Category: People

PlaygroundOnline.com > Review

Playground Online
PlaygroundOnline.com is yet another entrant in the Indian e-commerce space. It retails sports related media and equipment. They currently offer books, CDs, equipments, apparel etc. This is probably first of its kind online store in India. I took PGO for a spin and here is my feedback.

What I like about PGO?
First and foremost, although they want to sell things online but they have put a lot of focus on customer friendliness and costumer interaction. Things like polls, news, forums can make this website a default place for sports enthusiasts. These initiatives help build a strong and loyal community and eventually garner sales.

The range of products on PGO is really wide. From a t-shirt worth Rs. 280 to a bicycle worth Rs. 46000 (obviously for a professional), PGO had a lot of things for offer. I could not check if this range is comprehensive but everything I could think of was either there or they were accounted for and being worked upon. This is a good thing for an e-commerce business. I can think of people visiting PGO to find out more about sporting goods and then buying it offline. Challenge will be to convert these information scouts into customers.

Design
The website interface is impressive for an Indian startup and they have used a good mix of traditional style web design and Web 2 functionality. They still need to work on few things though. Like for example when you are trying to signup, the errors are reported in a pop-up box. This should ideally be a Web 2 pop-up where errors are notified the moment they are encountered. I should never get a Windows pop-up.

Team
PGO has been started by a team of 4 people with average work experience of 15 years. Experience of 60 man-years could be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. With experience comes rigidity; you might start shooting down ideas even before you give them enough time to fruit. You start living on assumptions. You are scared of breaking out of the mold.

And with experience one develops the knack of running businesses. The team is experienced enough to know what is to be done to make the business run efficiently. Looking at the website and they have used their experience well.

What I like about their team is the fact that all 4 co-founders have different and diverse backgrounds. From client relationships to technology to marketing to customer insights, they have it all. The roles could thus be clear and they can concentrate on larger things.

Competition
They don’t seem to have one large competitor right now. However they compete with bookstores (fabmall, om books etc), apparel stores (rediff, sify) and obviously with traditional retail stores. The business model is new in India and looks lucrative. There should be many more players in the market soon.

Payment Options
One of the key reasons why e-commerce is still in nascent stages is lack of adequate payment options. Credit cards penetration is still low in India. People are still skeptic of using their cards online. And finally they are not really convinced about credibility of these websites.

At PGO, there are limited payment options currently but they have mentioned that they are working on more methods. I would love to see them implement a cash-on-delivery method. COD gives an online merchant immediate access to people who dont have cards and people with cards who are scared of using the cards online.

What more can PGO do?
Comparison between brands and products. When buying a product, people love to understand the features, benefits and differences. I don’t see a link for comparing two items. If they can somehow implement a comparison, it would be great.

User community. All the ecommerce websites have been adding users to forums. If PGO is really convinced about sports as a leisure or a lifestyle activity in India, create special interest groups of people with similar interests. Give them things like competitions to participate in, platforms to talk about their interests etc. Basically in one word, give something more than a typical forum or a social network.

Final thoughts
PGO has done a good job with their store. The only thing that might let them down is the very acceptance of the business model. If I was a VC with money, I would have invested in the business, obvisouly after talking to the owners and looking at the projected cash flow statements.

And finally, since we are talking about ecommerce, lets try to see what can be sold successfully over the Internet? Something that is standardized. Something that you are confident would be similar irrespective of place you bought it from. Something like an airplace ticket. Something like a computer. Something like a book. Sporting equipment – I am not sure. Lessons for other players? Make the products standardized, eliminate shopping pains and have in place an awesome customer service.

Questions to ponder on?
Are sporting goods similar to airline tickets? Books?

Logon to Internet to meet your neighbors

IndiaPRWire reports that a website is being launched in Bangalore that would allow users to “… know each other in a better way and expand their network. On your CommonFloor, you can celebrate festivals, organize parties, meet people who share your interests, make your interaction more open and friendly and make your real life as vibrant as you can imagine.”

I love the business model. After all I have been advocating all my life that social networks focussed around common interests and activities are far better and are expected to be more successful than “friendship” networks.

