Money Bloggers Make

Blogging has changed the way communication on and off the web happens. We are aware that many bloggers make money out of blogging. Being human, its only natural that we want to know how much money they make. Here's a way to quench your curiosity. Paula Neal has come up with a list of famous bloggers and their salaries.

Check out this link, to see how much bloggers make. Its really interesting how much money the top bloggers make. No salary can match these figures. There is something for Indians to cheer about. We have Digital Inspiration at 12th position on Paula's list. This is a great news and am sure is inspiring for aspiring bloggers.However, there is a caution, don't be envious/ jealous of those who make money. They have spent lot of time and effort to reach where ever they are. Be inspired by them and carve your own niche.(Some of the blogs like problogger offer you tips on how to improve your blogs)

I Wish that these bloggers make more and more money providing us all the information. And to all those in the waiting to unleash their potential, Great luck.

Just Dial the Story Behind

JustDial is the local directory listing service in India. I have mentioned about it in one of my previous post on customer service. I seem to like it so much, that I call them two to three times a fortnight. It is fascinating to know the the story behind just dial.

My quest for this information landed me on this article on livemint. Also for details on who powers JustDial go check out this post by Ashish on Pluggd.in. Here are a few excerpts from the post on livemint.

The conference room has walls of glass through which he can see busy directory operators, but V.S.S. Mani’s eyes are focused elsewhere, on some far-away point, as he speaks of the visions he used to have. Back before he founded directory service firm Just Dial Private Ltd, Mani would only have to close his eyes and he would see numbers—not bank balances or account numbers, but phone numbers. “I used to just dream numbers, easy numbers, like 2222 or 8888,” he says. Just Dial’s own number is easy too: 39999999 (across the country). Mani says that there should not be a single person who needs to call Just Dial, but cannot remember the number.

Amazing dream isn't it. JustDial is valued at about Rs521 crore with over Rs 110 crore in revenue. Mani has plans of expanding into US. It will be interesting to see how JustDial will compete in the more aggressive and organised US markets. What ever it be, it's a kick ass service and Mani is a visionary beyond his times.

Relocation to Bangalore /NCR is now just a Walkin

"Congratulations for the new job!! I am very happy that you will be shifting to Bangalore.", I said to Ravi(my friend) when he was moving to Bangalore. Yes, I was very happy he was coming here. The date had come when finally Ravi was in this city and thus started a fortnight of running around the brokers, analysing the traffic, moving the luggage to Bangalore, scouting for an agent to supply a water purifier, and innumerable other things that all of us have faced sometime or the other. That was when I felt, If only someone offers me a service to get all these things done, without me running around it would be great. From a business and entrepreneurial view point there is huge untapped market to address.

About a month back, a friend of mine directed me to a service which promises to address the above issue. "easylifeservices", this new kid on the block(about 2months old) promises to do just what I was telling. A one stop service for all relocation issues. I like the idea, if you go to their site, they talk about services from travel plan to essential amenities.

Moving to a new location is always an issue, packing, searching for a new house which is in a good location, fits your budget, near the office is a big challenge, moving the car, registering it, my God! it's not easy. If you are married, you have the issue of school, hospital for kids and a great deal of other stuff like getting the essential services like phone, cable and host of other things to get up and running. easylifeservices is in this space and address these issues.

To avail yourself of services from easylifeservices, you need to sign up and sign in. Once inside you click on the "New Relocation Request". There are few questions regarding your relocation plans, which you need to fillup and submit. That is it, the people from easylifeservices will contact you and set the ball rolling. No more running around from pillar to post, all the concerned parties will contact you and address your issues.Currently they are having operations in the NCR region and Bangalore, I am sure they plan to start in other cities too. They have partnered with various firms to offer these services.

Ok, now you are worried, one more guy to lighten your pocket. Hold on right here, the best part about this service is that it's absolutely free to you. What more the vendors offer you a discounted price if you go through easylifeservices. Doesn't it sound too good to be true? Yes It does, but then It's true.

You might be in any place on earth and if you wish to relocate, I guess easylifeservices will make your life simpler. I have talked to one of the founders Manas Agarwal of easylifeservices. Keep tuned to this space for a design/business review and also for an interview with Manas and hear what he has to say to all of you.

Bringo! Call Customer Service a Click away

Telephone Banking, Tickets on Telephone,Telephone helpline, and so on and so forth. Most of us have used one or the other service. All of us know how long we have to listen to the pre recorded voices which offer all the things in the world except what we are looking for.

