Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The COP15 Dilemma

Copenhagen has been in the news these days for all the right and wrong reasons.... but to summarize some of the points that bring out the dilemma are:

1) For starters its going to host the summit to decide what are the next steps to save the earth from global warming.
2) Question: Is there a global warming, some critics ask? the earth is too large to be affected by our curtailing of fossil fuels and hence the carbon footprints. The ice is melting at the Artic, is it having the same effect at the other end... was this effect there in the last 1000 years... are the world temperature data being manipulated to show a face that some of the influential countries want to show the rest of the world.
3) Well the fossil fuels are going to last for only 5o more years, is this a bid for the Renewable energy companies to make a hoopla to shift to alternate sources, if yes is it the clean energy companies or is it the bio-fuel companies who will benefit the most? Should be the bio fuel one... cos the market are in already in place for the bio fuel to be used as an alternative... but the downside is:
3.1) Bio fuel need vast areas of plantation's to grow and rain forests are being cut to make way for these plantations on one end which effects the world Eco balance and will hurt earth in a larger way...
3.2) On the other end if the bio fuel occupies the existing arable land used for cultivation of food grains and vegetables, then it would create a shortage of world food and in turn effect many under-developed and developing countries as it will food grain prices up leading to wide spread inflation and the poorer countries will be the most affected.
4) One suggestion to reduce your carbon footprint is to "Turn Vegetarian" well the logic goes is if an "X" amount of arable land can feed 100 vegetarian it can only feed 30 non Vegetarians and also increase your carbon emissions in the process... Turning vegetarian will probably increase the woes to point number 3.2 and further fuel inflation...

Above all this, human beings still manage to hold its sense of humor intact and the most hilarious situation comes straight from COP15... the Mayor has requested all COP15 members not to pay prostitutes for their services, probably to avoid further increase in diplomatic temperatures... But the sex workers moved a step ahead... they are offering free sex to the delegates who will show them both, their delegate passes and the card circulated by the mayor... Now this might put some of the delegates into a real dilemma...

Which ever way the discussion is going it seems to be affecting the under privileged countries...

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Andy versus Roger

The Wimbledon final match on 5th July was simply stupendous in more ways than one... Andy was the better player and Federer the more deserving one... why?
While Andy's back hand and his placements worked in his favour, it was Federer's Aces and his persistence that gave him the trophy... Both played like true heroes, but there were a couple of situations in the match that made Federer he deserving one...
Andy started winning the first set easily... the second set was actually Andy's till the last defining moment in the tie breaker. Andy led the tie breaker 5 -2 and that was the defining moment of the match when Roger showed nothing is lost and cam back with all he had to win the set. the next set was equally difficult for Roger but the 4th set, Andy had a superb come back again winning it quite easily .... with all hopes now set on Andy to win the match, Roger just hung on there and played for each point thereafter and not worried about the final outcome.... At the end Roger, the calmer one, ended up taking the gold and creating history with 16 grand slam victories.
Corporates can take a lot from this game... A lot of times competitors, who are bigger and better, end up taking market share with pure might. they have the power to trounce you and wipe you out... the only thing that remains in your favour is your dream. Your dream to achieve that milestone that will take you beyond just monetary achievement, but the satisfaction that you stuck around and finished the course.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Look Before you leap

I overheard someone commenting about a new ad campaign that had hit the TV with the IPL. Barely anybody would have missed it. The ZooZoo Ad from Vodafone. The person "bet her job"; that the ad was an animation and not a live shoot. The discussion went into an even more tangle when she was challenged and the only way to justify the argument was her years of experience and the fact that she was so closely associated with the brand... well the discussion didn't end over there... a little enquiry later it was clear that the ad was an actual shoot. But surprise surprise, the impulse bets and the overt justifications just disappeared into thin air...
I have always been wondering in some corporate set ups how can one bet based on his likes and dislikes and not have an argument on plain-simple facts. why should egos always play a large role on 'why I am more important than the rest of you'.
This stems from the insecurities that creep up in an corporate environment. The need to be recognised and far outshine your colleagues.
But the question even then remain is on why should you lie or put your credibility at stake, just to prove a point that doesnot benefit your work anyways?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Sin of Lying

Here's an interesting story I heard sometime back...

A minister told his congregation, "Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Chapter 17. The following Sunday, as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the minister asked for a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Chapter 17. Every hand went up. The minister smiled and said, "There are only sixteen chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying."

In the corporate world, there are many such characters who they know stuff which they are not even aware of... but just to be on the right side of the boss they nod their heads that they know about the context, with their fingers crossed that the next question will not drill down into further details... part of this tendency to be a compulsive liar is the fear of not knowing, while other might; and the other part is the feeling of being superior, that sudden surge of minuscule adrenaline rush, when you know more than the others.

I heard one person in my company, claim that the company spends 30% of the total advertising spends in India and when asked to support his claim with facts, he simply shrugged it off saying why should he share this information with anyone, in a ridiculing tone...

The fact was that the company, tough being one of the largest conglomerates, spent about 2% of the Advertising spend and probably 3% of the marketing spends. But however far you are away from the truth, the tendency to lie not only takes away your respect, but also your ability to respect others, your tendency to be open to accept ideas that will help you grow as a good manager and as an even better person...

