Seems like the Ad revenues are earning bucks for folks
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Jobs to Copy Paste !
Seems like the Ad revenues are earning bucks for folks
Seems like the Ad revenues are earning bucks for folks
Friday, April 04, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
CTS's German Advantage!
CTS formed a partnership with T-systems Inc, a division of Deutche Telekom of Bonn, Germany.
CTS can leverage on T-system's strong customer relation base doubled with it's Global delivery capabilities. This strategic move should help the fastest indian growing techie get a major foot print in Germany and followed by spread in Europe.
CTS formed a partnership with T-systems Inc, a division of Deutche Telekom of Bonn, Germany.
CTS can leverage on T-system's strong customer relation base doubled with it's Global delivery capabilities. This strategic move should help the fastest indian growing techie get a major foot print in Germany and followed by spread in Europe.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
$350 Mn deal from BT to Tech-Mahindra
India's sixth-largest software exporter by sales, is a joint venture between BT and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India's biggest utility vehicle and tractor maker. The company develops software for telecom service providers and telecom equipment makers and its clients include BT, AT&T Inc., Alcatel SA, and Vodafone. Under the current deal, Tech Mahindra will provide application maintenance and support services for BT, the Indian company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange
India's sixth-largest software exporter by sales, is a joint venture between BT and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India's biggest utility vehicle and tractor maker. The company develops software for telecom service providers and telecom equipment makers and its clients include BT, AT&T Inc., Alcatel SA, and Vodafone. Under the current deal, Tech Mahindra will provide application maintenance and support services for BT, the Indian company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange
Friday, December 28, 2007
"The Serial Problems of Cereal in India"
On the weekend analysts meet, I bumped into quite a few analysts and on my micro-interviews with them, I gathered some glaring examples of why one "Global strategy" concept is a misconception often for the changing landscapes like India.
The popular cereal brand across the globe, got launched in India in the mid 90s, the command came from the headquarters in the US. The company thought, India is US during the late 70's and early 80s trying to catch-up. Thus the strategy that was executed for US during 70's and 80's would be apt for India in 1990's ( First Flaw!).
The cereal wanted to replace the "Breakfast" for Indians. It couldn't, this is 2007 and still not a major % opts cereal, why?
I interviewed about 15 house wives from various states in India, and gathered some interesting facts about India and it's way of thinking.
1. Breakfast- In the south, the preferred breakfast was "Idly", this was considered the healthiest since it cooks on steam and has lots of fiber and easy to cook, the cost of making idly per family relatively in expensive, get the dough prepared and the breakfast for the rest of the week is ready to go, every morning you eat fresh and hot breakfast.
2. Eating boxed food as the first meal is not considered healthy, eating food served hot is considered healthy
3.Milk(in the form of Malted drinks, coffee,tea) are supplements, if breakfast is to be replaced by milk then a significant portion of energy is missing and it might lead to kids under performing in schools
4. Many mothers opined that cereal might be a good snack during the evening, when kids rush back from school, but the perceived "breakfast" cereal does not qualify to be good snack in the afternoon/evening!
Thus clearly the cereal company was loosing the ground. They should try to brand themselves as a healthy snack, that can be savored any time.
On the weekend analysts meet, I bumped into quite a few analysts and on my micro-interviews with them, I gathered some glaring examples of why one "Global strategy" concept is a misconception often for the changing landscapes like India.
The popular cereal brand across the globe, got launched in India in the mid 90s, the command came from the headquarters in the US. The company thought, India is US during the late 70's and early 80s trying to catch-up. Thus the strategy that was executed for US during 70's and 80's would be apt for India in 1990's ( First Flaw!).
The cereal wanted to replace the "Breakfast" for Indians. It couldn't, this is 2007 and still not a major % opts cereal, why?
I interviewed about 15 house wives from various states in India, and gathered some interesting facts about India and it's way of thinking.
1. Breakfast- In the south, the preferred breakfast was "Idly", this was considered the healthiest since it cooks on steam and has lots of fiber and easy to cook, the cost of making idly per family relatively in expensive, get the dough prepared and the breakfast for the rest of the week is ready to go, every morning you eat fresh and hot breakfast.
2. Eating boxed food as the first meal is not considered healthy, eating food served hot is considered healthy
3.Milk(in the form of Malted drinks, coffee,tea) are supplements, if breakfast is to be replaced by milk then a significant portion of energy is missing and it might lead to kids under performing in schools
4. Many mothers opined that cereal might be a good snack during the evening, when kids rush back from school, but the perceived "breakfast" cereal does not qualify to be good snack in the afternoon/evening!
