Experiences Speak...

A Complete Guide To Every VC Firm Doing Digital Investments

2011-09-17T20:04:00.000+02:00

15 keys facts and conclusions to know the future of the Internet in 2015.

2011-07-30T23:16:00.000+02:00

Digital Life: Today & Tomorrow from Neo Labels on Vimeo.

Bitcoins - a decentralized digital currency

2011-07-04T00:49:00.000+02:00

Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, distinguished between “value in use” and “value in exchange” – in his own words: “The word VALUE, it is to be observed, has two different meanings, and sometimes expresses the utility of some particular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing other goods which the possession of that object conveys. The one may be called ‘value in use’; the other, ‘value in exchange’. The things which have the greatest value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange; on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange have frequently little or no value in use. Nothing is more useful than water: but it will purchase scarce anything; scarce anything can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any use-value; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for it”.

According to Smith, the value in exchange is the power of a commodity to purchase other goods and whose objective measure is expressed in the market. A virtual adaptation of this want-based value in exchange now exists, also called – “Bitcoins” (Currency: B). Ever heard of it before? Perhaps you have not been labeled as one of those into-the-digital world technology geeks whose life revolves around the digital space and virtual worlds. Not that I am one either, but hey, then we all know that curiosity killed the cat. I came to know of Bitcoin’s existence while with a media and entertainment start-up, previously in my career, with which I was engaged with, devising and supporting partnership strategy for payment gateways. That’s how I foremost got introduced to Bitcoins; that’s how the inquisitiveness built-up.

So what is a Bitcoin? – It is world’s first digital currency that was devised in 2009 by a programmer called, or atleast he/ she is believed to be called, Satoshi Nakomoto. Bitcoins are digital currencies (coins) that are earned by solving real-time networking security problems. These coins then can be traded for real currencies on exchanges (where Bitcoin’s are traded), or for goods from certain businesses that accept them. Now read this: Bitcoin is a concept run by internet users and not by any business or bank. The concept of exchanging Bitcoins needs only a computer, an internet network, and a flash drive, which also acts as your locker. Since the concept has been devised on open source, anyone can view the code and hence you must have basic computer security knowledge to ensure that there is no digital theft or hacks. Still confused on how it works? Ok so try this analogy – ever heard of peer-to-peer music sharing - hello Napster: the bane to the media and entertainment industry, and a boon to the pirates. If you haven’t heard about Napster, then it is about time to you get your basics right. Coming back to the point, the Bitcoins work like peer-to-peer music sharing networks, except that they are a decentralized internet society. The demand for the same grows as long as the internet users use Bitcoins and circulate it.

Bitcoin has no banks to report to, nor it is associated with one (remember I mentioned, the concept is driven by users and users alone), so you just end up saving extra $$$ that you always wanted to in order to avoid paying those extra commissions and fees to set-up and maintain an account. In other words, it has no central monetary authority to monitor the transactions online, which only means that is unlikely to expand beyond a few niche segments such as the online gamblers, hackers and other ill repute behind the screen underground characters. Some good things about the use of this digital currency are that transactions across the globe become easier – and moreover it is free. Also your account is never frozen or kept inactive – so you can now plan on an epic timeless expedition across the globe without stressing about what happened to your account. It also forms a great way of conducting easy transactions for petite and freelance businesses. Wouldn’t you want to have such a thing when you aren’t investing that much? And yes, you need not worry about the inflation, since the supply of the digital coins is done at a predetermined rate. At the time the concept began the value of one Bitcoin was approximately about 60 US cents, and at the time of this blog post, it is already trading at approximately US $15. You may want to check the website ‘Mt.Gox’, that allows trading of US Dollars (USD) for Bitcoins or Bitcoins for USD, 24/7 - now wouldn’t you want such a hassle-free, round-the-clock control on your money?

Upshot: Stock markets interest me in general, and I found the concept of Bitcoin quite fascinating and interesting especially looking at the two year currency valuation. As per Reuters, approximately $130 million worth of Bitcoins are now in existence, but the number is not expected to explode enormously. But like any other currency, a Bitcoin’s worth also fluctuates with demand. Since Bitcoin is a system run by users, the understanding is that it will either see an extensive recognition or it will not. It will by no means go away until people decide to bring it to an end. It will keep running as long as the users have the will and ability to keep it going. Bitcoins, a very good concept, is probably attracting large number of eyeballs in the digital space, but because of the lack of a central monetary authority they are probably disaster-prone. It is all but a giant digital ponzi scheme ready to burst soon.

Image source: Picked up from internet

Album Sales: With or without you Napster!

2011-04-16T22:00:00.000+02:00

The labels come with a positive forecast showcasing Napster and Limewires contribution in the billion dollar decline in record sales, which may just be one of causes of the overall sales decline. Blaming Napster, Limewire and likes of such companies only goes to show the lack of adoption of file-sharing by labels when they had the chance to innovate themselves and gain. This chart is just the reflection of that. The labels should instead focus on educating about digital piracy and offering innovative, clean and well-priced content across geographies?

Deal Network - "The Money Network"

2011-04-12T11:47:00.000+02:00

The ability to build a company that gets to $1 billion in revenues in less than two years is unprecedented. In the next decade, there may not be 50 $50 billion companies, but there’s probably going to be 50 $1 billion companies as new class of giants will emerge from the swarm of start-ups.

Running the distance for a cause - My first Mumbai Marathon

2011-01-17T20:44:00.001+01:00

Exactly last year - I was running in the parks of Madrid with my Italian buddy to keep pace with age and fitness. The Mumbai Marathon for a matter of fact didn't even figure in the Top 30 to-do-list (Yes! Sleep did). Since then the transition from Madrid to Mumbai changed all that. To start with - Illness and irregular fitness schedule. Blame the endless unfinished road constructions, the ever so populous Mumbai's public transportation, the undying Mumbai humidity, and the pollution and not to forget stray dogs that start running behind you for 5 am jogs. But despite all that Mumbai is Mumbai - a city of billion dreams. I managed to get through the cruel 'change in weather' phase. I just could not risk running on the road early mornings, as I was already chased by the dogs twice, and so I started hitting the gym to earn my spot at the starting line up for the Standard Charted Mumbai Marathon 2011. The hectic travel to workplace never really helped me train regularly during the weekdays, but I did own the Sunday mornings. I made it a point to join my friend for a game of football and sometimes a little jog of my own early morning in the lanes of Ghodbunder Road just to keep pace with my stamina. With the injury niggle I was not fully committed and confident of the marathon registration back in August 2010, but since then trained well to gain an upper hand over my fitness and ended up reaching the venue despite not holding the registration number for the Mumbai Marathon. As I stepped outside the train station, all I could see was thousands of Mumbaikars in their tracks and shorts charged up for the grand event. It was also a pleasure to catch some Bollywood and Corporate names standing at a hands distance away, busy entertaining the media and the press. See, as I told you I did not register for the event as I was unsure of my fitness, but now that I made it to the venue, in my hunt for someone to help me register for this event, I came across this NGO Swayamsiddh - a parental organization for the mentally challenged from Aurangabad, and decided to run for them. I felt like I was on to something. I went with the intention of running solo with my curious something marathon outfit and my stop watch, but no where did it occur to me that I had be running for a cause at the mother of all races. Given the number of participants on the track, running the distance in one stretch was not at all possible, so had to stop in between to dance with the NGO kids and volunteers and then start running again. Nothing like running with thousands of other like-minded souls. The experience was unique and I am sure every story on the street from this day brings in pride and that of marathon glory. Next time I will make it to a point to hit the 21Kms registration button on time and get some of you lazy bones to train with me too.

The Rise Of Facebook's Valuation From 2004-2011

2011-01-11T09:17:00.001+01:00

How did Mark Zuckerberg retain 26% of equity after so many rounds of financing? Facebook timeline after series of funding...

Source: TechCrunch

Save the tigers

2010-12-27T05:15:00.001+01:00

A recent documentary on animal planet and a campaign awareness program got me gripping and hence I promoting this one...

Telecom analytics continue to play a major role in determining company performance

2010-12-21T23:01:00.000+01:00

Indian Telecom is the fastest growing industry next only to the IT industry. Investment in the Indian telecom sector is forecasted to peak at $40 billion during the current fiscal as the country presses on to build a network of one billion mobile phones over the next two years, the Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council has said. Much of these positive effects and growth of the industry were driven by numerous regulatory and policy changes in the country over the last two decades.

The presence of 15 operators scattered around 22 circles, competing for the pie of the customer market share (CMS) and revenue market share (RMS), is currently driving continual change in the telecom industry. The market is already experiencing high pressure on profit margins and slower revenue growth. In addition to this, the market is already battering major issues in regulation and policy stemming from a possible probe into the 2G spectrum scam that a government audit says was awarded too cheaply losing out a mind boggling figure of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore. While the Public Accounts Committee takes care of the spectrum scam, one can only hope that justice prevails and those found guilty are dragged to the court.

In the meanwhile, operator must continue to focus on new business models and bringing radical changes to the products to improve profitability. Given the nature of the competition, mergers and acquisitions in this industry is inevitable. As market penetration reaches a saturation point, competition for existing customer increases. Further the introduction of the mobile number portability (MNP) and 3G services creates challenges for the operators to retain existing customer, while simultaneously focus on bring on new customers. While the 3G service roll outs would depend on the handset penetration, quality of service and network performances in each of the 22 circles, MNP is here to stay and play a huge part in driving the business operations and services of the operators.

Telecom analytics will continue to play a major driver in understanding the customer base. Understanding prior customer behavior helps a company provide offers that are more personalized and attractive, thus increasing customer loyalty. As the market evolves and new products are launched, analysis becomes critical to understand the tariffs, product and service migrations, customer profitability and loyalty. Telecom data is complex. Companies sweat it out to make sense of data from legacy systems, customer service applications, and thousands of product and activity codes. Further, the complexity is added when drilling down to features, add-on tariffs, bundles and packages. Operators, who are focused on analyzing these trends either through self-managed teams or through outsourced analytics group, would benefit the most in understanding the trends in the market.

The foundation for performing complex analysis is thus based on accurate subscriber metrics. Statistical and predictive behavior modeling form the cornerstone for these data analysis. And the factors that one needs to focus to ensure continuous analysis during the new business launch, joint ventures or acquisitions are flexibility to adjust market changes, scalability to handle large volumes and accommodate growth, compatibility to integrate seamlessly, audit ability and vendor knowledge. The proper understanding of these factors and the appropriate means of addressing them will be critical in determining the winners and losers in the marketplace.

Image Source: Telecomtalk.info, transpromo-live.com

Cash Connections - Who invested in Social Networking??