Monday, March 23, 2009

Tablet PC- Difficulty in crossing the Chasm

Just last week I came across a person who happened to be carrying a Tablet PC... It brought back memories from 2003, when I was with Digit magazine, that the hype of a Tablet PC had just started. every media covered the product as if there was no end to it and the product was probably the best thing that happened to computing after Apple gave the world the MAC or IBM, the PC... and then suddenly it was totally out of the picture with the product not being seen at all or practically no manufacturer today producing it... some blamed it on the high cost, some blamed it on applications not being up to the mark...

The case however reminded me of the book "Crossing the chasm" by Geoffrey Moore, who beautifully put across how technology products need to be marketed in a different way to ensure that the product goes beyond the early adopters and gets accepted in the early majority...

Like most technology adoption life cycle, the early adopters do lap up a product that has been just introduced in the market. but unlike the others, there is a large gap between the EA and the EM that needs to be fathomed with great effort. the early indication shown by the EA only indicates that the product has a potential, but the true test lies in the ease in which the product cane be easily accepted by the EM and hence make it a success... the problem would probably lie at Microsoft's end to not promote the product enough to find its acceptance with the Majority...

Batman - Dark Night - the sure way to fire


I was watching Batman - Dark Night.... The opening scene is interesting where Joker takes his bunch of goons to rob the mob bank and in a well co-ordinated effort, every time the previous person completes his task, the next person in his link has to eliminate him and then start his work... at the end only Joker survives... I recently saw a similar strategy where a company wants to consolidate its operations and reduce their number of regions by half while also reducing the number of people by half too... it first starts with the inital regions to fire a few and relocate a few guys, while the person identified for the new region eliminates people from the consolidated region and fires a few more after consolidation... finally the HO fires whatever remaining target needs to be acheived, in a true Joker style execution...

Hats off to a picture perfect execution...

Monday, March 16, 2009

Unethical advertising methods...



Here is an advertising campaign from an casino firm - Indiana Casino that featured an Obama sound-alike voice over to promote their services... the ad was taken off air on the insistence of white house officials....

Recycling to make larger profits

Chilean, Modulab Studio uses PVC from old advertising banners to design and create unique messenger bags from entirely recycled materials. Based loosely on the same core concept as Freitag's bags (which make use of dump truck vinyl tarps), the Modulab's are unique, recuperating a great deal of the plastic used in outdoor advertising in their manufacture.
Designer Pamela Castro, responsible for the firm, says "at Chile it's kind of complicated to work with recycling, as consumers reduce value to the design work and think that a product built with re-utilized materials should have minimum prices", that's why these kind of work in judgmental places is so valuable. The studio also works with accessories from hardware elements, such as nuts and washers.

As for Freitag bags as mentioned above...

Swissies Markus, Daniel Freitag designed these in '93. Trucks in Europe don't have solid walls. Instead they stretch tarps across the openings. These bags are made from those tarps after they are no longer useful. Also made with recycled bike tubes (for the piping) and recycled seatbelts. Every bag is unique. Very durable, easily repairable. Waterproof. Some are expandable. You can even build your own bag online! You choose what your bag will look like by placing a pattern over a unique tarp (virtually). Their facility in Tunisia employs handicapped people.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Genius is temporary and circumstantial

A month back I had written about an article about how Genius is within you and at an opportune time, the genius comes out and startles everybody with its brilliance.... To add to that thought process, I further think that that phase is also temporary and circumstantial... and for you to bring in the genius in you a large factor is the environment in which you thrive... Your colleagues, subordinates, your bosses and most importantly environment and infrastructure that supports you the play a large role in bringing a genius in you....
Some clear examples of this theory I would say are doyens of yesteryear's who are now struggling to make their presence felt... What Samir Nair was for Star is not as effective for Imagine, Peter Mukherjee is a similar case in INX, Jagdeep kapoor's brilliance in Parle does not seem to have been reflected after that yet being called a brand guru... I would also say that brilliance in performance should not be confused with brilliance in innovation... a genius thinks innovatively and out of the box, resultly disproportionate growth... there are people who are brilliant never-the-less, and have been consistent in their performance to deliver goods of what they are expected of...

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Absolute and relative standards

A regular debate that I have had with a few people in the recent past is... one must be honest always and should refrain from any acts that will encourage people to grow more evil. Because if you let evil grow once, it will always grow into a much bigger demon, if not curtailed early.

Two situations:
1) You are caught by a cop for jumping the signal (intentionally or unintentionally).... the cop demands a bribe instead of paying the fine. You accept to pay the fine but not the bribe. He confiscates the license tells you to come to his the police station the next day and collect the license along with the receipt. (He has not carried his receipt book)... well he too is at fault for not being fully equipped while on duty... but you have to actually go the the PS twice before he hands back the license and the receipt for the money you paid...

2) You have pitched for a contract in a company tender. You have the option of either doing your best, with your best quote or actually trying to find out how you stand vis-a-vis other quotes and ensure you get the contract... you choose the former option, now you are waiting for the results...

In both the case the arguments are that we should be truthful at all points stands, and most people in normal circumstances would agree that they would stick to the honest option...

