Black Hawk Down - II

Its so hard to educate some people. I know my countrymen lag way behind when it comes to consciousness about their own environment. I feel terribly ashamed the way my batch mates do litter around the campus. I too have started committing that sin once again. I have seen many of my friends from well to do families throwing plastic cups in a foolish and reckless manner even when they have a dustbin in their vicinity. I pity on their lack of education. The irony is that some of us do try to enlighten others!!! I dedicate this post to our lack of education. We Indians always try to ape the west, and proclaim to be developing but the truth is we are just as big morons as those Americans [biggest polluters, who blame Chinese factories for global warming ]we ape. May be we are much bigger morons, at least they have started to become conscious. We feel a high in blackening our rivers, scribbling our love on national heritages, raping tourists, and it seems to getting worse. Where's the sense of responsibility gone? I sometimes wish we had remained economically backward… at least we would polluting a lot less by being uneducated [with greater power comes greater responsibility - Spiderman, excuse me for being filmy]. Education is a curse with it or without it. If someone asks me one bad thing that education teaches, I would say its pollution. We truly don't deserve to live on this planet. I believe that Newton's law of every action having an equal and opposite reaction is universally applicable. Its not that we keep polluting and nothing will happen to us. The equal and opposite reaction has already started.

Have a look at the countries rankings in environmental index. See where your country stands.

I hope some people might get educated after seeing these rankings!

Top 10 Mantra for Professional Success

There are many myths surrounding professional success. These myths are:

1. Intelligence is equal to success.

Not all intelligent people succeed. It is important to exploit the inner self and use intelligence to give some productive output. Thus the implementation of intelligence is equally necessary for success.

Success = Intelligence + Application

2. Good colleges is the only way for great professional career.

Not necessarily. I would say, most of the really dedicated and hard-working people go to the good colleges, thus giving their credit to the organization. There are many people who are not successful in any college student portfolio, it should never be forgotten.

Also, there are many people who make their career a success without joining any college or joining a not so reputed college.

People make organization and not vice versa.

3. Good students are successful.

Good students may be very much focussed on the curricular study and may be poor elsewhere. So they need not be fast learners. Also, I have seen many poor students who are fast learners too. Success comes from knowledge and learners make success.

Knowledge brings success and not marks.

4. Good start lead to good career.

I have seen many people comparing two candidates on the basis of the start of the career. A candidate starting his job journey in Mackinsey or Google is more likely to be successful than his counterpart on some small company. I would say, a big NO. May be those candidates who reach there reach because of their higher potential. But as far as the career starting is concerned, there are lots to learn at each stages of the company metamorphosis. Startups teach entrepreneurship and established companies teach business retention. One need to know the best and worst of both worlds to have sustainable career.

Success (sustainable business) = Entrepreneurship + Business Retention

5 Take few steps, but well thought and risk free

Well thought and risk free decision search often leads to no decision. Good or bad decisions can be known only when it is implement and the results analyzed. Results of earlier decisions often guide to form decisions with low probability of affecting averse, but taking decisions of similar types make one very predictable to the competitors.

There are no decisions that are totally risk free. So what ever steps taken will have some risk associated with it. Not to take risk is the greatest risk one can take in life. The world changes with time and so is the need of any business, and there is always a call for change. Thus frequent changes coming from bold decisions is necessary to reach and stay ahead of competition. So some risk, and call for change should always remain.

Constancy is heroism only if it means constant change.

People may have different interests and successful people are there in every field. People have choice to chose the way to live from many different ways, but he will have to chose a path. He may chose to do what he needs to do or may choose to do what he wants to do. Former is risk averse and a path to mediocre life. Later is bumpy way and it calls for full potential exploitation, where if successful leads to new opportunities and increased influence in the society as a whole. Intelligent people do what he wants to do, while rising softly keeping the interest of the people who want him to do something else.

Here I am presenting my Top 10 Mantra for Professional Success.

1. Decide to Succeed
Success will only come to people who wants to succeed (to the people who dare to think big). So, one cannot wait for the success to come his way. The wait will go infinite if it is calling no actions.

2. Remain Bold
People who want success have to fight with many challenges. Some challenges may be a hard obstacle and some may be a soft way to failure. It is important to resist both affecting the ambition.
If you have any complains then raise it sooner than later. Do not compromise on things specially if it is prolonged issue. The solution will follow only when the issue is raised.

Consider a scenario where you are a associate and you have problems with your manager. Till you complain, no one will even think over the issue. Even there are ample chances for you to be under the same manager next time too. It will be a less risky step for the Sr. Manager or Director to continue a bond where problems are not seen. That makes every sense.
Everyone have their own work and they seldom think for you, and that is how organization work. They all are right in their own way. So if you want peace of mind and good career with a company, be bold to raise any issue faced.