Calling a Bank, Airlines,or any other similar service is usually a pain, It's not easy to get through to a real human being (executive) at the other end. Apart from the myriad combination of keys one has to press, one also has to wait for an eternity before the call lands in a place where we wanted it to land in the first place.

This startup Bringo (not Bingo), is addressing the above issue in an innovative way. They have a list of companies for which they offer a service called no phone tree. It's a fairly simple process where we first choose the vendor, enter our phone number and forget it. Once the call goes through to the service executive of the vendor, Bringo connects us to the executive. That is it, simple and straight forward. Check out this post on TechCrunch for more details. Now if only we have a similar service in India.

Since I am on services on telephone. I have to mention two services which have impressed me the most in the recent past. The first is Reliance Infocomm.(*333). All old timers know how much of a pain it was to get to the service executive without hearing all the nonsense they blurt out(their awful wait tone, I want to hang myself on hearing that). One also cannot forget the time it used to take before someone picks the call. However, In recent times it has changed, You are just a couple of key press away from customer serivce executive and also the wait times have reduced by a whopping margin.

The other service is JustDial, this is so far the best experience I have with services on telephone. You get connected to the person at the other end even before you realise that you heard the first ring. I have never been disappointed with them even once in over 10calls. I am sure you are curious about the technology behind JustDial's search. Check out this post on Pluggd.in, it has an interview with the founder of the company that powers JustDial.

Behind the Scene: The Untold Story of Wii

Gaming freaks and gadget freaks among you by now know of Wii. The revolution its creating in the world of console games and how its making the two big boys of the industry lick their wounds(Sony for PS3 and Microsoft for X-Box360). Those of you in the gaming world are already familiar with this can skip and go to the last paragraph to get to a link which details on the story behind Wii., but to others let me give you a brief background on the kind of impact Wii from Nintendo had and is having on the other two.

In a world few months back no body gave chance to Nintendo in the world of Gaming. It was distant third to the leader Sony and runner up Microsoft. Both the big players had power beasts in the lineup to their blockbuster products PS2 and X-Box. Every one was waiting anxious to see which of these two will win the war this time round. And then the war started in fag end of 2006. X-Box 360, followed by "Wii" and PS3. Till this point the going was perfect, it was as per the script laid down by all those experts. However, something happened which very few anticipated. That was Wii scoring over both X-Box360 and PS3.

Now how did a product from a company which was barely surviving beat the biggies. XBox 360 and PS3 both were beasts in terms of computing power and the host of features they provided. I would not like to delve into the features they provided but to give you a brief, consider this. IBM has come up with a server based on the Cell processor, the heart of PS3. A more interesting article on how an XBox 360, was turned into a laptop can be found here on Make. The point I am trying to make is these two machines were not just gaming consoles but did many more things from playing your DVDs, Blu-Ray's, connecting to net, and host of other things.

Now you might ask why not let me play my game. Why do you want to include all that stuff which I might hardly use. The idea behind this was to increase the user base. How's that? By making the family and friends of the users who are not hardcore gamers to be able to use these machines. Wow sounds good? Yes indeed. But then they missed a point. If I want to watch a DVD on my TV I would very well use my existing DVD player than use a 400$ or more machine. And same goes with listening to music, downloading from net and so on.

Coming back to where we started, now what has Wii done differently that made it a huge success. Nothing much, but they got some simple things right. Nintendo also focused on increasing its market share. However, the way they went about it was different. They understood that irrespective of the age, people like playing games, only that the games and the needs were different. This is the market they tapped in. Wii is very user friendly in learning. Literally there is no learning curve involved to use the console. Then they came up with a wireless motion sensor, which I would say is a big jump in the world of design. And then they priced it at just 250$ way less than PS3~600$ and XBox360~400$.

Now if we thought that Wii was possible all of sudden with a master stroke of genius we would be wrong. It was a slow visionary approach taken by Nintendo's CEO Satoru Iwata and the legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto over five year. Yest Five years, it sounds to long in a world where new products are launched over night. But that's the fact. For a complete story on how Nintendo struck back, read the following article on CNN Money. A must read for any one to do with products. I am sure this story of Wii is going to be as legendary as a Walkman or an iPod.

Hungry Bangalore goes Mobile

Last time I reviewed the Hungry Bangalore site was in January. They have come far in the past few months. As usual the restaurants you can reach has increased. But the features to talk about is HB on mobile and the site has got a new look and feel.

I haven't done a due diligence on the site and the features as in the earlier post. I plan to do it very shortly. Until then please go ahead and read what the HB team has to say about there new offerings. I reproduce the letter that the HB team has sent across.

