Strategy

On Feb 10, Google launched a new social networking product – Google Buzz, right inside Gmail. After that there have been scores of blog-posts regarding the privacy flaws in Google buzz. Clearly the transition from something as personal as Mail to another thing as public as buzz wasn’t going to be simple. The latest update on this issue is that Google has admitted that testing of Buzz was insufficient. continue

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Every year a lot of people graduate from business schools and join marketing! Throughout business school a word taught in all marketing courses is ‘Brand‘. To be brutally honest one of the main reasons to go to a business school is The Brand! but lets try and have a better look at the origination of brands and its current use. continue

Making Money with Open Source

Almost all the discussions about open source lead to the all important question – if your software is open and up for grabs for free – how the hell are you going to make money ? continue

So, 3 Idiots released on Wednesday nights in select theaters. I am going to see the movie today, but then I see all movies of a key figure in the movie – and that figure isn’t Amir Khan. But then, thats beside the point. 3 Idiots went for some interesting promotions, with some illustrious corporates piggybacking on the hype of 3 Idiots as well. I try to put my views about the promotions of 3 Idiots in this post. continue

Well we all keep cribbing about the Government, and ofcourse this has been going on and will go on for many many years. But since the past one year the world has been looking at all companies in a different light, we are seeing companies restructure, de-leverage themselves (remove their debt), and a lot of strategic rethinking. The Governments across the world have done a lot in terms of financial stimulus, bailouts and many more things. continue

One of the events that has been overshadowed somewhat is the proposed auction of WiMAX licenses along with the 3G license auction in a couple of months (hopefully!). Given the low internet penetration within the country, broadband technologies can go a long way in increasing the number of internet users. Of these, WiMAX holds a lot of promise especially to cater to the last mile customers in rural areas and relatively remote urban areas. continue

An avid cricket fan, say Swami was watching the India-Pakistan cricket match in Mumbai at his office. Since it was a long weekend, he had to catch a flight to reach his home in Bangalore. So, he left the the small TV sets in office albeit reluctantly. But, Swami was keen to stay in touch with the scores all through. So, while he was waiting for a cab, he sent an SMS to an cricket-SMS channel about latest scores. In the car, he asked the driver to put on the live radio (and cursed his luck for not getting the FM mobile connector with him) Then, at the airport he enjoyed the match on a flat screen plasma TV. In the plane, he enjoyed live satellite TV (note: he had booked a KF flight knowing that there would be a match on) . Next, after alighting at Bangalore, he called up his friends, for expert commentary on phone - who in turn advised him to go to this new cool website on internet for live commentary. So, he checked the mobile internet on GPRS for the match. So, finally he reached home, where he quickly put on his LCD tv and logged onto the internet for a detailed scorecard as well! Clearly, Swami had not missed a moment of the match!! continue

International Business Machines is an organization that has seen the troughs and the crests of the computing industry right from its inception. The firm itself has undergone revival and has painfully learnt its lessons. One of those lessons has imbibed in it the spirit of always being ahead of the industry curve. In pursuit of such endeavors, it has come to define the next curve itself. continue

Origin

The origins of Taurus could be traced to the 1986 event known as the “Big Bang”, during which the London Stock Exchange (LSE) was turned into a self-regulating organization under the oversight of the Bank of England. Many regulations were lifted and ultimately the open-outcry market was replaced by electronic trading. The Big Bang led to huge trading volumes on the LSE. At that time, using the existing LSE batch trading system, settling a trade required three to six weeks even as trades were settled in the United States in three to five days and in Japan in only two days. One of the major problems for LSE was that its inefficient and inflexible system was primarily paper-based. continue

Abhishek woke up around 9 this morning. He was rather tensed about his impending CREST quiz. I wished him best of luck for it. At 6pm I came to know that it didn’t go too well. Even though we are classmates at IIM Calcutta, I have not seen or spoken to him once in the last 2 weeks. So how do I know every detail of what he has been up to? The answer in one word is – Twitter. continue