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.
I wanted to blog about this musing earlier. However, other competing priorities delayed this.
MSFT has just 5% of the search engine marketshare and wants to expand it to a formidable # 2 slot. Currently, Yahoo has #2 slot and has expressed its dissent in joining hands with Microsoft.
MSFT has resolved to alternative means to capture market share - cash back ! An interesting thought in a dwindling economy and the most bang for the buck as it targets the highly lucrative click-thru-to-revenue.
How can they expand the volumes for the same? 1. Targeting gems at the bottom of the pyramids: I mean the emerging economies !
For instance, if the MSN folks can make their finance site for India better, they will be able to eat up that entire market. Google has no product for that market and the Yahoo product is appalling.
Another example is if MSN can introduce bill-pay for Indian service providers. The population will happily get onto MSN site for paying bills at nominal premiums of INR 10 or a quarter.
2. Focusing their information security dept's innovation to online payment safety.
What is still lacking in their product? accuracy: As against the rival Google, the accuracy of the Live search product is inferior. For instance, I gave a search string of "Sony Cyber-shot W120 Black 7.2 MP". Despite of the fact that the product was available on the website, it wasn't the first one that came up. It came up way at the bottom of the page and that too, I had to scroll down. At Google, the only product in response to this search string was the one I was looking for.
This reminds me that "attention" is a pricey commodity for which every advertiser is craving for. If the search result is not at the top then it loses the relevance.
cheapest prices: Also, the price was not comparing itself to other deals that may be available. However, that's a flaw that even Google has. Google checkout had higher prices for this search than Microsoft search.
I think that MSFT can innovate on the cheapest prices point to get an edge!
Microsoft bid for Yahoo at $31 a share in a bid to gain some market share in the rapidly evolving online ad industry.
An earlier post on this blog here, expressed the possibility of consolidation with Microsoft buying Yahoo. Microsoft senior leadership was astute and kept this possibility on bay for a while. They made their move with an unsolicited bid when the Yahoo stock was beaten down due to lacklustre performance by Yang and the Gang. Larry Ellison moves in similar ways.
The media expressed that there may be anti-trust problems. Now, you gotta be kidding me! Together Microsoft and Yahoo will cover only a quarter of the total space that Google commands. I learnt at least this much in my Business Law class from Prof Hersch. I am not sure why the popular media made these comments. This just indicates how the media runs hurriedly to create sensational headlines rather than providing any thought to it. None other than CNBC said this and other channels followed suit ! This sad display of journalism reminds me of Prof Chris Telmer, who used to rip apart the pink press (financial press) for spreading false notions in the minds of the naive readers. Astute and educated investors read most of the pink media with a grain of salt due to such incidents.
Of course, Yahoo and Microsoft have huge share of email accounts. However, I am not yet sure if they have good enough products to target ads in that fashion. If they build it together, they will save money on building that. May be both already have products in the pipeline...who knows.
Going ahead, we will witness some interesting times in the search space. 1. MSN Money must leverage Yahoo Finance for their content but not the UI. The international market and eye balls (remember - Jewels at the bottom of the pyramid!) that MSN Money will get with the inclusion of Yahoo Finance content on MSN Money will surpass that of Google Finance easily.
Google Finance does not have any grip in the foreign markets - for instance, the Indian market. Whereas Yahoo Finance has a good set of data (though there is room for improvement for the international markets. Besides they roll no the RIC codes and hence, have a standardized convention for naming the stocks.
2. We will have a very colorful time watching the titans clash for the online ads market. MSFT has been ramping up its Live Search staff with good talent from around the globe. They have some way to go in order to make themselves equivalent to that of GOOG. However, they are on the right path.
3. Will MSFT be able to retain the top talent from YHOO? or will they be bought away by GOOG or facebook? Time will tell. Most of the sources I talk in Yahoo with tell me that they will not like to work for MSFT given that when they chose their careers - they had a choice and they actively chose YHOO over MSFT.
Another take on it is that this was a la The Art of War move by MSFT in which MSFT doesn't engage YHOO into a battle but just surrounds it. YHOO has nowhere to go. Mr. Yang and Gang could not maintain a high valuation for the ailing online giant. GOOG cannot make a bid as they dont want another regulator hassle from the DOJ for another anti-trust trial (this time it will be fatal).
In conclusion, 31 bucks a share is not a bad price to pay considering the additional steady revenues it will bring in. Microsoft senior leadership was astute and kept this possibility on bay for a while. Let us see how YHOO responds to this bid.
MSFT has taken the research in India further ahead. This is one of the ways by which knowledge-oriented firms are tightly integrating their supply chains. They are having partnerships with IISc and IITs.
