Sroys

I really enjoyed reading the Recession survival guide written by Glenn Kelman from redfin. I think it beautifully prepares new CEO’s about how to think of their job or their role in the company. I can imagine a new CEO going around trying to please everyone and being defensive about his every decision - wondering if he is doing the right thing and what the board members will think. It’s tremendous pressure and I think this post addresses most of the issues new CEO’s face.

Just to add a little bit to that I think New CEO’s also need to build relationships with their team members. People will think you are a good leader only if you are consistent and straight forward. Having a friendly way about yourself without being overtly sweet with your colleagues help in the long run. People don’t like over-friendly people and they don’t like aloof people either. Find something in between where you are not questioning your employees about their work but discussing it.

I also believe CEO’s should splurge on their employees and be a miser when it comes to business expenses. Getting and keeping employees is a big deal these days - and people don’t leave companies - they leave bosses - so it’s extremely important to spoil your employees a little bit. The CEO is the father figure of the company and everyone needs a cool friendly dad - that is when kids will prosper.

Great words of wisdom Glenn! You seem like you are a fun dad!

Here’s my take on what I feel are the most useful Iphones apps available in the App Store. I haven’t jail-broken my Iphone - if you are good enough you will make it to the app store.

When I say my favorites apps - I mean applications which in someway help us be more productive and utilities which use the Iphone features very well. I use most of these applications almost everyday. So here goes:

ByLine: This is a beautiful RSS reader which syncs up with your Google Reader account [if you have gmail you can access it] - initially I was wondering if I wanted it that way - but later realized it’s the easiest way to organize your favorite RSS feeds. Add them into the Google Reader account and it syncs up to your Iphone. The best part about this app is it’s speed and pre-fetching capability - meaning when you read the feeds - it’s as smooth as silk. Beautiful app. My number 1 most used app.

Locly: A very useful application if you want to quickly find out what’s near you. I found this application to be the most accurate - it’s probably got to do with the programming as I think most such apps are using the Google local data - so basically the same information - but this application handles it the best and I found it to be the most accurate. It features many things like - flickr images, local twitters, local events, restaurants, pubs, cafes, shops, taxi firms, hotels, banks & ATM, gas stations but one of the cool features is the wikipedia articles on nearby important locations - I found them to be pretty accurate from my location. Some of the other apps like Around Me does the same thing but I found Locly to be more accurate.

AirSharing: I use this app to use my Iphone as a wireless hard drive. It works very well and it’s very easy to use. Works with windows or mac. Supports folders and let’s you view documents and images.

Camera Bag: I recently started using this and it’s a very good camera effects app if you like to have effects like Helga, black & white - in all it has about 10 effects and it does the job well.

Lists: This app does not have many features but I like it that way - it’s simple to use and does not crowd the screen. Nice clear list display. You can create as many lists you want and you can add and remove items from the list and you can create sub-lists inside lists. I considered buying things but somehow I do not need a second organizer in the Iphone - the native calendar organizer is good enough for me and it runs in the background so I can set alerts. I would have to run things to get alerts which kind of beats the purpose of having so many features. A simple list of things to do with a tick mark in front does it better for me. I am sure there are many such applications but I have used this till now and have had no trouble plus I like the icon.

Two of the giant social networks of the world but each popular in certain countries. While Facebook is the leading social network in the US and Europe. Orkut used to define social networking here in India. Why does this happen and is there any particular reason why some websites do better than others in geographical areas.

Some days back I was watching an interview of Prof. Kishore Mahbubani and he gave an example which literally blew my mind. He was talking about the emerging Asia - and was talking about how the Japan occupied Singapore they made sure to retain the culture, gardens and treasures of Singapore and didn’t destroy them - where as in the American occupation of Afghanistan they literally destroyed everything. The difference of strategy is in the fact that the Japanese didn’t attack the culture but rather wanted to preserve it to eventually contain the citizens of the country.

You can watch the interview here.

