Retreat...

What is wrong with WalMart? After 10 years of trying, the retailer accepted thier defeat in Germany!

"It is pulling out after almost a decade with a loss of $1 billion (£540 million) and has agreed to sell its 85 stores to local rival Metro for an undisclosed sum."
-- TimesOnline

And I'm trying to understand, why they need to sell their stores for loss? Metro sure will not only gain a lot financially, but also will become advantageous with WalMart's stores and supplier resources & networks.

It is really not long back that we learnt about WalMart's death in South Korea too. And we also know that they are not only expanding in South & Central America but also in China. Isn't China a very similar market to that of South Korea? Yes, it is understandable that most of WalMart's products are coming from Asian countries and hence, moving things over its supply chain network to China won't be that bad of a hassle as that of the Americas. But, similar to the South Korean market, WalMart will have really a tough time to compete with the local big retailers who sure have a cultural advantage and hence, a better way of attracting the local customers. Don't you agree?

I already wrote this question. Can WalMart be stopped from becoming a leader in other international markets too? Two countries representing Asian & European markets just shut the door to WalMart within 3 months. Global expansion for leaders in retailing industry, is not that easy!

Hmm... Sure, I would like to read & know what happened in these 2 markets if at all there comes out a 'Failure Analysis'!

It Ain't Cool!

My Goodness. These days, the temperature in Southern California is just unbelievable. Almost crossing 110 degrees almost all days and the problem with this climate is, we don't sweat! So, ultimately we end up feeling the pain of the sun piercing our skin... and in the evenings, the whole air is burning around us, when actually the land surface is trying to cool itself! God!

Last week, I played almost the whole sunny afternoon and everyone whom I played with including me, got seriously sick:(. This year summer is especially so bad that atlast I saw the news that more than 100 people and around 16500 cows are dead because of the heat. And the concerns are still growing -

• More & more use of AC & Plasma TVs & hence, energy crisis!
• More blackouts.
• Elders in house somehow are not able to withstand the pressure.
• Health officials are worried about hospitals running out of power & evacuation plans...

Today I had been to one Hindu temple near by and the priest gave a 'cool touch' for the heat:)! Today's prasadas include 'ButterMilk' too - The representation of Goddess Lakshmi & the planet Venus who/which it seems, actually try to reduce the heat and make you feel cool:)! Hmmm... I don't want to cross check the genuinity of that statement;)

On More Happier Terms...

May be someone over saw Dinesh's safer place comment and gave it a different angle - The Happiest Places:)

As BBC reports,

"Adrian White, from the UK's University of Leicester, used the responses of 80,000 people worldwide to map out subjective wellbeing."

Well, Denmark stood for all the wrong reasons when the Muhammad cartoon issue sprang up and now, it is called out as 'THE PLACE' to be in if you want to live happy.

May be the number used, is sure something big for getting some accurate stats but are the measurement criteria of health levels, prosperity & education the real representation of happiness? I wonder, how 'secured/safer' feeling in today's life didn't enter the criteria? Likewise, are education & prosperity "required" to be happy?

Isn't Happiness, a relative term that defines the 'sense of satisfaction' in what we have?

Reliable Enough?

Hmm.. I have put a car sale ad in some of the sites which I heard from my friends are good enough to get some better impressions and hence, quicker responses! Well, yes there are responses, but just that the responses are not only from private parties but that from agencies also who work as middleman, I guess.

So, here is one such email!

Had any luck getting this sold? If not, call me. My name is ****. I work for Itmotors

And we sell cars just like yours all the time. We offer full-financing in addition to nationwide marketing. We charge no commissions and you receive a check for the full asking price. If you want to get this car sold fast, call me toll-free at **** Thanks!!!

Just wondering what their business model is? Why do they need to leech on websites for their customers? If we visit ITMotors, they do boast that their traffic is more than AutoTrader.com and Cars.com. If that is the case, then why do they need to get customers from other websites. Well, looks like they are building the traffic just by pinging all the customers of other websites:)!

Not A Service - Obviously, these people are not going to help their customer as if its a service they are doing. As the email reads, "no commissions" is a good sign but for sure, any customer will be ripped off for all the 'National Marketing' they are planning to do with the car. I'm sure, customers can look to an extent of $200 to $300 for "their service":)

Let's think in other terms. How far is their marketing going to be different than the online customers who are going to take a look into the online car ad or as a matter of fact, into the Auto Sales Magazines? Assuming its my car - does it really need a nation wide marketing when I guess, am in a place where the rich meet the poor and where the cars of low end to high end sell without much of differentiation?

Assuming, a customer crosses over all these worries and still makes a call to ITMotors. I think (s)he would end up in much deeper trouble with the continuous unwanted marketing phone calls from them - who knows even after (s)he may have sold the car.

Certain things just won’t change and I guess, its better to avoid some unwanted future tensions. What say?!

Bad Nature!

What is happening in & around Indonesia? Today, I ran over this another news of volcanic activity around that area. And yet another time, I saw the same statement as in any other news...

"Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin."

We all know of the worst tsunami on 26th Dec 2004, the Mount Merapi blow (and its Lava Dance!), a tremor in May, a tsunami earlier this month and yet another volcanic activity now. And if we see the status of recent earthquakes that are being tracked from Ask.Com, almost everyday we can see Indonesia producing a tremor more than 5 richter scale!

Don't we need better theories on the tectonic plate movement in that area? I'm still not sure about why the movements are more dynamic in that area... If the place is prone so much for such bad disasters, isn't a necessity to foresee them & warn the public or for that matter, evacuate people around that area permanently?

Why BPO....

Here is the news -

Tanya Banerjee, 25 years old is killed in Bangalore.

This is just another isolated incident in India, but I have no idea why this is so much hyped - by relating her to that of a BPO/Call Center employee! Yes, it is purely coincidental that she is another BPO employee and is killed just 6 months after a similar killing!

