Digital East !!

In terms of total broadband users, the US leads the pack with more than 60 million subscribers. But second-placed China is fast closing the gap. From 41 million users a year ago, China now has more than 56 million and looks set to overtake the US as the world's largest broadband market this year.

There are more than 1.1 billion of the world's estimated 6.6 billion people online and almost a third of them are now accessing the internet on high-speed lines. According to the internet consultancy Point Topic, 298 million people had broadband at the end of March and that is already estimated to have shot over 300 million.

Digital west? East is fast moving north to beat the west. Sorry for the pun here. The whole business dynamics will change in the coming years and these numbers are only indicators !!


~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

What IT pros want from Work

Money isn't everything for IT people claims a recent survey by staffing company Computer People!!

The culture of a workplace is a major deal breaker for professional IT workers, according to a poll of 5,000 IT workers by Computer People.

Some nine out of ten said they want a job which was interesting and challenged them, while three-quarters said they liked being friendly with their colleagues.

Having the right tools to do their work properly was key to 79 per cent, while 75 per cent said they wanted a job which offered career development.

Funny part is... the IT pros in the super nations who draw 5 times the sals of what Indian draw here... feel the same when it comes to career and retention issues. Not that I am expecting out of the moon answers from them!!

~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Art Vs Copy

One of the never ending debates : copy or visual? content or art? Which rules? At what share? On being on either side of the fence, I have heard and keep hearing the inside stories and arguments. But ever hardly managed to make a whole lot of writers or art directors to see the other side of the wall.

I am taking another shot at it armed with latest facts !!!

Authors Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin in their book Neuromarketing report a finding by the 3M Meeting Management Institute that "effective visuals" reduce the time required to communicate a concept by 40 percent.

Hurray! I can hear a shrill dash of chiselled crystal mugs from the 'art' camp.


~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Understanding the Mind

The research team, from Durham University and the University of British Columbia, say that elements of human cognition and perception that are not yet fully understood by scientists may receive greater insight by analysing tricks and techniques used by magicians.

CASE STUDY EXPERIMENT

In one experiment, described in Dr Kuhn’s current paper, a group of volunteers watched a video of a ‘misdirection’ trick while their eye movements were recorded with a tracking device. The magician lights a cigarette with a lighter then subtly drops both items into his lap while directing his audience’s attention to his empty right hand, making watchers believe the items have simply disappeared.

The scientists then asked the volunteers if they had detected how the trick was done. They found that the chance of volunteers seeing the items being dropped was not related to the direction in which their eyes were looking – suggesting that where they paid attention was the more important factor. These results offer a striking demonstration of how looking at an object does not necessarily mean we see it.

Dr Kuhn highlights that the observations made in this experiment are related to recent findings in vision science, which showed that only a small part of information that enters our eyes actually enters our conscious awareness.

Click here to view the video clips of some of the magic tricks performed.

~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Day One : Disengaged

Various global research states that nearly 70% of employees 'quit' even before they complete one year with the organisation. What would be the reasons?

I would point it at 'satisfaction'levels. The engagement levels are at the best when a new employee joins a company. Then why is that a consider share of employees become dis-engaged soon. Sadly, it starts right from day one.

It is up to the organisation to retain, energize and elevate the levels to a new high. But unfortunately, most often, companies don't realize it till they see absolute signs of disengagement. Many companies have a ‘routine’ pre-joining processes, followed by dull induction session where things are forc-fed to the new joiness and the interactivity takes a rear seat. Needless to say, creativity is the answer here. We need not have a standard induction guide book and have a ring master to mindlessly follow the processes as it is in the HR book.

But people who stay on for more than a year have a brighter chance of going with the company for a good length of time.

~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Barack Obama, the new CEO

Barack Obama is the presidential contender that corporate recruiters say they would most likely recruit as CEO of their organizations.

In a recent Jobfox online poll of 573 recruiters, nearly half (49.6 percent) said Obama was likely the best CEO material for their organizations — politics aside — compared to Hilary Rodham Clinton, with 32.8 percent of the vote, and John McCain, with 17.6 percent of the vote.

Hmmm... interesting!! This made me think on another tangent - how far can recruiters keep emotional aspects out of employee selection in day-to-day life? Do they get carried away with popular opinions?

Communications during Recession

If the US recession is for real... Communicators should get ready to do MORE with LESS. Or should it be MORE square with MORE!

Recession means less consumers.
Declining consumer base means less demand.
Inadequate demand means more efforts to stimulate demand.
Inadequate demand means Marketing & Advertising needs to work harder.

