Shopper's Stop in the airport. The merchandise on offer is not exclusive or recognized. The brand is not know outside of the country and is available everywhere in this country, why would anybody hit that shop, unless they really need to.

The stores that make up an Airport retail area should have some degree of exclusivity. They should be the sort of things that you do not find very easily around the city. Most airports across the world sell their retail space to luxury brands, since their product mix is very exclusive and the kinds that would make everyone stop and take notice, besides its easier to get them to shell out a few more bucks for the space that they take up. They also allocate space to the not so luxury but, internationally well known brands, which can again draw a crowd on the basis of their brand power. Apart from them, space needs to be allocated to things that are unique to the city. Having this part of the offering covered is very important as far as pushing the city to the world is concerned.

The airport is the first and the last brush that one has with a city. It is important that all of the aspects of the airport are taken care of really well. Poor presentation on any front will most certainly hurt the image that one builds of the city in their minds.

Indian Malls - Retail Graveyards

2008-09-10T01:37:00.000-07:00

First of all, I must confess that I have not seen many of the malls in India and also I don't have much information about the new projects that are coming up. But in all that I have been able to see so far, most of the malls in this country have nothing than can hold the interest of the shoppers there. Most of them are a endless number of shops laid out in a cuboid.

Malls can be destinations that people visit to spend their time, having fun, spending time in a structured manner. The shortcomings of most of the malls that I have seen is that there is an unbelievable amount of stress that has been laid on selling out space to the retailers. There is a greater degree of loyalty and customer satisfaction that can be drawn out of leaving spaces empty as against giving it away to the retailers. This is a fact that very few developers understand. People coming to a place that is supposed to be a destination, where they might spent an entire day don't want to be thrust from one shop to the other when they are there. They would look for places where they can actually hang out!

There is also a huge retail mix available in the mall; mall developers do not wait to think that retail is not the only offering that people are looking forward to. Having things in a mall that allows people to amuse themselves with (with or without a revenue generating aspect to it) is very important. The mall should be very engaging and should permit the shoppers... no no; the visitors (let us not see them as just shoppers; they may or may not shop) to enjoy their time in various activities in the mall. Having a rock climbing wall, a fancy barbecue on the terrace, roller coaster, etc. are different ways of creating engagement devices for the shoppers. These are extremely important to keep a mall alive.

STORIES - People love stories and even more so they love to tell stories to other people. In such a case don't you think that every mall should have a story of its own. Giving a theme and an exciting story behind the theme is very important to excite people about a mall. It also helps secure an individuality for the mall. It is extremely important to give a character to a mall in order to have a presence for it which is everlasting.

At present developers are just constructing spaces where they put as much retail as they possibly can. These spaces are extremely impersonal and have nothing remarkable about them. These malls don't have an individuality or character that separates them from the rest. The trend that I notice at present is only going to result in the malls of today becoming the retail graveyards of tomorrow. When something bigger and better comes along the crowds will just shift to the better option and the malls being built now are going to just fade away very fast.

Resource Harvesting - India

2008-09-04T03:58:00.001-07:00

India is a large country blessed with several resources. It has also been blessed with some amazing natural gifts such as the Himalayas and the large coastline stretching some 7500 Kms. It has several rivers that provide with water to most of the country. What all of this provides is also ample opportunity to exploit these resources for the purpose of generating energy.

India is poised at a point where double digit growth would be easily facilitated if only the energy needs of the country could be taken care of. We are energy dependent and therefore this growth is not facilitated at present. I have no doubts in my mind that the idea that I am pushing here is not one that can be easily achieved; but instead of spending crores of the people's tax money on figuring out whether to sign a treaty with a third party (again!) for securing the future energy needs, we need to look at securing it on our own.

Can't we as Indians make a decision to push the envelopes of technology to the limit develop new and more eco-friendly ways of harvesting the bounty of resources that this country is blessed with? Is renewable sources of energy not the future of energy?

