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 investment in Foursquare. Facebook and Google (Google Latitude) are reportedly working on location-based social networking as well.

PS: This is what I had to say in an analysis on Foursquare's business model.

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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 on a limb here, and say this now, before giving the exams...
The IE IMBA is hectic, no doubts about that.
Yet, the pre-exam stress is just not there!!

It's not even a patch on the prep-leave mania that I'd seen all around me, and to a lesser degree, experienced, while in college.


This shouldn't be interpreted to mean that I'm not worried because I'm all set to top the exams.
I'm not worried. Stop.
A big difference is the last minute cramming that we did back then. Now, apart from 'Financial Accounting', there's not much last minute work required.

Thank god for small mercies !!

PS: This is a personal observation.
There are a few going totally loco. That's OK. It's expected.

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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 to earn points at the time of purchase, and could redeem to get discounts later. Sainsbury's dismissed this as just a glorified, electronic version of Tesco's Green shield stamps. They went wrong, big time!

Sainsbury's considered IT as a cost. Nothing more. Tesco went further, used IT as a game-changer, and became the #1 retailer in UK just a year after the launch. Guess who did they oust from the numero-uno position? Sainsburys!

So just how did this IT/marketing project give Tesco an edge over Sainsbury, M&S and the others?

Until now, it wasn't possible for retailers to know which goods were being purchased by which customer segment. Sure, they knew how fast goods were sold, the volumes, the individual bills/invoices etc., but it was all anonymous.

Now, Tesco could analyse the purchasing patterns of different categories of individuals. They could identify the stuff that students bought, as against the stuff that working wives bought. What did they do with this information?
* Cut down on TV advertising. They slotted customers into various segments, and then started focused campaigns at these segments.
* Align their promotion strategy specifically to the items that regular customers bought. This ensured that promotions benefited their regular customers more than customers who only shopped at Tesco during a promotion.
* Cut the number of items on which promotions were offered.

This huge amount of data, and all the analysis that offered them a competitive advantage over others was possible only because of some smart thinking (to come up with the idea), and excellent IT (for a robust implementation).
Just as Tesco had copied ideas in the beginning, others tried to copy this idea. However, Tesco's IT expertise in the implementation of the Clubcard idea was superior.

So yes, Tesco had an edge over their competitors because of IT!!

NewsFlash: Early this year, Sainsbury's Nectar loyalty program overtook Tesco's Clubcard. However, Tesco continues to remain the largest UK retailer.

PS: Scoring Points - pun intended, for once !

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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 choice.

Do they soldier on with the IT platform already acquired, or do they change course midstream and go in for something cheaper?

The context: They'd acquired top-of-the line systems - multiple Sun servers running a Unix variant, a high-end database, a search engine, firewalls, load-balancing.... Basically, they were prepared to handle a lot of traffic. Inevitably, this high performance came with high development and maintenance costs.

The alternative: They could go in for a cheaper solution, using Microsoft software running on HP servers. This would be much cheaper to develop and maintain at the cost lower performance.

The choice:I'd recommend going for the cheap solution !!
* It would be up and running much earlier.
* It was simpler. I can't stress the importance of the KISS funda enough !!
* Fine. The cheap platform wouldn't have been all that great. It wouldn't support a lot of traffic. But then, this shouldn't really have been a concern. The forecasts were lowered, right? Then why spend a lot of money for traffic that would probably be non-existent?
* There was talk of 'downsizing'. If you have fewer people, then you pick the solution that is easier to maintain.

By the time the website's traffic had grown enough to justify the need for the high-end system, it would've already been out-of-date. It would make more sense to opt for the cheap(er) solution, grow the business while adapting and fine-tuning the processes and business model according to their learning curve. Later, when ready, go for a high-end system. Sometime in the future. Not now.

Fast forward to the present: On a side note, would I recommend the same strategy had they been starting up now? NO. Absolutely not!!
Now, with cloud computing, and solutions like Salesforce.com, they could have actually got the website running 'fast + good + cheap' !!

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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 GOAL
To 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 # 1
If the co. decides to adapt the ERP as-is ('out-of-the-box' implementation of the industry's 'best practices', whatever that means), then the software will not really mirror the co.'s functioning. And the so-called 'best-practices' will probably not be what the co. wants.
End Result - the ERP implementation fails in it's goal !!

OPTION # 2
If the co. decides to customize the ERP to reflect their old practices, they end up paying a huge amount of money, spend a lot of time, just to do the same old things on a new software. Wait! Do people do that??
End Result - the ERP implementation fails in it's goal !!

OPTION # 3 (the middle path)
The co. uses specialized front-end systems, retaining their old practices. The ERP functions as a back-office system. The end users are happy, since their specialized systems can mimic actual industry practices better than some cookie-cutter approach suggested by the ERP chaps. And since the ERP is the common backbone/back-office system, the IT systems of all the departments can actually 'talk' to each other.
That's the best option, I hear?

