HR Openings for Lashkar-e-Tayiba

I am sure that there was an MBA behind this one ....
"Art of Recruitment: How to become a complete jihadi" Talk about professionalism in Terrorism

here are a few addendum i could think of as the Terrorism Pvt Ltd. grows :-
1) Annihilation Outsourcing : 24x7 service
2) SB Head-Hunters : We hunt heads which shall roll .... (literally) p.s: SB - Suicide Bomber
3) BombStone M&A : We shall give you a deal which you can't refuse (Ex: LeT takes over smaller players)
4) Kasab Lynch : We deal with instruments apart from derivatives/bonds
5) JIC (Jihad Insurance corporation) : It ain't Blackmail only insurance

But a final question that pops into my mind is, what is pak still hiding behind "no hard-core proof" ... couldn't these clearly point out the role of LeT in terrorism ??

Staturday Startup - Startup's during the economic slowdown

Schedule
* Date: December 13, 2008, Saturday
* Time: 3.00 - 6.00 pm
* Venue: DOME 1,S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Munshi Nagar, Dadabhai Road, Andheri(W) Mumbai - 400058. Map, SMS address to phone

Agenda
* 3.00 - 3.30: Librarywala demo by the Co-founder Hiten Turakhia
* 3.30 - 4.00: AdoRoi demo by founder & CEO Mitesh Thakkar
* 4:00 - 5.00: Panel discussion on "What should a start up do in a slowdown"
o Mahesh Murthy, Seedfund
o Hemir Doshi, IDG Ventures
o Rohit Nalwade, Ex-CEO of Consumervision
o Gopal Krishnan, Hanin Global. Ex Founder & CEO Mobile2Win
o Moderator: Aditya Mishra, Co-founder & Director, Headstart

A key take-aways of the session :-

Librarywala.com : if you haven't checked it out do see this online library model which charges you around 139 Rs for 3 books/month.

A few pointers for the panel discussion :-
Starting up a start-up during a recession would prepare you to survive for the rest of the good times.
Start-ups would be a good time to start up; cause anyways now people would be joining for Jobs rather than for money.
Guy Kawasaki's Rules for boot-starts in the time of recession.
Recession for start-ups is infact a Boom time :)

After the Crisis - Parody of Logos

Check this Link
for more of such newly arraigned companies

SPL - Spjain Premier League

All Good things they say finally come to an end... and so did the Mega-Cricketing bonanza of SPL (SPJain Premier League) conceptualized and implemented by the students (our lalit modi - Lokesh Daga) with 6 teams battling out in awesome knock-out matches with the girls also throwing their punches in the games .... It was something to watch out for the past 14 days (early morning sessions)Finally it was the Chennai superkings who battled out the finals with the Kolkatta knight riders (Click on the pic below to view)

To note, it was not just the fact that MBAers could also bat & bowl, but also the enthusiasm shown by everyone on the field that was really fun and memorable through-out the tournament.
It was innovation through-out as the gals were also given overs to bowl and bat called super-overs. A few of the gals even ended up as match winners in a few cases :)

Pics : Courtesy Srikanth Kulkarni

The parkinson's Law for an MBA

The Parkinson's law in IT states :

"Data expands to fill the space available for storage"

the corollary in the life of any Typical MBA would be stated as :

"Idleness expands until it fills all time available"

While most of the out-side world would have been fantasizing about an MBA doing multiple roles with his single hand; solving case studies, attending CEO guest lectures, working on strategic assignments (I love everytime i use the word strategy), preparing Business plans, growth road-map for companies which have long bitten the bankruptcy dust... here is a lil bit of truth from my a typical MBAer.

Unfortunately this is how it works for me :-

The Green Board - Uniquely SP

In the midst of every renowned institute of education lies a symbol unique not only architecture but of a nature so hallowed that it represents the entire livelihood of the institute, it becomes the life-line and even could be argued during momentary status of inebriation to represent the entire institution.

Harvard for example have their Steps :
(Photo source : flickr )
And here at SPJIMR we have the Green-Board
The ubiquitous communication channel.....which updates itself as frequently as every hour
The Harbinger of all ........ Surprise Quizzes
The instant marketing Board... for all the events that happen at SPJIMR
The notice board...issuing threatening messages to those who err their ways (or score below 2.4).
The flat-screen monitor for everything that happens here at SPJIMR.

Banking and the Marketing Paradox

SBI, the largest PSU bank has over 2,000 ATMs all over India. ICICI Bank has around 1,700 ATMs while HDFC bank has 830 ATMs.
ICICI introduces Mobile banking services including fund transfer.
Almost all banks currently support Internet/Phone Banking. Remember the branding efforts of Canara Bank.

The main reasons for the introduction of these extra channels of service for each of these banks would essentially include
1) Reducing Transaction Costs (Approx. Transaction in Branches : 5-10 $; Transaction in ATMS : 1-2 $; Transaction in Online : 0.5-1 $).
2) Enhancing Customer experience.
3) Competitive edge.
4) Scalability of operations.