But the point is not the success or failure of this particular website. The issue at hand is larger and deeper. Portals like this simply imply that as some places (like Bangalore) we have reached a point where I need an Internet portal to speak with my neighbors.

We as Indians have our roots in things like choupals, community kitchens and joint families. Entire families, clans and villages loved personal connections and spent time with each other. They would care for each other, spend time for each other and if need be die for each other.

And now we have evolved to a society where we have to logon to Internet to speak with our neighbors. People dont have the time to know their own neighbors. How many of us know the names of our next door neighbors? At least I dont.

I am not against the advancement of culture and society but this is totally unacceptable. We have reached a point where the sense of community and belonging is loosing out fast. And moment people loose out on this sense of belongingness, the home stops being a home. It becomes a house with four walls. Everyone seems to be in a constant state of flux. People are just drifting from one city to another and eventually end up with lots of addresses and no homes.

I know I cant force anyone to go meet their neighbors or get involved in the community but in the end everyone losses out. And without realizing everyone becomes the part of the rat race.

Thoughts anyone?

Leo Burnett Speech – When to take my name off the door

Raj recommended this speech to us. And it is worth the time.

Somewhere along the line, after I’m finally off the premises, you – or your successors – may want to take my name off the premises, too.

You may want to call yourselves “Twain, Rogers, Sawyer and Finn, Inc.”.. or “Ajax Advertising” or something.

That will certainly be ok with me – if it’s good for you.

But let me tell you when I might demand that you take my name off the door.

That will be the day when you spend more time trying to make money and less time making advertising – our kind of advertising.

When you forget that the sheer fun of ad making and the lift you get out of it – the creative climate of the place – should be as important as money to the very special breed of writers and artists and business professionals who compose this company of ours – and make it tick.

When you lose that restless feeling that nothing you do is ever quite good enough.

When you lose your itch to the job well for it’s sake – regardless of the client, or money, or the effort it takes.

When you lose your passion for thoroughness … you hatred of loose ends.

When you stop reaching the manner, the overtones, the marriage of words and pictures that proudest the fresh, the memorable and the believable effect.

When you stop rededicating yourselves every day to the idea that better advertising is what the Leo Burnett Company is about.

When you are no longer that Thoreau called “a corporation with a conscience” – which means to me, a corporation of conscientious men and women.

When you begin to compromise your integrity – which has always been the heart’s blood – the very guts of this agency.

When you stoop to convenient expediency an rationalize yourselves into acts of opportunism – for the sake of a fast buck.

When you show the slightest sign of crudeness, inappropriateness or smart –aleckness – and you lose that subtle sense of the fitness of things.

When your main interest becomes a matter of size just to be big – rather that good, hard, wonderful work.

When you outlook narrows down to the number of windows – from zero to five – in the walls of your office.

When you lose your humility and become big-short wisenheimers…. a little bit too big for your boots.

When the apples come down to being just apples for eating (or for polishing) – no longer part of our tone or personality.

When you disprove of something, and start tearing the hell out of the man who did it rather than the work itself.

When you stop building on strong and vital ideas, and start a routine production line.

When you start believing that, in the interest of efficiency, a creative spirit and the urge to create can be delegated and administrated, and forget that they can only be nurtured, stimulated, and inspired.

When you starting giving lip service to this being a “creative agency” and stop really being one.

Finally, when you lose your respect for the lonely man – the men at his typewriter or his drawing board or behind his camera or just scribbling notes with one of our big pencils – or working all night on a media plan. When you forget that the lonely man – and thank God for him – has made the agency we now have – possible. When you forget he’s the man who, because he is reaching harder, sometimes actually gets hold of for a moment – one of those hot, unreachable stars.

THAT, boys and girls, is when I shall insist you take my name off the door. And by golly, it will be taken off the door. Even if have to materialize long enough some night to rub it out myself – on every one of our floors. And before I DE-materialize again, I will paint out that star-reaching symbol too. And burn all the stationary. Perhaps tear up a few ads in passing.

And throw every goddamned apple down the elevator shafts.

