Valerie Rozycki (Founder and CEO, Zipdial) shares, in a Conversation with Abhishek Chanda, her Penchant for start-ups, The Journey Leading to Zipdial and how Trai Regulations Prove to be a boon for her Company while Others Bleed

So, what sparked the entrepreneur in her? “I knew from inside that I’m a start-up person. While studying, I took a class on entrepreneurship, where the goal was to write a business plan for a hi-tech start-up within 10 weeks. Though I did not do very well in terms of grades, it was an eye-opener for me,” she recalls. For Valerie, risks in a new venture never really mattered much. According to her, what is important is the whole idea of starting something new where one can put his/her 100 per cent, rather than searching for something steady and secure. “While starting off, I never really looked back thinking about money. So, when I moved to India, I had to take a pay cut, given that I was now earning in rupees and also at that time the slowdown had hit various economies,” she chuckles.

Zipdial, which offers services like Lead Generation, Voting, Ratings and Surveys, Branding Campaigns, Loyalty and Coupons and Authentication and Mobile Payments, was set up keeping in mind market drivers like, massive growth in the mobile market, a growing demand for simplicity, rising incomes and the most important factor - masses do not use or are not that enthusiastic about SMSes, let alone 3G, when compared to dialing.

So, here is how it works. Lets assume that somebody wants to know the latest IPL scores. The person then dials or Zipdials a number, which rings and disconnects automatically and in comes a SMS with the latest scores. For IPL as a client for Zipdial, they need to pay a fee for the services and later simply mention the Zipdial number in their promotions or advertisement. As soon as the consumer calls, its a call-to-action for the brand. Likewise, there are dedicated numbers for various verticals, may it be cricket or business promotions or an event. For the mass consumer, the numbers are toll free and can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, on any handset or network. A patent pending solution, Zipdial has been the only player in the world for over the last 14 months or so since they launched, claims Valerie, but off late a few similar modules have mushroomed. Click here to read more....

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Encouraging The Devil’s Advocate

The challenge facing executive teams in ensuring that sound decisions are made is simple: groupthink. Psychologist Irving Janis, who researched the subject extensively, defined groupthink as the systematic errors made by groups when taking collective decisions.

The three layers of groupthink

1. Key causes: Include group cohesion, directive leadership and ideological homogeneity.

2. Common symptomatic behaviours: Include overestimation of the capabilities of the group, being closed-minded and pressure for uniformity.

3. Consequent decision-making flaws: Include inadequate contingency planning, insufficient information and biased assessments of risk, cost-benefits and moral implications.

Research has shown it is natural for teams (whatever their motivations and guidelines) to suppress dissent or information flow; have extreme attitudes; make extreme judgments; be less flexible in adapting their approach to changing circumstances, but – despite all this – have greater confidence in their decisions. Groups also tend to focus discussion on things they already agree about rather than things they disagree about, leading individuals to publicly endorse decisions viewed as normal for the group, despite privately holding reservations. Click here to read more..

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B. Muthuraman (Vice Chairman, Tata Steel)

Continued...In a young country like India, he applies Charles Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest in his appreciation of today’s youth. He finds them to be “better gifted” than their ancestors, owing to greater access to technology which has allowed them exposure to an array of information. On the flipside, he admits that they are perhaps less appreciative of the importance of human relations and the human touch in their dealings with and understanding of people. Even so, he firmly believes that the youth will play a large part in India’s growth story, as he lists the three most essential factors, “First is the need for India to bring in social equality; with such a large population you cannot afford to have growth only in pockets. Second, while we continue to create great engineers, research scholars, etc., we must also ensure that basic skills are given to all for unemployement to be curtailed.” The final factor, he says, is the need for transcparency in the government, in light of the scams and cases of corruption we have witnessed. On the personal front, Mr. Muthuraman confesses that he is not too good at his work-life balance. He credits his wife, “She is an extraordinary person; the perfect homemaker. She manages life for both of us.” A heartwarming thought indeed, coming from the respected business leader. Click here to continue...

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Kenneth Moore points out that Doughnuts, Coffee and Soda do Contribute to a Good Meeting, besides just having Well-Prepared Participants!