3. Plan and execute your promotion
Most people complain about Manager for the later not helping him succeed and when I ask them whether they have raised the issue to the manager, mostly the answer is NO. If something is unsaid, it is highly probable that it is not communicated. It is always the self who can understand the wants of an individual and for everyone else it has to be communicated.
Also, the best career map can be made by self. No one else can make it for someone else. Manager can at best facilitate the people under him to attain his goals, but it is highly dependent on the individual to make good career plan and execute it.

4. Push-pull theory
The best way to grow in any organization is to force manager to grow upwards. Once he is grown, there is a vacancy created and it is in your manager's interest to pull you up rather than filling it from outside as you are the person whom he understands best. Restricting any body's success in your group will make it difficult to grow as any friction created to anyone's success is always reciprocated.
So, if someone has to grow it has to be you, your lead or your manager.

5. Complain up and motivate down
People at the management are responsible for change. They are better be criticized for betterment. Positive criticism brings good energy to the organization.
But criticism of any company policy or product has to go up and not down. You are the people who is looked by your juniors and any complain downwards looks like frustration to them, and that increases negative energy in the company. It will damage in two ways. One it make your juniors less motivated to work affecting the day to day operation of the company and another it eroding your image as a good leader.

6. Growth is always organizational
People grow when company grow. It is very hard for people to grow in a loss making organization. So everybody should work for the best interest of the company and avoid any actions that affects company's growth.
It includes not criticizing company in external world. It has to be avoided in all cases. The company's image adds to the personal brand equity and negative publicity will harm you as much as your company management.
Also, any criticism of your company can be played by its competitors to play against both you and your company. This can also lead to damaging your personal image in the mind of other people in the industry making you less employable.

7. Hard work and hardcore fun.
Everyone knows that it is very important to work hard to grow. But most people forget that to work hard, it is essential to keep own body ready for the challenge to avoid any health hazards and frustrations/work stress. Hardcore fun while not working does that. So, enjoy up to your limits in the weekends and work hard in the weekdays. This may include regular outings, parties, long drives, adventure sports etc. Choose something that gives you maximum fun.

8. Work you portion but know the big picture
Company pay us to do the work assigned, so it has to be done in time at all cost. But that should not stop you from knowing why you are doing that work, basically knowing the overall picture of the project. If you are not working in a open company which provides this information to all working, you should ask to your seniors.
Here you are trying to understand the business goal of the project. This will prepare you to take higher positions.

9. Know your company
Knowing your company is important to your project. Knowledge about the project will be given to you but for other information you need to take initiative yourself and learn. Try to get as much information as possible regarding your company's management, organizational structure, offerings (products and services) etc. This will help you work better and be an brand ambassador of your company, thus adding fuel to your company's growth.
Knowledge about the company also gives good impression to the seniors helping you grow faster within the organization.

10. Competitor Analysis
Well, this is quite a tricky step to grow faster in the industry. Knowing your company accelerate growth within a company but knowing its competitors guarantees your success in the industry. there are two advantages competitor analysis brings.
One you can help your company counter the competitors move thus affecting your company's revenue positively. This is in most cases rewarded with promotion and bonus. Secondly, if you are not given fair compensation from your company, you know where to move next. Thus you give tough time to the management and the HR not to let you grow.

Black Hawk Down - I

Once these flood gates open and the climatic catastrophe strikes us, a rescue mission won't be possible. We aren't gettin a back up sergeant ! So what this new war US and other nations are worried about other then war on terror? Its climate change. Who's the Bin Laden here? It’s the greenhouse gases and global warming. So what's a climate change post doin on a management blog? If it has got top priority in every US presidential candidates agenda; why not our? In fact it should on everybody's agenda.

Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. The greenhouse effect was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824 and was first investigated quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896. It is the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation by atmospheric gases warms a planet's atmosphere and surface. Of all the green house gases CO2 causes the most warming effect [9 to 26%]. Fossil fuel burning has produced about three-quarters of the increase in CO2 from human activity over the past 20 years. Most of the rest is due to land-use change, in particular deforestation.

So what are the effects of these gases?

• One of the most pronounced feedback effects relates to the evaporation of water. In the case of warming by the addition of long-lived greenhouse gases such as CO2, the initial warming will cause more water to be evaporated into the atmosphere. Since water vapor itself acts as a greenhouse gas, this causes still more warming; the warming causes more water vapor to be evaporated, and so forth until a new dynamic equilibrium concentration of water vapor is reached with a much larger greenhouse effect than that due to CO2 alone.
• Ice-albedo process - When global temperatures increase, ice near the poles melts at an increasing rate. As the ice melts, land or open water takes its place. Both land and open water are on average less reflective than ice, and thus absorb more solar radiation. This causes more warming, which in turn causes more melting, and this cycle continues.
• Clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface, and so exert a warming effect.
• Global temperatures on both land and sea have increased by 0.75 °C (1.35 °F) relative to the period 1860–1900. Since 1979, land temperatures have increased about twice as fast as ocean temperatures (0.25 °C per decade against 0.13 °C per decade). [sea level rise of 110 to 770 millimeters (0.36 to 2.5 ft) between 1990 and 2100].
• Glacial retreat and worldwide sea level rise. Changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation may result in flooding and drought. There may also be changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
• changes in agricultural yields, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions and increases in the range of disease vectors.