The world of automobile manufacturers had said that a car with a price tag of $2500 was not possible. Tata, an Indian company made it happen. Why are there no visionaries in the field of energy who would pursue the possibility of making India energy-independent. It would be India for now, but tomorrow the world will be their playing ground.

There is a pressing need for India to push the next wave of technological breakthoughs. Companies such as Suzlon have become industry leaders in wind energy, but have not really put together proposals for wind farms, that can cater to an entire state perhaps; they continue to look abroad for business. Similarly, though there are several players in the solar energy field none at all have the vision of setting up solar fields to cater to the large population of India (Sun is available 300 days of the year is this part of the world).

I do not understand when they are capable of bringing in billion dollar investment for buying others comapnies; why is it that they cannot make similar investments for setting up power plants that shall cater to the needs of this country; which will not be a bad business proposition, by the way!

It is a black day in India when we laud the shifting of dependance for energy from the middle east to US. We should be looking at ways to make ourselves energy independent. I am waiting for an Indian visionary to take the lead towards making this a reality.

Simple is Powerful

2008-09-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

The above video is a parody on Microsoft; had they launched the iPod. I think that it epitomizes, the thing that makes Apple a more lovable company. Their presentation is very simple!

For an idea to have an impact, it is important for the idea to be simple. A simple idea can be understood by more people and can be spread easily as well, since the effort that needs to be taken to explain the same is much less.

Simplicity is the in thing...

Hospitality Industry

2008-08-28T02:22:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity of traveling far and wide across the world. I have been fortunate enough to be able to stay at some of the well known hotels. I have stayed at the Marriott, Hyatt, Le Meridian, Taj, Leela, and others at various locations in India and abroad. I must say that once you are used to the routine it is quite boring to stay at almost all of these hotels. Except for the subtle surprises that a Marriott might offer at occasions and on other occasions when the hotels bungle up your reservation and upgrade you to an executive room (more due to a lack of a better option that choice), there is nothing unique or surprising, that one would find while staying at these hotels.

For a hotel that calls itself 5-star would you not think that they should be in a position to delight the customer with the type of experience that is put on offer. When I enter the room of a 5-star hotel, no matter what, I will find a bed laid in the centre of the room, with TV kept across the room, a desk/study and a sitting area, not to mention the restroom, which is the most mundane bit. Why has that got to be the case in every hotel?

It amazes me that barring the landscaping that runs outside of the hotel there is pretty much no attempt made to differentiate the hotel from what they offer at the rest of the places. If this was 2000BC and designing was still taking baby steps then that would be a good excuse; fortunately it is not! Why can't each hotel; based on the geography and location be bound by a theme of its own. Something that makes it unique, something that offers surprises and mystery at the same time. When I enter the room of a beach resort, why can't the room have furniture that fold into the wall so that the room can be converted into a large play area during the day for the kids to play and cosy room by night for them to sleep peacefully after an entire day of riot. Why can't there be a water flow maintained through the entire property, water passing through every room, thereby cooling the rooms, instead of the regular AC. Why can't designing be taken to a new level to make living spaces special and experience worth remembering and so remarkable that you need to tell all of your friends?

The amount of money that these hotel chains would spend on marketing; if spent on making such upgrades, will perform the function of marketing automatically. Why does nobody put in that effort to make the experience special? What is with being routine and boring? Its amazing to be unique!

I wait in hope that someday, one of these chain will decide to do something unique, remarkable and out of the box. I would love to go stay at such a place...

Let Visitors Spend More...

2008-08-26T03:37:00.000-07:00

India has been seeing a sharp rise in tourism over the years and there have been countless acres of forest that have gone under the axe to print matter to the same effect. I may quote some of the statistics that have been mentioned with regards to this industry.