So, what would be your reaction when an eminent banker says,
"The Banking sector is digging their own grave; if they continue expanding with only ATMs or Internet/Mobile banking "

Personally, I was a bit-shocked esp. being a hard-core addicted user of all the above additional services offered by my bank I was definitely trying to find the truth(or)fallacy in the above statement.

Back-tracking to understand the logic behind the statement let me bring across another lesser known fact in the banking sector ...
The Revenue potential for the Banking sector these days :-
a) Personal Loans : 30-40% (including Auto & Home loans)
b) Credit Card services : 10-15 %
c) Investment Banking : 15-20 %
d) Other services

As can be understood most of the revenue for the banks of today is not restricted to Loans and to realize the growth potential they need to advertise their newer services to their existing customers or to rope in newer customer base... But why aren't they able to do this ???

The ATMs/Mobile banking facilities has if-you-had-not-noticed successfully pushed the customer away from Branches; and in the case of banks such as ICICI banks have removed the necessity of having Brick & Mortar branches.
So banks not only lose the pulse of the customer but also invariably create a gap to market their services to their potential customers.. thus in the end restricting growth in the future.

Traditionally, my dad would go every week to the bank have a rapport with the manager see if there was any funds/services that the bank offered he could invest in.
Fast forward to my generation.. I hardly step outside the vicinities of my home, delete any sms-alerts of the bank, go across to ATMs only to perform dumb operations of withdrawing/checking balances... and an idle corpus lying in my savings account.

Have the Banks drunk the Nectar of technology pretty early without understanding the true benefits ?

The next imminent issue for the banking sector is to develop newer channels of marketing for their future. Any suggestions ??

Mobile Idly Shop at 12.00 PM - Uniquely SP

Being a hard-core Tamil, there are a few things that really distinguishes us :-
1) First day First show of RajniKanth
2) Getting excited over Asin's Debut with Ghajini
3) Slap-Stick comedy of Vadivelu
4) Drinks Mixed with old & gold Tamil Songs (engirrudhalum varzgha)

And finally IDLY-WADA (Sambar Dalkey)

So here is what a bunch of hungry tam guys @ SP Jain do to satiate their palate with a bunch of piping hot idlies tossed in fiery chilli chutney and pakka Filter-coffee


A truly Mobile shop which opens exactly at 12 PM near the signal outside the Boys hostel; this guys peddles everything from Gutkas, Cigars, Idlis and Filter-coffees.

70-70-70 Rule of Outsourcing

The world's most revered chief executive Jack Welch has introduced a new rule. It is called the 70:70:70 rule. Apparently, it has also been e-mailed to GE employees across the world. Welch has decided that 70% of GE's work will be outsourced. Out of this, 70% will be done from offshore development centers. And out of this, about 70% will have to be done here in India.

This ultimately boils down to about 30% of GE's work being outsourced to India.

A few moments before CAT

CAT- the final few steps

The time has arrived for which more than 2 Lakh students & professionals across India and abroad awaited and prepared. The time has arrived for one of the most hyped up objective choice examaniations – “the CAT”. Personally, this exam had consumed almost three years of my lifetime before I could finally conquer it; and may be this walk through the fire does grant me a few insights which I would like to share with everyone attempting CAT this year(or for that matter any year)

It is after all an EXAM, or IS IT ? Contrary to what all of those CAT-preparation institutes would have coaxed you to believe, CAT is after all a more advanced version of KBC(kaun banega crorepati) where it is not your GK-General Knowledge that matters but only requires the culmination of the trinity – Alertness, Speed and Accuracy. And unfortunately all the above three instincts would be affected if you get overwhelmed during the exam. Believe me, many people have lost CAT due to being over-whelmed rather than being un-prepared. Let your instincts guide you.

Conditioning the Mind – Every year, the pattern of the CAT does keep on changing but what does remain constant is the Time schedule and the duration of the exam. Being a smart person, we must realize that it is of prime-importance for us to keep our minds active during these exact moments of the exam. I myself had taken a week’s time off from office, and everyday during the timing of the CAT exam would attempt a Mock-CAT just to make sure that the activity cycle of my brain gets kicked at the right time.

Chocolate Anyone – Chocolates as I have found out would not only be able to stimulate people, rejuvenate harry potter after an death-eater attack but can really help out but acting as a combo of an energy bar and a relaxing agent. As I would say, a chocolate a exam keeps failures away.

Here’s wishing everyone to do their best for the exam of their lives and remember every year around 0.01% of India’s population attempt CAT, and only the top 10 percentile make it. This is an opportunity for all of us to surge forward and not get caught within the remaining 95 Percentile.

The Market Crunch

Well, I guess this post would seem to belabor the Financial Crisis.. but a few remarks in the lighter vein wouldn't harm anyone i suppose.

