IMHO, online candidate search is a great service. I currently use two such websites and shell out almost $5000 per annum for the same. I always do a solid cost / benefit analysis and I have found that I am saving almost $15-$20K on my recruitment cost alone.

We manage to find decent candidates. However there are few limitations that you must keep in mind:

1) Candidates you get through online database search are more prone to attrition compared to those who are through a consultant. This happens because they have an active profile online and they continue to get offers from various companies.

2) You will get quality resumes for people with experience range of 0-8 years. People who are more qualified or experienced and hold important position in companies generally do not post their resumes to such sites.

3) Verification / validation of employees who come through these sites need to be done rigorously at your end. Like every online transaction, there is a probability of fraud in terms of forged resumes.

BTW, I found a very nice concept. Please check out http://www.yellojobs.com/ to see the new model of personal reference network for hiring. Its a mix between sites like linkedin.com and pure resume database sites like monster.com and naukri.com.

Abhishek

Everyone who watches television in India must have come across the "Hari Sadu" advertisement aired by Naukri.com. This ad became very popular for its creativity and also won the award from the Advertising Club Kolkata. Here is the full story board followed by the video of the ad.

There has been a lot of controversy around the advertisement by two set of people:

1. Whose first name is "Hari"
2. By a group of people who caused objection since "Hari" also refers to a deity in Hindu mythology

Naukri.com decided not to withdraw this advertisement citing that this is a work of fiction and they got a clean-chit from Advertising Standards Council of India.

This advertisement is really humorous and can be a great way to advertise a job site. In fact they managed to create a character – Hari Sadu, who can be recognized with the Naukri.com brand.

On the other hand, I find the ad to be in a very poor taste, showing bosses in very poor light who should be insulted and abused when opportunity strikes. This is teaching people to consider boss (or a business owner) as a blood-sucking beast, an idiot and an inhuman being. This is definitely not true in most of the cases. Above all, it shows that – when you don't need someone, have a go at him – and walk out of the door!

In a growing economy like India, where attrition is sky high, job ethics are hard to spot and consideration for one's job responsibility is at an all time low, this ad has only added fuel to the fire.

I know, Naukri.com has got superb mileage from this ad and it is close to heart of thousands of people. However, the question remains – Is this ad instilling the right culture? As a corporate, does Naukri.com understand it's responsibility to communicate the right culture to the people who are destined to shape the future of this economy – the young executives.

Business organizations can never be in equilibrium or achieve stable position. Either they are moving up or they are moving down, depending upon their innovation quotient. 

If you are trying to keep things stable, they won't remain so. You will slowly slide down simply because:

• there is no exclusivity,
• competition will catch up on the technology front and -
  • either cut price – if they too are not innovating (resulting in your margins to shrink)
  • or innovate and better the product – if they want to add value to the product and move up the value chain (resulting in your market share to shrink)

And if you continuously innovate and apply new ideas (refer to my post on manufacturing ideas), you will continue to move up.

It is unfortunate that in some cases, the entire industry decides to stabilize their position and take customer wants for granted. For example, consider:

• radio manufacturers,
• alarm clock manufacturers,
• camera manufacturers (there are some really big names out there)

They decided to stay at their position and were swept away by mobile companies like Nokia (who is the largest digital camera manufacturer in the world today). They decided to experiment and give more to their customers by integrating digital camera in mobile phones (possibly the thought process was that mobile, camera, clock, alarm are all things that need to be handy). It took some time to gather market acceptance which was created by the initial hype, but later on sustained due to the instant-in-the-hand value of the additional gadgets.

Seth Godin has highlighted how alarm clock manufacturers can still make a small change in their product and make it stand out. These are simple improvements which can make a product stand out and desirable!

Are you moving up or moving down?

Divya Narendra and his two other Harvard friends (Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss) have sued Facebook alleging that their founder, Mark Zuckerberg have stolen their business plan and source code. You can read the full story at rediff.com.

I was wondering if this is the case, why they didn't cried foul earlier.

