Archive for the ‘branding’ Category

HCL A Big Conglomerate Which Truly Proves Customer is Second Always!

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3

Jun
24

Before I share my ordeal, I must say something, which as a small start-up we believe and as a leader, I truly, passionately believe in: employee first, Customer second is good, but only when your employees are trained enough with solid integrity to keep their commitments, otherwise, well, your customer will truly be a second and will probably stay with you as long!

HCL is one company, which I always used to cherish since my early days of entrepreneurship and the professional career, as a home made global brand!

But today as I stand, cheated, frustrated and upon being bombarded with FALSE PROMISES by HCL, I must put across that being a so called BIG 5 billion dollar global brand DOES NOT mean that you don’t care a zilch about your smaller retail customers, who are the reason of you being where you are!

The Ordeal!

A few days back HCL gave a full page print AD in the News Paper about the fact that they were giving away prizes and an assured Philips Home Theater with a HCL Desktop. There were certain numbers mentioned in the newspaper.

I called one of them and asked if its true (just to be double sure of every *conditions apply) and I dropped the call and went to the nearest market “Nehru Place”. The first shop I found there, with a genuine, HCL Brand Logo, a fairly big board which said ONLY HCL, upon enquiry, the shopkeeper said, YES Sir, this is the last day of this deal, go and register your product online and you will get your gift.

And that’s what I did. I brought the system home, and well its been over 1 month and after absolutely crappy and false promises of a truly “CUSTOMER SECOND” (Mr. Vineet Nayar, you stand tall to your claim here, your employees truly believe CUSTOMER SECOND) service, today I stand as cheated.

After I received a message from HCL about 15 days after the promotion was over and I had the system at my place, I called up a number mentioned in that SMS and a certain Mr. Kashish from HCL HQ referred me to Mr. Rahul (who happens to be their Online Marketing Head).

HCL’s Online Marketing Head Says – Its not my department, I am not at office today, please send me an Email and I will connect you to the right person – But its not our responsibility to keep a check on all what is happening in the market

Mr. Rahul, as a comment to you – I am an entrepreneur and run a much smaller company in Size as compared to HCL, but well, all my team members are empowered enough to SERVICE our customers in every way. Absolutely every way! Period. We know how to take responsibilities and owe up to them!

Anyway, I sent an Email to Mr. Rahul on May 20th, today its over a month and NO REPLIES. I presume Mr. Online Marketing head is a little too busy facebooking than looking at his customers, and if he is one, well, I must believe, he should reply back to this post immediately (if his team is tracking HCL’s reputation online).

A few weeks back

A few weeks back I got a follow-up sales call from a sweet talking lady to whom I repeated the entire case, and she said, Sir, I personally will take up this matter with the management and make sure your gift gets delivered. I was relieved.

But HCL – being what they are (CUSTOMER SECOND, your’s truly), we treat you as second always and forever, well, it was again an empty, totally blank promise with no substance to it. NO action, NO follow-ups, NO nothing!

What happens today?

Mr. HCL if you dont know what is happening in the market and if you are NOT interested in knowing what is happening to your market and who is duping your customers where, well, you truly are a company worth never doing business with.

Mr. online marketing head – Rahul, you still don’t really know what customer service is about, its passion, it runs in your veins and when you are truly passionate about your organisation and its brand, well, Sir, you care, without conditions!

Do I want this gift?

Mr. HCL, go play with the gift at your home and listen to songs. If you want some, I have a fantastic collection, I would be happy to share :)

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

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12

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.

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.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship – India’s Best Ice Candy Googled, Gogola India

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2

Oct
13

I landed back from Mumbai just yesterday and surely it was great LIVE Blogging the biggest Leadership event ever in India. Out of my many experiences in the financial capital of India and the city of dreams. Bollywood stars and the rest, I found this very amazing example of simple yet striking innovation by an entrepreneur.

This is what I found:

Gogola India - paritosh sharma

What you see in the picture above, no its not a Google van! Its the freshest and the best Gola (ice candy) made of fresh mineral water and fruit juices called Gogola India.

I bumped across this van while I was going for a meeting on the Hill street near the Globus mall in Mumbai and just for the fun of it and to interact with the van guys, I did buy two Golas from the van. The van looked pretty okay (a second hand maruti van) with all the electrical machines inside to make a good gola in seconds.

