Sky on iPhone

My SLR is too big to be carried wherever I go. So what? I have my iPhone. I have noticed that clouds look really nice on iPhone camera.

Birds

Trail of a jet

Can you find the tiny aeroplane in the middle of the clouds?

Marketing Puzzle of New Media Entertainment Companies

Monetization seems to be the greatest puzzle the new media companies are trying to solve today. I have been watching many new media companies that come and go, just like a cool breeze. Those who survive now are struggling to find a way to make money. When I say “new media companies”, I refer to companies that offer video entertainment that don’t fall in the traditional category – mass media, cable television, cable video on demand, DVD, and so on. WebTV, IPTV, Flash streaming, etc., fall under the new media category.

In a broad sense (in terms of marketing jargon), this is a classic segmentation-targeting-positioning problem. The new media companies either focus too much on the features they build, or the quantity of content they offer. They very easily overlook “who” values the features and contents they offer.

Solution to any marketing problem first starts with “who.” Then it moves on to “what, how, where, when, if, then, else, but,” and other stuff. Marketing gurus call such problem solving analytical methods with crazy acronyms like 5Cs, 4Ps... Now the question is, can we apply the traditional marketing analysis to the new media? A traditional marketing professional would say, “sure.” However a new media evangelist would say, “Naaahhhh! This is new media, nobody knows what’s right.” I agree with the former.

My handwritten notes on how to solve the marketing puzzle

Let’s divide the solution into three parts – Who, How and What. Under who, we specify broad customer segments, or small niche ones. Under “What” we classify the content pool or individual segments. “How” tells us how a content reaches the customer segment that finds value in it.

For a working entertainment business model, one should be able to draw a contiguous line from Who to What via How. Contiguous line is necessary for the business model to work, but not sufficient to be successful. To be successful:

• Targeted segments “who” should be able to reach out to “what” with at most ease. If a customer has to look for his/her choice of content in a jungle, it makes no sense.
• Targeted segments should see a value in price associated with the solution that’s shown under “How”.
• The new media companies should deploy services and channels (how) that bring content (what) to targeted segments (who) at lightning speed.

For example, John Wayne fans today may watch Wild Wild West kind of movies on their television by playing a DVD. That completes the line. The fans are so sophisticated that they want to watch good quality content on a medium sized screen. We cannot sell them their valued content on PC or iPod today. Reason – quality. If you have a solution that helps John Wayne fans to easily get the content they want (High definition Wild Wild West), and in the way how they want (TV, broadband, TV connected to broadband or set top box) that’s going to be a hit.

San Jose Mercury News Customer Service - Same Old Story

A repeat story of 2008 - http://hkroshan.blogspot.com/2008/05/amusing-moments-with-customer-service.html. San Jose Mercury News showed up at my door few days ago without any advance notice. I assumed that the newsboy had mistakenly delivered it. Then I saw it again the next morning. I smelled something fishy. The next three days, I got the news paper every morning, and to my annoyance I got a bill mailed to my address yesterday. Of course, the bill had a name of an alien person who had no connection with my address. Why does it always happen with San Jose Mercury News and not Wall Street Journal!

Payment Notice.
(Note that they ask you to call 1-800-870-NEWS if the information is incorrect, but they won't say they are going to fix your problem.

The first thing I did this morning was to call the customer service. The customer service representative couldn’t fix the problem unless and until he had my name and phone number, both of which I refused to disclose. Result - the person who took the call abruptly hung the phone.

I called again. The second person asked for the same set of personal information, which I refused to say. (Yeah! I was determined this time not to give up!) She went one step ahead and told me that I would get the news paper at my door until their real customer called them. I said that was unacceptable. She hung the phone on my face.

I called yet again. When the third service representative took the call, I told her, “This is the third time I am calling this number. The two other customer support folks hung up. I want to know if you can fix my problem. If you can’t I want you to escalate it to your boss.”

The person on the other side seemed to be very patient. My appeal, arrogance and displeasure had little or no effect on her. It was, after all, just another call for her. The sky was not going fall on her, anyways. She took her own time to respond to me. After a long pause, she asked for my phone number, name and address. She wasn’t impressed at all when I told her, “I haven’t subscribed for your news paper. You won’t have my name or number in your records. I can give you my address, and I want the news paper to stop from showing up every morning.” All she replied was, “Then sorry sir. I cannot help you.” I said to her, “As I requested earlier, could you please escalate my call to your manager?” She reluctantly did so.

