tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92807812024-03-14T09:17:32.974+05:30Me, Myself and IThoughts on Entrepreneurship, technology, finance and lifepangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-64796164386166145162013-07-25T08:41:00.005+05:302013-07-25T08:41:59.521+05:30For cities competing for tourists: Invest in free WiFi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Taiwan is giving out free access to public WiFi to tourists (<a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57589025-1/taiwan-come-for-the-tourism-stay-for-the-free-wi-fi/" target="_blank">here</a>). With international mobile data roaming costs expected to remain high, free WiFi access will soon emerge as a key component of a city's infrastructure, and thus its ability to attract tourists. <div>
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On my recent travel, everyday I looked forward to get connected to free hotel WiFi in the evening. Not only it helps to catch up on work and social networks, it helps to plan for travel everyday. We could explore new places, new restaurants, and new events in a city. Overall the travel experience was much richer.</div>
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Cities looking to attract tourists - invest in WiFi (directly or by giving incentives to hotels, restaurants and other public places)!</div>
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pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-91367324696678770382013-04-01T04:19:00.001+05:302013-04-01T06:53:04.358+05:30The missing link in movie streaming businessMovie/ TV video streaming sites are missing a big opportunity by not fueling long tail demand - which should be more profitable than premium super hits.<br />
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When I go to a VOD site, I either know the exact video to watch; or I don't and I am looking to explore. As streaming sites are investing heavily to solve the first case (mainly focused around buying rights for premium media properties, and must have for acquisitions), they are miserable on helping users explore or stumble upon new/unknown content. And ironically, solving the second case will help improve economics of an existing user due to lower content cost.<br />
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How to help users stumble upon movie content?<br />
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1. To find new movies, number 1 source is friends' recommendations. So you need to integrate social networking closely into it.<br />
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2. Second source is experts, and thus closer integration with IMDB.com or other movie database/recommendation site.<br />
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3. 'I am feeling lucky.' feature to show interesting content.<br />
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pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-17730241775518586362013-03-31T03:53:00.001+05:302013-03-31T04:04:21.228+05:30The 'break even' death spiralIsn't achieving break-even the best thing to happen to a startup? You are generating enough cash to fund your operations and even generate cash profit. As a founder, you should be proud.<br />
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Or is it? <br />
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As a founder, achieving cash break-even should be a milestone towards the destination, not the final destination itself. She should constantly challenge herself and the team:<br />
- How sustainable is the current cash flow?<br />
- Where should I invest the cash? Is the path to growth clear? Is cash flow distracting you from the overall vision of the company?<br />
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Early success and cash might take you into a slumber. It might be the right time to rock the boat, and take company to the next level.pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com1Lake Harmony Lake Harmony41.053238 -75.597007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-43327313844209561762013-03-31T02:48:00.001+05:302013-03-31T02:51:18.042+05:30Swipe vs. clickIn the new world of touch, swipe should replace click as the primary user input method.<br />
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One of the biggest issues I have with Gmail iOS app is the typical '2- click process' to delete/archive mails. With the new Mailbox app, I can handle mails much faster due to swipe based input. <br />
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A lot of apps translate PC UI, optimized for qwerty keyboard, to smartphones / tablets - which results in poor interface. <br />
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All app developers should optimize their user input on swipe and shake.pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-57222856128099109412013-02-11T03:54:00.000+05:302013-02-11T05:53:56.866+05:30Kill personal email, overhaul professional email<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The advent of email revolutionized peer-to-peer communication over the last ~20 years (you can read email's evolution <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/09/20/evolution-email/" target="_blank">here</a> or <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/05/05/past-present-future-email-infographic/" target="_blank">here</a> or <a href="http://visual.ly/future-email" target="_blank">here</a>). But it has been a problem child for a while. People are spending more and more time handling their inbox, but not being able to use it effectively. Many experts, such as Paul Graham <a href="http://paulgraham.com/ambitious.html" target="_blank">here</a> and MG Siegler at Techcrunch <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/06/i-wouldnt-say-ive-been-missing-it/" target="_blank">here</a>), have already called for replacing / quitting email. Companies like <a href="http://fluent.io/" target="_blank">Fluent</a> are trying to tweak the UI and features to change the email experience.<br />
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I think we should fundamentally re-think the use cases for email. For personal communication, we should just kill email. For professional communication, we need a very simplified, but intelligent email service.<br />
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<b>Personal email</b>: Had it not been for the extremely limited functionality of Facebook messages (I am sure by design), I would have stopped using Gmail for personal communication a long time ago. With all information about our social network residing in Facebook, there is no reason why we should be using another service for P2P messaging. You can send messages (P2P or group), organize events, share pics, or initiate chat. Feeds can help you remember old lost friends and set the right context to talk to them. A missing feature is file sharing, for which a cloud storage based approach will be required.<br />