Check this link regarding the work they are doing. I feel that optimization of water usage in agriculture is an essential resaerch for India. Why is discussed in later parts. However, I end this segment with the conclusion that either MSFT is being a really good partner and enhancing their image in India OR MSFT seems to have struck a deal with GoI about helping India in whichever way they can for getting the GoI contracts :) In either case, it works for benefit of India. I hope the researchers/students pick up these projects and get them to the levels where by they become practical and freely available. For instance, Virtual India - a la Google Maps for India by MSFT !
About agri development in India.
As India becomes wealthier, the price of non-tradeable services and wages will increase as the general price level goes up (Balassa Samuelson effect). However, revenues from agriculture will not go up as much (they will go up a bit on count of better practices). Therefore, agriculture as an occupation will become less viable. Therefore, on cost-side, economies of scope and scale will happen ==> we will see consolidation due to smaller farmers finding it infeasible to compete. Mechanized farming will come into the picture as this consolidation happens and the fixed costs requried for mechanized farming start getting justified for the larger farmers.
Now, what must the Govt of India (GoI) do? One of my mentors suggested that GoI must use agricultural subsidy to redeploy agri labor force to some other work.
I feel that this is an extreme step. I think that the education budget can be increased to create vocational institutes which will help ppl choose re-training themselves. If GoI does not have a budget for making the vocational institutes then they must give monetary incentives (say, tax incentives) to private sector companies who can make provide it for profits equal to the tax incentives. If none of this happens then a social entrepreneur can take this up as a non-profit business concept.
Can you imagine having a service provider (having no monopolistic advantages) trying to give you, a user, a hard time with their interface for your interaction. What do you do if you have other options? Switch !
Ease of use, and relevance are of prime importance. There is a reason that there exists a graduate program named "Human Computer Interaction" in some of the leading universities. There is a reason why these students get hired by most of the leading companies quickly. Ease of use does matter.
Check out why Google made it's way much ahead of its competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft. Google has about 55%+ market of the search market. Yahoo is about 25% and Microsoft, a pithy 5-8%. There are many reasons and HCI is one of the prime ones. Larry Page, one of the Google founders, was a HCI grad student ! Their products beat Yahoo hands down. Microsoft was busy with anti-trust trial and totally lost track.
Microsoft has now started having good HCI products in their portfolio. Also, Yahoo has a similar ideology. They still don't have as much user-inclusion in their product developments. An acquaintance from Microsoft program management team for their search product explained me their process and I believe that they still need to allocate more time for the usability piece. However, to be fair - they are getting better!
Ray Ozzie has discovered that Google is way ahead and MSFT was left behind. However, he also respects them. At the same time, he is pushing his product dev team to get their act right with Live search product. He wants Microsoft back in this game. This market is going to double from USD 40b to USD 80b in 3 years. Microsoft cannot afford to stay back with a mere 5-8% market share.
One way to get back in the game is consolidating the smaller players. I foresee this consolidation happening. How - I dont know....! Let us say, what if the software giant makes a kill and buys out Yahoo? Picture this -
At today's price of 30-32 and outstanding shares of 1.34b, we get about 40b market-cap. If MSFT makes a bid of 20% higher, it will be about USD 48-50 b. MSFT can afford this purchase without any leverage - given their warchest of cash they've built up on their books. Besides, they needn't buy the whole pie; they can just buy a 51% stake at about USD 24 to 25 b. If they wait a bit, they can get it for cheaper as the stock market capitulates due to economic outlook - lol !
MSFT-Facebook romance is going on anyways. (Is this due to the Harvard connection???) So, MSFT will have a good usability team at hand and will be back in the game to take head on with GOOG. This wont be a serious threat to Google because the merger will be disruptive for both the companies from a talent perspective. However, this move will still strengthen Microsoft's position vis-a-vis Google and this move is the only way for Microsoft to get into this search arena, if they are serious about it.
Going back to the usability game, it is interesting to note that Govt of America has considered this seriously and has guidelines at usability.gov.
In line with the same argument, I want to update my visitors with this piece of news. Domination - but - only of the multimedia segment! With movies on iPods and iTV as the next big thing along with IPTV, Apple will compete with other players such as 2wire who have got big business for their STBs (Set top boxes). IPTV is going to be a big business and Apple will ensure that under the leadership of Steve Jobs, they get a good chunk of it.
So, here's a thing - Jobs is not an original guy but has the ability to see the markets well and execute a project to the finish and sell his product. Gates beat him at that but Gates is out of the game now. I hope Jobs will be able to at least get over Ozzie...if not, then that's sheer lack of competence . However, I do not want to sound as if I am writing him off completely. He still remains a legend in this industry for reasons such as the flair he possesses, the effect he creates, etc.
