successful startup mapping

An interesting visualization project was started by PandoDaily. Check an interactive visualization here. Keep in mind to use the slider at the bottom as well as refer to the legend at the right bottom.

When the user slides through the years (from left to right), the tool allows them to visualize the expansion of the Fairchild Mafia's startup ecosystem as the multi-nodal network expands.

This is great for the folks studying the startup ecosystem in general and trying to figure out the legacy or pedigree of the folks starting it up.

robin hood of currency exchange

Any consumer app tends to have customers ask for speedier transactions at lesser costs. TransferWise claims to provide just that.

At 0.5% cost, TransferWise claims to charge no hidden fees and provides an interesting service. This is the precise reason why it is being touted as the robin hood of currency exchange and even Peter Thiel is supporting it.

Its direct competitors would be the likes of xoom.com. However, it plans to take head on with Paypal as it has a much broader scope of transfers. In that context, yes, it is providing an interesting service at 0.5%.

Currently, the service offers only the main currencies available in the FX trading world. The concept is to show a willing buyer and a willing seller the market rates from the FX exchange and if they both agree to the quote then they exchange in a P2P fashion.

This disruptive model attributes its low cost of service provisioning to:

- new infrastructure of TransferWise vis-a-vis legacy infrastructure of the banks ( as a side note, I guess ..more layoffs to come in the backoffice IT and business jobs for wire transfer departments to follow as this disruptive model gets adopted)

- scaling facility that the Internet offers when compared to traditional banking and marketing

The company was launched by Taavet Hinrikus, who also launched Skype from idea to first several hundred million users. He has a good network in the tech space to secure further rounds of funding and also, to spread the word for the product to become popular.

Overall, it looks like a promising offering to bet on.

killer healthcare (consumer) app

Today, I received a follow-up notice from Google about my Google Health account. In effect, Google icasked me to download all my data as it will not be accessible because Google chose to discontinue the service. So, here we go.

All the King's horses and All the King's men....

Such is the state of the healthcare laws and regulatory uncertainty that even with its engineering prowess and problem solving Product Managers, Google could not solve the problem. 

Or is it that Google did not find a way to easily monetize it without getting in conflict with US laws? Not so long ago, Google had to settle a matter of illegal pharmacy sales for $500 million with the Justice Department. More details here. 

Microsoft still continues...

Rival tech giant Microsoft ($MSFT) decided to continue offering Microsoft Health Vault. The offering seems to make sense. They have a monetization plan as well. 

The Killer App

Microsoft seems to stick to its path adopted in the quest to establish the ecosystem for enhancing patient care. After all, healthcare is a prime focus in most of the budget deficit reduction debates as it is slated to become 20% of GDP. A ton of self-help consumer apps are in place. Nothing comes as close to a comprehensive set of features and every consumer has to go to various apps for various services. For instance, an app reminds patients on their prescription intake. It coordinates with the hospital and provides reminder-alert service to the patients. 

The quality attributes of the killer app are difficult to gauge and establish until the regulations are finalized. Regulations have been finalized but they are not uniform throughout the country. For instance, Obama care is not going to be implemented or will need Federal help to be implemented in 22 out of the 50 States in the US. Consequently, architecture of such a product will be exposed to serious risks. 

innovation and resources

Is there a cause-effect relationship between resources and innovation?

Nikesh Arora, Chief Business Officer at Google, says Larry Page certainly believes so. I asked this question at the Citi Technology Investor Conference 2012 at Hilton, New York, and he responded to me elaborately. The specific question is at : in the webcast here at 35:20.

In academia, an article from Scott Anthony of Harvard Business Review is presented here with three steps on how to innovate in tough times. The three points are:

1. Lower the cost of testing 
2. Creatively  tap into outside resources
3. Ruthlessly prune the portfolio

Particularly interesting is the fact that Nikesh Arora (Google CBO) mentioned exactly the third point as one of the strategies being deployed at Google.

Detailed transcript of the question I asked Nikesh and his response are below:


Question from Manik Patil: 

From a supply side perspective, for  your engineers or your staff employees, in general, Google is now having over 50,000 employees.

