Real Value

I recently read a book (which was long overdue in my reading list) about Google's Story..What a great company.... this made me wonder about companies which have really added value to people's lives ...Lots of companies could be added to this list of "Value Adding Companies" ....but there are three major ground breaking companies that stand out

These companies actually didn't add value ...rather they changed people's lives...they saved millions of hours for the people and brought major revolutions along with their growth...Those three companies are Ford( As a large scale car manufacturer), Microsoft and google....The next question that enters my mind is...what made them so successfull....

Three things came to my mind when I searched for a common thread binding these three companies....... "simplicity, Scaleability and ofcourse ground breaking innovation " ...the likes of windows and google could reach hundreds of millions of people with their friendly user interface...and could be easily understood by a common man( One of my friends during my computer illeterate days ...used to tell me that .."No matter what happens with the windows you always have Ctrl Alt Del to save you"...That gave me much more confidence to play with my PC....ans i also used Ctrl Alt Del frequently)Also each company had a key competitve advantage on account of their technology...The technology that was simple at the front end...was pretty robust at the back end (what with loads of data centers and algorithms for delivering search results in case of google and the new method of manufacturing introduced by Ford that mainly depended on economies of scale)...

Another important aspect of their business was that their products were scaleable....This made it easier for them to reach millions of people with their robust technology....Also, if you look at the way they scaled their operations..... it is worth noting that all the three businesses were started by a 1- 2 member team ( 2 in case of google)..and used very low adertising dollars for promoting their services to consumers(at least to make people use their products)...Actually I hardly saw a google advertisement...asking people to use google....On account of the scaleability factor they actually became generics in their product class....online search has become equivalent to googling and operating systems have become equivalent to Windows XP ( Please note I am not using Vista here)....

So at the end of the day ...key takeaways from these success stories are ...1) generate a product or service that is scaleable 2) try to do some ground breaking innovations ...also on the way to your success try to enhance the quality of lives of people and of course earn handsome profits ( .....As simple as that...but easier said than done...)

Also another important that needs to be answered is ...who is gonna be the next google...A future company that could really add value at a global level....facebook or Apple?....Apple could definitely be a likely contender with their IPOD ..

However, I doubt facebook could be a likely a candidate.... despite its recent whopping valuation..I dont see them actually improving lifes of people...And I also doubt their strategy of monetizing....by using user activity to place advertisements on their profile page....Social networking could be another VOIP or ethanol fad in the making....So Apple is the most likely candidate...

but as of now I would like to say my thanks to Google and Microsoft for deeply impacting and improving my life....Thanks google and Microsoft

Time is up---- IT

I recently watched a film named "Katradhu Tamil" (Learnt only Tamil) which talks about the tribulations of an youngster who has just learned tamil and is offended by the lifestyle of "IT Workers"....Although the film goes to the extreme and the hero turns into a psychopath.....It has opened-up many questions related to the current parallel economy running in our country...

I have sometimes wondered about how a growing industry (with high salary levels) impacts the quality of life of others....To give you an example two years before Hyderabad was considered to be one of the cheapest cities and I stayed in a posh apartment for peanuts (Akthough I still live in a decent place).Taking this as a benchmark I started my venture in Hyderabad after two years of working in Mumbai...I was in for a shock...Real estate prices and rentals have skyrocketed (literally 4 times in the last 2 years)..I guess this is due to the viral impact of IT workers migrating into cities

Another core aspect of the IT industry is the Social Discrimination it stamps on other community of works....House owners hesitate to give houses for rentals to "Non IT guys"...(I actually faced this kind of discrimination when a house owner actually told me that they dont give their houses to Non-IT guys..Although I typically earn 3 times more than an IT worker).....The discrimination also seems to be ripe in the marriage market(yes that is what it is currently ) where brides only want IT employed guys as Bridegrooms....So overall, although IT has contributed significantly in terms of fueling the national economy and setting a name for India in the global level ....it sure has its flipside....

But the honeymoon period seems to be over .... the Rupee is strengthening against the dollar...This is likely to atleast maintain salary levels at current levels(if not reduce them)...Saturday is gonna be working (Many companies have already started doing this)...And I hope these guys dont get thrown out of their job due to the declining US economy...(The banking sector ...one of the major IT spender in the states...is currently coming to terms with the sub-prime crisis)......and the industry is going to get taxed from 2008 (I think it is long overdue).Overall, the situtation will turn normal with real industries such as banking,steel and retail taking the economy forward....

But this might also impact real estate ...scores of IT people who have taken housing loans at preposterous debt service levels....would find their pants drawn down when the slow down hits....

What I like about the whole correction is...This entire cycle would get rid of the many fake (who are currently "On the bench") guys who are posturing as IT "Consultants" currently and bring high-class It guys to the front...

Long live IT..F...K IT

Naming

Brad has a nice post about naming companies.Although I am not as experienced as Feld in this area I have had my days of "naming companies".

My first start-up was a call center trying to provide lead generation solutions.Since we thought "Lead" is the core of our service offering, three of us people sat together and started searching for a name with " Lead" as the theme.There was also this site http://www.dnsstuff.com/ which used to tell whether a concerned ".com" name was registered or not....Then the ranting started "Lead Pointer".(this one almost got selected), Lead Analsyst...and the ranting continued...(since three ppl were participating...a name suggested by one was not accepted by others and so on...and if at all three accepted the website was already booked) ....So the ranting continued for 2 more hours..

After sometimes a fourth person entered and told "Lead Achievers"....... although all of us were not satisfied , it worked out to be a decent compromise among us......So the name was set us LeadAchievers...

even now I am not comfortable with the name...Also somehow the idea didnt work out well too....

The second time I named my cmpany I never made compromises....