Archive for November, 2009

26/11 and We Move On With New Dreams, New Strength

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1

Nov
26

Today is 26/11, a date in India’s history which we will all remember for times to come. One fateful night when the country was shaken by a few young men who took hostage poor souls who had absolutely nothing to do with them or with any of their motives.

While writing this, I am filled with mixed emotions, enraged yet trying to calm myself. Tearful for the many people who lost their lives, their loved ones, and yet being strong at hwo we have out grown the past and we are surging ahead.

YES, I DAMN those few cowards….those bast***s, who have nothing else worthwhile to do in life and then we have a kasab asking for forgiveness and showing emotions by writing to his mother

The PAST is no more and we all have moved on, but memories still remain, forever and ever….and I think my emotions and answer is well captured below:

I salute our brave soldiers, the great souls, the relatives who are still there and with a tear of happiness, rememberance, future but NO FEAR in my eye, I dedicate my support, to my life – my India!!

Jai Hind!!

Find the Right Job(s) in the Niche Mobile VAS Industry at VASJobs(dot)com

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Nov
20

In the ever cluttered Online Jobs portal domain, much of the niche domain jobs go un-noticed, which is what Sidhartha Bezbora, Founder, VASJobs.com says when I asked him the reason and the concept behind VASJobs.

A seasoned telecom professional, Sidhartha has been a key figure in the Indian Mobile VAS space and has over a decade of experience in the Telecom industry, globally.

VASJobs started as a portal, aimed at creating the right value for the Mobile VAS industry which is niche and hence demands top class talent, which becomes a time consuming activity in itself. VASJobs fills this need-gap in the market, Says Sidhartha.

With the VAS industry growing and the decreasing ARPU’s, innovation is bound to increase and there will be an ever expanding need for professionals who move with the times and own a good understanding of the domain. This is what we aim at leveraging through VASJobs.com, said Sidhartha, while on phone from Assam.

Commenting upon the existing platform, Sidhartha showed, some of the most noted names in the Indian Mobile VAS domain to be listing jobs on the site and says from his experience that the concept has been proven now, that there surely is an existing Gap, which will keep increasing and needs to be answered to, so that companies innovate and create services for the Billion Mobile users we will have in India int he coming years.

The start-up experience is nothing new for Sidhartha, but the excitement is still in full flow, as Sidhartha talks about how a team of 3 is managing the portal and he is looking at expading fast. Interstingly Sidhartha, also mentions how VASJobs is parnering with events, creating much value for them, providing access to the relevant market.

With the proven success story in WirelessDuniya, Sidhartha is on track with creating another online success with VASJobs.com and I wish him all the luck.

Single Available Women and Get Sexy Babes on Your Desktop for Free says Shaadi.com on facebook

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Nov
14

Come find the soulmate for your daughter or the dream woman for your son on a website which says in its facebook ad:

Single available women and Get Sexy Babes on Your Desktop for Free and Looking for a girlfriend??! SHOCKING?? Well, yes, it is. I know of many a parents who are in the search for the suitable matches for their children and this is what the social networking site facebook says about this famous matrimonial site.

Let me put things in perspective now. While going through the facebook Ads, and randomly clicking on an Ad which said Single Available Women, was not my thing, but when it said, find your soulmate today at Shaadi free, I was hooked.

Is this a DATING site, I am going to? This is how my profile will be shown on an Ad tomorrow? Is this where I wish to find the best match for my son/daughter who are my future?

Is Shaadi.com not even clear about who they want to target the site to?

I today question the working of these so called matrimonial sites. I remember one of my research team members doing a research on matrimonial sites, sometime back, while I was consulting a new free matrimonial website in India, though I never knew this is what they will resort to, for generating traffic to their site.

Would you ever want your daughter’s picture on one of these Ads, saying Single Available Women!

I understand and agree that “Single available women” simply says that we have single women who are available for marriage on our site, but I protest by saying that there are better ways of putting across the message.

I have my own personal profile on Shaadi.com, though I dont use it and neither I would ever, but today I have a major doubt on their ethics. I dont know if my personal details are being shared across with some other site?

Just to earn clicks if this is what a site can resort to, to earn money they can resort to sharing personal data as well?!

shaadi.com fb AD

shadifbshaadibandbajega

The above captured URL’s (which have been sent to me, by a great friend, who is the founder of one of the best Design companies, and hence could capture the fast changing and re-directing URL’s) are PROOF how Shaadi.com guys are using indirect re-directs through third party hosts, to make you land up to their “Sexy Babes on Your Desktop” register page.

