Coffee day is expensive

Coffee day has revised its pricelist since last month. One of my alltime favourite 'Cappuccino' that was priced Rs. 30 now costs Rs. 45. Its a 50% jump straight. I think its either planning an IPO (to show good balance sheet) or the costs have gone up really high. If we say, costs have gone up high, milk did not really go up so much in the past one year. Fuel prices have come down, the number of people visiting coffee day did not go down, the staff remained same, rentals would have been agreed upon before and one could expect a rise of about 10% max in a year. Salaries would have gone up by 15% more. Total expenses would not have rised more than 15 to 20% considering the above facts. And finally coffee prices. Weighted average prices of coffee in the last three years did not change much. I understand there are fluctuations, but as I said overall in a year not much of change (google on coffee prices). But a straight 50% rise is a surprising move. I would be consuming less coffee there.

Are you over-achiever?

Picked up this from smbconsultinginc.com.

10 Dynamic traits of over-achiever

Are you a successful over-achiever? Considerable research has been done about the characteristics that typify the successful business owner. Most experts who have studied the subject tend to agree that the most important single factor is an overpowering need to achieve. In other words, a person's attitude seems to be the main determinant of success in business, more so than education, intelligence, physical attributes, or having a pleasing personality. The key characteristics that have been found to be part of the makeup of all successful over-achievers are:

1. Powerful need to achieve -- which should not be confused with a mere need to exercise power or be liked or admired; the way in which different entrepreneurs "keep score" in assessing their level of achievement varies, and may range from accumulating great wealth to creating a better mouse trap;

2. Perseverance -- the characteristic trait of following through on commitments and not abandoning objectives when difficulties are encountered;

3. Positive mental attitude -- the self-confidence in one's abilities that allows a person to remain optimistic in new, unfamiliar and unexpectedly difficult situations;

4. Objectivity -- an ability to accurately assess the risks associated with a particular course of action, including a realistic understanding of one's own capabilities and limitations. This includes being willing and able to abandon an ill-advised project without having ones' ego get in the way.

5. Foresight -- the ability to anticipate developments and be proactive, rather than constantly having to react to problems after they arise;

6. Well-developed personal relations skills -- being cheerful and cooperative and able to easily get along with people, but often without being close to employees and associates;

7. Strong communication skills -- the ability to communicate well in written form and in making effective oral presentations, either one-on-one or before groups;

8. Resourcefulness -- an ability to solve one-of-a-kind problems in unique or creative ways, including the ability to handle problems for which you might not have had previous training or experience to call upon;

9. Technical knowledge -- broad and well-rounded technical knowledge and understanding, especially with regard to the nuts-and-bolts physical processes of producing goods and services

10. A respectful attitude towards money -- a tendency not to look upon it as an end in itself, but to view it as a means of making things happen and accomplishing business goals, or as a type of objective feedback from the outside world, which lets the entrepreneur know if is on the right track with the business.

So, there you have it...10 successful business traits. If you see yourself in this list, then we will be seeing you at the top!

Be your own life coach

I was reading this nice article in RD March edition by Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and author of Never Eat Alone. He emphasizes on the following four aspects that sound quite logical.

Focus: Identify your needs first. Form a focus. Many times it is not easy for us to answer this simple question 'What do I want to do?'. But its not that difficult too. Its a matter of focus. Dont let others define your success. Once you know what you want, just follow the next three steps.

Diagnose: You need to identify what is the behaviour that stops you from moving forward in achieving these goals. Identifying weakness is as important as knowing strengths. The good behaviour and the bad one work in opposite directions to prevent moving forward. For example, I was raised in an environment where I was told to respect elders, do not question them and give them what they want. Unfortunately I observed that I carry the same with me in my professional life where I seldom question my manager in the fear of sounding too argumentative and also in fear of making my boss feel uncomfortable with me. But when I found such a problem with me, I consulted my friends and got an advice that I need to handle the conversation in a professional way. Put all the information in black and white and let him know what I want, instead of work towards what he wants me to be.

Share: Help others to let them help you. Let others know what you have in mind. Be open to receive feedback. If somebody is giving you a 'gift' saying your behaviour is not good or certain aspect of you is not good and few more people share same feeling, certainly there is some change needed in you. A good behaviour is always respected and makes you feel good. Someone would not bother to give their opinion on your behaviour if you are going to contradict everytime you receive some feedback. Perhaps the best people who would know your weakness are your friends, colleagues, or your spouse. If you receive some negative feedback, seek clarifications if you dont understand. Ask more like 'Could that person give more examples', or 'What exactly do you mean by that?', 'What came to your mind when I was doing this?'. You could work it out by forming a group of trusted advisors to you and let them know that you give importance to their advice. 

Milestones: You cant manage what you cant measure. Once you got the focus, you need to see if you are going in the right direction. Periodic checks always help. It is possible that the contents of checkpoint change. For example if your focus is weight management, check everyweek changes in the weight. Once you got the weight into control, perhaps next checkpoint would be to see if the waist is reducing.

Guru - the movie

Watched this movie two weeks ago. I thought of writing this blog because of one reason - many people told me that its an inspiring movie and gives some boost to start a business. I am not sure if this movie is such a booster. So I want to focus on two aspects in the movie in that direction and I welcome your comments.

First one: Starting Business - As Mani Ratnam portrayed in the movie, 'the passion todo business' makes the 'hero' to make 'life turning' decisions. It makes him think, makes him not to think, makes him goto extremes, makes him take the power into hand when required: I mean... the essential leadership qualities are displayed. These qualities come from the 'passion'. The true passion to be someone, to do things differently, to dream and then to follow that dream. Well, the point here I am trying to make is... its the passion that makes the difference, not some movie or someone's life story.

Second one: Sustaining the business in ethical way. In other words doing the business in true spirit and with ethics. Zero means zero. However tough it may be... how many years it may be. This is one thing I wish everybody takes from this movie. And the director has nicely put it in the role of chief editor 'The Independence' newspaper. In my opinion its a real tough job to stand for what you believe in life and carry on with it. If such an ethical business is practised we would not hear any Harshad Mehta or Enron stories.

Technorati tags: Movie review

What does companies like Infosys do?

Thats a good question. A friend asked me. What is the difference between a product company and services company (in other words, a services department in a product company and services company). How could companies like Infosys deliver so much so fast for so less. I gave the following answer. They have processes so much established that a newbie becomes productive in less than three months, where as it takes upto 6 months to be productive in a product company. Definitely he did not buy the idea of process. Of course, then I started thinking and started writing this blog.