2010-12-07T13:08:00.001+01:00

Overview of the current strategy consulting landscape

2010-11-22T12:03:00.004+01:00

The consulting industry has evolved significantly over the last few months. In view of the figures sourced from Kennedy Vanguard of Strategy Consulting Firms and Practices, the revenue/ degree of strategic capability figures provides a way to map some of the biggest names in the strategy consulting landscape. Today, consulting firms are experimenting with different delivery models to supply their skills and resources – new markets, talent war, forging alliances, joint ventures etc.

Source: Kennedy Vanguard of Strategy Consulting Firms & Practices, consultancy.nl

Earlier in 2010, AON went about acquiring Hewitt Associates for about $4.9 billion to strengthen its human resource base. Consultancy firms - Booz & Co. and AT Kearney were involved in merger talks, which eventually collapsed. Going by the annual revenues of these two firms the merger would have placed them third in strategy consulting - behind McKinsey & Co. and BCG. After a successful deal structure with Bearing Point’s North American arm, Deloitte were most recently involved in advanced merger talks with Germany’s Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. This deal fell apart on Wednesday 23rd Nov, sighting Roland Berger’s plan to remain independent – gaining a close to 100% majority voting from its partners, as reported by Financial Times. A successful deal between these two firms would have challenged some of the big names in the strategy consulting landscape, clearing creating a global strategy leadership with annual revenues close to $3 billion.

A traditional forecast model cannot predict the future M&A’s as consulting firms are slowly, but steadily coming out of recession. It would however be interesting to see how firms will be looking to adapt from focusing on deals to enjoying a more transformational relationship. For some consulting firms, this means to return to their traditional consulting roots; while for others, the challenge would be to focus on diversification without compromising their reputation and cost base. Success for consulting firms lies in understanding their position within the bubble chart, and the specific threats and opportunities this brings.

Sources: Financial Times, Kennedy Research

Convergence of TV and Internet Services

2010-11-01T11:21:00.000+01:00

Its 8 pm, you are on your way home after a hectic day at office. You are anxiously waiting for the bus to show up, so that you do not miss that crucial world cup match. Chances are - either the bus is overly packed with commuters and you wait your turn for the next one, or the buses are not on time for the umpteenth time. In either case you have no choice but to miss your game. Yet another time, you end up catching the highlights and missing those exciting moments of watching a live match with your friends. Now picture this scenario - yet another match, and you are at the bus stop. This time you do not worry about the bus being packed or being late. You simply take out your Smartphone, get the Wi-Fi in place and connect to your favourite sports channel. Voila - Game on! Hang – on – while some technologically leading markets have already developed this service, we have not yet reached there.

Despite the crisis that swept the entire media & entertainment industry, and especially the television industry, since it draws majority of the revenues from advertising models than subscription models, the Pay-TV segment is enjoying a relatively stable position in the market. The marketability of content today is done in ways to create a new value proposition and to differentiate content offerings. Competition, mainly from the internet world, is slowly, but steadily opening up. Television viewing is undergoing a major change where it is characterized by migration to the Internet. The rapidly changing consumption patterns such as mobile or pay-per-view pose a real threat to the Pay TV operators.

Today, as the laptops, Smartphone’s and tablets become a common place, the viewing habits of consumers have shifted drastically. In what seems to be an unavoidable trend, the TV content is opening up to the web interfaces. Google TV, Apple TV etc. are perfect examples of products involved in merging TV and internet into a single screen and experience (Not to forget Roku, Boxee, and Vudu). Google and Apple are global phenomena with a hell lot of eyeballs, more than any of the Pay TV operating services. With just a click of a button, you can seamlessly search for your TV contents, easily switch between TV and web without actually having to change any input channels and access a vast catalog of contents.

So what makes a good digital content a great content? What gives the consumers the incentive to reach out to their web or the television set each time? The key to understand here would be to see how companies can unlock these questions to come with compelling strategies to compete with vast content libraries, compelling on-demand services and the relatively low pricing offers. No doubt that the underlying drivers behind these opportunity lay the network transformation and other market opportunities - OS-based Smartphone’s, Diversity of communications (p2p, smart grids etc.), trend towards flatter networks, next generation services (analytics, content, security, e-commerce etc.) and new monetization methods. The evolution of new consumption patterns and the freely available contents pose a major threat to the Pay TV segments, and sooner or later they will have to adapt their strategic positioning to strengthen their brand image and attractiveness to consumers. The way we are watching TV today is evolving, and so must Pay TV operators...

Teach A B C the new generation way

2010-10-28T16:26:00.000+02:00

Cheers - "They who drink beer will think beer" - Washington Irving

2010-03-22T00:23:00.000+01:00

Just a month ago I was in a sports bar watching this high profile match between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona in Madrid, Spain. The bar tender was very friendly and he opened up the tap, couple of hours even before the match could start. You see, soccer and beer are two things that go hand in hand. Then, be it a Champions League night or a La Liga or a Serie A – bars are always full and the kegs keep getting empty. I was with random people chanting and trying to match them with Spanish songs. I couldn’t stop noticing how fast the bar tenders were re-fuelling the kegs. So I went upto the bar tender looking for Tapas and asking him about his beer business in general. While I started with his beer business in general, during the conversation, I was made aware about the value of beer industry in Europe, and as I held my pint, I realized that it had tremendous potential post 2010 particularly in the emerging market, as companies look to divest to re-capture their debts while acquiring and partnering with firms.

Image Source: images.allposters.com

Everywhere in Europe I couldn’t fail noticing the top brands like Ab-Inbev, Heineken, SAB Miller, Carlsberg, Asahi, Molson Coors, Diageo, and couple of Indian brands. I just was curious to understand the market, and was quiet astonished that the global beer market was valued approximately at around USD 510 Billion in 2008-2009. Europe accounted for 49.1% of the global beer market, followed by APAC – 22.9%, South and Central America – 8.6%, and MEA – 1.8%. Consolidation in the beer industry has changed the leading company, with AB-InBev becoming the market leader based on sales in 2008, followed by Heineken, pushing SAB Miller down to the third rank. A recent report by market business insights, show that the largest alcohol category will continue to be beer, cider and flavoured alcoholic beverages category, which is projected to reach USD 393 Billion in Europe & US by end of 2010 resulting in an increase of 5% from 2006 to 2010.

Image Source: Stealingshare.com

However, like any industry, the beer industry has its own concerns and issues. Beer is losing market share to wine and spirits, in part due to perceived health benefits from wine and high levels of innovation and premiumization in the spirits market. Growth in beer consumption volumes will be driven primarily by the increase in rising disposable income and beer-consuming population in emerging markets. The alcoholic drinks industry is being increasingly scrutinized by governments who are demanding stricter controls on advertising, and there are also concerns regarding the rising level of obesity in Europe and US. Also rising raw material prices have led global beer companies to increase the price of beer, especially in Europe. The beer brewing process is a very precise and therefore heavily controlled process where the exact amount of ingredients and heat as well as the right timing are crucial to its success. As enormous amounts of waste water and vast energy consumption are main concerns for a brewery, the following seven focus areas provide excellent examples of sustainable process implementation – energy usage, water conservation, recycling, heat recovery, CO2 recovery, transportation, and emissions reduction. A differentiated value proposition and meeting the triple bottom line is something the industry players must look to build on to. Today, there is a greater demand towards ethical products – go green and recyclable are the mantra’s that these companies need to use in their supply chain.

And while I was thinking green, and I was awakened by the roaring Atletico fans as the ball saw the back of the net. Some of the regulars there got free beers, as their bar tender friend was a die-hard Atletico fan. Now I know why this industry is still booming…and as the old saying goes..."Beer needs Soccer and Soccer needs Beer...that's how life goes...". Cheers to that !

Exercising your fingers through Mobile Social Networking

2010-03-12T21:12:00.000+01:00

Gone are the days, when a simple telephony system used to exist, and a single dial would take more than couple of minutes to connect to the other side of the world. I vividly remember getting my maiden mobile phone when I was in my super early 20's. Those were the days, I could afford the bills on my own. Today, technology has improved immensely, and times have changed rapidly. Today, even kids who haven't reached a double digit age mark, have handsets in their pocket. In the 90's, some of these handsets used to be very costly, and only a privileged section (err shall I say - high income?) of the society, made utmost use of its existence. Today, there is a mobile phone for every 1.5 person, and moreover this figure is to further reduce every quarter, as mobile companies fight for a share in the market to improve their ARPU (Average Revenue Per User). While the developed nations have reached the mobile saturation, developing countries are yet to improve upon their customer base, while the least developed nations are yet to explore a lot of uncharted opportunities within their region. I had been travelling around for a while, and as I travel, I keep updating my social networking status to let my close friends know about my whereabouts, and lucky me that the friends I have, I do get calls and I end up meeting them in their town. As people and business move, people are looking for smarter ways of accessing the internet and staying in touch with their clients and dear ones. Today, data services have become the new source of income. There is a huge potential, especially amongst the young segment, which have different ways of communicating and keeping in touch. Today, mobile social networking (SN) is on a rise, given the increase in the number of hits to networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Xing, LinkedIn etc. This new channel of communication in the internet has a huge penetration in young adult segments. More than 68% of young adults in U.S between the age of 18 and 21 reach out to a well known SN site, while a little more than 42% of the adults above 21 in U.S reach out to SN websites. The trend is surely changing. As I was grazing through the websites and reading newspapers, I could see the number of people tweeting, or updating statuses all over the SN websites. What more, just see the uproar that our minister had caused a month ago, because of a tweet. Many studies and papers about communication channels suggest that there is a need and a want for these demographic users to stay connected, have 24 * 7 access to the internet-email-chat-social networking websites. Several handset providers are trying to bring in data services as quickly as possible, with Blackberry and iTouch leading the pack. These handsets still need to further develop the technology in order to meet the customer expectations and deliver the desirable user experience. Both the operators and the handset providers see a great opportunity as well as increased interest amongst the young professionals and teenagers. As technology moves forward, several devices are now internet enabled - the better the quality of the product and superior the functionality of the devices, the expensive these get. Clearly there is a need to have all applications such as Facebook, Yahoo, GChat, E-Mail, YouTube, Google Maps, News Channels, Photo Sharing, Social Networking etc. to promote the usage of the devices on a large scale to the young segment at-least. This will make the customers to up their data traffic usage and hold up an excellent customer experience. The market opportunity is definitely clear, however operators and hand set providers need to be innovative both with their product and marketing techniques for a successful launch. I wish I could have typed this with a Blackberry or a smartphone, that would have been a perfect end to this narration. Well I am yet to experience mobile social networking. Its just that my old cell phone is still loyal and doesn't seem to die of its own...

Points of View

2009-12-23T14:17:00.002+01:00

Going with the wind...

2009-12-22T17:34:00.001+01:00

I have always been fascinated with the way businesses are held these days and the impact they create in the society. Business people all over the world are discovering extraordinary opportunities generated by protecting the nature and more so trying to meet the triple bottom line. Remember the world-wide concern about climate change that resulted in the agreements of Rio de Janeiro (1992), Kyoto (1997), Marrakech (2001), and more recently the Copenhagen deal (2009) aiming to decrease the global greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy is at the forefront of most countries and considered as a long-term alternative to fossil fuel resources, contributing to the security of energy supply. Since the last decades, the interest and political support for electricity generation from renewable sources has much increased.