Interestingly, the menu is like an IE page, which gives you all the options of the various flavors available :) simple, yet unique!

The Revenue figures of a single van which stands since 12pm till late in the night and keeps rotating in between two streets in Mumbai are:

  • Daily sale (golas): 300 (in good times) 150-200 (in normal business days)
  • Price per gola : INR 30
  • Positioning of van is changed on weekdays and weekends
  • There are more than 10 vans in the city, doing the rounds

My Feedback and Comments as an Incubation Consultant:

  • Good to see that the logo has been duly trade-marked (good asset)
  • Good revenue model (taking in consideration, all operational costs, costs of building the supply chain, maintenance of vehicle etc.)
  • Simple and effective!

The Gola I had, was pretty good and was surely packed in a healthy manner, with properly kept juice/ color bottles.

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I very strongly feel, the kind of Innovation we have in India, is amazing! Its simplistically brilliant and a concept which can surely become into an auto-generating proposition, and once your brand is recognizable, and you have a size, you can diversify.

Kudos to the entrepreneur :)

Blog Your Brand – A Vision for Corporate to Leverage Networked Blogging

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2

Sep
06

Walk the Walk… Talk the Talk… Times have now arrived for the corporate to consider Blogging the Blog!!

Yes, its true, as social media is arriving with the Corporate, there are new rules getting created. New possibilities opening up. The Corporate today wants to get one with the consumer, interact with his relevant target audience wherever the consumer is!

Your consumers are already on the Internet

With the usage of Internet spilling over to almost all parts of the country, the corporate has a valid and an entirely new and ever increasing scope to interact in real time with its consumers, take feedback and hence constantly evolve as a ‘People’s Brand‘.

Your clients are already talking about you, are you listening?

We are licing in change, which essentially is the only contant thing in life. And so is a brand.  A brand needs to evolve with the times, reaching out to the relevant set of people who are talking about you or would want to talk about you!

Blog and Get Blogged about

I suggest many of my clients that they should themselves participate in corporate blogging and not leave the entire communication to be handled by the PR team or any third party agency or marketing company handling your online communications.

Should you tie up with an external agency – Case Study?

Hmmm… I am sure with the strategy that Nokia used before launching N97 in India and Samsung while launching the Jet. What did they do? Call a select group of bloggers and wallah they have arrived at a much lesser cost as compared to doing a TV ad or big hoarding out there, which they will do for sure, but they have captured one strata of the market.

Trends In Indian Corporate Blogging – My View

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The trends purely show, that there is a BIG opportunity and according to me it exists due to the fact that agencies have not been able to show the GAP and the OPPORTUNITY to the Corporate.

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Say ‘hi’ to your sutomer each day, reach out and extend your hand! Get connected and retain your loyal customers!!

A focused Corporate blog will EMPOWER your customer to know more and get connected with the brand.

To leverage the power of Corporate Blogging and create a successful strategy of saying ‘hi’ to your customer each day, CONNECT WITH ME at    patpcom

Corporate Blogging – How Can You Create Social Media Success Through Focused Blogging

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None

Aug
30

There are many Buzzwords in the Social Media industry today and each day one evangelist is harping on a new one. Much clutter gets created due to the same and hence the diluton of your Brand Equity, as each Brand is pitched these high flying Buzzwords by the marketing agencies.

Corporate Blogging though not a Buzz word, but has been so messed up that many a corporate have lost value rather than generating it. There have been instances of big corporate entities using fake blogs and many other tactics to boost up terming them as “so called social media campaigns”.

I have been LIVE blogging some of the most major corporate conferences in India since over an year now and have been approached by Corporate to support their initiatives. Am I averse to it? NO! But would I go ahead and support just about anything? NO!

Through this post, I intend to cut through the clutter which has been created and make the Corporate present to how they can successfully integrate Corporate Blogging in seamlessly in their marketing effort and with much ease!

First the numbers:

According to JupiterResearch (via Search Engine Watch), 34% of large companies and 15% of Fortune 500 companies blog.

Though these may not be the absolute latest numbers, but with respect to the industry growth, this surely is a number to reckon with, stand up and make a note of, I believe. In the current times corporations large and small are increasingly taking the “being different” and “with the times” route. Blogging has suddenly taken the mainstream route and is one of the factors in the Corporate overall marketing mix and budget.