Priorities

Define who are the customers. In a product company the customers could mostly be either internal or sales force. Sales force would (perhaps) promise heaven and earth to customer and sometimes customer is willing to wait (till end of the year or till the current contract comes to expiry). Revenues would be realized as per the contract and may not be so much dependent on 'all' promised deliverables. But in a pure offshore services company majority of the projects are handled in Time & Material way. Which means one could bill only to the amount of 'actual work'. This means a clear visibie signs of functionality to customer. Customer would not pay unless things are moving. Situations like this forces offshore companies to really deliver something with time. But product companies which get the pressure only towards the deadline do not see any motivation to deliver.

 More on the way...

Technorati tags: Business, Technology, Outsourcing

K@W: Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Just came across this article and found quite interesting.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1623&CFID=2567255&CFTOKEN=90452463

Following are the takeaways for me.

• Entrepreneurs not only take risk, but also manage it well.
• There are no special qualities they posses. Its the drive and passion to take on makes them one.
• Check out how much you got to lose if you start something on your own. Its better to have as low liabilities as possible.
• Follow the KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid principle. No fancy GUI without value addition.

How to be a good manager.

Or atleast I try to write how to be a manager or on the second thought i think it is just enough to write how to be a human being. Let me write some of my observations that would tell budding managers on how not to behave.

1. Privileged Person: Being a manager does not mean that you belong to a privileged lot of human beings. Only from 8 to 5 at work somebody is a Manager. After that he/she is just 'somebody'. You cant take extra luggage on plane without paying extra, you cant upgrade to business class without being a frequent flyer, you cant just do things which you are not allowed to or can not do!!

2. I am GOD: PLEASE for GOD's sake, leave the notion that a manager is God. A manager is after all a human being (atleast should try to live like a human being, if the manager is appointed from the Homosapien species). A manager does not necessarily have to have the knowledge of everything in the world. Other people in the society know about it. One does have to say that Operas come from France and Italians make Champagne. One does not have to say, I do not work for money. One does not have to break all speed limits (one does not get lucky always). One does not start to speak a foreign language without learning it.

3. Manager Attitude: First of all by virtue of your name and location where you sit, everybody around you at workplace knows that you are a manager. This is enough to kill opponent's energy by 50%. You still do not have to kill the rest by wearing 'Manager Attitude' hat and moving around. Stop doing that. Stop telling people that your laptop was used by somebody next to Board member and now it is possessed with super powers. Stop compelling people that they need to invent super duper figures and presentations in two shakes of a lamb tail because somebody next to board member asked. Stop telling people that you are flying on a work day and you can send emails while flying. Stop telling people in meetings that you are attending the meeting not to understand the contents but to tell at the end that you are a manager and you just want to grace the meeting with your presence.

4. Accept Ground Realities: Everybody who is employed at work place are productive in their own way. Infact a manager is the one who is not as productive as the employee. There are ways how a manager could be productive. you could contact me to find that out. But a manager should never become a hindrance to productivity. One must not carry the tag that says I am the manager, I work the most, I produce the most!! This is a wrong notion. As I said earlier a manager by himself does not produce anything. Its like Government. A government organization can not survive if there are no people paying taxes or no people at all. Without a team a team manager is nothing. One has to realize that. A manager has to respect the team members and also people outside his team. Who knows, may be one day the manager has to work for the team member.

5. Move with Makeup: This is one thing I always suggest wannabe managers to be aware of. If you think you are moving with a make up, remove that make up. Everybody around you knows how a damn fool you are with the make up. Everybody around you knows everything. you are the one who is ignorant.

6. Managers make mistakes: Its alright. Nobody is perfect. If you are a manager, if you commit a mistake there is no problem in admitting it. nobody takes you off your position. You dont get dis-respected suddenly. So, dare to commit mistakes and dare to admit them.

Standard Disclaimer: All characters & information posted are purely my personal opinions and any resemblance to dead or alive is purely coincidental.

MTR Ready to Eat

When MTR Foods introduced their ready to eat stuff, there was an interview with the CEO of the Company. He shared one vision "MTR wants to be McDonalds of South India". In my opinion they are heading towards the right direction.

I happened to buy 6 of their ready to eat packs on Sunday, tasking one by one. So far I finished Tamarind Rice, Sambar Rice and Vegetable Pulao. Ofcourse, in the past I also tasted their Pongal, Tomato Rice, Masala Rice. Of all these, the best so far is Veg Pulao. I liked it for two reasons - 1. Less oil than other products in the same category, 2. Less spicy. Next best is Samar Rice, again for two reasons one being less oily and second being the taste (though a bit spicy). Then comes Pongal that does not make you miss the authentic taste. My next choice is Tomato Rice. Though a bit oily, the taste is quite good. Masala Rice takes next position with similar taste as Veg Pulao but more spicy. Tamarind Rice comes last because of heavy oil. If you are a staunch MTR customer, chances are that you would like this because MTR managed to preserve the taste.

By the way, for bachelors in Bangalore I feel this makes a quite nice meal after a hard days work and no time left. All you need to do is keep the pack in boiling water for 5 minutes and your favourite hot dish is ready. Except Veg Pulao, all of them are in the range of 18 to 22 Rs. And if you are really hungry two packs are recommended.

Successful Innovation

I am currently reading this book and picked up few lines that I thought I must remember & recollect often.

Capturing the thoughts... (How to capture creative ideas)

• Org wide competetions - People put their minds to work not because of the prize money, but because of the opportunity to gain public recognition for their thinking.
• Association of language and creativity - The choice of words provde an intellectual and emotional context for the way in which subordinates and colleagues relate to and make sense of their work.
  
• Avoide bullets during presentation - instead use story telling. Story telling has always been an important part of the culture of 3M. For example, story about a scientist who, while singing in the choir, wished he had bookmarks that wouldn't fall out of the hymnal - and later createed Post-It Notes. Bullets are typically generic and cant give critical relationships in a logical way.
  
• Reduce work based stress, one of the great inhibitors of creativity.
  

What are the attributes of a software company?

One of my friends told me, "Check out my startup's website"! I was quite amazed, then started thinking. How easy it is these days to start a website and it does not cost so much if its a no frills site (I mean no large data, no database connection etc). I asked him, what does your startup do? He said, they offer unique customer experience, they are into training, they are into product development etc. He mentioned that at the moment he is the only one and looking for freshers because they are less expensive. This made me think on the above subject. How much the traditional business has been changing.... one could ask what are the attributes of a company - the answer is readily available. What are the attributes of a manufacturing company? One could answer without hesitation. But, what are the attributes of a software company? To make it worse, how much thin line of difference exists between ITES and IT Services Company. I tried searching for this answer over the web and found one article that is quite interesting. I will not copy paste entire thing.. but here is what the author feels are important attributes of a software company.

