Look at this video to see how enterprise computer product marketing appears to customers. Although a technology-push mindset is customer unfriendly, it has worked for the enterprise products industry so far.
Archive for February, 2007
Enterprise Computer Marketing Sucks
Published by February 28th, 2007 in software industry. 7715 CommentsMathematics is set to conquer the world.
Why Indian VCs Need To Be Changing Gears in 2007
Published by February 26th, 2007 in investing. 7478 Comments2006 saw VC investments double in India. That momentum continues. What should be qualitatively different in 2007?
IT Services: More on Convergence and Competitive Strategy
Published by February 23rd, 2007 in software industry. 5416 CommentsThis is the time for the big SI firms to start thinking about the new competitive strategy. The old fast-follower strategy will not work for either the India 5 or the Old 4 set of firms once the slack offered by the mid-tier firm disappears.
Vinnie and Sadagopan Are Missing the Point
Published by February 22nd, 2007 in software industry. 6966 CommentsVinnie and Sadagopan debate about India’s SIs future is incomplete as it doesn’t acknowledge the change in the nature of competition itself. New competitive factors will come into play soon. Open questions are: What will the new competitive factors be? And who among the India 5 and Old 4 will move faster to adjust to the new competitive landscape?
Vint Cerf was in town and I had a delightful lunch with him where a small group of us talked about various topics…
Bypass Mobile Operator, Focus on Handset Vendor
Published by February 20th, 2007 in entrepreneurship and mobile industry. 7340 CommentsMobile operators make poor market and distribution partners for startups creating new services. A better approach is to go after the handset vendors as they are trying to create use-based sub-brand and their ecosystems.
This blog is now 100 days old and is acquiring a personality of its own (I think). I am having fun writing it. It is now time to say thanks and seek some valuable feedback.
5 Reasons Why R&D Offshoring is Maturing So Slowly
Published by February 16th, 2007 in offshoring and software industry. 6952 CommentsEffective R&D offshoring remains a black art. While individual success stories exist, they haven’t yet become repeatable. This article talks about the 5 reasons why India-shoring of R&D is maturing so slowly.
There is great similarity in what ails Italian and Indian culture. Cultural change is needed in both places. The good news about India is that its private sector has already confronted its culture and changed dramatically. Now India needs a similar change to transform its government.
Energy Sector: Is it Venture Capital or Vanity Capital?
Published by February 14th, 2007 in investing and energy industry. 4760 CommentsThere is lots of new venture money going into the energy sector. But it’s not clear whether the startups will reap the benefits of the resulting innovations. It appears that the BigCo’s like ADM and GE will walk away with the value that’s created. Right now, just like space travel, its vanity capital investing that’s happening rather than venture investing.
Control the framing and control the debate/negotiation/selling/solution. Works all the time!
Hope Vodafone Has Learnt Its Lessons (about Globalization Models)
Published by February 12th, 2007 in offshoring, organizational design and mobile industry. 5047 CommentsAlthough Vodafone was the first to recognize the potential of horizontal consolidation, it didn’t execute the integration very well. Telefonica did a better job. Getting the globalization model right is critically important. This requires striking the right balance between global integration and local responsiveness. Not only is this not easy, this is often ignored. Probably the least understood area today is R&D globalization…
Some Quick Notes From NASSCOM’s India Leadership Forum
Published by February 9th, 2007 in software industry. 8197 CommentsSome Quick Notes From NASSCOM’s India Leadership Forum
This is an interpretive look at the innovation landscape in India as seen through the lens of the NASSCOM Innovation Awards. It takes a rather unconventional view of what underpins innovation in India concluding that the Indian innovation experience is quite different from the Western model.
Paul Saffo’s Review of OLPC XO-1
Published by February 7th, 2007 in bottom-of-the-pyramid. 6323 CommentsI have been watching the one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) efforts that are going on. My favorite is Negoroponte’s XO-1. Now some hands-on reviews of XO-1 are trickling in. There are the usual sets of reviews where people are arguing whether the clean break from Windows GUI is good or bad. But the review that catches my eye is the one by Paul Saffo, the famous technology forecaster…
It’s been another enjoyable month of blogging. I am now hooked. I am really happy that the comments are growing - there were 53 comments in January compared to 25 in December. I don’t know what to make of it but the rest of the traffic doubled too. There were 13,190 visitors in January compared to 6,684 in December! Here are the most popular posts of January. Check them out if you missed any…
Musings about Role of Partnerships in Startups
Published by February 5th, 2007 in investing, entrepreneurship and organizational design. 8506 CommentsThere are two types of opportunities for startups – one arising from new consumption and the other from value chain transformation. The startup firm evolution is different for these two kinds of opportunities. In the first case, thought leadership goes into creating an offering power that is then leveraged to acquire customers followed by partners. In the second case, thought leadership goes first in building a category power which then underpins strategic partnering and customer acquisition. Read on…
After reviving traditional weaving and hand block printing in North India, Faith and J.C. Singh, founders of Anokhi, take on the bigger challenge of reviving a city, Jaipur. Read on…
Mobile Revolution Mired in Legacy Mindsets
Published by February 1st, 2007 in mobile industry. 6576 CommentsThe mobile revolution can’t be realized by thinking of it as just “mobile” internet. That mindset is too limiting much the same way as the horseless carriage mindset was too limiting a way to think about cars. Native content and applications for the mobile are booming in the consumer space. It’s perhaps now time for applications for micro-firms to also start coming up.
