Exin is offering ITIL V3 bridge book for free. All you have to do is go to this link, add it to the cart, and check out. Select the procedure as invoice and the cost is Eur 0.
Take advantage of it while you can.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Who robbed the poor kid from the 100$ laptop?
Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT prof, decided to apply C.K.Prahlad's concept of trying to find gems at the bottom of the pyramid. He wanted to reduce parity in education which students get in the developing nations from those who get it in the developed nations. He formed the initiative OLPC or One Laptop Per Child. This was a brilliant effort by Prof Negroponte to work towards removing social iniquity. He got backing from the UN at Davos earlier.
Google stepped in to help as well - of course with money and a desire to sell their platform of SaaS software. Intel stepped in as they didn't want AMD to capture the market. Imagine what kind of market this brings for the vendors. A huge 200 million set of kids who will grow up with all this and eventually get used to it and demand the same thing when they go to work or consume at own expense when they grow up.
Operational difficulties and economics led to his price point going from 100$ to 188$. Volumes earlier estimated weren't there by orders of magnitude. The orders didn't come through. It is a hard-sell in these developing nations for spending 188$ on a kid when his/her entire schooling education can occur on that amount. The quest for capturing the market led Intel to come up with its own 230$-280$ laptop, slightly superior to the OLPC-made laptop.
However, the tech giants stomped the effort - check out this article. Who is to blame? Nicholas says that he is frustrated with the interference from the tech giants and the insidious sinister behavior which threw off his original calculations about the market-size and how much he would be able to capture - a classic business planning mistake by new entrepreneurs - not acknowledging and assessing competition correctly. Forget the tech-giants, the locals in India, Taiwan, etc competed to get a piece of the pie and I bet that Nicholas didn't have them in his business plan. Now, he feels frustrated !
On the other hand, Prof Nicholas expresses that we are not in laptop business. He must actually be happy that either this way or the other way, OLPC's objective must get satisfied - one laptop per child. Intel joined the board of OLPC - saw that these guys didn't know how to run the business the way it should be and decided to run off in their way - nothing wrong in it. Is it incestuous behavior? depends on who is looking at it...
Such contradictory stances by Nicholas probably sends out signals that his ego is hurt due to no success of his initiative. An academic devoting himself to nonprofit efforts must keep a check on his/her ego. I understand that the process of tech-giants muscling him out could have caused agony - but his original purpose was OLPC - he must have that in his mind - he will always be known as the guy who took this brave initiative of reducing the rift between developing nations and developed nations. I would always respect him for that !
Google stepped in to help as well - of course with money and a desire to sell their platform of SaaS software. Intel stepped in as they didn't want AMD to capture the market. Imagine what kind of market this brings for the vendors. A huge 200 million set of kids who will grow up with all this and eventually get used to it and demand the same thing when they go to work or consume at own expense when they grow up.
Operational difficulties and economics led to his price point going from 100$ to 188$. Volumes earlier estimated weren't there by orders of magnitude. The orders didn't come through. It is a hard-sell in these developing nations for spending 188$ on a kid when his/her entire schooling education can occur on that amount. The quest for capturing the market led Intel to come up with its own 230$-280$ laptop, slightly superior to the OLPC-made laptop.
However, the tech giants stomped the effort - check out this article. Who is to blame? Nicholas says that he is frustrated with the interference from the tech giants and the insidious sinister behavior which threw off his original calculations about the market-size and how much he would be able to capture - a classic business planning mistake by new entrepreneurs - not acknowledging and assessing competition correctly. Forget the tech-giants, the locals in India, Taiwan, etc competed to get a piece of the pie and I bet that Nicholas didn't have them in his business plan. Now, he feels frustrated !
On the other hand, Prof Nicholas expresses that we are not in laptop business. He must actually be happy that either this way or the other way, OLPC's objective must get satisfied - one laptop per child. Intel joined the board of OLPC - saw that these guys didn't know how to run the business the way it should be and decided to run off in their way - nothing wrong in it. Is it incestuous behavior? depends on who is looking at it...
Such contradictory stances by Nicholas probably sends out signals that his ego is hurt due to no success of his initiative. An academic devoting himself to nonprofit efforts must keep a check on his/her ego. I understand that the process of tech-giants muscling him out could have caused agony - but his original purpose was OLPC - he must have that in his mind - he will always be known as the guy who took this brave initiative of reducing the rift between developing nations and developed nations. I would always respect him for that !
Citi needs service management !
I had blogged earlier about Citi slashing IT jobs here. With the latest news about Citi planning to reduce the workforce by upto 45,000 employees, I have come to a realization that the company needs a re-alignment. I am not for the cause of re-org by breaking up the firm into pieces. What they have right now is a giant behemoth which no one would be able to grapple around. Even Reuben, a man who handled the asian currency crisis, denied to take up the responsibilities after Chuck Prince quit. To realize the synergies from their earlier mergers, Citi needs operations' experts in place.