This is a a major factor - to understand the culture of a geographical area before you launch your campaign in that area. Facebook was not very popular in India initially because the name doesn’t quite fit very well into our psychology. It feels like a book where you put your face - something which is open for all too see. Indians have never quite been very happy about attracting attention to themselves - cause here attention still means possibility of trouble.

On the other hand Orkut doesn’t really mean anything - it vaguely reminds me of “orko” the friendly ghost like character everyone likes from the popular series of “He Man“.
This adding to the fact that it was discovered within Google which almost every Internet user in India uses made Orkut the number 1 social network in India initially.

I heard about Face Book from my friends abroad a long time back but never really used it - the name just didn’t go down well with me - why would I want my face in your book? Orkut was something which was just there in my Google account and I used it some times to read up on what my friends are saying.

But things are changing today and literally because of the great work put in by Face Book - you know someone is doing great when others state to ape them. Orkut is now aping and trying to replicate everything FaceBook is doing and this is very visible in Google Trends - we see a downward trend for orkut search queries and an upward trend on Facebook search queries.

The point of this article is that when we plan a business we must find out what will and what will not go well with people in a geographical area - do this before you even decide the name so that you can build something which will work globally. Of course nothing can replace quality of your work but being aware of what works will help you grow your business quickly.

Some time back I was considering buying a netbook to replace my huge Dell laptop. I researched and found that there were two companies which dominated the market:

Asus Eee PC - a detailed review can be found here.

MSI Wind - a detailed review can be found here.

While both seemed decently good - I was turned off by the fact that the key board, the screen, the resolution seemed to be a problem for many people who had bought them. And frankly the market in between the laptop and a mobile is not for everyone.

Net books are fine if it is your first laptop and you don’t want to spend too much - it has potential to be a nice note taking device for school goers and college students and I feel that is the market for these devices. But if you are a developer or someone who has to work many hours on your computer - a Net Book just won’t fit your requirements. They don’t have enough power and it’ll be stressful to work on such a small screen/keyboard.

One of the main features which will help probably help the Net Book market will be it’s ability to easily sync up to a desktop over wireless. Apple is possible considering getting into this market - although these are only rumors - some say that “Apple doesn’t do cheap” - but if they do and if they create a way to easily sync with your desktop - like you can with the Iphone - then it may sell like hot cakes.

The Net Book needs to be priced very low so it is affordable by school and college students.
But for us professionals - we will wait for the next Iphone - which may just wipe out the entire Net Book market if it’s decently powerful and is easy to use. Imagine a mobile phone which can open up into a small netbook. That would be awesome! We wait now.

Being an Entrepreneur is fun - and you can learn how to do it very easily if you are open to people and their problems. I’ll start by telling you about what should motivate you and how. For most people some of the key motivations for working as an Entrepreneur are:

1) You get to work for yourself and you set your own work hours.
2) The money is much better than if I work a job.
3) You will only get rich if I start a business.

While all of these are the right reasons for trying to get into the Entrepreneur mode. The way we look at these reasons are skewed because of the way things are in this age of show-offs.

1) Yes, you get to work for yourself - and that means you have no one to tell you how much to work and what to work on - this means the motivation to work has to come from within. The only way this can happen is if the work you have chosen excites you. If you don’t like what you are working on there is little chance that you will succeed as an entrepreneur. So when you want to start as an entrepreneur you should first be sure about what you want to create - which industry you are going to cater to. Once you find something that interests you - there will be many things you can do.
Once you start enjoying your work - the hours don’t matter anymore. Well it doesn’t feel like work anymore and that can sometimes be dangerous with you working or thinking about work almost through the day - every minute - every hour.

2) Like I said before the meaning of money is skewed in today’s world. It has just become something we want - the more the better. But you delve a little deeper you will see that what money means is the amount of service you are giving to your fellow human beings in this community. The more valuable the service the more money you get for it. This is the seed of entrepreneurship - learn to locate service requirements and learn to develop things to cater to them - be it a software or a website or a gadget. When you focus on the “Service Requirement” you focus on the honey pots of money - and anyone will tell you there are almost infinite such requirements - you just need to find what is required.
An important aspect of entrepreneurship is talking to people - once you have located a service requirement - talk to the people you will be catering to and learn from them the challenges they face and what they need. Then develop a business plan - chalk it out - first the requirement - then the research on what is required - then develop the plan of action you will take to develop a solution.
Something else that may help is reading up on the industry you want to work in - you will find numerous problems people are facing in those news stories - there lies the keys to entrepreneurship.

