This blog mostly is about customer service and companies and systems that deliver it. Or try and fail. Preferably, hilariously. Luckily I live in the right country for the latter. Good times! Today allow me to wax on a company I have now become a huge fan of. Valve. This full blown love affair initially started the momentContinue reading “The employee utopia that is Valve”
Author Archives: shivashetty
Random Thoughts on a few Companies
BlackBerry is dying and in less than 2 years will be dead as an independent company and will be bought off by one of the technology goliaths (Google, Microsoft, HP) and I hope someone then writes a good book on the rise and fall of this once mighty RIM empire that hubris destroyed. +++++Continue reading “Random Thoughts on a few Companies”
Idea : Stories instead of Hold Music
The Former Mozilla CEO John Lilly said in an interview “A lot of people say the number one job of the CEO is to keep money in the bank, or the number one job is to be strategic and the number one job is recruiting. That may be a true, but when I was at MozillaContinue reading “Idea : Stories instead of Hold Music”
20 signs you are working at a mediocre firm
1. The PowerPoint presentations are always 10+ slides and each slide is crammed with more words than a Bombay local at peak hours. 2. ….which the presenter reads, line by line, slowly. 3. No meetings ever start and end on time and there is no pre published agenda 4. There are no clear goals soContinue reading “20 signs you are working at a mediocre firm”
Spending Strategy at Commoditized Firms
When you sell a commodity-like product, price competition is usually fierce. Think airline seats, insurance, hotel rooms. So it pays to be the low cost operator. Marketing in this environment is inherently an evidence of optimism by the senior team. When you are marketing for these type of commodity products, you are fighting the evidence andContinue reading “Spending Strategy at Commoditized Firms”
India Files : A case for ‘Conscription’
India. Sometimes I think, like the Matrix, this country is a stimulation training program that is designed by a cruel programmer to train the inserted student in selfishness, venality and becoming someone with nil-empathy. Nothing else better explains the horrific phenomena that is this country and the 1.3 billion in it. Moral gangrene meets spiritualContinue reading “India Files : A case for ‘Conscription’”
Hire slow. Fire fast. Prosper.
Sometimes seemingly random data points helps the keen observer understand the observed entity better than all the glossy brochures, the slick ‘About us‘ section in the website or the unasked 53 slides presentation from the over keen, laughably under-informed HR team on induction day. Take hiring and firing at a firm as an example. InContinue reading “Hire slow. Fire fast. Prosper.”
On Hiring : Hire for Interesting, not ‘Normal’
When an organization is screening a potential candidate for a customer service manager role, what is the hiring team looking for ? Interviewing is a hit and miss game and after 200 of them recently, I have sort of given up on them as a dependable tool in filtering people. Too many false positives. AndContinue reading “On Hiring : Hire for Interesting, not ‘Normal’”
Corporate Anatomy Lesson for newbies.
Here is my incisive summary of the corporate life from my years in it. Target audience : nOObs/newbies joining the queue at the bottom of the corporate ladder. First they hire you for what you can do well with your HANDS. So learn the proprietary platforms of the client/company, teach your fingers to FLY overContinue reading “Corporate Anatomy Lesson for newbies.”
Thoughts on Freemium
Free. Cautionary tales abound about no mid-day meal of that nature exits both at mid-day or at other time in it, in relation to both the gastronomical experience or outside of it. But lately I have been thinking there must be some obligation from customers of FREE even if the seller does not explicitly makeContinue reading “Thoughts on Freemium”
Third Eye Observations 