Archive for February, 2007
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 28 Feb 2007, 10:10 PM - 4 Comments
Should you?
Probably not. During my speaking engagements and while attending conferences, I meet a lot of people to whom I give my business cards. To my surprise, I see that, very soon, I am on one or more of their mailing lists. Most often, their mailings are of no relevance to me. When I try to unsubscribe, those requests won’t go through. All I do next is to add that email address to the rule where I move this mailing to trash.
When you send something that is not relevant to someone, you introduce cost in their life. Sometimes, technology will help the other person deal with this annoyance easily but sometimes it won’t. It it costs a lot for the other person to deal with your unwanted mailing, it will hurt you more than it will help you.
My $.02
Getting someone’s business card is not same as getting their permission to add them to their mailing list.
PS:
If you have not read Seth’s classic on this topic – Permission Marketing, please do. If you do any kind of mailing, this is a must read.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 28 Feb 2007, 12:32 PM - Leave Comment
Few days ago, I had a chat with Lisa Haneberg over phone. It was a podcast interview for her Fireside Chat Podcast series. I really enjoyed talking to Lisa. It was interesting in many ways. At least twice I felt that brought greater clarity to ideas that I have been talking about for a while in my blog and earlier in my book. It was not surprising – knowing that it was Lisa 
So, with many thanks to Lisa for this opportunity, here is the link to the interview:
Are you memorable? If not, you might be or become a commodity – Chat with Raj Setty
(Podcast: 35 minutes)
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 26 Feb 2007, 10:52 PM - Leave Comment
It seems obvious but many of us miss this. Rostand has a Quought for all of us:
“Vivre sans reve, qu’est ce? (What is life without a dream?)”
- Poet and playwright Edmond Rostand (1868 – 1918)
Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 22 Feb 2007, 11:15 PM - 3 Comments
Note: I swear that I didn’t make it up. I won’t dare to. Also, my friend who sent this to me doesn’t want to be named for reasons that will become obvious [ Hint: He is married ]
There is a common saying which goes something like this
“Behind every successful man there is a woman”
My friend thinks that this is only half the story. His version goes something like this:
“Behind every successful man there is a woman. That man should be appreciated because in spite of her, he was successful”
Enjoy!
Posted under Main Page, Smile Please.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 22 Feb 2007, 7:33 PM - 2 Comments
Lawrence Chang, founder of ActiveVibe (not live yet) today showed me the famous Jade Oolong Tea (Link to the product at Vital Tea Leaf store) that sells for about $237 per pound. Clearly, they are commanding a huge premium by distinguishing themselves.
From whatever little I could understand, this tea is grown by only one person somewhere in Taiwan and there is a huge backlog for this tea. I don’t think the secret sauce is revealed completely except the fact that milk is added while growing the tea. The tea leaves absorb the milk and add a milky flavor. When I smelled the tea leaves, the milky flavor was evident.
Commanding a huge premium will be one of the reasons you should seriously consider distinguishing yourself.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 21 Feb 2007, 11:46 PM - Leave Comment
One of my startups iPolipo is currently in controlled beta. We are excited about all the feedback that we have received so far from the users who are participating in this program. We will be announcing public beta VERY soon.
What we are promising with iPolipo is that we will streamline scheduling meetings with people outside of your organization. Within the organization, the problem is sort of solved (that’s what we thought) as many organizations use a solution like Microsoft Exchange. So, we never focused on making an offer to organizations to use iPolipo within their organizations.
While we learnt a number of things in this controlled beta phase, we learnt about a “side effect” that both Hari and I had never anticipated. A few of the controlled beta customers were using to schedule meetings more within their organization than with outside members. Reason: all their members were using Outlook on the client but they had not invested in Microsoft Exchange. One organization was considering investing in Microsoft Exchange mainly because they had a calendar sharing problem but realized that even with Microsoft Exchange, the calendar sharing problem would still exist for when trying to schedule meetings with external members. Now with iPolipo, they were solving both problems – internal scheduling and external scheduling.
This was big news for us and this opens a market that we had not planned – the number of small businesses who are using Outlook and have a calendar sharing problem. We are thankful for this “side effect” and this one feedback has already provided a great ROI for our “controlled beta” exercise.
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 21 Feb 2007, 10:44 PM - Leave Comment
Deepika Bajaj is featuring interviews with successful multicultural women through her new venture Invincibelle. Whether you are a multicultural woman or not, you are bound to be inspired by what these accomplished women have to share. She has five interviews up on the site and here are the links:
Yoshiko Roth
Yoshiko’s fascination with skin health began in her childhood with the discovery of her Chemist father’s dictionary of dermatological diseases. This prompted her to spend many afternoons and weekends at skincare counters in department stores, specialty stores and pharmacies, studying ingredient labels, telling anyone who would listen of effects of UV rays on skin, while looking out for the newest products in skincare. Of Japanese and German origin, Yoshiko has worked in marketing in the skincare industry since obtaining her MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She was instrumental in the rapid expansion of France’s #1 dermo-cosmetic brand, Eau Thermale Avène in the US and the building of a new skincare category. Eternally passionate about skin health, she continues to share her enthusiasm for effective skincare through marketing and sales for Juara.
Sheela Murthy
Sheela came here to pursue higher education. She had the opportunity to go to Harvard Law School, one of the best law schools in the world. She found that there is a huge difference in the education system in India and the education system in the US. Despite the openness of her bringing up in India, she had to work hard and struggled when she got here, at first.
