Archive for June, 2005
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 30 Jun 2005, 3:47 PM - Leave Comment
Life works in interesting ways. If you put your heart out and do the
best you can, you get a lot more help from outside than you really
want. If you slack and HOPE that things will turn out well, you are all
alone.
Take Gmail from google. When Google
introduced Gmail, there were no other web based email offerings that
could match the offer from Gmail. It was head and shoulders above the
rest of the crowd. The interesting part is this – a slew of tools and
plugins were developed by people not even employed by Google to make it
even better.
I was looking at an old post by Rob titled Gmail Tools and Plugins. There were at least 25 tools and plugins listed there almost a year ago. There must be a lot more now.
Do your best. Be at your best. Help will follow. May be you will have more help than you really want.
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 28 Jun 2005, 7:27 PM - 2 Comments
Shawshank Redemption
has been one of my favorite movies for a long time.
Here’s my take:
The protagonist in Shawshank Redemption
is an amazing person and he was willing to wait a few years (working
silently) to finally achieve his objectives. Most professionals today
have an opposite attitude. They want instant results and instant
success. Unfortunately, life does not operate that way
I posted about this characteristic in the Distinguish Yourself series under the title “Think long term”
The protagonist completely redefines the meaning of the word “persistence”.
I was speaking with Seth Gottlieb this morning who shares the same opinion about the movie. Here’s Seth’s take on the movie:
“There is this hard to describe quality
to Andy Dufresne. He is as relaxed as a Budha even in a brutal
environment. He is strong without being aggressive. He suffers without
being a martyr. He teaches without being atronizing. Crafty without
being sinister. He is clever and patient and sees angles that others
are not able to perceive. Tim Robbins did an amazing job portraying
this character.”
Posted under Cool Movies, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 27 Jun 2005, 5:58 PM - Leave Comment
A few years ago, I read a cool book called Fish that talked about
energizing the workplace. The book was based on the authors’ findings
from a small fish market at Pike Place in Seattle. I was intrigued by
the simple message in the book. Since then, I have visited Seattle
several times but never had the time to visit Pike Place Fish Market.
Last week, I was at Gnomedex
(which was great in itself) that was held close to the Pike Place fish
market. I sneaked in and wandered around in the market. I saw a couple
of stores selling fish but could not see any major excitement. I asked
around and found that the place I was supposed to look for was deep
inside the market. Once I reached there, I could see why this was the
basis for a book. The place was filled with excitement and every team
member was bubbling with energy. It was like a festival and they were
putting up a great show. In short, it was like a tourist spot with
people taking photos and videos of well…folks selling fish.
It was amazing.. a short distance away there were other shops almost
selling the same product (fish) and the energy level over there was
like the energy level in any other market but boy, here things were
different.
Lesson learnt: People are what makes a business special. The energy and
engagement of people in the business can make a huge difference
(whatever they sell)
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 27 Jun 2005, 1:03 AM - Leave Comment
DVR is an example of a game changing innovation. Just like Napster forever changed the way music industry thinks and works, DVRs are out to change the way TV industry thinks and works. TiVo and ReplayTV are the two prominent players and I am sure there are many more to come.
When I last checked, there were close to 1.9M TiVo subscribers and the
number is growing rapidly. This is a small number compared to the total
number of TV viewers but I am sure there is a point at which DVRs will
start causing a serious shift in the way the whole TV industry
operates. Here is a wild scenario (at that imaginary point)
* the number of people who don’t own a DVR does not make sense for advertisers to pay a ton of money for TV spots
* Ad rates for TV spots will drop
* Reduced revenue for TV spots means reduced spending by TV folks on quality programs
* Lack of quality programs provides lesser incentive for advertisers to advertise on TV
Add to this popularity of citizen journalism, podcasting (soon videocasting) will all put increasing pressure on TV channels.
On a positive note, whenever such a major shift happens, a ton of
opportunities open up for other innovators. Something to think about.
Posted under Business Models, Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 23 Jun 2005, 12:32 PM - Leave Comment
I think there should be an option to work from airport.
We have working from office, working from home why not working from
airport. I am sitting here at the San Jose airport trying to get a
flight to go to Seattle. I have been here for the last few hours. With
a broadband connection and cell phone I have most of the tools to get
my work done.