Now take the same situation in which you have to rush a person to the hospital in your car and you have break the signal, will the above logic hold true... or if your winning the contract would decide the fate of the company and the 100 employees who are about to loose their jobs if we don't get the contract...

I know who friend who believes firmly in the same... incidentally he is also the person who claims his entire phone bill from the company, while the company policy clearly states that personal calls need to be removed from the bill before claiming the bill. His logic is that I was promised to be paid the entire bill... but later when the company realized that a lot more people are claiming bills over and above what they should have, they set limits to which a person could claim, based on his seniority.

I believe that there are no absolute standards that can be set. While some people believe that to be true, like the entire universe, everything is relative and one needs to take a decision from the point of vies of where he stands...

In the process each person will have to base his decision on the threshold that he sets for himself...

Media versus environment

I had a recent debate with a friend (a very dear friend I must say) on how Television is going beyond its current moral responsibilities and corrupting our young generation's mind.... My friend vehemently believed that television should be curtailed for children and should be stopped from viewing it. He believed that children are at a stage when they accept ideas, whether good or bad, more easily than grown ups... I totally agreed with him on that...
But my perspective to the issue was totally different...
1) I believed, television created content that always reflected what their viewers need. Anything that falls short of expectations, is a business failure...
2) Also the content is a function of society belief, where the broadcaster creates content that is pushing the acceptance level of content in terms of vulgarity and nudity to the maximum permissible limit than what exists in the average household, the censor board too do their own due diligence.
3) I believe that today there are a lot more mediums that can influence anybody, even children.. So how can we single out one medium and say that it is responsible for the corruption... even if we manage to muffle one medium's voice other mediums will spurt out to meet the demand...
4) Today Friends, peers and family are the most influential part of your lifestyle and behavior. what is accepted in the society is more a reflection of what is happening in front of you, rather than what is happening on silver screen or any other medium... If certain bad words are permitted in one friend circle, it is not permitted in another...

I would rest my case in you taking anus of your child and ensure you inculcate right cultural and behavioral standards... let the child understand these finer points of life and take his own decision to create his own standards... he will have the power to choose his friends who he can handle through his life, his education, his deeds and mis-deeds... and if we have done that we have given our child teh best education...

Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Art of Managing Incompetencies

Let me tell you a story of a company I once knew...

The company had a business head who was very ambitious and was able to influence his team that managed to get get results he desired. On one of the new projects that he planned, he had an ambitious target of 100 and for that he hired a sales head who he thought fits the bill... but unlike most sales guys this person was a very pessimistic sales guy and did not believe in the figure, but yet he decided to move ahead because he did not have a strong enough reason to to know how not to achieve it... So they both put up a huge system to achieve that huge target of 100. But eventually before the project got launched, the Business head resigned and a new business head came in...

The new business head was a very aggressive sales person and took it upon himself to achieve the challenge of achieving the high targets... he made every effort and pushed the sales head to make it happen... the Sale head who did not believe in the figure on the other hand did not believe in the figure anyways... and had to go through a tough time to the extent that he was almost about to quit... when his stars smiled one day and the new Business head also quit.... he got a new lease of life...

The next business head was a conservative... he believed he would achieve lower targets and then the sales head already believed in the same, and yes what happened next was very expected... Since the new targets were much lower, they had to make the system much leaner, All existing people who were hired had to be reduced by half as the target too was reduced by half... A lot of people lost their job and who had the last laugh was the pessimist sales head... But the people who last their jobs were not the non performers but the people who were in good books of the sales head.

That year the company did not achieve its target again and so it happened the next year too. The Sales head was finally asked to quit because of non performance. It took the company an entire 4 years to realize who was the non performer.

The following year a new Sales head and a new business head joined the company, and they decided to take the stiff target of 100... and for that you know what they needed a much larger system and lots of people...

Steps to make additional money in a corporate environment - Lesson No 1

If you are a part of senior management in your company, always fix meeting outside your company premises, involve an unsuspecting subordinate who has a car and ask him to join the meeting... then ask him to take his car as you have to give your car out for servicing or take care of your wife. You very well know he can not make any claims for the taxi or fuel as he is not eligible for it... Please make sure you do not pay for any expenses and ensure the subordinate takes care of all expenses. Once the meeting is done come back to office and claim the money as if you have done the whole meeting all alone... do not give any credit to the subordinate...

This is standard operating procedure. please do not involve your conscience at any point of time in these steps. It will be detrimental for your own savings...

Friday, March 6, 2009

Layoffs

Today I learnt that tomorrow there are going to be layoffs... the regions are going to be reduced to 6 regions and proportionately teams are going to be resized to much smaller teams... this is third company that i have been will go through the bloodbath... About a year back the company had some people promising them great future, bright salaries and a good job roles... while the latter 2 points are debatable... the first point is what the company would move away from...
There were rumors that there would be no layoffs... some realignment though, but no layoffs... but tomorrow all those would change... probably the company needs to realign its ambitious targets set a year back to a more realistic one now... but that would also mean more realistic costs and therefore more layoffs...
One thing I have realized, when the heads roll it is always from the bottom... but one more thing that comes out is layoffs don't happen on the basis of performance, rather it happens on the basis of LIFO and perception....
The sales head would have probably thought of getting more marketing dollars over more more FOS to increase sales... The HR head would have now revised his recruitment target to a comfortable one and think more in lines of his personal goals than the corporate ones.
But unfortunately the people who loose there jobs don't have those choices to reduce their EMIs or push back the child that was just born or break the marriage that has just happened... they would probably push back the dream they once had while joining the company of having a secure future or a dream home or a spouse....