Recently a Software company awarded it's employees ICE-CREAM for continuing work with the company despite the Market Crash (Wow... the HR should seriously have been on drugs to think of such a brilliant retention-formula)

Another after-effect concerns the recent free issues of Wall Street Journal Newspaper(Dubbed as the Future Leadership program) to our college campus and to our Mail-boxes.
Check out the difference between these two pics
Before the Market Crash
After the Market Crash

(Thanks to Swapnil for this one)

And finally one another hilarious postings
Investment banking groom valuations fall in Wedding market
Hyderabad : The subprime crisis in the US has made its effects felt in India as well, this time in the highly lucrative weddings futures market in Andhra Pradesh. “An IIM passout at a US investment bank like Lehman Brothers was as good as it got, a few weeks back. But now parents of brides want to stay as far as possible from such profiles”, said Dr Rajan, an expert with over 20 years of experience in the matrimonial industry.

The first visible effects were noted in the online space yesterday with scores of investment banking profiles being “blocked” by women across matrimonial & social networking sites. Apparently the average “Be my friend” request index from 20 - 26 years old women to investment bankers have dropped from 24 to 2 in a period of three weeks. “As Indians, we have always been trained to think longterm”, said an unrepentant Sophia after deleting 6 investment bankers from her Friends list.

Mrs Narayani, head of the Old Wives & Aunts Network, the most powerful lobby working in this industry said that the offline impact will also be felt sooner than later. “As of today, we are downgrading Financial services, Investment banking & Outsourcing from ‘Marriage Material (MM)’ to ‘Ignore Politely (IP)’. But we stand committed to all deals that have been mutually agreed upon before Sep 15th, provided the groom can present evidence of fresh employment & adequate capital reserves”, she said.

Raj Malhotra, a Lehman Brothers investment banker who was holding out, hoping for a better valuation said “Maybe I should not have waited so long & should have accepted the buyout offer from the Mysore based girl”. Utopia has also learnt that a number of investment bankers have lowered their next quarter projections and are now ready to marry any girl who will let them.

It is also reported that the worst fears of any banker - the girl insisting on a sense of humour - might also come true as the market prepares itself for a long winter.


So.... what's next ??

Top 3 things that i learnt at Microsoft

Well, it has been three weeks of a roller-coaster ride at Microsoft for my internship and i guess, it is time to come up with the Top 3 list :-

1) Be independent but also keep in touch :-
As you might be wondering what was that philosophical rant ?? well, to begin with my internship with microsoft is with the Sales division (Well, technically Sales is not what i should be calling it.. but that shall be the topic of a different blog entry) and in sales there are only 2 things that really matter .... "Numbers" and "Numbers".. and esp. if it is quarter-end people are literally running after getting results.. So, this placed me in a unique situation of starting off a project without any proper project scope and guidelines.
So what would you do if you are in boat as me ??? well, instead of rowing furious in the opposite direction you first set your own goals and targets and communicate this with your mentors. This way, you would really be saving both yours and the mentors time (Which they really appreciate)

2) What's my PIE is YOURS as well :-
Well, i don't know if Sun Tzu would have written about this.. but i would prefer calling it as the stake-holder phenomenon. When i was setting up my various project goals, i also got the buy-in from the various team-members saying that for "this part" of the project i would be needing their help... forming liasions and more importantly making sure that my work would in-fact be helping these stake-holders.

3) Net-work-ing:-
I have always been viewing microsoft as a long term vehicle; more in terms of permanent employment after the internship; and with that in view i have started going around the organization with a Student tag and requesting ten mins from people across groups and finding out about their work and more importantly "what would i be assigned if i joined this part of the organization"... Word of caution : Utilize utter subtleness and formality

Adios from me for now.. shall be coming back to the same black-board to talk about other aspects of my MBA life ...

How to revive the American Economy ... LOL

Check it here to find out Marc Faber (Don't know who's this guy) comment on the ONLY way to solve America's Crisis :-

”The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China. If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer it will go to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany. If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I’ve been doing my part."’

Coming up a Post on the past 2 weeks at Microsoft .... (Mostly within the next 2 days)

Kaun Banega Crorepati ??

Well.. from the latest news it does seem "The National Consumer Commission".

As reported by the Hindu :

"New Delhi: The popular game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ was on Thursday adjudged unfair in certain aspects by the National Consumer Commission, which imposed a fine of Rs. 1 crore on broadcaster Star TV and the sponsor Airtel."

The irony of the situation is that the fine was an exact "1 Crore" ... That's seriously wicked.

How old are you ?

I am old enough to know that :
When people assign you a Job with a SMILE, you have more reasons to be wary about it.
And if they assign you a work with a FROWN, then you must take it happily.


Just some random quote which was reverberating in my mind.

First Day at Microsoft

I am as excited as a little kid's first time at DisneyLand.....