In 2006 there were as many as 4 million visitors who visited India who spent a total of $ 8.9 billion. The tourism industry has been showing a growth rate of 20%, year on year. I am surprised that they managed to spend so much, considering the fact that we are horrible at providing opportunities to spend. The tourism industry in India is touted to grow at a rate of 30% till 2010 and with the commonwealth games coming to India and the possibility of even the olympics coming to India, we really need to look at the opportunities that visitors have to spend in India.

Let us shift to Paris...

As soon as you enter the lobby of a hotel you find a huge array of pamphlets mentioning some 25 different site seeing trips that one can take to move around the city. On all of these combined one can spend a cool 1000 Euros per head. Then you decide to head out to see the city... There are a huge array of souvenir stores that offer a range of products, no no! they are not traditional craftswork which will find no use but to sit in my showcase once I return back to my country. Instead it is the mundane, day to day stuff, that one can use regularly. Imagine the number of times an American is going to go back to America and wear a 'Sherwani'. Not only are these day to day products, that one can use easily upon returning; but they also have Paris pasted prominently over it (In fact I still believe that baring the ubër fashion stores, its impossible to find a T-Shirt in Paris without Paris written on it). Good Advertising! Don't you think? Why do you think that the city gets the most number of visitors, its because all of these people carry all of this stuff back home and do free publicity for the city.

Is it so difficult for someone in India to do the same in every major city of the country. Can this country that is known for all of the hospitality that it can offer to its guests; not offer them descent avenues to spend their cash at. I think there is a desperate need for such services in this country. Here is a situation where we need to decide to push our own country to the world, and offer our best to the world.

Will someone take the lead?

Does our market react to ad campaigns?

2008-08-20T01:43:00.000-07:00

It was just a thought that occured to me today morning, as I was looking at the Teach IndiA ad campaign that Times of India has undertaken...

Back in August last year, the sub-prime crisis had already broken out in the United States, the indication of financial troubles were looming. There was a feeling that the emerging markets will not take the blow of this economic downturn in the US. Also, around the same time, the 'Lead India' and the 'India Poised' campaigns were up and running in India. The correlation of the positive movement of the market and the campaign being run at the same time is worth noticing.

Towards the end of the year and with the dawn of the new year, these campaigns began to wane and so did the confidence in the stock markets. Essentially nothing had changed, as far as many of the sectors are concerned but the beating down was consistent across all sectors.

I know that there was an initial feeling that de-coupling will occur which never happened and FIIs pulled out of Indian markets and all of those stories that the finance gurus offer. But were the people offering advice to these FIIs not based out of India? Are they not human? Could they not get influenced by ads?

At the end of it all, I would like to say that; there is no conclusive evidence based on which, I have framed the above argument. It is just a thought and I think there is something there...

Network Businesses - Death of Large Corporations

2008-08-12T23:32:00.000-07:00

There was a time when big meant powerful. A time when big companies bought the smaller ones and grew in capabilities and strength.

The bigger; the better.

Companies were able to easily hold onto 50% - 60% of the market and beat the competition with their superior marketing power. Those days are soon going to be passe. The future does not belong to the big but the small companies.

These guys are nimble, can move swiftly, have the flexibility to change with the needs of the market. Small companies; with brilliant people, who in their individual capacity are capable creating value, have been coming together constantly. There are several such firms that operate across the world today. The era of large companies having a wide array of capabilities is gone and specialists who are truly remarkable at the work that they do, who work in very narrow domains of knowledge are replacing them fast. These small organizations, network with similar entities, but with varied competencies, in order to achieve huge synergies.

In the end several such groups, each consiting of just a handful of people will come together to pose a major challenge to the large firms who are bulky and cannot adapt quickly enough to the changing business environment.

Microsoft was extremely competitive when it was small, slowly and steadily it went on absorbing one small company after the other and now finds itself in a position where it is not able to compete effectively in any of the domains where it exists. Its latest launches have all failed and so have its attempts to buy others. The case is similar with Wal-Mart, Ford, and numerous other companies that are large.