Operations experts, huh? Then hire management consultants... outsiders, objective, etc etc...
The reality is - Citi is a listed company and consultants get chopped off when the cost constraints hover on the head of the middle managers. Consultants charge huge rates. Instead, Citi can directly buy this talent from the market as they need on-going success and not a one-time remedy. So, what qualities they need in their operations-experts?
Citi's services are mostly commoditized. They need to check out what's mentioned in Service Strategy module of Service Management's latest version 3 - differentiate on the outside and simplification on the inside ! If how's their question then they must start to operate similar to the PE controlled firms.
Citi - you have a long way to go - the results of all this will take atleast a few quarters - provided there is a mindset change amongst the existing employees.
Operations experts, huh? Then hire management consultants... outsiders, objective, etc etc...
The reality is - Citi is a listed company and consultants get chopped off when the cost constraints hover on the head of the middle managers. Consultants charge huge rates. Instead, Citi can directly buy this talent from the market as they need on-going success and not a one-time remedy. So, what qualities they need in their operations-experts?
Last week, the Wall Street Journal had this article on how "tough" bosses were the most successful bosses at private equity backed firms:
The academics found that these five traits were the most important to success…"We found that hard skills, which are all about getting things done, were paramount," says lead author Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance and entrepreneurship. "Soft skills centering on teamwork weren’t as pivotal. That was a bit of a surprise to us."…
Mark Gallogly, a co-founder of Centerbridge Partners, a New York private-equity firm, says the academics’ findings match many of his beliefs about what’s important in a CEO. He puts a premium on bosses who can hire well, excel at efficiency and execution, and can be aggressive but respectful. By contrast, public-company CEOs may need more soft skills to manage relations with wide shareholder bases and other diverse constituencies."
- Persistence
- Attention to detail
- Efficiency
- Analytical skills
- Setting high standards
- Strong oral communication
- Teamwork
- Flexibility/adaptability
- Enthusiasm
- Listening skills
Citi's services are mostly commoditized. They need to check out what's mentioned in Service Strategy module of Service Management's latest version 3 - differentiate on the outside and simplification on the inside ! If how's their question then they must start to operate similar to the PE controlled firms.
Citi - you have a long way to go - the results of all this will take atleast a few quarters - provided there is a mindset change amongst the existing employees.
Monday, November 12, 2007
architecture patterns and IT service management
While researching for patterns mentioned in v3, I stumbled upon this book titled "Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning, and Governance: Making Shoes for the Cobbler's Children " over here.
v3's Service strategy discusses about patterns in services' resources' requirements. This puts architecture patterns in the driving seat.
Surprisingly enough, Prof Krishnan (CMU fame) and myself were planning to work on something in this direction with Mellon Bank for Sourcing services. Having such patterns back from the service providers can help clients to retain the knowledge and to a certain degree, control on their architecture.
Personally, I think that based on industry, definition of IT service management may blur or become accentuated. For instance, in the financial services space, it is less efficient if one differentiates between a business service and IT service. I feel that the whole part is a business service and IT service is so embedded in it that the IT folks cannot live in isolation in most of the cases. Of course, there are certain functions in which they can be siloed out and made to function. For instance, infrastructure. However, in case of other IT services - they are all integrated to the business services tightly. This puts another most debated question in front of us - shouldn't ITIL name be expanded to have IT Service Management rather than having the term Infrastructure in it? Shanon Taylor, architect of v3, is working in that direction.
Finally, IT Service Management will evolve to become a subset of Business Service Management - which has been around since a while now. I am not trying to nominalize the value that ITIL v3 brings - I am just expressing that it is an old wine in a new bottle :P
v3's Service strategy discusses about patterns in services' resources' requirements. This puts architecture patterns in the driving seat.
Surprisingly enough, Prof Krishnan (CMU fame) and myself were planning to work on something in this direction with Mellon Bank for Sourcing services. Having such patterns back from the service providers can help clients to retain the knowledge and to a certain degree, control on their architecture.
Personally, I think that based on industry, definition of IT service management may blur or become accentuated. For instance, in the financial services space, it is less efficient if one differentiates between a business service and IT service. I feel that the whole part is a business service and IT service is so embedded in it that the IT folks cannot live in isolation in most of the cases. Of course, there are certain functions in which they can be siloed out and made to function. For instance, infrastructure. However, in case of other IT services - they are all integrated to the business services tightly. This puts another most debated question in front of us - shouldn't ITIL name be expanded to have IT Service Management rather than having the term Infrastructure in it? Shanon Taylor, architect of v3, is working in that direction.