You just won’t know the place, the next morning. You’ll have to find another name.

Text from: CIAdvertising

Microsoft to buy Yahoo for $44.6bn? Why?

Yes, Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $44.6 Billion.

This is not a news anymore. Every living soul on this planet would know it by now. But why are they interested in Yahoo? And this is after Microsoft valued Facebook at $15 bn.

Few immediate thoughts
1. Race to own the Internet and eventually the world.
It is not hidden from anyone that Microsoft is not the best when it comes to Internet. They are third when it comes to search engines, social networking has never been their forte (LIVE failed miserably and probably the sole reason for Facebook stake), Google Adsense is the most widely used advertisment platform, Yahoo mail is used more than any other free email service,

2. Online advertising is too lucrative a business to let go.
Obvisouly, with Google taking bulk of search traffic, there were only two options. Come up with a better, faster and easier search engine than Google (which is becoming increasingly dificult – even mahalos and wikias of the world are finding it difficult to do) OR d something drastic. Trying to buyover Yahoo is nothing less than drastic.

3. Time is a factor.
With every passing day it was becoming too difficult for Microsoft to complete with Google. With Google infringing upon the software arena, the core business of Microsoft was in danger. Every passing day they were loosing ground to Google. Microsoft needed to take on Google. And fast.

What remains to be seen is if Microsoft can actually buy Yahoo. And if there are any counter bids from Google (hehe) or any PE firms. Frakly, PE firms dont really have a lot of money right now due to fears of recession and all. Only person who can take on Microsoft as far as Yahoo goes is Warren Buffet (obvisouly, he is not keen on technology companies – just wanted to throw his name).

On serious note, even if the merger goes ahead, a lot of things would have to sorted out including the identity crisis, culture mix, gaps and above all business.

The Mahatma


Mahatma Gandhi was shot down on this day in 1948 by Nathu Ram Godse. Every history book credits him for standing against aparthied, for getting India her independence, for propagating the path of truth and honesty and preaching non-violence. Mahatma Gandhi, in his 72 years of life did more for his country than anyone else could ever do in 7 lifetimes. Now these are strong words that I am using. And I will have to defend them.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi could have taken the path trodden by everyone else and could have been a meek spectator to the Indian freedom struggle. He was after all a qualified lawyer and he could practise law at London or at South Africa. But he chose a different stance. When he was kicked out of a railway carriage, he could have cursed the Brit and sat in the third class compartment but he stood his ground. There are numerous incidences like that.

In short, he had this ability to stand for what he thought was correct. Most of us admire him for this very reason. Even when odds were against him, he would make sure he stood his ground. For me, the best thing about Mahatma Gandhi was his ability to connect with the masses when newspapers were limited in reach, television was a privilege and Internet was not even born. His messages and letters could bring the entire nation to its feet. Managers in this era should learn from his methods and way he influenced people. And this influence was not a particular section of people but on everyone. Hindus, Muslim, Educated, Villagers, Men, Kids .. think about a strata and he had reached them.

Many people have blamed him for partition of India and Pakistan. He is also blamed for all the problems we have between Hindus and Muslims. He is known as a bad father. His relationship with his son Haribhai are still as big as a folklore. But all things said an done, he was after all one of the key reason we got our independence. His contribution was no small one and he will always be missed.

For me, he is one of those few people who died too soon. His death anniversary is a time to take stock of the situation. What we could have been and what we are now. And finally the way ahead for future.

IBNLive.com > News or Sleaze?

I have wanted to join theatre for quite some time. I entered a query on Google and was directed to homepage of Mumbai Theatre Guide. And right on the top was this ad from Google Adsesne.

The copy read

Watch the hot pics of Indian Women in the world on IBNLive.com Now!

Is the biggest and the best media house in India trying to sell it website by paddling pictures of Indian Women?

Imagine. IBNLive.com is the internet presence of IBN7 – part of TV18 group and a news channel that goes with the punch line “Khabar har kimat par“. I used to think TV18 is an awesome company. I am in awe of Rajdeep Sardesai and Raghav Bhal. I know competition on internet is huge but these small cheap tricks to get more visitors on a website will not take them very far. Are they winning medals for journalism by showing hot pics of Indian Women? Are they creating personal fortunes and big companies by selling soft porn?