Continued...First, once you have decided that there is no alternative but to hold a meeting, then you must be crystal clear on its objective. Write down on a piece of paper what you want to discuss and what you hope to achieve from the discussion. Ask yourself two basic questions: what is it that I hope to achieve with this meeting, and what would be the consequence of not holding this meeting. More than a few of the managers in my seminars have indicated that the weekly manager’s meeting or the division head’s meetings are the most frequently abused time wasters. They usually exist out of habit or tradition and often fail to justify their existence. Because they occur every week, the participants settle into the same routine with little thought as to the content or conduct of the meeting.

Second, prepare a logical sequence of items to discuss, and place a time limit on each. This sequence is usually called an agenda, but you must be careful that it does not become just a crib sheet for the chairman. It is a detailed brief from which all others work. It will define the subject area, the amount of time allowed for the discussion, and the objective. It can also list the major topics in the subject area relevant to the objective. Keep in mind that the amount of time spent on a subject should be determined by its importance, not its urgency.

Third, invite only those who can contribute to the objectives of the discussion. Let them know as far in advance as possible what is being discussed, why it is being discussed, and what you hope to achieve. As chairman of the meeting, you must anticipate the needs of the participants as well as their own time constraints and ensure that they are met. You must also inform the people what they are expected to contribute. Read More..

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MNCS: INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS, POLLUTION, AND MONEY POWER

MNCs are hailed as national treasures in some countries; but their devil-may-care attitude results in many tragedies – both industrial and health – making them reasons for global shame

Bhd. at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia in 1991, causing 22 deaths and injuring 103, Bright Sparkles remained lukewarm in helping victims and their families and compensating the environmental damages it has caused. The lethal leak of phosgene gas in a Thai petrochemical company, Thai Polycarbonate Co., which killed only one but injured over hundreds, evoked almost no unified response, despite shocking proof being there of repeated calls earlier on warning of a possible leak. And the fiery explosion at one of the largest oil refineries of British Petroleum in Texas City in 2005, is another example of such unabashed irresponsibility. Well, BP has had a sparkling record of fatal accidents for the last few decades. Honourably so, it is the eighth largest polluter in the US, releasing over 5.1 million tonnes of pollutants with many harmful toxic gases like carcinogens, causing serious health ill-effects to 30,000 people living within three mile radius of its units. But while FBI investigation and imposition of new laws and fines continues, BP operates mercifully at worse levels.

On another front, Nigeria has redefined corporate social irresponsibility. Companies like Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron are reaping off the nation’s oil industry but continue showing deliberate negligence to protecting the environment, human life and the locality which have been affected by the gas leakage and flares in their plants or refineries.

Protocols like the Kyoto one are more stupidly chivalrous rather than being autocratically (and logically) regulatory. International agencies have to necessarily regulate MNCs with an iron hand, than play to the lobby gallery.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 

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The Reasons for Choosing India as the Launchpad

Philip Mckinney, VP & CTO, Personal Systems Group, HP Reveals to Neha Saraiya the Reasons for Choosing India as the Launchpad for HP’s Latest Offering – HP Dreamscreen and its Future Roadmap

B&E: As you mentioned that there will be an explosion of products in the future, which is that one particular area where HP is planning to bet big in terms of technological advancement?
PM: I think the tablet space is really interesting. It’s set for some real movement in the next 9 months. You are bound to see a flood of tablets ranging from 6 to 12 inches over this period. In fact, in a study that we did with health care providers, we found them really interested in 7 inch tablets as they fit into the doctors’ lab coats. In the US, you can presently see retailers distributing tablets to their sales staff to place and collect orders on time.

B&E: Any other area that may see similar growth?
PM: 3D is the next most potential area, though it may take some time to catch up. But we are already into it with the ENVY 17 laptops that is 3D enabled, though it’s still under experimentation and there is very little content. At HP lab, we are continuously working on it as we are looking at variety of 3D products in future. However, in this segment, we believe that the demand will come more from businesses rather than retail consumers. For example, think of 3D in movies like Avatar. We are behind all the technology provided for these 3D movies. Taking it a step forward, we are now working with other industries like health care, banking and oil and gas.

