US generally has been a consumer oriented society; this means people consume more than they can produce. This is actually an interesting premise. We are now talking about consuming goods versus producing them. Now consuming by its very nature is limited by a boundary of limitation of resource to consume more. Whether its food grain or some leisure activity, there always is a constraint involved. Production on the other hand is limitless, except perhaps by availability of capital.

Miniature Utopian View

Assuming there is no machinery, no monetary capital and no competition for the particular product involved and the unit of production is achieved purely by labour; a case of old fashioned farming except with limitless arable land. The man can produce as much food as he wants but starts with 100 units; but his village’s capacity to consume is limited; say 50 units. So he will tend to try and sell the 50 units of extra food to the neighbouring village. If the consumption capacity for the neighbouring village is 25 units. He can decide to sell it to a village further away or he could decide to produce only 75 units next time.

Basically, he chose his market; The market did not choose him.Hold This Thought.

So the producer has to keep seeking new markets provided he decides to grow. A consumer on the other hand will be hard pressed to move out of his realm and seek pleasures of consumption unless the object is a necessity or an addiction. So food units will do just fine and we might be happy enough to go abroad and import but perfumes and iphones are a different ballgame altogether.

The producers will gladly bring the products to the consumer and thus for the consumer due to regular use, the “Good To Have” becomes a “Need To Have” So air conditioning becomes a necessity, bottled water becomes a necessity, coke becomes a necessity. All these products are supported by an income which is in turn generated by working for a ‘producer’ company.

Labour Rates

Now bring in a complication, Labour rate. Labour rates do not follow logic most of the time as its tied to human emotion and aspirations. So eventually you have a situation where growth in labour rates have outgrown viability. Thus production for consumption at the same location is no longer feasible.

Now the producer has three options,

1. Seek out other markets
2. Reduce production.
3. Reduce Labour

But he cannot reduce production as his Cost Of Production still involves rising labour costs. He cannot reduce labour as it leads to really messy situations. So he does the next best thing and seeks newer markets where he has to compete with another producer.

The Other Market

Our producer cannot sell his product at a lower price as this would trigger a smuggling of goods back into his home market thus cannibalizing his sales back home. Besides his cost of production would not change unless he shifts manufacturing abroad to locations with lower labour rates. A case of outsourcing. So he stops producing in his home country altogether and beings to import from a foreign location.

So now we have lost jobs and job creation abroad to balance this off. Result – Increase in unemployment in the home country. Some of this employment is offset by a rising consumption driven sector, Service Sector!

Since labour rates have increased, this has also triggered a corresponding increase in consumption also by people who have not taken part in production. Wife and kids for instance. This consumption had to be supported with services and newer life style products. If we assume production of even these products has completely shifted outside, we have a pure service sector economy.

The Service Sector

The service sector drives the economy going forward. Eventually the service sector faces the same dilemma faced by producers earlier. But they cannot shift abroad except a few back-office functions. The service has to be provided here, directly to the consumer. But the back office jobs go away, more job loss and another round of job creation abroad. This time there is no other sector to even partly support the job losses. This is where we came in.

Current US Situation

The consumption coupled with peer pressure has risen to individual consumer debt levels to alarming proportions. A slight change in your income could actually spell a huge lifestyle change. This retrograde never really goes down with essentially a human characteristic. You need to blame someone for your plight! Civil unrest.

Solution

If US has to improve, they have to get back to their basics. Think about reducing your production costs. Produce and produce more and see if the world wants your product. History seems to think you actually can sell ice to an Eskimo. So there you go, as simple as that.

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I have never really been a big fan of social networking. I quite think that this is a fad which is going to or aleady has suck up a lot of investor capital and then go bust! Its only a matter of time.

Foursquare raising another round of funding with a particular two paragraphs caught my interest.

As someone who is an unabashed fan of Foursquare and what it represents, I have to admit my usage of the service has been waning. The early thrill of checking in at different locations has vanished, replaced by indifference.

and then another..

When I asked Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley about my lack of interest, he emailed me back saying that many of these issues will be addressed as he and his team of 27 are building what is essentially Foursquare 2.0. He didn’t want to go into details — he’s worried about being copied.

If an entrepreneur is worried about a feature being copied then he should not bother about the “feature” at all. Infact it ceases to be something distinctive as soon as someone copies it and brings you on par with everyone else.