Guess, news makers need something to really 'cook & make' some news:)!

Wh's...

Over to International politics & crisis - These are just some open ended questions at my end (with some vague history details)... and some personal comments modified as questions:)!

• Why is US (alone?) against a short term cease fire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict?
  
• Isn't it better to save civilians' life at this point of time instead of thinking about a sustainable "putting down" Hezbollah cease fire?
  
• Where did C.Rice fail to find a diplomatic resolution for the conflict? Does that mean G.Bush got to involve himself personally?
  
• Even then, can we see any progress - I mean, it shouldn't turn out like Clinton's diplomacy?
  
• Why the "urgent meeting" in Rome of International leaders failed to find a solution?
  
• And is the suggested 'International Peace Keeping Force' for patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border going to be effective?
• Do Syria & Iran, have some influence?
• Why do I feel that the world's response to the killing of four UN Observers by Israel, kind of sluggish?
  

Every second, minute & day now is making history and ofcourse, there are going to be lots of answers to these questions floating around online everyday...

We Fly Too!

Hmmm... At one end there are these small car segment (like Yaris or Fit) which is expanding like anything in the US market. Meanwhile, we also saw that Toyota has been expanding into some unrelated territories! Unlike Toyota, Honda is atleast entering a segment which it can categorize somewhat into its core Transportation business - Aviation!

The news on the making is Honda's readiness for the Very Light Jets (VLJ) (I guess, they are still termed as Air Taxis)! Still don't know what a VLJ is? Just have a quick video preview from Honda themselves! And you know what is best about Wiki - They already have the HondaJet segment updated with the July 25th, 2006 announcement:)!

"HondaJets will sport several innovative features. Unlike on other light jets, the turbofan engine will be mounted on top of the wing instead of on the fuselage's tail section. Its fuselage exterior will be made of lightweight, composite materials, not aluminum. Those characteristics, combined with its unique-shaped wings, result in larger cabin space, higher cruising speed, and greater fuel efficiency than its competitors' models, the company says."
-- USAToday

Okay! So, what about the possible competition? We don't need to look anywhere else than Wiki! With AirBus & Boeing already into too much of technical issues & delays and hence, into some financial issues, should sure keep VLJ's too in their mind!

With so many companies into VLJ production, the Air Taxi service providers like DayJet & Linear Air are sure looking into some bright future!

Talking About Video Ads...

Video Ads are impressive on their own fashion and some of them are really fascinating enough for me. Talking about it... I just placed this Video Ad for Happy Dent White here today. It seems, what Irshadh & I have done is in fact, give more publicity to so called 'Viral Ad'! I never knew that there is this term and a big business behind it! Who else is going to introduce this to me other than BusinessWeek:)! Check it out!

I'm sure Google Videos & YouTube are making great profits out of this business model. Especially, the model where they provide the code snippet for 'embed'ding their videos in blogs, is sure helping 'us'! Google has slight advantage because they also provide links for directly blogging into MySpace, Blogger, LiveJournal & TypePad!

You Don't Park!

I got that photo from Skyscraper Page Forum and thanks to Sridhar for the forward.

And some information on the same is available at AutoStadt! As you can see, this is VolksWagen parking space in Wolfburg's Auto City (AutoStadt) technology theme park as pointed out in the forum referenced.

Wow... Doesn't it look like some futuristic sci-fi place? Just started looking for more info on it! Wiki is not of that much help. And the picture explanation of VW assembly plants in another forum doesn't explain these towers either!

But, as we think about it, this sure is less space consuming than any other US parking facility. I mean, if we consider theme parks like Universal Studios, Sea World or Disney Land, the parking lots occupy too much of land & space. And the time to find the parking by any customer is almost a ridiculously frustrating experience. But, this VW tower facility kind of parking is more like Valet Parking and sure, customers will welcome this as they don't need to find the "parking space".

So, where does the actual implementation of such parking lots for day to day use stand? I would atleast love to see this in Irvine Spectrum ASAP!

Journey - A Looong Way...

Well, I'm not sure how to put this in perspective but things are becoming more & more accessible in everyday life. Here is an example... An ordinary citizen can now do a SpaceWalk!

Well, we had been aware of the Dennis Tito's space station tourism vacation. But, looks like the next step now, is to step out of the space station and literally do a space walk:)! That is what Space Adventures have been planning now!

"For a mere £19 million, Space Adventures will broker 190 hours of training at the Star City cosmonaut school near Moscow, a stay of 16 days aboard the space station, round-trip rocket flights from Kazakhstan, and the chance to float outside the orbital outpost for 90 minutes — the time it takes to orbit the planet once."
-- TimesOnline

Well, as you see the £8 Million, is for those 90 minutes float outside the space station. Otherwise, you can just make it a cheaper deal like that of Tito's for £11 Million! BTW, the next tourist (fourth right?) to space is Dice-K!

Let me buy a lottery today;)

'Cool'ness Stands Out!

If there are somethings which I miss from India in US, one of them is the TV Commercials. I guess, I have already told... The cool aspect of Indian Ads are not there in the US TV Commercials, not even in many of the SuperBowl Ads. I don't see Indian channels in US and so, got no idea how the 'coolness' have increased.

Here is one of the latest cool-innovative Indian TV Commercial.

Thanks To Irshadh!

'See' Internet...

I guess, my mind lingers a lot around sufferings of handicapped people and I wish I can help them as much as I can. So, when I see things that are aiding them to use 'stuffs' (like latest technologies et al.) just like any other normal people, I feel a sense of happiness.... Like for instance 'To Move... You Think'.

And now, it's time for Google to get into some action on this. One of the latest from the Google Labs is Accessible -'Accessible Web Page for the Visually Challenged'! What is different...

"The software sorts and ranks search results based on the simplicity of page layout, the quality of design and the organization and clear labeling of information on each page making it easier to enlarge or for voice synthesizers to convert to spoken words."
-- Hawaii Health Guide

Really an great appreciatory initiative!