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Corporate environment keeps you young

Recently a lady joined my team. Being from a similar industry I had to do some first hand research about her credentials... I was happy with what I heard... with about 12-13 years of experience she was a very objective, level-headed and result oriented person...
The first few weeks were good... I was looking forward to the interaction and it turned out well, until some of her subordinates started feeling insecure about us developing a healthy rapo... my rapo with her predecessor was not so great... I could clearly feel a sense of insecurity within him...
The next two weeks, I started seeing a complete turnaround in the way we interacted... I could sense something amiss... the Hi's started disappearing... and the uncalled aggression started emerging, the one that is so important to protect your domain....
Some times I wonder is corporate life good... I think it very much is... here is a person who sounds so mature in her approach in her previous agency, now turns the other way, based on a subordinate's view who have just started experiencing the true nature of corporate life... in a way corporate life is good, it keeps you young,... in other words, it does not allow you to grow...

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The corporate chess game

I have often equated corporate environment to chess... the reason is simple... like in chess a corporate always has a mix of Rook, Bishop, Knight, and various Pawns... but yes there are very few or only one King or Queen... Imagine the situation if the company has many kings, Many queens, and a mix of Rook, Bishop, Knight, and various Pawns.... I think I have identified one such company that matches to this scenario...
Well... this company has an emperor and a Shahensha and quite a few Kings, and queens... and since there is now place for an emperor and shahensha on the chess board, they actually stay out and ,ale things happen... the power points (the kings and the queens) in the company strive for more goody points from the emperor and the shahensha and in the process distribute powers to various Rook, Bishop and Knights apart from there existing powers... the result, they start acting like the queen and can actually move all over the place claiming they know the king and in the process the emperor....
The Kings process also has a few drawbacks... it unknowingly demotes some of the Rook, Bishop, Knight into a pawn position, particularly the ones who have just joined the game... this discourages them and actually creates a lot of instability in the system, causing distrust and lack of synergies within the corporate machinery...
While the emperor still feels the machinery is working fine, the bottom line is the company could have worked in a much better way, if the roles had been crisply defined and accountability be firmly demarcated...

Hey guys I met Hem and Haw

Remember the book "Who moved my cheese" and the two characters "Hem" and "Haw".... I think I know them... I see them in office everyday. Everyday Haw comes to office and always feels good for he is controlling so much of marcom budgets (he actually enters the purchase requisitions into the system) and then there is Hem who believes that he controls the entire coverage that happens for the company (He coordinates for news stories and gives it to the PR agency)... Every day they come along and tell people stories about how they moved one file from point A and point B and how they did not let it happen, once in a while... The Irony of them been there is, they have to work together, but they don't trust each other... T are They are worried that the other person will take their cheese away... so every day they come together each morning , they follow each other in each others meeting and at the end of the day they meet their boss to tell tall stories on how they protected their cheese and made attempts to grow it....

I think every company has their own hems and haws and these are the characters who actually are not needed but have to be a part of the furniture of that company... they survive on other person's glory and yet feel important to have done that.... what they don't realize is that they are eating into their cheese everyday without realizing it and one day when the cheese gets stale or over, they will start blaming other people on how the cheese got depleted, because of others mistakes....

long live the king!!!!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Pennywise Pound Foolish

It sometimes amazes you how a corporate team works and are they trying to please people internally or do their job... I recently came across an incident where a media campaign had to burst in print along with some support on radio... the budget was limited... the choice was either to choose highly effective but costly medium hence lowering you number of inserts in print as well as radio or to put in lesser effective mediums and get more inserts thereby proving to management that you have bargained for a better deal... as expected the team chose the later option... and as expected the result of the campaign was horrible, did not increase the sales by a single point... later in the day I heard the team crib about how well the plan was made but the market is so bad that there is no demand for this product....

Sad I must say.....

It pays to be a woman in the corporate world

Was reading an article on how women need to be treated equal as men... about women not been treated well and exploited in an corporate environment and what amounts to sexual harassment and what does not.... I looked into my past 15 years and some other 15 other friends equally large experience to see how were women exploited...
I had an opposing view to the debate that is currently going on....
I would say keeping war of the sexes aside, what counts is how street smart and opportunistic the person is... men have been traditionally in the forefront earlier, but women are not far behind in this game... certain business such as media, PR, advertising have been know to favour having women sales and servicing people... the reason is simple, men find it difficult to say NO to women then men... having been in media for about 9 years, have seen these cases quite often... women executives have been more effective than men...

On the corporate side too I see a massive difference in the way women who have the above traits have fared much better than their male counterparts... But yes this is true till the extent that the boss is a male....

I rest the case with this...

