The recently concluded drama at Flopenhagen (Sorry, Copenhagen), made me think about something which is usually a pretty neglected topic when it comes to debates on environment related issues etc. (Note that I am just highlighting this side-effect to trigger a constructive debate on this topic, and in no way am I stating that the issues related to environmental protection are not important)
--> Sidenote: Well, the Danish capital could do well by changing its name anyways, given the popularity(or is it notoriety?!) the new word has attained.
I wanted to dwell on the possible effects on the professional and personal lives of people working in certain industries, upon implementation of all or some of the solutions being suggested to overcome the problems faced by the Earth's environment.
Please feel free to send in all your cerebral "bricks and bouquets", regarding this topic. I would especially solicit interesting inputs and insights from the readers of my blog who are (a)domain experts in the few industries covered below, (b) environmentalists, (c)social scientists, (d)economists etc. Of course all the others are also welcome to send in their valuable inputs. Please feel free to add insights about other industries which I might have missed out in this blogpost.
Before I list out points about each of the industries, I would like to put down some scenarios which I believe could exist:-
*Scenario 1: Skills of people working in the "polluting" industry, are not transferable to be used in the "non-polluting" industry which is being touted as an environmentally friendly replacement. However, the existing market demand for products of the "polluting" industry sustains itself for many number of years. This helps in the workforce in the "polluting" industry to gracefully reach retirement during these many number of years.
--> Suggested Action: Non Required, as there will not be a mass unemployment issue
*Scenario 2: Skills of people working in the "polluting" industry, are not transferable to be used in the "non-polluting" industry which is being touted as an environmentally friendly replacement. To compound problems for the folks working in the "polluting" industry, the market for their products also vanishes in no time.
--> Suggested Action: Governments to work closely with industry and intervene timely with proper plans, to ensure that the effected workforce and their families do not suffer due to no fault of theirs.
*Scenario 3: Skills of people working in the "polluting" industry, are transferable to be used in the "non-polluting" industry which is being touted as an environmentally friendly replacement. However, the number of available jobs in the "newer" industry, is much lesser in number.
--> Suggested Action: Ditto, as for Scenario 2 described above.
*Scenario 4: Only certain market segments of the "polluting" industry needs to be "shut down".
--> Suggested Action: Can be easily resolved.
*Scenario 5: Each member of the workforce of "polluting" industry can be promptly transferred to the "new" industry.
--> Suggested Action: Well, what else do you want? It is Utopia! :-).
Having listed the scenarios which I could think of, let us go to some of the concerned industries --
* The Oil and Gas Industry (Upstream activities like oil exploration etc, all the way to cover downstream activities like marketing of petroleum products etc):- The Upstream activities would fall in the "Scenario 1" category. The Downstream activities would come closest to falling in the "Scenario 5" category
*Non-Renewable Energy: Scenario 1 is applicable in this case
*Auto Industry (Vehicles running on petrol, diesel): Again, Scenario 1 is applicable for this industry
*Plastics: Scenario 4 is applicable in this case
*Poultry and livestock: Ditto as for the Plastics industry i.e. Scenario 4
The importance of policy makers taking adequate measures to cover the scenarios described in this blog post, can be realised from the following scenario which occured in a different context (some of you would be aware of it):- Textile units in Bangladesh which employed children as workers, were abrupty shutdown. The result was an even worse future for the kids who lost their jobs. Since the children's families lost an important source of income without any means to replenish the same, most of them were forced to become child prostitutes. This forced the policy makers to implement a solution which was more pragmatic in nature.
Catch you folks later, with a blog post on the legendary "Sales Vs Production" fight :-)
Monday, December 28, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Murder on the Road
Friends, I hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season in your own different and quaint ways. I wanted to share some of the thoughts (sort of weird ones)which keep criss-crossing my mind when I am driving on the Bangalore roads. Kindly let me know, if many of you also experience some or all of these thoughts one time or the other.
Listed below are some of my feelings, when on the road:-
(i)I have been feeling a constant urge to buy and keep a baseball club in my car. Why? To swing it at the empty heads of offending fellow drivers, and to not miss!!
(ii)To swing the car to the right, and crush/grind to a pulp the bike trying to sneak into the teeny-weeny space between my car and the divider
(iii)To pull out the "more-than-errant, foul-mouthed, and arrogant" driver of a "yellow plate" vehicle (cab/van/truck) by his hair, and stab him more than 20 times to death
--> Sub-Feeling No.1: To smash to death auto-rickshaw drivers, who never use their rear view mirrors, before wildly swerving on to my path without any hint of a warning
--> Sub-Feeling No.2: To have the drivers of buses publicly lynched and ensure they meet the death of a street mongrel (Kill the passengers who are responsible too), for :(a)Stopping dead in the middle of a busy road or doing so to block a busy crossing, (b) Swerving right and trying to crush smaller vehicles on to the divider etc etc
--> Sub-Feeling No.3: To put a knife through the drivers of Tata Sumos etc who try to muscle their way through by threateningly veering towards your vehicle to try scaring you to the side of the road
(iv)To increase the speed of my car, and run over the two-wheeler in front of me who turns deaf to my polite honks, and continues riding at a snail's pace through the exact centre of a wide road
(v)To slap the driver of a tractor which slows down the entire city traffic, and to tell him that the road does not run through his farm
(vi)To mow down the pedestrians who choose to jump right in front of my car, timing the jump right when I reach the spot, despite the moron having clearly seen me coming on the road. Same applies to the idiots who are able and hearty, but still amble across the road slowly on purpose in a mocking fashion
(vii)When the cattle (whose rightful place is on a farm!) jumps in front of my car, instinctively I feel like "shooting the messenger" (Read: killing the animal, even if my car gets dented). However, then I feel that the person who should be tied to an electric post and flogged to death, is the animal's empty-headed owner.