3) This is unfortunately true - society rewards the leaders and we need as many of them as we can - so if you want to reap the rewards - learn to look at money the way it should be looked at and not just a greed in your mind - and learn the methods to become an entrepreneur.

It’s not something out of reach - it’s just something you need to work on patiently and with confidence. More on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs later.

The recent market plunge and the economic crisis is almost like “evolution” and the emergence of a higher breed. Every once in a while an Ice Age comes along and only the lean and the mean will survive this - the Government may step in like the enviromentalist and try to bail out the dinosaurs - But I have respect only for companies who can survive on their own with quick and good decisions.

With reports of many web based companies loosing traffic and revenue like Ebay and with major companies like Yahoo on the verge of bankruptcy it’s clear that there are tough times ahead. So what do I think companies should do to survive this:

1) Cut back on infrastructure cost - increase cash reserve.
2) Lay-off non-productive or problematic staff immediately - don’t waste time.
3) If you have major operations - divide them along with fixed budgets and goals - be strict.
4) Focus vehemently on productivity and new ideas.
5) Invest in your own company - don’t go buying.
6) Out source work which can be outsourced.
7) Keep your company Lean and Mean.

Techcrunch has almost become a blog of lay-offs and head counts - sometimes I am thoroghly bored reading about who’s falling apart in this crisis. I would be much happier if they and others could focus on what steps companies are taking to survive this crisis.

Regarding Yahoo - I think they should divide their company and do it now. When companies want to become stronger they merge with other market leaders to create one stronger company. In their case they are falling apart with low profits and high costs. Lay-off employees, divide your business and let the best survive.

I recently bought an Iphone and this phone is something you need to experience to be able to appreciate fully. I remember the time when I was thinking about whether to buy a blackberry or an Iphone a few months back - and back then I was a fool - I bought a blackberry and was happy in my isolated world text and email. Viewing Email and surfing the net on the opera browser seemed more than anything I could ever want.
The way the Iphone looks also kind of confused me about it’s usability. The problem was that I never quite understood the user interface until I saw a few videos on YouTube of the iphone being used.

It blew my mind - the simplicity of the design is beautiful. Initially you may think that there are many things which can make it a difficult phone to use - but that’s just our initial nervousness with new technology. I don’t think I can ever go back to my old blackberry.

Part of my reason I decided to go ahead and buy the Iphone was the Apple brand name - Apple has maintained their brand beautifully - it’s something which is almost synonymous with “very good quality” well if there is a word which means that. This I think helped the most in building the hype around the Iphone Initially.


The coolest and the most useful feature on the Iphone is the App Store - which allows you to download and install applications from the store. There are both paid and free apps. What this means is that here’s a phone which is completely customizable - you can have it the way you want it but you can only have it from Apple. Yeah - you cannot install third party applications unless you jail break your iphone - I haven’t done that as I don’t really trust them - if you haven’t made it into the app store then there is something wrong with it.

Now Google is coming up with the Gphone which will run on Andriod - although there is going to be an app store for this phone also it is highly unlikely that Google will be able to maintain the quality of the apps in that app store [judging by what they have done with the adsense publisher program]. If they can - it’ll be their only saving grace - cause they are up against a very organized and very powerful enemy. The Iphone is formidable - it looks great - it feels great in your hand - the apps are great - and it carries a brand name which stands for good quality.

Will I shift to the Google Andriod when it comes out?
I am not sure - but a friend of mine will possibly get it when it’s available in India - so hopefully I’ll get a first hand experience but untill then I have to declare the Iphone is by far the coolest thing I have ever owned in my life.