Got my Autums internship offer from my Dream company a.k.a Microsoft, and after the initial excitement died down, here i am getting my next set of nicotine boost right at their bangalore signature building(Embassy Golf link).
Here for the next 2 months working with their SMB and partner development program (Not only did i get my dream company but also my dream project... how lucky can i get) ^-^ .

Now lets get talking about this Microsoft heaven workplace....
The entire building reeks of microsoft's trademark :-
(a) Passion for Microsoft
(b) Passion for Technology
At every nook and corner you find one of those really cool Microsoft Banners and advertisements; and almost everything is tagged with M$ ranging from Paper Cups till Ceramic Plates.

As far as technology is concerned, you have devices you only imagined... for example the conferance room is equipped with a funky piece of H/w which has cameras mounted giving a 360 degree view of the entire room and as soon as it hears a voice it can zoom in on the particular person.... ULTIMATE technology; and just going around couple of floors there are seriously sci-fi objects whom i can't distinguish if they are there for Interior deco or actually serving some cool technical purpose.

All i can say right now is "I am Loving it"

Just to give a small overview of what's gonna happen :-
Day 1 : Arrive at campus, Get a Lappie (Yipee) just for the 2 months period
Day n/2 : An interim review along with getting to know across the various divisions of Microsoft.
Day n : Our pockets jingling with the internship salary :)
I really don't know if we can ask for any more ( a la oliver twist)

Commodization of Luxuries...

Picture these News Items :-

a) Volkswagen Beetle set to roll out in India
b) India Among L'oreal Top 5 Markets
c) DLF setting up India's first LUXURY MALL DLF LUXURIO
d) LG launches their 43K worth TVs Scarlett TV

Modern India has show-cased that it has an appetite not only for low-cost deccans , discount offering Big Bazaars or forward thinking Tata Nanos but also for upmarket luxury products. Just as a note the luxury retail market, which is currently in a nascent stage, is estimated at Rs 2,000 crore and expected to grow at 20-30 per cent in the next five years in India.

Under the deluge of such luxury items hitting the Indian Market, one must ponder “HOW WOULD THE MARKET RESEARCH for these products be done to inspire all of these companies to enter via the silk-route to India?”

As an MBA graduate I would be prompted to jargonize that the Market research would drive to provide a detailed report analyzing trends on the market, major and niche distribution channels description, detailed profiles of major marketers including their financial data, product analysis as well as an outlook of market development in the next 5 years.
But as of the moment let us just hold the reins…..

The existential question we must address first "Is Market research truly the HOLY GRAIL, which shall guarantee the success/failure of products??"
I guess there is a lot to learn from the COKE CLASSIC Example about the caveats of taking Market research analysis on the FACE VALUE.

In order to present some fresh perspective on this issue, let me first bring to your notice a glaring change in the Marketing promotions of these luxury products:
These products are currently marketed out in the traditional open market (T.V Commercials, Radio & newspaper Adverts) rather than be restricted to couple of Life-style Magazines or jazzy club-house shows as in the yesteryear days.

This change not only means that the Armanis are viewing the wider audience apart from the rajas and maharanis of India, and for that effect these same luxury products are currently being marketed similar to Tooth-pastes and shampoos. Hence the reasoning of “COMMODIZATION OF LUXURY PRODUCTS”

So what are the exact reasoning behind this trend, apart from successful market research reports which would have suggested the Armanis & Hillfigers to follow the toothpaste way ?

Here are the top 2 points that would make a sizable dent :-

1) Widening Wallet size (or reducing economic disparity): Companies have realized that a massive population, or a higher GDP alone would not suffice for the success of any product but what really would matter would be the PCI (Per capita income factor) and similar to the demographic advantage that India has (i.e 60% of our population consists of people in the age group of 20-30) the average Indian has risen from a middle class to the social nomenclature of a upper-middle class.
The 2007 Asia Pacific Wealth Report, released by Merrill Lynch and CapGemini, says India has recorded the world’s second fastest growth in the number of high net-worth individuals (HNIs) at 20.5 per cent, making it a lucrative luxury market. The likes of Armani, Versace, Cartier, Marks & Spencer, Salvatore Ferragamo, Canali, Mont Blanc, Lladro and Tommy Hilfiger have made inroads into India.

2) Consumerism as a core value: Someone rightly said, “Luxury is not a product but an emotion”Rising from the austere money-saving thrifts, Indians have indeed graduated to develop the consumerism-savvy profligate attitude. One of the chief motivator was that these objects have been presented not only as status symbols but rather as also as an investment option (This ideology can be seen as a fore-front during the massive realty boom in India).
This rise in consumerism can be reflected in the Aspiration level index being very high and 48% Indians aspire (ref: Nielsen survey)

With these two prevalent factors, the Armanis and the Hillfigers of the world indeed view this multi-casting of their products across the entire Indian diaspora as a win-win situation so that even if they are not able to sell their products right now, at least they can create the notion of a status symbol across the Indian mindset and exhort them to during their frivolous moments.