There may be many people giving much gyan, but what I present here is the on the field reality and of my experience, hence there may still be better ideas, which I would be glad to listen to and incorporate.

What should you do before you decide on that oh! so blog!! ??

  • Put in black and white, your marketing objectives both in the short and the long term
    • Determine if blogging is a good fit for your company

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, is almost true for all, but why are you generalizing the apple with a blog in the social media space? Blog for one company may work wonders for them, for the other it may not work!

Just being cool using blogs, is already a passe! Social Media space is changing and growing at a much faster pace and is much complex. Just having a corporate blog may not be of any tangible return.

  • Are you ready to invest on a blog?
    • The last time I was sitting in this major corporate HQ, I asked them a question, are you ready to invest on a blog and well they were a bit off the track. Blogging they said is easy, we will leverage a free platform like wordpress or blogger. Well, yes, I agree, but you need to invest much focused time and energy on customizing the design of the blog as it represents your Corporate sentiment. Today blogs are as much a part of the entire corporate image as were websites sometime back!
  • Don’t be afraid, Create a solid strategy
    • Strategy for a blog? Well, YES!! For a Blog! As a corporate you may have a single blog for all your functions/ verticals or you may choose to go ahead with multiple blogs representing each of them. Now this is the first stage of your blogging strategy.
    • Positioning: You need to be clear in a properly documented form on the positioning that you would like to create with your blogging effort. Who are you positioning the blog to? What is your target group?
      • you may just create a blog to attract the best talent in the industry
      • you may have a focused blog on thought leadership to position yourself accordingly int he industry
    • Branding: the branding strategy that you intend to establish with the emerging of the blog should be clear. What campaigns (if any) would you intend to run on the blog. Would the CEO/ CFO/ Senior management participate on the blog? Are you trying to make a point?
      • Are you open to external content on the blog other than your own? And are you willing to be open to comments from the external environment?
  • Are you selling/ marketing? STOP…..Start ENGAGING!
    • Since Corporate blogs are generally an effort of the PR department of a company, they have a restricted vision, and hence it reflects on the way they PUSH content on the blog. PUSHing is not the key, ENGAGING is! Your content will speak for itself. If you have smartly invested into content creation, in terms of videos, pictures, etc. you will break the ice much faster with the prospective target audience.
      • its fairly simple, you get unsolicited calls on your cell phone. Would you refer such a company to your circle? Probably NOT, but a genuine follow up and feedback conversation at a preferred time, well yes you would and WOMM is bound to happen
  • Provide Value
    • This is one of the most crucial aspects of a successful blogging effort. VALUE creation.
      • why do you think would I (either your prospective employee or client) spend 5 minutes in going through things which are not adding any value to me in terms of knowing more about you or the industry? Even if I land up and stick to your blog for a couple of minutes the first time, with no VALUE I will not bookmark it for my future reference, leave aside following you on my Google reader.
  • Take Feedback, Build Relationships
    • This is one aspect of Corporate blogging which many a Corporate think of and include in their agenda, but their focus shifts from this objective to the exclusivity of presenting and design. Looks do matter, no doubts, but you need to understand that each feature of the blog would essentially be leveraged towards achieving a particular business objective!
  • Remember YOU are a HUMAN and the person reading yoru blog is a HUMAN too!
    • Many a times, the Corporate get so consumed in their vision of presenting their best foot forward and trying to arrive the best way in their client’s perception, that they lose the basic essence of the fact that WE ARE STILL HUMAN. And business is all about relationships.
    • Write the blog as if you are expressing yourself to your target market/ group!
  • Select Bloggers
    • Yes! I know everyone can write and that you hire the best of class human resources in your company, still blogging is an art and hence I suggest my clients to select a team of bloggers who are honed in their skills and trained further by the company. This team should essentially consist of the following people:
      • PR professional from the company
      • Group of employees trained on company’s social media./ external communication guidelines
      • Social Media agencies
  • NO, your “Corporate Blog” DOES NOT need a SINGLE VOICE
    • Dont be afraid and get only one person to be writing/ punching the keys for you. He/ she will have a certain perception of the company and may as well be limited in the scope. Go ahead involve people. Give them a platform to express what you want to. More hands on deck make the experience for the client all that worth it!!