Atlast... A Way Out!

For internet browsing, pop-ups are frustrations and we have pop-up blockers. There are two, in fact three other places where we get unwanted rather unrequested irritations. One is TV - We have got used to it so much that we accept the TV ads as such (Well, there are ofcourse other ways out)...

The second is the unsolicited marketing phone calls in our landline - heights of frustration. The worst case scenario for me - From some phone card company who mis-informed my roommate that the sales rep (on the other end of the phone) is MY friend!!! Also, it had always been a pester from competitors - the phone companies (AT&T and SBC before), internet (DSL, Dialup, Cable) or TV (Cable, Dishnet etc). And thank God, we ended up in Do Not Call Registry!

But the third one has been the biggest problem for me & my friends. The junk letters that always fill up our mail boxes - Visa, Discover, Amex, MasterCard pre-approved credit cards from different banks & agencies... I guess Citibank & Chase stand first on my list followed by Amex & Chevron! My goodness, most of the days we can see atleast one junk letter for one of us and many days, almost all the mails go directly to trash!!??

Atlast, I found a solution for that too. Just wondering how I have been unaware of this! Its like the famous statement from the movie 'I, Robot' - "You have to ask the right question to get the answer". Probably, I didn't put the right search query:) Anyways, here is the solution provider! Not bad.

Actually, Rock sent me this video on what to do with your junk mails :) and that is when I started looking for the real answers.

More Burns...

Some 'Anonymous' had asked me a question on buying a Dell Notebook! Well, we already know the incident of Dell Notebook burning. So, whoever you are, you better learn the latest facts about the Dell notebooks. All you need to do is visit these two links...

• The Inquirer (With the relevant photos!!)&
• CRN

Doesn't look like a good sign for Dell, the largest seller of Notebooks... May be Google is still reconsidering its Deloogle deal:)

It's About Us!!!!

Ofcourse, there should be a lot of surveys on this new changing looks of internet - The blogs. And here is a survey findings from Pew Internet & American Life Project!

Well, in probability terms, the sample set the survey would have used should be very less comparative to the actual number of bloggers because for sure, the number should be in millions. I guess, most of the findings can be accepted as general facts about any blogger -

Like more than half of the bloggers are less than 30 years and ofcourse the next 40% should be from 30 to 40 years I guess.

But, if we see the distribution of bloggers based on time, its quite interesting. About 18% are blogging for less than 6 months and 33% is for around an year. Those sure represent the real hype in Web 2.0:)

And you can obviously expect the number of daily 'impressions' on the blog page to be less - The survey reports like around 22% of the blog sites have less than 10 hits a day. Well, I guess my blog has been consistently falling in the next 17% of 10 to 99 hits per day! Thanks to whoever is visiting my blog;)

Well, the fact for sure is mostly the blog visitors should be some friends, relatives & colleagues and looks like 50% accept the same. But there is always this unknown factor of "who knows who is visiting our page?"...

Whatever it is... This blog really helps me keep my mind busy in sharing somethings which I come to know from lots of Internet & news browsing. That's how I see it:)

It Kills...So What?

Does advertising always have a positive impact on us? Most of the cases will be YES. The advertisements will linger in consumers' mind for whatever reasons, setting the mind to look for the respective products & services later. So, does that mean the ads always talk about the strengths of the product? Once again, most probably yes but...

Let us take Cigarettes for instance. Does it really matter that we need to put on commercials for these products? Even then, do people worry about the statutory warning - 'Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health'! It sure is saying the weakness of the product but who cares. People got so much used to smoking pleasure that they don't even worry about their health anymore!

Tobacco industry sure is big and so, curbing it as a whole from the market is next to impossible. But that doesn't mean, their usage need not be checked & kept under control. The Health Ministry in India has put forward another effort to reduce smoking - Made another warning to be mandatory for all the tobacco products - Tobacco Kills, Smoking Kills. Along with it, the packages may contain some signs like bones & skeleton representing the ill-effects of tobacco consumption. Once again, is this going to affect the market? Probably, a negligible percentage because no one cares...

Some things like this & alcohol consumtion are to be digested as daily facts of life because, they ain't simply walking out of our lives. Are they?

Still IE?

Both Mozilla & Google are pushing Firefox a lot to capture market from IE! And here is the latest marketing strategy!

Well, if you are still with IE (generalizing on the 85% market), may be you can consider the offer of your name encrypted in Firefox 2.0:) Haven't you heard about World Firefox Day? I guess, this July 15th is like the 3rd year for Mozilla. Am just wondering what will be their next move? May be something like EathLink opening retail stores or may be, capture the whole college kid market with tents and freebies in schools:)!

Well, at the same time installing Yahoo Messenger 8.0 Beta does give the feature of tabs in Internet Explorer too. Guess, Yahoo is just trying to put forward some advantageous features of Firefox into IE and hence, encourage people to download Yahoo Messenger!

Painful Send Off!

He claimed my father’s body for Rs1 lakh compensation
-- DNA Mumbai

That is how the news headline read. And the complete news article expressed much deeper pain.
When you know a person is so punctual, to be available back at house at 7PM and if he didn't turn back, and if that happens to be your father, just imagine the hard feeling...

Already there are lots of complaints about corruption and malpractices in the Tsunami funds distribution in Tamil Nadu & Kerala. And now, comes this sad story about a family who couldn't find their father's body one week after the Mumbai bomb blasts. The worst part is, the body had been already claimed & cremated by a different person just for claiming a lakh rupees from the government.

Can't corruption atleast spare the loved ones? Or atleast can't they feel the pain the family will undergo and give them their dutiful rights to perform the last rites? When there is going to be no procedures to follow, everyone is sure trying to exploit the situation...:(

A Livelier Version!