*********An update for this post***********
After a few comments from my friends, i must mention that i am not playing down the role of Market Research, in fact one of my earlier posts indeed do glorify their impact.
My sole purpose of this post was to provide top two reasons "WHY would the Market research for Luxury products showcase India as an enticing market" and also to bring to light the new Marketing approach for Luxury products(Commodization) and the benefits of the same.

Value for Money

Imagine you are an Alien; all alone on a planet you cannot communicate with anyone ... now the question is "How to identify the economic status of this place?"

I am using the term economic status rather than technological, psychokinetic nor humanistic pedestals since these other fields of advancement may not be perceived so easily

Coming back to the topic of discussion... this was one of my observation during my ill-fated trip to Uganda; here i was handling Lakhs of Shillings just to buy a basic telephone card (converted around 30 Rs); and just as i was handling down the cash i suddenly felt a huge guilt of being spend-thrift (though i was well-aware of the exact value).

Now the situation of most of these african nations could have been explained by any economist as the ultimate mis-fit between inflation, unemployment and political mis-management. Just to prove a point, Zimbabwe has a inflation rate of 35,00,000% and here we are in India troubling the entire population of rag-pickers and heavy duty industrialists when the speed-o-meter touches the unimaginable 12%.

But for an alien, we cannot obviously explain with our complex models of economic indices but rather with a simpler concept of "Value for money"... so would be my explanation that any country where they really value their smallest denomination would be the one which is the most advanced economically, socially and even technologically.

I know that putting into simpler terms does offset the aura that the economists have pain-stakingly developed, but of course you always have DILBERT to prove your point.

Another Presentation which i came across explaning the situation in all of these African countries.

Do you need a Branch to become a Bank ?? ( service delivery pyramid )

We don’t need Banks but only Banking Services

But the hell, how can you prepare the Magic Formula without the secret ingredient ???
This was a statement made by one of the KPMG consultants during our conversation and seriously I never knew that a single sentence could flame of an entire philosophy of service-delivery pyramid (maybe I must be copyright this keyword).

Picture this modern day paradox; “you walk into an empty Icici branch office walking past an adjacent ATM which is brimming with more people than the money it can disburse”; and then you wonder what happened to the age-old-mahabharatha days tellers within these bank terminals?

Notice carefully, and you find that there are more number of seats for relationship managers (a.k.a colgate smiley MBA grads) rather than those paleontologic meshed/barbed counters.

To understand this transformation let me present an analogy with something i am really good with - FOOD. Modern-day banks(a.k.a retail banks) have structured their service operations similar to a fast-food restaurants. Banks are only meant to buy coupons i.e open accounts, get expertise on their services and take loans but ultimately you have to get your own food i.e activities such as daily transactions, money transactions, bill-payment, etc would be done at your own leisure either at ATMs or Internet Banking facilities.

To further understand this transformation(Process) of these retail banks, we must first classify the entire set of services and then look at their delivery models... hence constructing what i shall term for the current moment as "SERVICE-DELIVERY PYRAMID" (c)

 

How to Draw your own Service-delivery pyramid :-
As you can notice, first we organize all of the services offered by the bank based upon the frequency of operations (higher frequency means it figures down the pyramid and vice-versa) and see the Value offered by these services. Obviously HNIs (High Networth Individuals) would contribute to a large margin of funds while daily operations such as money transfer for retail customers though would be costly for the bank would be provided for free.

Strategic decision making based upon the SDP :-
Based upon the output you get, now you decide on the Delivery stream-lining you would want to undertake; as as in the case of retail banks they decided to reduce the cost for these high-frequency but no-value services making them being done offline across ATMs and i-bankings.

On a note about this strategic model, we can also label the services being offered by any vertical (banking, telecom, OnG, etc) in any desired logic(a few examples)

1) Frequency of operations
2) Degree of Automation possible
3) Value (Cost/profit) of the services
4) Business Impact of the services.


Hence we can observe how the movement of brick and mortar settings of these banks into click and mortar have enabled their operations into the next innovative phase. As you could now observe by other trends also, how banks such as ICICI and HSBC refer to innovations as process-innovations and not merely product changes.

Of course, talking about secret ingredients and magic formulaes; here is another googly by the business world

If ever you thought it were not possible to provide service without owning any infrastructure, then THINK AGAIN... esp; when it is a player who's a virgin

A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a company that provides mobile phone service but does not have its own licensed frequency allocation of radio spectrum, nor does it necessarily have all of the infrastructure required to provide mobile telephone service.

This news of even more relevant in the prime-time with TRAIs (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) nod for MVNO operators in India.

If there is something to become inspired of...

If there is something to get really inspired of .....
Then here is my top 5 :-
1) Randy Pausch's "The Last lecture" on really achieving your childhood dreams


2) Warren Buffet on MBA (part 1-6) .. courtesy youtube


3) Guy Kawasaki 10-20-30 Presentation Rule


4) Guy Kawasaki in Stanford Alumni meet (Rules for revolutionaries)

5) The Inimitable Richard Feynman

Via: Video Blog



I don't know if the links shall play.. but they are more of a direction

Spread them ...