In the years to come, smaller and smaller companies will come together to achieve larger and larger goals. It will be important for the now large companies, to split themselves into smaller and managable companies, which are specialists at what they do. They will have to network with not only themselves but also with other specialists firms.

This may not be the death knell for the large firms, but it surely is a warning!

What makes 'Apple' succeed

2008-08-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

The question, 'Why Apple products are the benchmark that the industry keeps chasing?'; is one that many have tried to explain (I shall take my shot at it!). I think that there is just one thing that they do right and that is 'SEXING UP' their offering.

Now let us take the case of the iPod (since it is the most successful Apple product)...

The iPod is just a music/video player that can do a bunch of other things. Oh by the way, you cannot load music on it without iTunes and if you are on your friend's computer and the iTunes does not have all the songs that you have loaded onto your iPod already, it will pretty much delete everything on your iPod. Ok... moving on... It will not accept any video files other than mp4, so you have to convert all the videos prior to loading them onto the iPod. You also need to convert all audio files into mp3 files in order to load then onto the iPod. Oh, oh and it does not let you you take any song out of it either, just in case you wanted to transfer some songs onto your computer. All of these problems do not exist in any of the other mp3 players in the market but still they dont sell as much. So with all of these problems and shortcomings, how does a product zoom to become the hottest selling gadget in the world?

The secret behind Apple's success is rooted in the development of its products, in the same manner in which Warren Buffet invests.

According to Warren:

One must find a company that is undervalued or one where there is great potential to unlock value.
Once you have understood the company and have belief in the management, invest as much as possible in the company to ensure huge returns from the same

This is exactly the same policy that Apple pursues as far as its products are concerned. They introduced just one product called the iPod whose function was, simple and straight forward. They put all the technology and marketing effort behind that product. All their investment ran behind that one product and the concentrated effort resulted in their product being an instant success. The variants that were introduced later on were based on the needs that existed in the market and since that one single product, a brand and an aspiration for the same had been established; the variants (which were few) were easily established as well.

Even if we look at the iPhone...

They came out with just 2 models which differed primarily in terms of the storage capacity that they offered. They believed in the product that they had put together and they bundled all the features that they possibly could into that one product (making for a rich product offering) and provided all the might of their marketing to that one product, creating a huge buzz about the product despite all of its deficiencies (which they corrected in the 3G version).

The idea of diversification has been killing quite a few companies. The width of their product offering causes confusion in the minds of the consumer. Also, the offering made through their products as well as the marketing push is not focussed enough to cause the product to be a runaway success.

Does diversification always result in doom?

The Elusive Exclusivity

2008-07-30T23:56:00.001-07:00

When Vijay Mallya was sitting with Prestige to chalk out what they were going to build on the plot where the erstwhile UB bottling facility stood, I am sure that there were shining plans thanks to the central location and quantum of land available. They planned to build a landmark. Something that nobody could escape knowing about; with a luxury mall, 5-star hotel, service apartments, one of the most sought after office address in Bangalore; the UB City looked all set to become one of the most awesome landmarks in the city.

Then something went wrong...

To begin with they decided to ape the architecture of buildings from New York (The Empire State and the Chrysler Building). In this day and age to pick up on the architectural design of a building that was the benchmark of the 60's and copying just the design and leaving out the grandeur of the 100 story structure was where the possibility to market a winning story was lost. The designers never thought of the fact that this structure that was going to be a landmark in the city, had to compete with international benchmarks in order to capture the imagination of the citizens as well as the visitors of the city.

Half a century after the construction of the Empire State Building, tourism alone contributes a good deal to the buildings revenues, which is a result of the marketing and the recognition that the building has got over the years. They charge an average of $20 per person for the ride to the top of the building and get over 3 million visitors per annum and growing. Now there is a lot of money being made.

Ok they made one bad decision, let us not crucify them for it...