I don't know how I have been ignorant of this format of the game for such a long time, probably because I have not been following too much of international cricket except for that of India:) Well, once in a while, I do have seen the newer version of the game mentioned in different places but haven't took time to know what they are talking about. Like recently I wrote about the charity game between Pakistan & International team which was played as Ten10!

Well, today once again I ran into it because it seems BCCI approved this form of cricket. And is called Twenty20!Ahh... Wiki, you got something to help? Well, ofcourse!

I always used to wonder why the ODI game of cricket alone has been defined to be played for the whole day? I mean, when I enter a stadium for say a Football (American) game (or may be NBA), it becomes so lively for three & a half hours and then, we walk out with a complete satisfaction! But in cricket, I guess we walk out with more of tiredness rather than satisfaction...

Anyways, I think 'Livelier' is sure a better way to define this new form of cricket & I hope, it'll sure live upto my expectations. With fouls defined with additional runs, penalty 'stumps knock out' procedure for a tie & sudden death too, this is a whole new game!

Tag...

I know I got Tagged by Vazz & I have been postponing this for quite sometime now... Alright, let me see...

I hear & sing light music songs a lot.

I wish I can join a light music group to enhance my singing & mridangam playing skills. I guess, I have been doing quite some here in US.

I always try to be enthusiastic about every moment of my life.

I always want to answer 'Good, Great & Beautiful' for 'Hoz life?'

I hope my cool aspect towards life goes on forever.

I want to do whatever I want, to keep people around me happy.

I really miss those young Diwali days at my house.

I wish US immigrants policy is more flexible...

I want to settle down in USA.

I want to do a job of my liking:)

I want to shave less often & with better electric razors!

I know I don't initiate the chat sessions... Too many friends online all the time.

I want to enjoy some more of the college football games with my buddies at the stadium and the tailgate parties:)

I need to play volleyball more often in Sou Cal beaches...

I wish I can walk back in time and undo some of my mistakes...

&....

Alright, looks like this never is gonna end...

Will tag Dins as of now...

To Move...You Think

This is kind of cool. All we need is a brain implant and we are almost ready to work on our computer without touching the mouse:)

And the simple strategy is, our spinal cord is by-passed. Well, the neural signals from brain that are supposed to be transferred to the hand mucles and finger nerves via the spinal cord are received by the Interface called the BrainGate, implanted, decode them and transfer them to the computer as mouse movement signals.

And the experiment has been successful on a patient who is paralysed.

The first of those is Matthew Nagle of Weymouth, Mass., who has been paralyzed from the neck down since his spinal cord was severed five years ago. After receiving his implant two years ago... The device allowed him to open e-mail, draw circles using a paint program and play a simple video game - using only his thoughts. -- CBC News

That's worth an invention to keep someone happy who has lost one half of his/her body movements!

But Why Krrish?

This is making the story! Well, some of the older ones are Krrish is an Indian SuperHero, the movie is kind of a sequel of Hrithik's previous movie, to be released in many languages and turned out to be one mega blockbuster with 100 crores within a week. All those don't matter...

The new news is 'The making of Krrish, the movie' is selected to be a MBA case study at international level! Well, it's not that small of a news because the schools we are talking about are some of the big names - IIM(I), Harvard, University of Hong Kong & Asia Case Research Center (Haven't seen this name in the case studies which I did) and the places this case study will be going are like all over Europe, Asia, Latin & North America!

I'm really not sure what is too special about this movie and its making. I mean, how does this movie stand different than any other mega-budget movie or for that matter, is Hrithik's martial arts training (the program as shown in Star Plus) different from that of KamalHassan's military training?

"This research will immensely help international and Indian students to learn about implementation of best management practices, global management of business, global factor of production, leadership as well as devising new management strategies regarding industrial marketing, global competition, global penetration and market capitalisation," professor of International Business and Marketing, Dr Prashant Salwan, wrote in a letter to the film's producer-director Rakesh Roshan.
-- CNBC

All those are too general terms for a case study. May be the marketing for the product could have been different. Hmmm I guess... Well, need to keep guessing about it till I get a hold of the actual case study itself. Anyways, watch the making here...

And you should find its 2nd & 3rd parts too somewhere out there!

Million Dollar Dream!

A special news letter from BusinessWeek concentrates on this guy called Remi Frazier! Here is his video interview before he jumped on his dream "project".



Well, that pretty much sums the story up I guess. Here is the link in case you need more info. And the one month dead line is ending on 16th July. When we see this whole picture, this seems like a reality show!:)

But things aren't that simple either. While I do think & realize that this has been getting too much of attention, the cash amount around USD15 grand as seen in that website is not that encouraging though. Can a multi purpose knife tool (called as ManTool by Remi) bring in a million bucks in a month? I guess, that is too much to ask because we do see many such kind of products even in Tele Shopping commercials.

"I think what has been interesting has been how willing and excited people are to be involved in a positive venture," says Lissy Garrison, executive director of Ballet Nouveau Colorado, who signed on as a small-business marketing consultant for the project. "[Frazier] delights in finding and leveraging the strengths of people around him. He has many, many qualities that make him an effective leader. Thus, he does not need specific business skills, he can rely on the expertise of the people around him."
-- BusinessWeek

Well, seriously if everyone who comes up with a different business model gets such great, positive and encouraging feedback, they sure can mostly succeed! So, keeping my fingers crossed, I too await like all other online forums who are tracking this project's performance!

Cream Day....

Every day is a special day in US of A:) Each & everything or every person (their position/relation) will be celebrated some day or the other in a year. Hmm, lets see. Some of the common ones are like Fathers day, Mothers day & Friendship day. And for sure for any such day there will be ads in TV and there will be lots of promotions & sales in most of the shops.

And some of the peculiar ones are like Secretary's day, Bubble bath day, Thesaurus day, Relaxation day, Bad Poetry Day!!!?? Well, for sure my company try to keep their employees, that is, me & my colleagues, very happy:) So, today they started distributing ice creams for all of us. That too, everyone was called out to the parking lot at like 11 AM when the sun is really piercing!

