Month: September 2007

Indian Cricket – New Captain

Ok I don’t really blog about cricket until something really really important happens. Today it was an exception. Something important happened.

Rahul Dravid resigned as the captain of Indian Cricket Team and Mahendra Singh Dhoni captained The Twenty20 Team India in their match against Pakistan.

There are no reasons for Rahul Dravid to step down until or unless Sourav Ganguly is being made the captain again. Sounds absurd that I am predicting the next captain of Indian Cricket Team but in India, situations can be funny and a lot of things totally unrelated to the game can influence things.

Second, Dhoni is not proving to be a good captain. He’s not even being an average captain. Today’s match, India should have won comfortably. There were too many incidents of the team huddling together to figure out the strategy. They were running around like headless chickens. As Navjot Singh Siddhu would have said, they were as confused as a child in the topless bar. How many times have you seen Australia huddle and try to come up with a strategy on field? Stcrrategies and plans are for pavilions and dressing rooms. Action should have the priority on
field.

If trends are any indication, India selects the most experienced player as their captain. It’s an ok strategy but not really effective.

A captain is a leader and there are certain qualities that a leader should have. In my humble biased opinion, Mahendra Singh Dhoni lacks that. In fact even Rahul Dravid is not the captaincy material.

A good captain was Sourav Ganguly. He had everything that you wanted in a captain. He was bold. He led by example. He was aggressive. And most importantly he came to the rescue when we needed him.

Any thoughts on leadership …?

UPDATE: Just heard Mahendra Singh Dhoni speak about the match. He speaks a lot of sense. Why are his actions on field not reflecting his thoughts on the game? Lessons to be learnt?

Open Letter to Hugh MacLeod

I think very highly of Hugh MacLeod. Here is a comment I left on his page. I dont know if he would publish it or not, but here is a copy.

You rock Hugh. Keep on the good work.

I have taken fwe liberties to post a couple of your cartoons on my blog (obviously with due credits).

I always thought no one knows (or could understand) what I thought about life and work and here you are with exact same thoughts (in lot of cases – you are ten steps ahead – talking about things that I havent thought about) and that too on the back of the business cards.

Thanks for being such a relief from millions of tons of gibberish spread on the internet

Regards,
SG

P.S.: Wondering if all webpages were measurable in grams, would we exceed the weight of the planet .. ?

P.P.S.: Law of conservation of energy – You produce something by using something and sum total of Energy in the planet remains same (E=mc[sqr]). When creating websites is simple and in many cases automated, what law are we following .. ?

UPDATE: Changed name from Hugh Grant to Hugh MacLeod after Venkatesh commented. Slip of fingers .. 🙁 Sorry !

Post-It Notes – 3M

Post-It Notes Logo
Wikipedia defines Post-It notes as

a piece of stationery with a re-adherable strip of adhesive on the back, designed for temporarily attaching notes to documents, computer displays, and so forth

Invented accidentally in 1968 by Dr. Spencer Silver and made popular by Arthur Fry (both scientists at 3M), Post-Its were first made available commercially in 1980. Almost 30 years on, today in 2007, Post-It Notes are nothing short of a revolution (ok niche-revolution). It is no longer restricted to use in offices. People have gone ahead and made paintings, artefacts, cartoons, videos with Post-It Notes.

Post-Its notes are recyclable, do not leave any residue on surfaces and are available in 8 standard sizes, 25 shapes and 62 colors. The most popular obviously is the 3.5 inch square Canary Yellow one.

I simply love the concept of Post-It Notes and would try posting a few things related to Post-It Notes here.

Links
Post-It Notes Rock is doing what I want to – create a dicrectory of Post-It Notes.

Cricket Australia – New Avatar

Today was third day at Twenty 20 Cricket Worldcup in South Africa. Just came back from Australia v Zimbabwe match. Australia went in the match as clear favorites but Zimbabweans had other plans. They defeated Australia by 4 wickets. Well played Zimbabwe. They outplayed Aussies in Batting, Bowling and Fielding. Scorecard from the match.

Interesting thing to notice was the new avatar, new uniform of Cricket Australia. They still have their yellow and green colour schemes but there is a subtle change in their uniform. The uniform is tighter around their biceps and triceps. It can easily pass off as suits used by swimmers and wind surfers. Obvisouly this change is by design rather than by accident. May be they want to reinforce their supremacy at the game? May be they have a scientific reason behind it. May be propaganda @ play? May be a bit of everything?

Ideas for marketers …?

Lose Yourself – Eminem

I don’t really listen to a lot of English music but here is something that I love.

Heard this first time when Prof. Bakshi used this in one of his classes. One of his slides on probability quoted Eminem as

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

Here are the complete lyrics …

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti
He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgettin
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth, but the words won’t come out
He’s chokin, how everybody’s jokin now
The clock’s run out, time’s up over, bloah!
Snap back to reality, Oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked
He’s so mad, but he won’t give up that
Easy, no
He won’t have it , he knows his whole back’s to these ropes
It don’t matter, he’s dope
He knows that, but he’s broke
He’s so stagnant that he knows
When he goes back to his mobile home, that’s when it’s
Back to the lab again yo
This whole rap shit
He better go capture this moment and hope it don’t pass him

[Hook:]
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

The soul’s escaping, through this hole that it’s gaping
This world is mine for the taking
Make me king, as we move toward a, new world order
A normal life is borin, but superstardom’s close to post mortem
It only grows harder, only grows hotter
He blows us all over these hoes is all on him
Coast to coast shows, he’s know as the globetrotter
Lonely roads, God only knows
He’s grown farther from home, he’s no father
He goes home and barely knows his own daughter
But hold your nose cuz here goes the cold water
His hoes don’t want him no mo, he’s cold product
They moved on to the next schmoe who flows
He nose dove and sold nada
So the soap opera is told and unfolds
I suppose it’s old partna’, but the beat goes on
Da da dum da dum da da

