july 2008

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Success, however it’s defined, takes action, and taking good and appropriate action takes skills. Some of these skills (not enough, though) are taught in school (not well enough, either), others are taught on the job, and still others we learn from genera

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You gotta laugh at a lot of things in Bangalore these days. Take for example all the "extra security precautions" that are being implemented in the wake of the bomb blasts. Let me share 3 examples.1. I was walking into Bangalore Central (a mall in downtown Bangalore - M. G. Road) with my wife over the weekend. The better half wanted to check out the "sales". The place was packed and so were the entrances and exits. Imagine a crowd at the entrance and an airport-style metal / security detector at the front. And over 5 guards next to the metal detector. There's a line 12-15 people deep. Every time a person went through the detector, it beeped (like really big time, loud beeps). The 3 security guards all smile, look at the next person and wave you forwards. Happened with EACH and every person who entered before us. Beeps every time and everyone was let go with a wide smile. What's the point? I am not sure and I did not care to find out.2. The security wand metal detector is another contraption that's become in the vogue in most office entrances these days. I have really no clue what they're supposed to do with those things. I am pretty sure neither do the security guards. Its not like they ask you to remove any metals, coins or other paraphernalia before they wand you. So what happens is the enthusiastic guard with the wand goes all over you from top to bottom and it beeps like crazy. He smiles and asks you to move on. My cousin's also very confused about this. His question to me was "Is it supposed to beep? Does beeping mean its okay? Or is it not supposed to beep and that's considered okay?"The funniest part is when some employees come in packs of 3-4. So the guard mass wand-ed them. Really! No jokes. Imagine 4 people standing next to each other (not in a single file, beside each other), and a guard starting to wand them from left to right and top to bottom, front and back. Why? - Saves time.3. Of course in places that are "extra sensitive" like government offices, they have to frisk you. Not the simple touch, but imagine someone soaping you (no dirty thoughts, since its same sex "frisking") top to bottom. After 6 frisks, the guard gets tired (obviously since he's frisking every person). He's got a backup guard and another who then takes over. So they cant really do things in parallel because if there are more than 20 people, they will all get tired.I do feel a lot more secure. Why? If someone has to go through all this fake security and still do something nefarious, they're nuts.

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Is "It depends". This article & writer lost their credibility as soon as I read the first paragraph. When you are in sales of any kind and you cannot clearly explain your pricing strategy, its dependent components and give a ball park estimate, most customers self qualify themselves out of the sales cycle.That's not to say you ought to give them the exact price because in most cases you cannot. Not giving ballpark estimates though just seems like you are hiding something.Pricing strategy overall especially in software is clearly not cost driven. Its value or the perception of value. If you are coming out a version 1 product in  most cases you will have a "sense" for what the value of your product is to its customer and be able to price lower (if you want huge adoption) or price higher (if you want a perception of quality).Most enterprise sales people will tell you that the "It depends" is a consultant's answer or probably an answer from someone who has not sold anything that requires you to close a deal.<Getting off soapbox>

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Great piece on microprocessor industry background.