Finally, IT Service Management will evolve to become a subset of Business Service Management - which has been around since a while now. I am not trying to nominalize the value that ITIL v3 brings - I am just expressing that it is an old wine in a new bottle :P
why MISMers should focus on Google APM?
Consulting is a hot favorite for the MISMers (MISM students) as they want to utilize and deploy their newly gained knowledge about business-enabling via technology and running technology as a business immediately.
However, Google APM is a profile that helps you achieve that as well. Check out this set of 18 globe-trotting Google APMs. Of course, this is also a publicity stunt run by Google recruitment to attract the best talent at cheaper rates (yea, Google's cheap in their payscale - but what the heck, they give awesome stock-grants - about 200 shares per APM and on top of that, such perks). Check out this take on Google's APM program.
Unlike the consulting firms, Google maintains the entrepreneurial spirit of these young bright minds by providing them opportunity to spin their own projects, enabling them to be successful, and finally, bringing those to the market for the greater good of humanity. Much credit goes to initial founders and global product development chief such as Marissa Myers. Ms. Myers is young, energetic, and understands that the new generation folks would get put off if they are restrained from doing certain other things at work. How to channelize this huge burst of energy for the company's benefit is something that the Google leadership has mastered. Of course, it may appear that everyone's running amuck with any idea - however, that's not true. There is method to the madness and I wont divulge more details given to me by an ex-Product Manager during my interview for Product Management position earlier this year.
I would strongly recommend Google Product Management for those MISM students who yearn for the blaze of glory via entrepreneurial pursuits. I was oblivious about this opportunity till half-way into my program. When I discovered about it, I was obsessed with it. Google didnt' move fast and after 5 months of waiting I had to sign up my papers with my current employer, as Google was dragging the recruitment decision.
Google has been sharp enough to identify MISM as a program to source their PMs and APMs. Last year, they started having CMU on their radar for the same. Earlier, they saw CMU as a location for Devs, etc. However, the perception has changed and they intend to hire APMs and PMs as well. I hope this relation builds over a period of time and gets formalized making Google as a formal recruiter for the MISM program, similar to the consulting firms such as Deloitte, Diamond, McKinsey, etc.
However, Google APM is a profile that helps you achieve that as well. Check out this set of 18 globe-trotting Google APMs. Of course, this is also a publicity stunt run by Google recruitment to attract the best talent at cheaper rates (yea, Google's cheap in their payscale - but what the heck, they give awesome stock-grants - about 200 shares per APM and on top of that, such perks). Check out this take on Google's APM program.
Unlike the consulting firms, Google maintains the entrepreneurial spirit of these young bright minds by providing them opportunity to spin their own projects, enabling them to be successful, and finally, bringing those to the market for the greater good of humanity. Much credit goes to initial founders and global product development chief such as Marissa Myers. Ms. Myers is young, energetic, and understands that the new generation folks would get put off if they are restrained from doing certain other things at work. How to channelize this huge burst of energy for the company's benefit is something that the Google leadership has mastered. Of course, it may appear that everyone's running amuck with any idea - however, that's not true. There is method to the madness and I wont divulge more details given to me by an ex-Product Manager during my interview for Product Management position earlier this year.
I would strongly recommend Google Product Management for those MISM students who yearn for the blaze of glory via entrepreneurial pursuits. I was oblivious about this opportunity till half-way into my program. When I discovered about it, I was obsessed with it. Google didnt' move fast and after 5 months of waiting I had to sign up my papers with my current employer, as Google was dragging the recruitment decision.
Google has been sharp enough to identify MISM as a program to source their PMs and APMs. Last year, they started having CMU on their radar for the same. Earlier, they saw CMU as a location for Devs, etc. However, the perception has changed and they intend to hire APMs and PMs as well. I hope this relation builds over a period of time and gets formalized making Google as a formal recruiter for the MISM program, similar to the consulting firms such as Deloitte, Diamond, McKinsey, etc.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
google health
Google wants to digitize your health data. Check this article for more details. Rationale is simple: it is aligned with their original vision of the firm - To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Well, I must say - they are well on their tracks. I like Marrisa's quote on "I am feeling yucky" !
On a side note related to this, they are also working towards mapping human genome. Google's helping the lead scientist in the field do that. They are good at organizing large amounts of information such that it's easily accessible - that's what they will do with their algorithms and techniques for the Human Genome project.
Well, I must say - they are well on their tracks. I like Marrisa's quote on "I am feeling yucky" !
On a side note related to this, they are also working towards mapping human genome. Google's helping the lead scientist in the field do that. They are good at organizing large amounts of information such that it's easily accessible - that's what they will do with their algorithms and techniques for the Human Genome project.
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