Foursquare - $20 M raised in VC funding

Foursquare, the location-based social networking site that we discussed in class in the beginning of the course, has just raised $20 Million in Venture Capital funding from the VC fund Andreessen Horowitz.Not bad, eh?Looks like there are good times ahead for the people behind FourSquare!! Marc Adreessen (the Netscape founder) is counting on a rapid growth in the smartphone market to justify his firm's...

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Bring it on

Done with the posts/assignments on Tech. !!For the non-IMBA readers, those were our assignments. They're over and done with, and I'll be back to yakking about everything under this fine Spanish sun ...These assignments were fun, to the extent that homework can be fun... on to the exams now.I'll go out...

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Tesco - Scoring Points using IT ?

Retailing is a volume game. Shave off a fraction of the cost here, target marketing better there, and it all adds up. Tesco anyone? 'Every little helps', indeed.In the beginning, Tesco was playing catch-up with M&S. Then, Tesco launched the Clubcard, a loyalty card that entitled customers swiped...

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Casa del Libro - a not-so-tough choice

Casa del Libro, at the height of the dot-com bubble, had long been established. They were figuring on entering the online market, and had bought the best and fastest (and the most expensive) servers and software. Then came the dot-com bust. Budget cuts. Downsizing. Lowered growth forecasts. And a tough...

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ERP - Change is the only constant !

ERP softwares are weird.Lets say we have some ace ERP consultants, and they're going to foist an ERP solution (it's always a 'solution', never mere software !!) upon some unsuspecting co.THE GOALTo provide one single software for all departments within an enterprise, HR, Finance, Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing ... everything !! This should make life easier for all these departments.OPTION # 1If the...

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Could Have, Would Have, Should Have !

Consumer is king ?Not quite. But we're getting there. Dell found out the hard way, way back in 2005. Jeff Jarvis, a journo-turned-blogger had a bad experience with Dell. He contacted Dell for customer service, and well, lets just say the bad experience got worse. So bad, that JJ took to periodic venting...

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Back to the 3-6-3 rule ??

'Accounting is Sexy, Accounting is Fun !'... so goes the unofficial motto in our Financial Accountancy class.Huh?? While we've gone through lots of BS, (not what you'd think. Balance Sheets. On second thought, maybe it really is just BS), I'm yet to see how could a wannabe MBA find accountancy sexy....

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Open up to open source !

In a post some time back, I'd written about disliking Windows Vista, and having chickened out of installing Ubuntu. With a weekend at hand, and no intentions of hitting the books, I had to do something....well, Windows got the boot (pun unintentional) !The whole thing took just 10 minutes, starting...

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A victim of it's own success ?

Will Facebook end up being the victim of it's own success ? Methinks so.Sure, there are tonnes of arguments to be made, either way.For: the TINA factor i.e. Google's ineptitude at Social Networking (Orkut & Buzz).Against: Privacy, changing habits, blah blah (it's a long list)In my highly biased...

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OST : the rise and fall of the wannabe MBA

The beginning of an MBAwhen everybody's out to change the world, get filthy stinking rich, "give back", whatever !!I want it all,We are the champions,We will rock you....Sometime later, when the deliverables start piling up......Under Pressure !!Very soon, when the exams are around the corner....I want to break freeThe exam results roll inAnother one bites the dustPS: There I was, working late into...

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