Prick Your Tooth, Trim Your Beard- Get Set Go!!!

So, the much hyped iPhone-5 is out!! Samsung says the next big thing is already here. HTC and Nokia are trying hard to lobby for their share of smart phone market. Android and iOS are competing for the top slot while Microsoft is trying to test its fortunes. App Developers are busy developing apps for all these Mobile Operating Systems. Mobile devices are getting more powerful than ever (Samsung’s S III is more powerful than my laptop). The latest benchmark scores say Apple’s iPhone 5 beats Samsung’s SIII by a difference of 40 points. ‘Wow’, Apple lived upto the promise, the analysts say.

The blogs, news, the TV ads, social media are fanatically filling up their space with all the comparisons of SIII vs Nokia vs. HTC vs. iPhone in order to provide the user with the most comprehensive analysis of which phone is the best. Self proclaimed (many I find) Tech-Analysts have gone to the extent of comparing processors in those mobiles. These mobiles are being crammed with dual cores and even quad cores. Intel, a late entrant into mobile processors started a branding war through its once highly successful ‘Intel Inside’ campaign refusing to be under the hoods of consumer brands. After all, mobiles are the next big thing they say (assuming no disruptive technologies will enter market).

There are currently 27 million smartphone users in India and are growing at an impressive rate says a Nielsen survey.  Now let us take a look at what our users do with their smartphones according to a Google Survey.

77% -listen to music                              30 % - read a book               33%- play video game

48%- use internet on another device   36%- watch movies              1%-none of these

Now, let us take a look at some specifications of one of the smash hit android phones of the year-Samsung Galaxy SIII

Operating System:                        Android ICS

Primary Camera:                           8 Megapixel

Secondary Camera:                      1.9 Megapixel

Connectivity & Internet:               GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA upto 21 Mbps, Wifi

RAM:                                             1 GB

Number of Cores:                          4 (Exynos processor)

This smartphone has a lot to boast indeed. It has indeed the best of processing capabilities, an excellent front camera to make video calls, 21 Mbps HSDPA. These features can make any mobile lover go ‘wow’..Right!!?? The blogs are filled with which is the king of smartphones?  iPhone or Samsung and Indian users engage in a soft online war with words touting iPhone users as a flock of sheep and iPhone users touting Android users as poor guys who cannot afford an iPhone.

At this point, I always remember a wise man saying ‘consumer is an ass, successful companies make him a jackass’ and I have no regrets when I support him.  

Perplexed!!!!?

Let me explain…… A report by Akamai, an internet content delivery based firm, affirms that the average 3G speed in India is just 0.9 Mbps. This puts India at 112th position only a bit higher than Libya, Nigeria, Nepal and Iran- the last in the list. So, essentially no video calls will be supported by the networks and 1.9 Megapixel camera or for that matter a front camera too will only be an ornamentation to the phone. Not many apps make complete utilization of the 4 cores present in the phone. Not many understand that it is the user experience that should matter and the basic purpose for which the phone is bought should be fulfilled and selection of the phone which can perform all these functions should be the criterion.

Constantly trapped by the Consumer brands marketing, the customers buy phones that carry features that add no value often at an expensive price. Very few know and even fewer can actually utilize the raw computing power these phones can provide. The existing infrastructure in India does not necessitate the use of the so called power phones.

Now here comes the most essential part of promotion: how to make consumers buy what they do not need. One thing that amazed me a lot is the effective utilization of social media to promote their brands. What is so amazing? One may ask! Any firm uses social media as a lead weapon in its arsenal these days. Here comes the most striking observation, companies are only starting a chain reaction. It is the consumers who battle for the brands. Take it this way, Nokia(or any brand) releases a picture of it’s phone’s features comparing it with other brands. Exactly here starts all the hullabaloo! One can watch atleast 200 comments in just 2 minutes of the pic posted. If we look at how the algorithm for Facebook, the more the number of users comment or like, more the publicity it gets.  Interesting isn’t it??- Consumers promoting something they don’t really need to satisfy their ego. Flaunting and defending phones that they do not know how to use. This way the mobile manufacturers created a set of unpaid trusted users who defend their brands. Hope they are aware of this phenomenon. This trend did not yet start off in many other products.  Sales depend so much on these debates online although I do not have statistics to support my view.

But for now in India, until Indian networks support the ultra speeds that these smartphones can offer which can easily take another 5-7 years to catch up with international standards and the apps which can utilize the raw computing power, use your smartphone for other than texting, calling, internet, watching movies etc., which every other user in India with a smartphone can do. Think out of the box. Think smarter. Cut your Grey hair, Prick Pimples, Prick your tooth, Trim your beard. GET SET GO!!!!

An Unsung War Hero’s Management Lessons

This (http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/07/act_fast_not_first.html) was not just another article in HBR I just read and close every day; this made me read a biography.  I thought this would be one of the right daises to introduce to those of you who might not have come across the name of this US Air force pilot in your common management programs. His concepts of war proposed some decades ago not only changed the art of war but also hold perfect lessons of management in an era of rapidly declining time-frame for a management concept called Strategy. Before I start off with management aspects of his theories, let me introduce him to you.

This person could defeat any opponent in simulated air-to-air combat in less than “forty seconds”. Some of the best pilots in the air force challenged him at point or another, so did the best pilots in the Navy and the Marine Corps. But, no man could be found who was better in air than him. He was never defeated. In 1959, when he was just a young captain, He became the first man to codify the elusive and mysterious ways of air-to-air combat. He developed and wrote the ‘Aerial Attack Study’, a document that is now termed as Bible for air forces around the world. He has put forward his Energy- Maneuverability Theory from which the finest jets of their time the F-15’s and the F-16’s were engineered for which he was acknowledged father of those two aircrafts.