Some economists have tried to estimate the aggregate net economic costs of damages from climate change across the globe.[US$43 per tonne of carbon ]. One widely-publicized report on potential economic impact is the Stern Review; it suggests that extreme weather might reduce global gross domestic product by up to 1%, and that in a worst case scenario global per capita consumption could fall 20%.The United Nations Environment Programme emphasizes the risks to insurers, reinsurers, and banks of increasingly traumatic and costly weather events. Other economic sectors likely to face difficulties related to climate change include agriculture and transport. Developing countries, rather than the developed world, are at greatest economic risk.

Its Mayday!!!

Source: Wikipedia

Death Match continues…

Microsoft office faces a tag team of Google docs, open office, and a new contender LIVE DOCUMENTS

The war never seems to end for Microsoft. It looks like a lone warrior in the battle where the enemy keeps coming and coming. It kills one and another rises just behind him. Microsoft office suite is facing some stiff competition. It all started with Sun Microsystems' open office. Then came open document format by Adobe. This war heated with the entry of Google with Google docs. On top of that companies keep finding vulnerabilities in the Microsoft suite.

Security vendor Symantec noticed a vulnerability crop up on Wednesday, just one day after the patches were released, that can crash every single version of Word except the newest version, Word 2007. The vulnerability comes in the form of a Word document and includes shell code with three pieces of malware attached to it.

- tech.blorge.com

On the Google front they keep improving Google docs competitively . Latest has been adding 12 new languages. To compete this microsoft came up with Office Live. The Microsoft Office Live Works, which is set to be launched is aimed more at consumers and small business users (rather than corporations) who want access to their documents online from any computer using any browser. Office Live Works operates as a stand alone application separate from the desktop Office application.

Office Live Work’s has the following three key features:

• Access Anywhere - freely store up to 1,000 Office documents which can be accessed in any computer using any browser.
• Share with others - collaborate with your colleagues, networks and friends and control how much they can do with your documents.
• Works directly with Microsoft Office - open and save files directly from Word, Excel and Powerpoint, synchronize contact, task, and event list with Outlook.

From the looks of it, Microsoft Office Live Works could very well give Google Docs a run for its money. Now there's a new competitor in the boxing ring Sabeer Bhatia's latest venture Live Documents. So far, Live Documents includes equivalents to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Besides offering standalone online Flash-based versions of the applications, InstaColl also offers downloadable applications which “wrap around” Microsoft’s applications to convert them to Live Documents clients.

[So what's Live Document about?

Uses RIA technologies such as Flash and Flex.Flash-based user interface that offers a richer user experience.

Allows users to view and edit documents within any common browser on any operating system from anywhere.

And the best part ->Live Documents is available as a optional desktop client application that wraps around Microsoft Office and embeds collaborative capabilities into these hitherto standalone software applications - Live Documents converts Microsoft Office applications from static standalone software to smart clients that are connected to the Internet and facilitate in-context document sharing and management without requiring users to give up their familiar user interfaces.]

- news.digitaltrends.com

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Death Match

Diary of a Sales Man

Today I experienced good looking bitches with their fat bellied successful husband shutting door on my nose. I experienced kids calling me “Uncle” and their mothers calling me Delivery guy.

My operation guys calls Deutsche Banks Platinum card as “Aladdin”.

My senior branch manager encourages and shows me the way to be creative in sales.

Today during my field trip to understand operations visited a family of Saxena’s from Bihar who had a Sarder as their Brother in law, saw a lady from North East calling her father in law “Babujee” in Bihari accent and delivered a Credit card to the niece of the consignee against companies’ policy. Now giving her name to this blog is against my policy but she was cute enough to melt my senses.

Today I enjoyed by worst fear “Sales”.

MISSION INDIA: VIRGIN GROUP

Today when we (Indian economy) are rocking we can dream of anything, same feeling is there with FDI’s also. Our policy makers opened our economy in early 90’s but partially that very well but now when all FDIs (business giants) are eagerly wish to join mission India but our government keeps tight restrictions on foreign direct investment in areas like retail, insurance and banking, and caps foreign participation in telecommunications at 74 per cent, which are really booming and have highly potential sector of country.

A well known, most respected and highly creative U.K group is going to join mission India that’s “VIRGIN GROUP”..

This time when jolly business leader Mr. Branson came to India he was in unbelievable style he used horse and wore bridegroom dress and joined the wedding (anniversary of FM 104) in imperial hotel.

According to chairman of virgin group Mr. Richard Branson, Virgin group is planning to enter into aviation, telecom, infrastructure, fm radio, BPO & IT industry but in one of his interview he said that: "You feel as a business person quite unwelcome in trying to bring your money to India and trying to make a difference in India,".