(viii)To search for, find out, and club to death, the idiotic employee(s) of the municipality, who are responsible for the stupidly designed&placed humps, potholes of gorge-like proportions, open manholes, roadblocks forgotten to be removed, and what not!
(ix)To gift bangles to traffic policemen for them to wear, when I see them not being able to enforce rules on erring motorists
(x)To have the vehicles pounded (with the driver tied up inside), when I see them jumping red signals with impunity, as if it is their birthright.
(xi)To burst the tires of drivers who try to honk and push their way through, and do not allow people in front of them to legally change lanes (when they very much could have done so!)
(xii)To hit and reduce cyclists (and their cycles) into a mangled piece of metal and flesh, for swerving right or left without warning (and any gap)
(xiii) Break all the headlights/brakelights and burst all the tires of vehicles, who endanger others on the road at night by having some or all of their headlights/brakelights to be not switched on.
(xiv)For folks driving on roads in the wrong direction and on footpaths-Show no mercy. Tie them up and have a road roller run over them.
(xv)For folks who honk without any reason, and for those who ignore signs like "No U-Turn" - Cut off the ears of the former and gouge out the eyes of the latter. Their ears and eyes are vestigial/non-functional, anyways.
(xvi)For folks who try to go from the rightmost lane to the leftmost one (or vice-versa), bang at a busy crossing - Just hang them to death right there!
Plea to the relevant authorities - Either do your duties and enforce traffic laws (which you have proven to be incapable of till now), or please legally sanction law-abiding drivers to do any of the above sixteen things!
Listed below are some of my feelings, when on the road:-
(i)I have been feeling a constant urge to buy and keep a baseball club in my car. Why? To swing it at the empty heads of offending fellow drivers, and to not miss!!
(ii)To swing the car to the right, and crush/grind to a pulp the bike trying to sneak into the teeny-weeny space between my car and the divider
(iii)To pull out the "more-than-errant, foul-mouthed, and arrogant" driver of a "yellow plate" vehicle (cab/van/truck) by his hair, and stab him more than 20 times to death
--> Sub-Feeling No.1: To smash to death auto-rickshaw drivers, who never use their rear view mirrors, before wildly swerving on to my path without any hint of a warning
--> Sub-Feeling No.2: To have the drivers of buses publicly lynched and ensure they meet the death of a street mongrel (Kill the passengers who are responsible too), for :(a)Stopping dead in the middle of a busy road or doing so to block a busy crossing, (b) Swerving right and trying to crush smaller vehicles on to the divider etc etc
--> Sub-Feeling No.3: To put a knife through the drivers of Tata Sumos etc who try to muscle their way through by threateningly veering towards your vehicle to try scaring you to the side of the road
(iv)To increase the speed of my car, and run over the two-wheeler in front of me who turns deaf to my polite honks, and continues riding at a snail's pace through the exact centre of a wide road
(v)To slap the driver of a tractor which slows down the entire city traffic, and to tell him that the road does not run through his farm
(vi)To mow down the pedestrians who choose to jump right in front of my car, timing the jump right when I reach the spot, despite the moron having clearly seen me coming on the road. Same applies to the idiots who are able and hearty, but still amble across the road slowly on purpose in a mocking fashion
(vii)When the cattle (whose rightful place is on a farm!) jumps in front of my car, instinctively I feel like "shooting the messenger" (Read: killing the animal, even if my car gets dented). However, then I feel that the person who should be tied to an electric post and flogged to death, is the animal's empty-headed owner.
(viii)To search for, find out, and club to death, the idiotic employee(s) of the municipality, who are responsible for the stupidly designed&placed humps, potholes of gorge-like proportions, open manholes, roadblocks forgotten to be removed, and what not!
(ix)To gift bangles to traffic policemen for them to wear, when I see them not being able to enforce rules on erring motorists
(x)To have the vehicles pounded (with the driver tied up inside), when I see them jumping red signals with impunity, as if it is their birthright.
(xi)To burst the tires of drivers who try to honk and push their way through, and do not allow people in front of them to legally change lanes (when they very much could have done so!)