Hi,

Your HungryBangalore is all set for a delicious cause... to drive your hunger away with improved service. This was only possible with your most valued feedback and suggestions, which we take seriously. Here is the list of some delicious features:

1. Signup now to earn HB Points and each time you make your tummy happier you earn more HB Points.These points can be redeemed with cool Foster goodies and Meal Vouchers.

2. While you wait for your food to be delivered, explore the sizziling recipes, articles & the health tip section. Add your own comments on the restaurants which might help other to decide.

3. HB is also available on your MOBILE though zook, the local search engine in town. So if you are on the move and hungry follow the steps below:

You can send an SMS - " ZOOK " to 3030; e.g. "zook chinese blr" or if you know the restaurant where to order from "zook chandni chowk blr"
[ BTW, You can also just use "Z" instead of " ZOOK" ]
Reply from zook
zook :Restaurant: Chandni Chowk
Cuisine: Punjabi
Phone: +918041102222
Address: 80 ft Road, Koramangala Bangalore - India (Koramangala ) 560095
1. SMS "RESERVE 1 for 5" to 3030 to book a table for 5 at Chandni Chowk
2. SMS " ORDER" to 3030 for a callback for delivery/takeaway orders

We hope these features would help us serve you better. Apart from these big changes, we have tried to improve our wesite to make ordering food easier and more fun. We have added many new restaurants, offers, events from our fun partners Fosters and features which we are sure you would love to explore. So do visit your trusted food ordering portal http://hungrybangalore.com . As always, your suggestions and feedback are most welcome.

Thanks and Warm Regards,
HungryBangalore team

Proto.in Second Edition

Good news for all those out there in the wild. It's time for you to come out into the open and showcase your brain child to the world. If you are an early stage start up in need to showcase your technology, someone looking for those green backs to take you to the next level, looking out for some smart folks on whom you can bet your money. It's time to act.

"Proto.in" is coming out with its second edition in July 2007. The nominations are open for some time. All you folks out there take time to be present at what can be called the biggest startup fare in India. One more encouraging news is that this time around, they are accepting nominations from other Asian countries. For more information check out there blog.

Now for people like me, who might be interested in just following up on what is happening over there, please wait for some more time until you get more information. Will post more info. once I get closer to it.

ideas Roundup

Looks like I have some time these days to spend some time on whats happening. The last few weeks have seen lots of ups and downs, affecting the performance of my little Grey Cells. I was waiting for the past few days thinking of what to write about, typical writers block you would say. Then I came across some cool stuff which you all should know of.

Imagine, if only you could display the funny picture where you caught a friend off guard to all your friends, shoot a concept with your mobile and project it without the hassle of connecting to a projector or a PC. Imagine being able to watch your favorite TV show when ever and where ever you want on a large enough display. Those of you who have wished for such devices, hold your breath the time is not far when you can buy one for yourself or your loved ones.
This is a dummy phone with a real projector showcased by TI at CES in January 2007. For a detail on this check out this item on cnet. This article on digitimes throws some more light on the specs. You can watch some picutres over here.
Now DLP is not the only technology, we have a few others from Microvision. Check out there PicoP over here. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have are working on a making mini projectors affordable. For those of you vieing for more details check this out(page 53). A very good article on this is available at primidi. How I wish to lay my hands on this device.

Moving over to another area. For all those Scott Adams out there who shied away because of drawing skills. You have a good news, check out toondoo, its a cool site where you can create your own toon strips. Check out the details here on TechCrunch.

Not to disappoint the hard core Potter fans, check out mugglecast. This is for all you muggle out there. Finally to end this roundup. Check this YCombinator Startup School event. There were some cool speakers from Facebook founder to Lotus founder. Check this link on SiliconBeat, I fid the comments more useful.

Have fun.

Mobile Advertising

A bit on Mobile Advertising this post by Atanu Dey, set my grey cells to work. They have been pretty dormant over the last few days. Before I go ahead with what is it about this post that set my grey cells racing, I will tell you something I did.

"Mobile Advertising", what image does it conjure up in your mind? I don't know about you, but to me I started seeing Google ads in my mobile. I started seeing the ads change on the screen becoming more and more relevant to what I speak. And I saw a lot which is censored here for reasons not known to me. Then I said to myself wait a minute, do you something else? Doesn't mobile advertising refer to advertising on the vans, buses, trains, auto rickshaws and innumerable moving objects both living and non living. Do a flickr search and you will see some amusing shots. The shots you see here are flickr results.

