meek-investor

A guest post from my dear blogger friend Adesh . Adesh writes an excellent blog and is a passionate advocate of customer service. Seeing my blog dry up because I'm traveling and not online, he very kindly offered this guest post - a gesture that has truly touched me. Adesh - I really owe you one. Here is his post. There was a statement few days’ back which I got my attention today. Prominent person who has done extremely well in his field made it. However, the statement showed that they are trying to change things and trying to make sure his organization do not lose race to others in this cutthroat competitive world. Statement came from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. “It is a competitive business; it’s always been. There’s nothing really new about that. You can list our past competitors and those made for a lot of good news articles that Microsoft was on its last legs. We would not want to deny anyone the opportunity of denying those articles. Again and again and again.” This sta...

Liquor, yes. Cigarettes, yes (those smokers still left). Perfumes, yes (to placate the lady). But who buys all the rest of the insanely priced goods that masquerade as duty free items in airports ? In the good old days, flying was the prerogative of the rich, Shops at airports were built to cater to that lot who can afford all those outrageous prices. Hence the shops that sold designer clothes. Designer bags. Brand names that are unpronounceable by ordinary mortals. Prices starting from $500 plus. Today's air traveller is a completely different animal. She's toting a backpack. It looks like airport shops haven't noticed. They are still peddling stuff that nobody buys. Changi airport doesn't need a Gucci showroom. It needs a Mustafa. I am sitting at Suvarnabhumi airport typing this post. I can't see a single guy buying anything from those fancy shops that are all over this airport. Not clear how they are in business. I am however in bliss. No proxies to navigate thro...

China, economically “conquered the world” by offering products at unbelievable prices. This led to the export boom that changed the face of the world over the last twenty years. Manufacturers from every other country have scratched their head in bewilderment as to how the Chinese could sell at such prices. Many predicted that this was dumping and would soon collapse. It hasn’t for two decades. The prices continue to confound many. Thus far, it was in products. In goods that you could touch and feel. Conventional wisdom was that China had no chance in services. Think again. Bank of China, the world’s third largest bank is now offering mortgages in the UK that have undercut all the other lenders. The likes of HSBC and Barclays are left scratching their heads, much in the same way as their manufacturing brethren have been for the last so many years. Maybe its just a flash in the pan. But experience says watch out for the Chinese. They have perfected the business model of huge scale and l...

New York Times Co., Gannett Co., Media General , and McClatchy Co. have all reported profits in the second quarter and the results have led to share prices doubling and tripling. The developments must come as a surprise to those who saw the poor performance of recent quarters and convinced themselves that the newspaper industry is dead and gone. Admittedly, the positive results in the past 3 months were achieved through restructuring, reducing news staffs to their 1970s levels, heavy cost cutting everywhere, and postponing reinvestments. But it shows there is still life in the industry and that the industry can be expected to recover in the coming year if economic conditions continue their current rate of improvement. As I have said many times, a industry with $50 billion in revenue is not going to ignore that revenue, close the doors, and disappear overnight. Many have viewed the poor company performance in the past 2 years and then mistaken the steep concurrent drop in advertising as...

If you are a golfer, or a fan, or even a casual sports enthusiast, you could not, but have been riveted at the happenings in the British Open last weekend. Tom Watson, one of the all time greats in the game, and now 59, rolled back the years to force a playoff with Stuart Cink, and heartbreakingly lost. For a moving writeup on the most dramatic of British Opens, click here . This has great relevance in business too, as its getting to be a young man’s world even there. Tom Peters has made one of his best ever posts on the relevance of Watson’s doings to the baby boomers – being a good American, Tom has related it to the greying generation in the US, but it has relevance to every 40+ in business. Its a lovely post from the great man, and I offer it here , with no comment.

