Empires Are First Built in the Mind

Before any empire can be built the seed has to be sown in the mind and this seed is nothing but the thoughts we create. Any successful venture, be it a company or an enterprise works on certain fundamental laws which govern the internal machinery. The pivotal factor in determining success in any team or group is essentially human interaction and at the base of this is human communication. How we fellow denizens come into play amongst each other. This may be based on a number of factors based on the framework of the psyche of each other. But ultimately it comes to morality, as perspectives differ there may be violations or breach of trust but the ultimate aim would be to create group synergy. This paradigm would call for another approach which is not so commonly seen. It is the spiritual angle, as in a work place we tend to identify with various parameters which we ourselves set. We need to look beyond these artificial veils of bias which are very subtle and ingrained deeply. The truth is all of us are intrinsically good but because of certain predispositions tend to alienate ourselves from the crux of human exchanges. Any exchange or a relationship can be pleasant and this would give synergy and contribute to growth and eventually end up in successful empires. But for this we have to understand how this subtle machinery of human interaction works. We find that people working together may be from different backgrounds or in fact have different belief systems which they adhere to. So here we need to exercise utmost caution and constantly be aware of our exchanges with one other as the other person may infer a common sign as a sign of dissent based on perception. So we have to trace the origin of interaction which is as follows: starting with the thoughts it tends to manifest as feelings which are conveyed through signs and eventually through the vocal means. It comes forth in action and behavior which is observed. So here if we realize a subtle truth, our entire approach changes and distances melt improving the foundation of human interaction which is communication. As the famous quote goes, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience but we are spiritual beings having a human experience”. So in view of this when we realize we all are essentially spiritual beings coming into interaction in this field of play, here specifically the work place then the feeling of universal brotherhood dawns and our exchanges become so smooth and loving that the relationship is nurtured and the work culture is empowered and success is just a byproduct of this which can be cherished.

By Rakesh S

M&M – Mothers and Mobiles

Times have changed. From the time the husband earned, and the wife stayed at home to the time now when the husband earns and the wife earns too. But the wife still runs the house and manages children. So, how does she manage to run the house while still at work?

The simple answer to this intriguing question is also simple – through the mobile phone. For working women this gizmo empowers them to run their house and keep a check on their children while still at work. For full-time working mothers the issue of not being able to give enough time to their children oftentimes plagues their minds. Well the cell phone solves this problem partly if not totally.




As per my observation the maximum calls are made close to or after lunch time as this is generally the time when children return from school (see figure given above). (Data has been taken from ANU, AMTA; Impact of mobile phone on work life balance; March 2008.) Questions about their day at school, some test/exam or some competition follow. Children are then instructed to wash up and change and have proper lunch. Often the children’s nannies are also given a series of instructions over the phone.

An appealing topic of discussion between mothers and children on the phone is ‘homework’. The mom’s tone will become strict and she’ll enquire about whether the child has completed his homework or not. If he has done it he will receive a one-minute praise and the mother will then ask the poor child to learn some spellings or do some Math. Only then the child will receive the ticket to go out and have fun or watch some TV. It is torture for the child. I can say this because I have experienced it so many times in my childhood, when my mum called up from her office to check on me. She especially called up during exams and if some exam didn’t go well she first reprimanded for being careless and not preparing well and then consoled and motivated to do better for the next paper.

The calls again peak in the evenings (see figure given above). This is generally the time when children go out to play. I have many times heard negotiations between mothers and daughters/sons – children pleading to go out and play and mothers instructing them to first complete their homework. Many a times children beg to play with their best friend an hour or so longer and it is up to their mommies to allow them or not. It is really fascinating to witness such discussions. It reminds me of my carefree childhood days.