• Requirements Management
• Change and Configuration Management
• Effective communication among development teams
• Appropriate defined processes
• Reviews

If you observe most of them align with SEI CMM assessment requirements. This would then showcase the capability of a software organization. A software company begins with a commitment to learn and employ the fundamental principles that govern the development and management process of software.

For further details, Roger Pressman's book on Software Engineering is highly recommended.

Making sense out of non-sense

The other day Rajeev asked me 'What is this blog thing all about?'. In his blog he wrote a blog on blog. If you read his post, one of the main concerns is that, does blogging have a purpose? In my opinion so far there is not a single tool or site that actually makes use of blogging platforms. So far blogging is really seen as a platform for individual's opinions. (To make it a point, read my previous sentence - it says my opinion). So far what is the commercial value of blogging? Why did google buy Blogspot? Why does Microsoft provide a tool to publish blogs? Why is every F500 company is trying to have a blog for their own? Why many technology companies have their 'Official' blogs? Is the information published over a blog just an opinion? (One of my friends says Opinions are like ass holes - everybody is entitled to have one.)

Anyway... to a common avid blogger or a net savvy user its not un-usual that the above questions pop up in the mind. I think (again in my opinion), there is a business opportunity here. Or...let me not even go to the extent of talking about business opportunity. Let me put it as taking some value out of blogging. First thing I noticed is all blogging sites and platforms provide a way to tag the posts with labels. Which is quite good. This makes blog search quite easy. It becomes easier to categorize given blogs into these topics. So, the next step is to apply little bit of analytics to these categories to figure out trends. For example, Coca Cola has launched 'Chai Coke' a new flavor of coke that smells like Ice Tea in 4 metros of India. Now coke wants an instant feedback on the product to proceed further on this product. My idea is that Coke should promote blogging on this product to individuals and apply our little analytics tool on the blog sites to search for labels such as Colas, Cool Drinks, Spirits, Cocktails etc and search for the word Chai Coke and see the number of positive or negative words in these posts. This could give an idea on success factor of the new product.

Netscape and Google - Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Google requires a competency that Netscape never needed: database management. Google isn't just a collection of software tools, it's a specialized database. Without the data, the tools are useless; without the software, the data is unmanageable. Software licensing and control over APIs--the lever of power in the previous era--is irrelevant because the software never need be distributed but only performed, and also because without the ability to collect and manage the data, the software is of little use. In fact, the value of the software is proportional to the scale and dynamism of the data it helps to manage.

Another example demonstrating Web 2.0 principles - BitTorrent: a key Web 2.0 principle the service automatically gets better the more people use it.

The central principle behind the success of the giants born in the Web 1.0 era who have survived to lead the Web 2.0 era appears to be this, that they have embraced the power of the web to harness collective intelligence:
The lesson: Network effects from user contributions are the key to market dominance in the Web 2.0 era.

As noted above, one of the defining characteristics of internet era software is that it is delivered as a service, not as a product. This fact leads to a number of fundamental changes in the business model of such a company:
1. Operations must become a core competency
2. Users must be treated as co-developers - It's no accident that services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Flickr, del.icio.us, and the like may be expected to bear a "Beta" logo for years at a time.

Real time monitoring of user behavior to see just which new features are used, and how they are used, thus becomes another required core competency. A web developer at a major online service remarked: "We put up two or three new features on some part of the site every day, and if users don't adopt them, we take them down. If they like them, we roll them out to the entire site."

Mittal wins

As I rightly predicted, Mittal has won. From his words, 'If this deal does not go through, Globalization has no meaning'. I think so too.

Mittal vs Arcelor

Its an interesting game is not it? But its not new to Mittal. Infact its been his most favourite game. The game he played since he has been an entrepreneur. The game he mastered for years. For me personally, I felt Arcelor made a hasty decision when it could not shape up the deal right with Severstal (the russian steel maker). Infact I read one of the reportes wrote a sentence that sounded like this entire take over bid of Mittal is a conspiracy planned with the help of Indian government. It might sound absurd... but then how else could one convince the investor community in European countries?

Now Mittal has got the nice business plan presented to the investors and I have a strong feeling that he is going to win this match too.

Social Networking

These days I see lot of people using Orkut. Then I started wondering how successful this webcommunity is. Coincidentally, I found an article on Social Networking from K@W Newsletter. (Connecting the corporate dots). Its an interesting article, afterall some big heads from Wharton have written it. Well... the amazing thing is, the concepts have been there for quite sometime - except that the new age computing has made them as a bigger commodity. Easy to use, whenver, wherever, more accessible, more interesting.... all in all it has become a fun activity that users would love to do.

I would now like to take another view point on these web communities. Just login to Orkut or MySpace or Friendster. Did you find any ads? Or adsense atleast? (ubiquitous google)
How do they make money? Atleast they are not in charity. This certainly is a food for thought.

Atleast one blog a week

I set a goal for myself to write atleast one sensible blog in a week. I myself did not like the making of telugu movie blog. I shall delete it.

A small story....

Once upon a time in a village a man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs. 10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys went out in the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at 10 and as supply started to diminish and villagers started to stop their effort he announced that now he would buy at 20 rupees. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching moneys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to 25 and the supply of monkeys became so that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it. The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at 35 and when the man comes back you can sell it to him for 50. The villagers queued up with all their saving to buy the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

What is the similarity between Indian Cricket & Indian Stock Market

These days its like Indian cricket team. I seriously doubt the current windies series. What would you do incase the popularity for cricket is going down especially when windies is hosting the next year's cricket world cup!! One must revive the interest and which is the best way to do it? Get a strong cricket team and make it lose. Thats it. I feel this series would have been mutually agreed at high levels.

Big deal. What the heck this has to do with Indian stock market? Pretty simple huh... how do you attract lot of money? Make it popular... from 6000 to 12000 in just one year, hype it, talk about it, let media take care of advertising for it, create an impression as if its going to cross 20000 points... let the retail investor's hard earned money be pumped in. Now pull your (FII) money back...

Drawing similarities between these two.... look at mass behaviour of people. Its pure flocking nature. And others make money out of it.

**Disclaimer: All my posts are purely of personal opinions. You are most welcome to comment on my posts.

Stock market blues... cont...

