Apple, why AT&T?

Apple,

    You guys have a done great job with the iPhone. You set a new standard. You raised the bar.

    Yet, what were you thinking when you handed over your reputation to the most notorious telecom company in the world? 

    Were you more interested in satisfying your greedy investors than your countless fans around the world?

    Why? Why?

Negotiations w/ Stuart Diamond

Today we wrapped up our two day Negotiations class with Prof. Stuart Diamond. For two full days, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, the professor took us on a journey that will forever remain engraved in our minds.

I negotiate with our partners daily. Every other email and phone call involves a negotiation. Some are easy to handle while others are not.  Some partners are friendly while some clearly hate you like hell! I have always thought of myself to be an average negotiator. Little did I realize that I could be totally wrong. The course helped me analyze my negotiation style and pointed out areas of improvement. Believe it or not, I was only getting it 20% right earlier!

Today, at this very hour, I can tell you that I am 10 times better than I was two days back.

Thanks to Prof Stuart, Mair & ofcourse, Google!

Body Shops : High Tech Brothels – Part II

Some of you who are currently in the consulting business and have read part 1 may start revolting at the views presented. There is no need to. Consulting is a service, as is any other profession. The issue presented here is not about consultants who sells his/her service or with companies that perform consulting services. The issue is with those who indulge in an extreme form of this service resulting in a situation that can be likened to forced exploitation. It is important to understand the difference.

1. In the presented case, the consultant is bound to his or her employer. Technicaly speaking, there is no bondage. But on the flip side, by feeding on the fragility of an individual, body shops, in effect, impose an invisible bondage. One that cannot be loosened so easily due to the rules that govern the very nature of such operations. Such a strong bondage can only be found in brothels where the inhabitants often continue in the state of oppression for fear of the world outside, which may seem to pose an even graver risk. Now, again, not all brothels are of the same nature and cultural differences play an important role in defining the same. However, in a third world country like India, the conditions are as described above.
2. Secondly, body shops often do little to help their employees get employed. These petty shops often force the task on its employees to find suitable means of employment. This is unlike a normal consulting engagement where the customer is often identified by a team of business development managers.
3. Once an employee find a project, the body shop withholds a good percentage of the wage earned. The net amount remaining is provided to the consultant. Of course you may argue that the shops have a considerable amount of overhead. If you thought so, you are so wrong! An average consultant is employed for 45 dollars an hour. 30% of this amount, 15 dollars, is kept back by the body shop (the amount withheld may vary as much as 50% in some cases). In an 8 hour work day, the body shop earns 120 dollars off an individual. This is not a small amount considering the fact that the only expense on for the shop is, in the best case, is the cost of medical insurance and the cost incurred in processing an H1B visa. This is so much unlike the consulting service where the individual is provided with a good salary (not an hourly wage!) and benefits.

Summing up, there is very close resemblance between Body Shops and institutions or individuals who engage in prostitution. Personaly, I dont think that I have gone too far in labeling them so. There are many more points that are worth mentioning but are not worth my time and energy. I leave that you, dear reader.

Body Shops : High Tech Brothels – Part I

The internet boom and advancement in technology is shrinking the world we live in. The tech boom in India has resulted in the ‘manufacture’ of thousands of young men and women, adept in the science of software development. One no longer requires an engineering degree to be found capable of programming, so to say. In fact, the term ‘programming’ itself has changed quite a bit. Although I will not get into a discussion on the same, it is worthy to note that ‘programming’ today is more about writing code than about the other aspects that it used to represent in earlier days. No wonder there are more programmers out there than any other group of skilled workers. The promise of a better lifestyle has caused an exodus of this group from India to other parts of the world, the US in particular.

Crowding around this group, are a group of individuals and organizations who see this exodus as a low investment-high return busineses. These businesses or ‘body shops’ indulge in activities, though legal, that are highly exploitive in nature. Individuals looking for jobs are prey to the schemes proliferated by these individuals and organizations. In return for sponsoring a workers visa, H1B to be specific, they demand a handsome percentage of the wage earned by the worker and that too for as long as the body shop holds the visa. Sometimes, the percentage withheld is as high as 30%.

The INS has strict rules concerning individuals who are in the US on H1B visas. For example, if one is an H1B visa holder and while on the visa, loses his or her job, the individual must leave the US within a stipulated period of time. This period is not sufficient for those who are here with their family and have fixed assets such as cars and homes. The fear of losing visa status forces individuals to suffer in silence until they find another job and can transfer their visa easily. The recession in 2002, forced a good number of individuals to abandon their hard earned assets and return to their country of citizenship or find safe harbor in another country like Canada. Those who managed to stay afloat, were exploited mercilessly by their body shops or ‘pimps’.

Read more in Part II

SanDisk:Underutilized Potential – Part I

Apple unveiled a new gizmo, iPhone, two days back. Amidst all the hoo-la-la, I could not help thinking about another company that could potentially enjoy the same status as that of Apple.SanDisk, the Milpitas-California based flash memory giant.

With access to numerous fabs and a strong brand name in Flash Memory cards, what prevents SanDisk from attaining the glitz and glamor that Apple takes for granted? Is it SanDisk’s narrow vision in making cheap products or is it that SanDisk views the consumer electronics market only as a secondary playing field? This is a tough question to answer if we take into account the past actions of SanDisk.

A year after launching its line of MP3 products into the market, SanDisk claimed the second spot in a segment that was dominated by a number of veterans such as Creative and Philips. Although the gadgets were not as appealing as the iPod or the Zen, the relatively low pricing and a feature heavy design put an MP3 player in the hands of the common man. The strategy filled the demand void left out by the iPod and the other players, catapulting SanDisk to the #2 position.

Last year, rather than focussing its energy on harnessing the future potential of a growing consumer base, SanDisk took a step in the wrong direction. Some overzealous executives at SanDisk thought that the best way to beat Apple to its game would be by publicly renouncing Apple’s dominancy through a smear campaign aimed at iPod users. What a disaster! Not only did this campaign alienate iPod users (some sweared never to buy or use a SanDisk product again!), but also left a good number of prospective buyers thinking that the iPod is, in some way or the other, a superior product (why else would SanDisk indulge in such a campaign?). Eventually SanDisk pulled the plug on its ‘iDont’ campaign citing the decision as an inexcusable mistake (no statements were made public though!) .

The second blow came with the launch of Zune. In the first week of its release, Zuene claimed the #2 position leaving SanDisk to ponder over what went wrong and how this could have been averted!

An in-depth analysis of SanDisk, in totality, yields the notion that this company, despite some bad moves and cheap products, has a huge potential. As we shall see in my part II of this blog, SanDisk cannot be dismissed so easily.