With increasing mobile usage, users have limited screen estate; and they should just use a single social network app for all messaging.<br />
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<b>Professional email (company email or otherwise)</b>: People still need email for professional reasons. But it needs to be changed dramatically to make it simple with limited features; and intelligent to help users manage clutter. Possible blueprint could be:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Email as a communication thread</li>
<li>No attachments: File sharing through a centralized storage / cloud</li>
<li>Task list management: Features such as 'Send to task list', 'delegate'</li>
<li>No 'mass announcement' mails: All 'mass emails' go to a central announcement board</li>
<li>Minimum and maximum limits on email length: No 3 word - 'how are you?' messages and no 10 page long emails.</li>
<li>'Priority email' vs. 'rest' auto-classification</li>
<li>Easy identification of an email's 'age': To make sure people can visually see emails they haven't responded to</li>
<li>Contact management: Intelligent predictive in-built contact management system to help people manage their networks (e.g. <a href="http://contactually.com/" target="_blank">Contactually</a>)</li>
<li>Daily / weekly email statistics with time spent on email: Make users aware of impact of their email behavior on their and others' productivity.</li>
</ol>
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How about drastic changes in corporate email policies?</div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>No email: Completely bypass email in favor of more social and integrated tools</li>
<li>All emails to all: Complete transparency</li>
<li>No push email: Not sure if blackberry is anymore a productivity enhancing tool.</li>
</ul>
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There could be a future in which free email will cease to exist; instead people will pay for intelligent email services for professional purpose.</div>
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It is time to segment our digital communication channels now - social network for personal and email for professional. It will help us get some time back in our pocket to use the real communication channel: in-person!</div>
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pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0Boston, MA, USA42.3584308 -71.059773242.170560800000004 -71.38112319999999 42.5463008 -70.7384232tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-75665171111949212312013-02-07T23:27:00.000+05:302013-02-07T23:29:39.603+05:30Skill, speed and scale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Keeping aside political affiliation, Narendra Modi made some intelligent remarks in his speech at SRCC (unusual for an Indian politician!). The most striking to me was: 'Country needs 3 S's to succeed -- Skill, speed and scale'.<br />
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The statement holds true for start-ups. Founders should focus on getting the right skills, executing fast and growing fast to scale up.<br />
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Investors should also look at these factors:<br />
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1. Do the founders have the skills to succeed?<br />
2. Do they have the speed to execute?<br />
3. Can the business scale up?</div>
pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-7003776703388508852013-02-04T03:24:00.000+05:302013-02-04T03:24:41.669+05:30Interesting reads<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Some interesting articles I came across:<br />
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<a href="http://www.nextbigwhat.com/uncafe-notes-on-saas-business-297/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pluggd+%28pluGGd.in%29" target="_blank">An interesting discussion among Entrepreneurs</a><br />
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<a href="http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_future_of_middle_management/" target="_blank">Middle management will be replaced</a><br />
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<a href="http://blogmaverick.com/2013/01/10/the-stock-market-2/" target="_blank">How stock market really works</a><br />
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<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/28/keen-on-jon-miller-why-content-will-be-king-of-tomorrows-digital-economy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29" target="_blank">Content owners are going to make a comeback</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/01/guest-post-startup-business-development-101.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AVc+%28A+VC%29" target="_blank">Startup Business Development 101</a><br />
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<a href="http://venturehacks.com/articles/a-players?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+venturehacks+%28Venture+Hacks%29" target="_blank">"A" players write the playbook</a><br />
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pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-3064824100418759712013-01-30T03:20:00.000+05:302013-01-30T03:20:02.736+05:30Mark Cuban<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently, I started watching '<i>Shark Tank</i>' regularly and was very impressed with Mark Cuban as an investor / judge. He almost always, listens well and talks the last. His comments and rationale for 'yes / no' decision are very insightful. Mark focuses on all the right things to make an investment decision: quality and commitment of founders, product-market match, proof of concept and then interestingly, some heart, emotions and theme.<div>
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I explored more about him - his <a href="http://blogmaverick.com/" target="_blank">blog</a> is equally gripping. Of the ones I read, I liked <a href="http://blogmaverick.com/2013/01/10/the-stock-market-2/" target="_blank">Stock market</a> - where he lays out 'supply demand' dynamic of stock markets and how inefficient they are, and <a href="http://blogmaverick.com/2012/11/08/fox-news-should-watch-dancing-with-the-stars/" target="_blank">Fox News Should Watch Dancing with the Stars</a>, where he points to an interesting human psychological trait - to save your hero, but ONLY when required. Still trying to understand his views on politics..</div>
