All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 2 Comments
This session was started in February,2007 but I missed the month of March,2007 cry.Now as April is nearing it’s end , here is the list of my picks for this month
Thanks Mahesh Pidshetti for his help in the compilation of this list

|In: Business|Last Updated: | 1 Comment
Many books and newspapers have spoken about “India V/S China” but what about India+China = ChIndia.Imagine the superpower rolleyes

There is a good article in Times Of India(26th April 2007) ,which focuses on a JV between India and China(ie what if they work collaboratively).IMHO,the best part of this article is:

If China has become the manufacturing powerhouse of the world, Gartner analysts say India appears to be well on the way to becoming an IT services powerhouse. IT services account for approximately half of India’s services exports, and they are growing at more than 30 per cent per year.

This also sends ringing bells that “India needs more product companies as well”.
Read the complete article here

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 5 Comments
Of late,lot of unknown and memorable incidents are happening on my blog.I have met lot of new and like minded people,business guys but 25th April,2007(7:30 PM) would be a date(and time) to cherish biggrin Through the post,you may find me childish but do spare me for that behaviour.Also,this post is made after few evidences and I believe it to be correct(to the best of my knowledge).I hope you guys are still plugged in wink

There was an interesting observation which I made(from Business Gyan) and turned out to be a good article.The article definitely had references to Guy Kawasaki(the great Guru).

Apparently this article fetched me comments by none other than Guy Kawasaki himself(Comment below)

But many times,there are pranks played by the readers and I also thought this to be a prank.But when I investigated,I did feel that the person who commented was(or could be) Guy Kawasaki himself and the reason is the statistics provided by my SiteMeter.

If you might know,Guy Kawasaki(who was Chief Evangelist in Apple) madly loves Macintosh and with this evidence , I just felt he could have been the one who has commented on the article

This evidence does not prove completely that Guy Kawasaki (my business Guru) has commented on my blog but with sheer excitement,this article was born.Now with these happy memories in mind,I would return back to my business wink

|In: Business|Last Updated: | 5 Comments
In India; TCS,Wipro,Infosys and other IT services companies have become household names.IT services companies have a simple rule of thumb:”They charge their clients based on Hourly basis of the employees that are in a team.This also includes the team members who are on bench ie they are a part of the project but unfortunately they are left with no work sad So with this saturated model being followed by all the IT services companies in India,time had come for some innovative model ie question the existing model and innovate to define a new one.This innovation came from IGate CEO Phaneesh Murthy……Keep on reading rest of the story(Note:Inputs taken from “How Innovators Connect” by Rohit Agarwal)

Phaneesh Murthy left Infosys in 2002 to start Quintant(which was later acquired by IGate).Murthy always knew in order to succeed,he should differentiate his company from the other players in the services industry.During his stint at Infosys,he had noticed the following problems in the business:

  1. Service providers get paid regardless of whether they succeeded with a project
  2. Service provider employees are usually very young and hence customers have to pay for their training
  3. Service providers had no stake in a project’s completion and hence,they benefited even if the project deadline has missed
  4. Service providers talked about YOY increase in cost and salaries,while customers talked about YOY reductions of cost.
Now with so many weaknesses in the existing model of IT services industry,Murthy decided to be different from the crowd by implementing the following strategy.

Rather than asking his international clientele to pay for effort or input,customers would pay for value or output.

But when you try something innovative,initial hiccups are bound to happen,same was the case with Murthy as well.Below is a short glimpse of how Murthy convinced his initial clients to prove his point:

It is not wise to compare in Dollars per hour.But when the output is compared,definitely IGate is more competitive due to its strength of experienced employees.His point was that many IT services companies hire young employees so companies can mark up their hourly rates to make profit,on the other hand,IGate hired employees with more experience,who are more productive.

There were six companies who were competing for the bid but in the end,IGate won the bid and the reason was quite evident-“None of the companies who were competing for the bid were able to quote on price per transaction”

This was just a small example of Innovation born out of existing problems.There might be many such examples of innovation born when long standing flaws have been tolerated but only few like Phaneesh Murthy try to question them and than correct them(to get an upper hand over the competitors)

Related Posts:
From Ideas to Execution
Why more Google’s are needed

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 1 Comment
There has been a million times that I have mentioned Guy Kawasaki(the great guru) in my blog.So by this time,you might be knowing what is the title of his blog – How to change the world

I read Guy’s interview on one of the website’s(oops can’t recollect the website sad) and he told that he has already started working on his next book named “Who will change the world”,yup it is the same title as his blog.