In fact I doubt that Facebook has become so popular and valuable (not sure) because of the business plan and source code that was stolen (if at all it was stolen). In my experience business plan is just a starting point and then everything keeps changing and you have to adopt according to the situation. Above all ideas do not matter, execution does. Mark has executed the idea well and he deserves what he has achieved.

Anyways, it will be interesting to see the outcome of the lawsuit. Divya has almost nothing to loose, but everything to gain. He just might be able to make the kill. But I see very little probability of the same.

It all started with pixels. Alex Tew started selling pixels with milliondollarhomepage.com to earn some quick money. Public relation clicked and he became a success story with a wild frenzy among people to own a "piece of history". The "me too" crowd followed and we saw thousands of similar sites selling priceless pixels and few smart companies selling scripts to build such sites.

After one year came Joel Comm, who improvised the concept to link words instead of pixels, and launched 500words.com. This innovation was expected from an Internet marketing wizard like Joel, who is well known among Internet marketers and has a capacity to create a loud buzz. He sold the entire inventory and laughed his way to his bank with few hundred thousand dollars! Just like milliondollarhomepage.com, this improvisation triggered hundreds of similar website and scripts that can be installed to launch similar sites. In fact, I also launched software called wordsitebuilder with my friend Arun Agrawal, because I believe in selling spades when the gold rush is on.

Now, exactly after one year of the 500words.com gold rush, I came across another concept – Wordhugger.com & MillionDollarWiki. Now they have logically extended the legacy and moved on from words to a page dedicated to a given word / phrase. They have presented the concept in a much more lucrative way for prospective buyers. I was just wondering how is this different from squidoo.com? This seems to be picking up and I am watching the show .

So, overall, there has been a gradual transition from a pixel >> word >> page What's next? – A website / or a blog?

Let's watch the show!

I have noticed that several companies offer joining bonus to a prospective employee to join early (or shall I say "immediately").

I was wondering if this is a right tradition? Is this ethical?

I see it this way –

A guy is working in Company A and he has a notice period of 30 days. if he wishes to terminate his contract/job with Company A and move to Company B he need to serve a notice period of 30 days to Company A. This is supposedly required so that he can transfer his responsibilities in a proper way to an assigned person by Company A enabling them to maintain the smooth function of the organization in his absence. However, Company B tells the guy – "If you can join us within 7 days, we are willing to pay you a joining bonus of $X.

I personally feel that it is like bribing the person to go against the separation clause of the employment agreement, so that he can pay for any financial loss (that might arise from any penalty clause) and enjoy a bonus amount – all for doing something wrong! I see this happening almost everyday.

Don't you think this HR practice is unethical and is further rewarding people to stoop low for some quick bucks?

What do you say?

Reliance's BigAdda, Rediff's iShare and Naurki's Brijj.com are the latest dotcoms to hit the Indian social networking marketplace. It may trigger the next dotcom explosion with many more mindless dotcoms in line with these me-too networking sites by public listed biggies of India. Soon, we will forget why the first dotcom boom wave came down crashing after showing colorful dreams to thousands of tech-entrepreneurs worldwide.

I will personally advise new startups to keep away from such me-too type projects unless they have a solid niche, a risk-managed business model and a proper revenue model.

In fact, I am not at all optimistic about success of any of these new ventures unless they offer a great reason to be a part of it. The market place is already saturated and people are finding it difficult to manage their multiple social networking accounts and commitments. Besides, most of these sites do not offer any value addition apart from entertainment. Gautam Ghosh, an avid blogger shares a simmilar view on the subject.

If I have to select a possible winner among these biggies, I will go for brijj.com, which can take a turn towards the business model adopted by yellowjobs.com of NDTV. Another reason for possible success of brijj.com is that it is designed to be a business networking portal. It offers you a reason to spend time and have a clearly marked revenue model. In comparison other sites, just like their global originals heavily depend upon a speculative value creation and are looking for a buy-out similar to youtube.com which will make them rich overnight.

