It's time...

There's a fine line between patience and weakness. And more often than not this line somehow disappears amidst political debates and heated discussions on the tele.

Mumbai was not attacked. Our integrity was. The audacity of these terrorists was to show us that we aren't patient - we are weak.

It's time to take ACTION. Here are the next set of steps I feel should be taken:

- The 3 chiefs get together. They sit down over a glass of whiskey and decide the time has come to take over. The Army chief declares emergency. Declares a military coup. All politicians are placed under house arrest. This means at 'gun point'.

- The Air Chief plans out a strategy for a early morning air strike at all training and military establishments in Pakistan. 2 squadrons of SU 30s are immediately deployed at Amritsar or Udhampur. The idea is not to kill civilians - its to cripple Pakistan.

- The naval chief pulls in the best commandos and a team of war ships that prepare for a full frontal attack across Pakistan territory with Surface to Surface mssiles if Pakis try to do something smart.

I have 2 dogs. They play with me - often hurt me while playing. But at some point i need to slap them and remind them who's the boss. It's not to hurt or kill them - the slap is to put things into perspective. Its to drive home a point.

Congress has a real task in front of them. Their doctrine prevents them from taking a strong stand and fghting back. Their vote bank will vanish if they dont !

Youth of this country - its time...

Amazing is the key word

Another very interesting trip by Guy; this time on an aircraft carrier - boy this fellow is cool !

Lap it up here

Another very interesting site - beware - you might end up wasting a lot of time here.

The thought behind 'Working from Home'

It's a bold concept and has many perspectives - some of which dont necessarily make sense to everyone.

After a 4 month haul of trying to work from home, i've come to a conclusion - you can work from home if you have a predefined set of work that requires a predefined number of hours. If you are in a profession that dramatically changes every minute and demands extreme attention and focus - then working from home is absolutely not an option.

Pros:

- Time seems to be your best friend. You can get up when you like, shower or not and decide when you want to break for tea.
- you can sleep in the afternoon and work late nights - maximize productivity.
- Take out time outs for a walk, a stroll in the garden or just a few songs on VH1 - it's all worth it

Cons:

- Too many distractions. They are just too many !
- Ability to interact with others. Since you are alone at home - you lose out on valuable collaboration through interaction with colleagues.
- 'Going to work' feeling. You don't feel you're going to work, ergo you are left with a strange feeling of emptiness at the end of the day. Since you never left the house. It takes some getting used to.
- Invasion into private space. You will have professional and private battle lines crossing into each other. This means you're child or dog will start wailing the moment that important call from the boss comes in.

This is truly a personal choice and the support of colleagues and friends plays a vital role.

A WEDNESDAY - Brilliance defined !

I think a good movie becomes a true masterpiece only because of the great actors involved. 'A Wednesday' is yet another such movie that really 'kicks ass' so as to speak. In fact the movie's script may not be that heavy - but Nasseruddin Shah's dialect is simply awesome - it's crisp, clear and extremely effective. He's one fine actor!I dont want to talk about the movie here - but the fact is that it's a brilliant 1 time watch. Get a CD - its a collectable.

Start Difference

Something Suri should watch - i hope they get to this stage by the next IPL Season !!

What you didnt know about GTALK

I can safely bet you didn't know this -

You cant do a Group chat using GTALK. Right ?

Wrong - you CAN do group chat using GTALK. Use their Applet. Something new for you today !

Reviews

Ok so this weekend I got for myself some Music and Some XBOX entertainment. Here are my first person reviews - straight from the horse's mouth!

First up - the Muzeek !

CD's bought -

BA - 11   

Adams and his voice are just exceptional. Music is most definitely what BA is know for. Typical Keith riffs and great pace. However, I feel either i've matured or perhaps BA has started to become too 'predictable' on his music.

Rating - # # # 1/2

Bon Jovi - Lost Highway

Now THIS was a serious surprise. Fresh - out of the box stuff. BJ has changed his sound for sure. Much more urban and lots of blue riffs. Listen to track # 5 (dont remember the name) - very juicy ! I heard it a few times before i realized it sounded like Enter Sandman by Metallica !!

Rating - # # # # 1/2


Metallica - Death Magnetic 

heh heh ... what can i say. The dudes of metal go back to their roots. They kick ass. And they do it with flavour. If you are a metallica freak - you should love this album and forgive Lars for misplacing his drums during the St. Anger album !

Boy was this nostalgic. It's really fine...



Next up - The XBOX side of things.

Game Bought - FIFA 08

First Impression:

Absolutely REAL.