Traditionally, organization worldwide toe this line - when people buy less, spend less on marketing, branding and advertising. According to research firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, advertising in the US dropped 9% in the 2001 recession and Internet advertising specifically fell 27%. This applies to B2B communicators as well, because as consumer spending drops the businesses that sell to those consumers reduce their spending as well.

But shouldn't the advertisers be doing the reverse - spend more on advertising when the going gets tough? Please share your opinions?

Brand Loyalty through Conversation

According to a new study by the consumer social network ExpoTV, 55 percent of consumers want an ongoing dialogue with brands, and roughly 89 percent would feel more loyalty toward brands that directly communicated with them.

Once consumers have the ear of brand executives, they want to talk about what improvements are being made and what new products are in development. On top of that, 79 percent of consumers want to share their new product ideas.

These are the individuals that marketers should be targeting because of their knowledge, enthusiasm and influence. Embracing them is the key to harnessing the power of word-of-mouth marketing and ultimately driving brand loyalty.

The survey found a direct link between brand discussions and word-of-mouth buzz. Approximately 92 percent of respondents said they would recommend a product to friends after participating in a dialogue with a brand.

So still the best method for fostering brand loyalty is just the old-fashioned conversation. Interesting!!

SWITCH switches

The top six India-based offshore service providers, collectively referred to as the ‘SWITCH’ companies (Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant and HCL Technologies) are now regularly invited to bid for larger and more-complex outsourcing contracts, requiring multiple services, says a Gartner report.

This is sure to expand the portfolio of service offerings and help them tap new regions. As a cascading effect, the second line of companies will follow suit. And medium-sized and niche players will benefit in the long run through access to newer tech, regions and resources.

Up the value chain and win-win!!

Software Vendors & Billing Rates

The CLSA survey, done with nine vendors, including the top five Indian IT vendors, says four of the nine respondents expected pricing to be stable and at last year’s levels, while five of them expected pricing to deteriorate slightly, but stay positive. The report says if demand doesn’t pick up soon, pricing may not stand its ground.

Accenture’s third quarter results announced last week, however, belie some of these fears. The multinational consulting and technology services firm posted one of its strongest quarters with a profit growth of 36 percent and announced a higher than estimated fourth quarter guidance.

While Accenture’s business cannot be compared on a like-basis with Indian offshore providers, it indicates that the business environment may perhaps not be as negative.

However, what seems more certain is that software vendors may not be able to manage better billing rates from clients. Last fiscal, software companies were able to get 3-4 percent higher billing rates on new contracts and contracts coming up for renewal.

Source : The Economic Times

Employee Productivity & Performance

Yesterday, during a sales call when I was stressing on our improved performance management system, there was an interesting question from my client : How much does performance management of talent has a role to play in productivity and attrition?

I found shelter in the Aberdeen's benchmark report entitled "Enhancing Operational Results with Employee Performance Management.

The report says that the primary pressure driving employee performance management was the need to improve overall company performance (57%), followed closely by employee productivity (46%).

The pressures driving organizations to pursue employee performance management in 2008have shifted and reflect the stifling realities associated with the global shortage of labor and talent. Though workforce productivity still remains a Top 2 driving force cited by 27% of more than 900 organizations surveyed in Aberdeen study, the primary pressures revolve around insufficient talent pipelines, the loss of top talent to competitors, and a diverse workforce with varying needs and expectations.

Sounds familiar ??

MNC Captives in India - Location Preferences

It is interesting to note that out of 502 MNC captive centers in India, more than half of them reside in Bangalore. To be exact, 275 at Bangalore, 75 at NCR, 73 at Pune, 52 at Hyderabad and 27 at Chennai.

Even though Hyderabad and Chennai have less captives centres, they are fast emerging as a preferred destination for new comers, says Zinnov.

Not far behind is Cochin, Kolkatta, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.

Barrels and barrels of capital

Surging oil prices have turned member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) into financial powerhouses. McKinsey research indicates that between 2007 and 2020, they will earn $5 trillion to $9 trillion from exports of crude oil, and much of this could flow into overseas capital markets.

McKinsey estimates that the total value of the Gulf states’ foreign assets reached $1.9 trillion by the end of 2006—more than double their level in 2003 and nearly equal to the GDP of India and Brazil combined or the market value of the top ten Fortune 500 companies.