With the success of FM 104 across India, group entered into the most vibrant telecom sector of the country and tied-up with TATA teleservices for its mobiles. Group is expected to bring in its wealth of experience in telecom marketing and technology through its branded handsets because this sector is fastest growing sector across the world but customers are frustrating from poor service and facilities, while virgin group believe in philosophy of head on competition and customer’s wellbeing.

Group tried to obtain permission for a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) license here (india) to buy mobile telecom capacity in bulk and retail it with attractive branding. However, Indian authorities have not allowed MVNO system till now.

Domestic Airlines Plans:

In India domestic airline passenger traffic grew 36.7 per cent in the first nine months of 2007 from a year earlier. Mainly domestic airlines have posted losses due to heavy initial investments and competition on fares, but according to one report on domestic aviation industry, the trend to reverse in 2008 helped by consolidation and better capacity utilization.

"With a middle class population of 300 million, India offers a huge potential for domestic airlines. Many foreign players are willing to enter into this sector and VIRGIN group is main contender in this line and company officials said that: "We'd love the right to fly domestic in India, but the market is currently protected. If the market opened up, you will find Virgin competing alongside local carriers,".

Airport development Plan:

Company also wishes to invest in airport infrastructure development of country mainly in metros like Mumbai, Delhi etc.

If we look at the eagerness of corporate giants of world to join mission India, there is huge opportunity for employment, infrastructure development and economic development of country. So I think if the governments can be brave and get rid of these laws, the Indian economy will grow even quicker and the Indian consumer will benefit enormously.

Big fat producer laughing all the way to the bank

Gone are the days when Bollywood producers were scared of producing big budget movies and used to die of heart attacks when their movie flops. With commercialization of Indian cinema, production houses have turned into assembly line mills churning out flicks as if in mass production. That’s not all the big fat producer has become smart too. They are not only inventing; they are reinventing, repackaging old stuff which are selling like hot cakes [ read remakes ]. The biggest change seen in recent times is the marketing and distribution of movies. The producers are recovering all their money pre release! The latest sport flick Goal has recovered all its money before Friday thanks to merchandising.

UTV Motion Pictures, the producers of John Abraham-starrer Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, has said it has recovered the Rs 16 crore spent on the yet-to-be released hindi film through sale of satellite rights, music rights, in-film advertising etc. The company said syndication of satellite, music rights, territory pre-sales, home video, in-film advertising with brands like Reebok, Western Union and Gillette have contributed to the recovery of production costs even before the film release. This is in addition to the media and promotional support given by the brands. Reebok, which sponsored the clothing line in the film, will retail the Goal range across 535 outlets in India. There will also be co-branded window-displays in Reebok showrooms promoting the Goal collection, which includes apparel and accessories related to football that figure in the movie, said a press release. The company has also licensed the gaming rights for the film to Indiagames, which has tied up with FIFA to launch the Goal-FIFA challenge on the games-on-demand platform.

- BS Reporter / Mumbai November 21, 2007

If were you were thinking Saawariya was Sanjay Leela Bansali's biggest mistake, think again. He might be ridiculed by the critics but not by his producers. He recovered all his money in the first week itself too.

Ranvir Kapoor's towels and the limited edition Saawariya phones are selling like hot cakes. Sony Pictures Entertainment has released over 1,000 prints worldwide (750 in India and over 250 abroad) and it hopes to recover 80 per cent of the cost if the movie manages to pull in the audience to the theaters just for a week. The Future Group is believed to have paid Rs 10 crore to Sony to launch a special range of Saawariya merchandise in over 300 stores across 42 cities in the country. Add the marketing deals signed at a price of around Rs 3 crore each with Airtel, Citibank, Lotte India and Sony Ericksson.

-Shyamal Majumdar, BS / Mumbai November 16, 2007

Even Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, considered to be a disaster at the box office, made only marginal losses for its producer, Adlabs. This trend started with Subhash Ghai's Yaadein and then the way Rakesh Roshan was into profits pre release of Kissh, thanks to all the Krisshh merchandise has become a case study in IIMs. This definitely is a disruptive innovation in the bollywood business.

HEAT VALUE OF YOUR MONEY

Do you know “Heat Value”?
Imagine I just opened my wallet and pulled out One Dollar and there was Twenty Dollar bill. When it comes down to it, if you burned them, you would get the exact same amount of heat from both of them.
Get ready to grab a book of matches.
A report from the Royal Bank of Scotland this week predicted the total losses from financial write downs will be “somewhere between $250-500-billion.” For normal folks like us who are daily workers and don’t make fat commissions off of creating a false economy based on future assumptions, It's a bad, bad news.
After all, people are already thrown out on the street and crime is on the rise. And you ain’t seen nothing yet. People that can’t afford to pay rent or for food certainly are less apt to care about offsetting of their carbon footprint for purchases they make.

And I don’t feel so bad for the financial institutions which are taking it as ringer. Bankers and oil energy companies could have been pushing industry to make the switch to an alternative energy economy with value predicated on real energy values. That means you would only be able to use the money once, and then it goes away instead of recirculating and adding more money to the fake pile of value that is presently imploding.