Do check out how many times people are referring to "Internet advertising" as their business model for their social networking website. It is not that Internet advertising is not BIG business. But it will just not work for social media websites in long term. And it is a foolishness to bet on Internet advertising as a revenue channel. We know it from the Y2K dotcom meltdown. In fact I can see the same madness as Y2K. We are not yet there, but we know it can peak very quickly  

Do you think these sites will bloom?

You ask any student – What do you want to be?

You will get a quick reply -

• Doctor
• Software Engineer
• Singer
• Pilot
• Teacher
• Etc.

Why do different people want to do different things?

Because – they "want" to do that. They have a "desire" to achieve something in the given field. They want to "make a difference" in a given way and want to make a living out of that. Clearly, making money is an important component. But it is not the priority. The attention is on the quality of achievement and how he will come out superior among his peers (we call it competition).

But what we see around in real life is something totally different. That same person when he enters into his professional life, forgets about his wants, desire and the "make a difference" attitude and turns to "make a living out of it" as the only goal. He turns towards mediocre work just to walk through the day. Where is the fire to be "the best" in what he does?

What has gone wrong? What has happened that has turned around the entire goal of life!

If you ask this question to most of the people, they will start playing "pass the blame" game. The person they blame may change from scenario to scenario!

• Someone will blame their employer
  • I don't get opportunity to perform 
  • I do not get paid enough
• Someone will blame their customers
  • My customer do not give me enough space to be creative
  • My employees are not dedicated).
• Someone will blame their education
  • I could not crack GMAT and hence could not proceed with my career of choice
  • My college degree is useless and it has not prepared me for my job

The reality is – "We have taken a shortcut in our life."

Most people want to get the goodies, but will not like to take the pain. To make themselves happy they invent a new theory! It goes like this –

Innerself: Why do we really work?
Outerself: To earn a living!

Innerself: Is this the only way to earn?
Outerself: No

Innerself: So what are my options?
Outerself: Anything that helps me achieve my ultimate goal. That is, to earn a living!

The problem starts when we answer the first question raised by the "Innerself". When someone is in school, the answer is different and is driven by passion. When the same person steps into real life the answer is driven by immediate need.

So, when a person gets this immediate need to be satisfied, he will change course. He will take a shortcut, which looks very rosy. He trades his dream against his immediate need. It is good or bad – I don't know. People may have real compulsions or they might have pre-conceived unreal problems. But this is the day they get out to walk on the "most used" path which takes them away from glory and satisfaction.

I sincirely believe that if a person is passionate and he works for his passion – to be the best in what he does – to do it honestly and to stick to his dream – he will be successful in achieving what he originally dreamed. And there is no bigger satisfaction in life compared to achieving this.

So, to be what you "want to be", hold on to your dream and stick to your passion. Of course nothing comes cheap and there will be adversities on the way, but if you do not take the shortcut, life will treat you like a king.

BTW, while you work hard to achieve what you "want to be", your financial goals are well taken care of.

Why? Because you are not wasting your time in thinking about money. It can result in very high level of anxiety. You are focused on your goal and doing the work, which results in money. Thinking does not get you any money! So you earn much more than you expected out of the immediate "shortcut" that you avoided when taking a decision about your career.

May success belong to you and your dreams come true.

Note:

I have been inspired to write this blog post as I see thousands of IT professionals in India slog in day and out running after their dream career. I have met several young IT professionals who have no ambition to achieve something except a good living. They don't take any pride in what they do. They do "what others want" because they have taken a shortcut.

I was reading somewhere that "India has the youngest population in the world and is poised to take a giant leap …"

But if the young workforce is directionless, then in which direction are we taking the "giant leap". Towards being a mediocre service delivery center for the world? or Towards becoming the largest consumer market in the world?

Let's think!

There is a big debate over India becoming an IT super-power. Every few days I will meet an over-excited guy who is impressed with the growth of Indian IT companies an think that they will take over the world soon!

Let us do an acid test to determine if this is true!

Let us consider a hypothetical scenario that India & the USA are no more allies in economic growth. Let us further consider that both countries have imposed trade restrictions and sanctions on the each other!