I call upon followers to show concern, as this is a matter of high priority where a single mis-representation of someone’s identity could harm an entire families reputation.

Exploring Business Opportunities in Germany at NASSCOM 53rd EMERGE Friday’s 2.0

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Nov
13

As the Official Blogger for the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0, many people ask me, that I would surely have a plethora of knowledge with me, as I have the opportunity to attend all the sessions and also since I LIVE blog the sessions, I must be highly attentive.

Today I again am excited to bring forth the high worth and value knowledge which gets created at the NASSCOM EMERGE Friday’s 2.0 and am glad to be making it alive for all of you who could not be present at the session, though we would love to have more participation along and expand the community.

Today we have Ulrich Bäumer, Partner, Osborne Clarke and BITKOM representative and Asha-Maria Sharma, Senior Manager, Service Industries, Germany Trade and Invest GmbH, giving us an insight into the German ICT environment and business verticals for partnership as identified by Germany Trade And Investment (GTAI) for Indian companies and important aspects of What works and what doesn’t in M&A, overview of the legal and practical ways of doing business in Germany.

The room is full and well, its interesting to know how many people in the room want to understand the German market. So we have the session with a brief introduction on what Germany Trade and Invest is.

  • Promoting Germany’s advantages as a prime location for foreign investors in hi-tech industries
  • Collecting and processing economic data and information about industries, tender procedures, legaal frameworks etc.

Interestingly, the investors consultancy part of the company, is into much diversified scope:

  • Renewable Energies and Resources
  • Chemicals and Healthcare
  • Mechanical and Electronic
  • Service Industries

We are now getting to know what it is all about being in Germany, with the geographical location to the travel time. To know how blackberry and Vodafone and such large companies are actually settling in Germany. Pros and Cons of different places for your business ill be different and you need to understand that, with relevance to your business.

We are talking clusters in Germany now, I am interested to know this space, as its pretty big a space in India as well and some really interesting work is on with respect to them.

Germany offers different incentive packages to re-imburse an investment project’s expenditures

With the market volume of above 133 billion Euros Germany’s ICT industry ranks second in Europe. These are interesting figures. in 2008 German companies closed a good number of BPO and IT deals, hence there is a plenty of space.

Germany is the most lucrative software market in Europe, accounting for 26.1% of the EU market value. We are talking about the diversification of software market in Germany.

There is a good presence of the SME industry in Germany and it could surely be of interest to many of you

Talking Green!

Green ideas in IT and Green through IT, is what we are working on this and should you have products under this umbrella, you should definitely explore Germany.

Software Security is one area which we are really concerned about. We have had cases with data loses with social networks and as anyone, we Germans are surely much sensitive about our personal information, hence there is good space in the domain. Embedded systems market is of a fairly good size in Germany and you will also find clusters in the Southern part related to the domain.

Germany has by far the highest number of internet users in Europe creating large potential for business

  • E-commerce
  • Gaming market
  • Online Advertising

I am personally amazed with the numbers on the slides, especially for the gaming and online advertising, which is showing a huge surge. German companies are moving from Print to Online.

  • Market growth areas: Green IT + E-Energy + E-health
  • Mobil apps: Increase in non-voice-services
  • Embedded systems
  • IT Services and Software

And now we are talking about the automotive industry in Germany, which to mention also is the home for Mercedez. The small manufacturers are spread across Germany and there is no one hub/ cluster.

I suggest the best way to get in touch is to attend conferences and other events to know the suppliers and other specific information you require about your business.

And now we have Ulrich, thanking everyone in the room, for whom this is the 12th visit to India. I advise SME’s in Germany also to get to India. And Ulrich shares the agenda for the session:

Interestingly we are going to discuss, Co-operation between Indian and German Companies. We have a very different law in Germany and its completely different in almost every way than what you have in India. Hence you need to understand the basic laws which are very important before you sign up your first customer in India.

You must definitely thank your peer Indian IT companies, who ventured into Germany 10-15 years back, coz they had to persuade German people, for the price and quality and hence for you guys its easier now to reach out to the German companies, which buy Indian IT not just because of the price, but for the quality as well.

So we have started with the introduction for the Law company which is Osborne Clarke. Very ineresting to know how many people they have helped set up in Germany. There are surely some very interesting and Big Indian names on the list that we have on screen.

