Nevermind, people who shop at Walmart don't care about where the product is from. "Unbeatable Prices" and "$4.50" are the only two things that catch their attention.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Walmart Irony
These watermelons were put on display outside the Walmart store today. What amused me was the printout pasted on the basket that said "Product of USA." Just out of curiosity I picked items at random inside the store. Guess what... I could not find even a single item that was made in USA. I am wondering who Walmart is trying to fool by pasting this sticker?
Nevermind, people who shop at Walmart don't care about where the product is from. "Unbeatable Prices" and "$4.50" are the only two things that catch their attention.
Nevermind, people who shop at Walmart don't care about where the product is from. "Unbeatable Prices" and "$4.50" are the only two things that catch their attention.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Subtle Pictures of Golden Gate Bridge
View of the magnificent bridge that we are all familiar with
Complex policies for pedestrians and bicyclists
Extra service for bicyclists. Gates are closed to pedestrians in order to prevent suicides. As though people on bicycles don't jump from the bridge :-)
Will a depressed person who is not in a position to understand the purpose of life read this sign and pick up the phone?
Sodium Vapor Lamp
Door to the top of the bridge. Of course, it's closed for public
Height of the bridge
These rivets have held the bridge steady since 1930s. The bridge has 1,200,000 of them.
San Francisco Downtown
Why is "Prepare to stop" in bold, italics and rest of them not?
A light pole
The bars on the side rails
Alcatraz Island
A view from the sideQuiz: What's the color of Golden Gate Bridge?
Clue: It's a shade of orange
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Practice, Practice, Practice
I completed my sixth quarter at business school yesterday. I still have a long way to go to finish my MBA. I had two courses this – 1. Sales Management, 2. Investments. Each course was interesting in its own way. Both courses stressed upon too many do’s and don’ts. They both had a common mantra - practice, practice, practice. It takes a great deal of practice to be either a good sales person, or a successful investor.
Some of the takeaways from the courses:
Sales Management:
• “Questioning” is the key element to becoming a good sales person (or an influencer, or a negotiator). Proper questioning gives you the control over a conversation.
• Good communicator is the one who listens, not one who talks.
• Objections from customers are good. Just learn how to manage them. No opinion is bad.
• During the first interaction with a potential customer, either in person or on phone, the first 10 seconds matter the most. How you manage first 10 seconds will either put you in or throw you out.
• Practice questioning.
Practice, practice, practice.
Investments:
• Buffett’s two point advice: 1. Don’t lose money. 2. Don’t forget 1’st rule.
• Conventional wisdom is not wisdom, just like Hot Dog is not a dog.
• A real dumb person is dumb twice. First for the fact that he is dumb. Second because he doesn’t know he is dumb. A dumb person who knows he is dumb is wise, though not intelligent.
• Wisdom covers the downside of investment. Intelligence adds to upside. Intelligence with no wisdom is dangerous, as it doesn’t cover bottom. It may make you a broke.
• If you need high reward, be prepared for high loss.
• Speculation is gambling, not investment.
• Proper stock selection and proper timing will reduce the risk of investment, and enhance the return on investment. Practice analyzing companies, financial statements, economic indicators, future prospects.
Practice, practice, practice.
Some of the takeaways from the courses:
Sales Management:
• “Questioning” is the key element to becoming a good sales person (or an influencer, or a negotiator). Proper questioning gives you the control over a conversation.
• Good communicator is the one who listens, not one who talks.
• Objections from customers are good. Just learn how to manage them. No opinion is bad.
• During the first interaction with a potential customer, either in person or on phone, the first 10 seconds matter the most. How you manage first 10 seconds will either put you in or throw you out.
• Practice questioning.
Practice, practice, practice.
Investments:
• Buffett’s two point advice: 1. Don’t lose money. 2. Don’t forget 1’st rule.
• Conventional wisdom is not wisdom, just like Hot Dog is not a dog.
• A real dumb person is dumb twice. First for the fact that he is dumb. Second because he doesn’t know he is dumb. A dumb person who knows he is dumb is wise, though not intelligent.
• Wisdom covers the downside of investment. Intelligence adds to upside. Intelligence with no wisdom is dangerous, as it doesn’t cover bottom. It may make you a broke.
• If you need high reward, be prepared for high loss.
• Speculation is gambling, not investment.
• Proper stock selection and proper timing will reduce the risk of investment, and enhance the return on investment. Practice analyzing companies, financial statements, economic indicators, future prospects.
Practice, practice, practice.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Tetris Turns 25
Bricks would drop from the top, and I would struggle to fit them in the slots below. Very soon I would get frustrated and wake up from the bed, later realizing that I was just hallucinating. That's called the Tetris Effect. It happened to me quite often about fifteen years ago when my brother and I played Tetris many, many hours every day. The game was so addictive! My wife is still a big fan of the game.