Found some interesting statistics...
Today's market correction is the biggest single day fall in absolute terms (Sensex).

Single Day market falls
18-May-2006 = 862 Points ?? Global fall + Commodities fall + Fed Hike + Taxation of FIIs
28-Apr-1992 = 570 Points ?? Harshad Mehta Scam
17-May-2004 = 564 Points ?? NDA losses + Left joins Govt
15-May-2006 = 462 Points ?? Global Fall starts...

In percentage terms...
Oct 8,1990 = 15
Apr 28, 1992 = 12.7
May 17,2004 = 11.1
May 12, 1992 = 9.7
May 18, 2006 = 7
-----------

Munich

Watched the movie Munich last weekend. Liked it. The way Speilberg makes movies !! Truely amazing. He shot the movie as it it was taken during early seventies.

The way Golda Meir potrayed is brilliant. Very inspiring character.

Indian stock market

Tell any stock market savvy person that lefts have joined the government or serial blasts in Bombay or war situation in middle east or new RBI credit policy, immediately he would ask how many points Sensex moved?

Situations like changing governments that do not suppoert liberalization, could be a big thing. Stock market crashed more than 200 points. Trading was stopped for a while.

Well, times have changed my friend. Two years is a considerable time. I agree, looking at the percentages, you might say it is just 7% down. But, when its big, a small percentage of change also effects.

Look at small investors who entered the markets at 12000 levels, hoping for 13000 or worse (rather best) 16000 levels. And if the market goes down 850 points in a single day who is protecting them?

MindTree was born

I could not resist myself from writing this after reading 'The making of MindTree by Subroto Bagchi'. The transcript is available in MindTree Consulting's site. Do you know that the logo of MindTree was painted by K.S.Chetan a 17 year boy who has a form of Celebral palsy that denies him co-ordinated limb movement and affects his speech!

I strongly suggest the budding entrepreneures to read both the documents available on MindTree about Making of The MindTree.

Web Services

I just want to share few new terms I have been hearing oflate related to WebServices.

1. BPEL - Business Process Execution Language Wiki link

2. CDL - Choreography Description Language
The Web Services Choreography Description Language (WS-CDL) is an XML-based language that describes peer-to-peer collaborations of parties by defining, from a global viewpoint, their common and complementary observable behavior; where ordered message exchanges result in accomplishing a common business goal.

The Web Services Choreography specification is targeted for composing interoperable, peer-to-peer collaborations between any type of party regardless of the supporting platform or programming model used by the implementation of the hosting environment.

The main difference between 1 and 2 is that CDL ensures ORDERED MESSAGE XCHANGE. And BPEL requires central co-ordination whereas CDL does not (atleast thats the idea).

Well the main advantages with the above BPM techniques are, an Enterprise can service enable its systems and wire them together in a network of SOA systems. Once service enabled, any third party or new internal service integration is a cake walk. No need of middleware integration programmers. You can ask them to develop business logic.

Entrepreneurship again.

Many places you hear about individuals talking about 'Entrepreneurship'. You hear this word from those who are successful, those who are not and also those who are in the process of falling into one of the first two categories.

After reading the stories from Subrato Bagchi on 'Making of Mindtree', it inspired in me and my dear friends on the specifics of 'Entrepreneurship', from 'What' to 'How'. Let me share some information from the discussion.

Every entrepreneur has to first answer these two questions.
1. Why do I want to open an Enterprise?
2. Why would my Enterprise be a success? What are the strengths I have to make it a success?

Now, how to answer these questions?

Are you doing business because you have 10 crores of money to spend? Or is it a unique business idea you have which you would like to see taking shape? If you are not passionate about your business, not committed, can not give your 100% effort and time, lets not talk about this any more. If you are into a startup you have to give up two things. All of your time and all of your money. Only then I feel its possible to shape an individual's imaginations.

More in my next post...

Leadership

Leadership can not be taught in business schools. It is more practiced and learned in organizations. How much of it practically happens? How many leaders are actually grooming their people to become next generation leaders? Look at the growing number of head hunters to find those exceptionally well business leaders and are always behing these highly skilled executives. Look around you, the MNCs are now filled with foreign CEOs who are filling the vaccum of good business leaders.

How many managers in Indian companies are able to groom nexgen biz leaders is a big question for me. Leadership skills can not just be transferred in a 10 session classroom. The leader has to take his team through a consistent set of values he/she believes in and stick to them during all times. Honesty, belief and trust create the right environment for leaders to grow. A leader must dream of the impossible and make it happen with his team. Always keep the team inspiring and let the team dream of high aspirations. I really really wonder how many leaders or people managers actually practice this !!

Outsourcing & Europe

When business outsourcing started in early nineties in USA, Europe was not largely interested in it. Then came the dot com burst, economic recession and those who are still in business wanted to test the outsourcing waters and they wanted to do it real hard.

Globalization and outsourcing has largely affected the lives of many in US and Europe, especially those whose jobs have moved to many miles away. But, large corporations could not do anything else to survive the competetion. They had no other choice than to move those jobs that could be done remotely. Though Europe has joined this model after US, Europe has a different challenge to face. As more and more Eastern Europe countries with struggling economy have joined EU in 2004, the low skilled jobs from France, Germany and Italy were grabbed by citizens of these countries. There is a large difference in the wages among the big brothers of EU and those who joined in 2004. This has caused a real concern on job security for those living in developed nations of EU. The recent political turnout gives clear mandate of this change in people perception. Angela Merkel who has been supporting free market is believed to win the German election has to settle with 'grand coalation' with limited capacity to carry out any economic reforms. Its hard for the politicians to predict or know what exactly people want. Its the basic nature of democracy. Things take time, and the transition period is the most horrible experience for the people. Things are not bound to time and confusion prevails in both the people and leaders.

This is the biggest challenge that EU has to manage now. The people of US and the leaders could successfully manage the transition phase or currently managing it effectively. Bush won again despite of outsourcing topic being used as one of the campain topics. Its a matter of time and consensus between people and leadership that must bring stability in socio economic situation in EU.

Google does it again!!

Google creates online database of mail order catalogues. The vendor can submit the content to google or can potentially make his content retrieved by google. This means the vendor does not need to have an ecommerce site, can continue to do brick and mortar business but in a different way with increased order flow perhaps.

Are you slowly getting to the point??????? Do you mean, Google is getting slowly into eBay's space?? Or to that matter any other ecommerce site? I think yes. Look at it... Google is finding out the best things that can happen to Internet and combining them in one site i.e. www.google.com.

