Congratulations Tata Steel

Hats off to Ratan Tata and the guys out at Tata Steel for bagging Corus. Hope you guys make it worth the investment.
-Loyal Shareholder

Technorati Tag: Tata Steel, Corus

Diagnosed but not Treated yet

Continuous partial attention is that Linda Stone has called it and HBS's HBR has even put it up as one of the breakthrough ideas for 2007. I know exactly what she is talking about and am proof that the phenomenon is not US centric at all. This flat world funda keeps biting me in the ass again and again. Well now that I know what I've caught can Linda please tell me how to control it?

Technorati Tag: HBR

Desi Airlines - A Comparison

Previously I had made a comparison on some of the airlines that I had an opportunity to travel on. Recently I tried out a couple more and here are my inputs

7. Air Sahara

Kudos

Loads of reception isles
Have started giving out low fares as well
Pretty airhostesses
Quite frequent flights
Decent connectivity overall

Cribbs

Announcements are very loud, especially for a late night flight they should be banned
Food couldve been better
Didn't SMS that my flight was delayed
Seats were kinda crampy. I was on the window seat and my head was hitting the sides:)

8. Indigo

Kudos

Have their check-in counters over with Jet Airways in the swanky new terminal
Annoucements are made in a polite and low sound way
Pretty airhostesses
Superbly designed shuttle buses
Brand new A320s
**Probably the smoothest landings I've experienced in years

Cribbs

Number of announcements went a bit high
Not too many options for purchase of food on the plane, just some peanuts and the like

Technorati Tags: AirSahara, Indigo, India,Airlines,Indian,JetAirways,Kingfisher,GoAir,SpiceJet,AirDeccan

Croma Store Mumbai

Location: Juhu. Between Amitabh Bachan's bungalow, Mithibhai's Girls Hostel and PVR Cinemas. Close to Arogya Nidhi hospital.

I have visited the Croma store out in Juhu a couple of times and am totally impressed. This TATA enterprise shop is totally awesome not just in the merchandise and the prices that they offer but also in the service that is provided as soon as you step in. There is a sales guy or gal nearby who you can shoot some questions at and they help you out with whatever you need. If they don't have it they are co-ordial enough to suggest alternatives as well. Best of all is that they don't mind suggesting a cheaper product if that is what suites your need the best. They claim to have a fantastic after sales service which thankfully I haven't had the displeasure of needing yet. But with the experience thus far I would be really disappointed if that did not live up to expectations.

Now that's what I call being treated like a valuable customer. I wish these guys success and hopefully more stores all over the place. Lets get the hedgehogs who have monopolised the electronics market with shoddy service and once sold you and the product are forgotten techniques.

Croma Juhu
Vasundhara Cooperative Society
CTS No 194
Off Village Juhun JVPD
Mumbai 400049
Tel. No. 67103333

Monks and Ferraris

Desi Funda

Got another book covered while frantically travelling between Mumbai and Delhi during the end of '06 and start of '07. "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" - Robin Sharma. I really liked the book and what the author had to offer in terms of how we should be living a more fruitful existence. But what struck me most was how he managed to gel the aura of eastern world philosophy, mythology, religion and culture, or ethos if you may, and relate it to the life of an average American or for that matter any average, middle-class, middle-aged guy or gal anywhere in the "flat world". Really interesting read and this coming from a me, guy who really hates reading the self-help motivational type books.

2006 for tech

It has been a wonderful year for the tech companies in India. There have been a long list of M&A's combined with a record splurge of investments by various venture capital groups in the India scene. The hot property of the moment seems to be online travel sites, animation and a little bit of Web 2.0 as well.

Check this out for more details

Looks like 2007 is gonna be a killer year for the Indian entrepreneur sitting either in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai or any other nook and cranny of the Indian subcontinent. Best of luck to all those daring guys and gals.

To beginning afresh

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. -Chinese proverb

For all of you out there with a long list of new year resolutions and laundry lists of things to get done in 2007. Hope this proverb boosts you up. Have a glorious year ahead.

Anil Ambani's thirst

Anil Ambani has been on an acquisition spree ever since he and his brother Mukesh split the Reliance empire in two. With his vast kitty and ofcourse reputated name there seems to be no lack of investors ready to finance his interests, the latest of which is the Hutchison Essar stake of 67% in Hutch. Hold your seats for this one. The valuation of that stake is said to be to the tune of $17-18 billion which when converted to rupees is a healthy 75-82,000 crores.