Friday, February 27, 2009

Today’s technology

‘When I started out in advertising, art direction was awash with rules. Nowadays it seems anything goes. This freedom (to which we all owe Apple Macintosh a big hug) has brought fantastic results.’
– Dave Dye, Leagas Delaney

‘ I believe the electronic information revolution is truly the magic of our times. We are forever indebted to the Mac. But even the most powerful computer will never be a substitute for human insight.’
– Micheal Shaffron, Saatchi & Saatchi

Copy

‘If you want to be a well-paid copywriter, please your client. If you want to be an award-winning copywriter, please yourself. If you want to be a great copywriter, please your reader.’

- Steve Hayden, Ogilvy‘There is no such thing as long copy.

There is only too-long copy. And that can be two words if they are not the right two words.’

– Jim Durfee, Messner, Vetere, EuroRSCG

Art Direction

Never let it get in the way of an idea.

‘Visual language is more important than the word.
Visual language is universal,
communicating across cultural and language barriers.’
– Warren Eakins, Leagas Delaney

‘I often produce about a hundred layouts over a few days.
When I arrive at one that feels right,
I scrutinize the layout over and over again,
then I improve it.’
– Alexandra Taylor, Saatchi & Saatchi

Be simple. Be fresh.

‘People are bombarded with imagery. So keep it simple, like a billboard. And you will win.’
- Dean Hanson, Fallon McElligott
‘Don’t be different just to be different. Be simple. Be visual.’
- Luke Sullivan, Fallon McElligott

Keep a twist in the headline or in the visual.

'If the idea in the ad is being carried by the headline, it means the headline will contain a twist, a shock factor. Therefore the accompanying visual must play a subservient or straight role. And vice versa.’– Jim Aitchison, The Ball Partnership

Should you be rational?

‘Anyone who thinks you need a rational benefit is ignoring 90% of the human brain, which is irrational. There is no rational benefit to Coke and Pepsi.’
– Neil French, WPP

Look for an idea.

‘People are hard to shock with execution. You tend to remember execution for a short while. You tend to remember ideas for a long time.’
– Gary Goldsmith, Lowe

‘I think in the best execution routes there is an idea. In a lot of it there isn’t, and unless the image is truly outstanding, it isn’t as memorable.’
– David Abbott, Abbott Mead & Vickers.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Avoid the obvious.

Find out what everybody is doing in the category and do the opposite.

‘Research said that all beer must be light coloured these days, so we decided to make ours black. It must be light in alcohol, so we made ours 12% alcohol. The ads must have photographs of girls, so we decided not to have any photographs of girls. They must have status symbols, so we said, no status symbols. They must have crowds of blokes having a jolly good time in a pub. We said we’ll have none of that either. Every rule we could find about beer advertising, we decided to break.’

– Neil French on XO beer -

Find a unique feature in the brand

The feature could be in the brand name, packaging, shape, design, or price. It could be a little detail in the production or history of the product. For this you must learn as much of the product as possible.

‘In the absence of knowledge, you will be doomed to rely more and more on adjectives; always a mistake.’

– Bob Levenson, Doyle Dane Bernbach-

Print advertising changes superficially...

Print advertising changes superficially. We go through fashions – borders, typography, colour type, etc. Techniques change, but I don’t think the enduring principles of good communication will change that much. Because it’s about human behaviour and reaction.


– David Abbot, Abbot Mead & Vickers -

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

POEM - ANYWAYS

Life as a leader, Life as a dreamer
People are unreasonable, illogical, self-centered
Love them anyway
If you do good
People may accuse of selfish, ulterior motives
Do good anyway
If you are successful
You will win false friends, and true enemies
Succeed anyway
The good you do today
May be forgotten tomorrow
Do good anyway
Honesty and frankness
Make you vulnerable
Be honest and frank anyway
People favor underdogs
But only follow Top-dogs
Fight for some underdog anyway
What you spend time building,
Maybe destroyed overnight
Build anyway
People who really need help
May attack you if you help them
Help them anyway
Give the world best you got
And you may get kicked in the tee
Give the world you got anyway
NOTE: Never realise who wrote this poem... but i liked it a lot.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Slowdown and the fear of loosing your job

Last few weeks have been discomforting. Got news from my previous company, that some 500 people were asked to leave, on grounds of non performance and cost cutting under slowdown... some people had been hired less than 12 months ago. The aftermath saw about 10 more people quitting almost immediately, the reason 'I will quit before I am asked to leave'. over the past one month had heard atleast 20 other stories of people being asked to leave from various media companie, TOI, HT, IT, Outlook, Reliance Retail, Subhiksha and a few more...
Some of the companies were actually doing quite well or so it seemed, and then it makes you wonder, whether this is happening because of the slowdown or are the companies firing under cover to undo some of their past sins.
A company I know, showed about 30 crores of loss in the last quarter. the official news was that the loss was on account of firing some 300 people and the pink slips cost them that amount. The fact was that they had to write off about 30 crores of accumlated bad debts over the past 5 years. some retail companies again fired a lot of people, maybe because of their over exposure to taking risks in rampantly opening retail outlets in every nook and corner they could find to have the first movers advantage rather than actually studying the viability of the outlet in that area.
But whatever the reason for firing, there is a sense on uncertainty and insecurity with employees.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Corporate Blooper

This is how technology dependance usually results in corporate bloopers. My company has an internal portal for employees. As a part of this site, there is a section that encourage employees by congratulating them when they complete a specific tenure... well ... and so it seems they take the data, not from the HR data but from the date on which their email ID was created.... probably for one, it was easier for the programmer to access that info and two because the data might not be way off the mark on the DOJ because a email ID is created within 1 week of joining....

but then things go wrong from there on.... one day I see the following screen

A person by the name "Application testid9" has completed 7 years in the organisation and tops the employee list for that day...

the error was later on corrected after some manual intervention...