One of the leadership qualities - Strong belief in winning idea

the scene... employee staff meeting of a software company
the speaker just finished his speech and is open for questions. The speaker holds second highest position in the company.

the question came from one of the employee and related to a new project that is so much talked about in the company. The question was what if the new project fails !, do you have an alternate plan.

And the answer has come in notime. You cant win the war if you are losing it. Obvious !! But the essense is the belief. Belief in the team, in the idea, in the market, in the success rather in making the idea a success. First of all this project would not have been selected if its not a winning idea. And even if its slowly slipping the leader has great ability to bring it back on to the foot and make it a winning.

I salute the leader.

Google !! The ubiquitous name in the byte world.

I dont know how and where to start this. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is making news all over. Every morning I click on Google News button on Google toolbar, I see some news on some innovation that Google does. Though to many net visitors google is just a search engine there are many more applications that this tiny giant is into. Just did a search for Google in Google Search Engine and it fetched 728,000,000 results (in 0.12 seconds). Microsoft scores 733,000,000 and Yahoo scores 413,000,000. That explains the spread of Google.

And look at the diversity of Google's projects. Search Google NASA, Google SUN, Google Microsoft, Google Satellite, Google Outsourcing, Google Productivity, Google Scholar, Google Pictures ... the list continues. Do you think Google is offering various tools and services on its web page that come packaged in a GUI Based operating system (read that as Windows or Mac OS X or ...). You have everything available on the internet. Including 2GB of space today. May be more tomorrow. Why would I buy a demanding piece of hardware and install more demanding piece of software? I would rather buy a thin client with Internet connection (probably a bare minimum laptop with wireless connection) and everything else computed over the web. Do we see some radical changes in near future?

Send in your comments

Making elephants dance - Business Innovation

Following write up talks about innovation that large companies are adapting to succeed in future. This information is taken from BusinessWeek online.

The Knowledge Economy as we know it is being eclipsed by something new -- call it the Creativity Economy. Even as policymakers and pundits wring their hands over the outsourcing of engineering, software writing, accounting, and myriad other high-tech, high-end service jobs -- not to mention the move of manufacturing to Asia -- U.S. companies are evolving to the next level of economic activity.

What is unfolding is the commoditization of knowledge. We have seen global forces undermine autos, electronics, and other manufacturing, but the Knowledge Economy was expected to last forever and play to America's strengths: great universities, terrific labs, smart immigrants, an entrepreneurial business culture.

The U.S. has a lead in this unfolding Creativity Economy -- for the moment. The new forms of innovation driving it forward are based on an intimate understanding of consumer culture -- the ability to determine what people want even before they can articulate it. Working in what is still the largest consumer market in the world gives U.S. companies a huge edge. So does being able to think outside the box -- something Americans still do better than most.

A New DanceFor managers, the biggest challenge may be making the leap from their Six Sigma process skills to new ways of thinking. For corporations, transforming themselves will require new sets of values and organizational principles. Have you heard of design strategy? It's probably the Next Big Thing after Six Sigma. How about consumer-centric innovation? It may be the most powerful way to raise a company's innovation success rate. Do you know what innovation metrics your company needs? Have you heard of CENCOR (calibrate, explore, create, organize, and realize)? It's the post-Six Sigma dogma GE is spreading far and wide among its managers. Are B-schools on top of all this change? Not really, but Stanford University is starting a "D-school" -- a design school where managers can learn the dynamics of innovation. Teaching elephants to dance is never easy, but that's the task ahead if you want your company -- and your career -- to prosper.

There is, in fact, a whole new generation of innovation gurus. They are not the superstars of the '90s, such as Clayton Christensen, who focused on what might be called macro-innovation -- the impact of big, unexpected new technologies on companies. The new gurus focus more on micro-innovation -- teaching companies how to connect with their customers' emotions, linking research and development labs to consumer needs, recalibrating employee incentives to emphasize creativity, constructing maps showing opportunities for innovation.

When creative mojo gets going, it can explode into innovation. An example: the mundane mop. Cleaning used to be done with mops and water. Design Continuum Inc. in West Newton, Mass., researched cleaning for P&G and observed that water tends to slop dirt around, while dry rags pick it up (thanks to electrostatic attraction). Ergo, the Swiffer. In the design-speak of the Creativity Economy, this is paradigm shifting. Design Continuum helped P&G shift the cleaning paradigm. Now the Swiffer may become P&G's newest $1 billion brand.Think out-of-the-box consumer experiences, and you get the idea of paradigm shifting. Old paradigm: corner coffee shops. New paradigm: Starbucks (SBUX ). Old: radio. New: satellite radio. Old: crowded electronics stores. New: Apple Computer (AAPL ) stores. Old: grungy, smelly circuses. New: Cirque du Soleil. Old: any airline. New: JetBlue Airways (JBLU ). Old: Macy's (FD ). New: Target (TGT ). Old: Earth-toned Birkenstock sandals. New: colorful beach "Birkis."

The evolution of the economy toward creativity has been underway for some time. Steve Jobs, of course, has turned Apple into the paragon of the creative corporation. Companies throughout the world are deconstructing Apple's success in design and innovation, and learning the lessons.

Storytelling is very important. Designers have found that placing a potential new product within an emotional story that connects with consumers raises the chances of success. The design of the new line of MINI_motion watches and driving shoes, for example, captures the story of the Mini Cooper's cool urban driving experience. It's about the driver, not the car.

Whats Hot? Is CNOOC's Bid for Unocal a Threat to America? - Knowledge@Wharton

On June 23, CNOOC, the third-largest oil company in China, made an unsolicited $18.5 billon bid for U.S.-based Unocal. The bid has caused concern in the U.S. Congress because CNOOC is a government-owned company attempting to buy a natural resource that is important to national security. But ultimately, some say, there appears to be no sound reason why the U.S. government should move to block the deal, if Unocal shareholders decide it is in their best interests. At the same time, observers note the unresolved ambiguity that exists in the minds of both ordinary Americans and government officials responsible for U.S. foreign policy. Should China be viewed, as it was during the height of the Cold War, as a foe of American interests? Or should it be seen as a trading partner that is embracing free-market principles?