With scorching oil prices, the six nations of the GCC would earn a cumulative $6.2 trillion by 2020, or more than triple the amount they earned from 1993 through 2006. Decisions by Gulf leaders on how to use this wealth will have global repercussions for decades.

No wonder the superpowers are behind the oil powers.

Indian CIOs drive innovation better !

IT departments in the US might excel at showcasing emerging technologies such as RFID and mobile connectivity. But in the more important area of using technology to propel business innovation, IT execs in India lead the way, says Forrester Research Vice President Navi Radjou.


What does India know that the US doesn’t? Radjou offers two insights.

1. IT execs in India often come from a business, not a technical background. “Many of them come from a finance or operations background and have held P&L responsibilities as general managers or business unit leaders.”
2. Indian IT is focused on leveraging existing commercial applications, not building something new from the ground up. They hire fewer developers but more outsourcing professionals.

IT Leaders look beyond cost cutting !

IT Business Edge probes. Tim Lambert, vice-president of marketing, UnisysUnisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services answers! There are quite a handful for service providers to take and note.




Question: Unisys recently commissioned research from IDG that explores the correlation among IT practices, IT management priorities and business outcomes. IDG categorized about a quarter of the organizations it surveyed as IT leaders, those that were most effective at managing IT resources to support business strategy and goals. I believe the leaders ranked the importance of business outcomes somewhat differently than other organizations. What were some of the most striking differences?

Lambert: The largest gap between leaders and others in the survey was on the importance of stimulating innovation and creativity. Eighty-one percent of leaders ranked stimulating innovation and creativity as a very important business outcome, compared to only 52 percent of others in the survey. The new research shows that leading organizations focus their priorities beyond cost-cutting, which is conventionally viewed as the primary business driver of IT best practices. They create service delivery models that employ a balanced mix of practices involving people, process and automation to execute, adjust and innovate in achieving multiple business objectives. Leaders are also more likely to look outside their organization and draw from outsourcing partners to improve best practices. They build partnerships to draw on the expertise of their sourcing partners rather than viewing outsourcers as simply vendors of a service.



Question: There was more agreement on the top IT management objectives. What were the top objectives? Why do you think there was a more consistent viewpoint across all organizations in this area?

Lambert: While cost savings, customer satisfaction and increased business agility remain key measures by which organizations determine business success, leaders have a heightened sense of importance regarding all IT priorities compared to the others. The consistency among the leaders’ perspectives suggests that IT organizations must certainly deliver what you would consider table stakes — such as reducing the risk of operational failure and controlling costs — but also identify IT management priorities that impact their own specific business priorities. What separates the leaders is the ability to pursue multiple business objectives concurrently with equal effectiveness.



Question: One interesting area of the research was that the popularity of certain IT-enabled practices did not correlate with positive business outcomes. How do you explain this? Does it suggest that companies are too quick to adopt IT-enabled practices just because they are trendy?

Lambert: Companies certainly must place a priority on adopting IT-enabled practices, but merely adopting the practice does not ensure that it is a best practice. For it to qualify as a best practice and have a lasting positive impact on the organization, it must be not only widely adopted, but also relevant to an organization’s business and IT management goals. CIOs must work closely with the business to determine which outcomes are the most important and then craft an IT management strategy by outlining the priorities and implementing specific practices accordingly. This will sometimes mean deferring the adoption of some new service delivery approaches if adoption cannot be clearly linked to a critical business outcome.The 139 respondents who emerged as leaders in IT best practices consistently placed a significantly higher premium on customer-focused outcomes than the entire survey population. While all companies ranked cost reduction as an important outcome, the leaders chose value-based outcomes such as customer satisfaction/upsell, customer loyalty/retention and increased business agility as more important.The leaders embraced three key best practices that they considered most effective — including knowledge management, modeling methodologies and Software as a Service ((SaaS). The critical element here is that viewed together, those practices help achieve a balance of people, process and technology. This three-pronged approach to deliver IT services is essential to achieve collaborative innovation between IT and the organization.



Question: Which IT-enabled practices showed the strongest connection to positive business outcomes?

Lambert: Two practices in particular stand out as having a significant impact on business: SaaS and capability maturity model integration (CMMI). While only 12 percent of respondents worldwide have adopted SaaS, those who have adopted it rate it as very effective, and as having a significant impact on achieving business strategy and goals. Only 13 percent of respondents have adopted CMMI-processes for consistent and effective application development, but the practice is rated high for its impact on business. This suggests to us that SaaS and CMMI are emerging areas to consider when seeking to evaluate the cause and effect of IT practices on business outcomes.