I explained my situation to the manager. This was the fourth time I was telling the same story – that I didn’t subscribe to the news paper, but I see it at my door, and that I don’t like it.

“Sir, can I verify your name, address and phone number?”

“Here is my address ..... I just said I am not your subscriber. How would you have my name and phone number in your system?”

“OK, Sir. I have your address. But I want your name to go into our records. Else we won’t be able to fix it.”

“Why should I disclose my personal information? How can you pull my personal information when I don’t want to give it to you? I don’t want you guys to use it for any future promotions”

“OK, Sir. I understand you are not the right customer. But does it hurt you to get the news paper free at your door?”

“It’s a piece of garbage for me. I won’t mind getting it if you could get somebody to pick it up from my door every morning! I am really annoyed by this. I want this to stop NOW!!!!!”

“All right Sir. We will try to cancel it.”

Why do news papers play dirty tricks on the people in order to keep their head count?

A Tribute to Norman Borlaug

The chart of the yield of wheat in developing countries looks so amazing. One person who deserves the credit for this is Norman Borlaug. It’s sad that he passed away over the weekend. The world, especially India and Pakistan, seemed to have forgotten this great soul. But for him the “Green Revolution” in the 60s and 70s would not have been possible. His obituary must have been frontline headline news all over the world, but not much was said about him.


His biography found at these links inspires everybody:
http://www.worldfoodprize.org/borlaug/borlaug-history.htm
http://www.rockfound.org/library/98borlaug.pdf

India and Pakistan not only fought a war during 1965, but also fought a stiff competition in acquiring Borlaug’s limited stock of high yield variety of wheat from Mexico. Exporting out of Mexico via United States on the sea route ran into trouble because of Mexican border patrol and US customs. It is said India chartered Boeing 707s to import 16 thousand metric tons of wheat from Mexico before Pakistan did. Meanwhile a misspelling in Pakistan’s check delayed their shipment. Borlaug and his team members in India and Pakistan are said to have literally worked close to the battlegrounds where the war was fought. Despite all the hurdles and skirmishes, both India and Pakistan became self sufficient in food production towards the end of 60s and Borlaug was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his outstanding work in India and Pakistan in the year 1970.

It is interesting to note that Borlaug, an American, did all his work in developing countries during a period that saw a boom in American economy. That means he could have possibly found a good job in the US, and lead a comfortable life. But he chose otherwise. Environmentalists opposed his idea of intensive cultivation that used genetically modified plants and inorganic fertilizers. This is what he had to say to them – “Some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.”

What can we learn from this great personality?

• Have a core purpose in life, make it a vision and execute it – Borlaug’s core purpose was to eliminate hunger. He did his best by helping produce more food.

• Prepare to sacrifice – Borlaug gave up the comfortable life and worked hard in the fields in rural areas of developing countries where the amenities weren’t that good.

• Think about how you can use your knowledge, talent and creativity to solve a world problem – Borlaug was an expert in plant pathology and genetic sciences. He applied it effectively to cultivate high yielding varieties.

• Have team of people that follows you and you lead them – Borlaug had teams of students and partners in the scientific community to help him. He could not have done the green revolution alone. M.S. Swaminathan is one such scientist in Borlaug’s team who carried along his ideas and experiments in India.

• It’s OK not to get recognition. Just focus on your job – Even though Borlaug received Nobel prize in 1970, he did not get the recognition that he rightly deserved in his home country. He got US Congressional Medal in 2006. Shouldn’t he have gotten it in the 70s?

• There are always hurdles to your plans. Have a strategy to deal with them – Environmentalists lobbied against his revolutionary ideas. As a result his dream of setting a Green Revolution in Africa drew flak from Rockefeller and Ford foundations. However, he did continue his project with other anthropologists like Sasakawa and Jimmy Carter.

Spirit of the New Workplace - An MBA Course

I had never imagined that I would do yoga, learn how to meditate, write a haiku, talk about spirituality, taste raisins, play with Lego toys and direct a skit – all in one MBA course. Nor did I ever think that I would rediscover my forefathers’ philosophical thoughts about life, self, and the world in a western business school. Despite all the fun, and the twists, I did learn a lot in the course: Spirit of the New Workplace.

The purpose of the class was to help students understand the connection between life and work, work and organization, and organization and life. And then apply this understanding into building organizations that are sustainable. We also did a few case studies on companies that applied the principles of living organizations.