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Things are always a lot harder to do than they seem don't they? I have a new found respect for the "On the scene" reporter. The banal chiche's were about the only ones I was used to when talking about the "television reporter" on the scene of an incident."All she's doing is repeating the same thing over and over again"."He's saying what we know already, what's the new news here"."He has no clue about what happened and is saying exactly what the police man said"."She's trying to make the story a sensational one, and generate hype so they can get more viewers".Or my personal favorite:"What kind of a dumb question was that? Even my 4 year old can ask a better question".Well its time to eat humble pie and realize their job is hard. At about 2pm on Friday (local Bangalore time) I got to know about 4 blasts in Bangalore from my cousin who called me. Few minutes later when I checked twitter, there were over 20 tweets on Bangalore blasts. Having learned one of the blasts was very close to where I was working yesterday I decided to head out there - dont ask why.Since I had broadband access I also was viewing CNN IBN and NDTV on my browser. The news was coming in fast and furious. the numbers slowly climbed to 5 then 7 and finally 8 blasts. It got more unnerving as I heard more and I was rethinking my decision to get a little closer to the site of one of the blasts. Since I did not have an option to head back home (I sent the car back home with the driver and most taxis/autos were not plying), I decided to just go for it. I decided I'd ask my cousin to come by and pick me up later. Most people were streaming out of the office at the central business district anyway, so I figured it was the only option.The next 30 minutes were enlightening at best. The site of one of the blasts was an absolute mess - not from the carnage of the blast, and neither from the traffic - just from the number of curious onlookers - yes I was also guilty of the same. In the midst of this were 3 reporters from local television stations, at least 150-200 people watching and about 15 policemen. Here's what you as a reporter have to go through:1. Separating fact from fiction & opinion. 3 policemen were offering 3 different variants of the blast. No kidding. Wonder why they even chose to speak to the reporters - I am sure they were not "authorized". On top of that 2 "eye witnesses" were offering their slight of the "sequence of events". Learning what happened and when was difficult at best, let alone trying to determine why or who. So imagine you are the reporter (and its hard enough trying to locate who was there), you are now being asked on your headset ...

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Balu talks about the lack of privacy for his ATM pin number. Its a good read and a very strange yet disconcerting part of living in India. What's funny about this is that most people are so "curious" they really want to know your pin.Mojo (dont know his real name) captures the essence of living in Bangalore - its a city most people love and hate at the same time. Especially long timers who feel the soul of the city has been compromised and sold to the IT crowd.

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There were 7 bomb blasts (602 pm update: 8 blasts) from 120 pm to 235 in Bangalore: Madiwala, Mysore Road, Audogodi, Koramangala, Vittal Mallya Road, Nayandanahalli and Richmond Road  (Shivaji nagar).2 people died and 4 were injured. (Updated at 545 pm local time - 1 person is claimed dead and 6 injured)They were fairly small blasts apparently meant to cause panic and fear.I found out about this from twitter 3 minutes after the blast and since then have been twittering with what information I have available. Nearly 2 hours after the blast the city pretty much shutdown. Offices closed and everyone was asked to go home. Since nothing of this ever happened in Bangalore before, everyone pretty much panicked. (Updated at 545 pm local time - Bangalore is returning to normal with traffic worse than usual at the locations of the blast). People are returning to normal and the panic seems to have settled down.Since two of the blasts were nearly telecom posts, mobile communication was shut down for voice.Text message (SMS) services were working fine. Calls to US (I called my sister and others) were working fine. Local calls were unable to go through.All roads leading to and from the main downtown area (M. G. Road) were pretty much closed.A perspective:1. For communication: the Internet rocks in India - twitter stayed pretty much stable throughout.2. Text message beats voice calls during emergency.3. Local news providers were absolutely useless in getting information out. There was more nonsense and speculation on the motive and the reason for the blasts than real facts. Television did work, but it was useless information that was being transmitted.