To conclude – Corporates should provide mobile phone allowance to working mothers as a welfare measure and aid them to balance their work with life at home … LOL

By Sakshi Prakash

The Mckinsey Way

As I had nothing better to do this weekend (apart from watching a couple of movies on my laptop), I read this really insightful book – The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel. Mckinsey of course needs no introduction. McKinsey is to management as Cartier is to jewellery! Personally, I think it’s a must read for consultants or anyone working in similar functions. This book has a lesson or two for everybody – from people working at the Director level right down to the analyst/associate level.
Though EmPower is not an out-an-out consulting company, we can learn quite a few things from this power pack and try to apply them.
I’ve picked up a few topics, which I really liked, to elaborate on. The first topic is the ‘Rules to live by’ as discussed in the book. These are the rules which McKinsey consultants find very useful for problem solving.
Rules to Live by:
1. 80/20 Rule – this one is a well-known rule. E.g. 80% of sales come from 20% of the sales force. This one is a universal rule for most businesses. By keeping eyes open to this, businesses can come up with ways to improvise.
2. Don’t boil the ocean – like boiling the ocean to get a handful of salt. The mantra is to work smarter, not harder. When problem solving for a client or your own company, don’t try to analyze everything. Be selective and figure out the priorities.
3. Find the key drivers – there can be 50 different factors affecting the sale of your product, but you should focus on the most important ones – let’s say X, Y, Z and ignore the rest. This saves you from boiling the ocean.
4. The Elevator Test – know your solution so well that you can explain it to the client in 30 seconds. If you can do that then you understand what you are doing well enough to sell your solution. To know why this is known as the ‘elevator test’ and how you can encapsulate months of hard work in 30 seconds ... read the book.
5. Hit Singles – this rule says – you can’t do everything, so don’t try. Do what you are supposed to and get it right. The author gives three reasons for this:
a. It’s impossible to do everything single handed
b. If you do it once, you raise impractical expectations from those around you
c. Once you fail to meet expectations, it’s extremely tough to regain credibility
6. Look at the big picture – “perhaps the most valuable thing I learned during my time at the firm was to think about the big picture – to take a step back, figure out what I’m trying to achieve and then look at whatever I’m doing and ask myself, ‘Does this really matter?”, former McKinsey professional.
These are some of the rules given in the paperback. There are a few other good ones too.
Another very resourceful technique which I found was the way of ‘doing research’ as discussed in this volume. Any problem-solving exercise starts with research. One should, however, avoid reinventing the wheel. Whatever the nature of the problem is, chances are that someone has already done something similar. The key then is to look at such previous studies and if possible learn from those who worked on similar problems.
The volume also gives out a few tried-and-tested research tips to jump start your research process. Apart from this it also touches upon - PDNet; an electronic database the firm maintains; the commercial databases McK subscribes to and the excellent business library the firm maintains. All of these aid in the very vital research process.
Other interesting topics include – team building/managing, selling a study, managing hierarchy, work-life balance, and conducting interviews.
The book emphasizes on the fact–based structured thinking culture at McK. I would definitely like to dig into this further and try to understand what structured thinking actually is and how to go about developing it in me for tackling complex managerial problems (of course, this is for the future).
All in all, a great read for self as well as for business improvement!!