Source: Vestas.com

Wind power is, together with biomass, the fastest growing renewable energy technology today. Wind is competitive, and companies have reduced the cost of wind power significantly, making it financially sound to increase their modern energy’s share of the world’s energy mix. Wind has jumped ahead of other green energy sources because of innovations in turbine technology. Another reason wind surged to the forefront is because many states passed standards that require that a percentage of the state’s electricity to be made from renewable energy sources. Most countries have defined a goal of putting wind power at the top of the global energy agenda. Electricity from modern energy by 2020 is becoming a reality, and the UN 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen will further consolidate strong growth outlook.

Wind energy technology is developing fast; turbines are becoming cheaper and more powerful, bringing the cost of renewably-generated electricity down. Improvements in wind energy technology mean that the trends which have led to the dramatic fall in the cost of wind energy are set to continue. My vision is that everyone will have a small turbine on the roof of their house the way we had TV antennas in the past. Meeting the triple bottom line in these businesses is both an opportunity and a way of living in a green world. What matters in this industry today is the way production is carried out in a cost-efficient manner and with the use of the modern technology.

You can also follow the post in http://consultingnetwork.co.in/going-with-the-wind/1799/

350 !!

2009-11-17T19:06:00.000+01:00

I hope things are great at the other end of the screen. Recently, I had been dirtying my hands with all the numbers and operations of our business venture, which I hope to blog in the coming days. Going back in time, earlier in August, I opted to apply for this Net Impact project for 350.org, fostering the climate crisis control movement. Nine of IE Business School MBA candidates, together with nine of Kaos-Pilot process design school, defined effective and creative strategy to run the 350 campaign for Madrid on 24^th Oct ‘09, so that the voice of Madrid could be heard in Copenhagen 2009. To start with, 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to build a movement to unite the world solutions to the climate crisis. The focus is on the number 350--as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. But 350 is more than a number--it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.

What is 350 ? - CLICK HERE

In this economic downturn, when every action of the crisis affects every individual and their businesses, people start looking for a great economy and are willing to pay any price to get closer to it. What matters in such situations are the right strategy, success and moreover the right attitude to excel for the betterment of the business and the society at large. It is this thought provoking fact that motivated me to apply for this socially impacting project. This 3-day workshop not only provided me the basic set of skills and tools to overcome my concerns and opinions over the current situation and gain meaningful insights over the way decisions are considered while making business, but also provided me opportunities to share knowledge, and organize presentations on topics related to Marketing and Entrepreneurship to the students. The 3-day friendship, marked with creative and innovative process tools by the Kaos-Pilot team, made me realize the importance of knowledge sharing and networks one can gain. Finally, the day came when a huge group marched towards the Retiro park, and as campaign leaders, organized and mapped the plan to put the image of 350 in the lake nearby. Hop, everyone went, and after 40 minutes of struggle finally managed to form a 3, a 5 and a 0. What was more important in the process was that people within and outside the university, enjoyed thoroughly the activity. Overall, I felt great sense of satisfaction and gave my best to convey the message by putting forth my point of view, giving lectures to students, and learning from them. We played our part from Madrid. Is Copenhagen Listening ??

350 Finally - CLICK HERE

Industry understands of customer requirements in the emerging cloud computing market

2009-09-28T15:46:00.005+02:00

As the underlying concept of Cloud Computing technology relies mainly on user collaboration, it has become even more important for organizations to understand the needs of their clients and the medium to reach their customers and consumers. Below are some comments quoted by industry experts...

"It's become the phrase du jour," says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers.

“2008 will be remembered as the coming-out year for cloud-computing services. I’m beginning to think that 2009 will be best remembered for cloud-computing understanding. I encourage you to get involved.” - James Urquhart

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19413_3-10152106-240.html?tag=mncol

"Cloud computing is emerging as a fundamental change in how IT is managed and delivered," said Dr. Willy Chiu, vice president of IBM High Performance on Demand Solutions. "It is a powerful tool for efficient operations, especially in growth economies."

Source: IBM.com

"Businesses requiring hyper-scale computing environments – where infrastructure deployments are measured by up to millions of servers, storage and networking equipment – are changing the way they approach IT to drive revenue growth and decrease operational expenses,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Dell Product Group.

Source: Dell.com

The following videos in youtube, will give a notion of what cloud computing is, and the general trends by some of the industry experts...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PNuQHUiV3Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJncFirhjPg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg&feature=related

http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=163365

The world of Internet is exploding tremendously. For example ―daily (Google users have created 20 Petabytes of data) or using eBay services (1 Terabyte of logs is created by embay users in 2000 application servers per day.

Source: http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/volume_9/v9i31_delic.html?searchterm=cloud+computing

Cloud Computing has a major role to play in tying up this complicated layout and manage the explosion of data and users. These videos eventually shows how Cloud Computing has evolved from the traditional Application Service provision and support since the last decade.

Time to go cloud...

2009-08-17T07:19:00.003+02:00

As I wander through the streets of Spain, I am ensuring that I am making use of my blackberry to the fullest extent - Chatting with people, Google mapping, Skype calls at the cheapest rate possible, booking tickets, booking my restaurants, storing information etc. – Amazing what it can do for me to move from one city to the other. Innovation is the key driver in Science and Technology, and it never stops at a particular point. Things which were not accessible ten years ago are just few minutes away from access. The Encyclopedia has given way to the Wikipedia. Yes, we are in the Flat World. Flat World is a concept coined by Thomas Friedman, who mentions about access to free information from anywhere in the world and at anytime. This concept has eventually given way to the next big wave in the IT sector - Cloud Computing.

A Cloud is nothing but a reference to the Internet. And the definition of Cloud Computing origins from the fact that technology is used to the fullest extent to manage the business and resources for computing purposes. The cloud is where that data and information are stored and the desktops and notebooks can gain access to these data and information, at any point in time and from any place in this world.

Global competition and business strategies have seen innovative models in this flat world. To be globally connected with your consumers or assume the target segments for your business, it becomes equally important for companies to maintain a transparent business and with huge data centre. Cloud Computing perfectly utilizes the Technology, People and Strategy model, and helps the consumers and customers access the data and information readily and at ease. From an organizational point of view, Cloud Computing will help the customers to control the costs, by improving the performance of the organizations business.

Large corporations and companies use Cloud Computing technologies to communicate with customers and business partners and to encourage collaboration within the company. A number of companies and businesses are looking to understand the working of Cloud Computing and the effects in their business. The costs or the ROI are much higher than the costs of purchasing, developing and maintaining traditional client-server application. According to IBM, cloud computing, or network-delivered services and software, can save customers up to 80% on floor space and 60% on power and cooling costs, and deliver triple asset utilization. Currently, all the big companies are pushing to introduce the concepts of Cloud Computing into the market. Gartner.com and McKinsey Quarterly reports have already stated that Cloud Computing would be the key driver of the business within next five to ten years.

One can find various lists of pros and cons of the concept, but the fact is Cloud Computing is shaping the way users work and interact with information on the Web by shifting focus to the information users. The rising popularity of online ―user-driven services like MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube has brought the Cloud Computing technology into picture. The underlying concept of this technology relies mainly on user collaboration – web services, p2p networking, blogging, podcast, online social networking sites etc. In the long-term, Cloud Computing will be the strategic delivery model for most of the firms and the one’s to benefit the most are the big corporations. Is your business ready for one?

p.s: This article can also be read at http://consultingnetwork.co.in/time-for-businesses-to-go-cloud/1166/

Building your mind map - the first step to your career inroads

2009-08-11T09:16:00.004+02:00

Having lived in Europe for a little over three years, it has been fascinating while at the same time appalling to see the rise of the financial meltdown and more recently the road to its damage control. Fascinating because of the way the entire meltdown proceeded and partly because of the role that bankers from the top schools and firms played in this crisis situation, and appalling because of the effect it had on the various industries, banks and firms – read the pink slips.

While consulting companies in most countries recently were trying to settle down, projects had dried up and people either put on bench, if the firm were able to sustain on their resource investments, or worse shown the pink slip. Despite this, the number of MBA hires is growing strongly, with all size and types of consultancy targeting MBA graduates.

According to the European association of management consultancy in Europe (FEACO.org) there are over 65000 Management Consultancy firms in Europe employing over 350,000 consultants. Despite the downturn, many sectors are still recruiting even though the internships for graduates for this summer were hard to get by. Cost reduction and innovation has made IT Consulting, Operations Management, Marketing and Communications even more challenging and demanding profession. At this juncture it is necessary that the consultants or the MBA graduates understand the different inroads one can make while thinking of a dream career move.

In the first place, is consulting your game? Well it may be if you like long work hours with frequent time-critical decisions, highly competitive environment, moving from one deadline to the other and more importantly traveling. For the few lucky one’s bluffing through the interview to get that high salaried job will only end up lowering your performance and confidence if you are not sure of what you are expecting or anticipating next. Early exposure as an analyst and/or consulting only helps you develop and enhance your functional, technical and soft skills for your long term professional growth. Having involved with clients from a rookie level IT consultant to Project & Team Management roles, I did manage to polish my skills and find the right fit for the projects before embarking on the assignments. After having worked on few start-up business plans, and played my part in few consulting projects, I did realize the importance of understanding the business or the company in advance before picking up any project or assignments. If you already been doing that the you are ready for the next move – research the company that you would like to work with, understand the different sector options and functional roles they have to offer and lastly what you can offer from your experience. While the best experiences are gained through small boutique firms, the best clients to work with come from the Big 4 consulting firms.

You might need to understand what fits you well. Every stage of the company’s application process becomes as equally important as every minute on the football game between Real Madrid and Barcelona. CV’s, CL, Case Studies, Initial interviews, Fit interviews, HR interviews, Partner interviews – all start looking like those challenges you always wanted to jump on just as the athletes would do in the hurdle trainings. CV is the first thing that will land you an interview and one of the biggest challenges that most candidates face – writing the resume. Every CV needs to be tailored to the needs of the company and role and the best bet is to explore the sample CV options that these companies provide, else we always have the option of ‘Google’ing in this flat world. I personally am a huge fan of case studies. While there are no definite solutions to it but it just tickles your brain to define the most suitable solution in a short span of time backed with numbers and analysis. Listening skills, body language, question asking abilities, character – gives you a pint of the gallon of projects that are in store. The basic golden rule like for any game or challenge is to PRACTICE and to PREPARE in advance.

Nostalgic thoughts over Navy Nagar & Sea Cadet Corps

2009-08-05T00:55:00.008+02:00

The 90's were time when jumping down the streets, even though you broke your bones, really didn't matter much. Nostalgia crept in as I got connected with a friend of mine from school.