But these are big concepts with lots of intricate details, and I’ll get to the point. FASB157 will bring in an Accountant of the Apocalypse, and you will see many banks and companies fall to their knees. I mean, you can only bullshit mother earth for so long before fake money value meets the 4th Law of Thermodynamics.
So as the dollar dies, and all of the reactions begin to amplify, remember that cigarettes and alcohol are “Poor Man’s Gold”, and you can always barter with them. The questions that remain will be:
How fast this collapse will occur and how you are preparing for this event?

Sensitive innovations

You must seen this Knife holder, at least in horror movies. Its popularly known as Voodoo knife holder.

Looks deadly. Doesn't it? Maybe if you are a sensitive parent, then you might think that such products can brood violence in the minds of your kids. A competing company has come up with an alternative product which I saw on Urban Trend website. The same functionality where you stab the knives but you miss the poor red guy!!! Have a look. This is an apt example of sustaining innovation and beating competition.

Motorola Unleashed

After riding a huge wave of success in India, because of its popular and sleek range of cellular handsets like Moto Razr, Moto Ming and the C range. Motorola is al set to launch Moto Q 8 and Q 9h, another star performer from the Motorola's international stable. Motorola has proved to be strong competitor to market leader Nokia.

"Motorola is expanding its range in the enterprise segment in India with the launch of MOTO Q 8 and MOTO Q 9h'" said Lloyd Mathias, Director Marketing, India & South West Asia for Motorola Mobile Devices. "The MOTO Q 9h was developed as a multi-purpose communication device that is easy to use and doesn't compromise on experiences. This smartphone offers state-of-the art voice quality technology, messaging, speed, processing power, keyboard and display packaged within a sleek design for the modern consumer. A complete productivity and entertainment-on-the-go device."

Both MOTO Q 8 and MOTO Q9h are preloaded with Documents To Goapplication which enables user to create, edit and view Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint slides and view PDF files.

The MOTO Q 9h features a 2.0 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom and video plays back at 30 frames per second. It has 2GB of optional removable microSD storage and 256MB4 of on-board flash memory and integrated Bluetooth.

The MOTO Q 8 GSM is available at an MRP of Rs. 17,359 while the MOTO Q 9h is available at an MRP of Rs. 20,720.

So what made Motorola make this move? What's happening in the handset market? Lets look back in time. In 2004 Nokia was the market leader with 70% market share and Samsung was poor second with meager 10 % share. This is quite contrary to international markets. A focused marketing strategy, strong customer focus and distribution strength made this possible. Nokia knew the Indian consumer very well and came out with innovative products like dust proof keypads and built in torch lights fro the rural market. Nokia's portfolio ranges across all segments whereas others are having a focused strategy. But this dynamics soon changed once Motorola started looking India as a serious market. In December 2005 Motorola had a market share of meager 2.6%. In 2007 it climbed up the ladder to grab the second spot with 15% market share. How did it manage this? The answer is differentiation. So how did it happen?

The first norm Motorola broke was in asking consumers to forget features and consider phones for their oomph value. Motorola's sub-brands have catchy names like Razr, Pebl and Flip, a unique differentiator in a market dominated by numbers and cutting-edge codenames. A lot of that is due to a sustained, targeted communication initiative, which was given due recognition early this month when Motorola bagged a silver and a gold at the Effie 2007 advertising effectiveness awards. For buyers who had gotten used to hearing "better color screen", "better battery life" and "more storage", the prospect of going by just looks took some getting used to. But Moto took its sales pitch out of "What's inside the phone" to "Look, what a cool a phone I have". This is what Motorola continues to do so. Lets see how long the strategy works.

Source: http://www.techshout.com/mobile-phones/2007/16/motorola-moto-q-series-handsets-launched-in-india/

HIGH STREET DESTINATIONS

In last couple of months Indian retail industry is in news. Sometimes for innovative moves of Biyanis, political turbulence in northern India or for opportunities too. This time Indian retail and real estate sector both are in news due to the surge in cost of retail location and market .

Today India as the 16th most expensive retail 'high street destination' in the world as per the report of Leading real estate consultants Cushman and Wakefield. New Delhi’s Khan Market has been rated as the most expensive retail destination in the country with rentals of Rs 950 per square feet per month in the second quarter of the current year.

The shopping complex saw an annual growth of 35.7 per cent over the same period last year said the report titled 'Main Streets Across the World (MSATW) 2007.KHAN MARKET DELHI

“Khan Market is the biggest riser in the ranking of the world's most expensive shopping locations in terms of retail rents, moving up eight places from last year’s 24th position," the report said.

"Retail is going through a revolution in India, although a part of the increase in rents is due to lack of high-quality space in the right location," Cushman & Wakefield India national head (retail) Rajneesh Mahajan said.

According to JLL report, Indian retail & real estate industry will surpassed the growth rate of IT industry by march 2008.
The report said India also figured among the world's top 10 locations that witnessed highest rental increase in local currency terms.

