Category Archives: Random

  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”

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”

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. 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’”

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.”

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.”

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”

Here is how you can crack this interview with me, that right now you are failing damn miserably:   1# Don’t EVER EVER start the interview saying “Hello Sir. Myself….” You do that and your already meager chances of being hired just got divided by 500 2# Don’t also ever start with your personal/family background.Continue reading “Tips for BPO interview candidates in India”

“We don’t trust you” That’s the subliminal message drilled every time you are groped by the guards at the mall entrance, DMRC metro stations, at the cinema halls and now much worse, at your workplace. A level headed alien could take out a calculator and with that ALONE demonstrate that from an odds angle, theContinue reading “Trust Your Staff”

If you are the owner of a new pizza store and selling to the customers living in the community, what was your mindset before you opened it? How can I sell a pizza to people here and make a ton of money doing it ? mmmmmm, money. OR was it : Can I sell theContinue reading “The Mindset of Great Firms”