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1240.cfm

Those High-flying Angel Investors: VC Panel Talks Up Creative Financing for Start-ups - Knowledge@Wharton

Those High-flying Angel Investors: VC Panel Talks Up Creative Financing for Start-ups - Knowledge@Wharton

Tune in Tomorrow for the Digital Living Room? - Knowledge@Wharton

Following article gives an insight into Digital Living Room. I want to add a piece of my own to this concept. XBOX or mini Mac..., I just want to install my software that controls home. It controls all electrical appliances, tracks and calculates device wise monthly usage and bills, lets you control your home from your mobile, alerts local police incase of break-in and what not !! You just name it, I will add it.
Tune in Tomorrow for the Digital Living Room? - Knowledge@Wharton

Tag Team: Tracking the Patterns of Supermarket Shoppers - Knowledge@Wharton

Another very good application of RFID in retail industry.

Tag Team: Tracking the Patterns of Supermarket Shoppers - Knowledge@Wharton

Wharton Business Plan Competition: Workshops

Wharton Business Plan Competition: Workshops

Eight Great Business Plans, But Only One Is the Winner ... - Knowledge@Wharton

Check out the winners of Wharton Business Plant contest. And take a guess who won after reading each idea.
Eight Great Business Plans, But Only One Is the Winner ... - Knowledge@Wharton

Giving Employees What They Want: The Returns Are Huge - Knowledge@Wharton

A very good article. This is true in most of the organizations.

Giving Employees What They Want: The Returns Are Huge - Knowledge@Wharton

The Global Impact of Rising Oil Prices - Knowledge@Wharton

The Global Impact of Rising Oil Prices - Knowledge@Wharton

'Computon' - Nexgen way of computing

Economist.com MONITOR

This article is about SPU - Sun Processor Units. Find out how on-demand computing is realized.

Learn, leverage and lead

Following are the excerpts from an article published in www.economictimes.com today.

---------------

LEARN: When you are on a project, spend an hour with the team in learning what the rest are working on, speak to your manager and learn what the project has to do with the company, the customer, the business, the market. Get the big picture. You will immediately know what this project is a trend for, and can plan to learn new skills. If you plan to learn a new tool or software simply because your neighbour got a job in that field, you may not get very far.

LEVERAGE: When you are stuck in a project, you think it is your duty to solve it all by yourself. Wrong! If you have spent sufficient time in building your network of people (not technology!), all you need to do is throw this problem onto a network and wait for solutions to come pouring in. Ignore this free education, and you are shutting yourself in Ekalavya’s forests. But if you can return this by contributing towards solving someone else’s problem, you have won a name for life.

LEAD: The normal career path in any large firm seems to be like this—code for four years, become a senior coder, code some more, become an expert, then a project lead, and finally a project manager. It is almost routine, and you are disappointed when your next cubicle occupant has become an expert in three years, whereas you haven’t. Promotions are a sign of leadership—unless you are already acting like an expert, don’t expect to become one or be granted such a position. Find out opportunities within your project where you can show your style of expertise—which in turn demands that you have learnt quite well about this project and can leverage all resources to lead the team to solve a problem. MBA degrees, skill sets, technologies all matter. However, in the long run, what matters is what you bring to the table—your learning abilities, your leveraging abilities, and your leadership abilities. Technology serves a dual cut—while it unites businesses to customers and revenues, it has isolated the people behind it from each other. If you think your PC, coding, and your cube are the best friends in your world, come on out and take a walk. The world is still full of people who wish to know you, and be known to you.

One Size Fits One: Tailoring Technology to Consumer Needs - Knowledge@Wharton

One Size Fits One: Tailoring Technology to Consumer Needs - Knowledge@Wharton

Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk - Knowledge@Wharton

Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk - Knowledge@Wharton

Got a Good Strategy? Now Try to Implement It - Knowledge@Wharton

Got a Good Strategy? Now Try to Implement It - Knowledge@Wharton

Blogs, Everyone? Weblogs Are Here to Stay, but Where Are They Headed? - Knowledge@Wharton

Blogs, Everyone? Weblogs Are Here to Stay, but Where Are They Headed? - Knowledge@Wharton

Jeremy Siegel's Latest Book Lays out the Future for Investors - Knowledge@Wharton

Jeremy Siegel's Latest Book Lays out the Future for Investors - Knowledge@Wharton: "should get 4.9% -- Korea, 0.9%; Taiwan, 0.5%; China, 0.4%; Brazil, 0.4%; Mexico, 0.3%; India, 0.3%; Russia, 0.2%; and other emerging countries, 1.9%."

Who Gains, Who Loses, from RFID's Growing Presence in the Marketplace? - Knowledge@Wharton

Who Gains, Who Loses, from RFID's Growing Presence in the Marketplace? - Knowledge@Wharton

Product release strategy

One strategy for quickly penetrating a market, is to produce the core, or stripped down, basic product, adding features to variants of the product to be released shortly thereafter. This release strategy is obviously also beneficial in information systems development, staging core functionality for early releases and adding features over the course of several subsequent releases.

As the world is moving towards service delivery concept, it is possible for the service provider to add features while the users are actually using the service without any interruptions. This is really a cool feature. Read 'Getting Real' from www.37signals.com.

Technology is just enabler

In my view, technology is never an alternatvie. Technology helps Business to run more efficiently.

Internet for example. Internet has changed the face of many companies. Dell, Apple (iTunes), Browser companies, Advertising and what not! I feel a computer that is not connected to network is as dumb as a calculator. That is the kind of impact Internet has made. Internet has changed the way Business is done traditionally. It challenged the most sound distribution systems that ever existed. Companies that realized the potential of Internet made best use of it.

Epica Award Winning Ads for 2004

http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/01043.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/02011.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/03010.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/04020.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/05056.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/05057.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/06037.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/07021.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/08101.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/09034.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/10176.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/11071.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/11132.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/12040.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/14017.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/15096.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/16071.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/18037.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/19044.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/20003.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/21023.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/21124.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/22018.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/23008.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/24043.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/25170.htm
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/26147.htm

METRO Group Achieves 99% RFID Pallet Tag Read Rates

METRO Group, the world's third-largest retailer and an RFID pioneer announced the implementation of RFID readers and tags at METRO Group's largest and busiest distribution center in Germany. With more than 50,000 pallets read to date, METRO has 99% tag read-rates, as well as complete compliance with ETSI radio standards for operation in Europe.
The distribution center is equipped with Intermec IF5 Intelligent RFID readers and RFID tags powered by Intermec. RFID is a complement to the current bar code-based tracking systems. RFID automatic data collection typically does not require line of sight or manual scanning as do most bar code-based systems.