While many of us are very familiar with the latest gadgets and software - there are vast regions in the world which do not have access to these techs. To give you an idea of the scope of development of this industry let’s compare the population of the world to the population of internet users.

The population of the world according to Wikipedia is 6.72 Billion.
The population of Internet users according to Internet World Stats is around 1.42 Bilion.

That means about 21% of the world is using the Internet - the rest 79% are still oblivious to this phenomenon. But that will soon change as technology becomes cheaper. A day will come when technology will be in the hands of even the uneducated masses. We have already seen this happen with mobile phones - people with a monthly salary of $70 are able to afford a mobile phone now and this has sparked a revolution in how informed people are - imagine what the Internet will do to this population when they have access to almost any information they can ever need.

One of the highlights of such a time will be localization of websites - it will become extremely important for us web masters to be able to provide our content in local languages. Fortunately there are already programs like the Google Language Tool available using which you can create a decent localized version of you pages.

The time is soon coming when this 79% population will be online - and the online boom is far from over - the Internet will eventually grow to be the backbone of our society.

I have been quite disturbed the last couple of days as Mumbai fought the terrorists hiding in the Taj, the Nariman House and the Oberoi/Trident. Disturbed both by the way it is so easy for these terrorists to hold a city to ransom and the possibility that this will be forgotten in a few days. All the sacrifices and tales of bravery will just become news stories that won’t be repeated in a few days.

While TechCrunch focuses on how Twitter has become such a great news source [I agree] and while probably hundreds are focused on cleaning up the rumbles - I hope that they will let some of the stains remain to remind us of our lack of maturity as a nation. The blame is ours - we take things way too easy - unless it happens to us we never quite feel the pinch. Is this a lack of education or is it just a lack of respect and concern for our fellow countrymen. I think it’s both and you see evidence of that everywhere - the way we keep our city - the way we drive without any consideration for others - and don’t tell me this doesn’t happen.

It’s our duty to change and care about what is happening in our nation and it is our duty to make sure that our government takes steps to improve the security and crisis management infrastructure. Get our soldiers better suits and weapons to help them be prepared for any eventuality.

Another thing that scares me is the prejudice against Muslims this event will cause - if we encourage people towards hatred - we will only get hatred in return - and nothing will progress towards a better future.

My deepest condolence to all those who have lost their loved ones. No words can comfort them but I hope our government will for once think about the families and do something to help improve our infrastructure. Although we need your speeches to help comfort the masses - let them not remain “just words” - let this be a lesson of unity and progress and let’s work towards a stronger future.

Okay – I’ll give it a shot – yeah – I am still talking to myself and wondering if I should start a blog and if anyone would care – rather if I would care enough to tell the world what I think about what’s going on. I also wonder if I would be getting threat emails from facebook if I hurt mark zukenberg’s ego by posting some criticism about facebook. But then again I am not the sort of person who would badger anyone’s work – but maybe some constructive criticism won’t be so bad for them.

So what do I write about – the first prerequisite would be I guess to read up all the information on the internet about the latest happenings and start analyzing them in my brain. Hmmm… wonder how this interests so many people that they actually do this every day of their life – just imagine the kind of stuff these people have to think about constantly – maybe it’s a reflex for most people to instantly have an opinion about anything depending on the entirety of what all stuff they are exposed to. Unfortunately such opinion journalism can be quite dangerous.

For example – my father – he is like a constant impulsive blogger – just that he is not writing the blog but speaking it. He is an expert in everything he talks about and shows such conviction about everything he says that you would actually believe almost anything he says – well unless it’s almost completely unbelievable. With time you would learn to understand when he’s talking about something he knows and when he’s just guessing. And a guess can be dangerous if you take it seriously. So I’ll take that lesson and not try to guess about anything but do enough research to bring you authentic and interesting information that I bump into.

As as I wait for my son/daughter to come into this very techy world [he/she is dues January 28th 2008] perhaps it’s only right that I step into my father’s shoes and start writing about the things I have an opinion about – and perhaps eventually I would learn how important it is to have an opinion about things that effect us. Perhaps someday this will become my most important work – will it? Only time will tell.