How do you plan to keep the productivity high and stop/avoid complacence kick in?

We have seen history of companies in the past where they have great growth, lot of products...eventually having trouble with growing number of staff employees and eventually having some pockets of lack of productivity.

Response from Nikesh Arora, Chief Business Officer, Google: 

It's a good question, really!

First of all, we are still getting used to the idea that we are 50,000 employees. We see ourselves at Google as Google and Motorola, which we run as a separate entity. For foreseeable future, that is how it is going to be. Dennis has done a great job with getting his arms around Motorola and has a great team. 

Scarcity creates innovation
But having said that, your question is a good question because we are constantly thinking about how do we make sure that we keep efficiency and 'efficiency' not just because we think about life that way but you know Larry (Page) has a very clear point of view that scarcity creates innovation. Having abundant resources -to your point- makes people complacent. They don't think about this...they think about solving bigger problems with lots of people. So, we do and try to make sure that teams have little less resource so that they are forced to think out of the box to solve the problems with constrained resources as opposed to having abundant resources.

Large Scale
Having said that, it does take a lot of resources to keep the engine running with $10 billion in quarterly revenues and billions of searches a day around the world and products like Android, Youtube. So, it's a constant challenge.

No Silver Bullet
There is no silver bullet and one answer to it. It just requires management to be vigilant. And does require for us to keep going back to our portfolio more often than not to make sure that we are not doing things that are not good for us or are not going to scale well.

Balance necessary 
At the same time, you have to be careful that if you pre-judge things to soon then you may be at the risk of killing innovation right when it is about to start. So, it's a fine balance and there is one more overhang of management.

Another leader who thinks similarly is: James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-14/can-morgan-stanley-s-gorman-save-wall-street-.html

I had certainly observed this at several highly innovative clients I had the privilege to work with. 

the nearly-free university & the neofeudal higher education cartel

Guest blog post from OfTwoMinds.com of Charles Hugh Smith with an interesting take on Higher Ed.

The blog post was titled as 'The Nearly-Free University' and is sure to stir up some opposition to the complimentary course provisions from the likes of NYU (Read Damodaran), Stanford, and MIT who contribute to Open Course Ware motion (read OCW consortium).

http://www.oftwominds.com/blognov12/nearly-free-university11-12.html

Although this is a radical point of view, it is not a radically new opinion because a similar opinion was presented by NYU's Aswath Damodaran here where he argued that the monopoly based university business model is a failure.

The guest post is highlighting a new trend, which will take time to establish. The displacement of this cartel will take significant time - may be even decades. However, if debt were to shape up the US as it is attempting to shape up the EU region, then the displacement may be expedited.

As an extension to this vision, it is possible that higher education in US will have majority of foreign buyers. Already, there are rants, which are going viral, about 'Asians in the library'

Although the government is actively dissuading the foreign buyers (amounting to $23 billion in just tuition fees) through a policy-oriented attack, they will still come in hoards. Read an article from The Economist here with a sub-text that shutting out foreign brains is a good way to foster mediocrity.

Enjoy the read. Leave a comment or two if you like.

google fiber must target acela express

The demographics of an Acela Express, the business class offering of Amtrak, has

• significant purchasing power  
• ability to influence decisions of their friends 
• ability to influence decisions in their or their clients' organizations

Besides, Google will get their logo everywhere - similar to at&t logo on the trains - in lieu of free service.

Currently, Amtrak trains receive at&t Wi-Fi. For a passenger aboard the DownEaster, there are several dead spots. When there are no deadspots, AT&T wi-fi performance on the train has been anemic, at best.  

to grad or not to grad

Grad students are having to, in some cases, commit 15% of their future 2.5 decades or earning to escape the debt burden. Check out this article on Bloomberg. The stories are indeed sorry tales but nonetheless they are bets taken by adults.

Supply side:

The usual argument that providers of expensive grad education tend to make is that possessing a grad education yields higher earning power over a period of time. Students must not buy into such arguments. You can't drive a car by seeing the rear-mirror.