Now, the USA does not have access to a big English-speaking pool of talent to develop their superior software at a lower cost.  That's a big blow. Will the USA survive this? I think they can. There are other developing economies like Brazil, China, Taiwan, etc. which can fill in the gap (initially they may be not as good). So overall they will have a tough time.

Now, consider that India does not have access to products and technologies developed and patented by US based companies. What will happen? Life without Microsoft products, Oracle databases, Google, etc.

Think. Think harder.

Possibly we cannot think of such a scenario! It is beyond our imagination.

This means that India, as an economy is dependent on the technologies and products developed by US companies and not the other way around as many software outsourcing companies think (and as their CEOs will debate with me at length).

So, India works as an "employee" and/or "self employed entity" for US – the "businessman" and/or "investor" (if I have to go by the definition of Robert T. Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame). This means that Indian IT economy at this point is not "financially free" and is totally dependent on the "investor" who controls the game. It will be very difficult to change the scenario, unless, Indians stop day dreaming of the "IT super power status" and get out of the "luxury bed of benefits and perks" and start working for themselves.

Now we know – who needs whom!

I have often seen people struggling with their business plan. I have a bit unconventional take on the subject. May be, because it has worked well for me till now. So here is what I sugget:

Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) is one of the top-five IT companies in India.

Recently I saw their latest media campaign which says: HCL – a $4 billion company.

I have never seen such a poor tagline before. In fact it was amusing and I could not stop laughing when I saw it on an outdoor display. The first thing that came to my mind was – "Is HCL up for sale? And is this the price they are asking for?"

This tagline does not communicate anything to a prospective customer which can help him in understanding the values and/or goals of the company. It only communicates that this company wants to SELL (Because $4 billion was their sale in last FY) and actually HARDSELL with such a stupid tagline.  No one is interested in your last FY turnover. People or prospective customers want to know what you can do for them and how are you different from other peer companies.

Frankly, this tagline sounds like a joy-cry from a child who is over-excited with his maths score (and that too when he has not topped the class!).

HCL is no doubt a great company. In fact I am highly inspired by one of their promoter – Mr. Ajai Chowdhry. But whoever created the campaign has been very immature and hardly understand branding. They could not capture the essence of this company and have totally misrepresented them in public. HCL is a pioneering company which has several interesting innovation to their credit. None of them have been used to highlight the achiements of the company. In fact I was reading about Shiv Nadar in Forbes Asia magazine as he was on the cover as the "Tamil Tycoon". The article highlights on the "new style" engagement model that HCL has adopted by taking a long term stand with their customers and is sharing the ups and downs of clients' business! I could not stop myself from saying – WOW! Its a winner formula. But unfortunately for a widely used public campaign they used the "$4 billion company" tagline.

As a prospective customer – "How does your being a $4 billion company helps me apart from getting an assurance that you wont be bankrupt and out of business soon?"

I hope they rethink over it soon..

How many times have you heard?

• He is successful because he has the first mover advantage.
• I have a bright idea. I will seek venture funding and make it BIG!
• There are so many simmilar businesses around? There will be a lot of competition for my new business.

I bet, you must have come across a variant of one of these statements.

They all signify the general perception that a unique idea (or a first mover advantage, or an invention) is the core of a business. Actually this is not true.

Ideas are important. In fact, a business to keep its edge in the industry need to keep re-inventing itself and come up with new ideas, variance, reasons-to-do-business-with and disruptive trends to gain a leading position or maintain his leadership.

Ideas are the fundamental inputs for running a business. They are nothing special. If you cannot think out of the box, or come up with something unique on an ongoing basis, forget about succeeding in this cut-throat competitive economy. It is not for the light hearted ones.

But hold on. The process is execution! There cannot be an output without the process. The output will remain equal to the input if there is no process! It is a pity to see so many people burn midnight oil and hundreds of hours in defining, refining and protecting their idea, but they hardly take the first step forward to execute the same.

History is full of examples where visionary companies have emerged from innovation and smart execution of ideas which were conceived by someone else or invented by someone else.