And as I sipped on the coffee in this hot Madrid weather, reminiscence of the times spent in sailing schools flashed through my mind. We both were associated to the Sea Cadet Corps. Yes the SCC - days of wonder years. For the newbie’s and for the new born tech savvies, Sea Cadet Corps is a non government voluntary youth organisation with honorary officers imparting nautical and allied trainings to boys and girls in the age group of 10 to 18. In conjunction with the Naval Sailing Club, adjacent to Training Ship Jawahar, Sea Cadet Corps was actively involved with the conduct of the 1982 Asian Games Sailing Event, 1987 Commonwealth Regatta, the International Enterprise World Championship in 1991 and the Asian Sailing Regatta in 2004. To cut is short it was all about D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E. That's the perfect 10 lettered word I could think of from my experiences with the Sea Cadet Corps at Navy Nagar in Colaba, Mumbai. Thoughts of those 5th grader boy dreaming of the big submarines flashed by when the life of navy officers and those in the submarine lured me to those dreadful waters and sea monsters. Time dedicated to the likes of discovery channels and encyclopaedia’s from the nearest library trying to grasp what this adventure all meant was all worthily invested. Submarines and sea creatures were my next research. My family has some kind of history serving the country, and perhaps that influenced my decision to join this adventurous training camp. Top Gun, Men of Honor, Undersiege, Down Periscope were some of the "must watch" movies that would pump in those adrenaline to venture out in the sea. I vaguely remember my first interview with Commodore Rabi Ahuja on the Training Ship Jawahar in the year 1993 were he almost made me cry for not using my vocals out loud while addressing and reporting to an officer. AYE AYE SIR! Yes I can still stretch that loud ladies & gentlemen. Officers and cadets are usually used to shouting you see or well let me put it this way, they remain super active and heard when in action. Waking up at 0400hrs Sunday morning, travelling an hour to reach the place before time for a parade that started at 0730hrs. Catching the bus from CST Station (VT then), moving through the silent Sunday morning roads of Fort and bakery lane with several other fellow cadets was not that an easy a task as it first sounded to be. Boy the initial few weeks were tough, as I had never experienced this before, but as the time flew by I got glued to the wonders of the 8's Knot, Sailing, Rowing, the alpha, swimming the ocean - yes I did it in Mumbai between TS Jawahar and the lighthouse :) (well not that mumbai boasts of good sea water, but sure made lot of friends with salt and crabs), beta and gamma's of flag signalling, that blue cadet uniform, that white cadet cap, and the dream of making a four year run for that white officers uniform and the peak cap. The coffee mug is now almost empty and one last sip. The meliorating experiences of swimming in the sea water and those of rowing in TS Jawahar just flashed by. Well I think the basis of my initial personality foundation began with the Sea Cadet Corps - no doubt about that. After all it was all for the love of anchoring in the sea in those manmade machines. Since then the world of computers, consulting and the never-ending business jargons has kept me glued to my current passion. Until next time cadets - Aye Aye Captain!!

The Chiefs, the Soccer and the never say quits attitude !

2009-07-29T14:27:00.006+02:00

The Chiefs: A team of diverse individuals, each with a varying football skill and age level, but with one passion – football.

The Team: G. Davey (C) (Striker/ Midfield - South African/ Oz), D. McGarry (Defence LB - Irish), D. Winckles (Defence LB - British), M. Bekker (GK) (South African), R. Porrua (Midfield - Spanish), N. Saa (Midfield - Italian), A. Rao (Defence RB - Indian), Tanguy De Bock (Striker CF - Belgian), Narcisse (Midfield – Ivory Coast), R. Sharma (Left Midfield - Indian), Tamara Odeh (Defence LB), S. Studer (Right Midfield - Swiss), S. Loeschner (Defence CB - German), Al Faisal (Striker - Kuwait)

The Chiefs were a team formed during the IE Football League 2008-2009 and consisted of MBA students from IE Business School (mostly from class of 2009). The Chiefs were never the favourites in the first place, but their craving for fitness and playing football marked them a rank higher, despite losing most of the matches in season 1, although season 2 was no different. While if season 1 was all about forming and gelling as a unit, season 2 was finding the right form and putting in strategy. Ever heard of the “I quit” syndrome? Well the “I/We quit” virus never hit The Chiefs. This team always learnt their lessons from what they did, but unfortunately ended up in the drudges in some of the matches mainly due to fitness. The truth is losing builds character. Only then getting out of the bed requires courage and persistence. Then you call them that these people are born winners. However, The Chiefs never gave up, and each player would turn out to the field every weekend, with full enthusiasm, trying to win those 40 minutes, peak their fitness amidst heavy academic and internship workloads. This has only helped the team to train towards positive thoughts and deeds as the captain Gareth Davey would put it every weekend. If I could rightly put it on behalf of the team, this league was an unending journey of friendship, people, challenges, beers and hurdles, but most importantly of fruitful completion. The Chiefs knew who they were and celebrated for what they were, a team with an ability and passion to think, act, live and most importantly enjoy each game. Kudos to the chiefs...

“When you become a “chief”, you learn the hard way. No glory, no prestige, no victories, no loyal supporters, some deserters in search of better prospects…To those of you who courageously run yourselves into the ground every weekend and wear our colours with pride, here is my appreciation and admiration - “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”” – Rene Porrua

“A diverse group of chaotic-minded people who pretend to know all about soccer magic and Gijon's soccer tactics while performing theatre-like pedantic shows every Sunday for the benefit of their weak bodies and opponents. They perform well under adverse conditions, especially snow blizzard, and love to punctuate a season with cherry-like cartoon inspired Peléistic stunning goals. In brief, they are the indispensable free-running electron of a system that is in need of dreams. Chiefs, make the dream happen!” – Tanguy De Bock

“I see the individuals coming back every weekend, trying to play, trying to win, trying to run and trying to score. Looking back we would be proud that we never quit and kept trying. That’s Chief!!” – Anand Rao

“P.S. in London this weekend (again)” – Tamara Odeh :)

Telecom in Spain (2009)

2009-07-03T20:02:00.004+02:00

As of 2008, the Spanish Telecom market accounted for around 11.7% of the overall telecom service revenues amongst the ten largest countries in Western Europe. Currently the Mobile penetration and the Cable internet services have triggered the market for triple play, Video-on-Demand, and other IP-delivered offers, and despite being under recession until the first half of 2010, Spain will see boom of the telecom market over the next five to seven years, when its GDP is expected to double. According to data reports on GDP and Telecom sector trends, it seems that the GDP and Telecom growth complement each other. According to Spain’s telecom regulator, Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (CMT), Spanish households will move away from traditional fixed line services to other high speed - low cost services by 2023. Where the fixed line services are decreasing in line activations on one hand, with only Telefónica as a leading player, the MVNO’s are leading the mobile VoIP in Spain. As a service provider, the best strategy in this downturn would be to focus on Customer with prime focus on quality while simultaneously moving into trends of introducing innovative features or products, with a low cost strategy. Companies are also making inroads for low cost network and IT service vendors, in order to cut costs, especially in the test, support, and design of the billing, order management, CRM applications etc. It might also be interesting to see how companies can target independent content providers for data provisioning services.

The summary is based on the various news and trends seen in this sector. Image courtesy: Telecom.es

Entrepreneurship in cross-cultural environment

2009-05-25T16:48:00.006+02:00

The positive aspects of working in cross-cultural environment are always astonishing. The ideas and the thought process that people bring on the table is mesmerizing. At IE Business School, we are always made to think entrepreneurial, be it case-studies or idea suggestions – opportunities in abundance. My entire March and April was tied up with Wharton GCP and Nipponica, an IT Venture Consulting start-up firm. Nipponica was a seed plan that provided consulting services to entrepreneurs/ companies in Japan with high-technology business models helping them with their start-ups. After all this is what is required in this uncertain economy and period of unemployment – to create opportunities. Nipponica offered a reliable, high-quality alternative to in-house resources for business development, market development, and channel development. Working with 3 financials experts coming from Italy, France and Japan, with a marketing expert from Venezuela, with an 15+ years experienced Indo-US combo and including self in the team was a tremendous learning experience. Language barriers and working methodology, given the fact that different people came from different backgrounds and had their own working style, at times took its toll on the team, but none that could possibly stop the team from delivering high-quality plan backed by sound research work. Overall the quality of learning, documentation and presentation were maintained at its highest level. Kudos to team Nipponica (2009)!! After Nipponica, I have now moved on to two different ventures, looking to create inroads with some of my Latin American friends in launching MVNO'S and building CSR's. Hoping for an entrepreneurial and eventful 2009 :)

Wharton GCP 2009...six months of hardwork paid-off !!

2009-05-25T16:28:00.007+02:00

The Wharton Global Consulting Practicum (GCP) is a cross functional course given within the curriculum of the Wharton M.B.A. and its associate partner school program (IE Business School in my case). Established in 1978, this unique program pairs teams of Wharton M.B.A. students and faculty with teams from partner universities (in Chile, China, Colombia, India, Israel, Peru, Spain, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates with pilot projects in Africa) to consult with a client company (either profit making or non-profit social impact) interested in entering or expanding its position in the U.S. market, or somehow leveraging a relationship with North America. The goal of the program is two-fold: to provide exceptional learning value to the students and innovative, operational plans which add value to real-time clients. (Reference: http://mktgweb.wharton.upenn.edu/gcpcourse/index.html)

As an IE Business School IMBA 2009 candidate, I was privileged to have gotten this opportunity to address the client concerns and open up opportunities by debating and discussing with 9 other team members, each coming from a different background, culturally and professionally, for over six months. Our professional network included MBA's and teaching faculties coming from different industries, business types and geographies. The part-time strategic consulting program assisted me immensely in developing strong networks while also building onto the lessons from the different classes we undertook during our first two term, coupled with the business experience that each of the team members brought on to the table. After six months of hard work the Spaniards finally gave their shot at Wharton Business School in May 2009 (and my first visit to the states), showcasing their findings and studies to the client, thus building onto their reputation with strong bring alive and networking events. It was a journey well travelled in the past 6 months - smart work, time-management, Lots of research and entrepreneurial spirit. In the end that's what was needed!! If you are a future GCP candidate, who just happened to read this page, well this real-time consulting project is all about smart working leadership, team work, time-management and understanding your objective from this project.

To sign off, the 30th GCP gala started off with the Keynote speaker Jill Beraud WG '86, GCP Alumnus and Worldwide Chief Marketing Officer, PepsiCo. All GCP Friends, Alumni, Clients, Spouses and Partners from different countries participated in this event helping GCP celebrate its rich history. I finally had an opportunity to meet Mr. Len Lodish, a well known and renowned marketing professor at Wharton B-School and chairman of GCP program. It was an eventful evening with my strategy professors Mr. Rafa Ruiz and my mentor Mrs. Carolina Tejuca. Attached is the snapshot of our team that seen the ups and downs of consulting program (Cheryl, Shreyans, Anubha, D’laila, Jody are missing).