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Million Dollar Homepage


The Million Dollar Homepage ( www.milliondollarhomepage.com ) How many people smacked themselves on the head for not thinking of this? About a million? Alex Tew made an initial investment of £50 on the domain name and a basic web-hosting package. Then, he proceeded to sell a pixel on his page for one dollar. The rest is history. He reached his goal of earning one million dollars and then some. Now, he’s selling 1000 limited edition poster prints (signed by Alex himself!) and offering an opportunity to “own a print of Internet history.”

The then 21-year-old student from Wiltshire, England to help raise money for his university education. Launched on 26 August 2005, the website is said to have generated a gross income of $1,037,100. The site's Alexa ranking as of 4 February 2009 is 46,523, having peaked at around 127.

The home page of the site consists of one million pixels in a 1000×1000 pixel grid, on which image-based links were sold for $1 per pixel, in minimum 10×10 blocks. The purchasers of these pixel blocks provided tiny images to be displayed on them, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to which they were linked, and a slogan displayed when hovering the cursor over the link. The aim of the site was to sell all of the pixels in the image, thus generating one million dollars of income for the creator.

On 1 January 2006, the final 1,000 pixels left were put up for auction on eBay. The auction closed on 11 January with a winning bid of $38,100.00, bringing the final tally to $1,037,100 in gross income.

visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Million_Dollar_Homepage for more info....

Top 10 Indian Scams in recent times

8000 crores - The biggest corporate scam in India has come from one of the most respected businessmen. Ramalinga Raju resigned as its chairman after admitting to cooking up the account books. His efforts to fill the "fictitious assets with real ones" through Maytas acquisition failed, after which he decided to confess the crime. With a fraud involving about Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion), Satyam is heading for more trouble in the days ahead. The company's balance sheet as of September 30 carries inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore (Rs 50.40 billion) as against Rs 5,361 crore (Rs 53.61 billion) reflected in the books.

6000 crores - Ketan Parekh Harshad Mehta's footsteps to swindle crores of rupees from banks. A chartered accountant he used to run a family business, NH Securities.Ketan however had bigger plans in mind. He targetted smaller exchanges like the Allahabad Stock Exchange and the Calcutta Stock Exchange, and bought shares in fictitious names. His dealings revolved around shares of ten companies like Himachal Futuristic, Global Tele-Systems, SSI Ltd, DSQ Software, Zee Telefilms, Silverline, Pentamedia Graphics and Satyam Computer (K-10 scrips). Ketan borrowed Rs 250 crore from Global Trust Bank to fuel his ambitions. Ketan alongwith his associates also managed to get Rs 1,000 crore from the Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank. According to RBI regulations, a broker is allowed a loan of only Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million). There was evidence of price rigging in the scrips of Global Trust Bank, Zee Telefilms, HFCL, Lupin Laboratories, Aftek Infosys and Padmini Polymer.

4000 crores - Harshad Mehta, He was known as the 'Big Bull'. However, his bull run did not last too long. He triggered a rise in the Bombay Stock Exchange in the year 1992 by trading in shares at a premium across many segments. Taking advantages of the loopholes in the banking system, Harshad and his associates triggered a securities scam diverting funds to the tune of Rs 4000 crore (Rs 40 billion) from the banks to stockbrokers between April 1991 to May 1992. Harshad Mehta worked with the New India Assurance Company before he moved ahead to try his luck in the stock markets. Mehta soon mastered the tricks of the trade and set out on dangerous game plan. Mehta has siphoned off huge sums of money from several banks and millions of investors were conned in the process. His scam was exposed, the markets crashed and he was arrested and banned for life from trading in the stock markets. He was later charged with 72 criminal offences. A Special Court also sentenced Sudhir Mehta, Harshad Mehta's brother, and six others, including four bank officials, to rigorous imprisonment (RI) ranging from 1 year to 10 years on the charge of duping State Bank of India to the tune of Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) in connection with the securities scam that rocked the financial markets in 1992. He died in 2002 with many litigations still pending against him.

1200 crores - C R Bhansali scam resulted in a loss of over Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion). He first launched the finance company CRB Capital Markets, followed by CRB Mutual Fund and CRB Share Custodial Services. He ruled like a financial wizard 1992 to 1996 collecting money from the public through fixed deposits, bonds and debentures. The money was transferred to companies that never existed. CRB Capital Markets raised a whopping Rs 176 crore in three years. In 1994 CRB Mutual Funds raised Rs 230 crore and Rs 180 crore came via fixed deposits. Bhansali also succeeded to to raise about Rs 900 crore from the markets. However, his good days did not last long, after 1995 he received several jolts. Bhansali tried borrowing more money from the market. This led to a financial crisis. It became difficult for Bhansali to sustain himself. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) refused banking status to CRB and he was in the dock. SBI was one of the banks to be hit by his huge defaults.