Twitter and Business Bollywood ....

Here is my Eureka Moment !!!
Here i was trying to tweak the usage of Twitter (The latest online messenger tool) and just across couple of seats were my colleagues getting their hots on the latest Bollywood tits and bits.

"EUREKA!!!"

Combine the two and you have a latest Bollywood News web-site which gets you the sensational Twitter News....


News : "Rakhi Sawant to join the Bacchans in the Unforgettable Tour"
Twitter News : "Rakhi Sawant dance with Abhishek bacchan", "Rakhi to replace Aishwarya and dance with Abhishek", "Rakhi's sensational dance and kiss rock the community","Rakhi announced as the next hot sensation across the AB tour","Ticket sales increase","WHERE IS AISH??","The Triangular Love Story... latest developments in the Rak-Abhi-Aish episode".

Going by the logical analysis :-

what sells better than news ?
Latest News ...
What sells better than Latest News ?
Sensational News...
What sells better than Sensational News ?
TWITTER NEWS...



and finally
What sells better than TWITTER NEWS ?
Rakhi Sawanth on Twitter News obviously :)

And if you that I am NUTS... well think again after reading about VODKA PANIPURI

I am Addicted (The story of a quintessential GReader)

Wow Wow Wow....
Is there anything that can absolutely make me spend almost 5 hours online; and still not make me feel guilty about senseless waste of time (of course, Intellectually speaking else orkut, yahoo games and dilbert are a few of my sweet vices)

I have been badgering all my other intellectually driven colleagues to share their feeds (mostly at Gun-point though) and finally manage to compile a decent enough list to further my knowledge mine.

And of course as a dedicated user of Open Source services, here i am listing across my LIST (in case there occurs any liability if i don't share the list)
DEEPAK's GREADER LIST

Call for better Feeds / Offline Feed Readers

Do you have a Business to Interest Mr.Berkshire hathway a.k.a Warren Buffet

The more that i read about business legends, the more i am amazed by their ability to put their entire business approach into simpler words (that even morons like me can appreciate).... It is so-unlike the earlier quotes which i always hear, "The Higher Up the Ladder, the Bigger the Shit"

Warren Buffet, a legend beyond compare purely for his strict investing principles (frugal as the man himself).

Just to get a dose of this legend do read "The Chairman's letter - 1994" don't know if he still writes much to the share-holders but this is a true gem for investment advices.

And of course, coming back to the title of the Post... if you really have a business plan that interests Mr.Buffet here are the criteria (So succinct yet so filled-with knowledge)

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
ACQUISITION CRITERIA

We are eager to hear from principals or their representatives about businesses that meet all of the following criteria:

1. Large purchases (at least $50 million of before-tax earnings),
   
2. Demonstrated consistent earning power (future projections are of no interest to us, nor are "turnaround" situations),
   
3. Businesses earning good returns on equity while employing little or no debt,
   
4. Management in place (we can't supply it),
   
5. Simple businesses (if there's lots of technology, we won't understand it),
   
6. An offering price (we don't want to waste our time or that of the seller by talking, even preliminarily, about a transaction when price is unknown).

The larger the company, the greater will be our interest: We would like to make an acquisition in the $5-20 billion range. We are not interested, however, in receiving suggestions about purchases we might make in the general stock market.

We will not engage in unfriendly takeovers. We can promise complete confidentiality and a very fast answer -- customarily within five minutes -- as to whether we're interested. We prefer to buy for cash, but will consider issuing stock when we receive as much in intrinsic business value as we give.

Charlie and I frequently get approached about acquisitions that don't come close to meeting our tests: We've found that if you advertise an interest in buying collies, a lot of people will call hoping to sell you their cocker spaniels. A line from a country song expresses our feeling about new ventures, turnarounds, or auction-like sales: "When the phone don't ring, you'll know it's me."

* Source : http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/1999ar/acq.html

Book-a-thon ( 1 week & 4 Gems of Books)

Well, i can definitely come up with lot of "Struck in an elevator without electricity" excuses for not blogging for a while. But unfortunately we have three things
a) I am no TOM Hanks (b) I don't need to impress upon anyone and (c) i already have a much better answer for that...





1 Week, 4 Books .... that must be a true tribute for all the above gems; or an indirect reference to those lectures which were boring enough for me to give full-force concentration to the above value-add books.

Now immersed in yet another riveting book, for the modern day Indian..
Clue 1) This book talks about how as Indians we are Privately Smart and Collectively Dumb.
Clue 2) This book uses Game theory (yeah the "beautiful mind" Nash guy's theories) to explain to us about the Indian Mindset.

IBM & SPJIMR Launches their Center for Services Managment Engineering

What is SSME?