Oracle Details PeopleSoft Product Roadmap

Oracle unveiled the combined Oracle and PeopleSoft product roadmap and support plans in "Project Fusion.” Oracle stated it retained approximately 90 percent of PeopleSoft's development and support team to ensure continuity for PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and JD Edwards World products. The "Project Fusion" architecture will leverage Oracle technology.
This estimated release timeline was provided:+ PeopleSoft Enterprise 8.9 will be completed in 2005+ Oracle E-Business Suite 12 (2006)+ PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 (2006)+ JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12 (2006)+ Ongoing JD Edwards World enhancements+ Project Fusion data hubs and transaction bases in 2006+ Initial "Project Fusion" applications available in 2007+ "Project Fusion" applications suite delivery in 2008
Support milestones include:+ Oracle will provide support for the PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and JD Edwards World product lines through at least 2013+ Oracle is extending JD Edwards EnterpriseOne XE and 8.0 support to February 2007+ For PeopleSoft's other products and versions, including JD Edwards World, Oracle has adopted PeopleSoft's current retirement policies+ Oracle will also continue to maintain currently supported hardware platforms, databases and operating systems.
Sid Snitkin, VP, ARC Advisory Group, commented, "Telephone lines and web connections were jammed by over 17,000 people for the recent Oracle event where they announced these plans for the merged company. This is testament to the size of the customer base that could be up for grabs if Peoplesoft and JD Edwards customers lose confidence in the future viability of their investments. Product support and product roadmaps are central to maintaining confidence and Oracle has done an excellent job in laying out a solid plan to address both of these issues."
Mr. Snitkin continued, "Most customers seem to be satisfied for now to continue their journey with Oracle. But the clear challenge is to maintain this confidence boost by delivering on promises and continuing to reinforce the message that the merged company is the way to get to the best destinations. The Oracle train will pass through many stations and there are competitors waiting at each stop with enticing alternatives."

On Demand Business

Following is a briefing on 'On Demand Business Model'. In my view SAP is placed much ahead of this evolution. I feel with NetWeaver as a technology platform, On Demand Business Model can be enabled in a faster way for complex business solutions. And if required, it will not be difficult for SAP to operate some of the business in this model.

Briefing: The On Demand Business Model; Software Vendors Should Tread Carefully!
By Steve Banker, ARC Advisory Group
The On Demand business model has gotten a lot of publicity in the last year - IBM's commercials, SalesForce.com's successful IPO, and probably most significantly, Merrill Lynch's announcement that they would begin tracking software companies with an On Demand business model.
The On Demand business model, as we define it, involves selling a solution based on monthly service charges. One instance of software is hosted centrally by the software vendor, most customers use Internet browsers to access their application.
Merrill Lynch argued that the traditional way of measuring software companies, growth in software license, was becoming increasingly less relevant in this mature industry and that new methods of measuring software vendors were needed. It would, be easy to conclude that the On Demand business model can save best of breed software suppliers.
Be careful! One of the markets ARC is studying is Location-based Business Solutions. These are GPS based solutions that help companies track and manage fleets or people in real time. Where historically trucks would have a GPS enabled "black" box in the cab, now suppliers have created On Demand services based on hosted applications and users in the field with GPS-enabled Nextel cell phones. Two years ago, many companies paid about $50 per month per vehicle. Last year a number of companies were charging about $25 per month per vehicle (or user). And this year some vendors are selling stripped down tracking for as little as $15 per month per node.
In short, instead of the On Demand model providing a stable and predictable long term stream of cash, it is providing, in at least this market, brutal cost competition and customers as fickle as the mobile phone users who switch whenever a new plan offers better savings.
Where does the On Demand model offer some protection for vendors? For vendors who have services where content changes all the time. For example, Vastera’s service is constantly being updated with changing customs regulations; Management Dynamics services continuously changes as ocean freight assessorial charges change. These types of services offer the promise of strong customer retention. Services based on connectivity also offer strong lock-in. So for example, by using Lean Logistics as a TMS solution, you are automatically linked to hundreds of carriers and do not have to manage integrating to carriers on an ongoing basis.

Initial specs for ultimate gaming PC

Processor: AMD AthlonXP 2600+ 2.08 GHz >> The Athlon XP remains far and away one of the best-value solutions you can get.
Mobo: Biostar M7NCD Pro >> Has nForce2 400 chipset. With its dual-channel RAM interface, NVIDIA's nForce2 Ultra 400 is still the performance champion. But not everyone can afford to spring for a new processor, a motherboard and two DIMMs in one fell swoop. nForce2 400 chipset is the next best bet.
RAM: I prefer two 512 MB Kingston DDR 400MHz PC3200 SDRAM.
Cooler: The Coolermaster Aero7 looks very cool indeed and also includes a front or rear mountable dashpot that lets you alter the speed of the fan.
Graphics Card: The ATI Radeon 9600 XT 8X AGP card has 128 MB DDR memory to speed the graphics to the screen as well as a fan to keep it cool while it's doing its thing.
Monitor: I prefer an LCD or a 21" CRT Monitor.
OS: XP ... but depends on your choice.

Courtsey: THG.

The Entrepreneurial Mind: Innovative Entrepreneurial Education Archives

The Entrepreneurial Mind: Innovative Entrepreneurial Education Archives

Where to invest in 2005

An excellent article on how to think smart and invest in 2005.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/04_52/B39140452invest.htm

Building Sustainable Startups in the Developing World

If creating a startup is one hell of a job, then sustaining that business is also a herculian task. Look at this article on how to sustain a startup.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1084&specialId=24

Where the real internet money is made

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_52/b3914442.htm

RFID Applications

At the moment, most of the RFID applications or solutions are built for major clients in their SCM (Supply Chain Management) needs. I am a great follower of this technology and look for alternate possibilities of adapting this technology to those areas that are far from retail business or supply chain. This article talks about few of those areas.

One of the ideas is, Smart Building. Ever wondered how much time an Administrative Department for large companies spend in designing the needs of a new office space as part of their expansion needs? It is quite cumbursome and needs lot of time and analysis. What if you have a system capable of displaying an accurate information of current usage patterns in an office space with few mouse clicks? A Smart Building offers this as one of its wide array of features. Having RFID readers in designated areas of your building to track rfid tag movement builds a good data capture system. Process this data to find out accurate details of usage patterns in a building.

Challenges at the moment include cost and the range of antennas. The range is limited currently and not sure about the future developments in this area.


I welcome comments on this idea.

Winning horses - Sensex in India

After so many years, finally Indian stock markets seem to act on fundamentals. Albeit I agree that sentiments till play a role when need arises, atleast the markets learn how to react when there are companies declaring sound results.