Forget, for a second, the fact that the ERP chaps will make pots of money here, billing for all the integration. Here's the definition of an ERP as per CIO.com : 'ERP’s true ambition.... It attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system that can serve all those different departments’ particular needs'

So, is the best form of an ERP implementation the one that actually defeats the very purpose of an ERP implementation? And potentially turns out to be the most expensive for the co. ?

Like I said, ERP softwares are weird.
There's no 'best option' !

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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 of his frustration on his blog, with a catchy 'Dell Hell' theme. Back then, it was a big deal, and it attracted widespread attention. Dell took a beating. Their stock price tanked. They got tonnes of negative publicity, and were finally forced into taking action.

To wit : Where did it all go wrong for Dell?
* Well, for starters, the laptop could've been better, ha ha
* They could've simply replaced his laptop, seeing what a ruckus he was creating (This was Rifai's first reaction as well !!)

OK, smart-alec options aside, the folks at Dell should've been paying more attention to what their disgruntled customers were saying. But that was too much to expect...Dell's policy vis-a-vis blogs/mails - 'Look, don't touch'. Sound advice for husbands partying around in Madrid; not-so-sound advice when it comes to customer service.

Escalation. Round 1. JJ threw another fit. The obvious thing would've been to nip the problem in the bud, and have some mid-level chap contact JJ and show the appropriate amount of concern. Again, Dell flunked.

Escalation. Round 2. The whole issue went through the roof, and was featured everywhere in the media. Finally, Dell noticed. It was at this point that JJ was refunded. An easier option would've been for Dell to co-opt him, offer to bring him on board as a consultant (only for a while) to work on improving their online customer feedback mechanism.
This particular cartoon is from JJ's blog. So he does have a sense of humour about the whole thing !

This would have had three benefits.
First, JJ would've been in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation. He could've either accepted, and then however reluctantly, acting in fairness, have had to publicly acknowledge the fact that Dell was making some efforts. Or, he could've refused, and lost some credibility and been perceived as someone hell-bent only on armchair criticism, with no inclination to make things better.

Second, JJ, or someone else similarly positioned, could have made a real impact on Dell's sensitivity to customer opinion posted on the net.

Third, Dell would have the pulse of the customer. It's far easier to monitor what your customers are thinking, if they comment/blog about it on your own website. Damage control (step forward, mid-level chappie) is also easier if you know where to do it, and even easier if it's all in one place.

Note:
1. Dell did in fact do this stuff. But way too late for their own good.
2. The term 'Dell Hell' is a geeky inside joke on 'dll hell'. Not that you're expected to know.
3. I find it odd that Wikipedia has no page for Dell Hell !!

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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. Unless one thinks of Thandie Newton in Rock N Rolla, ha ha !

Maybe it's better this way. 'Coz when banking and accountancy get too sexy, and too much fun, then we all get into all sorts of trouble. Paul Krugman got this one right over a year ago.

Alas, the 3-6-3 rule is not an option, either.

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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 to ending. Another 5 minutes to install Skype, a Flash plugin for watching Youtube and other streaming videos, and VLC player, and there I was, all set...
I spent more time thinking about this, than I did on the actual installation. I had a friends laptop running a Youtube demo installation while I was working on mine. That way, I knew that I was on the right track, and which option to select and so on.

Now, everything on my laptop is free. FREE.
I love it.
Open Source rocks.
May the source be with you ! (mea culpa, that's a really bad one !!)

Oh, did I mention that my 3 year old laptop feels blazing fast now?

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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 opinion, there are two things that will be the deciding factors:


Fact # 1: Facebook Connect is increasingly connecting websites to Facebook.This trend will only accelerate. More and more websites will link to websites. You'll be able to use your Facebook ID on these sites too. Liking or sharing information will be seamless across websites, making Facebook a kind of one-stop-shop for all your needs.
This alone, virtually guarantees a somewhat safe future for Facebook. It's not disappearing anytime soon, that's for sure !

Fact # 2: Facebook started off only for college kids, and now has anybody and everybody on it.
Facebook became so insanely popular with the rest of the world because it was popular with the kids in college, to begin with. They spread the word, as it were. Now, everybody and his Uncle are on Facebook. There's a lot of stuff going on with it. A lot of eyeballs are on Facebook. It's mainstream now !!
This might just turn off the younger lot. They'll come up with something newer, edgier, and much cooler. And if half the world is using a website to socialize, then that website just lost its 'coolness'. So I see more and more youngsters drifting away from Facebook. Where? God know! But, there's bound to be a steady decline.

Will it disappear? No. It'll probably become something that does fairly well, something that a lot of people use, but something that is no longer 'happening'. Staid and boring. It'll become Hotmail !!

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OST : the rise and fall of the wannabe MBA

The beginning of an MBA
when 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 free

The exam results roll in
Another one bites the dust

PS: There I was, working late into the night on a submission. A "Queen" playlist on.
And since I was thinking of everything under the sun other than the submission at hand, I came across this particular selection (If this were a hollywood flick, this would be the genius seeing patterns in coded messages/symbols)....

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