An interesting turn to this topic could be that of regulation in graduate education. There is no discussion about regulations at the supply end of such programs as the govt allows high-cost programs to advertise. Indeed, similar to qualified investor regulations, the govt must have regulation in the grad education sector. Nonetheless, the counter-argument is that prospective students for graduate education are in a position to make their own decisions accurately.

Demand Side

The usual reasons for students to sign up for expensive Masters programs are:

• A hope that the students will have better future as against status quo
• Laziness to work their way through in the industry and resultant escapism
  
• Genuine career switch needs (Finance professionals wanting to go to sectors such as Tech or Education as those have better job prospects than Finance).
  
• Genuine thirst for knowledge and/or upgrade of skills (this population knows what they are paying for and are usually not prone to be victims)
  
• Potential to enter a Ph.D. program after the Masters. This must be usually done if there is a intense need for intellectual stimulation.
  

Prospective grad students must be cautious to:

• conduct due-diligence w.r.t. placement statistics without undue influence by family or friends
• avoid succumbing to laziness - it will be an expensive escape :)
  

What's the solution?

1. Treat it as a business endeavor: Most of the Masters programs have a very extensive business plan by the schools. These programs are treated as cash-cows or in some cases, are rainmakers for the educational institutes. So should you! Create a thorough business plan complete with range of ROI, scenario-based risk management plan, and alternate paths in case things are not working out. See if you have support system in place for worst case scenarios.
   
2. Gain experience prior to enrolling for Graduate program. This makes the candidate more employable than without experience and allows the big jump in compensation post-grad. However, this goes out for a toss if you have a substantial gain in doing a fast-track combo (undergrad and grad in 5 years instead of just undergrad in 4 years).
   
3. If the prospective candidates decide to go for full-time, try finding fast-track options, unless you are a career-switcher. However, evidence suggests your odds are stacked in your favor if you are a part-time grad student.
   
4. Search for part-time options for the grad program
   

• This helps you keep your experience clock ticking
• This helps to keep the cash-flow
• This also allows you to pace up your studies.
  
• Allows tighter stop losses. For instance, if you are vouching for that MBA in Finance and figured that Dick Bove is saying there will be 150k-200k jobloss at banks, you can either suspend or completely drop out without significant loss

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs,

You will be missed. Several generations will be affected. Your contributions are peerless. I hope you inspired several other inter-disciplinary leaders in several spheres of the society, including but not limited to business.

Here's a tribute from Google at the most valuable ad-board of the world, their own homepage.



Here's a tribute from your own firm:


Bill Gates has noted his tribute here:
http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/Steve-Jobs

Here's a tribute from the educational institution, which you chose not to complete your education at:

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Jobs.html

Eric Schmidt mentioned that you defined a generation. Particularly, I liked this part:

Steve was so charismatically brilliant that he inspired people to do the impossible, and he will be remembered as the greatest computer innovator in history.

Here's a tribute from NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/05/123826622/apple-visionary-steve-jobs-dies-at-56?sc=fb&cc=fp

May your soul Rest in Peace.

biggest gift yet

A multi-faceted Mr. William Dietrich II announced a plan to provide Mellon University with the largest gift yet.

Given that most of the private higher education institutes in this country operate on the basis of endowments, such a big boost will provide significant financial flexibility to the future administrations. This gift becomes effective after Mr. Dietrich passes away. Also, this gift will bring CMU's $1 b fundraising campaign to the $950 m mark.

This puts Mr. Dietrich II in the elite category of being in top 10 largest gifts by an individual to any higher educational institute. The edited version of the event, which was held on Sep 7, 2011, can be seen below.



This is a big boon for inter-disciplinary education especially because Mr. Dietrich gave this gift to primarily support inter-disciplinary studies. He mentioned that it was inspired by the quality of faculty members and alums; in addition, he liked the global approach adopted by the institute.