Gameplay:

The game sticks to the rules - Football games should not be about Stadiums, lights, costumes, etc. It should be about how 'real' the game is. till 2007, all FIFA did was a one button click of a power shot towards the goal. The trick was to come close enough and then based on the skill, the player will score.

FIFA 08 follows a simple rule - the rule of physics. you need to time your leg swing with the ball so as to get max velocity. And even your best player may not score if he kicks straight into the keeper's face. So you cntrol ball driection too !!

Graphics:

Yummy ! EA rocks on ... great work on the face rendering.

Conclusion:

The game is really great in terms of ball control, kicking, swings, etc. The commentary was not the best part of the game - it tends to lag and the commentators dont exactly shout like they do in 07.

Take my advice - buy an XBOX only for this game if you have to. Pooora Paisa vasool !!

This guy is too much !

Jeff Dunham is simply awesome ! He has too many voices and personalities in him.

Wonder if i should try out ventriloquism

Boring without pics eh?

I was going through my blog and realized its quite boring and rather bland (for lack of a more ridiculing word)

So let me google some images and will start putting them on. After all ScribeFire allows API image adding !!

Rock on Lyrics - Super

" Aankhon Mein Jis Ke Koi To Khwab Hai
Khush Tha Wahin Jo Thoda Betaab Hai"

Translated:

The one who has a dream in his eyes
Only he's happy who is restless

Profound stuff ... Caralisa has really sung this well

ROCK ON - poor direction but excellent Music

For a while now i've been contemplating on the genius of Pakistani Music. I've always wondered why and how are they able to generate the music of Strings and Jal (and countless other similar bands).

After Rock On - i know we have it too. Some of the compositions are simply amazing.

However, the direction and story are still weak. That's most unlike a Farhan Akhtar movie. They have failed to glorify the career of a musician much to the fact that in the end it's just another great live show !

Farhan should have taken inputs from so many great music videos where the bands are potrayed as gods with instruments. Great Camera Angles and lighting was missing. I was expecting some great camera work. But visually the movie is not impressive at all.

But the music should take care of that. Very refreshing, very lively and Farhan can sing for sure !

Brilliant one time watch.

'Phoonk' - the stale breath

Just came back from a visit to RGV's latest offering - PHOONK.

I think i've now come to a conclusion that Indian cinema is far from scaring audiences. I did not expect RGV to direct a movie at such rookie levels. I mean we could see the wires pulling the girl up to the ceiling people.

I feel horror needs to be conceptual rather than visual. A movie needs to hit a fear nerve that's very difficult to generalize since everyone has different levels of fear to different things. Perhaps death, demons and anti god are the most common and hence most movies revolve around the same concept.

Take 'The Blair Witch Project' for that matter. As a concept, the movie scares the hell out of me. 3 kids, 2 cameras and lost in the forest - what's scary about it. But the fear starts building because you either picture yourself in the situation or you start relating to the predicament the kids are in.

Coming back to PHOONK - i think it's hype and unnecessarily dragged. Many scenes are simply humurous. Maybe i expected more.

BIGFlix

BIGFLIX has been really pushing themselves on the urban youth. It's nothing new and its surely not rocket science.

Yesterday over a cup of tea while it was pouring outside, we did a quick calculation over their market. Given that we in India are 1.2 Billion strong, we discounted 25% as junta that is old and would not be interested in rental movie viewing. Then another 25% who would perhaps be younger than 18 and would not be interested in such a service.

Then we took away another 15% of youth that could maybe not afford this kind of luxury. So we assumed about 35% of junta that actually may use this. We discounted this by more than 50% since we may have missed a few other factors (well, some tea - rains - you can get an idea!).

That leaves us with just about 10% of junta. So 120 million. Let's even move out another 20 Million. So assume there are about 100 Million people who fit their demographic market.

Right now they are charging about 8 USD per user per month.

You do the math !! Even if they grab 30% market share (due to some furious marketing), they could be making about USD 200 - 240 Million a year !! They have about 15,000 titles. Royalties would be paid on per content copy. So that means each DVD and each CD.

So where's the challenge in this business?

There are 2 MASSIVE problems actually - Marketing this to the 'right audience'. This is the trial and error phase - a phase where there will be lots of money spent and wasted. The second problem is the 'execution' of this model. This means making sure that when I order a movie - i should be able to get the CD delivered to my doorstep in less than 30 mins.

With DTH services providing booking of showcase ad-free movies, this is going to one good time for the movie goer. I can now plug in my home theater to the Tata Sky showcase and watch DVD quality Hi Definition video and audio.