[Hook]

No more games, I’ma change what you call rage
Tear this mothafuckin roof off like 2 dogs caged
I was playin in the beginnin, the mood all changed
I been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage
But I kept rhymin and stepwritin the next cypher
Best believe somebody’s payin the pied piper
All the pain inside amplified by the fact
That I can’t get by with my 9 to 5
And I can’t provide the right type of life for my family
Cuz man, these goddam food stamps don’t buy diapers
And it’s no movie, there’s no Mekhi Phifer, this is my life
And these times are so hard and it’s getting even harder
Tryin to feed and water my seed, plus
Teeter totter caught up between being a father and a prima donna
Baby mama drama’s screamin on and
Too much for me to wanna
Stay in one spot, another day of monotony
Has gotten me to the point, I’m like a snail
I’ve got to formulate a plot fore I end up in jail or shot
Success is my only mothafuckin option, failure’s not
Mom, I love you, but this trailer’s got to go
I cannot grow old in Salem’s lot
So here I go is my shot.
Feet fail me not cuz maybe the only opportunity that I got

[Hook]

You can do anything you set your mind to, man

Copy Pasted from AZlyrics.com

Links
Wikipedia on Eminem

The Invisible Foot – Garrett Hardin vs The Invisible Hand – Adam Smith

Recently, I came across a reference to Garrett Hardin and his Invisible Foot. Also known as the Tragedy of the Commons, in simplest terms, it is the battle between the individual interest and common good on a resource that is finite. Wikipedia says "It is a structural relationship between free access to, and unrestricted demand for, a finite resource". Its called the Tragedy of Commons because every individual is acting rationally and still ends up destroying the resources and Commons because the resources under scanner are free for everyone to use.
 
The Invisible Foot is often used alongside Invisible Hand by Adam Smith to explain the principles of economics. " The Invisible Hand" says that a person acting in self interest acts as if he is guided by an individual hand trying to work for the good of the mankind. So basically every time there was a breakthrough (evolution or business), the individual did it for his own benefit and ended up benefiting the entire mankind. For example, in Natural Selection – Individual started differentiating itself from others to gain an edge over members of the same species and it ended up making the entire species stronger ( Survival of the fittest). In business, with every new breakthrough product, individuals trying to corner more market share and making money actually helped mankind take a leap (example use of CDs instead of Tapes).
 
According to Adam Smith every subsequent improvement by an individual brings that individual benefits and helps the world to move forward. Here resources are infinite and everyone can capture large market share happily.
 
And according to Garrett Hardin, every subsequent improvement by an individual brings benefits to that individual but degrades the quality of resource. This resource is limited and with every subsequent chunk being taken by an individual reduces the availability and quality of the resources.
 
Both of these are very interesting theories. Both talk about actions of individuals. Hope I could understand them better.
 

Your iPod is the beginning. Discover the rest.

I bought the iPod few months back and I registered it on their website.

Few days back, I got this mailer from them and obviously it made me happy that I own an Apple product. I might or might not buy the iMac but I am happy that someone out there cares (even though it’s an automated, unmonitored mailbox)

Your iPod is the beginning. Discover the rest.

Marketing at its very best. Hats off to Steve Jobs and team. There are few observations.

Customization. The mailer could have addressed me with my name.

Value. Some kind of discount (even 5%) on purchase.

Time bound offer. Buy within next 30 days and get a discount.

Spreading the word. Send this to your friends and help them get discounts.

The Takeaways
Q: Why would someone register a product on the website?
ME: Because Apple offered a free no-questions asked tech support for a year.
Apple: They get to collect data about users and preferences. In some cases it also helps them to check on piracy and smuggled items.

Q: Was registering hard? Was it fun?
ME: No, just enter the ipod serial number, enter your email address and that’s about it. Any customer initiated activity should be simple, fun and fast.
Apple: They just needed to make a simple small form where you are not asked useless questions unless they know a user. First time interaction should be fun, easy and simple.

Q: Was the actual support as good as they promised?
ME: Had problems with the ipod. They exchanged it without even asking a question.
Apple: Another way to keep customers happy.

Related Links
Shankar on Steve Jobs

Marketing Apple

Marketing Apple is about 5 pages long pdf that talks about things that have worked at Apple. I respect that company for all those wonderful marketing ideas and how they create hype before a product is even launched. I think its an interesting read for any one looking out for marketing ideas and new products.
 
However I disagree with one of the observations. Point 2 says "Never be First to Market".
 
I strongly disagree. Ok Apple was never first to market but that doesnt mean being first to market would not work. Todays world is like a flush. The first player comes and customers flock the way water rushes when the plug is pulled. And to complete the analogy, once a customer is hooked, the switching costs are too high to let any customer go. Once you enroll at MDI, you can not tihnk about enorolling at a better BSchool – cos you have paid so much and any other BSchool is only marginally better.
 
They could have talked about solving a problem easier and better and faster. iPod worked becuase it was part cult and it solved the problem of moving around with music better than any other player in the market (check out iPod launch videos on youtube).
 
So basically create something that is attractive, easy for cusotmers to join and has high switching cost for customers.
 
I more or less agree with the other observations.
 
Any comments … ?
 
P.S.: Talking is way too easy. Getting an idea and opening an enterprise is way too difficult 🙁