Enough of digressing, coming back to the topic on hand, I was planning to write on it for some time. The trigger was a discussion where we were wondering how advertising on the net works. I thought hard, read a few things about advertising in general. Then I came to the conclusion that advertising on net is in no way different from the fundamentals of advertising. What an amazing coincidence, no sooner do I plan to write, I see the genesis for this post (referring to Atanu's post) in my feed reader. He has done a great job in explaining the basics before embarking on his idea of Mobile Advertising. I could never think of putting it in so succulent a manner. It gave me the confidence that my own conclusions on advertising are not far off and also gave a peek into the economics without miring me into technical mambo jumbo.

Now the question arises, what is that set my grey cells active? I am coming to that, in the last section of his post, Atanu talks about possible ways for advertisers to reach customer. This was what triggered me. How can advertisers reach the user? How can they be effective? How can someone make money out of it? What is the technical feasibility? Where can I contribute? And ultimately what can I do here?

Each one of the above questions have given some answers and threw some challenges. I will address them in a later post. But, one thing that struck me is there is a gold mine here. There will be a company which will do a Google in the world the world of Advertising on Mobiles. What will I do? Will I wait and watch, or will I be part of this game. I can tell now, you can tell over time.

Buy a Handmade Robot with Wii Mobile

Aha!! I have five things with me today that will make you say Aha!!. Without wasting any time I go on to these things. At the end of it you will probably make out what the title of the post means.

Etsy.com, its so cute. Just check out their concept very simple, its a place for people like you and me who fiddle with things and make some other things out of them, to see those things. Pretty common, this is what e-bay does? Isn't it, Did you visit the site before you make a comment. Etsy rates very high on the coolness, usability factors, and the way they have used technology to create some sexy ways of navigation. Check color, geolocator, treasury, connections , I am at loss to answer if creativity enhances technology or technology enhances creativity. Before I leave, check out the blog, the folks out there are simply amazing.

Talk about creativity and the first thing that comes to my mind is what I am going to post here. These amazing photos are probably a big coincidence, but don't they tickle your grey cells for a few moments at the timing and remind you how some people are at the right place at the right time.

Now we will move on to some more mundane stuff. These days all the sites seem to follow one mantra, KISS (Keep It Short and Simple). Check out this site TELLME, a very clean concise, to the point information without all clutter, I usually associate with companies pre Web2.0. Not only that tellme, has come up with a cool applet for you mobiles to locate business, essentially doing what one used to do with 411.(Folks in US throw some light on 411, I am ignorant of what exactly it does).

For sometime we have been hearing a lot about Wii. It has created and continues to create ripples across the gamin world. But, what sets Wii apart from other consoles is that it has broken into new areas which were traditionally inaccessible to gaming companies. Looks like it has awaken the dormant gamer in every one. One of the main reasons might be the ease of use, where even a small child could use it. The number of hacks making it into a laptop. People have come up with regimens to lose weight. Check out what Brendon Chase has to write about wiimote or the wii remote control.

On a closing note check this small little fellow called PLEN(any Japanese to help me translate the site). According to crunchgear its a humanoid robot that can roller skate around a hard surface. This little fellow also comes equipped with blue tooth and a not so remote possibility of being controlled by your blue tooth mobile phone.

Its time of cool, sexy stuff. Small is definitely the in thing!
And now can you make out what the title means?

Hungry Bangalore!!

iDeas gaLore as you all know is the current avatar of my blog. The first post of this new avatar is about a concept brought about by a couple of my batch mates. I am referring to "Hungry Bangalore" . It is run by two folks, with passion to be on their own and make a difference. The concept is simple, timely and from what I hear efficient. It goes like this, any one with a hungry belly will land up at Hungry Bangalore selects his(i am not gender biased) favorite restaurant, make an order and watch the TV or surf the net (for people like me), or do some useful work till the food arrives at the door step. Yes It's that simple. Not only this you can also plan a party, search for a recipe, review the service, and if lucky enough win a t-shirt.

Being a food freak and a lazy single, I love this idea. A great thing about this site is they don't ask you register before you order, I bow to the founders for this simple yet bold decision. They now have over 150 restaurants on their site, isn't it awesome. I select Airport Road and get the list of restaurants near by, I can either get the food delivered (provided the restaurant offers the service) or can book a table. Another cool feature is the map. You can choose the area you want to by clicking on the Bangalore map. The review and feed back section tells you all about users experience.

The recipe section interests me, with a host of recipes posted. That best part is you can post your recipe too. Wow, If not on my blog, I can find some audience for my culinary experiments. The best part about the site that makes me go back again and again (unfortunately I am not in Bangalore to give them business) is the simple uncluttered interface, more on this latter.