It seems every third sunday in July is celebrated as Ice Cream Day! With Americans so conscious about calories, I wonder how they still maintain the tradition of this particular day. There sure is a day for Chocolate too:)

Dealing With Deals...

Some of my friends spend lot of their office time in sites which actually compares prices available at different online websites for a product and give the best available deal. For instance, there are sites like eDealInfo, Deals2Buy and FatWallet.

Well, if you see all these sites there is something common, rather I should say one brand has a different level of importance. They all have seperate page to deal with Dell deals. With the help from those pages I, myself have combined (or to say 'Stacked') different promotional codes with one another to get really great deals on Dell desktops, notebooks, PDAs for my friends. I guess, once I got this deal of buying a notebook worth USD2200, for 900 bucks!

So cool the promotions are from Dell all the time that sometimes people got to wait & continuously track the rebates. Sometimes, the rebates vanish so fast like when the offers are for like first 200 users. Statistics put that around 50 promotions per quarter are offered from Dell.

The bad part is, sometimes there are too many promotions at one point of time that customers feel cheated. They miss, the use of right codes or the stackable offers. This has happened to one of my friends where he could have easily saved 450 more bucks. And the issue worsens when the sales reps themselves get confused with the offers and rebates:)

So, atlast such confusions have been brought to the notice of Dell and Dell too have promised to reduce such large amount of promotional offers. So, hereafter it seems Dell will try to offer more uniform pricing for the systems. Lets hope, atleast that brings more happiness in customers rather than disappointments.

BTW, I told you about the sites which give the best online deals. There is one more popular site called Woot, which has a totally different business model. People have a craze about it and the best deals from that site can be made by people who are in US West coast. Because, the cheap new products are announced daily at 12Am central time, which is 10PM the previous day for west coast people (like me):)

Endless....

Here is a new way of solving Algebra with endless possibilities....:)
Thanks to Shiras!

Bigger & Leaner..

I don't know if they are more like distractions, but sure they are good way of advertising. What I'm talking about is, all those colorful video projections as bill boards advertising auto centers near the freeways! My goodness, they are really huge. And Matsushita announced that it is getting business orders for the largest Plasma TV, it is planning to deliver in early 2007.

The specs are like Panasonic 103 Inch (much more than their present 65 inches I guess) with a whooping 413Lbs.... Definitely not for consumer use or may be we need some designer tables to hold that weight alone:). Well ofcourse, consumers may have to surround the TV with an Air Cooler set:)...

So, as we know, the usual concerns on a Plasma TV will be more than doubled - The heat the TV is going to generate and the static images that may get burnt on the screen. A major concern with be life span. Because, what we are talking about is bill boards and probably projections in public transportation depots, where the TV may be running for almost 24 hours!

Being, the leader of this Plasma TV market I guess Matsushita could afford to get those big ones out before anyone else! Well, at the same time they are also proving that they are yet another Japanese company with cutting edge advancements in the cost cutting processes in their factories. They are doing the max like layout changes, reduce cycle time & change over time, inventory reduction and such changes are consistently showing increase in productivity!

" It used to be 2 1/2 days into a production run before we had our first finished product. But now the first is done in 40 minutes"
-- Quotiting Hitoshi Hirata, Plant Manager from BizWeek!

They just added one more term into Lean Technology - Quick In & Out! BusinessWeek reports!

Unknown 'T'...

Have you ever read the book called 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins? Really a good one. Even otherwise, this book introduces the Hedgehog concept which basically gives an idea on how a company should invest and progress in the field of its expertise. So, here are the three circles on which a company should analyze itself.

• What you are deeply Passionate About?
• What you can Be the best in the world at?
• What drives your Economic Engine?

Such a good idea to think about and put into theory! Because, on a day to day basis when we think about the current day companies things don't work much in that fashion. We can take ofcourse Google for example, a comparatively newer company, is rocking and expanding its tentacles on all directions where its core business has nothing to do!

Alright, atleast Google is experimenting and is understandable. But what surprises me is the big leader in the auto industry - Toyota have a set of businesses which have nothing to do with its auto business. Kind of weird too - Housing, Roof Gardens.... Check out these set of slides!

"Toyota controls dozens of businesses that have virtually nothing to do with automaking, ranging in size from resort developer Nagasaki Sunset Marina (77% owned by Toyota), with just five employees, to Toyota Financial Services Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary with 8,000 workers and $1.7 billion in operating profits in fiscal 2005."
-- BusinessWeek

Well, all the relevant businesses are making profits. And the technology & processes from one business is being used for another. Like as stated at the BizWeek article - The Sweetpotatoes are used for making bio-degradable plastics to be used in car. The house building process uses the famous Toyota Production System - Pull System!

Likewise, the auto's remote controlled opening is used for opening houses! I guess, this may have to be seen carefully. Once I had been to my friend's house and my car was parked in front of house. One of the small kids was playing with my keys! If you can guess it - My car doors got unlocked and the worst case scneario is, my car key has the functionality to open windows remotely:)

When I was browsing through more of such slides, ran into one more. I did write about the Nokia N-Gadget N93 series phone. And now, Nokia is coming up with too many cool Designer Phones!

Privatized...

So, we have a computer that is shared between friends. And ofcourse, we need to have some privacy in that computer too. We need a seperate folder which can't be accessed by anyone else in that system. I mean, this is an ordeal of a simple man's day to day life.

And the solution provider is Microsoft with a software called Private Folder 1.0 available for via MS Genuine Advantage Program. From the software feature perspective, the best thing is even the administrator of the system can't access the folder! And the worst thing is if the folder's owner loses the password, the contents are locked forever. May be, this is going to be part of Vista (added security feature with the hyped up Vista security)!