By Sakshi Prakash

Reference:
The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel

Raison d’ etre

Life is unpredictable! Sorry to disappoint some of you, but life is in fact quite predictable. The certainty about life is omnipresent though in its subtle form. It’s out there but only for those who dare to look in that direction.
When one looks from the angle of management, life is like an ongoing business activity with each individual comparable to a business unit. Like any business entity each person has his strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, core competencies and functions, not in a vacuum but in a dynamic micro and macro environment.
The reason why I am saying that life is predictable is due to this little term called ‘destiny.’ Everybody’s life is predetermined. That omnipotent supernatural power exists. I’m aware that many of us don’t believe in either. Some are atheists, some agnostics and I respect that. A couple of years ago even I did not believe in God or destiny, but now I do. What was the cause behind this metamorphosis of thought, this radical shift, this sudden transformation of my perception? Actually, when I mull over it, it wasn’t sudden at all. The questions were there in my psyche for a long time. Questions like – Why do we need to worship? Follow a religion? Obey a guru? What is the purpose of our existence? Etc., etc. These I suppose nag everyone’s mind at some point or the other. I couldn’t fathom a satisfactory answer to these questions. For people like us I realized the answers lie in becoming receptive, to look at a different perspective, to dare to change.
Now I’ll attempt to explain my rationale behind my beliefs. Being a student of management I can’t help but look at everything from a managerial viewpoint. Using various scientific quantitative techniques one can forecast the future and predict the business environment. At the same time in order to predict on the long-term techniques such as Delphi, expert opinion is used which has a qualitative basis. Similarly, to enable us to forecast our lives there are n number of science art combos which are quite accurate. These methods are proven, have been published in magazines and showcased on television. Just to name a few of these – Brighusanhita, Suryasanhita, Nadi Astrology etc. You can search for them on the Internet as well but, you’ll have to see it to believe it. It’s unbelievable how accurately these can predict about you and your life. Of course deviations are always there. In business forecasts there is always a little difference between actual values and forecasted values. This applies to life as well!
Some of you might argue that through hard work one can change ones destiny. According to me, this is partially true. Destiny can be modified, but cannot be altered altogether. It can be modified through your ‘karma.’ One has to pay for his past karma no matter what. What one can endeavor to do at the most is alleviate the punishment levels. We can look at it this way; there is a tolerance level till which one can make changes. Beyond that there exists a very rare chance of any alteration.
According to Rig Veda, destiny and hard work are two extremes of the human perception. The reality is that both go hand in hand. One has to maintain a balance between the two extremes. For example, a farmer should mow and plough his fields well i.e. put in his efforts. It’s up to good fortune to bring in rains at the right time. Only then he can reap a good harvest.
Those, to whom all of this is resonating as illogical and opinioned, try to look at it as a different school of thought, a different kind of concept maybe…

By Sakshi Prakash

The Changing Face of Social Media

‘Another hottest Web 2.0 startup remains unprofitable.’ This is the kind of news that we hear often these days. One of the greatest challenges of our times has been monetizing user-generated content. This at a time when socializing digitally has become an integral part of our lives.

Innovate or Make Way for Others

Companies that once revolutionized and dominated new industries – like Yahoo!, a Web 2.0 start-up, has seen its profits dwindle and its dominance decrease over the years as others like Google made it run for its money, putting the company up for grabs for the likes of Redmond-based Microsoft – make way for newer ones. Yahoo!, which had long been the No. 2 search engine, behind Google, has been overtaken by YouTube in the United States. YouTube searches grew 114% year over year from November 2007 to November 2008.

Friendster had a great initial vision, and sparked the social networking revolution by allowing friends to hook up with others. The company had an amazing lead and potential. Then MySpace came along and beat it at its own game. But we should not write Friendster’s obituary, just yet. It is seeing a revival of sorts, only this time in Asia. Friendster is now the leading social network in Asia, with over 55 million registered users.

On the other hand, early birds in Social Networking like SixDegrees.com, LiveJournal, AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, etc. are nowhere on the horizon. What they lacked were self-sustaining business models.


Critical Mass Does Not Translate into High Monetization

We are expected to have more than one billion Social Media users in three years time. We, today, have social networking sites, with millions of users, that lack self-sustaining revenue streams. Social Media participants indulging in high-value transactions that translate into cash money would be any promoter’s dream.

Facebook and MySpace have over 200 million users each. But what they lack are robust revenue streams since they are primarily dependant on advertising monies. Twitter, the darling of the Web 2.0 fraternity, hasn't made any real money and has been surviving on Venture Funding. Digg is still losing money on its pitiful revenue numbers. The central point here is that monetization is not happening despite high adoption.