B&E: You have recently launched the ‘DreamScreen’ in India. But, why did you choose India as the market to launch it first?
PM: First, we have a substantial team at Bangalore and second, we also have a design centre in Delhi. The centre in Delhi actually helps in bringing the pieces from HP technology and then redesigning the same in India as per the requirements of the Indian market. So, we already had resources here, thus, we decided to take advantage of the same. However, the real challenge that we faced was that the products developed here were a lot different from what we created in the other parts of the world. To overcome the problem, we actually built a chart that showed the Internet penetration for thousand homes along with a circle that represented the whole population. We did a comparative study with the developed markets like US, UK and Japan on one side and developing markets like India, China and Brazil on the other side. What we found out was that while India has the largest circles, rate of penetration is very low. Thus, we realised that although the companies are trying to reach to the mass, the consumers are not getting the benefits. But for me, the most important thing was to use the technology in a manner that it can have a fundamental impact on people’s lives. That’s why we needed to build products that are relevant to the market. And for this, what could have been a better option than India where we already have so much of resources.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 

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CLOUD COMPUTING: FLIP SIDE

Cloud Computing has been Hyped Ever since its Evolution by Amazon. But Inherent Contradictions in the Concept Threaten its Potential as the next big thing in The IT Services Space. 

Cost reduction was the sole purpose of cloud computing but India does not get a benefit over there either, as cloud as a service is at a nascent stage in India and the costs of implementation are very high compared to the dollar driven markets. In addition, while cloud computing requires all original software on which one could use the platform, the Indian market still continues to be hit badly by piracy, with 65% of the country using pirated versions; the Indian IT industry loses a whopping $2.03 billion due to piracy as per an IDC report on global piracy. Security on the cloud is again a major concern. In the eighth Annual Global Information Security Survey CSO, 12,847 technology executives around the world were surveyed and most of them were not confident about putting the data on the cloud. Almost 62% cited security concerns. Out of the 49% who have even entered the cloud, a major 39% have deeper concern about their data safety. In a report from Ernst & Young, 72% of respondents from India said they were not ready to take up cloud computing and admitted to deep concerns on security. Vishnu Prashanth P., Senior Manager, CSC quotes “Many of the business in India are slow in adopting cloud solutions because they are not sure about data management on the cloud.” Gartner itself interviewed 148 Indian companies recently and 42% had not deployed or were unsure and negative about deploying cloud computing through 2011.

Sunil Chavan, Director-Software Group & Solutions, APAC, Hitachi Data Systems tells B&E, “Considerations like managing cost, creating virtualized – cloud ready infrastructure for IT agility, adoption of low cost, cloud-based storage solution with a utility-based, “pay as you grow” model, driving revenue growth, improving customer loyalty and generating a higher ROI will be key areas to shift on the cloud”. Vendor lock-in is another big concern for CIOs that’s not allowing them to take the big plunge as cloud consumers. Once you sign up with a cloud service provider, the switching costs and portability issues become huge. So interoperability and standards become critical inhibitors. Even disaster management needs to evolve in the instance of any mishap from the service provider’s end. Gartner also points out that a user company needs to ascertain where its data is being hosted and whether the vendor is complying with the laws of that country. Also, customers need to ascertain the safety of their data if the vendor goes bankrupt or gets acquired.

All in all, while clouds provide significant cost and scalability advantages, deploying the technology is not without a fair share of contradictions and risks, especially with respect to the Indian market. As it stands today, the Indian IT- BPO market, which is estimated to be around $71.7 billion and which contributes 5.8% to India’s GDP, has already developed much of the required infrastructure to sustain for the next 10 years. These companies may attempt to achieve piecemeal objectives through cloud computing adoption, but they look largely unlikely to pursue it as an alternative to their existing framework. Cloud computing could only be helpful to SMBs who will be entering the booming Indian IT market, and there are numerous instances of those happening. Since they aren’t normally amenable to adopting proper diligence and being technology savvy, they may ignore (and in fact some of them are ignoring) the disadvantages in favour of enormous cost savings. In essence, while the hype is big, this is an idea half a decade too early into India!

Read more......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 

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