Where is the value in all this? Its like one of those games where it holds your heightened interest for a while and then ceases to be interesting anymore. This situation basically forces the company to have a way of acquiring newer customers. If this were a gaming industry, each customer was revenue, here every customer is a cost! every additional customer is a cost. The only way for these guys to have a good exit is to sell out. The creators will probably make money and so will the venture capital, the sitting ducks will be the ones who bought them.

In all fairness, Why invest in foursquare

Mr Scoble, are you listening?

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Most of the ‘technical problems’ in the world are really ‘not so technical’. Infact they are so simple that you waste time thinking about them.

Most “technical” aspects cease to be “technical” once the right information is known. So the key to making quick decisions and the “problems” are really Information Gaps. If you plug information gaps, a whole load of ‘technical problem’ items can easily be done away with.

Now if your employees feel authorized to take a call on a seemingly ‘technical’ yet ‘non-technical’ problem; they should stop wasting your time over it. Which means empowerment should flow along with the information.

Thats about it!

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Google Wave tries to solve email. SAP is trying to solve email. But does email really need fixing?

Why don’t people fix their communication instead? Technology traditionally helps in advancing poor habits. There used to be a time not so long ago when i didn’t have a mobile phone; neither did any of my friends.

This means we had to decide where to meet at X station on Y platform right below the timer at 3 pm sharp each time we wanted to go out. Now we just talk about where we will meet without specifics, then call up and ask where are you? Now this could be a good or a bad thing depending upon you. Mostly good anyway.

Coming back to the topic at hand, why not fix how we communicate instead of the tool?

Insist on this and ask people to refrain from political potshots on email. You can do this offline.

I know its easier said than done but life ain’t easy. Start now and overtime you will have people who will communicate effectively. You will need better collaboration software eventually but fix your communication before you go ahead with the software. Or chances are you will blame the system for all the problems instead of yourselves. And i just saved you a few hundred thousand dollars.

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This is really only a needless rebuttal to Mr. Scobleizer’s assertion that the companies which he has stated are really hot! No Sir, with all due respect, they really are not. They are probably cool tools but just that.

For years i have wondered why do people make essentially stupid concepts and others hype it up to the extent that some people actually get interested and then put their money in. Its like “just another social networking website” touted as the next big thing. Enough with the entire bullshit!

They are precisely like the umpteen number of stupid tools which claim to get you to do/manage your tasks better.  None of them really work and poor people really take the time out to learn and operate these new things without ever really making any significant change on getting things done! Why not try pen and paper? It really works!

By hyping companies which are really worthless you are effectively creating another bubble! Sure you can argue that it is not about money here. But am not talking about money myself. I speak about value. And some of these companies really provide no value beyond some sort of instant gratification.

My intention is to be fair here, so i wont disparage any company purely with the intention of disparaging it. Here goes ..

Boxee

So you want to watch TV which really lags like hell. Whats the whole point of internet TV anyway? Isn’t TV doing just fine? Am not really sure why people are interested in this concept apart from the novelty. Are you speaking about TV on Demand? Storing natively? HD? Hey we already have that one, its called cable! Wouldn’t it be much simpler to hook your TV up to an internet connection. If not anything else, with the new fancy flat screens you get a huge monitor.

Aardvark

“Finding the perfect people to answer”. Now this seems interesting except how this model sustainable? Getting humans to do the job which a human would have done anyway. What you don’t get on the internet you ask around your friends, family, work colleagues etc.

You have founded a forum where people can come in and ask. Most groups have created their own interest groups on the internet, whats the point of trying to break their monopoly? If you want to ask; ask Google or Bing who actually spider these forums to bring out the answers. So whats your point again?

Foursquare

quote “when you check in with it you’ll see who is close to you and what tips about cool things to do near you have been left by your friends” .. huh? Why can’t i just call up my friends in the neighbourhood and ask them what we can do the coming weekend. Its healthier than sitting right in front of the monitor checking out these comments from a no lifer!

NextStop

Now travelers could actually use this website for local flair, except they already gain these and such information from a hundred other places. Most travelers travel on a budget and hence wish to see to the main spots. An entire industry is based on this criteria and is not really going to go any place anytime soon. Another social website with a theme.