Thus clearly the cereal company was loosing the ground. They should try to brand themselves as a healthy snack, that can be savored any time.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
India ahead
Last week, I had some work at Allahabad Bank. I hit the website and was glad to see a feature "Locate a Branch"- I located the required branch and called the phone #, no response ! I called another branch an office picked and helped me with the contact number. I wanted to give the feedback on Bank' site and it came back with a broken page-not a good sign !
I got to the bank (took an hour to get to bank-7 Kms an hour?) got done with the transaction and the officer was discussing the plight of Indian infrastructure and how it is impacting their business-his thoughts.
His questions were, when would we have china like infrastructure, when would we have Institutional framework like US- basically- when would we be like some one else- and answer was probably NEVER! definitely not in the life time of most of the late 1900's.
How would India Grow?
Last week, I had some work at Allahabad Bank. I hit the website and was glad to see a feature "Locate a Branch"- I located the required branch and called the phone #, no response ! I called another branch an office picked and helped me with the contact number. I wanted to give the feedback on Bank' site and it came back with a broken page-not a good sign !
I got to the bank (took an hour to get to bank-7 Kms an hour?) got done with the transaction and the officer was discussing the plight of Indian infrastructure and how it is impacting their business-his thoughts.
His questions were, when would we have china like infrastructure, when would we have Institutional framework like US- basically- when would we be like some one else- and answer was probably NEVER! definitely not in the life time of most of the late 1900's.
How would India Grow?
- By 2030, close to 20% of the world's population would be in India- the center of gravity is slowly towards the populous India- marketers cannot ignore India-simply because of the numbers
- India is getting less poor- the great Indian middle class is growing- I was talking to one of my friends and the following discussion came-up-" as kids it was a dream to start a life-style that dad's have provided with before their retirement-but most of us start a life style that is slightly above where dad's have ended (don't blame your dad- he gave the best life style possible, praise the liberalization march that is taking us forward)
- The private-public partnerships,the organized charity and innovations in education/health care/micro-finance to help the weaker India is in the best interest of stronger India- taken a collective look at all these efforts, these micro-events are all set to create history;
- The concept of gurukulams in AP to empower the rural youth to be employable is an example of innovation. The increasing shares of credit industry(remember a time? when debt was BAD, but for the poor who had no option but loan for survival, today loans are an indication of confidence in tomorrow)
- Most of the MNCs stopped asking whether it is India or China? it is now India AND china-- that speaks of our road ahead
Monday, December 24, 2007
Whoa ! All Work and N :( Play !
Work, Work and Work.. all work and no play... on a tremendous high, life has set some high expectations and tough deliverables(they are always tough!). A project with no clear requirements getting into User Acceptance Testing (a strategy to get requirements nailed down AT LEAST before the disaster), completely messed up work-out schedule; rapidly growing books,articles to read. Wow what a roller- coaster ride it had been.
I
1- Clear Direction: Nailed down on going ahead with the Functional requirements and completely put aside the RGE(that was the initial bible), different stakeholders had different versions of the bible!
2. Focused energies on the 20% of the system that drove the rest of the 100%!!
3.Kept pushing for near-perfectionism- pushed the QA to raise issues for the seemingly insignificant issues; pushed the Dev team to the limits of stretching the bouquet of skills.
4. Motivation Refuel- Got the team to party to celebrate small,weekly milestones, the moment I saw the signs of hard work,stress
The project is ready to deliver!
Life is getting back to control, I managed the energies of the team rather than mere time, working during the early hours and investing in some extra-hours over few saturdays(I don't think it is too bad to work on saturdays, it is all about priorities honey!), we kept raising the bars(of course the defects,Isn't it good to have them early?, fail-fast strategy)
Work, Work and Work.. all work and no play... on a tremendous high, life has set some high expectations and tough deliverables(they are always tough!). A project with no clear requirements getting into User Acceptance Testing (a strategy to get requirements nailed down AT LEAST before the disaster), completely messed up work-out schedule; rapidly growing books,articles to read. Wow what a roller- coaster ride it had been.
I
1- Clear Direction: Nailed down on going ahead with the Functional requirements and completely put aside the RGE(that was the initial bible), different stakeholders had different versions of the bible!
2. Focused energies on the 20% of the system that drove the rest of the 100%!!
3.Kept pushing for near-perfectionism- pushed the QA to raise issues for the seemingly insignificant issues; pushed the Dev team to the limits of stretching the bouquet of skills.