Now what bothers me is why Tata Sky doesn't have so many titles on their Showcase ?

Moving on

It's been a long time since i've not been blogging here. I've sorta moved to blogging on the company blog.

Perhaps if something concerning me comes along - i'll come back.

Music Mughals

I've never really been a RAP fan. Somehow i thought it's not music. But now i realize its not the melody but the talent to be able to make sense in a short span of time with oodles of attitude that drives the RAP music industry.

I always believed blacks have Rapping in their genes. However just like the breaking of the myth 'White Men can't Jump', Marshal Mathers - popularly known as Eminem is a clear showcase of the fact that White men can indeed rap.

In his smash hit single - Without me, his last 2 sentences are : 'No matter how many other fish in the sea - it feels so empty without me'.

Yet another individual i have greatly admired is Freddie Mercury or Farrokh Balsara. Many would know his music from the band QUEEN.

It may be sometime before i can admire an indian musician at these expertise levels. If people say Norah is what she is due to her lineage - i think even though it seems she's stolen the best swimmers from her father, her music by itself on the international stage beats her father's music hands down 1 to 20.

Out of Action

Have been away and out of action for sometime now. We're in the middle of setting up ConoscenZa's blog. I'll keep you guys posted !

till then ...

Points for Losing

The new format of the one day cricket gives the chasing team a percentage of the target as a floor and they need to score at least that much to prevent the other team from gaining a bonus point. In yesterday's one dayer between Aussies and India - India was chasing and this floor was set at 162. Unfortunately India could not reach this total and Aussies gained the extra bonus point. It seems there was an earlier rule of rewarding a losing team if they managed to 'cross over' this floor.

This got me thinking to the appraisal cycles that we have going on internally. I wanted to see if 'earning points even when losing' applies to business functions independently.

Let's say we evaluate the performance of an entry level sales resource who is part of a team responsible for generating and managing both inbound and outbound leads. What are the parameters that will drive his evaluation. 'Speed', 'Efficiency' and 'Quality of work' are all irrelevant. Especially since these are not computationally mappable to tangible results. In other words - they are simply unmeasurable.

What is measurable however is that has he been slow in getting work done - how many times has he had to work overtime to finish the same quantum of work. Now this can hint at efficiency. How many people is he able to talk to in a day can hint at Speed. Net size of opportunity he generates can hint at quality.

But assume neither of his leads close into business. What does his evaluation say?

This is the most critical aspect of evaluation for M&S teams. And HR people need to very clearly specify this right at the start of an appointment - is the evaluation based on results or process.

That's because if its PROCESS - then the 'liability' rapidly spreads over the resource and he becomes accountable to the 'quantum of work' he is given. He does not choose the quantum of work and only 'Walks the Line'.

If its RESULTS - then the 'liability' moves away from the resource. The involvement becomes more personal and then it's the resource who decides if he wants to get into this. In other words - does the company pay him to increase revenues?

HRs frequently confuse the two. Especially since M&S teams are asked to follow procedure but evaluated on results. They are told to do things a certain way and then corrected if results don't show. And for M&S functions - results are all revenues.

So assuming your M&S team is 'losing'. That means you are holding them against revenues and they don't deliver. Or you hold them against processes and they break the rules but get revenues no matter what. What do you do? Do you let them go?

The bottom line is that do teams get points for losing cause they fought hard?

I feel this rule can and should be customized for different functions. But at the same time, it needs to be carefully integrated with evaluation of M&S staff since they are the 'revenue generators' of the business. Good or bad is relative when you look at one specific in reference to the other.

India with Sanjeev Bhaskar

Yesterday evening was good TV watching experience. Some good talent on American Idol (i've placed my bets!) and Sanjeev walking around at the Infosys campus in B'lore.

If you haven't seen it - you should. It's on Discover T&L - something NDTV good times are trying hard to imitate.

Anyways, so Bhaskar is roaming in the Infy campus and comes to this magnificent modern glass building where he is told that Dow Jones' market data is managed.

Bhaskaar goes on to say two things:

"When people think about India, the still think about Snake charmers and elephants..."

He's right - India has changed.

"....what they don't realize is that THIS is what India has become."

Sorry dude - that's what living in Hounslow does to you - you lose touch of what you really are. India is not like that glass walled Infy building you saw at B;lore. India is far from that. She's a spring lodged between mainstream politics and regionalism. She is trying to breathe and there are people who won't let her. Unfortunately for many of us, it's the country we live in and moving away from the metros - this become all too much apparent.