The stock market in India is highly overvalued, pushed upwards more by market speculation, emotional sentiments and a "we have a great future" attitude. That said there seems to be no justification for a telecom company to be valued that high especially since there has been no market consolidation at all before. There are no clear leaders and there is ample opportunity for each player to compete and get a larger share of the Indian consumer pie.

Just for the record the margins in which these companies are playing the telecom game in India is ridiculously low, waging wars more on finding a larger consumer base rather than capitalising on the already exisiting consumers that they have. The mean ARPU (average returns per user) in urban India is around $7 while that in rural India is around $3.

Considering all this wouldn't it be wise for Reliance telecom to use that kitty that it has for acquistions on better infrastructure etc and grow organically rather than get into a bidding war with international conglomerates who are looking for a growth pill from the emerging markets? And considering that the bidding is supposedly starting at the $17billion mark and will definitely move upwards, it would end up being more valuable that RCOM itself. Atleast on this case I think Anil is trying to bite off more than he can chew here.

Airtel Magic - All Cost No Service

Airtel is the largest private mobile services provider in India currently, under the brand of Bharti. They have been reaping the benefits of the growing mobile consumer base and making healthy strides one market at a time. The company has some awesome ad campaigns and probably some of the largest coverage areas in the subcontinent. And now to the cribb.

I have been a customer of Airtel since I came back here in 2004, thats nearly 2.5 years. I was a postpaid customer in Bangalore and now here in Delhi. For starters it was pretty good in Bangalore since I was a customer under Sun Microsystems and well we managed to get some good deals. But when I wanted to get additional services activated or deactivated it was a nightmare. Now around 6 months ago I moved out here to Gurgaon and well decided to stick with Airtel.
0) They did not allow me to transfer my number from Bangalore to Delhi.
1) I got a postpaid connection and first thing they do is set my usage limit to be 700Rs. So if I crossed 700Rs in the first month my service would be automatically deactivated and I wouldnt be able to send/receive calls
2) They don't check for previous records at all. I was an Airtel customer in Bangalore and when I took a connection out here they shouldve atleast given me credit for being a good customer for the past 2 years. I was never late in payments and well thats all that they care about.
3) No Roaming. They are demanding 1500Rs as a deposit to activate my roaming. While this is done hassle free on prepaid cards it seems to be such a big hassle on postpaid. I just cant understand why.

All in all Airtel like any big business house in India seems to treat customers like shit once they have captured the market. The only hope is that TRAI comes up with better policies to help us out with these unnecessary headaches.

Have a wonderful season

Say what you want but noone can deny the warmth, joy and that inherent cheer associated with Christmas. For some it is a time for Santa, for others its simply a time to go all out with the Christmas tree or deck up their roofs with wonderful lights. Say what you want but its just wonderful to meet and greet someone at this time of the year.

So to you all my best wishes for this Christmas season. May there be joy, happines and warmth in your family, with your friends and everyone you know. May you truely enjoy Christmas and all that it stands for. Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Super quote

Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.

Thats the first line off the first SEC filing by Google Inc. The first page introduced as LETTER FROM THE FOUNDERS - “AN OWNER’S MANUAL” FOR GOOGLE’S SHAREHOLDERS

Online Shopping is Improving

The past mont I placed a couple of orders online for some books via fabmall.com and firstandsecond.com. Initially I was quite skeptical and apprehensive about the mess I was getting myself into. Hell I could just walk out to a bookstore and fetch some of these books in person but well I gave it a try. To my suprise the experience is very pleasant as compared to the mess I've had with indiatimes.com and rediff.com (books) in the past. The new kids on the block seem to have a good customer service focus in place. I sent them a couple of mails bugging them to update me about the status of my shipment and I got quick replies (<24hrs) every time. Pretty cool. And not just that these emails were not simply some automated responses but someone out there really checking up my order and being curteous with his/her response. Some people have noticed the importance of repeat customers in the limited online market in India. As for me it sure feels good to be treated like a valued customer again:)

Google MCap

From $85 to $505 in 732 days....
Now that is impressive if not downright scary. Take a look at the company that we are talking about. With this it has a market cap of around 155 billion ahead of companies like IBM, Intel and the likes and even closing in on Berkshire Hathaway. Wow!!!

This is definitely a tale meant for the records but well considering the true products that google offers it is a bit suprising to see its value at such a high. While its revenues are around a few billion its profits mostly rely on advertisements, which can definitely not be treated as a core revenue stream for a multi-billion dollar company (or atleast the conventional ones)

All the startups out there seem to be wanting to be the next Google. But what would be more interesting is when and if someone out there manages to outperform Google either at Wall Street or in the Valley.