Mind you folks, I am not praising them just because I know them, it is because I just love this concept. I have been reading off late, a lot about user interfaces, it made me think on whats right with the interface of "Hungry Bangalore" and where all they can improve. What does my analysis reveal? In spite of being a great fan of their interface, I find it falls short on many fronts. Some simple and some not so simple things will make it a truly great experience.

Hello!!I am not a great hand at design, but I try to answer one question, "How easy is it for my mom to use a site?". (My blog falls short awfully on this test, I am on the way to fix it. Suggestions are welcome).

I take up one issue at a time, tell you what is wrong with it and how it can be improved.
The first and foremost thing is what is the Hyundai advertisement doing on your front page? I guess this site is into food. First it is right next to the site header, think of what message it sends to your users. Not only does it fit into the color scheme, but also your business.

I click on the plan a party link, it goes to a new page. Great it's simple and just two clicks for me to plan my party. The problem is, instead of asking me to ensure that I give all the details, ensure that no message is sent with incomplete details. It will reduce load on your mail server and also ensure that I get it right the first time.

I am still at plan a party. After sending my request, I am still in the same page. Nothing wrong with it, except that I am using a 800*600 resolution screen and can't seem to find the link to go back to home. Initially I was flustered how you guys can get this wrong, but later I find that you have a nice home sitting in the top right corner. Great stuff! only put it to top left corner.

I will get back to contact us later, now will jump to Recipes. Folks frankly you need to spice up this area. I can find the recipes here by googling. Being a food freak I want something more, not a list of ingredients and a list of ten steps on how to proceed. Let the creativity of the viewers come in. Let the viewers post on how they made a wonderful dish last evening. Let them post the photos, let others comment it. Make it a place for all food junkies to discuss their prized culinary skills. I love this blog by annie, check out this post on pies. I just can't wait to get to my kitchen to try this. In short bring in the pizzaz and personal element in this section.

The FAQ's very essential for a site like yours. Good that you folks gave the necessary details. Try using peekaboo interface here (+/-) . Add some pictures than just plain text on how to go about using your site(my mom will be able to use it).

The other links is embedded in the column which looks like an advertisement and sounds as if it will take me outside the site. Rename it immediately. The color combination of the article though goes well needs rework, to suite an overall theme. The buffet takes me to a table of restaurants, offering buffet. Why is this information not available at the restaurant details? Its the traditional way of doing things. Static tables are past, make it dynamic in use. (More on presenting data in a later post)

Ah! I come to search, this is my pet topic. Drop boxes are passe, it's a pain for me to search through the list of a hundred different locations/restaurants in a drop box. Think different employ tag clouds (I will talk about tag clouds and how they can spice up an interface in a later post). I would replace the drop boxes with two tag clouds and a context sensitive search box (no need of a go button). Check out wikiseek and Quintura, the way they employ tags and context search is simply superb. Use cookies so that the next time I visit the site, it shows the restaurants from my last selection.

The "Advanced Search" link looks as if it takes me to a new link, put a (+/-) or some other symbol to tell the user that its a collapsible link and will not open a new page or take time to reload. Now why is this important? It is observed that users tend not to click on the links unless they really need it. One more tip, combine the above selection of clouds with a different clouds here. I guess it will be awesome. Why do you have the radio button? Isn't it redundant. If you see what I see there, you can do away with it.

Coming to the main section with the tabs. The home tab is good. Well utilized, to sell the idea. Why do you have the catering inquiry? Isn't it redundant and confuse with plan a party. Use consistent conventions across. The map feature is amazing as I said earlier. What applies to recipes and the buffet section applies to review section. It is not consistent, does not have date. The date feature helps the viewer to gauge the relevance of the comments(check this). Though it may reveal a bit about your site statistics, I still will go put the date. And please do something about those boundaries, it makes me feel as if I am reading a government tender(Too much, I should restraint myself).

Continuing with the review section, work on the links. Once I select the review for a restaurant, and I want to add a review I have to click on the link above(for which I might have to to scroll my page up and click a link). This is a pain, I would avoid it at all cost. Have a text box below the rating where it will auto save what ever one enters(use CATCHPA, you can do away with save!!). Put another text box for name. It makes life simpler for me to give feedback or write a review. I reiterate do away with the drop box. It simply will not do.

If there is one thing I have no complaints against , its the announcement tab. It is just right. But it would be nice to have a preview feature for the links to the news articles. (Call me impossible to please -:) ).

God!! I am tired of writing. This probably the single largest piece of document that I have written at a stretch after my Final year thesis. Any way let me continue and finish of with what I feel are the last but nevertheless important sections.