Co-operation in Germany

  • Merger
  • Acquisition
  • JV
  • Partnership
  • Build Operate Transfer – It Outsourcing
  • Indo-German Strategic Alliance

Many of our M&A’s have been extremely successful and have been running for 10-15 years. Ulrich is sharing the previous success stories that they have created, and these also include some real big Indian corporate names.

So now we are discussing Common Law and Civil Laws in Germany which are surely an absolute necessity for you to set up in Germany.

Common Law (inductive)

Problem -> Judgement -> Ratio decidendi

Civil Law (deductive)

Statute -> Problem -> Application

I am very impressed with the way, Ulrich has simply explained the entire difference between the Common and Civil Laws and how can you in simple measures look at what you can expect when you reach the German shores, or establish out of India. Ulrich is very interestingly raised the awareness of the people in the room and sure all are all ears!

Now we are getting an insight into the European Legal System. Well, sure the German Law is definitely different from how we operate in India. And now gets answered the question, of many a people who wanted to know about Branch offices and how to set them up in Germany.

The outsourcing market is growing in Germany and I think in 2010 the curve will continue to grow up

Good to see how the Indian IT Services industry has grown and set foot in Germany. And well this figure has raised since 2007. Service providers have now crossed out to the other side.

Have you ever thought about off-shoring: 27% of the part said to this that they have larger projects already LIVE which have been off-shored. If we do off-shoring, we do it to India, is what the 67% of the people who answered this sample survey said. Some really interesting figures, being shared by Ulrich.

I personally dont see a single Chinese company, to overtake any of the large Indian IT service companies. China will NOT be a challenge in the near future for the Indian ITeS market.

In the Non Voice market, I dont see players as large as those in India, challenging the Indian players.

Language barrier is a comfort issue, in my experience it has been like: 80% of the deals across the table have happened in English. Its always good to have a native speaker, but its not a necessity.

Ulrich again shares the 8 key issues which you can face in your outsourcing contract in Germany.

  • warranty
  • Liability
  • Acceptance
  • Delay
  • Change requests
  • etc.

Talking about warranty, liability and guaranty. Well, yes the entire room is interested in this conversation. Ulrich presents the whole idea of liability with very simply presented examples. Well liability without any limitation under German law, implies fully, if you have not mentioned anything about it in your contract. Eyes get raised at such a point.

The data protection laws in Germany are surely something to learn from. The labour laws are surely pretty strict in Germany. The session is interactive and there are good questions coming from the audience.

And now we end with the session with the audience still very interested and questions pouring in with respect to IPR and other related to the IT services.

Its been a good session and I feel good to know about Business in Germany, thanks to Asha and Ulrich for their precious time.

SHOCKING: You and Your Online Brand Consultants – Positioned Towards a Perfect Brand Bust

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1

Nov
01

In my endeavor of establishing transparency and clarity in the, Ohh so amazing and new world of Social Media and Online Marketing, I am sure the series of posts I am doing now, will surely be an eye opener for clients.

Just sometime back, my strategy team did a search on the keywords, Social Media and India, and what we got were people who have sometime or the other in their professional lifetime, related to the Social Media industry. And since Social Media is not an age old concept, thus we started looking at the profiles of people who are currently into the profession.

To my UTTER AMAZE, the profiles, I was given were an absolute NO, if they were to handle my brand strategy not just on the internet but everywhere else. Interestingly, these people are recruited by not just the small Social Media ‘shops’ but the biggies in the business as well. Positioned highly, these guys are given fancy terms and well, the customer is sold!

Let me bring more clarity by looking at certain aspects of what my strategy team gave me, post the data analysis:

  • Education
    • Majority of these people have not done management (which I am not suggesting is necessary)
    • 80% of them, do not have the words, Branding Consultant, Marketing, Positioning, Product life cycle, etc in their summary/ profiles
  • Current
    • The current profiles are all Social Media Strategist, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Executive
  • Past
    • There are people from BPO, from Technology, Adventure Tourism, Operations who are handling your So called Social Media Branding and Online Branding and Brand Creation and what not
  • Experience
    • Most of these people are fresh (1-3 years) of experience and are running the show

In my personal view, I completely agree that innovative thinking, creativity are needed, but is it that you will hand over your brand in the hands of someone who does NOT even understand what Brand stands for?!

This revelation by the team, surely opened my eyes towards how is the New Media industry being structured and shaping up. We are playing on chances and one of running successes.