IESE Spring Fling 2009

2009-04-12T03:59:00.005+02:00

The IESE Spring Fling 2009 tournament, where business meets sports, was a chance or rather an excuse for the IE Cricket team to regroup, network and enjoy the beautiful city of Barcelona after weeks of tight classes and deliverables. The IE Cricket Team prior to the tournament practiced with the Madrid Cricket Club (MCC), affiliated to International Cricket Council, and held a practice match which consisted of players from different parts of the world. Come 28th of March and we were in rainy Barcelona. IE Cricket team went along with two teams, and it was a tournament with 6 teams. 2 from IESE Business School, 2 from IE Business School, 1 from INSEAD Business School, and 1 from ESADE Business School. It was drizzling throughout as we started preparing for our opening game and this discouraged our team to an extent. The fact that Cricket and rain don’t gel with each other as does in Rugby/ Football put us in two minds whether to go ahead with the play. It was a wonderful atmosphere and despite the bad weather all the teams agreed to play and enjoy. There was a slight delay and the weather looked dull. With slight drizzle around the park the umpires decided to start the play. We started off our opening game with ESADE. Some superb team work and collective batting and fielding helped us chase the scores, but in vain. The team lost marginally with just 5-6 runs to win in the end in a high scoring match. Later we went onto play against IESE – a do or die game, and yet again we managed to hardly disturb their batting line up. Regardless, the team held their heads high and went along to party with other members after the tournament. Barbeque, drinks, people. A wonderful networking event for most of us and the one each one of us was eagerly looking forward for. And that’s when we thought - Match on!! For IE Cricket Team –It’s all about people...

Jaago Re !!

2009-04-12T03:20:00.013+02:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXWdhB1xYic

Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign has made voter registration really simple. A powerful campaign with powerful tools and messages. Jaagore is about creating awareness amongst the Youth, people who have never excercised voting and also a way to educate voters at all levels. I believe Jaagore is not about voters registration. To me its a matter of making people realize on how they act to improvise the system. How many of us really know that the number of youth legally entitled to vote (18-30 years) is around 30%. For the matter of fact until I received my first voters card years ago, even I was not aware. The campaign for the first time in India is making use of the online registration form and helps register your name within 5 mins. It helps understand the different constituency and updates with the latest happenings around. After all education, health, slums, rains, draughts, food, riots, poverty, modernization, youth power...everything needs a change or rather improvement. Our votes can't bring a drastic change, but atleast can act as a stepping stone in making some change happen. Each vote is crucial. That doesn't mean to wake up and just go and vote. Gain the knowledge of all the candidancy within your constituency who will be standing for elections. Now-a-days the general elections also publish the records of each of these candidates. So all information is infront of us. It's upto each individual to make use of it. It's our right to decide whom we vote and how we can help improve the system. Understanding the ideology of the parties and the individuals representing the party is one way and the best way to do it.

Chart your journey and excercise your right to vote.
No Vote - No Say !! - Vote today, don't curse tomorrow...

Sacche ko chune - acche ko chune - Aamir Khan's election awareness campaign commercial

References (All about general elections 2009) : http://pib.nic.in/elections2009/default.asp

Campaign against Criminals in Politics (Contains list of some MP's with criminal background) : http://www.nocriminals.org/

Learn more about the main parties: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9240158-251f-11de-8a66-00144feabdc0.html

...IT Outsourcing & Trends - The Closure

2009-02-05T00:32:00.004+01:00

As it just got interesting, I decided to finish this blog with some research comments and give my opinion to the HECian Strategic Consultant I met. We had debates and arguements, all moving in the positive direction, talking about how the future trends could be shaped up. Taking these information into account as well as the market research work from various sources, I recommended and stressed on the following points as the key trends in the near future for IT Outsourcing to my HEC network.

IT Outsourcing could reach USD $ 200 Billion by 2010.
Of 25 Global “Breakout” companies identified by Fortune Magazine in 2005, 22 are in IT and Bio-Tech.
The list of 10 richest people in the world in 2006, 6 came from IT or invested in IT and bio-tech area.
Information Technology can create more jobs than other fields. One job in IT can facilitate more than 25 jobs growth in other areas.
IT workers in China & India are pushing their regional economic levels to new highs.
Asia’s IT outsourcing business continues to grow > 20% annually
Russia’s outsourcing business predicted to grow a little over 30% in 2007 and could compete with leading IT giants in India & China within next few years

One thing is for sure...information technology is everywhere and the outsourcing trend is here to stay. You cannot just ignore it. The important point is that how you embrace the technology and based on the business model, use it to make your business much more profitable and reachable to the different consumers. With IT, it's a matter of winning in this Flat Flat World. After all it brings in the global competitiveness. It is a major force that can help you change your business as well as to adapt your business globally. IT outsourcing trend will continue to increase due to business conditions (e.g. cost, quality, skills, access to market). Some companies will move fast in the value chain and occupy a key advantage in IT industry. Companies that prepare to do business globally will succeed when others may fail - in the long term. Continuous education & training are the keys to succeed in the fast changing Outsourcing world.

I hope the experience of this conversation was informative to some extent, atleast it helped me reach my audience at HEC academic management, as I went on to meet the director of Fortis to discuss on more current issues and global concerns. I also remember having similar conversation with a Economics professor of the Said Business School, until I met the representatives of IE :)

...IT Outsourcing & Trends in Asia Pacific and Europe

2009-02-05T00:12:00.002+01:00

I think I just couldn't wait any more, so decided to do immediate research on this topic. I started pondering on how things started working for each of the countries in Asia Pacific, Western and Eastern Europe. So I came up with the following SWOT analysis (Source of research from Carnegie Mellon University Benchmarking Study):

What does the Asia Pacific Region offer in Outsourcing?

Some of the fastest growing software industry in the world are located in Asia
Growth rate > 35% annually over the past 5 years
Highly educated & motivated workforce (India, China, Japan ...)
Strong engineering & manufacturing focus (Japan, S. Korea, China)
Well-established infrastructures (Japan, S.Korea, China)
Strong government support (S.Korea, China, Singapore)
Many countries have adopted “India’s IT Model” as the growing vehicle for economic prosperity
Highly entrepreneurial & innovative
Some countries are well adapted to global business but many are still experiencing language and cultural issues
Some geo-political risks

What does the Western Europe offer in Outsourcing?

Software industry is steady at > 8 % growth rate annually
Highly educated in some areas (Ireland, UK, Scandinavia)
Strong engineering & telecommunication focus
Very protective of legacy systems & applications
Governments are still the largest consumption of software
Very high overhead cost due to bureaucracy & liberal laws
Outsource “near-shore” to Eastern Europe
Culturally diverse (languages, legal, business practices etc.)
Economic polarization – some fare better than others
IT Polarization: Scandinavia and Ireland are very active where France and Italy are more conservative
IT education in many countries is slow to catch up with fast technological changes
High unemployment among the younger generation

What does the Western Europe offer in Outsourcing ?

Software industry is growing fast but still immature
Highly educated & large untapped talent pool
Strong mathematical focus, limited practical experience
Lack IT infrastructure & support environment for global business
Governments are the largest consumption of software
Low labor cost but not well managed
Receive outsourcing works from Western Europe > USD $ 500 Million
Culturally diverse (languages, legal, business practices etc.)
Economic uncertainty due to growing pains – change is difficult
Political uncertainty - Several social models and directions resulting in high risks business environments
High unemployment among IT labor force - Most skilled workers left for Western Europe – significant “Brain Drain”
Limited project management & relationship management skills

More on Trends and final closure comments in the next blog...

IT Outsourcing & Trends

2009-02-04T22:19:00.005+01:00

I was very impressed with the way the Information System classes concluded at IE Business School for the first term (Nov '08 - Feb '09). Working as an IT/Telecom /Travel Services Consultant for the past five years, I had to constantly deal with the concept and the modelling of the offshore-onsite model, also known as Outsourcing/Offshoring. So before the economic downturn officially came into picture I was researching on the different trends in outsourcing, and how it is being perceived especially in the western and eastern europe, taking into account the different unions and regulations these countries have. Before I joined IE Business School, I had met with one of the Strategic Consultant from HEC Paris somewhere in 2007 and he sort of interviewed me on why people go for MBA and as well opened upto what he intended to do after the life as a consultant. He was seeking opinions on outsourcing some part of his business, and this is were I thought I was good at. Taking in numbers through my experience.

We all know, earlier it was the pre-historic man who took charge of the world by looking for food and shelter. Somewhere between 5,000 BC and the 18th Century (I would like to call it as the "Agricultural" period), it was the Kings, land owners, emperors seeking to conquer land and crops and build onto their assets. Between the 18th Century and the 20th century began the industrial period. Factories adn equipments came into picture. OIL, Steel, Finance were teh key jargons then. And then finally the technological age, skills, knowledge, talent, people and process. Software Entrepreneurs and Technologists were on a roll. (Lets learn and forget the .com bubble burst here :)) This is were Outsourcing, along with various other technology and concepts, kicked in.

So I thought, what can I offer him for his business. I started noting key requirements and started making some suggestions on the regions he can start picking up on. So the IT Outsourcing market increased 80% from USD $19 Billion in 1999 to more than USD $100 Billion in 2006 according to the sources from IDC http://cdn.idc.com/. The IT outsourcing market was lead by India with 45% of the outsourcing market share, 18% to Canada & Europe, 18% to China, 8% to Russia & E. Europe, 6% to South America, and 5% to Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines) (Say the sources of University of Michigan Business School)

More on the research in the next blog...

The perfect role model

2009-01-20T03:11:00.007+01:00

While the Satyam debacles unfold, people are looking upto the big guns and their role models for their expert opinions. Hope no more surprises in the closet, no more role models going down. I think we are all shaped by our environment. Right from school I was deeply influenced by my teachers and parents. They brought out the best in me. As an aspiring IT Consultant, no other role-model in this field had come as close to Mr. NR Narayana Murthy, now the caretaker of Infosys Technologies Ltd and Infosys Consulting. And he still is the one I would look up to. A man is admired when you feel alive and active in his presence. Hailing from a middle class family, NRN has always made it a point to lead by example. “NRN” as most Infoscion’s address him, embodies the qualities most business leaders, like me, aspire for. Blending old-fashioned values with visionary thinking, NRN has come to define the standards of personal integrity and corporate governance for India Inc.
This is where the likes of Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Dhirubhai Ambani, Vijay Mallya and NRN built the fame of India Shining and put India on the global map for others to follow. These are how the legends made of. For the past two decades, Murthy has led the IT charge for India as co-founder and CEO of Infosys. After handing over the operational reins of Infosys, Mr. Murthy now spends most of his time traversing the globe serving on the boards of organizations and premier business schools such as Wharton and the Tuck School of Business in New York, and hobnobbing with heads of state on world affairs. NRN is an optimistic, a fighter and one who can stand up against all odds, and this notion I acquired during one of his speech in Infosys, Pune. I had my share of interaction with him, and it was nothing more than a victory to me, than to be asking questions to my childhood hero and one of India’s leading industrialist. With a squeaky clean image and impeccable credentials, NRN is to me, along to billion others, is a perfect role model not only within the business community, but outside it as well. His entrepreneurial thinking, perseverance and simplicity are the qualities I hope to emulate.