Coming to what I left out earlier Contact Us, it serves the purpose. Use CATCHPA, else you will get lots of junk in your mail servers. After I go to an area and a restaurant, I can see again a table (I just seem to hate them). Why do you have that Rs.0.0 as if its a bata showroom with a price tag Rs.99.99. Just give an integer price. Why is the min order column there if there is no home delivery from that restaurant. Revamp this section. It's not an absolute must, but it adds to overall perception in the viewers mind. It would be nice if you can add the restaurants picture (Entrance, interior,any a flickr link).

Moving on to the menu offerings, I see that you folks are working on adding images to each link. Also a nice way to say if the item is veg or non-veg. That is great. I hope you get it done fast. I have talked enough about tables so will not mention them here. Now if the menu runs over one page, I see the page1, next links to the bottom left corner, it will be more convenient to have it towards the bottom right corner. The left corner with various sections is bland, work on to spice it up. Put images, animations, art, or what not. Don't just leave it like that.

If I select an item and say add to cart, you have the view my cart at the top right corner, it might serve more useful purpose at the bottom right corner or at both the places. Once I proceed, why do I need the recalculate button, are you not confident!!. Work on the colors here, I should not miss the final Total.

I will come back to the main page. What message are you sending by putting advertisements over and above your site announcements? It is totally out of place. Some suggestions, do away with the formal(search criteria entered was) and technical language(Email Id is a required field).Show your passion, don't be modest.

Try video reviews, video recipes, make Hungry Bangalore the first stop for food. Make it the first place for people like me when I think of eating. I would love to see this venture create a paradigm shift.I thank you folks for providing a site which I could go through exhaustively (I might have missed a lot, do let me know ;) ) and hone my skills in design. Thanks to many of you who took the pain of going through this long boring monologue.

A few last words to both of you and also to host of other people (if any) who read this post. I know how passionate you all are about your venture. It' s great, but show the same passion in your website (must if you are Web based). Check this company called PicSquare , they have a great website which is one of the few sites that I find are very easy to use. Another thing before I close is don't be too corporate type. You folks are entering the lives of people, so be like them talk like them, use lingo, no dictionary words, make viewers, part of your site, don't make them feel as if you are a third party providing service. Make them feel you are a part of their life. Bring life to your site, Spice up if you are already living.

Strategic Innovation

Today I was at IIM A to attend a talk by Vijay Govindrajan a Professor of International Business at Tuck School. The talk was on "10 rules for strategic innovation". He is an interesting speaker. One thing that struck me at the first sight was his shining bald head (signifying great intellect, my perception) and his twinkling eyes showing his enthusiasm to address the audience. One more thing that impressed me most was his punctuality.

Coming back to the topic of the day, his talk was mainly concerned with how companies should handle the strategic innovation in the face of disruptive innovations which threaten the existence of the companies. An example he sighted was of Encyclopedia Britannica and Microsoft Encarta. How, Britannica failed to realise the shift in the business dynamics and became marginalized from its position of strength. Same phenomena applies to Ford's failure in the Indian market. They failed to understand the market and applied the same yardstick as American market.

One thing he says he is betting on is how the Indian and Chinese markets and how the products developed for these markets in the next 15-20 years will change the way business is done across the world. Another example that struck me was how the different styles in high jump have pushed the bar higher and higher. Though the business remained the same over a century, the disruptive ways of crossing the bar have changed the whole game.

The other thing he makes it a point is to Think Different, how iPod with its different take on the digital music has changed the whole digital music market for ever. All companies focus on their present, which of course they must. However, at the same time they should invest in their future. One more example was Xerox. Xerox had a thriving business of copiers. They had a great clientèle in the fortune 500 companies. They built a great fortress around them making it literally difficult for any company to challenge their position. IBM, Kodak those with big pockets failed, but a small company at that time Canon made a dent with totally a different approach by hot ballooning into Xerox's fortress. Xerox fell to their own strengths.

He asks the companies to set unrealistic goals and fall short of them than set realistic goals and do marginally. The other thing he ask companies is to not to defend their rules, but to create new rules. One more things that greatly struck me was the bottom up approach as opposed to the top down approach. The doers at the bottom of the ladder are the closest and first to notice the disruptions.

The talk of one hour was very interesting and engaging. What ever he said in the lecture was not very new, but as they say in marketing it was old wine in new bottle. Sometimes it becomes necessary to repackage the old stuff to stay relevant (a disruption in its own right).

My personal theory which fits in here is "Catch Them Young", tomorrows disruptions are caused by todays young, so keep a keen eye on them. They will define yours and your companies future.

illegal Monopoly

An discussion rather a passionate argument ensued between myself and a good friend of mine. I thought I will post the topic of argument here and once we come to some stage where each of us rests our cases (mind you it's an issue where we possibly cannot reach a conclusion), and if we both agree, I will put up the conversations for all of you. Until then I want to open a parallel discussion to gather what most of you think about this topic.