There are two recent instances that made me form the above opinion. One, the UPA govt announcing oil price hike that comes as a huge relief to oil companies. The relief is really really huge....its so huge that its expected to save around 10,000 crore rupees for oil companies in the current fiscal year. No wonder HPCL, BPCL, Reliance and Refineries surged ahead.

The second news, banks hiking interest rates. RBI allowing banks to revise their interest rates and ICICI taking the first step to hike housing loan rates. Bankex would have gained atleast 20% in a week. This is a clear sign how secondary market is reacting to the news or facts that really help companies. I am certain there were rumours before the hike in interest rates, but they could not change the picture much than an action from ICICI did.

All said and done, 'its elementary Watson !'. Keep the eyes and ears open for the news and be aware of the surroundings and I feel its easy to be a good investor.

Offshore startups

Most of the IT companies with a sound offshore model had started their operations in two fundamental ways. One, start with a business solution supported by IT for a manufacturing concern in west. Build it well, make it a success, partner with that company, make this solution a successfull one and adapt the solution for other companies with similar requirements. As the cash flows, extract generic knowledge of providing business solutions and expand your network. This process is not as easy as it sounds. The first step is always difficult. It requires huge effort from the IT solution provider to grab the project. Who will trust the IT company that never provided any solution before? Ofcourse, the easier way would be through contacts. If someone already worked at client's place whom the client knows and can trust, then there is a good amount of possibility for the IT company to get a footing. The second way I would say is identify a gap in the industry, try to bridge that gap with the help of a new product. Now, to get this product in right shape, partner with a company that needs this product most. Once the product is stable, start licensing it. License and maintenance revenues will feed the company.

Though the above two models are red ocean strategies (scroll down in my blog to find out about red and blue ocean strategies), it is quite difficult to find the right market to sell.

-- PS: I may be publishing an un-finished post.

Information Technology: Value Creator or Commodity? - Knowledge@Wharton

Information Technology: Value Creator or Commodity? - Knowledge@Wharton

Tug of War over Tech Stocks: Are They Heading Up, or Down? - Knowledge@Wharton

Tug of War over Tech Stocks: Are They Heading Up, or Down? - Knowledge@Wharton

news @ nature.com�-�Little lady of Flores forces rethink of human evolutionbreaking science news headlines

news @ nature.com�-�Little lady of Flores forces rethink of human evolutionbreaking science news headlines

Hobbits Exist.

Executives Trade Stories on the Challenges of Doing Business in a Global Economy - Knowledge@Wharton

Executives Trade Stories on the Challenges of Doing Business in a Global Economy - Knowledge@Wharton

How Human Behavior Drives Investment Activity - Knowledge@Wharton

How Human Behavior Drives Investment Activity - Knowledge@Wharton

How to Avoid the Chain of Mistakes that Can Break Your Company - Knowledge@Wharton

How to Avoid the Chain of Mistakes that Can Break Your Company - Knowledge@Wharton

Satellite Radio: Wave of the Future or Niche Play? - Knowledge@Wharton

Satellite Radio: Wave of the Future or Niche Play? - Knowledge@Wharton

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

MIT OpenCourseWare | Sloan School of Management

MIT OpenCourseWare | Sloan School of Management

- The link to MIT Open Courseware. I will have to check out how to study one here.

The Small Business Blog

The Small Business Blog

- Find some good information in bits and pieces if you are running a small business already.

Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue Ocean Strategy talks about innovation in business. Blue Oceans are unexplored areas of Business where there is no competetion. We define the bounds, we rule the markets (atleast for a while). Since I read an article in HBR, I have been thinking about it. Just look around you will find a whole lot of businesses which were not even thought of abt three years ago.

.....

Talking Communities - Welcome

Talking Communities - Welcome

Rediff On The NeT Travel: A travel feature on Anjanvel and Guhaghar in Maharashtra, India

Rediff On The NeT Travel: A travel feature on Anjanvel and Guhaghar in Maharashtra, India

Logo 

Shields Up!

Shields Up!

Research Studies: 2004: Net Impact 2004: From Connectivity to Productivity [PDF]

Research Studies: 2004: Net Impact 2004: From Connectivity to Productivity [PDF]

Andy Grove to Corporate Boards: It's Time to Take Charge - Knowledge@Wharton

Andy Grove to Corporate Boards: It's Time to Take Charge - Knowledge@Wharton

Back to the Drawing Board: Is the Traditional Theory of the Firm Obsolete? - Knowledge@Wharton

Back to the Drawing Board: Is the Traditional Theory of the Firm Obsolete? - Knowledge@Wharton

Oracle and PeopleSoft: In Dubious Battle? - Knowledge@Wharton

Oracle and PeopleSoft: In Dubious Battle? - Knowledge@Wharton

MurthyDotCom : H1B 2005 Cap Very Close

MurthyDotCom : H1B 2005 Cap Very Close

A Real Estate Boomlet in Latin America - Knowledge@Wharton

A Real Estate Boomlet in Latin America - Knowledge@Wharton

Global Players See Great Opportunity for Retail Banking in Emerging Economies - Knowledge@Wharton

Global Players See Great Opportunity for Retail Banking in Emerging Economies - Knowledge@Wharton

BBC NEWS | Europe | Berlin bear's break-out bid fails

BBC NEWS | Europe | Berlin bear's break-out bid fails

Option Strategies

Option Strategies

Will RFID Save the Warehouse Management Systems Market?

Will RFID Save the Warehouse Management Systems Market?

Lessons from Google's IPO - Knowledge@Wharton

Lessons from Google's IPO - Knowledge@Wharton

Globalization%3A Threat or Opportunity%3F An IMF Issues Brief

Globalization%3A Threat or Opportunity%3F An IMF Issues Brief

Knowledge@Wharton

Various Business articles
Knowledge@Wharton

Economist.com | NanoTechnology

Economist.com | MONITOR

Economist.com | Future mobile phones

Economist.com | MONITOR

Economist.com | Physics

Economist.com | Physics

Economist.com | Stem-cell research

Economist.com | Stem-cell research

Kalashnikov in MP3

Kalashnikov in MP3

From honey I'm home to hubby I'm home - The Economic Times

Go for share buybacks - The Economic Times

Henri Cartier-Bresson allowed photography to breathe.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1091657413355&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

SAP puts its eggs in India basket - The Economic Times

WTO Framework major victory for India - The Times of India

CalTrade Report - World Trade Talks End in ''Milestone'' Agreement

antiMUSIC's antiTainment News August 2004: Middle East Uproar Over Fahrenheit 9/11