(xii)To hit and reduce cyclists (and their cycles) into a mangled piece of metal and flesh, for swerving right or left without warning (and any gap)
(xiii) Break all the headlights/brakelights and burst all the tires of vehicles, who endanger others on the road at night by having some or all of their headlights/brakelights to be not switched on.
(xiv)For folks driving on roads in the wrong direction and on footpaths-Show no mercy. Tie them up and have a road roller run over them.
(xv)For folks who honk without any reason, and for those who ignore signs like "No U-Turn" - Cut off the ears of the former and gouge out the eyes of the latter. Their ears and eyes are vestigial/non-functional, anyways.
(xvi)For folks who try to go from the rightmost lane to the leftmost one (or vice-versa), bang at a busy crossing - Just hang them to death right there!
Plea to the relevant authorities - Either do your duties and enforce traffic laws (which you have proven to be incapable of till now), or please legally sanction law-abiding drivers to do any of the above sixteen things!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Sales Vs Production: The eternal struggle
I am sure everyone of you would have heard about the traditional "Sales Vs Production" bitter-sweet relationship, which exists in every company, in every industry, and in every country. It is a subject of great interest among students of Sales Management and other similiar courses, which are part of the curriculum in B-Schools across the globe.
Actually in the IT Services industry, there is another player involved: The Pre-Sales Folks
Anyways, based on my personal experiences while working in Sales, Pre-Sales, and Project Delivery (Production), I would like to jot down a few points. Many of them could be a repeat of what you might have heard often. Still I would "pen" them down, as every blogger worth his/her salt, has this once-in-a-while urge to let out "preachy sounding ideas" on his/her blogs :-). So, kindly bear with me :-)
*For the Sales Folks:-
(i)You are supposed to be aggressive when it comes to going after and getting new business. Do not bring that aggressiveness (esp. when not called for), into your communications with people within your own company
(ii)Since you are the person bringing in the money into the company, you are understandably vested with certain special "powers". Don't misuse those powers to harm others in the company
(iii)Agreed that your job is highly stressful. However, even the others in the company could be facing lots of challenges at their jobs, even though they might be facing pressure which is a tardy bit lesser than what is being experienced by you.
(iv)Remember that you are the one running after the commissions - It is a truth, and please face it. The folks who have to help you in the process (production etc) do not have the lure of a commission. So at least be nice to them, to get the required help from them.
(v)Remember that you can do absolutely no selling without the help of Pre-Sales and Production. So by burning bridges with them - you are tearing off your own paycheck!
(vi)No, maybe you really do not understand how it is in production and pre-sales! Folks who have spent all their lives only in sales - I do not think you can even come close to countering the above statement.
For those who have "seen it all" - Maybe you "saw it all" in a different time, under different conditions. e.g. maybe you were lucky to run projects with more experienced resources at your disposal, while the current lot are having to do with greenhorns
(vii)"Why are these folks asking me to go back to the customer and ask for data? Why can't they make the proposal without the data? Asking these questions of the customer would be so tough!!" ...Hmmm..Sorry buddy, what was that? I think you did not get it - You get paid to handle these "tough" scenarios. I can understand that some data cannot be got, but you cannot say that about everything involved.
(viii)"Why do I need to build relationships with the Production folks? Anyways, they come in to the picture only once the deal is closed." Really??!!
-->How many times have you setup customer meetings, solely with the help of the contacts that your production personnel had with his/her peers(that is the key word there) in the customer's organization?
--> How many times were you able to trace the fat commission you gobbled up without even burping once :-), to the key inputs related to existing accounts that the production personnel gave you?
--> What about the time when you learnt it the hard way that "you should talk to the production team before meeting an existing customer, to be well-prepared to handle any production related escalations which might be brought up by the customer"?
--> Would you honestly have been able to win all those deals, without the help of the production team in churning out a technically robust business proposal?
(ix)Do not overcommit to customer, and put the production team in unwarranted trouble. It would only cause more harm to your future business prospects.
(x)I know that the data surrounding any new business opportunity is hazy, but you need to have some semblance of logic in the directions/guidance you give to the proposal making team, for them to be able to churn out a proposal in sync with what you are looking for :-)
*Now, For the Production (and Pre-Sales) Folks:-
(i)Firstly, the sales guy is not enjoying a cushy, long-term onsite stint-Period!! Trying to sell anything and meeting timebound sales targets is a truly challenging job. If you have never done it - Buddy, then you surely cannot even think about how tough direct sales can be!
(ii)"What does the sales guy do? I make all the slides, and a lot of the business wins are due to the good work that my team does. Why do they even have a sales team?"- Hmmm...No one is trying to undermine the importance of your work on the slides, and the good work that your team has done. However, I guess you really do not get to see e.g. the pains that the direct sales guy has to undergo, to ensure that the Request for Proposal(RFP)/tender at least gets to your doorstep in the first place.
(iii)"What tough customer meeting is this sales guy talking about? XYZ is always so nice to us." - My friend, don't tell me you do not know that most customers tend to be more forthright and blunt in giving feedback to the person who "sold the goods/services to them". Also remember the "you and the customer, are production/technical peers", concept that we covered earlier in this blog post. So, use the sales guy as a second channel to get timely and high quality feedback.