By the way – I am here courtesy of American Airlines. AA has a code share arrangement with Alaska Airlines
(also AA?) and they tell me that they are doing a pressurization test
and they are doing it for the third time. I asked the beautiful girl at
the counter how many times do they have to do the test and she said “I
don’t have a clue. This is what I have been asked to let you know” So
there is no way of knowing whether we will leave in a few minutes or a
few hours. Can’t blame the airlines. They are under so much pressure
that it’s impossible to effectively fund functions like “customer
service”
On a lighter note, the other alternative is to fund projects like
setting up full fledged offices in airports. That way people have an
option of “working from airport” and be productive.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 23 Jun 2005, 11:12 AM - Leave Comment
I was intrigued about the offer from Fedex “File, Print Fedex Kinkos” and decided to give it a try.
First, it installed the .Net framework on my PC (which I was not happy
but anyways) and then added teh FilePrint icon on office applications.
I wanted to print a PDF file in a Fedex facility in Boston. Unfortunately there was no PDF support 
Fedex must have spent a few hundred thousand dollars to build the
software and come up with the offer. They must have spent another few
hundred thousands marketing this effort.
Unfortunately I must say that they missed a big point not providing PDF support.
This is the problem with many offers. They seem compelling but they are not.
The greatness of an idea cannot be compensated by a flaw in execution. Hopefully Fedex will fix it soon.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 22 Jun 2005, 11:14 PM - Leave Comment
We all know that laughter is the best medicine. But be careful what you laugh at –
“Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at”
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 21 Jun 2005, 2:12 PM - Leave Comment
I was at Fedex this morning and while waiting for them to complete my job, I browsed through one of their new offers “File, Print Fedex Kinkos“.
It was, in a nutshell, a very compelling offer. A few months ago, I was
shipping printed copies of my manuscript all over the place to get
endorsements. With this service, if I need to do that, I could print to
a Fedex location closest to the destination and ask them to ship it via
Ground – all with the click of a button.
That’s convenient and time saving. This is a classic example of
leveraging the value chain. In other words, they have extended their
service to do more things that the customer would have done separately.
In that process they bring unprecedented convenience and time saving.
For those of you who got interested in leveraging the value chain,
don’t miss another classic story of Cardinal Health. Here is the link for a shorter version.
If you want to read the longer version, you have to read one of my favorite books How to grow when markets don’t by Adrian J. Slywotsky.
You don’t need to be a very large company to apply the principles
behind Leveraging the value chain. All you have to do is look at how
your customers are using your product and/or service internally and see
where else you can extend your reach.
Good luck!
Posted under Compelling Offers, Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 20 Jun 2005, 11:46 AM - 1 Comment
There is a lot of news about the speech ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ by Steve Jobs at Stanford recently. I read about it Brad’s blog and then at Tom’s blog.
You have to take a few minutes to read it and get inspired. I had no
idea of Steve’s past and my (already high) respect level went up ten
times.
In the same context, I want to put one more thought out. Stories make a
big difference in our lives. Fiction and real both. We all have a story
in us and people around you have stories in them. We got to take time
to share our stories and also listen to stories of folks around us. If
we are only talking about weather and politics, we really are looking
at superficial relationships. Listen and share the stories with each
other and watch the relationships blossom.
Have fun!
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 11:02 PM - 2 Comments
Tom talks about his “line intolerance”
at starbucks. I have thought about this problem at least ten times.
There are long lines especially during peak hours (morning, post lunch
and early evening) and interestingly while Starbucks has been
innovative a number of times, they don’t seem to do anything about
this. May be Starbucks thinks that lines will signify popularity. They
may not know that these lines are making people go and try out other
places and some of these folks will probably get addicted to some other
brands.
What could Starbucks do – Here is one solution
In a nutshell, the solution is to create a pre-order capability for all Starbucks Duetto card holders
Here is the solution in detail: Most lines at Starbucks are from
regular clients who come in and order almost the same drinks every time
they come in. Since they are using Duetto card, customer can be
identified. Here are the steps:
1. Client purchases a Duetto card and registers for pre-order facility at Starbucks website
2. Pre-order registration will ask the client to choose three favorite
drinks (with all the customizations) These are the preferred drinks
3. Client also chooses three of his favorite starbucks stores
4. When the client wants coffee, he can order by phone or on the web
4.1 On the web: Login – choose store – choose drink and choose time and pay by credit card
4.2 On the phone: Call in a central phone number. System prompts to
choose the store and the drink from the favorites. Client chooses store
and drink and keys in the time he wants to pick up the drink. Card is
automatically charged.
5. The store gets notified and a sticker with name of the client gets printed with the time of pick up
6. Starbucks team folks schedule this drink prepartion
7. Client walks in and picks up the drink. If you want to add some more
features, have the client swipe the starbucks card and identify himself
before picking up the drink.
Hope starbucks is listening!
Two benefits:
a. Duetto card holders get additional benefits. More Duetto customers
b. You get the preferences of all these duetto customers for analysis purposes later.
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
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