We were discussing on illegal Monopoly. My argument is that there cannot be anything like illegal monopoly. Now I say this because, Law of the Land is subjective in nature and it varies from land to land (place to place). So terming some company as being having an illegal Monopoly is subjective. Also in my opinion there is nothing wrong with Monopoly(not illegal Monopoly which as it does not exist) as in the long run it benefits the markets. (Now How is something I will discuss later).

His point is that Law is law and all entities should obey the law of the land. One cannot say that the laws are subjective and perform activities deemed to be illegal in the eyes of the law. So the companies which do away with such activities should be punished. (I have to get back to him here, does he just mean they have to be punished or does he want them to be banished?).

Frankly to tell you, I got confused on what we were discussing on as it now looks like we have digressed on to a lot of areas. However, to take it further here on the blog, I would try to state the problem in the following manner.

"Is there anything called an illegal Monopoly?"

Laws of the intellectual Land: Patents for Dummies

This is my first piece in my blog on, my experiences, my thoughts, and various aspects of entrepreneurship. The first and foremost thing for an entrepreneur is the drive, then comes the idea. I will talk on drive some time later, the area of idea is very vast. What I am going to discuss now is on how to protect your idea. Again this is a science of its own. To be specific I will put here my recent brush with the "Holy Cow", Patent. It may sound far fetched for an entrepreneur to start thinking about patents, but if you are into developing a product you should be a part of the Patent game.

I got to meet this very enthusiastic person who as a good knowledge of patent process and stuff like that owing to his vocation. It was over a three hour discussion where I got to know a bit of what all this ***** about patents is. Before this meeting the idea of patent I had is, a right given by the government of a country to the inventor of a product or process in order to protect his rights to sell it in that region without worrying about others for a specified period of time.
For a more detailed simple explanation please go to Patent on wikipedia.

If only life were as simple as the first definition sighted above. In a world that was 500 years back, it may not have been so complicated as the markets were mostly limited to a small region. In contrast today's world the concept originates in one place, it gets executed in another place and the final customer who consumes it is in a completely different world. In many cases the final customer doesn't have an iota of an idea regarding the origins of the object of consumption.

Enough of taking you around, coming to the topic at hand, I present a few snippets our discussion here.

1) There are two main purposes for a patent.
i) It looks great on my CV. (A patent filed by an individual).
ii) A company wants to protect a technology, so that it can commercialize it and earn money.

2) In the Indian context, it was not possible to patent products until 2000 (initially), and then till 2005.
i) Any patents filed abroad between 2003 and 2005 were put in a black box. These stuff were opened after 2005 and is considered for patent.(Considering it is already field in other countries).

3) One cannot have exclusive rights over a product in a country, unless that country grants the patent. (If you have an US patent only, I can happily make and sell the product all over the world, without paying you a dime)

4)There is nothing called free lunch. Every thing related to patent comes at a price.

5) If you want to have patents in all the countries, check with your bankers. Now, I am not talking about big brothers (IBM 2941 in 2005).

6) Patents need not be filed for commercialisation, companies use it prevent other companies from getting into a particular territory. (I cannot eat the cake, no else should).

7) Don't be in awe of a company by the number of patents it has, most of them are for the above purpose.

8) If you plan to get a patent in a lot countries, file it with PCT. (What ever it is?)

9) If you want to infringe a Patent,hire a good patent attorney. (Don't confuse patent attorney with a lawyer)

10) A corollary to the above, if you want to file a patent, hire a good patent attorney.

11) Companies don't file one patent, they usually file a bunch of patents to protect the product. A lot of social and cultural issues come over here. In a study, it was found that in US if there is one patent filed for a product, thirteen patents would be filed by the Japanese in the case a similar product.

12) If you can prove that a patent had prior art, then that patent can be nullified. The person who takes this to the patent office gets a monopoly on the product for a specified time.(Want to make some money!!)

13) If a product was awarded a patent anywhere in the world before 2005, and it was not put in the black box of Indian patent office. That's an opportunity!!!

14) Companies can go bankrupt on patent issues. (We know Copyright issues ala Napster).

15) At the end of the day, people who make lot of money apart from a few inventors are lawyers.

Now I have touched on some of the things that are nice to know. If you are interested you must probably google(when I say google, I am using it as a verb). And that doesn't satisfy your curiosity, then try to get yourself enrolled in a course conducted by patent offices. Now if your mind is still inflicting sleepless nights, become a patent examiner(remember Einstein was one) or better become a patent attorney(and do consulting). Finally, If you have any more information regarding patents please feel free to inform me.