This is one of the many posts that I would be doing on the correct measures and tips and tricks of the trade of blogging, not out of what people say, but what I have experienced in real time on the field. And I would not be a common voice, but I would say, it works for me!!

To devise a Corporate Blogging Strategy for your company, CONTACT ME

Time and Content that’s the way and NOT Terms and Conditions – Saarthak at HIT 95 FM

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1

Aug
24

Its 5:40 in the morning and I have just woken up…have to reach work little early today as I am working on a BIG pitch for obviously a BIG client, which can end all the so called recession woes for a startups like us.. :)

This is a quickie and what I have in mind to introduce a concept which has been there for ages. You shop and you buy anything today, on the big flashy banners/ posters/ ads, you get for example big discounts but at the bottom end, there comes a small, almost unreadable line which says Terms and Conditions apply.

Okay, so since I am a Social Media Evangelist, while looking at my industry and the marketing industry overall, what struck me was T and C in our case really is Time and Content!! (c) myself

Now you would feel why does the post title contain a name called Saarthak HIT 95FM? Well, let me create a context. There is this FM channel called HIT 95 FM in Delhi, which is one of the best channels there is on air. And then there obviously have to be the RJ’s there…..and wallah you have someone called Saarthak (I dont know if Im spelling it right, or I have added an extra ‘a’).

Now is this an advertisement for the channel? NO!!

But I am making a point here. Saarthak comes on air pretty early in the morning and goes upto some 12pm in the afternoon giving you amazing dollops of music. But what I have been seeing over time in his journey of 6-7 hours on air, that he manages his time juggling in between the LIVE talks, contests, music and other stuff that keeps people like me hooked, pretty intelligently.

He manages the content he has and the time he works for in such a neat manner, that you never feel a hitch. For a client these are short term wins and keeping him on a high all throughout!

Looking through the Social Media glasses, I felt this is it, in our industry, content is the king as it is for Saarthak and the team, time for them is as crucial and what they sell and who they sell it to is again an important consideration as they have a niche concentrated target audience, which is the office goer in his/her vehicle. (Now being an entrepreneur, I have multiple business ideas running in my mind for HIT 95 guys to increase their revenue with) ;) anyway… going ahead this is the ultimate gyan!

What does a Solid placed Social Media Company need in the times evolving?

The times of seeding content on the internet are so over and the offering has now become a commodity. Its time to get campaigns flowing in with creative juices flowing and help the client processesize the entire Online Marketing gig for their business. This is the time for establishing your stand on what’s NEXT really!

Build a high team of creatives who are executioners as well and you have what you would call the NEXT WAVE in Social Media. Deliver to the client and have flawless execution and you are set for a long innings with a clientele which would include the best of the class in the industry, as flawless and responsible execution and project management is what these biggies are looking for and you will have the revenues flowing in and if you are not in deep S**t, then you can always get cash positive pretty quickly.

**and now for the self promotion part, well, I will be LIVE on air at Saarthak’s morning show between 8:20 and 8:30 today called the battle of the sexes. I hope I win, otherwise, I am telling Saarthak to at least give me a hamper…(LOL) coz I have been almost awake for 3 days and nights now and am almost like a dead man walking, so something other than coffee and vodka, needs to get inside to get me waking up and having my senses.

Are You The Starbucks or The Less Thank Truck Load Company?

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None

Aug
16

Sometimes I ponder over life and who things are moving. Its a Sunday and I am in deep thought about my company, where are we moving and how are we placed.

The question(s) which I want to get answered is: as a services company, are you defining productivity the right way as your clients deliverable(s) require? Do your employees really understand your business?

Thanks for Calling Yellow, Have a Nice Day

Case Study: Yellow Corp, a Fortune 500 company in the trucking business was going in a deep nose dive, which was found by Bill Zollars, who became the CEO of Yellow Corp at that time.

Problem Statement:

  1. What he found was that the company had no account-abilities and statistics for customer satisfaction.
  2. Employees did not understand the value and were just acting on the given orders

Current State of YRC:

This is the link to the amazing turn of events that have turned the fortunes of YRC

How did it happen?

