Running the distance for a cause - My first Mumbai Marathon

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.

Image Source: All images are used from internet. 

The Rise Of Facebook's Valuation From 2004-2011

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

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

Video copyrights: WWF

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

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??

Overview of the current strategy consulting landscape

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

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...