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Saturday, January 31, 2004The Innovation/Productivity Quotient and ITVia optimize magazine John Hagel and John Seely Brown argue that instead of asking how IT improves productivity, we should ask how IT can enhance business innovationStandardizing and automating processes-and eliminating routine jobs to show quick productivity gains-IT has minimized the role of people. It's time to bring them back into the equation argues the article and adds that the kind of business innovation that has driven productivity until now is quite different from the innovation that will shape the next wave of improvement. Thoughts to ponder. | Variable pay guidelines in place at SingaporeSingapore annouces variable pay guidelines- expected to be implemented by this year end Singapore, one of the few developed nations in Asia, annouces variable pay structure to remain competitive. Singapore worried about its future is initiating a lot of measures to bring down the cost structure and maintain competitiveness |Godliness is next only to wealthiness -via IHTStudy on correlation between religious beliefs and economic progress Our central perspective is that religion affects economic outcomes mainly by fostering religious beliefs that influence individual traits such as honesty, work ethic, thrift and openness to strangers. The article aslo points out that at a certain point, increases in church, mosque and synagogue attendance tended to depress economic growth. |Retail major up for sale in Singapore Via IHTRobinson Co., Singapore's oldest and largest department store company, advertises "the sale worth waiting for. This is like the Harrod's in London offering itself for sale - the almost 150 year old retail center is up for grabs!! |India is booming, but not for everyone Via International Herald TribuneThe economic restructuring of the last decade had finally taken root and helped Indian industry become globally competitive Interestingly,while the GDP is growing at 8%+, not even 2 percent of the Indian population has been directly affected by the boom, and point to the abysmal state of infrastructure in urban centers and the stark poverty in the villages.The challenge is making the growth more broadbased, easier said than done given the distribution of employed across organised and unorganised sectors and the need for enterprises to look more competitve. |Friday, January 30, 2004Amazon and Ebay - Opposite approach towards growthVia washingtonpost - A very intersting study in contrast between Amazon and EbayEBay and Amazon.com, the Internet's top two e-commerce sites, are taking opposite approaches to growth. EBay raised its prices this month for the fourth year in a row, while Amazon renewed its pledge to keep cutting prices even if it means lower profits and more. |Thursday, January 29, 2004Mckinsey advises caution in deploying RFID technologiesEmbracing RFID may mean significant investment in IT by retailers says this article and therefore advises caution At the present state of readiness, investments in RFID may have positive returns only under few circumstances, argue these consultants. |99 Cents Only Stores' Efficient IT Infrastructure -via CIOINSIGHTA case study of leveraging Small IT budget for significant returns in Business99 Cents Only Stores' low-budget roots are supported by a highly efficient IT infrastructure that helped them earn $863 million in sales in 2003, up 21 percent over the previous year, while spending less than $5 million on IT - Read on.. |Wednesday, January 28, 2004Businessweek on the Indian IPO market opportunitiesSizzling growth and an undervalued market have buyers lining up for IPOsAn objective but a brief assessment about prospects for outside investments in India -- Even if India is not shining - India is definitely changing.. | Shoshana Zuboff defining support economy - 20th century form of capitalism is dead Via FastcompanyShoshana Zuboff in Fastcompany : We want more than just goods and services, paychecks and promotions. We want support in living our increasingly complex lives as we choose. These new desires pave the way to a new economy built upon providing the individualized advocacy and assistance we require in every aspect of consumption: a "support economy."| With bloggers inside, Davos secrets are outInternational Herald Tribune says :This year the barbarians were not protesting at the gates of the World Economic Forum; they were inside and blogging. A growing group of executives for both companies and nonprofit groups used their personal Web logs to tell the outside world what was happening in the heart of global capitalism. |Cisco Chief Calls Productivity New Engine of Wealth -Via RajeshThe next big thing in technology is going to change dramatically our standard of living,If productivity grows 1 percent per year, your standard of living doubles every 72 years. If it grows at 3 percent, which I think is probable, you're talking every 24 years - John F.Chambers, CISCO in NY Times Interesting article that include other observations like -There is a massive shift in wealth from West to East; The capacity for innovation to fill in displaced jobs in the western markets etc.. |Usability analysis of US presidential campaign sitesThis is a nice comparitive analysis of US presidential campaign by a well known usability expert - Jesse James Garrett also called JJ. Adaptivepath, the company that has published this report is one of my favourite places to visit - years ago when I was trying to understand websites - one of the frequent places I used to visit used to be this site and blogs associated with key people of the company like peterme.com. |Tuesday, January 27, 2004The utility business model and future of computing businessIBM Research - The utility business model and its future role in computing A scholarly perspective of utility computing with a good historical view. |Chinese company to challenge Microsoft's OfficeEvermore's product combines traditional