(iv)"I want 200% perfect data related to customer's operations, competition etc. Only then can a decent proposal be made" - Come on, be a bit more realistic and understanding!
(v)"This is a new domain, and we will not give an aggressive proposal-sorry!!. I don't care if there is a heavily entrenched competitor, and that to break-in we need to make a more-than-compelling proposition". My friend, even the domain you are working on currently was new once upon a time. Do you mean to say that you will do nothing else once this project ends? What will happen to your source of livelihood after that? I am sure you agree that the customer will change over to you as a company, only if you commit to providing him/her something different and compelling.
(vi)"This person gets low quality (?) projects". My friend, the direct sales personnel's work is to get new business. What is this "low quality" stuff about, anyways? Do you really believe that there are "high quality" opportunities in sync with your specific tastes, waiting with folded arms for you??!!
(vii)"Why is this person in direct sales? I am sure, I would have done a better job any day". Well, in most cases, companies put a lot of thought in putting a person in a direct sales position which is business critical. So in all probability you are really not "direct sales" material, and hence were not considered for the position (at least you need to consider this possibility).
So, I invite readers of my blog, from both sides of the fence on this ever going (but quaint) fight, to have their "swords" sharpened and ready :-). Since I am more than confident that you would be civil, I offer this space to be the "battleground".
Catch you later with another blog post on geopolitics (or maybe human psychology!)
Zero G: Rooftop Discotheque/Lounge Bar
Finally, getting down to blog something about another Bangalore nightspot. Last month I had blogged about a great underground place (Athena), and now I take you on a ride right up to the top floor of Prestige Towers on Residency Road (opposite Purple Haze), to Zero G which is a great discotheque-cum-lounge bar. Cover charges for a couple is close to Rs 500/-.
The place caters to customers across various age groups with its decently sized lounge bar, dance floor, and party halls. The food is good, and so is the array of beverages available to you. The waiters though not as classy as at Athena, are efficient and friendly.
You could stay indoors, or enjoy things alfresco on the open terrace which has a swimming pool too.
I have never used my own car to go to the place, but I am told that parking is not an issue, what with parking space for up to 150 cars.
The official co-ordinates of the place:-
Zero G, 10th Floor, Prestige Tower
Residency Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560025
080 22079014
That is all for now. Catch you later..
The place caters to customers across various age groups with its decently sized lounge bar, dance floor, and party halls. The food is good, and so is the array of beverages available to you. The waiters though not as classy as at Athena, are efficient and friendly.
You could stay indoors, or enjoy things alfresco on the open terrace which has a swimming pool too.
I have never used my own car to go to the place, but I am told that parking is not an issue, what with parking space for up to 150 cars.
The official co-ordinates of the place:-
Zero G, 10th Floor, Prestige Tower
Residency Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560025
080 22079014
That is all for now. Catch you later..
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Privacy Policy And Other Rules
Welcome to my Blog. Kindly adhere to the below policies, or else you could be subject to appropriate punitive action by either the Company owning Blogger or myself.
*The contents of this blog (Original posts) are my creation, and hence I am the owner of the same. The same shall not be copied and used elsewhere by anyone else other than me, without my explicit permission
*Feel free to add your comments against my blog entries. However, any comments which are found to be abusive and vulgar in nature, shall result in the concerned user being permanently banned from accessing my blog
*The contents of this blog are my personal views, and not those of the companies or academic institutions with whom I have been, am, or shall be associated.
*Please ensure that as a visitor to my blog, you do not involve yourself in any invalid clicking of advertisements.
*Please do not copy/paste original works of other people which amounts to copyright violations, on to my blog.
*Please do not publish any advertisements, articles etc on my website which are related to any form of pornography.
*The contents of this blog (Original posts) are my creation, and hence I am the owner of the same. The same shall not be copied and used elsewhere by anyone else other than me, without my explicit permission
*Feel free to add your comments against my blog entries. However, any comments which are found to be abusive and vulgar in nature, shall result in the concerned user being permanently banned from accessing my blog
*The contents of this blog are my personal views, and not those of the companies or academic institutions with whom I have been, am, or shall be associated.
*Please ensure that as a visitor to my blog, you do not involve yourself in any invalid clicking of advertisements.
*Please do not copy/paste original works of other people which amounts to copyright violations, on to my blog.
*Please do not publish any advertisements, articles etc on my website which are related to any form of pornography.
Monday, December 7, 2009
ContentMixi.com: All your Online Design Needs Met
One of my classmates (Sundeep Tibrewal) at B-School (ISB-Hyderabad) is doing exactly what every MBA program wants most of its alumni to do - He is working his way up as an entrepreneur. The new website www.contentmixi.com that his team has built is an online marketplace (on the lines of eBay, Amazon etc)for digital products like Web Design templates, Logos etc. The site leverages the Web 2.0 principles like user provided content etc, in a very smart manner.