Disclaimer::

All the views above are my personal opinion. I am not responsible for any kind of unlawful/lawful usage of the above material. All the statistics mentioned above though true to my knowledge, I don't guarantee their veracity. Finally if you have any problem with what I published, that is your problem, please don't waste your time cursing me.

3.0 Cents Down -- Part 1

3.0 Cents Down

Down Down Up, Down Down Down Up, Down Down Down Down Up ... ...... ......... Wondering what this is? If you familiar to the electronics industry and follow the processor market closely, this pattern should be familiar to you. It does not strike a chord, then may be let me not put you through more ignominy. I am referring to the stock price pattern of the bellwether of the silicon manufacturers Intel.

Now Now, don’t look at me that way as if I have committed a blasphemous act. We have to accept the facts however hard they be. I am not here to track the stock of Intel, however I should accept that it was the primary inspiration for what is to follow in this piece of a few hundred words.

Before any further let us delve briefly into the history. Started in 1968 by three legends Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove as a memory manufacturer, Intel quickly changed gears to the design and development of the microprocessors. Being the pioneers in this space and with their business acumen, they became trend setters in an increasingly competitive industry. A look at the historical stock performance should ratify the previous statement. I was truly impressed with the way they built on a notorious FP bug to create a space, a brand called intel in the minds of consumer. Consider this does an average consumer care which company provides the chip inside its latest music system, its latest HDTV, or for that matter the ubiquitous cell phone and numerous other electronic items that we use daily. But, when it comes to microprocessors every body irrespective of his knowledge of computers has an opinion on which processor to use. Giving due credit where it is due, AMD owes Intel for creating a market in the mind of consumers for what we call “CPU”.

After the kick off of this successful campaign, Intel always lead the path with Pentium, then the Pentium MMX, then the GHz campaign. All the while laughing there way to the bank with over 90% of the market behind them. Then came the .dotcom burst and the industry went into the worst recessions of our times. But the picture at intel was different, there was a tenacious team in Israel which came up with a very power efficient entity when combined with couple of other entities gave a product which has changed the way people define computing. Not surprisingly this contributed to the bottom line and continues to do so.

The run after the bubble was simply brilliant in its own words. Is it truly so? I doubt, why do I do doubt? Look at the stock price. An all time high revenue could not interest the market to raise this one time , “apple in the eye”, to new levels. Any way with much ado and fanfare Intel entered into what it termed its next version Intel 3.0 a platform company. Now I stop here on the history and move on.

In spite of all the talk about the new brand image and the subsequent brand promise, the promise of the upcoming products doesn’t convince me of the rosy days ahead. Why I am not convinced forms the crux of the rest of this article. Let me first talk about the things that intel is doing that even I feel are right. And then I will put down my explanations on what will go wrong unless we at intel pull our socks and get back to the table (Please!! not the board room). Then I will also suggest a solution which I am sure are highly controversial, but keeping that we are in business to make money first, and then anything else, just give a thought to this.


The tenets of business requires it to keep itself relevant to the needs of its target market. When you feel bigger than the market, a day will come when you will be humbled, and made to bite the dust. Did we at intel lose sight of the market needs or did the market really expect something else?

In the processor market it is a tricky question to answer. Until the dawn of the new millenium this market was more or less like a monoploly, dominated by one company and its only other competitor lying low in slumber. Did customer really had a choice? Intel is a terrific opportunist, taking stock of the situation and there excellent capabilities to innovate in manufacturing, kept on launching new products, which were faster than the previous ones. Now there is nothing wrong with this, intel was doing the right things winning more and more customers.

Here we will digress a bit to understand the human dynamics of success. When one is hugely successful he will garner as many detractors as admirers. Same is the true with companies. As they grow successful you will find many resenting its offerings just because it is successful and nothing else.
Coming back, as we saw intel was doing very well. And success is not a sweet word if it makes you complacent.

If we had lose market share to our competitor This to the the architecture that intel is being raved about by the industry. Will it stand the market, only time will tell. One thing is for sure that it is better than the previous processors based on the P4 core.

Netburst architecture tauted as the architecture for the future not so long ago fell flat on the face. It is very common in an industry of this nature that we make mistakes, but what matters is how fast we learn from it.
Itanium referred to as the Itanic a la. Titanic is one of the biggest flops of the decade. I always believed that it has got the stuff in it to revolutionize the HPC. And intel is doing good by putting in moolah behind it.