• Connaught Place in Delhi is the highest gainer in Asia and second only to Chicago's East Oak Street across the world, with an annual growth of 87.5 per cent.

• Kemp's Corner in Mumbai also saw high rental growth of 78.2 per cent, making it the fourth highest riser of rental growth.

The world's most expensive shopping streets
(rank 2007 (rank 2006), location, rent €/m²/year)

1 (1) Fifth Avenue, New York (US): 11,983
2 (2) Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (Hong Kong): 9,688
3 (3) Avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris (France): 7,364
4 (4) New Bond Street, London (UK): 6,498
5 (5) Ginza, Tokyo (Japan): 5,459
6 (6) Grafton Street, Dublin (Ireland): 5,340
7 (7) Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich (Switzerland): 3,926
8 (8) Pitt Street Mall, Sydney (Australia): 3,905
9 (10) Ermou, Athens (Greece): 3,600
10 (9) Gangnam Station, Seoul (South Korea): 3,441
11 (=10) Kaufingerstraße, Munich (Germany): 3,120
12 (=14) Via Montenapoleone, Milan / Via Condotti, Rome (Italy): 3,000
13 (12) Preciados, Madrid (Spain): 2,880
14 (13) Orchard Road, Singapore (Singapore): 2,597
15 (17) Kärntnerstraße, Vienna (Austria): 2,400
16 (24) Khan Market, New Delhi (India): 2,236
17 (16) Strøget, Copenhagen (Denmark): 2,227
18 (15) Tverskaya, Moscow (Russia): 2,226
19 (20) Wanfujing, Beijing (China): 2,137
20 (18) Na Prikope/Wenceslas Square, Prague (Czech Republic): 2,040
=21 (21) Kalverstraat, Amsterdam (Netherlands): 2,000
=21 (19) Karl Johan Gate, Oslo (Norway): 2,000
23 (27) Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia): 1,663
24 (26) Iguatemi Shopping, São Paulo (Brazil): 1,596
25 (22) Bloor Street, Toronto / Robson Street, Vancouver (Canada): 1,584
26 (23) Rue Neuve, Brussels (Belgium): 1,580
27 (25) City center, Helsinki (Finland): 1,500
28 (=28) Váci utca, Budapest (Hungary): 1,440
29 (32) Lambton Quay, Wellington (New Zealand): 1,430
30 (30) Bulevardul Magheru, Bucharest (Romania): 1,380

The rate of real estate is increasing like BSE sensex of our country. I believe that best investment for your money is real estate because its only investment which can give you 200% return in a year. I personally saw a live example in banaglore- An individual who was residing in Whitefield, Bangalore (location famous for IT companies offices and highly expensive too). That individual was willing to sold his property in 50 lacs approximately, but due to some problems he was unable to sold his property. In 6 months, same property value increased by 80% and finally he sold the property in 82 lacs.

Do you have smaller amount don't get depressed you can buy flats, shops etc because rental are also increasing on the same pace as sensex and land prices.

World’s Top ten locations for % rent rises in local currency June 2006-June 2007

1 East Oak Street, Chicago: 100.0%
2= Ansal Plaza, New Delhi: 87.5%
2= Connaught Place, New Delhi: 87.5%
4 Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg: 81.8%
5 Kemps Corner, South Mumbai, Mumbai: 78.2%
6 Rodeo Drive (Beverly Hills), Los Angeles: 71.4%
7 Greater Kailash I, New Delhi: 57.1%
8 Fort/Fountain, South Mumbai, Mumbai: 55.2%
9 Direita/Itapetininga, São Paulo: 54.0%
10 Visconde de Pirajá (Ipanema), Rio de Janeiro: 53.8%

SUGGESTION: check out the best place, location and buy some land surely prices of land will increase. Otherwise you will murmur this proverb---" Ab pactave kya hott jab chiriya chuk gayi kheth" means Dont think about what happened in past because the time is gone buddy..

Source: www.holland-re.com

www.indiaretailing.com

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Retailing Scenario

RESTART: NUKE DEAL

It’s hard to understand Indian political system and their tactics. Every week there is new issue came into the picture like “stay on Ram setusamundaram, Reservation in higher education and long lasting nuke deal. In first week of October, 2 years long nuke deal was almost packed up because of left party’s awful attitude but it’s true that after every night there is very good morning.

Yesterday we have seen a new move in NUKE DEAL after long tussle between Left parties and UPA government.

It’s a symbol of melting ice between Left arrogance and UPA bitter relationship. Now UPA government is going to kick start India specific safeguard negotiation with IAEA (International Atomic Energy Association). The move of reoperationalization of NUKE DEAL is appreciated by whole country i.e. nuclear scientists, ministry of energy, all NSG suppliers and US government.

According to DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) our country is already having ‘item-specific’ (for facility and for material) safeguards which are generic in nature, India-specific safeguards for all its civilian nuclear plants (as per the separation plan) could be on the same lines.