More about Mr. Murthy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._R._Narayana_Murthy

Satyam Shivam Sundaram...

2009-01-17T20:52:00.006+01:00

Satyam Shivam Sundaram, which means a beautiful truth in the form of God, was an below average 1978 bollywood movie which faced critiques and initial hiccups to get through the censor board. But this was not the case for a company "Satyam". Start of 2009 saw the chairman and chief executive of one of India’s biggest outsourcing groups, Satyam Computer Services, confess to fixing the company’s books in a $1bn fraud described as the country’s “Enron”. This had taken the entire India Inc by surprise and comes as a shock to many. Once a role model and hero for many in the end turned out to be a fraud. The shareholders, clients and more importantly the earnings of 50,000+ employees were at stake. As the satyam fraud started unfolding, more and more people started coming into the picture. PwC the auditor of the firm, were immediately taken out and KPMG and Deloitte where assigned the necessary roles. How can one man create such a huge mess and get unnoticed? I am sure the story goes beyond that !!

Is money everything? It's a debatable topic, but yes money is important. Common lets be honest - it's a means of living. I set out to question what the hell money is and what it does to the different classes of people. I set out to find out what other people thought about all this. I set out to prove that there was something to be learnt by looking at all this closely. How do we ensure that Ethics in decision making, Character Ethics and Corporate Governance are always maintained at highest levels? Even incentives will eventually involve money, but will that stop from cases like Enron, Bofors Scandal, the Satyam debacle to occur?! The point to ponder on is how do you and we all in this society would act to this situation.

Leading by example...

2009-01-15T00:10:00.005+01:00

First and foremost - Wish you a prosperous new years !!
While I worked and still work in large teams, and that I debated with some of my colleagues on the pros and cons of leadership, I decided to take this topic for the new year. Enjoy :)

As Mr. N.R. Murthy the founder and now the caretaker of Infosys, said, Leadership about leading by an example. as a leader of a large group of diverse people I tried to work within the framework of this adage. I believe that leading by example is about being first. For instance, if you want trust, be trusted first, if you want pro-activity, be proactive first, if you want timelines, be on-time first, and this I learnt during my stint when at times due to hectic work timings I was at times not able to be with the team on time for an early morning breakfast or coffee. For me, Leadership is about showcasing part of who I am. My parents have always put a strong emphasis on education and ethics. Throughout my personal and professional life, I had always maintained a very strong belief in doing what was ‘right’ and tried to operate within a personal framework that was honorable to this.

In the middle of my first project with with a travel & tourism company, I went through a significant failure that stretched the process of analysis and unnecessarily delayed the schedule of the software delivery. In laying down the conceptual framework, I was at times tempted to teach the team shortcuts to meet the deadline. In any project, process adherence will take a beating if you do not have adequate duration available. But as a group, the team worked together well – we debated, we confronted, we learned, but we never compromised on Process.

My ex-employer (from 2003-2008) has always followed the highest standards of corporate governance. Today every action of the company is the focus of public attention. My challenge was to continue maintain that standard as the company competed globally, and even after my departure, I still practice to do so. The experience today has been rich, which has helped me quickly organize the tasks and resources the team required. After all implementing the values and maintaining enthusiasm among team members are the two most important goals that a team leader has to set.

Me, My friend and some rapid fire questions to the President !!

2008-12-25T04:17:00.004+01:00

Every week I attend network gatherings, and when I mention I am from Mumbai, India - there's a sorry reaction. People at times ask me about the situation - tourist per se as well as from political perspective. And I more than welcome then in explaining them of do's and don'ts of travelling.

India has a long history of extreme weather patterns. Any adverse affect of the climate change would indirectly impact the Indian economy. The current political situations at the national level revolve more around terrorism and development of the nation. I am sure there would be 'n' number of blogs on this topic already, and being a idealist and sort of capitalist, I would like to view the leaders of my country being more pro-active and sensible in their approach towards policy making.

More recently my entrepreneur friend at IE Business School questioned me about global warming, setting up a firm in India and how I would address the issue to the President/ Prime Minister of the country if I had a chance to meet them for only 5 mins. Well that was a test and a teaser sort from my friend. Also, this made me wonder that the development versus environment debate makes it much more difficult for the environmental issues to come to the centre stage of any political agenda. Global warming is very essential, environmentally, politically and economically. I firmly believe that the political leaders should come forward to stabilize greenhouse gases using stringent national policies and effective market mechanisms, like moving away from consumption or focus on sharing resources, thus looking forward to remodel our world.

If I had the opportunity to meet the president or the prime minister, I would like to ask her/him about the environmental policy - asking her/him about Global warming and what will it take to implement a cure that is actually more costly than the original affliction? Why that global warming is not discussed with an open attitude, so that the budding entrepreneurs can carefully view their investments to avoid making big and costly mistakes or any repetitive mistakes? It is just not a matter of choosing the optimal economic path, but rather decide what kind of society we would like to live in.

With this meeting I would listen, question and offer my opinions. Finally I would like to take a photograph of the two of us, with an autograph on it, to make me realize that yes it all happened!! My friend was more or less convinced with my 5 min approach, but couldn't stop laughing on the photography statement. Well, not daily you get to meet big personalities - right ?

If you haven't Failed, you haven't Learnt...

2008-11-29T21:00:00.006+01:00

My most memorable and enduring learning experiences have stemmed from suffering the consequences of my own mistakes, and those lessons have shaped me into the person I am today.

In any project, process adherence will take a beating if you do not have adequate duration available. I experienced a similar situation during the middle of my first project in 2004, where I went through a significant failure that stretched the process of analysis and unnecessarily delayed the schedule of the code delivery. In laying down the conceptual framework towards defining the coding and analytical process, I was at times tempted to teach my team shortcuts to reach the deadlines.

I have learnt that we are all susceptible to failures; success is a result of persistence and discipline. Years later, the self confidence I gained through these results helped me to overcome a very different type of challenge, and thus any problematic behavioral aspect has gradually given way to the acceptable working style. I learnt to lead the hard way.

I am passionate about things that count, and let go of things that doesn't. It just makes it easier for me. This way I accept the good and eliminate the bad. I have had many a role models who have simply shown me the way to react to each failing and succeeding situations. Be it hot shots like Mr Narayana Murthy (Infosys), Sachin Tendulkar (God of Cricket), Michael Jordan (NBA), Armstrong(Cycling) and be it some of my mentors like Pete, Kunla, or Ranjy (name changed). The list might just go on, as you learn mistakes of each person. Michael Jordan has always been my inspiration, you might be the best, you might do things in a wrong way and still fail. I always had this poster of his on my desk.

How do Entrepreneurs succeed, cause they have failed at many a points in their lives. They learn and learn. Their passion for their work and attitude towards lives just helps them to be back on their feet to keep going. Yes we all fail at some point in our lives , but as long as we learn, we have succeeded with what we want to achieve. I learnt that it becomes equally important to embrace failure and move on in life with a smiling attitude. Ask yourselves, do you feel that you have it in you to stand tall to the obstacles in life ?

Mera Desh Mahan !!

2008-11-18T11:10:00.006+01:00

Dear readers, as I already mentioned I happened to enroll to a MBA program with one of Europe’s prestigious school which is known for Diversity, Networking and various fields of specialization. More recently I had sessions on Culture involving India during my Launch program. I had the ambassadors of India in Spain as the guest faculty giving speech to the class over the Indian culture. Being in a business school, probably my expectations were more towards having a session on doing business in India, but I was wrong, the session was more to do with what India had to offer in terms of Culture and Heritage. I must appreciate the guest speakers to have summed up Indian culture in an hour and half, because personally speaking, it’s not easy to describe any culture for that matter in a gist. The topic varied from mythological epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata (two of the oldest, longest and most read Epic in India) to dance and modern art. For me it was a re-cap of what was learnt during my primary schooling. It just reminded me of those exciting days of History class where I graze through books and through encylopedia (I was a big fan). Also during my stay in Brussels, many of my colleagues as well my client managers used to ask me regularly about India. It was really amusing to hear stories from colleagues and friends who visited India and how they perceive the culture, people and country. For those who have not visited India, let me tell you, it would be best to read stories and articles over the place and the state you intend to visit. Because each part of India has completely different culture, transportation system, work culture, food options etc. For me, it’s a pleasure as an Indian, to introduce my home country to newcomers! And I must say that in the event, India is certainly one of the richest countries, in terms of how diverse the regions are and what contrasts it offers. A walk through the “Golden Temple” in Amritsar, to the “Taj Mahal” in Agra; the “Red Fort” in Delhi to the beautiful “Beaches” in Goa; history has peppered India with magnificent ruins.

Incredible India

Picture Courtesy: http://promote-my-site.com/images/india_map.jpg

All the states are well-served by public transport and enjoy a rich, diversified commercial activity, not to mention the numerous eateries ranging from “Vada Pav” in Maharashtra to “Dosa” in Tamil Nadu, which welcome gourmets and gluttons alike. The quality of housing and the diversity of various neighborhoods are another asset to the country. The presence of plentiful sports infrastructures and multi-cultural facilities contributes to the quality of life of everyone who finds that this environment offers all the services they need for their own personal fulfillment. India is a country with many faces, from rags to riches and one which is filled with even more treasures, with great unifying events such as the cultural festivals, the trendy restaurants or the remarkable monuments. Poverty has always been the downside, but its upto the people and society to eradicate them. I was able to play my part via Infosys foundation activities, perhaps which was just a water drop in the ocean, and might not be enough. But each one of us contributing, it will definitely be a great step towards mankind.

I have always been a globe trotter and bag packer. I like travelling places, understand different culture, meet new people. I have travelled to a little more than 20 cities within India. One of the most exciting places that I enjoyed was with my parents and relatives visiting the enchanting Backwaters in God’s own country – Kerala in the 90’s. Land and water share an extraordinary kinship here in the “Venice of the East”, throbbing with its own unique culture. The site continues to bask in the tender life giving care of the waters that lap gently on its coast, cascade down its hills and valleys and rests calmly in exotic backwaters and lagoons. Think about the gorgeous greens, the canopies of coconuts and the soothing sound of water rippling alongside the houseboat–all these elements help to forge the identity of a place which is open to the world and, in my view, perfectly encapsulate the delights of the life in this part of the world.