There’s an interesting story doing the rounds in China. A 74 year old man got so frustrated with drivers violating traffic rules that he stationed himself at a junction and started throwing bricks at cars that jumped the red lights. This story has led to an outpouring of support on the Internet – huge numbers of Chinese have supported what the man did. I had posted before on road safety here . On this Saturday morning, when Typhoon Molave is raging outside and the wind is howling and rattling windows, the mood is one of how vulnerable man is. Hence this post again on taking road safety seriously. India and China, lead the world on road deaths. The second most dangerous place in the world is the Indian road. The third most dangerous place in the world is the Chinese road. There are more deaths on the road than in the Iraq war. Than in Afghanistan. Than in Darfur. Than because of swine flu. Why is it that perfectly reasonable people become monsters when they hit the road ? Refuse to we...

Google, MSN, and Yahoo and other aggregators are cited by newspaper executives are harming newspapers. But what have they actually done? It is important to have a realistic understanding of their effects if one is to fashion strategies for the future of newspapers and news organizations. Aggregators carry news stories from major news services and thus make international and national public affairs, entertainment and sports news widely available. The headline news on the aggregators’ home pages is becoming the primary news provider for those less interested in news and the online sections are well-used by news consumers who want more news or more timely news than appears in their daily newspaper. Aggregators and others sites carrying content from news services are now contributing about 20 percent of the revenue of Associated Press, for example, taking some financial pressure off newspapers to fund the cooperative on their own. Other news services are also gaining income from online ope...

Did you say that the airline industry is in doldrums ? Well, here’s a start up in the airline industry. A pets only airline . Where else, but in the US of A. Pet Airways will only carry “pawsengers”. No humans please. Services include a boarding lounge, pre boarding walks, full service on board including meals, loo breaks and the full attention of a cabin crew. Flights are sold out for the next two months. Visit www.petairways.com if you are a pet and wish to travel Airlines of the world, please note. Your industry is in fine fettle.

What should be the “internet policy” in companies ? Not so easy a question to answer. Companies have one of the following approaches - Complete ban (would be very unusual these days) - No internet on your desktop, but internet kiosks available - Internet access for limited hours at the desktop - Wide internet access, but personal stuff like e mail, blogging, youtube blocked) - Complete free for all What is “right” to do ? Only one thing would be universally agreed – no porn. After that everything is fuzzy. Arguments against a very open access are many. Firstly it costs hell of a lot. If you have 10000 employees in your office, the cost of providing internet access to everybody will be a fortune. Why should companies foot the bill for you doing your personal stuff in the office. At least some employees will goof off having fun online rather than doing what they are supposed to be doing. More serious is that companies face big law suits and possibly massive liabilities if some employee d...

The capital of militant and inflexible labour is France. The title that Bengal held in the 70s and 80s seems to have been taken over by France. These are bad times everywhere in the world. France is not immune to the ill winds. Factory closures and job losses, are alas, everywhere. French workers have reacted to it, by contributing to a new word in the English language – "bossnapping” . Holding bosses hostage until their demands are met. What in India, is called ghereao. Now there is a report of the workers at a failed auto supplier threatening to blow up the factory unless the supplier’s customers – Peugeot and Renault – pay € 30,000 to each worker. This is a rather unique demand. They aren’t asking their own employer, for they know that their employer does not have the money. They are asking their employer’s customers ! Losing jobs is one of the most demeaning things that can happen to anyone. The anger is understandable. But the reaction will harm France for a generation to ...

Goldman Sachs, is reporting its quarterly results tomorrow (Tuesday). There is rampant speculation that they will report “blowout profits” – something in excess of $2 bn in the quarter. Remember, not so long ago, they received money from the government to stay afloat and they repaid it back recently. They were also a beneficiary of the bailout of AIG – they had significant dues from AIG which would have all been a write off, but for the government bailout of AIG and them paying their creditors like Goldman Sachs. Along with the speculation on results, there is the inevitable speculation on bonuses. Analysts are falling over themselves in predicting the size of the Goldman bonus pool. There is no doubt that Goldman Sachs made all this money by taking significant risks and managing them better. Everybody else on Wall Street envies them. Many hate them for their success. In some ways Goldman Sachs are in no man’s land. If they report poor results, the markets will kill them (remember the...