1000 crores Cobbler scam - Sohin Daya, son of a former Sheriff of Mumbai, was the main accused in the multi-crore shoes scam. Daya of Dawood Shoes, Rafique Tejani of Metro Shoes, and Kishore Signapurkar of Milano Shoes were arrested for creating several leather co-operative societies which did not exist. They availed loans of crores of rupees on behalf of these fictitious societies. The scam was exposed in 1995. The accused created a fictitious cooperative society of cobblers to take advantage of government loans through various schemes. Officials of the Maharashtra State Finance Corporation, Citibank, Bank of Oman, Dena Bank, Development Credit Bank, Saraswat Co-operative Bank, and Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait were also charge sheeted.

600 crores - Home Trade had created waves with celebrity endorsements. But Sanjay Agarwal's finance portal was just a veil to cover up his shady deals. He swindled a whopping Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) from more than 25 cooperative banks. The government securities (gilt) scam of 2001 was exposed when the Reserve Bank of India checked the acounts of some cooperative banks following unusual activities in the gilt market. Co-operative banks and brokers acted in collusion in abid to make easy money at the cost of the hard earned savings of millions of Indians. In this case, even the Public Provident Fund (PPF) was affected. A sum of about Rs 92 crore (Rs 920 million) was missing from the Seamen's Provident Fund. Sanjay Agarwal, Ketan Sheth (a broker), Nandkishore Trivedi and Baluchan Rai (a Hong Kong-based Non-Resident Indian) were behind the Home Trade scam.

595 crores - Dinesh Dalmia was the managing director of DSQ Software Limited when the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested him for his involvement in a stocks scam of Rs 595 crore (Rs 5.95 billion). Dalmia's group included DSQ Holdings Ltd, Hulda Properties and Trades Ltd, and Powerflow Holding and Trading Pvt Ltd. Dalmia resorted to illegal ways to make money through the partly paid shares of DSQ Software Ltd, in the name of New Vision Investment Ltd, UK, and unallotted shares in the name of Dinesh Dalmia Technology Trust. Investigation showed that 1.30 crore (13 million) shares of DSQ Software Ltd had not been listed on any stock exchange.

171.33 crore - Abdul Karim Telgi paid for his own education at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya by selling fruits and vegetables on trains. He is today famous (or infamous) for being he man behind one of The fake stamp racket exposed in 2000. The loss is estimated to be Rs 171.33 crore (Rs 1.71 billion), it was initially pegged to be Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 bilion), which was later clarified by the CBI as an exaggerated figure. In 1994, Abdul Karim Telgi acquired a stamp paper license from the Indian government and began printing fake stamp papers.Telgi bribed to get into the government security press in Nashik and bought special machines to print fake stamp papers. Telgi's networked spread across 13 states involving 176 offices, 1,000 employees and 123 bank accounts in 18 cities.

210 crores - Uday Goyal, managing director of Arrow Global Agrotech Ltd, was yet another fraudster who cheated investors promising high returns through plantations. Goyal conned investors to the tune of over Rs 210 crore (Rs 2.10 billion). He was finally arrested. The plantation scam was exposed when two investors filed a complaint when they failed to get the promised returns. Over 43,300 persons had fallen into Goyal's trap. Several criminal complaints were filed with the Economic Offences Wing. The company's directors and their relatives had misused the investors' money to buy properties. The High Court asked the company to sell its properties and repay its investors.

43 crores - Virendra Rastogi chief executive of RBG Resources was charged with for deceiving banks worldwide of an estimated $1 billion. He was also involved in the duty-drawback scam to the tune of Rs 43 crore (Rs 430 milion) in India. The CBI said that five companies, whose directors were the four Rastogi brothers -- Subash, Virender, Ravinde and Narinder -- exported bicycle parts during 1995-96 to Russia and Hong Kong by heavily over invoicing the value of goods for claiming excess duty draw back from customs.

32 crores - The UTI Scam - Former UTI chairman P S Subramanyam and two executive directors -- M M Kapur and S K Basu -- and a stockbroker Rakesh G Mehta, were arrested in connection with the 'UTI scam'. UTI had purchased 40,000 shares of Cyberspace between September 25, 2000, and September 25, 2000 for about Rs 3.33 crore (Rs 33.3 million) from Rakesh Mehta when there were no buyers for the scrip. The market price was around Rs 830. The CBI said it was the conspiracy of these four people which resulted in the loss of Rs 32 crore (Rs 320 million). Subramanyam, Kapur and Basu had changed their stance on an investment advice of the equities research cell of UTI. The promoter of Cyberspace Infosys, Arvind Johari was arrested in connection with the case. The officals were paid Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million) by Cyberspace to promote its shares. He also received Rs 1.18 crore (Rs 11.8 million) from the company through a circuitous route for possible rigging the Cyberspace counter.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Starving Billionaire


ZIMBABWE Inflation at 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent

The Zimbabwe dollar now seems to have lost all its appeal, and calls for the adoption of a foreign currency to replace the struggling monetary unit and put an end to the country's crippling hyperinflation are becoming louder.

