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...