She believes that adversity makes you stronger. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. She was motivated by the push and pull in her life. Today, she is one of the most renowned lawyers in the US. Not only is she passionate about helping clients with immigration issues but also lobbies many policies that are in favor of people through American Immigration Law Foundation.
Mihwa Cha
Mihwa came to this country from Korea for better opportunities. At the time, her biggest challenge was the language barrier. She had to translate almost everything from Korean to English. Once she landed her first real job with the company which is the one she works for even today she had to learn the new language all over again pertaining to the technology, organization, and company mission, etc. What kept her inspire is that she didn’t want to lose or be the second best to someone in the area that she felt competent in. Today, she is VP Device Development at Sprint.
Dr. Shima Joshi
DR. Shima Joshi moved to this country for two reasons. Firstly, for her husband and herself there were more opportunities in the US. Secondly, she believed that leaving a community of joint families would enable me to lead a life that she wants and not as dictated by others which is often the case in joint families. New York in the early 80’s had its own violence problems and her family would never used to step out of the apartment in the evening.
Inspired by being perfect at what she did, she took jobs as an analyst and later started a company with her husband. She points out that as a woman she had to work twice as heard to make her point heard. In many areas, even if she had done all the work, the credit would be given to her husband.
She guides women out be prepared to work hard. Never take no for an answer. Today, she is the VP of Operations and aims to make her company number one or two in its field.
Brigitte McCray
Twenty-three years ago, there were challenges of being an African American woman in the Media industry. She took a risk and moved to Oxygen at a level that equated to her earlier position in WABC. The money wasn’t great but she had faith in herself, she was inspired to work for company like Oxygen and really admired Oprah Winfrey, Geraldine Laybourne, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach who were starting the company.
A fear of failure always kept her motivated. Being competitive, she was inspired to do better than other folks. Today she is SVP of Programming at Oxygen Media.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 20 Feb 2007, 5:00 AM - 1 Comment
Rob Crawford is Director of Development at The Park School, in Brookline, Masssachusetts, an independent school that two of his four children attend. He presents to and advises educational advancement professionals across the country on possibility-thinking, delighting philanthropists, and
taking action on what matters most. Earlier in his career, Rob was a dedicated middle school English
teacher and coach. He earned a B.A. at Dartmouth College, M.Ed. at Lesley University, and M.B.A. at
University of Michigan. He currently serves on the board of trustees at The Carroll School, in Lincoln,
Massachusetts, and helps run The Wow Institute, in Henniker, New Hampshire.
(click on the button to read the background for this series)
Rob’s Quought for the day:
“When am I in the zone, and how will I double the time I spend in the zone in 2007?”
Rob’s note accompanying the Quought:
Being in the zone means achieving an unusually deep level of focus on a project or activity that
challenges you in ways you love to be challenged, engages your major strengths, and stimulates your authentic interests. We’re at our absolute best when we’re “in the zone.” This is when we’re fulfilling the promise of our unique gifts, living up to our greatest potential, and giving the world our most spectacular stuff. An activity that puts us in the zone reveals to us an arena in which we have the ability to become one
of the top 1% on the planet. To make a significant impact here on earth, and to enjoy the ride as much as
possible, we must discover what puts us in the zone, then do a lot more of that!
Related Links:
Rob’s blog:
Crawdaddy CoveRob’s summer gig:
Wow Institute
Note:
Quought = Question that provokes thought. Questions are important. Thinking is important. Questions that make you think are very important!
PS:
Squidoo Lens: The Power of Questions!
Posted under Main Page, Quought for the Day.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 19 Feb 2007, 9:34 PM - 3 Comments
My friends (I am yet to meet both of them in person) Phil Gerbyshak and Liz Strauss are putting together an event whose main purpose is to educate bloggers to take their blogs to the next level.
I have known Phil and Liz for quite sometime know and they definitely walk the talk. If you are planning to learn how to build lasting relationships with your blog as a vehicle, this event may be of interest to you. Plus, as a bonus, you will get a chance to meet other cool speakers and cool bloggers to network with.
Here is the link:
SOBCon07 – Relationship Bloggers Conference.
Date: May 11 and 12
Location: Chicago
Phil and Liz – wish you the very best with this one!
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 19 Feb 2007, 5:00 AM - 1 Comment
Jnan Dash is a technology visionary and executive consultant in Silicon Valley. He focuses on enterprise solutions such as integration, real-time events, real-time Business Intelligence, Service Oriented Architecture, Web Services, open source, and transactional Web (Web 2.0). He spent ten years at Oracle Corporation and was the Group Vice President, Systems Architecture and Technology till 2002. He was responsible for setting Oracle’s core database and application server product directions and interacted with customers worldwide in translating future needs to product plans.
Mr. Dash is a well-known expert in the software industry. Prior to joining Oracle in 1992, he spent 16 years at IBM in various positions including development of the DB2 family of products and in charge of IBM’s database architecture and technology. Mr. Dash is a frequent speaker at industry forums around the world on the future of software technology. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and Master’s degree in Systems Design from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He sits on several boards and advisory boards of companies. He is also a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) of Silicon Valley.
(click on the button to read the background for this series)
Jnan’s Quought for the day is:
Have I got the right balance between myriad new ideas in technology, while at other times, getting my mind to a state of “no thoughts”?
Jnan’s note accompanying the Quought:
In other words, do I have a balance between technology and spirituality?
Related Links:
1. Blog: Trends in the Software Industry
2. TiE – Charter Member
3. Compassites – Board Member
Note:
Quought = Question that provokes thought. Questions are important. Thinking is important. Questions that make you think are very important!
PS:
Squidoo Lens: The Power of Questions!
Posted under Main Page, Quought for the Day.
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