Screenshot of Tetris. Courtesy: Wikipedia
Interestingly, Tetris turned 25 today. Alexey Pajitnov, a Russian scientist developed the game 25 years ago on Electronika 60, a copy cat of PDP11. However, we played the game on X86 (DOS and Windows 3.1). Don't miss the photo gallery at this link (thanks to Guardian): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gallery/2009/jun/02/games-computing-tetris?picture=348218241.
Screenshot of Pac-man. Courtesy: Wikipedia
The other that makes me nostalgic is Pac-man. This was another game that would eat my brains in the middle of the midnight.
Screenshot of Tetris. Courtesy: WikipediaInterestingly, Tetris turned 25 today. Alexey Pajitnov, a Russian scientist developed the game 25 years ago on Electronika 60, a copy cat of PDP11. However, we played the game on X86 (DOS and Windows 3.1). Don't miss the photo gallery at this link (thanks to Guardian): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gallery/2009/jun/02/games-computing-tetris?picture=348218241.
Screenshot of Pac-man. Courtesy: WikipediaThe other that makes me nostalgic is Pac-man. This was another game that would eat my brains in the middle of the midnight.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Parallel Parking
This was the only parking space available to me yesterday. I had less than a foot both at the back and at the front. Nothing's impossible!Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Revenue Generating Model for Internet Video Services
Emergence of the new media has created a heck lot of confusion in the internet. I wonder if anybody has a clear idea of how to monetize the content, brand, subscriber reach. Youtube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are strong brands, yet they don’t have proper plan in place for a revenue stream.
Video over internet is much hyped upon these days. Is there a video-over-internet that has made good profit so far? I don’t think so. It certainly requires out-of-the-box thinking to envision a revenue generating business model for next generation video.
What are the monetizing challenges for emerging media service providers? Let’s first understand the players who depend on the service – content providers, consumers, and advertisers. These three players are the only sources of revenue for a service provider. Why, when and how would the players spend money in favor of service providers? Anybody who solves this problem will be a millionaire overnight. I don’t claim to have solved the problem. Nevertheless, here are my thoughts -
Content Providers
Content Providers would spend to host their content if
1. $x spent on hosting the content gets them $mx in return where m > 1, and $mx + $ny > $y, where $y is the revenue the content providers would earn had they not to hosted the content, and n is the cannibalization factor and n < 1. An example of cannibalization effect - internet release of a popular movie may eat up its DVD revenue.
2. $x spent on hosting the content on internet would save $y in operation expenses, where $y > $x. For example, products that rely on do-it-yourself (DIY) may reduce the cost incurred by customer support calls if they host video on how to do-it-yourself. In this case, the product manufacturers themselves are content providers.
3. Making the content easily available to public provides unique intangible value to the content provider. Many non-profit organizations, government agencies, and institutions fall under this segment.
4. Hosting content increases their brand recognition.
Consumers
The big question here is why would the consumers spend for watching video over internet if they can get them for free through other channels (Youtube, probably). Any consumer would be willing to spend if he/she gets a unique value for the service. To create a unique value, the service provider must target a niche market, and host selected pieces of content that are highly valued by the targeted segment. Examples of niche market: Boxing sport fans wanting to watch professional bouts, immigrant population wanting to watch select television/movie channels of their country of origin, deeply religious boomers wanting to watch select programs of the church or religious institution they go to, and so on.
Consumers of niche market are usually diehard fans of the activities they are involved with. Such consumers would be ready to spend extra bucks for the value they get from the service. Without a niche market and with no content available to satisfy the needs of the niche market, it’s hard to make money.
A service provider can provide two types of offerings to the consumers –
1. Pay as you watch – Electronic Sell Through (EST) and Pay Per View (PPV) are the options. However, the price should be low enough to provoke impulsive buying. Service provider must be smart enough to grab consumer’s interest over a long period of time. One way of achieving this is – do not host all the content all at once. Instead, slate the release in regular intervals – may be weekly. In other words, there should be an ongoing release process with new content in the pipeline.
2. Subscription – Subscription guarantees steady cash flow. Service Providers love it. It enables consumer loyalty. On the flip side, it may have lower returns compared to ‘pay as you watch’.
Advertisers
Most of the current video sites depend on advertisement based revenue model. This model has been highly successful with the analog media industry. Why isn’t it working with the new technology? One answer is “fragmentation.” Youtube, for example, has so much content, and so many viewers.
How to target advertisements? Should the target be based on the viewing behavior of the consumers or the content type? What’s the Cost of 1000 impressions (CPM) and what value are advertisers going to get? CPM for most of the current video sites are too high compared to the value the advertisements generate. If any content service provider can reverse the equation, then we have an advertisement based business model that can yield positive cash flow.
Video over internet is much hyped upon these days. Is there a video-over-internet that has made good profit so far? I don’t think so. It certainly requires out-of-the-box thinking to envision a revenue generating business model for next generation video.