Sundeep and his team have taken the usage of Web 2.0 principles to another level, by coming up with a contest for bloggers (To Go To The Contentmixi.com Contest Website Click Here). The contest aims at inviting users to write reviews of the Beta version of the contentmixi.com website on their blogs, and thus results in being a rich source of feedback directly from the user community at virtually no cost [Discounting of course the prize money to be paid out to the contest winners :-)]. Also, the appearing of reviews of the website on multiple blogs, would mean savings of a lot of advertising dollars/rupees. I would also like to state that this contest is a good supplement, to the other efforts being made by Sundeep in advertising his new venture e.g. The Dec 2009 edition of "Digit"-the No.1 Technical Magazine in India, carries an article about www.contentmixi.com
Only possible drawback of this contest is that, some bloggers might highlight only the good aspects of the website, with the hope that it would increase their chances of winning the contest. It would defeat the very purpose of gathering feedback, to further improve and enhance the website. Hopefully, Sundeep and his team at www.contentmixi.com would not face too much of this issue. With that, I move on to list some of my views about www.contentmixi.com, in the next few paragraphs.
I would like to start off on a positive and encouraging note, by praising Sundeep and his team for all their hardwork in coming up with a great website. I find the website to be comprehensive and exhaustive in terms of covering the entire breadth of digital products like Web Design Templates, Logos etc. It is also highly commendable to see the website managing to attract a huge number of high quality user provided content, at the Beta trial stage itself, and goes far to prove the potential of the website to be a one-stop treasure trove of digital content/products. I would also like to congratulate the team which designed the website, for managing to keep the website in a shape which cannot be called too colourful or gaudy, despite the nature of the products being sold and bought on the website.
I would like to list below in a bulletized format, my feedback to make the final version of the website even better than what the current (Beta) version is. Note that some of this might be something which Sundeep and his team would already be working on, and my apologies in advance to them for the same.
--> Feedback on Business Related Aspects:-
*I know that a picture is equal to "N" number of words. However, the website needs to have more of relevant text to be added, which highlights benefits of using www.contentmixi.com. e.g. add references to the article about www.contentmixi.com in "Digit" magazine.
*Online financial transactions is based on the amount of trust that the users have about your website. Highlight upfront, the security measures implemented by your website, to safeguard the money of both sellers and buyers.
*Given the nature of business in which the prospective buyers and sellers are involved, I very strongly believe that you should expand the portfolio of things to be bought/sold in your online marketplace to include design services e.g. a prospective buyer can put up his requirements for a digital product on www.contentmixi.com, and invite sellers to submit quotes for designing of the product.
*Study established online marketplaces like eBay thoroughly, and adopt all good practices from them.
*Needless to say: Initiate process of getting website a higher priority in Google searches etc.
*To attract sellers:-
(a)The points about how sellers can make money (and a forecast of how much and how soon) via the website, should be shown in bold, with a larger font, highlighted, and stated clearly on the Home Page itself.
(b)Get sellers who have already provided content, to comment on the value they see themselves getting through .
(c)Conduct contests inviting users to provide content such that they could win prize money(in addition to proceeds from sales of their products in the online marketplace). Get some prospective corporate buyers in the SMB space, to sponsor the prize money.
*To attract buyers:-
(a)Highlight the specific advantages to various user communities who are prospective buyers e.g. savings earned in terms of time and cost through ready-to-use logos, web design templates etc.
(b)Announce attractive discounts, special offers to early adopters.
(c)Put in place some sort of a priority scheme based on number of views of a product etc, to dynamically change the order in which products are displayed on the website. Maybe you can look at this i.e Point (c), one year or more from now.
Feedback On Some User Interface Related Aspects:-
-->The top row of tabs on the Home Page(Web Templates, Logos, Content, E-Book, Illustration, etc): When you take the mouse to click on them, the "hand" symbol does not get displayed just before the clicking activity
--> Maintain uniformity across the website in using terms/words
e.g. 1> The top row of tabs on the Home Page says "Web Templates", and the lower row of tabs says "Website Templates"
e.g. 2> The usage of capital and small letters also needs to be uniform all across the webpage. The word "Templates" starts with "T" in some places, and with "t" in other places.
--> The Tab "Illustration" shows no content, when clicked upon.
--> Take care of spelling and grammar, to ensure that the website has a thoroughly professional look. e.g. In my view the top row of tabs should have "E-BOOKS", "ILLUSTRATIONS" etc.
--> The "Product Categories", "Win Prizes" etc sections of Home Page, can be moved upwards. That way users can see the same, without having to scroll down.