Amazing things have been happening in California, economically speaking. You have to rub your eyes in disbelief at what is happening in supposedly the region with the most brilliant people in the world. I had posted about the mess that California as a state is in here . Usually after a lot of brinksmanship, California does pass a budget before the fiscal year begins and life somehow carries on. Unfortunately this year, even the brinksmanship failed. The budget is not passed and technically the government should have shut down. But to keep things going somehow, California just issued its own currency. These are called IOUs. They are being issued to all and sundry in California, including people receiving tax credits. Now Californians, and other Americans being as smart as they are, saw an opportunity to trade in these IOUs. The SEC quickly stepped in and declared that non registered traders would be in contravention of federal law. Banks in the state have compounded the mess by refusing...

Ryan Air is contemplating introducing “standing” on flights . Wow. Apparently they now also charge you to go to the loo mid flight. So what is the future of flying ? Here are some suggestions - They should all do an indepth study of the Bombay trains as the best example of maximizing passengers per cu ft of available space. They can transform flying by replicating the Bombay train model. - They can have two classes of standing on flights. In first class you are squashed against your neighbour, but can stand straight. In second class you are squashed but your body has to be bent at least in three places to accommodate more people. There will also be a material difference in body odour – a fact that can be advertised. - Travelling on the roof of the plane will also be allowed (half ticket). It’s much safer anyway than the roof of the train. However the plane will have a fly a little lower to avoid those at the top, who are “catching the breeze”, from being frozen to death. - Planes will...

One of the provisions of the Indian budget presented a couple of days back is to extend the income tax holiday to IT companies This is an annual ritual. The STPI scheme under which this tax holiday is enjoyed was supposed to expire sometime ago. Every year the industry clamours for its continuance. And the government accedes. The Indian IT industry does not pay the full income tax in India. This is a completely wonky situation. They operate in many countries in the world, most notably in the US. The tax laws are such that they pay taxes in every country they operate in. The only country in the world where they don’t pay is India. Businessmen have no shame when they clamour for sops from the government. Moral and ethical rationale have no place in this argument, it appears. The same businessmen bemoan the fact that the fiscal deficit is huge. Why will it not be huge when everybody wants tax sops. Corporate income tax is the largest source of revenue for the government. And one of the m...

Self deception is more damaging than lies told to us by others because it more strongly affects our perceptions and decisions. One of the biggest self deceptions in the newspaper industry today is that the Internet is striping newspapers of advertising dollars and is a primary cause of its economic woes. There is no question that Internet is increasingly attracting advertising revenues. They reached $23.4 billion in the U.S. in 2008. Looking at the numbers more closely, however, one sees a different story. About half those expenditures are search and lead generation fees that don’t compete with traditional newspaper advertising. Search payments alone are the single largest category of Internet income and represent 40% of total online fees. Internet classified advertising—the direct competitor to newspaper classifieds—has never exceeded 20 percent of online advertising revenues and it is declining as a percentage of the total. Online classified advertising was $3.2 billion in 2008, abou...

The Indian Union Budget was presented yesterday – normally this is presented on the last day of February, but this year because of the elections and the new government, it is being presented now. A zillion columns have been, and will be, written on the budget. The stock market reacted yesterday by tanking 6%. Many experts will dissect the budget and depending on where they come from, will either laud it or criticize it. The budget is full of jargon and incomprehensible to a layman. It also carries tons of detail and is a very tough read. I had argued some months back on the budget being “the Great Indian Rope trick” – Click here and here to read it. And when Pranabda presented the interim budget in February, I argued that even the rope is gone . In this post I’m focusing on one theme, and to me the dominant theme – the borrowing binge that’s going on. After rehashing the government presented numbers, the overall situation is somewhat like this. Government will get cash inflows of Rs...