Dollarisation, or the use of a foreign currency - not necessarily the US dollar - in parallel to, or instead of, the domestic currency, has long been a daily reality for most Zimbabweans. Record-breaking inflation has made them reluctant to accept the local currency, preferring either to trade in a more stable currency, or to barter.

The monthly inflation rate passed the 50 percent mark - the threshold for defining 'hyperinflation'- in March 2007; in January 2009 the RBZ issued the world's first 100 trillion dollar note.

In an article in the December 2008 issue of the financial magazine, Forbes Asia, put the annual inflation rate at around 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent - 65 followed by 107 zeros. Prices double every 24.7 hours.the hyperinflationary crisis of Hungary in 1946, in which prices doubled every 15.6 hours.

Indian reality - DevD

Saw the movie - DevD - after a long time.... The genius of Anurag Kashyap is in its full bloom with practically controls each and every aspect of film making, not that i know much about it, but this is by far his best direction...

One thing comes out clearly with Kashyap... his portrayal of real life people and their personalities on reel-life brings out uncanny resemblance with people you know, and what happens in day today society... the director makes no attempt to hide or glorify the inner most feelings of a girl and boy in heat or that of a father who realizes he cant face the world because of daugther's foolish steps on one hand and that of a father who hides her daughters overtures to an unacceptable relationship and finds out a way to get her married off quietly...

it also brings the brashness of a regular spoilt brat-kid and youth from a rich family who has no idea on what he will do with his future ... scenes like the BMW accident, the MMS scandal, the typical kothis of Delhi brings out real life characters with a disclaimer that it being "purely coincidental" or rather "a deliberate attempt with hurting sentiments"....

somehow I was expecting Kashyap to also put a scene Jessica Lal murder case but I guess he could not find an angle for it in the movie...

more importantly he tries and portray the youth and the earlier generation in its likeness to reality... how Paro still comes as a married woman to meet Dev in his shoddy hotel, how she is clear in his mind what she wants and what she does not... how Dev has his realisation on value for life.... every scene, though quite a few of them, have been crafted to give out a meaning and show you the mirror...

The casting is another brilliant attempt to move towards hiring new people and clearly puts forth that a successful movie does not need super stars but a great director...

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Mind you English

A Colleague the other day commented on the word "wacky" as being spelt wrong and the right way of doing it is "whacky"... checking the antecedents of the word found both being right, while the former being more right...

why?

because "whacky" as defined by dictionary.com is a slang form of "wacky" ...

but then why the confusion... probably because our overt dependence on US English that adopts the slang cousin more and probably non conformance of standard style sheets by prominent newspapers..

I think its neither... it seems people tend to use as a noun in various scenarios like a blogger who calls hime self whaky, whackyscience.co.uk from Bayer, whackynation, whacky sports...

probably the 'h' brings in more more punch to the craziness of the word...

dont know why I am writing this but maybe someone who reads this makes some sense to my thought process...

but the correct usage of the word lies at "wacky" and not "whacky"

Fifth gear Car of the Year - Volkswagen GTI



The Volkswagen GTI... don't know when it will come to India... but the car is remarkable in every sense.... see it for yourself in the video....

The car launched, way back in 1983 in US stores, as the Rabbit GTI with a 1.8 Ltr 90 BHP engine has now transformed into a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine capable of 200 Bhp and a six-speed manual transmission that sends power to the front wheels.

Nuturing the genius within....

Saw a very interesting talk from Elizabeth Gilbert today... on ted.com...

for those who don't know Ted... its a platform for people to discuss on ideas that probably help others ...

Everybody has a genius within him/her... what matter is how you sustain it and nurture it and actually manage it... genius, while it helps takes you to spurts of fame, or glory due to one of your unique moments of genius... but this puts in pressure on the person to perform better next time and in way drives him to under performance....

Elizabeth who is an acclaimed writer came with her latest book "Eat, Pray, Love" pushes her to the creative genius moments and now has a lot more pressure on her that whether she would be able to actually out do her genius on this book for the remaining 40 years of her life which she plans to spend writing better...

As she puts it... no person is a genius... it is those moments of extraordinary work of recognition within a group (however small) that calls him one... how to sustain that moment is the secret which we need to to find out our way...

A new beginning

the last i signed in was on 28th November 2008 when Mumbai was attacked, molested and raped by 10 terrorists from Pakistan who

The anger and angst still burns in my heart and many other mumbaities, who felt so insecure in their own homes... what followed next was spate of protests, debates and deep inside Mumbaities started thinking of issues that have not been addressed for so long... Internet became the most vocal platform to ask for a separate Mumbai state...

but while this was happening... i was undergoing my own change in looking outwards to prepare for the people who work with me... intimidate me ... and moreover not let me settle in my job....

just like the terrorists did...

The best way to counter them is probably not be like them or what Purohit did... but put up a strong front, face them and not worry about the consequence that you might be worried about... look at the other side... what haveyou got to loose, when people just want to screw around with your happiness and keep you unsettled anyways...