Service Science or Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) is a growing multi-disciplinary research and academic effort that integrates aspects of established fields like computer science, operations research, engineering, management sciences, business strategy, social and cognitive sciences, and legal sciences.
Global markets are increasingly service-based economies. Employment growth will be concentrated in the service-providing sectors of the global economy. Service innovation is needed to maintain profits.

Couple of news articles for this amazing venture :-
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/IBM_India_ties_up_with_S_P_Jain_Institute/articleshow/3241973.cms

http://www.networkcomputing.in/HomeJune22-07IBMPartnersifNIDSPJIMRandNIMtoDevelopSSMECurriculum.aspx

Games Numbers Play !! ( 80-20 Pareto Principal)

One of my articles for a HCL Magazine.... feel free to send me your comments .

Games Numbers Play !!

Mathematicians have their pie (π=3.17) and eat it too; while physicists just can’t stop raving about their g-force (‘g’-gravitational acceleration=9.78 m/s²) and chemists can only see things as a consortium of Avogadro Numbers (6.023 x 10²³); it is but unfortunate that poor management gurus are deprived of their own Justice League of Super-Numbers.

But fear not denizens of the management world for hope is just around the corner.

The heroes of the hour are none other than our next-door-neighborhood numericals 80-20; donning secret identities they might appear civil and dutiful in the broad-daylight while meta-morphing into ubiquitous and all-powerful magical beings when the situation demands.

Just as any good adventure movie begins with the first freak bio-chemical reaction; let’s get into flash-back mode to understand the tremendous implications of the 80-20 principle on the management universe.

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto eureka’d his way into glory by remarking, “20% of the people in Italy own around 80% of the wealth”; little realizing how his statement on income-disparity would later on spark into a global phenomenon ignited by brilliant management thinkers of the likes of Joseph.M.Juran (Father of Quality) who expanded the Pareto Principle to a more profound level, “80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes”.

Though Juran’s statement might have called for lack of clarity; it actually snow-balled into an universal law termed as “law of the vital few” or “The principle of factor sparsity”

A few examples of how relevant the 80-20 principle is in the current day scenario…

Bill Gates: “The Typical company has made 80 percent of the investment in the technology that can give it a healthy flow of information yet is typically getting only 20 percent of benefits that are now possible” in his book Business @ speed of thought.

Ethan M Rasiel in his book “The McKinsey Way” dedicates an entire chapter to the 80-20 principle as one of those universal tools applied in McKinsey.

In fact right through my experiences as a software engineer, I have been exposed to a techie-version of the Pareto principle, namely “80% of the Software Bugs are caused by 20% of the Code”

Allow me to demonstrate the profound impact that the 80-20 principle has had on the lives of countless management graduates :-

· Group-Works : 80% of the work in any group-assignment would be done by 20% of the groupies.

· Time to Study : It is always the last 20% of the time that really counts to understand 80% of the facts. As calvin says, “Panic is the mother of all understanding”

· Examination Answers : 20% Stuff and 80% Gyaan/Gas.

Finally the most important lesson into any M-grad’s life :

· Corporate Presentation : 80% Style and 20% Content.

The Global Nokia Event

Just as a epilogue of my previous post ; here were all of us bunking classes going out to The Taj Mahal Hotel representing SPJIMR (Wee.... fun ...) attending a session with the Nokia Global CEO.

The entire event from the word "go" was handled with amazing professional precision, right from timing, invitations, et all all the more since it will be a televised event (6th July NDTV PROFIT's Gadget guru)

The entire show was divided into 3 phases; initially the anchor Rajeev Chandra invites both the Nokia India VP Mr. D.Shivkumar and Nokia Global CEO Mr.OPK (both really dynamic people) and has a initial round of Q&A.

Phase II, when the ground is open for questions from the nominated B-school Grads. Rahul immediately got into action, and asked his first question about "Nokia's SYMBIAN strategy"; and then Sachin mentioned about the Import of cheaper chinese mobiles affecting the existing nokia market. Questions came and went, each of them caressing the shores.

Phase III, now this was a surprise part.. when the CEO actually asks us about what we should expect in the next range of Nokia hand-sets; luckily i got a chance to air my views about how mobile handsets are becoming more of an extension of one-self; more like alter-egos of each persons.. and so apart from really cool applications i would really be interested in next-gen security(like biometrics), more-so-the-reason since with the advent of m-commerce.

Finally, as the closing remarks both the CEOs were asked for their take-a-ways from the show and to my shock both the Indian CEO and the global CEO mentioned my points .... leading to the anchor pointing out to me and remarking that i should send my CV immediately ;)

Date with Nokia GLOBAL CEO Mr. OPK NDTV's Gadget Guru

Just the other day, i was rambling on to my poor roomie about the absolute lack of anything interesting happening in the second year; and seems that the guy on the Top floor did listen....