Indian specific safeguards discussion is a strategic move and we can benefit from the safeguards mechanism which is reactor-specific and utility-specific and will be closer to the five nuclear weapon (P-5) countries and not as a non-weapon state.

Today we are seeing nuclear issue more than energy generation resource; we are moving ahead to pursue the objective of global disarmament, based on the principles of universality, non-discrimination and effective compliance.

Major Threats to the NUKE DEAL:

Left parties and HYDE act

Related Post:

Politics Vs Indian growth

Strategy, 5 feet 2 inches tall

The little corporal

"Ambition is never content,

even on the summit of greatness."

—Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleone di Buonaparte was born on 15 August 1769, in the town of Ajaccio on Corsica, France. Neither he nor his family was of noble origins. Yet he was destined to be the french emperor due to his military and startegic acumen.at age nine, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château, a small town near Troyes. He had to learn French before entering the school, but he spoke with a marked Italian accent throughout his life and never learned to spell properly.Upon graduation from Brienne in 1784, Bonaparte was admitted to the elite École Royale Militaire in Paris, where he completed the two-year course of study in only one year.Upon graduation in September 1785, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in La Fère artillery regiment and took up his new duties in January 1786 at the age of 16.

Napoleonic Wars

1789–1802 - French Revolutionary wars

It was during the French recolution that saw the end of French monachry and Louis XIV of France.Bonaparte returned from Egypt to France on August 23, 1799, and seized control of the French government on 9 November 1799 in the coup of 18 Brumaire, replacing the Directory with the Consulate. He reorganized the French military and created a reserve army.

1803–1814 - War between Britain and France

This war was big earning for Napoleon. He had to struggle against an army with an advantageous position and using gurella warfare. After these wars Bonaparte declared France an Empire on May 18, 1804 and crowned himself Emperor at Notre-Dame on December 2.

1805–1809 The coalitions

These wars were aimed for supermacy of Europe, between the French and the British. The French crushed major powers such as Russians, Purussians, Dutch, Spanish, Austrians. France emerged as the archrival of the British and it Royal navy. In 1810 the French Empire reached its greatest extent. On the continent, the British and Portuguese remained restricted

Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo, fought on 18 June 1815, was Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. His defeat put a final end to his rule as Emperor of the French.

Napolean was a one man army who made France an European superpower.

Napoleon's Mantras

”One bad general is worth two good ones”

Napoleon was referring to the importance of being single-minded in both process and purpose. Trying to be all things to everyone is a recipe for disaster. A great market position not only informs the target audience whom you are for, it proclaims as emphatically whom you are NOT for. The best example of such a disaster is the Southwest airlines which wanted to be both Economy & Luxury, in the process loosing focus and customer. This is what Al Ries too quotes in his book 'Focus'.

"Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the later than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never."

Napoleon might well be referring to the struggle all businesses have in managing scarce resources. Although a lost market can be recaptured but a lost opportunity cannot be milked.

"It should not be believed that a march of three or four days in the wrong direction can be corrected by a countermarch. As a rule, this is to make two mistakes instead of one."

Once again, Napoleon was referring to focus and intent.

Entrepreneurial companies are strongly at risk for this error in strategy. Often as not, their verve and early success came as the result of the individual force of presence of a creative founder or president. Harnessing this energy and not allowing it to loses focus is a great challenge. More often than not, patience, focus, and absolute commitment lead to success.

"If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur."

In this axiom Napoleon asks strategists to be foresighted about an opportunity in future. The ability to analyze risk, uncover opportunity, and plan to exploit the breech are the skills that every marketing department needs to foster.

Finally my favorite Napoleon quote

"Between a battle lost and a battle won, the distance is immense and there stand empires."

Sources: http://www.stealingshare.com/ and Wikipedia

Related Posts: Alexander: the supreme strategist

Guerrilla tactics

INNOVATION VALUE CHAIN MODEL

INNOVATION INNOVATION INNOVATION INNOVATION……

Innovation is a very first word comes into marketers or management grads mind when we try to suggest someone or give recommendations. Have you ever thought of this word in depth?

Innovation means the conversion of knowledge and ideas into a benefit, which may be for commercial use or for the public good; the benefit may be new or improved products, processes or services.

If I ask you about innovative companies, products or ideas, huge number of examples will come to your mind. There is concise list of companies as per 2006 data:

Most Innovative companies of world

According to strategy,marketing gurus and Worldwide studies innovation is the key driver to the competitiveness of businesses and of nations.

If its so important for competitiveness and existence why one company’s best innovation become worst nightmare of other companies?

In Indian context we have an example of Deccan airlines tried to implement the best strategies of South West Airlines but failed badly, became highly unsuccessful and incurred huge loss.

In marketing we heard of flank defense and flank attack, its very true and right strategy to protect yourself and hit your competitor respectively . Flank Defense strategy is mainly opted by market leader to protect its weakest link from challenger company while flank attack is opted by market challengers to hit the weakest link of market leader.

Normally companies do extensive research on external environment but forget about their internal analysis, so one weak link affects the complete innovation efforts, so focus on pinpointing and strengthening your deficiencies.