Apparently, when I purchased April,2007 issue of Business Gyan , I was shocked to see that the book has been released in India.Since,it is Guy’s book,I had to buy the book but was surprised see Guy’s name not being mentioned in the book review.Finally,I came to know that the book has been written by David Bornstein and not Guy Kawasaki.Check out the image which is taken from Business Gyan,April 2007 issue.

Now I wonder who would change the world-would it be Guy Kawasaki or David Bornstein .Also,now the suspense remains about Guy’s next book (obviously, it won’t be titled “How to change the world”) since, David has already made an attempt to change the world rolleyes

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 2 Comments
There have many bloggers(including myself) writing on blogging, its impact on business and marketing.I was just going through “Blog Marketing by Jeremy Right” and came across one interesting instance that proves the “Real power of blogging“.Some bloggers might have already read about the “Kryptonite Story” and if you have not,than don’t miss the rest of the article biggrin

Kryptonite Locks is a unique story in that the company was aware that blogs existed,but it chose not to respond to bloggers for a variety of reasons.Sounds interesting ah…than lets unlock the (lock) mystery wink

In 2004, Kryptonite, maker of top-selling locks,suffered a heavy loss at the hands of a blog.A blogger discovered that it was possible to pick a Kryptonite lock with a standard Bic Pen surprised

After the blogger blogged it,the story was picked up by Engadget,a popular gadget and geek blog.Check out this post on Engadget , which describes the issue and yes,do not forget to see viewer’s comments as well.As you might have felt,Kryptonite was not aware much about this talk in the blogosphere and when it became aware about the situation, it was very very late sad

The impact: Kryptonite’s business was hit with a class-action lawsuit and the company engaged in a massive lock exchange program.

The unanswered question:What would have been Kryptonite’s loss,if it would have responded to the original blogger’s post(before it was picked up by Engadget) … Makes you think, isn’t it rolleyes

This was a very old instance and it occurred in 2004.Now let us have a look at the current trend.
I just happened to check Entrepreneur Rajat Gupta’s blog and this post grabbed my attention.As you might have seen from the post, Rajat got his flight money refunded by just putting the comment(given below) on the Clear Trip Blog

hi,
This is regarding the cancellation refund. Its close to 2 months and I have not got my refund. I have sent numerous mails to customer care but no response. This doesn’t make sense.

My Case Ref: 1-50690.
Could you please let me know the status on it.

rajAT

So,with changing times,strategies should change and this is how Blogs impact your business.Now, let me get back to my personal blogging wink

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 7 Comments
Ever experienced how you feel on the first day of your very first job?.Yup,you are a bit tensed and equally excited to work in the corporate environment wink Now imagine you are into the corporate environment for few years and than decide to follow a different path which is somewhat different as well as lot more difficult.Same was the case during the first meeting(with my partner) of my very first venture(Name undisclosed due to various reasons).

I did speak here about my first idea(which I wanted to convert into a venture) but this is the second idea and I started working on this idea, after discussing with few other people….Yes,timing is very important.Now let me summarize my first experience.

Day 1 (22nd April,2007):
My second venture lies in the Web 2.0 space and the work started on 22nd April,2007(4:30 PM).Now,the first part was registering a domain.Now the fun started biggrin.A serious brainstorming session on what should be the domain name and what should be it’s plus points?The domain name should be appealing,simple,creative,easy to remember as well and on & on… Apart from internal discussions,we had suggestions from few known people in the IT as well as the Non-IT industry.The day ended at 9:30 PM and we were left with one name but were not so convinced with its appeal.

Day 2(23rd April, 2007):
This day started a bit early at around 11:00 AM and we wasted some time in checking mails,blogging and other activities(Guess,we should avoid doing this in future).Finally at 12:30 PM we were back to work and decided to go with some other name since,the current domain name had lot of hidden problems sad This time,again we came out with 5-6 domain names and when we shortlisted two of them and the sad part was that both were already booked.Phew…after so many trials , we had to take a lunch-break.But as many say,when you change the environment,minds work faster and the same happened…We came out with 2 more names and after lunch,same old discussion started….Finally at around 6:00 PM , we managed to successfully book a domain biggrin. Now we understood that small things matter and are more time consuming , when you start-off.After the initial success,we would now focus on the following aspects:

1. Logo design,caption development
2. Layout and Color combination in the web site
3. Visiting cards and T Shirt printing(yup,we would follow reverse trend of marketing…just kidding,this would be used only when our website becomes public)

I am sure the initial phase(and the entire journey) would be very tiring as well as exciting, without which “The entrepreneur’s journey is not memorable”…

One word of advice:You would be laughed at or ridiculed or even questioned for your idea,but just have faith on yourself(and your idea) and say to yourself “You are here to prove yourself right rather than to prove others wrong”….

I would sign off with this winning mantra biggrin