It's Apple all the way - yet again !

Check out this new ad of the Airbook 2008 from Mac.

i rest my case ! See the ad here

HotORNot Approach vs Deliberation

I read this very interesting blog this Sunday about why startups should stop chasing angels and move to work with VCs and try to raise only institutional investments.

For the time being I will assume the VCs have no personal agenda here. I will also assume that the VC markets in India are at an almost level playing field as that of the valley.

The fact of the matter still remains that the time spent on trying to raise institutional investment is far greater than an accept/reject decision at lunch with a HNI. Often this 'deliberation time', i.e the time from the first presentation to funds transfer, results in an opportunity loss. Especially in case of niche services or lateral technologies, where the founders don't really want to step out of their labs/sales offices and keep doing lunches or dinners with portfolio managers to negotiate term sheets and time lines.

This time lost can not be gained back and if the product or service is already beginning to pick up traction, the founders may not really have the bandwidth for such 'deliberation time'.

This 'time' is more apparent in Small to Medium service companies who need the money only to scale. Infrastructure, skill sets, technology and marketing. The know how much they want, how they want it dispersed and where and what are the returns like. This accuracy of investment often pushes them to opt for debt and especially in countries like India, debt financing is a very popular choice due to the short funding cycle and the speed with which the money comes into the bank.

Another reason why markets like India can work very well with angels is because of the lower valuations. A VC wants its floor investment to be $5M. Startups in India find it difficult to match these valuations in their first year of business. So unless they build cash flows touching $1M in the very first year or put in their own USD 500K to develop a technology , VC funding is pretty much out of the picture. And this is almost certainly impossible to see in startups being founded by young entrepreneurs below the age of 30. For technology startups this is all together a much bigger issue due to the bloating salary structures that defy logic and sense.

Orifice and the Client

Guy Kawasaki writes this awesome blog about Orifices that become your clients. You can read it here.

But how do you know it? Fear not - there is a nice little test to know. It's quite nice...

Street play on US markets

Just got off the phone with a good friend in CA. I asked him what's the scenario there like - are technology companies laying off people, cutting costs, reducing expense account limits? In the wake of some of the Indian ITES giants tightening up budgets and preparing for slight turbulence, are the American businesses still pulling all strings? TCS went on to even start the laying off early this season !

His casual response was - 'well on the street, people are still wearing Gucci suits and driving around in porches and ferraris'. Pretty profound i think ...

Sporting the Movie business

I was speaking at this prominent B School in Pune about how Media - especially Movies can impact a society and do we Indians see life larger than real on the screen.

Many new inputs came along - especially on the lines of RDB and Jessical Lal. Of course - some were not so resoundingly positive about the connection, but all in all the students seemed to agree that there is a definite connection and perhaps its a good connection.

They said a movie like 'chak de' did a lot of damage - to the foundation of sports in India, that is. That's because sports in India means Cricket. But then suddenly - like an order fresh out of Parliament, ESPN is covering hockey matches that till yesterday stray urchins used to come to watch. Ten Sports is running reruns of badly fed and trained athletes running 200 mts track n field in Chennai. Star Sports is covering a phenomenally entertaining Volleyball match between the Railways and the Services. As you compare these sportsmen with those back then when they had the simple non arrogant smiles, you realize these sportsmen now look like gladiators. That's when India's state hockey teams started calling themselves the Chandigarh Dynamos, Sher E Punjab, Bangalore hi fliers, etc. They don't just play to win now - they play to entertain.

This is a very important step for Indian Sports. Unlike the Western world where sports is actually a very well planned industry, complete with listed partners and huge investments - A billion plus population here still sticks on to Cricket.

I know i know ... but i am not comparing the games here. I love cricket too guys ... But this visibility the others are getting will not stay forever.

America is crazy about baseball - it's a true American sport. But they have also managed to drive business from sports as 'localized' as Ice Hockey. Look at the sheer employment they generate ! Ice hockey is not a particularly interesting sport to watch. And neither is baseball. But if you sit through a series game between say the Sox and the Yankees - you'll realize that it's not about the game - it's about how it's SOLD to the public. It's what the public 'sees'. It's the sights, the sounds, the commentators, the crowds, the food. And all of it is reinforced into the American soul by the 'movies' they make. Footballers are made to look like college heroes and girl dorm poster boys. Baseball players have the money, the panache and the 65 chevy. And then not to forget - comes NBA - the epitome of Black American excellence. They rightly say - 'White men can't jump'.

So coming back to the issue at hand.