A very new concept introduced by Hansen and Birkinshaw to look-over the failures in introducing innovative ideas, strategies, products etc. That is “INNOVATION VALUE CHAIN”. Innovation value chain comprises three phases: idea generation, conversion, and diffusion. Six linking tasks are performed across those phases: internal, external, and cross-unit collaboration; idea selection and development; and spread of developed ideas.

According to innovation value chain model market leader/challenger/follower before going for innovation always looks into its internal structure as per IVC, evaluate the weak link and work on it before get into the innovation.

Due to some problem, actual model picture is not uploaded so to look at the detailed description of IVC model click on the picture above.

Its very true that a strong and well developed innovation system and culture will underpin economic growth and social well-being for Queensland.

Brand Rush

Last week I was watching a movie in a multiplex. In the interval I saw a commercial of Croc brand of shoes. Yeah, the famous or infamous brand of shoes known for its uniqueness, vibrant colors and unusual size and styling. In recent months Indian consumer has been flooded with plethora of brands. We can already see Vodafone all over the place. Budweiser has entered the beer market. In car market we know of Porsche, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, and May batch coming to India. Audi has arrived. Chrysler is rolling in with Bajaj auto. Coming to retail Vijay Mallya has roped in brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, Mont Blanc, Van Cleef & Arpels, Zegna, Rolex and Omega. Mallya's newest creation is "UB City - the Collection" - a shopping mall in bangalore with exclusive and only luxury retail brands. Mallya yet again does it with panache. Being a wine lover I can't forget to mention Mallya is bringing in Four Seasons brand of wines. It's truely raining brands in here...

Mallya's UB City at Vittal Mallya Road Bangalore

ASSET OF A SALES ORGANISATION contd..

The Enthusiastic Personality

Enthusiastic personalities are the most flamboyant and emotional types. As the name implies, they are happiest and most productive when they can embrace their jobs with passion and excitement. They are not averse to being in the spotlight and enjoy contact with others. Enthusiastic personalities tend to exhibit the following traits:

• Relationship-oriented
• Open and direct
• Creative
• Crave attention and enjoy being in the spotlight and desire support from others
• Often make quick decisions and are risk-takers and dream-chasers
• Not time-conscious
• Tend to generalize and exaggerate
• Often respond emotionally rather than logically

The office of an enthusiastic person: Tends to be cluttered and disorganized. The walls are often covered with inspiring posters expressing motivational slogans. The arrangement will probably be open and friendly with seating arranged so that people can talk easily.

Relating with the enthusiastic personality:

Enthusiastic people love the opportunity to talk and perform. Don’t bore them with the processes and detailed facts and figures. They don’t want to hear it. If you are selling to an enthusiastic person, make your presentation even more fun than usual and involve the customer.

To find such personality traits just look around yourself especially marketing professionals (sales manger, brand manager, HR manager, any lawyer & actor/actress)

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Change is the name of the game

I do have a habit of connecting the dots. These dots are the events that happen around me. The figure that emerges from these dots generally gives direction to my life. I am back at the game and let’s see what the dots are this time. Last couple of days I noticed euphoria around me. People seem to be celebrating their lives and there is an urge to change. People and products seem to be reinventing themselves. Products follow what people do. Let’s start from people first. First thing I noticed is everybody seems to be changing their hairstyles. Dhoni got rid of his streaks. Maybe he was following suit to Jhon Abraham, his style icon. So did Hrithik too. I thought maybe short and clean is back in fashion. But I guess I was wrong. The ultimate icon of the young India is growing his hair and brawns. Yeah… Shahrukh and his six packs. I'm bored of it. Shahrukh always pisses me off; maybe his being out of fashion bugs me. I guess that’s what gals love him for “being retro”, nice way to say u r old fashioned. Its just not with the hunks even the ladies r changing. All the oldies like Rani, Preity, and Ash are making way for fresh faces like Deepika Pudukone, Sonam Kapoor, etc, etc.

When people change so do brands, products and some more people. So if you still guessing what's changed. Have a look around….. Hutch has become Vodafone, Rin has become Surf, UTI has become Axis, Birla plus changes to UltraTech, Saas bahu is replaced by reality TV, Wine replaces Whisky, Ambani replaces Gates, Health drinks replace Colas, Pasta replaces Paratha, Big cars replace small ones, Small cars replace motorcycles, motorcycles replace scooters, Dhoni replaces Dravid, T20 replaces ODI, Pratibha replaces APJ, HLL becomes HUL, Maruti Udyog become Maruti Suzuki, even the way people paint their houses are being changed, even the climate is changing so fast!!! That’s what Al Gore bothered about; and many many more...
Brand rejuvenation, repositioning, M&As, JVs, reinvention, its all happening and its happening too fast. At the same time its confusing lots of people. Even I am confused. I have decided to give my confusion an outlet. I'm going for a haircut!!!

"Change is inevitable" - Matrix


Happy Diwali.