Coming on to the other side of the issue, do these women know that their pics are being advertised? That their personal lives are being used by IBN to promote their website? If they don’t, isn’t this breach of their personal privacy? If they do know, doesn’t this amount to crime? Paddling soft porn? Ms. Sushma Swaraj are you listening/reading?

Can someone forward this to TV18 group? And specifically to Mr. Bhal and Mr. Sardesai?

Perils of Indian Education System

I was reading The Man Who Knew Infinity and I came across this interesting line on the status of education system devised by British when they were ruling India.

It was designed, after all, to churn out bright, well-rounded young men who could help their British masters run the country, not the “restless and ambitious spirits”

Think more on it and you would realize the perils of Indian education system.

Like a lot of other things, we have inherited the education system from the British. They enforced a school, college and university system of education on masses of India.

Indian society always had manpower in abundance. Jobs were hard to find. Money rested with a fraction of a fraction of people. For a commoner, education and degree was the fastest way to economic freedom and stability. People made sure they get that coveted degree and get a stable job. A degree became something revered.

Perhaps, no where in the world you have university examinations where you are made to read Psychology, English, History, Geography and others, if you want to become a computer programmer. There are umpteen more examples like that. All the courses are made mandatory and you have to take them in order to get a university degree. You can not choose, mix and match these courses. You cannot decide what you want t o do in life. You have to live is the way others thing you should.

If we had something called the credit system where you could pick courses that you want to read, India would have lot more evolved people (for example schooling and college in USA). With Indian system, the entire focus of students and teachers and parents is on getting maximum grades. It is very likely that a student crams a text book and tops the examination and gets all the accolades. He might not even know how to reach his home from a remote corner of the country. And, on the other hand, a truly smart student has to bear the brunt of not performing in these text-book examinations. He might be the next Ambani, Bose, Gates or Jobs but he will be discouraged to take the road less travelled.

I used to be an academic topper till about 10th standard. I really believed in and wanted to excel at examinations. I would do everything from cramming text books to fill water bottles for teachers to make notes to cheat and to everything imaginable to get good marks in exams. And it was not only me. All my friends and their friends and their friends wanted to excel. By hook or by crook. If i came second, parents would not congratulate me. They would ask why I wasn’t first. If I got 97, they asked me what happened to other three marks.

This made my knowledge and understanding of the world bookish. I would always go by the book and would never think of an alternate way to do things. My creativity was constrained in a box. Every time I thought of a novel way of doing things, I was stopped by teachers. I was told to adhere to what teacher thinks is the best solution. I could not innovate or improvise. We should take cues from other education systems that are more hands on. Where students are required to innovate and improvise if they have to get grades.

Coming back to the text, this kind of a bookish education is good for developing people who can serve. This system would produce copy-cats. Not innovators. Followers. Not Leaders.

Someone has to change the education system. The onus can come from the industry. Currently if you are to recruit someone, you look for credentials in terms of education and pedigree of the institution. If you start recruiting someone who is good with logic and has no formal degree and encourage that, a lot of fresh ideas can be brewed. Except for my employer, I have never come across a company that prides itself in hiring dropouts. In fact in my case, for recruiting me, they made an exception. They hired me even though I am a MBA from one of the best institutes in the country and had never flunked or dropped out.

With more and more people taking the alternate route now, I am very hopeful that we would break away from the mandatory courses and llot less lives would be wasted because of our education system.

Tata People’s Car – Tata Nano

Tatapeoplescar.com

Tata launched their 1 lakh car yesterday. Called People’s car, its 623 cc, can seat 4 people, has more interior space than a Maruti 800 cc, meets emission norms, has been through the safety tests and above all is affordable to a common man.

Personally I think it’s a wow concept, car looks good, promised mileage is far better than any other car in any segment and cost of ownership is low and would go far in fulfilling dreams of millions of Indians.