Rippol

Another youtube wannbe..

Waze

“Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road.” So basically you can give a live preview on whats happening. This could actually be a useful application especially if you are in a tight spot.

Hospitals should really use them, each time an ambulance sets out to reach someplace they actually get something important information.

But this is nothing compared to what the traffic police can provide if they only put up a few cameras and then live stream it on TV for free through all cable operators. There are other issues like cameras could get stolen, but hey think about the invaluable service it provides just when its important. So while this application is not hot and really can easily be beaten by the traffic administration, its still useful in some ways.

Gist

Basically you can use the system as a possible heads-up on the fellow you are going to meet. He could be a killer! Nothing the other social websites don’t already do anyhow. If someone wants his profile kept out of networking sites, you just cant find him period! Useless.

Kynetx

Can’t really comment, am not much of a developer! So am inclined to go with his reco, he is afterall the expert!

Tapulous

Its a game, its entertaining .. and judging by popularity its probably good! People are suckers for good entertainment!

Posterous

Now i like this application, they really are the simplest to setup. Just send them an email and your blog is ready! Nothing could be simpler. Their only enemy are the social websites which tend to make people not use email anymore. So their real market are the business users, they use email a lot!

I would really like them to get ahead and get more corporates to use this application as an aggregator of sorts from different project teams or something like that. If there is any money to be invested in any of the above then its posterous! I want to see how they turn this one into something really meaningful and useful.

Thats about it. Am done with Mr. Scobleizer’s list for now …

Yea its new Years Eve and i took time off!

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I have always been intrigued when people say they have been too busy! People are never too busy. It just means their priorities are not where YOU have them. Period!

Then there are people who are so supposedly smart. One of my friends the other day remarked how the erstwhile CEO of the erstwhile Enron was really so smart. Really? Then why did he screw up so bad?

We ofcourse have the people who crib about incredible bad luck their entire lives. Ofcourse and the only thing he did in life was to identlfy the different types of bad luck.

Now related all the three above; People who are smart and have bothered to be at the right place at the right time are generally incredibly lucky!! There you go, your wisdom for today!

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Anand writes about people put in late hours; about saying “NO”.
This really is a culture thing. Why do people think that if they work late they will be in your good books? Why do managers judge(note:i didn’t say measure!) employee ability and/or ‘standing’ by whether he comes in on time? Is this the only way to stay in your superior’s good books?

photo credit: mhartford

Its Managements responsibility to set these things right the first time. Measure not by ‘time’ but by work done! The guys who GET this, will never have problem with the amount of hours you put in. This also seems to help people relax a lot more with the knowledge of management not breathing down their necks all the time.

Saying “NO” is tougher. Ideally management would want you to work cross functionally and ofcourse have a system which will reward this. Favours, especially in small companies often go a long way where people are more closely knit. Encouraging this habit can easily become parasitic. There is really no clear path here i guess, except to pick and choose your situation.

Earlier in his post, he also speaks about companies wanting to be honest without really giving anything away.

We will also need to monitor negative comments. We don’t want our site to have negative comments about our products.”

… he writes furthur,

I was too stunned to butt in immediately. But after a few minutes, I raised the point about negative comments. “You want to project the image of an honest and open organisation. If you filter out comments that say anything bad about you, how are you going to achieve that?”

Truth be told, there is really no “honesty” only a perception of it. The more layers you peel off, the more you find underneath. Everyone wants to have an open company but nobody wants to be taken for a ride.

Have an open argument, have a forum for discussing complaints just don’t make it crawl-able. Each time you start working on a particular complaint, make it public and indicate clearly that you are working towards solving it with a clear path.

No need to highlight all complaints, pick and choose what you can and will solve immediately while at the same time privately responding to each and every complaint. This does not put you totally out there and yet addresses customer concerns. Do this each time you receive a complaint and you have managed your PR with honesty.

note:Make sure the people who really matter pay real attention to these complaints, your people!

Honesty is not really hard, but it always got me out of a fix, and i try and make sure that i never play into the wrong hands(I do manage sometimes though). I wouldn’t want my competitors playing on my complaint discussion board. Remember Apple ads? They were always a play on PC’s.