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Somehow the "rules of the game" for the recent consumer software (Web 2.0) seem a lot more simplified than the same for enterprise software. I have read these rules from various sources so I may not be able to identify the sources (that's not for the lack of attribution). Clearly some rules are very valid in both cases, but as you try to implement these rules, you realize quickly they are not always the path to success. So I thought why not examine these rules and figure out which make sense for enterprise software.1. Release early: When I refer to enterprise I usually mean companies that make over $1 Billion in revenue. Having sold to enterprises for years I thought I know the rules of the game, but figured the Web 2.0 revolution had changed some of these requirements. Not exactly. Large enterprise still want a highly scalable, robust, secure and "complete" solution. They would not consider a Twitter (with its frequent failures) as a system to pay money for. While at Ariba, we had a alpha version that we called beta and a beta that we shipped as final release to 3 customers. The first few customers literally threw it out. It just did not work and was out too early. It was feature complete & had a very intuitive UI, but would not scale. So the first 3 customers refused to deploy it in production, until those issues were solved.2. Release often: I have not used Friendfeed a lot, but I know they keep adding new features very quickly. That sounds very cool and seems like they are a company that does things quickly. With enterprise software however a version every other week means user training. I am often asked about the training requirements for customers. "Its simple and needs no training" is what I was told. Not exactly. When you are solving a business problem that's complex primarily due to the global nature of a large business, users expect training. Think of Microsoft Word. How long have you been using it? Its so easy to use that my 4 year old can use it with no "training" and he does. But try rolling out Office 2007 and you get a training budget that runs into 7-8 figures for most enterprises. Is Microsoft Word "complex"? My son will say No. But over 60% of enterprises are not rolling out Office 2007 since the training costs are higher.3. Focus on user acquisition then on revenues: I am not sure any enterprise company can realistically go to their investors (VC or otherwise) without a clear revenue plan. I am truly amazed at how many Web 2 startups that are funded have no idea about their business or revenue model. I do know of how Yahoo, Google, etc. all got started without a business model, but they "figured it out" as they went along. But I have to admit, I dont subscribe to that line of thinking. For every Yahoo and ...

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Facebook swelled to 29.2M unique visitors in the US, up more than 10 percent from May. Meanwhile, professional social networking site LinkedIn grew more than 20 percent month-over-month to 9.5M uniques. Year-over-year, that represents 77% growth for Faceb

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Mark was itching to start a new company. It took him over 15 years to establish his business and it was a great success from his perspective. Starting at a small retail outlet reselling home essentials, with a very modest $7500 inventory investment, he had grown it to over $7.5 Million in annual revenues. Now 15 stores adorned with every possible home furnishing accessory, dotted 12 cities in the county he was born and raised. It was a tough road and he learned many lessons. Not to mention he made a lot of good friends in banking, accounting, retail and local government. He employed over 100 people (mostly women) in his business, provided them good benefits and was respected as a pioneer among active retail promotion strategies. His business by most measures was doing very well.Perusing through the Bay area parenting magazine while helping his 8 year old with writing homework, he could not help but notice the number of help wanted ads for local nurses. An opportunity?Quick call to his accountant might be in order? 9% margins; which were 3% better than his peers and competitors suggested to him some calculated risk taking is required. He requested and paid for a good local jobs analysis, spend trend report, demographic profile report (indicating how many senior citizens were to settle in his county in the next 10-15 years), market availability and pricing analysis and a list of top 25 local county hospitals.--She had enough of it. For the 19th time that week, Susan responded to the thank you for your job application email with large frustration writ on her face. Its only Thursday and I am up to 20 rejects, she muttered to no one in particular. The tabby only moved her eyebrow as if to indicate that should be sufficient to appease her roommate. The M mark on the cat's forehead looked like it stood for mockery. Susan contemplated going down to pick up the mail, when it occurred to her that she had not watered the plants for that week. Am I losing it she wondered? It was over 8 weeks since she was laid off from her administrator's position at the county library.The shrill ring on the phone startled the tabby cat. Susan picked it up. The voice on the other side asked her if she'd be interested in "getting some literature" on the latest nursing programs since it was the career opportunity of a lifetime. For the 11th time she hung up saying no, making a mental note to register for the DNC list by days end. It then struck her, how many people had called her over the last week asking to enroll for their nursing program.Getting online she identified the number of her "virtual friends" who were all looking for a position to be close to 15. Sensing an opportunity she called St. Stephens to ask them about the number of open nurse positions. Gratified that it was significant, she decided it was time ...