The car would be available for purchase near Diwali (which traditionally is a period when people buy new houses, cars, electronics and jewelery in India). Tata’s hope to sell around 500,000 of these during the first year. The dealer price is 100,000 and a customer would have to shell out about 1,24,000 including taxes and delivery costs.

Thinking again about Nano, there are quite a few positives and some negatives too.

Talking about negatives first, people say that it’s very cramped and it is like traveling in an auto-rickshaw with one more tyre and one more seat. My answer to these people is that the car has more inside space than Maruti 800. On comparison to auto-rickshaw, people hire the auto-rickshaw and people would own the car. They are ignoring the pride attached to owning a car.

Then there are people who say what if India added 500,000 cars on roads every year? What would happen to already bad traffic situation? I agree I don’t really have a convincing argument against it. In my opinions bulk of orders would come from small towns like Raipur, Patiala etc rather than Delhi and Mumbai. And these towns don’t really have road crunch. And then there is another argument that people would not buy Santros and Altos of the world and would buy Nano instead.

More negatives are attached with Singur and farmers that have been displaced. I don’t really have an opinion on the same. Can someone add perspectives?

Coming to positives, the very obvious is family transport solution for a common man. He says

[QUOTE] … as urbanisation gathers pace, personal transport has become a big issue, especially since mass transport is often not available or is of poor quality. Two-wheelers – with the father driving, the elder child standing in front and the wife behind holding a baby – is very much the norm in this country. In that form two-wheelers are a relatively unsafe mode of transporting a family. The two-wheeler image is what got me thinking that we needed to create a safer form of transport. My first doodle was to rebuild cars around the scooter, so that those using them could be safer if it fell. Could there be a four-wheel vehicle made of scooter parts? … [UNQUOTE]

Next there are more people who would take example from Mr. Tata and set about doing a task and achieving it.

Obviously there are talks about employment it generates, companies that are built around it, earning foreign exchange from exports, technological advancements (they have filed 34 patents) and many more.

Advertising is being handled by Rediffusion DY&R and agencyFAQs reports that Tatas plan to spend close to 30 crores in advertising the car when it is finally launched.

What remains to be seen is if the project is actually financially viable and if Tata can break even with the project.

Obviously Tatas has created an entire new market. Bajaj and Mahindra have already made public their plans of getting into the small car business. Things would only get interesting as we near the actual launch of the car.

Read more here, here and here. Please be advised that this is personal opinion and would be in probability coloured.

Sachin scroes his 38th test match century

Sachin today scored his 38th Test Match Century.

This century is very important from a lot of perspectives. For starters, he got the team out of very difficult position. From 3 for 185, he along with Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma etc. helped the team take a vital first innings lead.

This century also helped India salvage some pride in the series. India got our for less than 200, in both innings in the last test match. Team needed a strong response in this match. And they delivered.

This century would also elevate spirits of the team. Arguably Sachin, Sourav, Dravid are the best three batsmen India has at this moment. If these three score, team would be upbeat. If these guys don’t, other players are still not mature enough to stand and be counted.

For people who are superstitious, this century broke the jinx. He finally got a century after getting out seven times in nineties in 2007. It was not uncommon to see people speculating that he chokes in crunch situations. This should silence them and these critcs would take a second look at their opinion.

On personal front, he was visibly relieved to reach the milestone. He hasn’t celebrated a century in this huge a fashion in recent past. In fact in the post match interview he said “I breathed a sigh of relief as I had missed eight or nine hundreds in 2007“.

There are people who think that his illustrious past is behind him and he needs to retire. They need to read few facts, re-think and accept that the master blaster is still one of the best batsmen India has.

What remains to be seen is how India bowls in the second innings and if India can go on to win the match from here on.

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Happy Birthday Shahrukh Khan

SRK turns 42 today. Happy Birthday.

He is one of the few celebs that I want meet and talk and understand. Other ones being Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet.

I dedicate the following Apple Computers advert to him …

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.

This is not the complete text. There is more.

And here is the complete text of the advert

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent.
They imagine.
They heal.
They explore.
They create.
They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Source: Archive.org