Hope my suggestions add some value to Sundeep and his team. Wishing Sundeep and his team, all the best with respect to www.contentmixi.com
Sundeep and his team have taken the usage of Web 2.0 principles to another level, by coming up with a contest for bloggers (To Go To The Contentmixi.com Contest Website Click Here). The contest aims at inviting users to write reviews of the Beta version of the contentmixi.com website on their blogs, and thus results in being a rich source of feedback directly from the user community at virtually no cost [Discounting of course the prize money to be paid out to the contest winners :-)]. Also, the appearing of reviews of the website on multiple blogs, would mean savings of a lot of advertising dollars/rupees. I would also like to state that this contest is a good supplement, to the other efforts being made by Sundeep in advertising his new venture e.g. The Dec 2009 edition of "Digit"-the No.1 Technical Magazine in India, carries an article about www.contentmixi.com
Only possible drawback of this contest is that, some bloggers might highlight only the good aspects of the website, with the hope that it would increase their chances of winning the contest. It would defeat the very purpose of gathering feedback, to further improve and enhance the website. Hopefully, Sundeep and his team at www.contentmixi.com would not face too much of this issue. With that, I move on to list some of my views about www.contentmixi.com, in the next few paragraphs.
I would like to start off on a positive and encouraging note, by praising Sundeep and his team for all their hardwork in coming up with a great website. I find the website to be comprehensive and exhaustive in terms of covering the entire breadth of digital products like Web Design Templates, Logos etc. It is also highly commendable to see the website managing to attract a huge number of high quality user provided content, at the Beta trial stage itself, and goes far to prove the potential of the website to be a one-stop treasure trove of digital content/products. I would also like to congratulate the team which designed the website, for managing to keep the website in a shape which cannot be called too colourful or gaudy, despite the nature of the products being sold and bought on the website.
I would like to list below in a bulletized format, my feedback to make the final version of the website even better than what the current (Beta) version is. Note that some of this might be something which Sundeep and his team would already be working on, and my apologies in advance to them for the same.
--> Feedback on Business Related Aspects:-
*I know that a picture is equal to "N" number of words. However, the website needs to have more of relevant text to be added, which highlights benefits of using www.contentmixi.com. e.g. add references to the article about www.contentmixi.com in "Digit" magazine.
*Online financial transactions is based on the amount of trust that the users have about your website. Highlight upfront, the security measures implemented by your website, to safeguard the money of both sellers and buyers.
*Given the nature of business in which the prospective buyers and sellers are involved, I very strongly believe that you should expand the portfolio of things to be bought/sold in your online marketplace to include design services e.g. a prospective buyer can put up his requirements for a digital product on www.contentmixi.com, and invite sellers to submit quotes for designing of the product.
*Study established online marketplaces like eBay thoroughly, and adopt all good practices from them.
*Needless to say: Initiate process of getting website a higher priority in Google searches etc.
*To attract sellers:-
(a)The points about how sellers can make money (and a forecast of how much and how soon) via the website, should be shown in bold, with a larger font, highlighted, and stated clearly on the Home Page itself.
(b)Get sellers who have already provided content, to comment on the value they see themselves getting through .
(c)Conduct contests inviting users to provide content such that they could win prize money(in addition to proceeds from sales of their products in the online marketplace). Get some prospective corporate buyers in the SMB space, to sponsor the prize money.
*To attract buyers:-
(a)Highlight the specific advantages to various user communities who are prospective buyers e.g. savings earned in terms of time and cost through ready-to-use logos, web design templates etc.
(b)Announce attractive discounts, special offers to early adopters.
(c)Put in place some sort of a priority scheme based on number of views of a product etc, to dynamically change the order in which products are displayed on the website. Maybe you can look at this i.e Point (c), one year or more from now.
Feedback On Some User Interface Related Aspects:-
-->The top row of tabs on the Home Page(Web Templates, Logos, Content, E-Book, Illustration, etc): When you take the mouse to click on them, the "hand" symbol does not get displayed just before the clicking activity
--> Maintain uniformity across the website in using terms/words
e.g. 1> The top row of tabs on the Home Page says "Web Templates", and the lower row of tabs says "Website Templates"
e.g. 2> The usage of capital and small letters also needs to be uniform all across the webpage. The word "Templates" starts with "T" in some places, and with "t" in other places.
--> The Tab "Illustration" shows no content, when clicked upon.
--> Take care of spelling and grammar, to ensure that the website has a thoroughly professional look. e.g. In my view the top row of tabs should have "E-BOOKS", "ILLUSTRATIONS" etc.
--> The "Product Categories", "Win Prizes" etc sections of Home Page, can be moved upwards. That way users can see the same, without having to scroll down.
Hope my suggestions add some value to Sundeep and his team. Wishing Sundeep and his team, all the best with respect to www.contentmixi.com
Southern Cross' Glitter! - The Southern Hemisphere
Folks, Extremely sorry for having been away for so long! Was caught up with many things, especially on the family front. I know that I had promised an article about a Bangalore nightspot, but due to a recent incident at office, I am going to "pen" something different.
Around the middle of last week, I suddenly received an e-mail from my colleague. I opened it with nervous anxiety, wondering what the contents would be! On opening the e-mail, I was pleasantly amused after reading it. My colleague, who was supposed to travel to New Zealand on a short-term business trip, expressed surprise at the fact that June-Sept ("Summer" in the Northern Hemisphere) were "Winter" months Down Under!! I smiled and replied to the e-mail stating that it was no surprise, but a fact depicted by Mother Nature on account of the Earth's (while tilted on its axis) annual revolution around the Sun.