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Over the last few weeks I have had a chance to go to Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad from Bangalore (besides Goa) via 5 different airline carriers - Kingfisher, Indigo, Spice Jet, Jet Airways and Deccan (Kingfisher's low cost carrier).There has been a boom in Indian aviation business in the last decade and over 30 new low cost and full service airlines have benefited from the growth.All the major airports in India were in major need of renovation and they are all in various stages of it.My assessment of the airports is based on 5 criteria:a) Ease of access / location - how easy is it to get from the airport to where I want to get to - including taxis, mass transit options etc.b) Availability of restaurants - not being much of a shopper, in many cases I am rushing in from a meeting or rushing out to catch a flight, so grabbing healthy food is very important c) Overall cleanliness of the airport d) Speed to get to gate - time it takes for checking in, security clearance, etc.e) Availability of waiting lounge space (or waiting areas in general)Of the major airports, Hyderabad is the BEST by a mile. This is a totally new airport, so I am sure Mumbai and Delhi (which are undergoing major upgrades) are going to get better. The airport has been privately built and managed by GMR (which also is working on Mumbai, where unlike Hyderabad it does not have a clean slate to work from).Even though Bangalore is new (a month newer than Hyderabad), it just pales in comparison to Hyderabad. Its smaller, more cramped, less clean and has a lot fewer options for good food (or shopping).Of the others, Delhi and Chennai are the worst so Mumbai gets ranked in the middle.Why I like the Hyderabad Airport:1. Access is good, and getting better. There are buses, taxis, an upcoming Metro project and they look spanking new and clean. Mumbai is the worst and absolutely crowded. It took me more time to drive 4 miles out of the airport than to fly from Bangalore.2. Lots of good food options (especially since most Indian flights are delayed by at least 15 min minimum to an hour plus at the worst case). Delhi is the worst in this regard.3. Restrooms, pathways and aisles were all very clean and constantly being cleaned so I was impressed with their overall ability to keep it well maintained. Bangalore airport, on the other hand already looks old. Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai were all dirty even though both Delhi and Mumbai are relatively new.4. Its a little further away from the city (similar to Denver or San Francisco) so options for a train are not yet great, but you have lots of taxis and buses that were reasonably priced. Bangalore is comparable but the traffic once you get into the city just stalls.5. It was fairly fast to get in and out and you did not get overwhelmed at ...

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1. Advertising spending in India is roughly one-third of that in the US and Europe.2. There are now more Indian homes with television sets. India's 119 million television households comprise about 1.5 billion units (not DVD players) per year. This figure is expected to grow to 4.5 billion units per year by 2010.5. Total Indian Advertising market = $111 Billion in 2005, $150+ Billion in 2008.

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Back to the Bay are by Friday. Hope to catch up with everyone there. Wonderful 2 months here in India. I need up upload images.

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Highest Paying Search Terms

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Saw AdMob numbers and some of the analysis both pro and con after that. I have to be in VentureBeat's camp - AdMob is onto something (at least in India).Granted India figures #2 in Admob's advertising geography with about 349 Million requests. But that's part of the story. Lets get

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These eighty sites are the places I turn to when I’m trying to figure out how to accomplish any particular goal.

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There was no growth in broadband adoption among poorer families or blacks, while growth was strong among rural residents, older Americans, and those in households earning $20,000 to $40,000

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Making cement without also making carbon dioxide seems impossible; the basic chemistry of the process releases the gas. But maybe that's not really true, Stanford University scientist Brent Contstantz began thinking last year. Of course, it was only a the

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As most marketers would advice you: market where you customers are. The top 3 ways to spend your money in marketing is dramatically different from marketing spend in the US.To recap the US spend:1. Lead Generation: 45% 2. AR & PR: 25%3. Marcom: 5%4. Events: 25%

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Correction:1. I hit the publish button too quick. There are many sources for # of Internet users in India. a) Rediff: 38.5 Million, growing at 40%b) InternetWorldStat: 42Million in 2007, 60 Million in 2008, Growing at 28%c) Hindu: 37 Million in 2007