Challenges Associated with Advertising in an Environment of User-Created Content

Companies are now realizing that their erstwhile revenue stream i.e. online advertising is failing to make the business grow. Players are now ready to experiment and this could not have come at a better time. As per eMarketer, increase in online advertising spend on social networking sites in the US (the largest social networking market) is expected to slow down to 10.2% in 2009 as compared to 33.8% in 2008. A Universal McCann Study in 2008 found that only 14% of users trust advertising, whereas 78% trust recommendations of other consumers.

The likes of P&G are becoming averse to advertising on social networking sites and are now concentrating on engaging their consumers through the launch of their own social networking Websites, running Digital Media promotions on other social networking sites, etc.

"I have a reaction to [Facebook] as a consumer advocate and an advertiser: What in heaven's name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”, Ted McConnell, Procter & Gamble's GM for Interactive Marketing and Innovation.


Alternate Ways of Monetizing Are Here to Stay

eMarketer predicts that Facebook and MySpace are expected to enhance their self-serve advertising systems to allow consumers and businesses to buy and sell real-world goods and services in 2009. MySpace is even trying to monetize video content.

Google’s own YouTube, which relies heavily on user-generated content, remains a costly experiment in the high-traffic, low-revenue advertisement business. Google is now expected to try its hand at monetizing this content. Video search already represents 26% of Google’s total search volume.

LinkedIn turned cash-flow positive in 2006, in its third year of operations. As of January 2007, the average LinkedIn user was 39 years old and made $139,000 a year. Of the total user-base, 89,000 were Chief Executive Officers. About 45% of LinkedIn's revenue comes from the monthly subscriptions corporations need to pay to send a meaningful amount of messages as they try to plug into other people's networks of contacts.

Some East-Asian players are also bucking the trend. QQ (from China) had $523 million in revenues in 2007 and an operating profit of $224 million. Only 13% of this came from advertising. The Chinese online advertising market is not as developed as the American one and this induces the players to look for revenue streams other than advertising. It also shows that even in developing markets like China, users are ready to pay for services. This model can be implemented in other markets.


Emergence of New Business Models

Gone are the days of relying on just online advertising. Online players are tweaking their revenue models and launching application platforms. Facebook’s platform, first launched in 2007, now has tens of thousands of applications. MySpace, which mostly relies on Google’s OpenSocial platform, has 4,500 apps available to users, and 211 million applications have been installed. The iPhone, which launched its App Store in July 2008 has more than 15,000 applications, and they’ve been downloaded more than 300 million times. But none has a direct payments platform to let applications collect micropayments from users.

A look at the big news from recent industry shows, like DEMOfall and TechCrunch 5.0, reveals emerging trends that will drive technology innovation next year. Those trends include cloud computing, open mobile platforms and semantic search.

The mobile platform is also expected to be a reliable revenue generator. A case in point is INQ1 – the world’s first social networking mobile phone and has online services like Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Skype and Last.fm integrated into the phone's operating system, allowing a user to, for example, access their Facebook contacts from the phone’s address book and see a friend's profile picture when they call.

Some players are trying to capture the crowdsourced pools of knowledge floating across the Internet and use them for commercial customer service. Salesforce.com’s recently launched customer service application ‘Service Cloud’ is trying to do just that.

Way Forward

In these challenging times it remains to be seen as to how ready Web 2.0 Start-ups will experiment with newer technologies. Going by the numbers alone, 2009 does seem to be an interesting year. According to Nielson Online, Twitter is growing phenomenally and their number of unique visitors was up 422% in 12 months (August 2008 data for the US). Facebook is expected to have 300 million active users by the end of this year. The numbers are there but what is required now is monetizing user-generated content.

Apart from the new and upcoming models, I would stick my neck out and propose a subscription-based business model. It does seem to be a model worth exploring. It will reduce the number of participants, but will bring in much-needed revenues for the players.

By Navneet S.Aujla

Charcoal Painting by Karthik

Brushwork by A Geeta