• Microsoft didnt invented operating systems
• Apple didnt invented GUI
• Google was not the first search engine
• Dell was not the first desktop manufacturer
• Infosys was not the first outsourcing company
• Dhirubhai Ambani didnt set up the first polyster manufacturing unit in the world

The list is endless..

What these guys did and what is important is: See the Gap!

Nothing is perfect. Things happen in a given way which is good, may be better, but never the best. You can always better the effort by finding the gap what makes it imperfect. For a moment think of an "ideal scenario" and how it differs from what you are seeing today in a given context. Are you happy with everything? You cannot be. Its a utopian scenario.

If you see with a consumers' point of view, you will be able to see a gap almost everywhere, everytime and with everything! So if you want to really make the next big search engine – find the gap – find the pain – find the imperfection. And hey – you have an idea! It's so easy.

Now whats next!

• Validate your idea. See if it offers value to its stakeholders and create win-win synergy?
• Plan for the execution of the idea, but keep yourself flexible about its implementation and nitty-grittys.
• Plan for the risks. Risks can never be avoided. They can be managed.
• Set achievable targets and take youir first step.

All this really means – Take action!

So, when you can create idea at random (like an idea factory), you can always differenciate. And when you can differenciate and make things better – go ahead and do it. Take action.

Take baby steps. But try to walk. And soon you will be able to run.

Microsoft was a visionary company. It saw the potential in the business of operating systems. It harnessed its power and made it available for masses in form of DOS. They marketed it well and went on from becoming an innovator (mind you – not an inventor) to a world class company.

Google found that people are not getting the right results and they feel frustrated while searching for what they want on internet. They deviced algorithm which solved the problem. I bet when they started off, it was not a code as complex as you will have in spaceships! But they kept innovating, removing gaps as they saw them.

Social networking concept was initially mastered by a site called Friendster. However there are many more websites who have followed the same fundamental principle and improvised on that to achieve more fame and hiher valuation.

I am like a friend to most of my clients. When I speak to them, I always have this advice at the back of my mind. I advise them to do things differently to make it better in small increments based on those small ideas that you can generate at your will. To start taking the first steps towards a better web-application or a better business model. I am a strong advocate of compunding of small improvements done over a period of time to result in a considerable net effect.

So, its all about seeing the gap. Building small bridges and walking over them to leave your competition behind.

I look forward to see you all at the top at the game – ahead of the guys who invented the same.

Best of luck!

I am not a very stock market savvy person. But in recent months, I did some stock investments. I made good investments and bad investments. I learnt few basics from my mistakes (I may be still wrong, IMHO) which I would love to share with anyone who cares. My opinion may change with time as I learn more. If you feel like contributing or contradicting, feel free to do so:

1. Do not listen to your "Investment Managers" or so called "Investment Experts" appointed by banks and brokers. They may get you some quick profits, but you will ultimately loose what you earned if you trade on their tips. In the current scenario, you get any guy with a MBA in Finance becoming a stock market expert in a reputed stock brokering firm. They use you to make their own money. If you really need advise, check out business channels like CNBC, etc. Listen to opinions aired by various experts and take your pick.

2. As Robert t. Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame says – People make profit when they "buy". This means it is very important when you buy. Most people run away from markets when it crashes. But if you see from a positive perspective, the stock market is on a SALE! So it is the best time to buy, just as you rush to the shopping mall when there is a sale. So buy when the SALE is ON!

3. If you are a small time investor who is investing for long term capital gains, look for established companies with proven management. Try to keep your investment in blue-chip companies. Before you choose the blue-chip, look at the sector it works in and its near-term and long-term possibilities. Look how they have performed in past and what kind of guidance their management have given for future. Monitor selected companies and know how they behave with market dynamics. Your investment is safe and will multiply with time.