So, how much is this going to be useful? It sure will be useful enough for anyone who wants to store very personal details, financial details that shouldn't be accessed by anyone else. Just like for any other new product, the worries may be a bit blown up is my guess. The product is available for anyone. That means, things may get stored in this 'private folder' by kids with no access for the adults & elders. Well, if something has to be hidden, then there are other means like Password protected Zip or Rar compression will do it. They don't need to come for 'Private Folder'! What say?

And there is no support from MS. Well, who cares about support all these days. Download, install and try to work. If it works to our advantage, retain. Otherwise, find solutions, use forums and still if it doesn't work, then uninstall:).

This is yet another software & feature and if you need it, use it!

Cause Alone Matters...

It is a match for charity. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be called a ODI because the game was played for 10 overs. But looks like ICC have declared this to be one and everywhere its the news about Sachin Tendulkar returning to international arena with a 'not out' 50 runs!

Whatever it is, what matters is how the people at Oval responded, how the players entertained and how much the game collected for the cause. Though it was a gloomy & rainy evening, people from different cultures & countries waited, got drenched in rain and enjoyed one great entertainment. The total collections also poured to £250,000! Most of them are going for Kashmir Quake Victims!

The match is between International XI & Pakistan. The runrates are more than the Australia-SA 434 runs match:) It was totally 124 runs in 10 overs by International XI with Sachin - 50 (26B, 8*4, 1*6) and Dhoni - 35 (13B). And 'Boom Boom' Afridi stood by his name - 42 (12 balls with 22 runs in first 4 balls) and won the game for Pakistan!

With such a non stop entertainment, the audience would have been more than satisfied with every pound they spent on a noble cause!

Transitions & Frustrations...

It's always happening in the business world - The mergers, alliances and transitions. I used to think a lot about such kind of transitions, on what can go wrong just like a MBA case study - Like the big time mergers of Oracle & PeopleSoft.

Well, to the point - It's been a while since AT&T Wireless have merged into Cingular Wireless and lots of transitions should have gone and are still going around. I got a great deal when I signed up for AT&T and so, I just maintained the account when the switchover happened.

Last month, things started showing up in my account that the switch over is happening. Because, the monthly billing cycle didn't show up the amount I got to pay for the previous month. Even the customer service couldn't help me because they couldn't track my bill for the previous month. I was so glad that I saved some bucks even though I have already used the respective service:)

Last week, I happened to login into my account and what I ended up seeing isWith more than 900 'anytime' minutes available, there was an 'overage' of 21 minutes. Where can this happen? So, made a complaint for immediate rectification & even today the issue is not resolved - part of the transition glitch:(. And the worst part is, the customer service representative whom I talked to today couldn't even access the above details!? Poor service.... Atleast the above are somewhat acceptable.

Today, things turned up worse. I received a paper bill addressed to my old address from where I relocated more than 2 years back. What the heck??!! And when I tried to change the address details online, the UI was so irritating enough that I was compulsorily asked to change my password??!! How can they oversee such basic things on the transition - Mess up a customer's preference of paperless billing or for that matter, a customer's address which I had vacated like 2 years back? Have they completely misplaced a set of database recs?

Now, I'm waiting for such discrepancies to show up in my landline account because SBC is swallowed by AT&T:)...

Numbers... & Italy

The number game worked. Italy winning the FIFA World Cup 2006 yet again.

Here are the statistics and people did the simple math - Italy enters the FIFA Finals every 12 years from 1970. They'll win the alternate ones. 1970 & 1994 are losing games. 1982 and yes, they won this one.

But the talk sure will be on Zidane's... His classic chip penalty goal kick with confidence and a person of that class walking away in his retirement game from French Soccer team with a red card for a mindless 'head punch'!

A Worthy Trio Combo?

Thinking about the US auto market (GM, Ford & Chrysler), everything is showing Thumbs down - Unhealthy, Cost Cutting, Factories Closing, Bankruptcy, Employees shown the door and voluntarily retiring. But, the Toyotas' prospects don't look too bleak, in fact they are more in the booming end, with expansions all over the world in various countries. GM though is still the market giant with 14.2% market share, Toyota is not behind either with 13.8% and the slope is negative and positive respectively! Not a good sign for GM because Toyota is capturing more & more of US market.

So, out came Kirk Kekorian of Trancinda Corp, the largest invesotor of GM with a suggestion of working out a deal with Renault-Nissan which will make a global combo market share of more than 23%! Both companies' board members have agreed for the talks and both the CEOs GM's Rick Wagoner and Renault's Carlos Ghosn will meet! Those names have big time history behind them, especially Ghosn, the man who brought Nissan from near bankruptcy in 1999 to six straight years of profit & revenues. Even Wagoner is trying to do the same but constrained by pressure from investors, board members, share holders, union labors and employees expecting retirement benefits!

From my perspective, here are all the questions, concerns, assumptions and issues...

• What amount of stake will Nissan & Renault take from GM seperately? May be 10% each. Does that mean, Ghosn will have an upper hand in all decision making?
  
• Is it possible that Ghosn will replace Wagoner? May be handling 3 big companies under one hand is not a possibility. Also, this is just an alliance and not a merger. Not a MBA case study!
  
• Is GM really in need to such a cash inflow from Nissan-Renault? Or is GM really looking for resolving other internal conflicts and issues?
• Nissan has also been pushing for cost cutting all these times and this alliance can be like gift. Because, all those idle GM resources and capacities can be used for Nissan's production.
• But the problem here in US is Nissan is too a big time competitor for GM. So, how much can they blend? May be, promote Nissan's advantages on their sedans compared to GM's while take GM's lead in trucks and heavier vehicles.
• While Renault has no presence in US, they are a competitor for GM in Europe. I'm not sure if GM can gain something big but there is this big chance of opening up the US market for Renault.
• No idea if this alliance will make some change in GM's downtrend, but for sure the other side will gain a lot from GM's - Supplier base of parts & basic raws(plastics, steel, aluminium), more bargain/negotiating power with suppliers, hybrid & ethanol based fuel technology and ofcourse, the huge distribution and marketing base!