The above incident, reminded me of another one which had happened around 4 to 5 years back. The guy who used to live next door had been sent to Australia on a 6 month assignment. He flew from India to Australia in the middle of July. Imagine his state when he found himself frozen to the bone in the Aussie winter, without any warm clothing. He was wondering what had hit him, since just 20 Hrs back, the stifling summer heat in India had been killing him! So much so for all the "cross-cultural" training sessions, where the aspect of climate is left out of the reckoning most of the times. Given this, I am wondering the shock experienced by ancient explorers and seafarers, at a time when we knew much less about the earth's climate and its links with movements of planetary bodies.
Why am I not surprised at all? Read on below, to know...
-->Reason 1: Only 10% of the world's population stays South of the Equator. So naturally most of the annual seasonal changes depicted in movies, books etc is in tune with what the majority (90%) living in the Northern Hemisphere experiences. Examples abound with respect to this, and I am listing some of them below as (a), (b), (c), and (d)
(a)Christmas (Dec 25th) is always associated with snow and reindeers, when Down Under we have forest fires raging all over the place due to the severe summer heat
(b)The "Summer"(May-Aug) months are most often than not, rarely associated with a sport like skiing. However full-time professional North American skiers know very well that, to continue their training uninterrupted all through the year (without incurring heavy travel expenses), they need to push off to the Andes mountains in South America!
(c)You hear everyone speaking about the "Northern Lights" seen in the skies of the Artic region. Very rarely do you hear folks speaking about the "Southern Lights", even though as a natural phenomenon this is common to both of Earth's poles. Simple Reason: The Northern Lights occur in a region which is relatively more populated (Sweden, Norway, Finland etc), while the Southern Lights occur in regions with hardly any trace of human population (Antartica, Oceans south of New Zealand)
(d)The Solstice(12 Hrs of day and 12 Hrs of night) that the Earth experiences on June 21st every year, is termed as "Summer" Solstice. Similiarily, the Solstice which occurs on 22nd Dec every year, is termed as "Winter" Solstice.
--> Reason 2: Another simple reason is purely geographic in nature. Most of the countries in the Southern Hemisphere are very close to the equator, and hence have a summerlike weather throughout most of the year. So we do not mentally associate these regions with the "snowy white Christmas" image. On the other hand, there are lot of inhabited landmasses closer to the Northern Pole
--> Reason 3: The economic and cultural standing of many of the countries south of the equator, on the global stage. Some points regarding this aspect are listed below, as
(a)For one, most of them do not keep going to war with each other etc, and hence are not able to evince enough interest in media circles.
(b)Let us go region by region, to understand things better with respect to this aspect:-
*Antartica: A desolate, huge expanse of solid ice. Needless to say why it does not generate much interest
*South America: Since most of the continent is Hispanic in terms of the racial profile of their populations, language proves to be a barrier to the outside world understanding them better. Things like drug cartels etc in some of the countries, have only helped in sullying further the image of the culture which is already vaguely known outside of the continent.
*Africa: Needless to say most parts of this "Dark" continent (especially the Southern parts), have been subjected to neglect by the rest of the world, despite being the birthplace of humanity. The fact that like many of the South American countries, poverty rules the roost in most parts, makes the continent less appealing and glamourous to the world media
*Islands in Oceania (Papua New Guinea etc): They are not alluring to the outsiders, like their richer cousins in the proximity like Singapore etc
*Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) Region: Due to the population vastly consisting of Caucasians, they are perceived in most minds as "Western" nations like UK etc, despite being at the Easternmost periphery of earth
--> Reason 4: Geography as a subject taught in school (at least in India), is perceived by most students as a "non-critical" subject. It makes economic sense to them since, study of the subject does not open up a whole lot of job avenues. Maybe things would have been different in the days when explorers and conquerors amassed wealth leveraging among other things, a good knowledge of geography, maps etc.
Geography is also viewed by many as a "non-scientific", "non-mathematical" subject, which does not require application of the brain and instead requires cramming texts (It is sad, since Geography is an interesting science if taught properly, and importantly it pertains to the Earth on which we all live)
So, is what is described above a major source of concern for the world? Of course not, when we have more pressing issues like hunger, poverty etc to be solved. However, for the purpose of better global awareness about the Southern Hempisphere and its peculiarities (After all it makes up exactly half of our Earth!), I believe the following should happen:-
(i)The vastly Northern Hemisphere controlled world media, should start focussing more attention on the region
(ii)The countries in the Southern Hempisphere themselves should break linguistic barriers etc of the kind that exist in S.America, to promote their regions across the world more aggressively. The more affluent and influential among them like Australia, should take a lead in this.
Catch you later with more:-)...