4. If you do not have time to manage your money, mutual funds are the way to go. Mutual funds has major entry load (as much as 2-3%). Sometime they also have exit load (0.5-2%) and minimum lock-in period. If you are investing in a mutual fund, do not forget to ask about the debt-equity ratio. You should try to understand the kind of portfolio the mutual fund will hold. Convince yourself with past performance of that mutual fund. Dont rush. Your broker earns up to 4% commission on sale and is highly motivated to give you wrong advise to sell the scheme. Be very cautious and make sure that you understand everything before you invest anything.

5. Average out your purchase. You may see volatility in the market. If you buy in one go, you might enter in a high price or a lower price. To smooth out the risk, buy at regular interval at various price levels.

6. Take a long term view. Dont indulge yourself in day trading and short selling. Do not go for short term capital gains. It only makes your broker rich and you remain where you were. 

7. Do not hesitate to negotiate. You will be amazed that you will get cash-back-discounts on your mutual fund investment from your broker (afterall he earns upto 4% of the total investment). You can also negotiate the brokerage rates and service charges.

I will keep updating this list as I learn more.

Abhishek

A quick tip for budding entrepreneurs:

If your business starts at the right time, you can extract maximum growth by getting ready when the industry segment gets the peak demand. I strongly suggest that a new business should be started during the "low-tide", i.e. when markets are not doing well and industry sentiments are not positive. It helps in many ways:

1. You can get the best talent available in the industry due to lay off by major players.

2. You will not have major competition and you can prepare your competitive edge "in hiding" to give surprise to your competitors.

3. Tough times results in innovation. It is highly probable that your company will have the "innovation" advantage as you try to come up the adversities of a low-lying market. This innovation can become a catalyst when the markets are strong and can become the deciding factor.

4. You can concentrate in building the right processes, measurements, quality control systems and genetic-composition of your company which will result in its rapid growth when the right time comes.

5. Your expenses will be lower in building the fundamental framework for the company.

It will well known that markets have both the ups and downs. I feel "downs" should be well utilized to prepare the company for taking maximum advantage of the "ups". It makes much more business sense and also keep your spirits up!

Note: It is important to be patient. It is very important to know that you are preparing for the "good days" and, it is most important to know that you should not blow up all your money, since capital is another thing that you need to scale up your company fast when the right time comes.

India has been regularly "labeled" as the ultimate software offshore outsourcing destination. Advantage India has been expressed in terms of location, better adaptation to english language, cost, quality talented pool and a young population.

However, it seems that India is fast loosing the low cost advantage due to inflating salary bills in IT industry. India is leading in terms of attrition and salary hikes. It is inevitable in a growing economy, but the question is – how long can we sustain this? I know of several software service companies where there is an annual increase of 40-50% (on the lower side) in salary bills. There is not a very high increase in skill level of the professionals either.

So what is the end result?

A declining profit curve (read it right – profit per person / per month)! It might not be immediately visible due to growing "net profit" which is increasing since all the companies are in a mad rush to hire as many professionals as they can to keep "up" their net profit by working in volumes as profit per person dips.

But this is definitely going to make the dent. And it is already visible in patches! Check out how a company decided to move to US to save money on his operational cost! 

I have spoken to some HR managers about their "suggested" solution for this situation. In general I have heard of these two workarounds -

1. Moving up the value chain

2. Averaging of salary

Option 1, is most attractive. However it is not very easy for a company to move from an "outsourcing" business to a "consulting" business which is the next logical step in the value chain. It not only requires physical presence (unless someone comes up with an innovative way to do it online). But if any company can do it, nothing like that!

Option 2, is what most companies are doing. They hire a top professional and then make up for the high salaries by hiring several junior professionals to balance out the spike in salary and get an average salary which is profitable to them. This works and will work, as long as the company keeps expanding. But it has a limitation in terms of "critical mass" where it will no longer be feasible and the balancing act will become so complicated that it is bound to result in a miss. The worst thing is that a miss at that "critical mass" will result nothing but disaster.

At this point there is no "silver bullet" solution for this problem. However this is for sure that India will not remain an attractive destination for outsourcing for low cost labor for long. Either it will loose its edge to emerging low cost economies or it will reinvent itself as an economy which is higher up the value chain.

Only time will tell, which way things go!