On a broader global perspective, this sure is a welcoming move because US, Europe & Asia auto makers are joining hands as one:)

Attitudes...

'Motivation' encloses...

CONFIDENCE: Once all villagers decided to pray for rain. On the prayer day all the people came but one boy came with an umbrella ,that's confidence...

TRUST: Trust should be like the feeling of a one year old baby. When you throw him in the air, he laughs....... Because he knows you will catch him:)

HOPE: A human being can live for..40 days without water, 8 minutes without air, but not even for a second without hope.

Thanks to Kiran for forwarding this.

Business Means Ethics...

If you ever have done courses on business, then you sure would have heard the terms 'Professional Responsibility' and 'Ethical Behavior'. Well, I have heard them when I underwent the Project Management Training! Here are some of the respective basic points (for which actually we don't need a training:))

• Do not divulge company data to unauthorized parties
• Value & protect intellectual property
• Do not put personal gain over the needs of the project
• Do not give or take bribes or inappropriate gifts
• Report violation of laws, business policies, ethics & other rules
  

Actually there are many more points and details, but what I have listed here have something in common and they are all somewhat related to the real time story that has been happening for past few weeks. Haven't you heard the story of 'Coke Secrets'?

This could have been yet another news, but with the involvement of Pepsi things became more interesting! It seems Pepsi, I mean the arch rival of Coke, handed over a letter to Coke on May 19th. The letter actually originated from a person nick named 'Dirk' who works/has connection inside Coke industry and had the intentions to sell a new coke product's "secrets" (trade formulae) to Pepsi!

Well, later FBI got involved and arrested three people on the day the accuseds were supposed to finalize the deal & become rich:) - Joya Williams, an administrative assistant in Coke caught on camera stealing records & Coke products' liquid, Ibrahim Dimson alias Dirk and Edmund Duhaney!

It is bad that the Coke employees tried to reveal some trade secrets and went away from business code of conducts! At the same time Pepsi could have played the cheap game, but it turned out to be quite interesting that they followed the 'Business Ethics'! Well, healthy competition is ofcourse good in business. And what more can be more satisfying than to see the arch rivals joining hands in spoiling such mischiefs...

School B Changing...

Lately, as we move along every year, there have been quite a bit of "strategic" changes happening around the B Schools - I mean from the time a student can walk in to the time (s)he walks out. Let's see what are all some of the changes...

Wink at GRE - First of all, like any other school B-Schools are also looking for the best of the best of the best candidates to join their program. And their outlook has been becoming broader - They really would like to tap potentials of prospective hidden candidates from various communities & cultures all around the world including the developing countries. Just looking at the developing countries, the initial hardship before even applying for a B-School is the GMAT. Because the cost of taking the exam is like USD250/-. Do we have an alternative? Looks like "yes" as Stanford just announced that GRE scores are also acceptable which is comparatively much cheaper. Cool! The BusinessWeek article also points out that

"Accepting the GRE isn't the only way Stanford is trying to reduce the up-front costs of applying. Like several other schools, Stanford already offers waivers of its $235 application fee for college seniors receiving financial aid."

Well, not sure if they have reduced their fee structure! But who cares, because without self sustainance people can't think about entering business schools in US. As we go ahead, we should be seeing more & more top ranked schools in the same path because for me, GRE is more competitive than GMAT!

Redefining Flexibility - The course works offered currently in the schools are no more following the defined protocols. They are more custom oriented & user friendly. "Ultimately, customers define the rules." - Isn't that the basic motto behind any business? And till now the business schools haven't followed it. As per the rule, courseworks are basically designed and handed over to based on an individual's skillset, knowlegde, experience and future plans! This hasn't been new because till now and even now students tend to design their own "course work" based on their interests & enthusiasm. That's how I did mine. It's just that the same has started coming from the other direction - The Organizers!

Managing P's - All these days, the compulsory course for any B School graduate is 'Organizational Behavior'. Things are changing based on the the current trend of conducting business - Become EcoFriendly. Have you heard about Ecomagination from General Electric? Why is the auto industry moving towards Ethanol based gasoline (besides being cost effective)? To cater that growing trend in the market, MBA's are redefined - Like the Green MBA from New College of California! As quoted

"This is a full-time, two-year, 4-semester program in which we seek solutions that promote financial viability, ecological sustainability, and social justice."

So, are you still wondering what those 3P's stand for. AmericanWay magazine defines them as 'People, Planet & Profits'!

Gadgets...

As I was travelling around to different places over the weekend, I came across a variety of cool gadgets. They actually meet different sectors of customers. Once again, they are all 'want' based and for me, they are all sophistication taken to heights.

DigiMemo 692 - For persons, who would prefer to write on papers but still want to transfer the details to computer. So, its a notepad with built in memory. I should say, this is almost like a tablet PC except that the writing is done in paper with the specialized pen and the contents are digitized as they are written down. Check out more details!

iCuiti's iWear - With all the video uploads going on around and iTunes making too many deals with the TV show & movie producers, more & more videos are making their way into the customer's world in different digital forms. With iTunes video downloads, Video iPod has been gaining momentum, but don't you feel the screen is too small to watch them. Here comes the solution. The iWear shows the videos as personal 36" home theatre screen! Available in Skymall! But is this worthy to carry? Probably for flight travel alone I guess...

Visiball - Check out what purpose this product serves! Do people really buy/need this glass to search Golf balls in the turf? I guess the customers for this product can be counted in hundreds:)

9625CG/G - May be people will prefer to have this. This is nothing but a cell phone signal booster if you have low signals in & around your house/office. This sure addresses the day to day issue for many customers, because we always hear people complaining about low signal, dropped calls and calls ending in direct voice mails. But, the problem is the price! Unless, we do big time business, it's not worthy to invest like USD 250 to 300 for this equipment. Don't you agree?