Bill, understood one thing clearly, that the company is nosediving and competition was building up. People used to ask him, if the company will be around another couple of years? Bill had a strong look at the business and finally came out with the solution which had him telling the employees that they are no more competing with the competition in the trucking business, they are not a LTL/ trucking company.

We are a services company and need to strive to create systems to reach to what Starbucks does for its customers

Confused?

Well, Yes, Bill changed the entire positioning of the company for the employees, for them they had become a services company and hence the entire conversation with the customer changed. The entire focus shifted to the customer. People started listening to the customer and hence the products evolved there from.

Eg: On one of the occasions Bill went to a customer care centre of the company to hear the calls and he heard one of the agents answer a customer who wanted to truck his shipment from place A to B in 2 days. And the agent answered “We can do it in three days”. The customer again said but I want it to be done in two days. The agent had the same answer again. The customer finally remarked, I’ll call up someone else to which the agent said: Okay, thanks for calling yellow and letting us serve you. Have a nice day”

Well, if this is what you call serving, sure you are nose diving!

Being part of the Internet industry (read: social media) in India today and connecting with the leading players, I think, the flood of small companies which are creating ruckus in the market by introducing cheap services and setting wrong expectations with the client, will consume such companies itself.

The leading companies which have already set the Social Media ball rolling with the creme de la creme of the clientle would create an entry barrier for the smaller companies, strong enough which would take a good time to surpass and in such a time if these smaller companies dont scale up, with the right HR mix, I see them failing.

Thus the Social Media companies need to position themselves right in the market and itnernally with their employees aligned towards achieving the same goal seeing the same BIG picture!

Looking at Each Client Through the Same SOcial Media Glass – Are We Going Round in Circles Talking about the Same Problems?

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1

Aug
14

Well, Yes I have a problem.

I discuss Social Media with some of the established brains in the domain in India and have had discussions with Social Media thinkers sitting thousands of miles across the seven seas.

And now I do have a problem!

Before I put my problem down, let me put some questions for you to ponder upon:

  • Almost every business today needs to reach out and the Internet becomes one of the best mediums. But does every business have the same objective in terms of (Branding, Outreach, Lead generation) etc.?
  • Is it necessary that a solution which has worked for an IT company (as an example) would fit great for a BPO?
  • Is it necessary that YOU as an Online marketing company would be able to understand everything from a product business to an IT to a BPO to a Chocolate product company?
  • Is marketing universal and do the same rules apply for all on Social Media?

Well, now let me put forth my problem!

One of the biggest lacking points that I see with online marketing/ social media companies today is lack of good human resources. In my experience, you need three core and basic qualities to be even thinking of creating social media strategies for a business (client). These are:

  1. Solid understanding of Business/ Products/ Services/ Industry
  2. Solid understanding of the consumer who consume these products/ services online
  3. Solid understanding of marketing

My experience of the industry says that majority of Social Media companies, talk about all the major tools and all the great jargons, but what they dont understand is how to customize a solution for the client. Each business (may be from the similar domain) will have a different set of problem statements to answer. Each business will have different objectives to achieve.

When so much is different, how can you just go along with jargons and pitch the same solution to each client?

I have interacted with many a Social Media people who if spoken to, would not have the required level of knowledge/ understanding of the product/ industry/ consumer behavior they are pitching to, but will keep circling around their choice of words which are: branding, positioning and lead generation (amongst the many others)

To scale up as a Social Media company – My way would be

The human resources that I recruit would surely have these three above mentioned qualities. Also, since time is an essential factor in the Internet business, I as a small company cannot afford to keep training my employees and wait for them to grasp business and start delivering. Hence what I need to focus on is getting the right people on board who take the ownership of work and understand the criticality of client delivery and execution.

A Studio Apartment, A Bed, a Tea-pot and An Internet connection – Is What You Would Find in the Room of the Founder of Facebook.com

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Jul
31

Mark Zucekrberg – Exclusive Interview

I am impressed with the fact that the 23 year old kid who turned down $1 Billion from Yahoo and is almost a 4 year old company, who says that my age is a little bit of both an asset and a liability.

A kid who sits on the same desk as his 400 other employees writing codes, who has 240 million dollars from Microsoft for a 1.6 %stake, well, I am surely interested in listening to this guy who says no he is not looking to make facebook public and yes they are working on revenue streams.

Here I bring you the exclusive tid bits from Mark’s interview!

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