So how do we conquer our fear of falling in love with other sports. Indian Film makers need to now move to make movies that show these sportsmen as heroes. Start making movies that don't have a hero and a heroine - but actors and sportsmen. Don't be patronizing towards field entertainment other than 6 stumps, a bat and a ball.

Bollywood is one of India's biggest strengths. The marketing guys there need to now corroborate the trust these sports channels have put in new sports. Come out with some new movies guys - take the action to the next level.

Hawks Vs Cheetas

I was reading this very interesting article someplace and it came back to my mind when i was talking to our team about how sales people act. Or 'should' act.

The article said that some people are born 'good sales guys' and businesses should identify such talent and not waste time bothering with trying to make a mediocre a success. In other words - unless the horse has the heart for racing - don't bring him onto the track.

Even though i agree with this philosophy to a great extent, i believe that not everyone in a team is required to be a race horse. In other words - a great racing team is not made up of racing horses alone. But then again - the winning teams have the best race horses. Some people are not cut out to be sales guys - but that doesn't necessarily mean they cannot be part of a sales team.

I define sales guys of 2 types - Hawks and Cheetas. I use these terms because these animals are excellent hunters and have an aggressive nature of killing and sales guys tend to have that aggression - it comes naturally to them.

Hawks are the kinds who can see far - have patience and strike only when there is a good chance to make a kill. Hawks will soar in the sky for weeks without coming down but when they do - their kill percentage is relatively high.

Cheetas are fast, extremely fast. They don't have the far seeing vision, but their speed of approach makes up for it. They are very sensitive to small directional changes in the target's run and they can make quick adjustments to their run. But cheetas have a poor success ratio and they tend to get tired fast.

One BIG difference between these 2 is that the prey doesn't always know that a hawk is coming down to kill it. The cheeta's prey knows it needs to outrun the cheeta to survive.

In the long run - both of them are good at what they do - kill to survive and evolution has taught them to excel at what they can do best - rather than try to imitate the other's prowess. Good sales guys know their weaknesses as well as their strengths. The even better ones use their weaknesses in their favor and evolve into better killers.

Same Mistakes ...

As i caught the dying seconds of this song for the first time on VH1 - instinctively i felt this song will have good lyrics. Not being a great Blunt fan, I finally got its music yesterday and heard the new song - ' Same Mistake '

A prelude:

I'm not calling for a second chance,
I'm screaming at the top of my voice,
Give me reason, but don't give me choice,
Cos I'll just make........... the same mistake............ again

Pretty philosophical eh ??

Talent defined

I consider myself an mediocre guitarist. But i think i have a taste for sound and could be a good musician if i dedicate my life to it. Why i don't do that - is best left undiscovered.

Today i read about how to go from 'air guitaring' and become a musician. The author says that to be a good musician - you need to listen to lots of different songs and practice them on the guitar. He goes on to say that you need to spend lots of cash and put in odious hours of practice to get close to what your favorite bands sound on stage. He says go to google, download tabs and start practicing. Soon you should be able to play like a pro on stage.

You'd say the article is pathetic and i probably should have stopped reading midway. Believe me - i DID - there were actually 2 parts to this crap.

But that's not what got me thinking.

I recently sat through a George Michael Concert at Wembley. No - it was only on TV ! I wish... yeah well ... there were only about 13K people. But then i have seen artists pulling in over 100K people for concerts. GnR, Metallica, Ozzy, even Morrison and floyd can rope in about 50K. Shakira gets about 30K plus. A 1 year long world tour of U2 generates about USD 800 M !!

This is not insane - it's a perfect price for excellent talent.

Before musicians become artists, there is an intrinsic core that needs to relate to sound. Not every good guitarist can be a musician. But every good musician can be a good guitarist. This applies to all art and sports to a certain extent. I think no other professional excellence caters to this. Everything else can be taught, practiced and excelled at.

But if you look at history - any superstar or sportstar has not reached that level of success cause he wanted to be rich and 'learned' the art he sells. He gets there cause his 'core' intrinsically has that art and he just refines it and makes money out of it. Tiger woods is not an excelled golfer. He is excellent at understanding the dynamics of a Golf ball, the club, wind, gravity, and friction on grass. He can toss a golf ball and catch it with a putter. He hits a 250 yrd freeway and shatters glass on a golf cart cause it was put there for target practice !

No matter how good you train and how well you practice, sports and art are2 professions where the cream always rises to the top. The unfortunate thing is that you dont get to choose...

Beginning a new year

Sorry could not wish you all earlier. But here is wishing you a fantastic 2008. May god give you everything you wish for.