4. Motivation Refuel- Got the team to party to celebrate small,weekly milestones, the moment I saw the signs of hard work,stress
The project is ready to deliver!
Life is getting back to control, I managed the energies of the team rather than mere time, working during the early hours and investing in some extra-hours over few saturdays(I don't think it is too bad to work on saturdays, it is all about priorities honey!), we kept raising the bars(of course the defects,Isn't it good to have them early?, fail-fast strategy)
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Friday, November 02, 2007
Internet Free Vacation @Grand Canyon
I was on a vacation,completely unplugged from the information/virtual civilizations. Headed to Grand canyon via Hover dam from the Sin-city. Reached Grand canyon in the evening and got to see the magnificent symphony of nature in the purest form. It was breathtaking, and truly an out-of-world experience.
The vacation helped me recharge get closer to the planet we all belong. Days on the road in to the wild are truly inspiring and very well spent !
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
$5 a Pop
In Sept'07,headed to US with Lufthansa/US Airways from Hyderabad,India.
Service and Food in Lufthansa were good.
I took the US Airways flight from Frankfurt to Cleveland,OH, the flight service was not too bad but what boggled me was the attendant handed me over the headset and said $5 with a BIG MOUTH, I seriously thought she was kidding until I was forced to pay her $5. Considering the 8 hour flight, I cared more for the in-flight entertainment. I got the headset only to realize the inferior quality of it and just before the wheels went down, the headset went down too.I watched two movies(Wild Hogs, Blades of Glory) and felt $5 was a great deal rather than boredom to death ( 6 footer cramped up in coach class) at an altitude of 40,000 feet.
Next time you guys have a ticket on US Airways, you might consider taking a good headset with you.
On my return flight to India( a month later), I got my broken headphones exchanged and watched two more "Live Free or Die Hard, Next" and enjoyed the movies and had to force eat the raw leaves and half baked potato, US Airways called "Special Asian Veg. Meal"
Later, when I googled I found it very explicitly mentioned on the US Airways website, thanks guys-you have the disclaimer clear there. "You may use your own headsets or purchase headsets for $5 USD that can be used on future US Airways flights".
In Sept'07,headed to US with Lufthansa/US Airways from Hyderabad,India.
Service and Food in Lufthansa were good.
I took the US Airways flight from Frankfurt to Cleveland,OH, the flight service was not too bad but what boggled me was the attendant handed me over the headset and said $5 with a BIG MOUTH, I seriously thought she was kidding until I was forced to pay her $5. Considering the 8 hour flight, I cared more for the in-flight entertainment. I got the headset only to realize the inferior quality of it and just before the wheels went down, the headset went down too.I watched two movies(Wild Hogs, Blades of Glory) and felt $5 was a great deal rather than boredom to death ( 6 footer cramped up in coach class) at an altitude of 40,000 feet.
Next time you guys have a ticket on US Airways, you might consider taking a good headset with you.
On my return flight to India( a month later), I got my broken headphones exchanged and watched two more "Live Free or Die Hard, Next" and enjoyed the movies and had to force eat the raw leaves and half baked potato, US Airways called "Special Asian Veg. Meal"
Later, when I googled I found it very explicitly mentioned on the US Airways website, thanks guys-you have the disclaimer clear there. "You may use your own headsets or purchase headsets for $5 USD that can be used on future US Airways flights".
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
AT&T Does it again !
AT&T acquired Interwise for $121 Million. ATT is adding technology companies to its stack to provide a an end-to-end, what I call," service" and "experience" management.
AT&T had and has fat pipes connecting the globe, the businesses used to use and provide the applications, now AT&T is directly getting in to the end points by acquiring the niche and domain players. This is, what I call, "Go to Market Directly", a strategic move to grow inorganically.
Adobe's move into enabling Flash-based Web conferencing, Microsoft's upcoming Office Communications Server, and Cisco's WebEx are strong indicators of where the world is headed, but AT&T could potentially outdo all three if it can leverage its existing customer base.
Do I need to say more, AT&T had the customer base now they want to do a winning "300" feat, and I strongly think the company is headed in the right direction.
AT&T acquired Interwise for $121 Million. ATT is adding technology companies to its stack to provide a an end-to-end, what I call," service" and "experience" management.
AT&T had and has fat pipes connecting the globe, the businesses used to use and provide the applications, now AT&T is directly getting in to the end points by acquiring the niche and domain players. This is, what I call, "Go to Market Directly", a strategic move to grow inorganically.