productivity suite components into one application This is indeed interesting -- can you guess about the outcome in let's say 2 years from now - even if Evermore captures 10% of the world market - it could qualify to be called a success and what would be the implication if Evermore captures 25% plus in the chinese market.... |Quick chat with Jeffrey SachsJeffrey attacks the weeds in the capitalist landscape - Via Fastcompany Jeffrey sachs says - "It's a mistake to think that globalization is automatically beneficent and should run its due course--but also to think that it ought to be shut down." |The Four Bases of Organizational DNA - Execution Culture in organizationsTrait by trait, companies can evolve their own execution cultures Consultants from Booz, Allen and Hamilton argue that the execution culture of an organisation rests fundamentally in the organisation structure. No company may ever totally master the enigma of execution. But the most resilient and consistently successful ones have discovered that the devil is in the details of organization. For them, organizing to execute has truly become a competitive edge concludes the report - A good report |Billion-dollar outsourcing on the rise !!Datamonitor Study shows number of deals with a value greater than $100 million increased by 49 percent to 244, and deals worth more than $1 billion more than doubled to 29 Outsourcing has to be played differently - moreso when the government spending has doubled and there is a big surge in mega deals -IBM leads the list of service providers here - Very interesting report. |Britain has overtaken America as an online retail marketonline retailing is booming so fast in Britain - Economist magazine Interesting .. Why is its online retailing not roaring ahead, to maintain its previous lead in America? The very modernity of its traditional retailing may be one reason. Americans are already accustomed to fiercely competitive pricing and to 24/7 shopping. And they can park easily at the mall. Try that in Oxford Street.| Hongkong is bouncing back?A Boom Built By Beijing Hong Kong is coming back, thanks mainly to China's largesse |Monday, January 26, 2004We shall put an end to SPAM in two years : Bill GatesGates aims to wipe out spam Mr Gates' plans for anti-spam software include the inclusion of "human challenges" which force the e-mail sender to solve a puzzle or the computer sending the message to do a simple computation. This would be easy for a machine sending a few e-mails, but expensive and difficult when dealing with lots of spam. "The ultimate solution would be to make senders of e-mail pay a fee if their mail was rejected as spam. "Payment at risk", the electronic equivalent of a stamp, would not deter genuine e-mailers who would be confident their mail would be accepted, Mr Gates said. Lets wait and see..| Steve Jobs : Apple in Good ShapeSteve Jobs says analysts should stop worrying about market share and focus on profits. And moving beyond Macs could boost both says Businessweek Irrepressible| US dollar further expected to fall downThe falling dollar can have worrsiome implications for the rest of the world - Businessweek's timely article on this topic |Sunday, January 25, 2004Amazon can recommend restaurants - Via Seth GodinAmazon.con can now recommend restaurants in US locations! I have long tracked Amazon initiatives - several path breaking moves have propelled Amazon into a powerhouse that it is today. I wonder why Amazon does not have a footprint in Asia - why not set up an amazon warehouse in an Asian City - say Singapore or Hong kong? |India's space program - NY Times Special ReportThe New York Times has published a special report on India's space program today. |Fedex charts growth initiativesSix Degrees of preparation- Initiative at Fedex The initiative, called the 6x6 Transformation, aims to keep FEDEX nimble in the face of fast-changing customer needs - Proof that best performing companies keep investing in new initatives to become more competitive, change with the changing times and prepare to cover more ground. Fedex is always an inspiring company to watch - more so with new initiatives like this. |Saturday, January 24, 2004IT Jobs: Not A BirthrightOutsourcing is a business imperative and CXO needs to focus on innovating more says this article Brian Gillooly, Editor-in-Chief of Optimize magazine advises corporations to make the best out of outsourcing opportunties. |Nicholas Carr on BloggingA slightly dated view but interesting |Don't Hurry, Be Happy - Mahesh Murthy's interesting viewpointAmbition Syndrome and leading a meaningful and enjoyable life Mahesh Murthy's column in businessworld is known for its contrarian perspective - In this article Mahesh talks about finding happiness in measured steps - A simple idea expressed in a very nice way |Use Amazon to donate money for political campaignsvisitors to Amazon can use a feature to contribute up to $200 to their favorite U.S. presidential candidate. The megaretailer quietly launched the service late Thursday night to--in the company's own words--take "the friction out of grassroots contributions to presidential candidates." Amazon shall charge 5% service charge for this service!! |Micheal Dell SpeakDell- Twenty years and $40 billion. They seem like good round numbers Dell is a fascinating company and is clearly poised to do much better in the months to come - a very down to earth speaking founder Michael Dell's interview |IT companies margin fallingIT companies are readjusting to a new thing - falling margins This is perhaps a sign of the industry maturing. The profit margins are perhaps headed downwards towards parity in margins with other industries.. |online arms race for searchKeywords are big earners for the likes of Google, Yahoo and AOL and guess what happens : Lawsuit follows!Google, Yahoo, and other search companies sell keywords to the highest bidders. Whenever Web surfers enter those words into the search box, they receive a list of results that includes spots for the advertiser who bought those terms. This is a creating issues with some.. Read on| Friday, January 23, 2004Offshoring - Tipping Point?Fastcompany's View on Offshoring Fastcompany cites the valley's answer: "You go wherever you need to go to get the job done in the best and cheapest way," "Here America is trying to export capitalism and democracy, it's been one of USA national goals, and now that US has succeeded at it, the US is awed and even afraid of it! That is the greatest irony of all this."