What are the monetizing challenges for emerging media service providers? Let’s first understand the players who depend on the service – content providers, consumers, and advertisers. These three players are the only sources of revenue for a service provider. Why, when and how would the players spend money in favor of service providers? Anybody who solves this problem will be a millionaire overnight. I don’t claim to have solved the problem. Nevertheless, here are my thoughts -
Content Providers
Content Providers would spend to host their content if
1. $x spent on hosting the content gets them $mx in return where m > 1, and $mx + $ny > $y, where $y is the revenue the content providers would earn had they not to hosted the content, and n is the cannibalization factor and n < 1. An example of cannibalization effect - internet release of a popular movie may eat up its DVD revenue.
2. $x spent on hosting the content on internet would save $y in operation expenses, where $y > $x. For example, products that rely on do-it-yourself (DIY) may reduce the cost incurred by customer support calls if they host video on how to do-it-yourself. In this case, the product manufacturers themselves are content providers.
3. Making the content easily available to public provides unique intangible value to the content provider. Many non-profit organizations, government agencies, and institutions fall under this segment.
4. Hosting content increases their brand recognition.
Consumers
The big question here is why would the consumers spend for watching video over internet if they can get them for free through other channels (Youtube, probably). Any consumer would be willing to spend if he/she gets a unique value for the service. To create a unique value, the service provider must target a niche market, and host selected pieces of content that are highly valued by the targeted segment. Examples of niche market: Boxing sport fans wanting to watch professional bouts, immigrant population wanting to watch select television/movie channels of their country of origin, deeply religious boomers wanting to watch select programs of the church or religious institution they go to, and so on.
Consumers of niche market are usually diehard fans of the activities they are involved with. Such consumers would be ready to spend extra bucks for the value they get from the service. Without a niche market and with no content available to satisfy the needs of the niche market, it’s hard to make money.
A service provider can provide two types of offerings to the consumers –
1. Pay as you watch – Electronic Sell Through (EST) and Pay Per View (PPV) are the options. However, the price should be low enough to provoke impulsive buying. Service provider must be smart enough to grab consumer’s interest over a long period of time. One way of achieving this is – do not host all the content all at once. Instead, slate the release in regular intervals – may be weekly. In other words, there should be an ongoing release process with new content in the pipeline.
2. Subscription – Subscription guarantees steady cash flow. Service Providers love it. It enables consumer loyalty. On the flip side, it may have lower returns compared to ‘pay as you watch’.
Advertisers
Most of the current video sites depend on advertisement based revenue model. This model has been highly successful with the analog media industry. Why isn’t it working with the new technology? One answer is “fragmentation.” Youtube, for example, has so much content, and so many viewers.
How to target advertisements? Should the target be based on the viewing behavior of the consumers or the content type? What’s the Cost of 1000 impressions (CPM) and what value are advertisers going to get? CPM for most of the current video sites are too high compared to the value the advertisements generate. If any content service provider can reverse the equation, then we have an advertisement based business model that can yield positive cash flow.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Accent Cracking
I wish I could put some audio on this blog. This stuff amuses me. I have no reservations with English accents. Every culture, and for that matter every person, has every right to have a unique accent. However, for reasons whatsoever, it blows me out of my chair when an Indian tries to catch American accent. I’ve had occasions where I have spilled all the coffee in my hand out of laughter.
Recently I heard one guy talking on his cell phone. He said, “I felt chomphleeetely (completely) screwed vhen (when) I got his khaal (call) today morning…. Oh my gaaad (god)!…. I chan’t ('a' pronounced as in 'can') undershtand (understand) why he was cribbing so much…..”
Notice –
Our folks are indeed good at observing American pronunciations. The sad part has got to do with the imitation. One could say my ears are prejudiced, but I swear I don’t hear real American tones from Indians who try to imitate them.
How I speak English? I speak the same way I have been doing right from my childhood. Soft tones for c, p, t; “fast, past, ask” with ‘a’ as in “car”; “god, odd, box” with ‘o’ as in “form”, and so on.
Not that I haven’t changed at all. I now say ‘skedule’ for schedule. Earlier I said “shedule.”
Recently I heard one guy talking on his cell phone. He said, “I felt chomphleeetely (completely) screwed vhen (when) I got his khaal (call) today morning…. Oh my gaaad (god)!…. I chan’t ('a' pronounced as in 'can') undershtand (understand) why he was cribbing so much…..”
Notice –
- c and p are pronounced hard (what we call mahaprana in Indian languages)
- t is hard if it starts at the beginning of the word, but is pronounced close to d if it is towards the end – eighty is pronounced eighdy
- r is said by pulling the tongue backwards
- w is hardly pronounced as w – it is mistaken for v
- o is pronounced as aa for box, god, etc….
- “this morning” is “today morning”
- “whining” is “cribbing”
Our folks are indeed good at observing American pronunciations. The sad part has got to do with the imitation. One could say my ears are prejudiced, but I swear I don’t hear real American tones from Indians who try to imitate them.
How I speak English? I speak the same way I have been doing right from my childhood. Soft tones for c, p, t; “fast, past, ask” with ‘a’ as in “car”; “god, odd, box” with ‘o’ as in “form”, and so on.
Not that I haven’t changed at all. I now say ‘skedule’ for schedule. Earlier I said “shedule.”
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