Then some years later the place opens up for business and the road outside the building is clogged. Wait its not just the traffic that is clogging it, there is an overflowing drain as well. To add to that they number of vehicles parked across the road really makes the road and more so the structure look ordinary and is a huge compromise on security.

There is little that needs to be done to improve the situation, but either the developers are not at all concerned, or they are not able to think up of a solution for the same.

Let us say...

Mr. Vijay Mallya will certainly not lack the political leverage to ensure that the traffic flow issues, drains, etc. on that road are taken care of and it gets done the way his marketing team says it should be. Some amount of effort needs to be put in, in order to make sure that the beautification of the road and the area around lives up to the luxury that the mall promises with all its big brands. Considering the 380 crores of investment made to construct the entire UB City, it would be a miniscule additional investment, but one that will make the development live up to the promises of exclusivity and luxury that it has made.

All that needs to be done is, in steps, they need to first of all resolve the issue of the open drain that is flowing like a river across the road. Ban parking of vehicles on the road, let them use the pay parking available at the back of the building or park elsewhere. Get the entire stretch of road re-laid in a better manner (instead of dropping mounds of mud when it rains heavily). Then the look of the entire road needs to be re-done, pavements, lamp post, et al. The idea is to give an exclusive feel to the entire area. For a road that bears the name of his father, it is not a huge ask. In the end it is not about the amount of cash and work that is put into the project, but the level of details that are taken care of, no matter how trivial it may seem.

Reflecting on what I read in one of Seth Godin's books; marketing is about creating a story, one that although not authentic, leads one to believe that it is; through the meticulous adherence to details and by using exclusive elements, designed to reflect the same. It is often trivial things, that complete the story.

The Great Indian Retail Business

2008-07-29T02:06:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of time India has been the land of the intermediaries. There are more people in this country who make money being the intermediary in a business than those who do by adding real value to a business.

What is the whining and howling that the modern retail stores killing the Mom and Pop stores all about? In the end through several surveys and studies, it has been clearly established that even at the current pace, the modern trade is going to only be having only 10% of the pie. Despite this the howling continues... Let me tell you its not the small stores that are creating the noise, but the intermediaries, the guys with the financial might who go to the press. The issue here is that the intermediaries make money due to the scale of their operations, and they have fewer people to serve in the event that a store such as Wal-Mart becomes a part of the Indian retail landscape, which means, much less turnover for them.

I say the Wal-Marts should become the new intermediaries. They have the economies of scale. If we take the case of the Indian farmers; a large retail company can cut a long term deal with the farmers for purchase and management of their produce which they pick up at an already agreed upon price. This relieves the farmer of a lot of worries, their produce is managed the right way, they are assured a sum for their produce and it also create greater efficiencies within the system (Less wastage of stock, Better pricing due to reduction of intermediaries, etc.). These efficiencies will then be further passed down the system.

If the general trade stores were to buy their requirement from these large retailers (sort of like the cash and carry businesses but on a much larger scale). This would in effect be the entire supply chain turned upside-down. The large retailers actually supplying to the smaller ones and making the entire system more efficient and beneficial to all parties involved.

The question raised would be - Wont these large retailers become monopolies? The answer is to open up the sector, let one and all participate and let us see who comes out the winner. What is the problem if someone is better that all the rest? If someone can monopolize despite the entire world of investors and businessmen knowing the idea, then so be it.

I am sure that this is not the course that India retail is going to take, but would it not be awesome if this sort of a solution could be worked out? If general trade store could be branded under a retail major, where each retail major competed with the other. It would finally be the customer at the top.

My Blog

2008-07-29T01:48:00.000-07:00

I have decided to dedicate this blog to the things that I feel are wrong with the way things work in this world. I feel on many occasions that there are several solutions available for the real world problems that plague us. Instead of chasing the easy solution that is available we go around doing all the wrong things, namely, sticking to erstwhile solutions that does not work in the given context.

Let us take this journey forward.