His work made him the most influential thinker since Sun Tzu wrote the art of war 2400 years ago. The results of his work were manifested in the Gulf war. Everything about the startling speed and decisive victory can be attributed not to the media heroes, not to struggling and bombastic generals, but to a lonely old man in South Florida, who thought he had been forgotten.

Popularly known as ‘Forty Second Boyd’ (remember the time in which he can defeat an opponent?) and a ‘Mad Major’, here is a person who changed not just the art of war but also that of management- John Boyd.

Now, keeping him aside let us take a look at the present business scenario, the ever changing business dynamics, the possible entry of disruptive technologies is giving sleepless nights to the top managements and R&D labs world over. The technology that you called superior one year ago is outdated now. I agree there were times when businesses enjoyed a near monopoly and devised strategies to consolidate their positions, not brushing aside the fact that they invested heavily in R&D. But if I tell you investing heavily in R&D combined with effective strategies to counter competition will not solely serve the purpose and you need to have that ‘extra eye’ to foresee future.

 What can be a better example than ‘Intel Corporation’, the company enjoyed a near monopoly and its nearest rival AMD was never even a concern for it. It was setting benchmarks only on its previous products. But blows came to Intel in some other form. Intel failed to realize the specifications that a mobile processor needs is very different from that a PC needs, because it failed to understand that sustaining success is much beyond benchmarking themselves. In a market space where Snapdragon and Qualcomm processors are the norm for every smart phone out in the market, the Intel’s ‘Atom’ processor meant for smart phones was dumped by every other smart phone manufacturer due to its power hungry nature. Intel still finds it tough to enter this space. Similarly many examples like the collapse of Sony digital music players with the entry of ipods, the competition Boeing is facing from Airbus can be observed from around us.

In other words, speed is killing our decisions. The crush of technology forces us to react in very less time. Not many understood the challenge of time pressured decision making like John Boyd. He developed a decision making framework which is gaining popularity among the business leaders worldwide. It is known by the acronym ‘OODA’(Observe, Orient, Decision, Action).

It analyses, synthesizes and defines most important critical component of performance- Reaction Time. ‘Observe’ the rapidly changing environment, ‘Orient’ yourself to the environment based on these observations, process the disorder and understand when your competitor might become confused. ‘Decide’ what to do and ‘Act’ at the right moment. The ultimate goal is ‘Act Fast but not First’.

This necessarily conflicts with our basic management lesson taught every other day -‘The First Mover Advantage’. Let’s see why this is obsolete at times. In the year 1983, a well known company introduced shampoo in sachets to make it affordable to the rural poor at cheap prices, a very good innovation inarguably. But, it is the other companies which gained from this innovation and The First mover actually stood at loss in terms of revenues. Apple introduced a really cheeky OS which is arguably the best one until then, but how much time did it take for Google to make an OS which is arguably better than iOS?

If only Intel would have observed what is happening around it, it would have grabbed the emerging market of smart phones and so is with the other companies.

This definitely raises doubts like what if the opponent also follows OODA loop? Answer: Get into his OODA loop.

Now don’t ask me, what if companies make OODA as a strategy since I mentioned strategy will pale into insignificance once we start using OODA. I do not know the answer.

And oh yeah, did I forget to mention why I described this Genius as ‘An sung war hero’? John Boyd was hated by every other US Air force personnel because of this straight forward nature and inability to accept corruption in an area where it was a norm.

                                                                                                                                                Signing Off,

                                                                                                                                                Tarak

The New Age Marketing Theme

Last week when Google blacked out its logo out of its internet search engine, Wikipedia has blanked out its web for 24 hours to protest against SOPA/PIPA did also arise a new age marketing theme- ‘Annoyvation’ as someone calls it. Though the point is debatable whether the companies can impose these (legitimate) concerns onto the customers is more important than serving the customers (legitimately) needs, it has been an eye opener on how badly can one get affected due to excessive dependence on these giants and how these Giants can virtually intrude into our lives (strictly speaking it is our mistake though).

Some of the customers are irked by these happenings while some others are though not that irked supported the cause; quite a few others genuinely supported it. We in India might not be so much accustomed to this technology and we might skip this topic saying ‘it is a free service and who cares giving a damn about this thing. After all Google blacked out its logo and Wiki has been shut only for a day’ But for the western world, this thing is as important as their meal. While I was browsing web last week, I found out this funny question in Yahoo from a mother ‘My baby is crying, what should I do?’ This is the level of dependence west has on these giants. We in the east are even fast catching up. Internet penetration is the core issue of the Indian Policy makers on this front creating a vast market for these giants.

Now let me come back to the original topic and ask you a common yet strange question ‘how many of us would really known about SOPA/PIPA had there not been a blackout in a coordinated manner from the best service providers. (Google, Facebook, Wikipedia etc). I call this a new marketing theme and someone might want to blame me saying ‘they are protesting for a genuine cause, so it’s fair doing all of this and after all it is their right to protest. Labor laws provide them the right to protest.’ Think of this situation when the GOI would want a new law of recruitment that would cause significant inconvenience for the bank employees and thereby they protest by withholding the accounts of a significant chunk of the population and create awareness. Will that not be a fire in your ass? Afterall the new age digital technology has laid path for this kind of protests. They too can emulate success right!!

Is it strategically wise and tactically stupid or vice-versa? Or wise both ways?? Keeping apart the arguments and debates of whether the name ‘CSR’ has become a lame duck used by these giants or is the point of failing to take a stand now might leave them without options in the future, remember how much we are and we will be affected by these actions and how prone are we to the technology (call it addiction too, I don’t mind). Also remember how much potentially we are the customers of their campaign even if we would not like to.

Think about it guyzzzz!!!