Been selected among 8 students representing our college on a date with the Global CEO of Nokia Mr.Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo a.k.a Mr.OPK


And of course, the best part is that our interaction would be aired on NDTV Profit's Gadget Guru

Ohhh.. venue ... THE TAJ MAHAL Hotel (The one opposite the Gateway of India)

The Lucky few.. Ladies and Gentlemen :)

The Year that it was .... '07-08

This June 18, 2008 we have officially completed one entire year at SPJIMR ;) the entire journey so far has been wonderfully encapsulated by my colleague Krishna Danda

June 18, 2007: Registration (Officially we became PGP 1)

June 22, 2007: Foundation Begins

June 27, 2007: First Quiz at SP

June 29, 2007: First Paper Distribution session

July 3, 2007: First Feedback session

July 10, 2007: First ADMAP session

July 11, 2007: Freshers

Week 4 at SP: 5 quizzes

July 18, 2007: Committee Formation

July 22 – 25: PG Lab

July 27, 2007: Trim 1 Begins

August 5, 2007: First ADMAP Movie: Wall Street

August 22-23: Autumns for PGP 2

September 4, 2007: First Mid Term test

September 11, 2007: Nadira Babbar’s play

September 12, 2007: Chak De

September 16, 2007: First Introduction lecture to ADMAP Project

October 5: Trim end BISTRO Party

October 5, 2007: Trim 2 Begins

October 8, 2007: First mail from Sunita with Grades (Foundation)

October 8, 2007: Dance Inc. declared open to the batch

October 10: Sportscom organises Yoga sessions (Record break as to how long it lasted)

October 15 -18: Anandvan

October 11: Infracom gets our eyes checked for free

October 12: Do away with paper; First Online Feedback - Academic

October 21: Crecer capital declared open to the batch

October 23: Inauguration of open amphi; Anisha, Diksha and Jo dance

October 25: Dandiya Night

October 29 -30: Sangraha; Book exhibition

November 1 -15: Diwali Vacation

November 18: SD sends a mail with subject “Kweezzes…”

November 20: Business cards given by PRCom

November 28: HSBC CSR Seminar

December 2: Sprintzone by PR Com

December 13: Batch snap taken for brocure

December 15: SPANDAN

December 20: TBLA

December 20: PGP1 defeats PGP 2 in Cricket match

December 23: Marketing Meet (Remember this one !!!!)

December 25: PGP 1 celebrates Christmas in Bistro

January 4, 2008: Trim 3 Begins

January 4: Leadership Seminar

January 11: GASP Promo released in the auditorium

January 12, 2008: Khoj

January 19, 2008: LST

January 20, 2008: GASP

January 26-27: SPrint

February 2: VINIMAY

February 9: SMEC

February 14: Uddayam

February 18: Eshaas

February 29: Union Budget in Audi

March 1: BhavITva

March 8: Acadcom sends first SMS alert

March 18-20: Comprees

March 20: Farewell to PGP 2

March 21: Holi celebration

March 22 – May 12: DOCC & Vacation

April 8: Boom Shankar performs at HRC

April 30: Graduation Ceremony, PGP2

May 13: Trim 4 Begins; We become PGP2

June 4: Boom Shankar at Not Just Jazz by the way

June 18 2008: PGDM 2007 -2009 turns a year old; Birthday BASH all night long

All this along with Eco Ganesha, Dance Inc, Musig, Radio, GASP, Cresendo, freshers –farewell, 20-20 in audi, birthday celebrations, BH parties, GH parties, Bistro parties, KT sessions, GOG, PGP 1 production songs and videos, multicasts, group works, committee works, guest lectures, workshops, Special sessions by the CAs, making videos, writing testimonial, DC++ we seem to have done it all….

As a batch we have travelled the year with Trouble and adversities 100%; Fun 150%.

Hip hip hurray to this batch that doesn’t believe in majority but instead achieves 100% Consensus on any decision.

The batch that can create new traditions at SP; the batch that can challenge the history of SP and make it a better place.

Wonder what we will do in the next 1 year????

Have you NENed...

i guess this post is quite out-dated.
NeN short for National Entrepreneurship Network

Founded and supported by the Wadhwani Foundation and its institutional co-founders are IIT Bombay, IIM Ahmedabad, BITS Pilani, IBAB Bangalore and SP Jain Institute, Mumbai. It connects new and future entrepreneurs; small business owners who wish to grow their companies and students to a full range of resources to help them achieve entrepreneurial success. The resources include networking events, workshops, courses and mentoring. NEN’s advisory board offers it active support and includes some of the most respected names in different fields.

Being one of the founding members has definitely given us key links within this organization, and mostly exploited by us whenever we need to organize any Guest Lectures/panel discussions with Entrepreneurs/Venture Capitalists... such as the International event Lock Stock & Trade, and the E-BOOST Series; but what i really wanted to stress upon was the amazing amount of information which has been accumulated since yester-year in their website www.nenonline.org

One of my favorite Clicks would be their "Weekly Startup profiles"

Of course, you could also check another Networking Forum, TIE

All Hail Entrepreneurship