I am particularly happy because these were the exact reasons why I chose to gather CMU for my graduate education. Given an opportunity, I would back to campus in a heartbeat.

service management and asana.com

If what Justin Rosenstein says here is true, then asana.com may end up becoming a great service management solutions suite. Large companies certainly need some platform similar to that of Asana.

I am yet to check out the beta version and present my review.
asana, IT Service Management, google, facebook

capacity management and twitter

Capacity planning at twitter has clearly come into question with recent whales, especially after allowing picture sharing !

waiting for iphone 5

So, I was at a Starbucks in midtown and overheard the couple next to me speaking about iPhone release date. I was surprised that they came out with such a news on Saturday morning. Anyways, I checked up and found that it was still rumored to be available from Sep 7, 2011.

I've been waiting for iPhone 5 (or whatever the next version is called) myself so I could upgrade. I've thought of trying the Windows phone for a while but could never work towards that. This time around, I will not wait for Apple to fix it's problems. I am not one of the jailbreak junkies and so, I don't care about the jailbreak version of the OS being available. I just want to try the next version.

rendezvous with dara birnbaum

On July 27, CMU NY Alumni Chapter organized an evening rendezvous with Dara Birnbaum, a United States Artists Fellow Award winner and a CMU Alumna.

The press release for the Marian Goodman gallery can be found here. Her prime piece of Arabesque was very thoughtfully done. We got to meet with her Editor as well. The one video work missing a mention in the article but present in the South Gallery is 'Addendum: Autism', which is interesting and it caught my particular interest. I did get a chance to discuss it with her in person and she presented an interesting perspective to it.

She epitomizes the inter-disciplinary interests, which CMU alumni carry. She studied Architecture at CMU and later, moved to Arts and became a dignified personality in it.

Her seminal well-known work is:

• Kiss the Girls: Make them Cry, 1979
• Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, 1978/79 (video) and

At the meet, there was a guest (with someone) who has a NYC foodie blog and he performed some instant magic tricks with people's business cards (such as floating them between his two palms).

Overall, it was a nice evening which was followed by a dinner at Brasserie 81/2.

why don't laptops have ergonomic keyboards?

One more acquaintance of mine got added to the growing list of Carpel Tunnel disease sufferers. She's a consultant and works with her laptop for a good amount of her day whenever she's not busy with meetings at client sites.

It's a shame that none of the laptop makers have come not up with an ergonomic keyboards. Also, it's a shame that in a litigant society such as the United States of America anyone is yet to sue laptop manufacturers for the same.

The day will come when laptop manufacturers, similar to cigarette manufacturers, will be asked to put a note on their products - "prolonged use of laptop is injurious to health" ! The reasons contributing to it would be:

• poor keyboard designs leading to carpel tunnel syndrome
• fertility issues in males if laptop is kept on laps for prolonged periods of time due to poor heat management designs by manufacturers 1
• toasted skin syndrome

Given that laptops are unhealthy for humans by design (... because if you put it in a position to rest your hands, your neck will be in pain and vice-versa), here are some tips for healthy mobile computing. I believe every consultant, sales person, etc. must be aware of these tips.

1. "Laptops Can Damage Male Fertility," M. Hachman, Extreme Tech, 12-09-2004.

SAPped...

SAP was ordered to pay over a billion dollars in damages to Oracle in CA, US. SAP admitted that the firm's subsidiary illegally downloaded Oracle's software. At the same time, SAP estimated the magnitude of damages to be ~40m. However, the jury awarded 1.3bn as damages to Oracle for copyright infringement.

I bet SAP feels a bit SAPped !

PowerPoint = enemy or a friend ?

An interesting article from The New York Times caught my attention as the heading read:

We Have Met the Enemy. He is PowerPoint.

First, I didn't know about the PowerPoint culture in the U.S. military - Microsoft must've made some good dough getting them addicted to PowerPoint. Second, I didn't know that they were obsessed with bullet points - they should check out the Beyond Bullet Points methodology. Third, it surprises me because military folks are supposed to be detail-oriented and Powerpoints are usually not delving in the details. One of my acquaintances had an opinion that Powerpoints are for folks suffering from ADD.

