Business Line article on 8KMiles

Business Line carried an article on 8KMiles yesterday. Please read it here

It was a very well written article that clearly explains the 8KMiles value prop and the target users. The article is the result of a discussion I had with the IT reporter of BL, Shamik Paul.
Shamik seemed to appreciate what we are trying to do at 8KMiles and saw value in it. Thanks Shamik!

Personality Quiz: What’s your Freedom Quotient? by freedomishere.in

What’s your Freedom Quotient? by freedomishere.in

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Freedom is here.in

www.Freedomishere.in is a new website that talks about freelancing as a career option to all the IT professionals. The site has some interesting aspects to it –

• Freedom Fundas – A funda (updated weekly), that in an illustrative and comical fashion talks about the benefits of being on your own and the demerits of being associated to a regular job
• Freedom Quotient quiz – A quick and easy way to find out your freedom quotient and what it means.
• Share your freedom story area- A place for users to share their thoughts, views and stories on their work freedom (or the lack of it)

The site will have some more cool stuff added in the next few days/weeks. Please do visit the freedom site. The site is run by my company 8KMiles as a way to educate the Indian IT talent about freelancing.

Forced ads in IPL

I have been following most of the IPL matches. Good way to reduce the stress for me. It is an open secret that Lalit Modi introduced the strategy break to push more ads. I hate this not only because it upsets the flow of the game but also strategically (from advertising POV), I don’t think it makes a lot of sense as the audience is well aware of the break and promptly switch channels or take a break themselves. Many times, the audience get engrossed in a different channel or take up some work which will not get them back to the match post the strategy break. In essence, people not only are not watching the ads during the break but also may not watch the ads post the break. I’m sure Lalit Modi, the smart marketer that he is will realize this howler and make the necessary correction.  

However, a stranger thing that I noticed is the forced ads of “Fly Kingfisher” for any third umpire decisions. Even in the case when both the batsmen were at the same end, the third umpire takes an unimaginably long time to come out with the decision and during this time, the camera focuses on the “Decision Pending” screen with Fly Kingfisher ad all over. Is there an arrangement between the broadcasters and Kingfisher? My guess is there has to be one.

Killer Differentiators!

Came across a very interesting book – “Killer Differentiators: 13 strategies to grow your brand” by Jackie Tai and Wilson Chew. It talks about the need for every product to stand for something in the minds of the people. Some examples:

Ebay – online auction

Dell – Direct to customer computers

Zara – Just-in-time fashion

Oracle – Database software

Visa – Credit cards

Red Bull – Energy drink

The idea that is stressed is that one can’t find a strong brand from among those that take a middle-of-the road approach. Your brand can’t stand for everything because the human mind needs to be able to categorize things for easy reference. A brand that stands for everything will have a lot less credibility. A positive perception (of the brand) is critical to the success of the business and for that to happen your brand has to stand for something unique.

One of the messages (my interpretation) is that it need not be the case that one has to create a completely new category to differentiate. But brands have to create a unique perception within the category. Automobile (though these are very bad times for the industry) is a classic example of how the companies though competing on the same category (selling cars) have created a unique positioning. Toyota is known for reliability, Volvo is known for safety, Ferrari for speed, BMW for performance, Maruti Suzuki for value-for-money etc.

The 13 differentiation strategies are:

- Sales Leadership

- Technology Leadership

- Performance Leadership

- Next Generation Product

- How it is Made

- Where it is Made

- Attribute Ownership

- Opposite Position

- Personality

- Specialisation

- Preference

- Heritage

- Design

There is a lot more information in the book than what is mentioned here. Do read it if you are launching a new product or starting a new company.

25 dangerous cities for outsourcing from cio.com

Came across an article in CIO.com that listed the 25 most dangerous cities for offshore outsourcing.

 

The article had a protectionist overture and hinted that US companies are better off getting the work done locally (or through nearshoring). Almost all the Indian IT cities are listed in the top 25 (whew! Didn’t know you can actually outsource to Accra in Ghana till I saw the list!). In fact, all the well known and not so known outsourcing destinations across the developing world find their names included in the list. While Bangalore is there for environmental waste & pollution, Jerusalem along with Mumbai and Delhi are listed for high terrorism threat.

 

What is surprising though is the timing of the article (and the report on which the article is based). The report is titled “2009: The year of outsourcing dangerously”. It is not in 2009, Bangalore has suddenly become a threat to the environment or Jerusalem becomes a soft target for terrorist. And to bring about a list of 25 cities and including parameters that are not so serious is stretching this anti offshoring propaganda a bit too far (most of the Indian IT cities are listed from 20-25).

 

You can read the full article here and arrive at your decision: http://www.cio.com/article/482404/The_Most_Dangerous_Cities_for_Offshore_Outsourcing?source=artrel_top

 

Outsourcing has become an imperative business decision and offshore outsourcing is indeed a very attractive option for companies looking to optimize cost (who isn’t!). There are enough business cases for each one of onshore/nearshore/offshore solutions or a combination of these. It is also fair for a government to try and protect the jobs of its citizens. The good times helped in overlooking this tricky situation. But the current economic situation demands an answer and it will be interesting to see how things pan out in the next few quarters!

Sachin’s ad – RBS

Loved this ad where Sachin talks about “Team”. Well said!!!

8KMiles is in Alpha!!!

After a very exciting one year into product ideation, design and development we finally have launched the alpha version of 8KMiles!Thanks to a dedicated and passionate team, we could achive this. Of course, this is only a start.
Reminded of the line from a poem from Robert Frost:
“And miles to go before I sleep…” Not just to me but for everyone in 8KMiles.
Currently, we have it as an invite only alpha. You can request an invite from www.8KMiles.com  by filling in a short signup form.
I have not spoken about what 8KMiles is all these days! Here you go: 8KMiles is an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies to enable outsourcing of software and other knowledge services completely over the internet.
Victor Hugo said “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” We strongly believe the time has come for the 8KMiles idea to take off…Look forward to your co-operation.

Presentation in Start-up Saturday

I made a presentation about 8KMiles in October’s Start-up Saturday event in IIM-B. The presentation was very well received and the audience found the idea to be cool with lots of potential. It was an interactive session and useful one too as we got a pulse of the audience. Watch the presentation:

Many thanks to everyone who attended the session and thanks to the Start-up Saturday team who gave this opportunity.

8KMiles in Economic Times with an incorrect name!

Got some free PR  in Economic Times, thanks to NSRCEL. Check it out here:

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=RVRCRy8yMDA4LzEwLzA4I0FyMDA3MDM=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom 

 However, it didn’t help my cause a lot because my company name (8KMiles) was incorrectly mentioned! The problem was, we applied for incubation in IIM-B’s NSRCEL as off2web but later changed our name to 8KMiles. The records in NSRCEL did not change with us though!