V-Phone - And here is an alternative to landline & cell phone. Well, we need computer & internet connection though! Vonage's VOIP business model is built on the basics of replacing land lines. And this new product (yet to be released into the market) is kind of more than a stand alone landline replacement. Because, this USB device key chain product can be carried with us. All we need to do is plug into any computer & talk. It is a long term cost trade off - Is it worth to replace a cell phone (including handset, activation, monthly/minute fee) and a landline phone (equipment, monthly charges) with V-Phone (Computer, internet connection charges, V Phone Stick, activation etc). May be not! ABC has more details on the same.

A Milestone?

I'm not sure how to look into this. Hasn't it become more common to use 'Googling' in place of searching? Google should be proud enough to see this success and to have set this 'terminology' into effect! And what more can they expect out of this?

Well, if you see, this word "google" got added into the latest edition of Merriam-Webster Dictionary! The word has got the funtion of transitive verb besides being a proper noun! That is like redefining something in the language of English and sure, is something of great pride. Isn't it?

NO! Because, if we read this new development with that of Google's concerns which they raised this week in their Q-10, then we know this is going in some negative direction from Google's point of view.

We also face risks associated with our trademarks. For example, there is a risk that the word “Google” could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word “search.” If this happens, we could lose protection for this trademark, which could result in other people using the word “Google” to refer to their own products, thus diminishing our brand.
-- From the report

I remember, seeing sometime back that Oxford dictionary too added the word Google! Is Google going to follow other big & successful companies. Like everyone knows Band-Aid is no more a brand! Likewise, Xerox is more like 'copying' and doesn't represent the brand! In India, there is a predominant use of Cadbury's to represent any milk chocolate, though the brand value hasn't been lost yet.

Or may be Google can take the path of Coke or to say, Coca Cola, because every other drink became a 'cola drink'. So, what can be the new name for Google because the use of transitive verb google is not slowing down?

No More A Crash...

That was a much awaited vacation from the busy schedule and yes, it was worth travelling out 'quite a bit' in the available time! Thanks to the Independance Day Loooong Week end - Without work, browsing & emails:)

Well, I sure can write a lot about my trip & all the different places I visited. But... Why to do so, when there are some aspects which really pulled me in - Like playing Sudoku in the flight when people around me are all dozing off:) - That was my first try to solve a set of those puzzles and were quite easy. Give it a try, when you find time!

What really made a difference is the 'crash room' - That's how I prefer to call the hotel bookings which I make for such tours & trips! Usually, I visit different 'to be seen' places day long and try to just crash down on the bed in the hotel room for the night. So, it doesn't matter what '*' rating the hotel has? All we need is a bed for night and a room to freshen up in the morning:) So, my booking was in some two & a half star rated hotel - Hampton Inn.

To start with, the hotel is somewhat right on the freeway (kind of road) itself! I had the driving directions but the address of the hotel says a number on the freeway without any exit?! Anyways, found it & drove in. And it started right away with an issue. Shouldn't the previous customers check out before 12 PM? I mean, I was there at that hotel around 2.30PM and still the room is not ready! Had to wait for more than 45 minutes to check in. Very poor service was my feeling...

With that frustration, when I entered my room it was different! I guess, I couldn't ask anything more for that 2 1/2 *s:) Here are the few regulars - TV, Towels, some toilet items, a spacious closet. Something more - May be the Coffee Maker - Sure, served big time and the free internet connection - Though didn't use it! And here are some surprises...

• Along with Coffee Maker, ofcourse we need Coffee powder! The surprise is, they had the 'No Caffeine' packets too, which I haven't seen in other hotels till now!
• Add a very handy and a latest Hair Drier to the bathroom! A electric gadget in bathroom is sure welcoming:)
• A brand new iron box with different features and a stand for the same in the closet - Well, I usually go prepared & wasn't of use to me though.
• A complete directory of all the restaurants around with all menu details, address, delivery options, timing and varieties like Thai, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Indian.
• More utilities - Fridge, Freezer & Microwave. (Hmmm... May be they should put a Washer & Drier too:)). And the kitchen was missing for this room:(
• If needed, we can take a Locker to safe keep our valuables. Wow!

And here are some of the heights of surprise & satisfaction, inside the room

• The TV remote had an option for Menu. Entering the same shows a set of Movie names which are currently running in theatres. Ofcourse, can be watched for payment, didn't expect 'Superman Returns' as one of the options!
• And the TV is connected with a 'Controller'! The TV menu takes us through to Nintendo games. That's really kind of cool. Any American kid will peacefully continue playing the game without disturbing the adults:).

Walking out - The hotel had a swimming pool just like any other. And there was a note for complimentary free breakfast. So, checked that out. It had quite a lot of items - Well, not only readymades but there are also chefs who cook fresh & hot stuffs. Kind of really a great way to attract customers because such breakfast is not even a usual thing in some of the 3* rateds!

Well, added to all these, the location of the hotel is also great. There is a big shopping mall behind - With WalMart, Krispy Kreme, Pizza Hut and many more. I guess, a hotel can't find a better place.

I wasn't prepared for these 'extra' features and wasn't prepared for many more. There were no maps & sight seeing details provided in the hotel, the direction back to the hotel from a different route was too confusing. And the hotel receptionist wasn't much helpful either. To my surprise the door keycard didn't have the phone number for the hotel I'm staying but had a general 800 hotel chain number! What the heck? Who knows, which BPO Indian will pick up the receiver at the other end??!!

As a whole, it was more sweet & somewhat bitter experience. And can say, the bitterness is more because of the local variables. Got to admit, the mistake was on my part too because I didn't check Hotels.com and A9.com:). I guess, I'll prefer this hotel chain for my future 'crashings' - Looks like can't use the word Crash anymore?!