PowerPoint is a way of life for management consultants, especially when you make tons of presentations to clients. If your job lurks around sales or pre-sales, all the more necessary to know powerpoint well. That brings me to the point to share some of important tips:

1. Learn how to make a good pot file.

A good consultant must always have a .pot file as a tool at his/her disposal. This helps you put up good decks in minutes. You don't have to run helter-skelter.

2. Learn how to present a PowerPoint effectively

A polished flawless PowerPoint deck by itself is not the key to success. It is a necessary condition but not sufficient for an effective presentation. Know how to present a powerpoint effectively and this takes us into the realm of why effective communication is important. Beyond Bullet Points is an interesting concept that started in the last decade and one should read it as a tool in their toolkit to effectively apply it if you know the audience hates bullet points.

3. Learn when to use them and when not to

As much as a polished powerpoint is important, it is imperative to know when to use it and when not to. Certain situations, especially in sales, may not require a powerpoint deck.

recession survival skills or business best practices?

A popular magazine came out with an article such as "5 recession survival skills". I condemn this approach of journalists to fill up pages for selling their magazines. 

The points mentioned in this article are good business practices to use even in good times - not just bad times. I fail to understand why would anyone spend more than necessary amount even in good times. In business, thrift has to be a way of  life and a mindset. However, such organizations cease to exist due to their excesses in costs. 

Of course, there are organizations where inefficiencies are in-built and a part of the culture. The case in point is Citi. I had blogged about them way back here. 

limit on executive pays in the banks?

I read this news and I was taken aback: Obama limits pays to top executives of bailed out banks to $500k. Taken aback because I thought Obama was more pragmatic than this. This is a popular move and not the "right" move. 

If you give peanuts, only monkeys will come. If Obama brings in such limits, he will not attract talent. Talent is required to carryout this job with certain dexterity; and such talent is scarce. He can definitely attract some academics such as Vikram Pandit. However, he won't be able to get the go-getters or the true mercinaries required to resolve this large mess. 

Wall St is used to pay for performance. Talent is hard to get. This talent is globally mobile. They will go to other nations and take up occupations there. Jim Rogers has moved to Singapore. Halliburton has moved its headquarters to Dubai. There is a reason why Reuben retired from Citi. He knew that the efforts put into Citi going ahead won't generate adequate returns. 

interesting debate about Google Earth

Gulliver's travels section in The Economist presented this interesting debate regarding Google Earth here. 

Mumbai killing rampage was planned by the terrorists using Google Earth. However, that planning can happen by their personal visits as well. That's how earlier terrorists had planned their attacks in 1992. An Indian court's plea to ban Google Earth from capturing Mumbai pictures is a knee-jerk reaction by folks who lack capacity to do good policy engineering. 

IMHO, anything under the sun can be misused. For instance, the  planes were used in case of 9/11 for bringing about destruction. This does not mean that planes must be banned. 

I still support Google Earth.

regulatory reporting and technology jobs

As economy slips into depression, there is a destruction in the number of jobs. However, a new set of jobs always emerges. This time, the new set of technology jobs are in the fields of "regulatory reporting"

Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Bank of America(NYSE:BAC) have been nationalized. New York is no longer the US financial capital anymore. For now, it is Washington, D.C. They call the shots w.r.t. dividends paid, executive staffing, etc.  Jobs will be created at two locations:

a. Points of operations - for collecting raw data

b. Points of customer-contact - in Washington DC. "You gotta please your sponsors !" was what a leading Director at Citigroup told me once while I worked for him on an assessment project. 

These opportunities are similar to Sarbanes Oxley Act related requirements. They are short-term in nature. I had expressed this point of view in April last year in the form of a post: paulson creates business opportunities for consulting firms. Diamond Management and Technology Consultants agree with this and came out with a point of view (Jan 2009) much after mine (March 2008). 

How can one prepare for these regulatory requirements related positions? Think about it - it's very obvious from the words: regulatory reporting.