Adobe's move into enabling Flash-based Web conferencing, Microsoft's upcoming Office Communications Server, and Cisco's WebEx are strong indicators of where the world is headed, but AT&T could potentially outdo all three if it can leverage its existing customer base.
Do I need to say more, AT&T had the customer base now they want to do a winning "300" feat, and I strongly think the company is headed in the right direction.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Citi sends unrequested credit cards
Who: Affects 3.5 million Macy's customers who haven't used their credit card accounts for 24 to 48 months.
What: Macy's store credit card is being flipped to a general-purpose Citi MasterCard.
What to do if you receive an unwanted card:
• Call the bank to close the account; cut up the card. Confirm in writing.
Source:http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2007-09-27-credit-cards_N.htm
We live in the capitalist world, where Greed it not bad at all. I know of some instances where BofA sends checks that I can use as cash advance and Citi calls me and preapproves a personal loan that I never applied for, HSBC sends me a Platinum card with free offers !
They are dragging us to enter the complicated Matrix- where businesses want to feast on consumers !!
Do watch your bottom !
Who: Affects 3.5 million Macy's customers who haven't used their credit card accounts for 24 to 48 months.
What: Macy's store credit card is being flipped to a general-purpose Citi MasterCard.
What to do if you receive an unwanted card:
• Call the bank to close the account; cut up the card. Confirm in writing.
Source:http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2007-09-27-credit-cards_N.htm
We live in the capitalist world, where Greed it not bad at all. I know of some instances where BofA sends checks that I can use as cash advance and Citi calls me and preapproves a personal loan that I never applied for, HSBC sends me a Platinum card with free offers !
They are dragging us to enter the complicated Matrix- where businesses want to feast on consumers !!
Do watch your bottom !
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Bigtable is a distributed storage system for managing structured data that is designed to scale to a very large size: petabytes of data across thousands of commodity servers. Many projects at Google store data in Bigtable, including web indexing, Google Earth, and Google Finance. These applications place very different demands on Bigtable, both in terms of data size (from URLs to web pages to satellite imagery) and latency requirements (from backend bulk processing to real-time data serving). Despite these varied demands, Bigtable has successfully provided a flexible, high-performance solution for all of these Google products. In this paper we describe the simple data model provided by Bigtable, which gives clients dynamic control over data layout and format, and we describe the design and implementation of Bigtable.
BigTable: Google's Distributed Structured Storage System
BigTable: Google's Distributed Structured Storage System
- Video on BigTable (from Google Video, by Jeff Dean)
- Video on BigTable (alternative, from University of Washington TV)
- Notes on Google BigTable
Monday, August 27, 2007
India 2007
Black-Swan: The current one that is keeping me up is Black Swan: The Impact of Highly Improbable. The recent blasts at Lumbini park,Hyderabad were a black swan, it changed the perspective of the city so much ! With in moments the news was every where, some of the IT project managers onsite, I knew of, called their team to check the welfare. It is not only the country economy but the global economy that is at stake due to these terror attacks. The ripple effect of blasts could be expensive and irreversible.
Then there was another crazy incident at Agra, where a mob set the trucks on fire as accidentally a truck ran into a procession killing 4. The chaos resulted in curfew and lot of property destruction.
If Eye for Eye will only leave the world blind- recalling the words of Mahatma, shame and uneventful to see such barbaric and heinous crime. Something needs to be done to get a fundamental change in the way things operate, whats it? another Gandhi?
Recalling the mother Theresa on her 97th birthday,If only each of us cleans our doorfront, the entire country will be cleaner and hygienic, Jai Hind !
Black-Swan: The current one that is keeping me up is Black Swan: The Impact of Highly Improbable. The recent blasts at Lumbini park,Hyderabad were a black swan, it changed the perspective of the city so much ! With in moments the news was every where, some of the IT project managers onsite, I knew of, called their team to check the welfare. It is not only the country economy but the global economy that is at stake due to these terror attacks. The ripple effect of blasts could be expensive and irreversible.
Then there was another crazy incident at Agra, where a mob set the trucks on fire as accidentally a truck ran into a procession killing 4. The chaos resulted in curfew and lot of property destruction.
If Eye for Eye will only leave the world blind- recalling the words of Mahatma, shame and uneventful to see such barbaric and heinous crime. Something needs to be done to get a fundamental change in the way things operate, whats it? another Gandhi?
Recalling the mother Theresa on her 97th birthday,If only each of us cleans our doorfront, the entire country will be cleaner and hygienic, Jai Hind !
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