| Inverting the IT pyramid - News.com articleInverting the IT pyramid - An interesting Phenomenon the IT services sector has become one of the fastest-growing segments of the IT industry. Whether it is IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing, managed services or utility computing services, any IT service that helps enterprises increase productivity and reduce costs is in demand. Thanks Rajesh for first pointing out to this article| Businessweek on DemographicsA very important phenomenon - this could potentially change the global competitive scenario Several friends tell me that more and more Europe looks like a pensioner's paradise. The much talked about BRIC report heavily factors in the demographic pattern contributing to the ascendancy of Brazil, Russia, India and China becoming economic big powers amongst several other factors. Some of the points raised in the Businessweek article include:• In Italy, where the total national debt is already more than 105% of GDP, retirees will outnumber active workers by 2030. • Japan would have to increase immigration elevenfold from its current level to make up for the nation's low fertility rate and rapid decline in its working population. • And assuming current demographic and economic trends continue, the European Union's share of total global output will shrink from 18% today to 10% in 2050. Japan's share would decline from 8% to 4%. | China assumes almost centerstage at WEF, DavosBusinessweek files that China has no shortage of domestic and individual capital shall continue to grow aggressively and is likely to become the world's engine. Just about every big business topic seems to depend on China in some important way, from global economic growth to the weakness of the dollar against the euro, Japan's economic recovery, and the latest innovations in high tech. With 9.9% growth in the final quarter of 2003, China is Asia's locomotive economy. And if such rapid expansion continues, as seems likely, it could soon become the world's big engine. Must read for everyone interested about the global developments.| Google is making concerted attempts to spread its wingsGoogle spawns social networking service After Compariosn shopping, News, Enhanced Search offerings comes this next initiative.. Google would be a very interesting company to watch - particularly with the IPO looming around |Thursday, January 22, 2004Webservices market -2004 Year to watch2004 will be make-or-break for all new entrants to webservices webservices is an interesting space to watch- not so much for what has been acheived but in terms of the potential. |Deal to watch - Satyam's other Raju is back with Megasoft dealThis is about a man to be watched - and this deal would be something to watch Srini Raju is known for his aggression and possibly with this deal and the Prolease -US BPO connections - Srini can potentially get into centerstage again - Srini's contribution to the growth of Satyam is well recognised by many who have witnessed satyam's meteoric rise in its early days.. |Nandan View on OutsourcingNandan's very well thought out views on outsourcing |Michael Porter on Strategy for India's competitivenessMichael Porter on improving India's competitivenessIf I had a magic wand I can wave for India this would be it — state and city competitive models to deal with this hugely complex country, rather than trying to control it from the Centre - View of the Strategist's strategist.. Obviously India needs to think hard and act more hard to acheive is potential - it would not be based on natural flow or selective initiatives.. |Wednesday, January 21, 2004IBM posts solid growth - Positive signal for IT industryIBM service revenue growth is extremely good news for the IT industry. This is perhaps the best indicator about the direction of growth of the services industry and further reinforces the idea that IBM restructuring and focus is beginning to yield results |India to lead the next big IT wave :Edward YourdonNow it is the turn of Yourdon about India and IT Yourdon is one of the legends in the IT profession - Read about him at www.yourdon.com |IT MNCs to hire 13,000 pros in 2004 in IndiaInteresting Report on IT MNC hiring in India The Floodgates are getting open - IT MNC's to recruit huge workforce for leveraging India as offshore center for providing IT services globally |Tuesday, January 20, 2004Good to Global - Infosys PerspectiveInfosys and ability for creative destruction - Business standard's new series This is an outstanding attempt by Business Standard to make CEO's reflect on best of management thinking in their own realms - Here Business Standard brings N.R.Narayanamurthy to reflect on Harvard Professor and best seller author and the reigning guru on Innovation - Clayton M Christensen's perspective... A very significant initiative by Business Standard |Transaction based pricing - Mega BPO dealTransaction Based Pricing for a BPO deal won by Phaneesh for Igate Increasingly all major deals shall tend to be structured on performance and value add - this public news item reinforces the belief that this shall happen sooner in all the major deals.. All major Indian IT companies need to master this approach to get to the centerstage of the world of IT services |Monday, January 19, 2004The 2004 Editors' Choice Awards -Intelligent EnterpriseIntelligent Enteprise 2004 Awards 2004 editor's choice has a lot of Business Intellignence & Data warehousing companies -Do you see a trend here? | |