Reflections has tagged me with a picture tag. Now I must say a few words about this famous blogger. Everybody seems to know her. Everybody likes her. Everybody reads her blog. She’s an active commenter – her comments are invariably nice and large hearted. And everybody tags her on everything, simply because she’s so popular. See all the awards various people have given her on her blog. Now I’m in trouble. A picture tag ? I don’t even own a camera – logic is I’d rather see straight through my eyes than through the view finder. And rather imprint on the heart than on the film. See, how you can justify anything !! Its Sunday evening and an occasional break from business blogging is OK (another justification for not being able to do a business post on this tag !). And the thoughtful train says “business is not just in my blood; it IS my blood”. Boo Hoo - !!! So, nothing to do with business, Posted without comment. You can guess who this is and in what setting……..

A “wicked” girl called The Thoughtful Train tagged me with the ‘Fours tag”. She did it with an “evil laugh of delight” – someday I’ll get even with her ! To his eternal credit, le embrouille blogueuer saved me from this tag – someday I’ll pay him back for it !! I took the poetic license to change the questions to something remotely connected to business. Here goes. Four places I have lived in because my company told me to 1. Haldia, West Bengal, India – Of the “ban”, “Cholbe na”, wide open spaces, rosogolla, Rabindra sangeet 2. Village Dalshapur, District Etah, UP, India – Of the karanjas and paranjas, the gun, no power, no plumbing, cow sleeps with you 3. Bangalore, India – From heaven to an awful place. Deve Gowda has made sure this lovely city more resembles Dharavi now 4. Guangzhou China – Of the lovely slim girls, nice people, incomprehensible language, vegetarian nightmare Four wonderful conference venues I’ve been to 1. Golden Palms, Bangalore India – Simply because we start...

Le Embrouille Blogueur has been kind enough to give me an award. The award, he gave me with the words “ the man, the machine (firewalled by the Great Wall) ...and the power blogging”. I am honoured. “THE blogueuer”, for he is deserving of this title, is a wonderful blogger friend. He has a unique style of writing, fantastic sense of humour and despite a crazy schedule he keeps, which involves intimate knowledge of various airports, blogs regularly, comments unfailingly and supports enthusiastically. The award requires me to honour at least 7 friends. This time, I would like to honour seven friends, who aren’t bloggers themselves, but are regular readers of my posts and are good friends in the real world, before I defected to the blogosphere. Kiwibloke – At heart a Kiwi, but in soul an Indian. Fabulous guy, comments regularly, and can write very well. For the last three years he has travelled so much that he is not a resident in any country in the world. Imagine what a trunk load of ...

On a bright summer’s day in June of 1975, a young man walked into the portals of a great company. He had just finished his Masters and had come to take on his first job, as a Management Trainee. He was a simple young man, hadn’t seen the world, or even the country for that matter. But he had a brilliant mind – this company was known for brilliant people and even in that crowd, he stood out. He rapidly grew in the organization. After the obligatory stint at a factory, ( and he became a legend there), he moved back to headquarters and started to seriously turn on the gas. One brilliant stint after another followed and it became obvious that he was destined for great things. He went to the parent company in London, came back, went back again and he finally came back to take over as the CFO of this famous company. He was the second Indian to occupy this post in the company’s illustrious history. For over a decade, he reigned as the CFO of this company. And he became a legend. He is a lea...

It is human to forget about your health when you are healthy. You are young and fighting fit and who wants to think of sickness and hospitals ? May you be blessed to remain that way always. But just in case ….. Its a feature of our times that, God willing, we’ll all live longer. But as we live longer, a variety of old age diseases and disabilities will become inevitable. Medical costs can be one of the biggest liabilities of the future and it is only prudent that we provide for it. This post argues that employer provided insurance is the worst system that can be. It’s a dinosaur that should be quickly made extinct. Here’s why . In the good old days, when you joined a company and you retired from it, the employer providing medical cover was a great idea. The employer even provided for cover after your retirement. Perfect. And then came Armageddon. Just look at what happened to General Motors. This stone age practice has continued. Employers still provide medical cover in countries where...