Even Yudhister spoke about Ashwathamma to Drona during the war. Just wanted to bring that up

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Too often people at work are also falsely led into believing something untrue because they fail to see a deeper connection. We have been doing better at our finances in recent times with our bank account showing a surplus unheard of earlier. People thought this was mostly due to our customers paying us earlier than usual.

Actually this was untrue. We had been not following a streamlined process earlier. This means, quite often vendors would supply semi finished items quite before the actual required delivery.

The vendors stood to gain in the short run as they were billing earlier and faster than we could ship. We on the other hand were facing a situation where our payments were due far before our receivables. This means we had to pay an interest amount on the difference in time period. Over a quarter this could translate into huge amounts.

We have since then begun accepting deliveries only when the final assembly deliveries are due. This means we need to pay much later than before.

For e.g.
Consider C= Customer, V= Vendor and S1,S2,S3= Subcontractors.

Assumptions

1. All payments are due within 1 month.
2. We start with month zero.
3. Time to manufacture – 1 month.
4. C places an order on V. V divides the order into chunks and sublets it out to S1,S2 and S3.

Old Situation

• Month 0 – ‘C’ places order with ‘V’ and in turn sublets out to S1,S2,S3. Required delivery in month 5.
• Month 1 – S1,S2,S3 bring back materials.
• Month 2 – Payable’s due. ‘V’ makes the payment.
• Month 4 – ‘V’ Manufactures in month 4.
• Month 5 – ‘V’ Delivers product to ‘C’.
• Month 6 – Receivables due. ‘V’ receives payment.

New Situation

• Month 0 – ‘C’ places order with ‘V’ and in turn sublets out to S1,S2,S3. Required delivery in month 5.
• Month 1 – S1,S2,S3 bring back materials.
• Month 2 – Payable’s due in month 2. ‘V’ makes the payment.
• Month 4 – S1,S2,S3 bring back materials; ‘V’ manufactures in month 4.
• Month 5 – ‘V’ Delivers product to ‘C’. Payable’s due
• Month 6 – Receivables due. ‘V’ receives payment.

So we directly save three months of hard cash! This shows up in the bank account surplus.

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I hate email! There i said it.

I am tired of trying to integrate our company into one unified platform. Google Apps do not work under proxy, Outlook is slow and way too expensive. ZOHO is way too slow. I decided to list the few things that i/we need and the possible options.

• We want to communicate to our current and future customers and amongst ourselves.
• We want to be able to contact anybody in our company through this medium.
• We want to receive communication from our current and future customers.
• We want to be able to use this communication to be relayed across amongst ourselves as fast and as effectively as possible.
• We want everyone to know where everyone stands on a topic at any given moment.
• We use email as a means for internal memo, so it becomes a validating/supporting document. for e.g. if an inspection report has been sent across to our customers it can be copied to everyone. We want everyone to know about it.
• It should be technology easy to adapt and inexpensive to use.
• It should be able to accommodate offline customers i.e. customers who do not yet use the internet. So if we are to send a document to them say FAX them, it should appear on our communication tool too. This way everyone will know about it.

Its clear that such a system can only be in hybrid format. There is no system in existence which would do everything stated above. Unless its a complete offline system. We could use a mix and match approach with message boards and an email client. Currently we are open to suggestions …

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One of the prime challenges we had been facing were concerned with priority. People just do not seem to understand priority.

Traditionally priority has to be assigned by a person ‘in the know’ or by the team lead. He establishes the process and sets it in motion. The others follow the leader and work runs smoothly. So we hope!

Quite often people are slaves to old bad habits. And these habits die really really hard. We found that most people seemed to process materials on a first cum first basis instead of establishing priority. Since we knew we had to establish priority early, we came out with a monthly list of items with dates sorted from the immediate to later.

To have a check and make sure that we do not screw up anywhere we got people to sit together once a week and discuss the items to be taken up from the list, the following week. This is in sync with the PDCA cycle. We found that people invariably took up items which were the easiest to procure than the ones which had to be completed immediately.

Week after week we missed priority after priority until the ones marked immediate almost always bombed on our heads. Finally we decided to adhere to the list from top to bottom strictly in our weekly meetings. Things seem to have looked up since then. We are a tad slower and its difficult and a constant watch is needed to nudge the people in the right direction, but atleast we got it right this time.

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