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. 

is itsm relevant in the current economy?

David Cannon's name alone drew a good crowd for the monthly meet of ITSMF USA's - New York LIG. The weather was aweful.

The topic for tonight's discussion was "Is ITSM relevant in the current economy?" An effective presentation indicating why is ITSM not only relevant but also effective. Some practical tips and suggestions helped the presentation worth while. He did bring up Majid's slide on Service Strategy. He also brought up a slide on a topic that I was a Teaching Assistant on - "Enterprise Architecture as a Business Strategy" by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David Robertson.

IMHO, ITSM is relevant for parties interested in realizing the complete potential of IT. I have seen environment where businesses abdicate from their responsibility of making IT as a service successful. Such environments are relatively hopeless. This is where the pitch for a Service Manager comes in. Think about it.

It felt good to be back to these LIG meetings. I used to attend those until Nov 07 and thereafter started my travel projects. Now, I will be attending these on a regular basis as I am working locally and can control my timelines.

After the presentation meeting, the organizers, myself, and David decided to go out for socializing. We had a few drinks at Connolly's in midtown Manhattan after the presentation was done. This took me back to the CMU days. The last I met David Cannon was at Walnut Grill in Shadyside, (Pittsburgh, PA) in early '07 while he was guiding us for the CMU SMO Student Interest group.

I regularly keep updated via various sources. One of the most under-rated and relatively unknown source in the developed world is the Infosys blog on ITSM - ITSM Service Matters!

imminent boom in healthcare IT...

This post might sound opportunistic. However, I have to discuss this thought as I see new markets opening up. Specifically, here I discuss for the benefit of most of the IT management professionals who visit this blog of mine. 

Here's the money trail for the healthcare IT boom to come in the next few years. Immediate gainers would be folks experienced in EMR and allied fields. 

Certified professionals will be in heavy demand and will have good earning potential.  One must keep the pulse of this market. Networking can be achieved via HIMSS.

Research opportunities now emerge for healthcare topics as the funds will be diverted towards the same. Those interested in PhDs must check out this as a potential problem to solve and a solution that helps reduce costs for the companies, the taxpayers, as well as the govt. 

ultimate ad spot

Yes - if you partner with Google then you can get the ultimate ad spot ever - the Google page. 

Check out this ad for the G1 phone. 

With the Learn more - Google indicates the discrete nature it always exercises in its approach. A gentle giant. If they wanted, they could say "Buy It" alike some other websites. However, they are elegant and they say "Learn More"

I feel like extending my contract with Tmobile just for having this phone.  However, on second thoughts, I feel that I must wait for a second version of the phone and some other carrier as Tmobile's service in NYC is inferior relative to Verizon. 

 

consultants...

Dilbert presents Dogbert the consultant !

check here ...

It is hilarious !

best practices....(and Dilbert)

Dilbert series presents another amazing strip about best practices. 

Check here. 

This makes me think if all those companies who want to copy best practices from other companies have competitive advantage? I say this because some so-called ITIL pundits indicate that the ITIL publications creates level-playing grounds for companies not knowing best practices. 

However, I question this statement. Best practices will keep evolving and are tailored to a specific environment. ITIL is  a best practices compendium as of May 2007. More best practices have evolved since then. Hence, the companies can gain competitive advantage in their IT Management only if they have people with right skillsets.  Human capital is as important as practices in place. 

advertisements in india are creative

As a part 1 of this series, I would like to make an assertion that Indian advertisements are fairly creative even if they have social constraints to not go beyond certain boundaries.

A highly focused ad mechanism by a company in the buses in Mumbai. This takes advantage of c k prahlad's hypothesis about jewels at the bottom of the pyramid as well as creative marketing. Some creative entrepreneurial thought must have gone into this.

In my trip to India after 40 months, I wanted to experience every means of transport in Mumbai - the trains, the buses, the taxis, the autorickshaws, everything. I boarded a bus and lo behold, I found an entire system with a speaker system, a small screen and what not.

++:
Local ads can be directed into this device based on the payments by the local ad-spot bidders. This piqued my interest and I further delved into knowing about the company.

They are capturing a significant time spent by folks traveling. They can extend this concept to the first class compartments in the railways as well.

--:
They haven't yet made a facility to update ads real-time. The ads are still uploaded using some hardware mechanism. This will lead to lack of scalability after some time. The marginal cost will increase as the volumes increase and hence, they have to figure out a mechanism to uplink the unit in the bus using telecommunication device so that the content can be uploaded real time and assets can be tracked from a central location.

One could expect this in developed nations. However, in India, the entrepreneurs were scared about the investment due to potential losses due to multitude of reasons such as lack of public property safety, ability of generate adequate revenues, and technology limitations. However, apparently, noone had time or interest to do any harm to that screen. Yes, Mumbai has become so expensive that there is an implicit self-select mechanism built in. Even the slum dwellers are fairly civic conscious now!

India - lage raho....lage raho..

a graduate program in service management!

Check here for the new program at CMU for experienced candidates in the field of Service Management. It is being offered by Institute of Software Research in the School of Computer Science.

Already, ITIL v3's Service Strategy was successfully bid for authorship by one of the CMU folks (Majid Iqbal) earlier this decade. Now, ITSQC in conjunction with ISR and SCS has introduced this new program. The pitch sounds convincing. I wouldn't be surprised if PRC govt sends its folks to learn in this program in order to support their budgeted 5-year plan to increase services in China.

msft: accelerating market share?

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!