Around the middle of last week, I suddenly received an e-mail from my colleague. I opened it with nervous anxiety, wondering what the contents would be! On opening the e-mail, I was pleasantly amused after reading it. My colleague, who was supposed to travel to New Zealand on a short-term business trip, expressed surprise at the fact that June-Sept ("Summer" in the Northern Hemisphere) were "Winter" months Down Under!! I smiled and replied to the e-mail stating that it was no surprise, but a fact depicted by Mother Nature on account of the Earth's (while tilted on its axis) annual revolution around the Sun.
The above incident, reminded me of another one which had happened around 4 to 5 years back. The guy who used to live next door had been sent to Australia on a 6 month assignment. He flew from India to Australia in the middle of July. Imagine his state when he found himself frozen to the bone in the Aussie winter, without any warm clothing. He was wondering what had hit him, since just 20 Hrs back, the stifling summer heat in India had been killing him! So much so for all the "cross-cultural" training sessions, where the aspect of climate is left out of the reckoning most of the times. Given this, I am wondering the shock experienced by ancient explorers and seafarers, at a time when we knew much less about the earth's climate and its links with movements of planetary bodies.
Why am I not surprised at all? Read on below, to know...
-->Reason 1: Only 10% of the world's population stays South of the Equator. So naturally most of the annual seasonal changes depicted in movies, books etc is in tune with what the majority (90%) living in the Northern Hemisphere experiences. Examples abound with respect to this, and I am listing some of them below as (a), (b), (c), and (d)
(a)Christmas (Dec 25th) is always associated with snow and reindeers, when Down Under we have forest fires raging all over the place due to the severe summer heat
(b)The "Summer"(May-Aug) months are most often than not, rarely associated with a sport like skiing. However full-time professional North American skiers know very well that, to continue their training uninterrupted all through the year (without incurring heavy travel expenses), they need to push off to the Andes mountains in South America!
(c)You hear everyone speaking about the "Northern Lights" seen in the skies of the Artic region. Very rarely do you hear folks speaking about the "Southern Lights", even though as a natural phenomenon this is common to both of Earth's poles. Simple Reason: The Northern Lights occur in a region which is relatively more populated (Sweden, Norway, Finland etc), while the Southern Lights occur in regions with hardly any trace of human population (Antartica, Oceans south of New Zealand)
(d)The Solstice(12 Hrs of day and 12 Hrs of night) that the Earth experiences on June 21st every year, is termed as "Summer" Solstice. Similiarily, the Solstice which occurs on 22nd Dec every year, is termed as "Winter" Solstice.
--> Reason 2: Another simple reason is purely geographic in nature. Most of the countries in the Southern Hemisphere are very close to the equator, and hence have a summerlike weather throughout most of the year. So we do not mentally associate these regions with the "snowy white Christmas" image. On the other hand, there are lot of inhabited landmasses closer to the Northern Pole
--> Reason 3: The economic and cultural standing of many of the countries south of the equator, on the global stage. Some points regarding this aspect are listed below, as
(a)For one, most of them do not keep going to war with each other etc, and hence are not able to evince enough interest in media circles.
(b)Let us go region by region, to understand things better with respect to this aspect:-
*Antartica: A desolate, huge expanse of solid ice. Needless to say why it does not generate much interest
*South America: Since most of the continent is Hispanic in terms of the racial profile of their populations, language proves to be a barrier to the outside world understanding them better. Things like drug cartels etc in some of the countries, have only helped in sullying further the image of the culture which is already vaguely known outside of the continent.
*Africa: Needless to say most parts of this "Dark" continent (especially the Southern parts), have been subjected to neglect by the rest of the world, despite being the birthplace of humanity. The fact that like many of the South American countries, poverty rules the roost in most parts, makes the continent less appealing and glamourous to the world media
*Islands in Oceania (Papua New Guinea etc): They are not alluring to the outsiders, like their richer cousins in the proximity like Singapore etc
*Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) Region: Due to the population vastly consisting of Caucasians, they are perceived in most minds as "Western" nations like UK etc, despite being at the Easternmost periphery of earth
--> Reason 4: Geography as a subject taught in school (at least in India), is perceived by most students as a "non-critical" subject. It makes economic sense to them since, study of the subject does not open up a whole lot of job avenues. Maybe things would have been different in the days when explorers and conquerors amassed wealth leveraging among other things, a good knowledge of geography, maps etc.
Geography is also viewed by many as a "non-scientific", "non-mathematical" subject, which does not require application of the brain and instead requires cramming texts (It is sad, since Geography is an interesting science if taught properly, and importantly it pertains to the Earth on which we all live)
So, is what is described above a major source of concern for the world? Of course not, when we have more pressing issues like hunger, poverty etc to be solved. However, for the purpose of better global awareness about the Southern Hempisphere and its peculiarities (After all it makes up exactly half of our Earth!), I believe the following should happen:-
(i)The vastly Northern Hemisphere controlled world media, should start focussing more attention on the region
(ii)The countries in the Southern Hempisphere themselves should break linguistic barriers etc of the kind that exist in S.America, to promote their regions across the world more aggressively. The more affluent and influential among them like Australia, should take a lead in this.
Catch you later with more:-)...
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