I need not mention in detail on doing business in India, as already the rest of the blogs might cover the contents and the various business models I came across with the firms I was associated with. So, come to India and experience an unforgettable journey, along the tranquil backwaters of Kerala, to the ruins of Ajanta and Ellora in Mumbai, to Fatehpur Sikhri and to view one of the Seven Wonders of the World – The Taj Mahal.

Backwaters Picture Courtesy: rarepicsaroundtheworld.blogspot.com

Organizing and Team Work - All in the Game of Cricket !!

2008-11-14T15:06:00.009+01:00

All work and no play make Andy a dull boy. Yes, and that’s the reason why I was away from the blog for a while. I recently quit my organization to further my skills with a leading Business School in Europe (IE Business School, Madrid, Spain). I will come to that in the later sections of my blog. However, coming back to Team Work, I must say I have had some roller-coaster ride both professionally and personally. Let me start with a description of this beautiful game of Cricket played in Belgium, a country which has been recently promoting Cricket in the region.

The Event: 8 corporate teams, 2 spots in the finals, 1 Crown - all battling it out over the weekends after rigorous working hours for the sweet spot. The league started at the end of June 2008 and lasted for a month with all matches being played during weekends, involving 15 matches. The prize money for the league and the Trophy for the winners were up for grabs.

Participating Teams:
Group A: Belga X (Belgacom Team A), Royal Super Kings (Proximus Team A), TCS, Girish’s 9 (Proximus Team C)
Group B: MindIT (Belgacom Team B), Ramki’s 9 (Proximus Team B), The Invincibles (LG), Telenet
Each team had around 12 participants (as 11 is usually the number of people on the field). This way more than 80 people participated in the event.

Management Lessons Learnt: Organizing an event on a big scale, managing the resources, co-ordination, team work, authority, team disputes, time management, decision making, dedication, passion, focus etc. I think I was able to cover almost all aspect of a management lesson outside of the work place. And hence I decided to share something which is not based on work but on co-curricular where you see regular team activities and are able to apply the management concepts.

Planning: I think one of the key aspects of the event was planning. The objective of the event was to bring as many people under a single forum as possible. This way networking is on a high, people are able to demonstrate skills outside of their work environment, and most importantly a way to remain fit. With this me, along with 3 other colleagues of mine started planning, and it was within 3 days, despite our tight schedules, that we finalized the plan, materialized over the resources, prize money, and registration and so on. It was no less than organizing a session and getting a speaker to visit the company or school. The time and energy put up by each one of us can be complicated with the passion each one had for the game as well as for networking.

Resources: After planning stage, this stage was very painful for the organizing team. Taking into account that the organizers had no $$$ cash for big spending, having the right finances was of utmost importance. With this the organizers had numerous brainstorming sessions, and ultimately came with a budget with which both the organizers and players were content. Getting the sports materials, hiring the internal resources for umpiring and organizing various things, prize money and post event party – everything was well planned. It was just a matter of execution.

Time-management: I believe this area was one of the poorly hit, in the sense that getting the organizers and players on time to the playing ground, and also considering the tight schedule at work place. As an organizer one hates to wait long hours for participants, in this case we gave some considerations based on the project releases that the team had, but at the same time we also ensured that the teams were penalized for any mis-conduct.

Team Work: As I mentioned already, the team work and co-ordination between players, between the organizers and both between the players and organizers were the key drivers of the event. Without this it was hard to ensure a very successful event. During the event, I also happened to be a part of team–disputes, but despite that the smoothness in the team co-ordination was ensured, and event was successful. The dispute arose due to the time-management process, and later the organizers learnt the lesson and quickly learnt and reacted over the same in other matches.

Decision Making: As a part of the resource planning, the departments were set. Each person was given an authority in the respective departments. Key people were identified. After a point, the organizers never had to rely on any SPOC’s, since everyone in the organizing board ensured the event was a grand success.

I believe the focus, dedication and passion towards the game drove the complete event. Even the losing participating teams enjoyed the game of cricket and supported the event until the finals. Many a lesson learnt, many a friends made, many a network developed. The objective was achieved!!

Gist of the event and Match Summary:
Belga X romped to a victory over TCS by 6 wickets to clinch the inaugural Belgian Premier League. An electrifying contest between two well-balanced sides was in the writings when table toppers Belga X took on the confident TCS in the Finals of the first Belgian Premier League at Schuman Park, Merode, Brussels on Sunday.

TCS, who were made to bat first by Belga X, made the lowest score of their tournament 61/8 before seeing the end of 16 overs. TCS started off positively with runs coming from all ends until Belga X took the much needed wicket of one of their key batsmen. TCS kept losing wickets at regular intervals after their opening batsmen failed to give them a good start with Belga X bowlers capitalizing on the crucial wicket. TCS set a target of 61 in 16 overs for Belga X, which the champions managed to convincingly reach with the loss of 2 wickets. TCS did not bowl that badly; nor were they slow in the field and this was evident from some quality fielding and fine bowling by TCS. Belga X were simply irresistible. For the most part Belga X looked on in admiration during an opening partnership between Anand and Yatin. TCS managed to bounce back within few minutes by grabbing two wickets of the openers, but it was too late in the day to stop Belga X from winning the tournament. TCS should have put the game way beyond the reach of any good side after Belga X had won the toss and put TCS to bat. But the team that held its nerves better and grabbed chances was the team that saw through the tournament.Belga X continued it's winning streak this season by grabbing the 1st edition of the Belgian Premier League 2008 Corporate Challenge trophy in style by beating TCS convincingly on the Schuman Park ( SCG ) in what was a completely one sided-affair.
The Champions lifted the trophy in style while also grabbed the cash prize , while TCS lifted the runners up trophy as well as the case prize. The tournament got the farcical final it deserved, and all praises to the participating teams, the supporters and the organizers who owed more than this. It proved to be a showpiece to say a more dignified victory.

Cheers...

Comments from writers:
Rajarshi Guin, Senior Software Consultant and Writer of Infosys Newsletter - guin.rajarshi@gmail.com

"Arre yaar chalo ek cricket tournament karte hain", said a cricket enthusiast in Hindi (National language of India). But this was not just some casual coffee break comment. What followed was a herculean effort from the Belgacom team members, who got together, brainstormed for many hours and in less than 2 weeks managed to organise for the first time in Brussels the Belgium Premier League Cricket Tournament. And no, this was not just any cricket tournament, with 8 teams from all over Belgium, their supporters and guests, this event brought together close to a 100 people from Infosys, TCS and LG. Bright sunny days and curious Belgian spectators at the Schuman Cricket Ground made for a picture perfect start. Fourteen fiercely fought battles and four weekends later TCS took on Belga X (Infosys Belgacom) for a shot at glory. Dubbed the "Clash of the Titans", Belga X, however, had other plans. They wasted no time as they romped home to a 6 wicket victory, leaving them and their supporters with sufficient time to celebrate that Sunday evening. Both the winners and runners-up were pleasantly surprised to receive cash prizes and a trophy each to crown their achievements. Let's get together to applaud the fantastic effort of the organisers, the teams, the ever patient match officials and the many enthusiastic supporters - their spirit ensured that at the end of the day there was really one winner - CRICKET.

Together Everyone Achieves More after all Team Work is Dream Work !!

2008-10-07T21:05:00.021+02:00

Team - Spelled Pronunciation [teem] –noun

1. A number of persons forming one of the sides in a game or contest: a football team.2. A number of persons associated in some joint action: a team of advisers.

Courtesy - http://www.mgcpuzzles.com

Remember the saying – There is no I in a team. Something I always believed when I was allocated to assignments in a large group or a small one. I have worked for various modules and teams. More recently, in 2006, I was in Brussels, working for a leading telecommunication firm, and had my own set of responsibilities and challenges. Working at client-site locations is a treat in itself. My organization composed of all kinds of people: men, women, people who speak a different language, who have different origins or beliefs, people with different levels of education or work experience, people with similar or completely contrasting personalities, as well as people with physical or mental disabilities, etc. In other words, it was very mixed, heterogeneous and diverse.

I worked in a team which comprised of executives, managers, engineers, business analysts and test analysts coming from different parts of the world. I have always believed that, the strength of the team is each individual member, and the strength of each individual is the team. So with this notion, I tried working, interacting and building a team, where I could extract not only the skill but also an openness in one’s thinking. I was always inspired by my senior client manager – he is known as Godfather in Dutch. His soft skills, ability to perform under toughest conditions, stress free attitude were some of the qualities I would always like to emulate. Apart from these, speaking a common language was of utmost importance. Although I struggled initially, I slowly devised strategies to manage diversity including - clarity of communications, holding meetings, leqrning client languages and supervising effectively. The participation of different types of people in a project ensured colorful, innovative and surprising ideas. In dealing with the diverse team, I was required to be flexible in changing priorities of work and life balance depending on deadlines for projects where as my French, Dutch and British counterparts gave equal priority to both at all times. As a result, strong emphasis was placed on quality processes and achievable deadlines. I adapted to different demands of diverse managers while accommodating varying needs of other team members. In this process I have worked with around 12 client-side managers within a span of 31 months while in Brussels.

My workplace helped me greatly in modifying my attitudes as for the first time I was with peers from countries which I had only read about. My exposure to the various different nationalities in Brussels built on my foundation of cultural awareness. I was in the midst of a swarm of expatriates who had formed a community so tight that I could live with all the luxuries of a technologically modern lifestyle. I cherished this experience which was actually a tremendous confident builder. All of these experiences have taught me to work as a team member apart from instilling in me a great sense of confidence along with a better understanding of people around me.

One video which has motivated me time and again, be it on the football or the cricket ground, at workplace or any place under the roof with set of people, is the one from 'Any Given Sunday'. I am a great fan of Al Pacino ever since I first laid my hands on the Godfather and the Scareface videotapes. Gosh when helluva of an actor. What this speech teaches you is that, no matter how strong an opponent or work situation be, no matter how much people bring you down to your knees, you have to believe and fight. And fight back well with your team. So stand up and keeping moving forward. Every inch of a football or cricket field, or every release in the project is driven only by one factor, the team. It’s like a bead, one break and all scatters. So stand up to fight as a team as die as individuals. Remember - Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM).

Well too short a word, but too huge a meaning. That's a small portion I wanted to emphasize on. Until then a la prochaine !!

Conclusion de la Flat World...