The course was structured around fun and creativity. I didn’t realize I was learning some serious concepts until I did some introspection after the class.

Some activities:

Describing the perfect day in colors: Six teams of about six people in each team described a perfect day on an A3 sized white paper by painting and pasting color papers. The art work on the A3 sized sheet was meant to tell a story. Interestingly, every team had a sun and a beach on the paper. The professor, who has been running this course for almost seven years, said almost every team had a sun on the art work. Doesn’t that imply that we, human beings, love natural light?

Lego building: Six new teams of about six people, this time, built a living company using the Lego building set. Though each one of us in the team at first felt it was a difficult task to achieve, ideas evolved, and creativity spurned. Within 20 minutes we did a descent job of building an office with trees, people, and automobiles around.

Haiku: I really enjoyed this assignment. A 5-7-5 Haiku on “Nature” or “Work” (5-7-5 means the first line and the third line have 5 syllables, and the second line has 7 syllables) was what we were supposed to compose. This was my haiku:

High I go flying
Dams and roads and mines I find
Where is my nature?

This is how you break into syllables:

High–I–go–fly-ing
Dams–and-roads-and-mines-I-find
Where-is-my-na-ture

Yoga: Fortunately, we had a professional yoga instructor in the class. She made all of us do various aasanas for an hour and fifteen minutes. I was literally crippled for the next two days, for not being able to move any part of my body. That shows how lazy I have been these days.

Skit: The class was divided into six groups for the final presentation. Our group decided to do the skit. We did a silent musical about work life balance. I wish I could record it on a video. The skit came out really well. I thoroughly enjoyed my part of writing and directing the show.

Interesting quotes/notes from the class:

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we aim at perfection, we get excellence.”

“It is not what the vision is, but what the vision does.”

Exercise of five “why”s. You do this to find the core purpose of your company or yourself. For example you can ask yourself why five times:
1. Why do you go to work? – To get money.
2. Why do you need money? – For financial freedom.
3. Why do you need financial freedom? – So that I can spend educating the poor
4. Why do you want to spend on education? - That will elevate their quality of life
5. Why do you want to elevate their quality of life? – I want to build a society where all are equal and all lead a life of dignity.
The last answer will be the core purpose of your life.


This is the gist of takeaways after I did an introspection about the class(may sound deep, philosophical and complex :-)):

1. About life: Life revolves around Identity. Core values and core purpose give life its identity.

2. About yourself: You manage your life, energy, mind, and body. Be mindful about what you do. Live in your present.

3. About organization: An organization is a living entity, not a machine. It has core values and purpose. The organization lives as long as its core values and core purpose are not compromised.

4. About you and organization: If you are part of an organization, you do your best to manage the organization’s life, energy and mind. You are part of the organization and organization is part of you. (This reminds me of Ishopanishat - Ishavasyamidam sarvam yatkincha jagatyam jagat – Whatever is there in the universe and the universe itself is God).

Upside Down Laptop Screen

Our nine month old son is so fond of laptop that he doesn’t miss even a single opportunity to reach out his little fingers on its keypad. It’s hard to guess what to expect on the monitor screen as he goes crazy tapping the keys. Sometimes he closes the open windows, and sometimes he minimizes them. He often pops up windows that are rarely known to an average PC user. When we are not so lucky, he just deletes data on a Word document or a Notepad text.

But the weirdest thing that has happened to our PC as a result of our son’s keyboard tapping is the screen getting upside down. My wife was browsing on the internet when our little boy caught her off guard and hit a few key strokes before my wife could pull the laptop away from him. It was too late, though. “Roshan!!!!!!!!!!, ” she yelled, “Look at this….What do we do now?” I looked at the screen, and said, “What? How could this happen?”


The laptop was unusable. If I moved the mouse cursor towards top right using the touch panel, the cursor would move left bottom. With much difficulty we managed to open the Google page. We searched for “dell laptop screen inverted.” We were not the first ones to run into this problem. “Yahoo Answers” had the solution. Bingo! It worked – ctrl + alt + up-arrow got the screen back in order.

Why, in the first place, did our laptop makers introduce this feature? Why would somebody need a screen upside down?

Loop of Innovation

This is my handwritten note on what it takes to build a software product. If you are developing one, view your product from all dimensions and make sure you close the loop. Also bear in mind that the loop starts and ends with the "Users" or "Consumers." What technology you develop, what process you follow, and what patents you hold are of no use if you don't satisfy the user needs.

Loop of Innovation