2008-09-13T13:23:00.008+02:00

Accessing free information and being able to interact with anyone else on the planet was a big flattener in my world as it is in yours. Each individual has at least a handful of experiences to recount how his or her world flattened. Acquired knowledge will definitely help us become more effective and efficient in life’s task, or perhaps completely change our views, opinions or beliefs. So in that regard, most of us are just beginners and have a journey of life to cover, just like a new born baby does. The Flat concepts will allow each one of us to better function in the business world of tomorrow. In addition, it would defineltly have a great influence on our interpersonal skills and sense of humor, which will allow us to connect with others in a beneficial manner. I believe these strengths will give us the basic set of skills that we need to overcome our weakness and provide us with the foundation for building a successful career. Stretching beyond this and looking at the big picture and seeing things in context must be the goals that one needs to set.
In Darwin’s words: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”. So what do you think? I see my world flattening. I feel it everyday. And I guess it will become inevitable part of my everyday life. It’s a new game out there. Don’t complain about it – join and enjoy it. If you are not good enough to play in this different kind of game, you’ll simply be sitting on the sidelines watching others play.

The flat world doesn't end there...you will hear more of it in the coming blogs. Do drop in your appreciations and/ or shower your brickbats. A la prochaine !!

Courtesy: http://stratstars.pbwiki.com/

Old times sake - Communication and Information access

2008-09-01T20:45:00.005+02:00

In the early 90s, communication and internet connectivity were dampeners too. My father waited for several years, to hear his first dial tone on a phone that he owned. Not long ago, say in the early 90's, I reminisce the times our family huddled around a telephone, we waited for a trunk call to speak to family members barely 1000 miles away. Even worse, before the arrival of the phone, the wait was as long as an hour from a public telephone booth. Kudos to the tehcie geniuses and teh DOT COM burst, today, it takes roughly an hour for me to get a permanent communication line, few minutes to get a mobile phone, and barely few seconds to get connected to my friends in Toronto or parents in Mumbai. As long as I have the money to pay, I could make my dial tone follow me wherever I am on the planet.

There were a few things that struck me as important as education. I remember my time as a School kiddo, when I spent several days showing my parents and sister how to access information on the internet. Now they can find more information than they’d ever need and can easily communicate with me in a few seconds on the Web. This “level playing field” for everyone was a distant dream twenty years ago. Pictures of needing a channel to watch Hollywood movies, tri-band transistors, video player that my father brought from overseas in 1987 are still fresh.

I was a vivid admirer of the world encyclopedia book and subscribing to such books in those days wasn’t easy. I had to pay hefty amounts to get to the local library to lay my hands on such books. It was certainly not a level playing field then.

Flatness is not about outsourcing and off shoring to India, China or any place under the sun; it is about access, crumbling of boundaries, ensuring that anyone in the world can build products and services from any part of the world and sell it in any part of the world where he/she can get maximum value. (a common definition that you will come across in the web)

My next chapter will include the conclusion to this Flat world concept, however the underlying fact about the Flat World as whole in the blog with different contents would remain the same - The World is Flat.

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to any characted, fiction, or blogs is purely co-incidential.

Images: Connector --> courtesy: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/ and Books --> courtesy: http://psychservices.ucsd.edu/

Trippin' in this Flat World...

2008-08-26T18:40:00.010+02:00

Recently I had the privilege of observing how flat the world was in the European countries visiting six of them in a span of three months. So many of the things I saw and did every day were similar to the activities in Mumbai, India and particularly with young people. The girls all wore low cut jeans or mini-skirts and the boys wore trendy trousers to teeshirts. I can’t recall seeing any ethnic dressing (that was the objective of visiting these places). Another thing, which made the world seem flat, is that practically everyone spoke English. Yes even when I was in France :) Though my trip to Brussels was business focused, I was able to visit several historic sites in Rome, including Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Vatican Museum, the fast paced life in Milan, learning the history and collecting the remains of the Berlin Wall, and not to forget the center of the earth Greenwich Meridian Time and the Queens Palace in London. Years ago, while in school, I had just read about all these and many more in school and used to enjoy the scenic beauties only in movies.I feel that this Flat World experience has changed everything. I visited most of these places that I could have never dreamt of visiting 10 years ago. Wikipedia and Google, basically enlightened me about every place I went, and all the things I saw. What a marvelous invention for travelers! I know I’ll never have the time to really learn in-depth and discover these things, but a little exposure to them is extremely interesting none-the-less. Kudos technology and Web 2.0 ;)

Outsourcing my Job !!

2008-08-24T21:00:00.006+02:00

First and foremost, sincere apologies for the delayed write-up. The recent recessions of 2008 took some toll on me, with changes in net access, job function, and yes to some extent the food crunch. In this survival of the fittest, I happened to grab some action-packed Euro 2008 (well Azzuri’s didn’t play their heart out), and some Wimbledon. I decided to take some break from the routine and went onto join Business forums in Brussels. Now that my audience is convinced (or not so convinced) with my excuse, I would start with where we left…outsourcing in the flat world.

The World is Flat provided mixed insights over the concept in context. On one hand, I found the history of the digital revolution very fascinating and one that would keep the target readers glued (the book had a forward-looking nature - I’ve always been a science fiction fan). At other times, I got a little tired of the repetitive nature of Friedman’s examples – here comes yet another story of how someone makes a lot of money; followed by another example of how the Chinese and the Indians are preparing to conquer the world. After analyzing at some of the criticisms leveled against it, I can see that there is some merit in them. The central point of Friedman’s book is that globalization is removing barriers to competition, and reducing everything to the lowest common denominator: cost.

So why outsource? The following points can be considered as factors that drive outsourcing (points in order of importance)
1. Reduce Costs
2. Gaining access to skilled IT resources that are not available within the company that decides to outsource.
3. Free up internal resources, so that they can focus on product marketing and strategy
4. Accelerate company transformation
5. Accelerate the project
6. Reduce time to market, so that the organization is always in the race to satisfy the customer. After all customer is the King.

Reference: http://shipsoftware.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/distributedteam.jpg

Like every coin, that has two sides, the concept of Outsourcing has its advantages and disadvantages too.

I have been in Europe for a few years now with a leading Telecom firm in Belgium, presenting regular sessions to clients and resolving issues with/of my users and my team. While working for a team in the Product Readiness department, I identified a fairly critical issue/ bug with one of our vendor’s application system and called it to their technical support team, and this experience reminded me of one of the chapters in the book (as well as of O’reilly’s experience, similar to the one I will be presenting). In the process of resolving the bug, I contacted the developer from Czech/Israel, and explained the problem. After some investigation from the offshore development team, I obtained typical responses like – Please analyze the scenario introduced, Can you shut down all the instances of your server, and restart the scenario again? None of these things worked, not did I expect them to work, and the developer on the other side of the world was left scratching his head with a typical answer – I will get back to you after I investigate and identify the problem, if any!

I have faith in my thinking, analytical and cognitive abilities more than anyone else. I question basic assumptions and its validity when and where required. With this notion, I decided to go ahead and give them a hand by resolving the issue which was delegated to a member of my team. I started debugging the problem area and pointed out actual line numbers in their source file so they could take a look. My colleague noted down everything I’d said for his reference, and pushed an urgent patch of the bug fix later that evening.

I believe what I described is a good illustration of interaction that’s probably becoming more and more typical in the Flat World. I recognized a similarity between the above experience and the software industry. The off shoring of software development and testing is real, but does that mean I am afraid that someday my job maybe outsourced by a third world nation, like Somalia or Afghanistan as well? Perhaps it will be. But by that time it may not be a bad thing because I would have ‘retooled’ my skills and acquired the knowledge necessary to compete and continue to add value to my professional pursuits.

Brad Silverberg, Microsoft’s Hero, once said, “The role of every Microsoft employee is to work them out of job.” What he meant was that we should find ways to eliminate fire drills and provide solutions so our jobs “just happened.” The world is in constant change, and with it we must constantly change. We must never rest on our laurels because the moment we do, the world will surely pass by us.

P.s: The experiences described in this chapter are more or less similar to the experiences shared in the web by some of the bloggers. Though the examples set and the words used might be different, the underlying concept remains the same.

The Flat World Concept: The road to Innovation is a bumpy ride, but it's worth every mile...

2008-04-13T02:11:00.008+02:00

The World is Flat is not a myth. It's all around us. When I first read the book, I was swept with this grandeous idea of the developing nations spreading their wealth, that the developed and industrialized nations have to offer, in the form of jobs. The World is Flat is about the various practices, like the change management, the e-commerce and portal management, the internet, the blogs, online social networks and various other technological advances that the developing countries has seen in the past 15 years or so, and how it has globally flatenned the level playing field of a company's and a country's economy. It surely has drastically altered the know-how of business and life in general these days. Even more exciting are the opportunites that lie ahead.

Image courtesy: http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/

Personally I feel that the concept of The World is Flat is not limited to the competition amongst nations or companies, but it's a competition between me and my imagination. A strange analogy, but yes I feel that it's more about my creativity and innovation, and how I can contribute to the society. Coming from a leading technological firm, who's motto firmly believed with the Flat World concept, I had the privilege of listening to the notions of my childhood hero, Mr. Narayana Murthy. As a honorary chief guest for one of the award ceremonies, he made the mark with the following - Innovation is a journey and not a destination. The wordings may not be precise, but what he had meant was, the moment you feel that you have innovated, that means you are no longer innovating.

I firmly believe with this notion. In this fast changing world, the a new business model is always in the making, and new operating model is always setup to support it. How quickly the transformation of this entire model takes place will determine the success of the new business model. Sometimes, it is enthralling to see new players coming from nowhere and making their mark as new leaders driving their business in all verticals. From my personal experience, I have had the privilege of observing these changes from a different perspective, and at times I respectfully disgree to some points mentioned in the book.

More about Flat World concepts in the next session - Off Offshoring and Flat World...

Day Zero - The New Beginning...

2008-04-12T05:57:00.012+02:00

Dear Readers,

Welcome to my first "Experience Speaks" blog. A nice saturday morning in Brussels, with birds chirping around, it's summer around the corner. A hot coffee and some croissant to help with my thought process. Finally after two months of wait since my first registeration of this blog, I have finally decided to start penning down my experiences. I was looking for a perfect start, but later realized that perfection is just a matter of discipline.

I am an Indian, and the things I have experienced staying in Brussels for a little more than two years are more or less the same that I have experienced staying in Mumbai and Pune (India). It's a strange feeling to know that the world has changed a lot in the past decade around me. What was a distant dream of visiting far-off places, that I had read about only in books, is a reality now. The world has indeed gone Flat. Yes, that's the subject I would touch upon for this blog session.

Given my engineering background and my professional interests, I find this idea of a fast moving world, high-end cutting edge technology and changing strategy quiet interesting. Global practice is changing the basic assumptions that each organization has put forth and the policies that the government makes every few years. With all these changes happening quiet frequently, and with the markets tumbling around, marking the black period of U.S economy, 2008, it's right time to be in business. It's the right time to make most of the opportunities and most of the skills one possess. And that is why I anchored to start my blog on Thomas L. Friedman's - The World is Flat.

I personally consider it to be one of the top 10 books I have ever read, and given that I am a science fiction fan, I highly recommend you take a look at it. The readings have really changed my thought process and the perceptions about the life in general that revolves around me.

More to feature in my next blog...

Regards,
Anand