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pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com2Brookline, MA, USA42.331764199999988 -71.12116349999996642.237844199999991 -71.282524999999964 42.425684199999985 -70.959801999999968tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-35945644451912079472013-01-30T02:58:00.003+05:302013-01-30T03:32:40.448+05:30Why celebrities love to be hated?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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To trigger a suppressed human emotion - hatred.<br />
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My recent FB feeds are full of 'I hate SRK' messages. We love to hate celebrities - Himesh Reshamiya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi, SRK, Salman, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, etc. - every country / culture has a list of celebrities people just hate. You talk about them all the time, you search them forever, you join 'I hate X' groups, you are obsessed with them.<br />
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Isn't it what celebrities want? No wonder - many celebrities attempt to create a personal image around 'being disliked'.<br />
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As civilization has progressed, humans have learnt to control natural emotions, particularly the negative ones such as hatred, anger, irritation. If you don't like a guy in your company, you can't say it openly. If you hate your neighbor, you can't say it in his face. If you hate a friend of a friend, you can't say it in his face. Have you seen a FB message 'I hate you'? People just talk about it in low tones.<br />
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A person can let out many of his negative emotions with his closed ones - but not hatred! Celebrities are a perfect vent. You can openly hate celebrities. And celebrities love it - they have created a strong image in your mind.</div>
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pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0Brookline, MA, USA42.331764199999988 -71.12116349999996642.237844199999991 -71.282524999999964 42.425684199999985 -70.959801999999968tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-63548927778568463662013-01-23T15:12:00.001+05:302013-01-23T15:14:11.143+05:30Equity vs. Cash = Sprint vs. Marathon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the hyper glamorized world of high tech entrepreneurship with billion dollar exits and focus on equity growth, it is easy to forget the traditional and age old way of doing a business - maintain positive cash flow and earn profits every year. The current breed of entrepreneurs, especially the educated ones, tend to forget the second type - which leads to missing out on good opportunities.<br />
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Fundamentally there are two types of companies: Equity growth focused and cash growth focused. The two require different mindsets and approaches from the founders.<br />
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An equity focused company is always running a sprint to grow as fast as possible. Scale up acquisitions, scale up employees, scale up products, scale up offices, scale up investments - because you need to finish the race before your competition catches up, or market dries out, or investors lose interest, or public hype dies out. When the CEO looks at P&L, he looks at growth, and not profitability.</div>
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On the other hand, a cash focused company is like running a marathon - focus is on preserving energy (cash) to sustain for a long time. Cash is the real king here. Founders focus on cash generation, working capital management and cash flow statement. They focus on cash salary and dividend income. Most small businesses like restaurants, real estate, shops fall under this category.</div>
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Though a company can only have one of the above two DNAs, there are lessons to be shared. If you are an equity focused founder, make sure that you do not lose focus on your cash flow statement. If you are a cash focused founder, make sure that you do not lose focus on growth and re-investment of your cash.</div>
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Aspiring entrepreneurs should consider traditional cash businesses and not be completely swayed away by '1 in a million chance' billion $ exit. You can still be rich, enjoy a good lifestyle, generate employment and be truly your own boss.</div>
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pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0Boston, MA, USA42.3584308 -71.059773242.170560800000004 -71.38249669999999 42.5463008 -70.7370497tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-1084593409488847572013-01-20T06:20:00.000+05:302013-01-20T06:21:15.485+05:30Product review: Contactually - email and contact management<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have been using <a href="https://www.contactually.com/" target="_blank">Contactually</a> for a month now and would highly recommend it. It is a contact management system which integrates with Gmail and helps you keep in touch with personal and professional network.<br />
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Initial set up is easy, but takes up time as it integrates with Gmail / LinkedIn accounts. Once it fetches your contacts, you need to create buckets for contacts such as friends, family, colleagues etc. The bucketing process is manual and can be cumbersome. Good thing developers have tried to gamify the process by creating the 'Bucket game'.<br />
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Once the set up is complete, you will receive a daily alert with people to reach out today. You can set up frequency of alerts for contact buckets, for e.g. you want to contact your family members every 14 days, and your referrals every 2 months. You can set up your weekly target of contacts to reach out to.<br />
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Bucket game needs to improve - contacts should be prioritized in a better way based on communication history.<br />
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I love the product - it is an easy way to keep in touch with your contacts. With the email and communication clutter, this can be a great tool to 'actively' manage your network.</div>
pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-90081999155115128312013-01-19T21:58:00.005+05:302013-01-22T09:32:37.317+05:30A founding team is like an unmarried couple wanting to have a child<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There are no social / official obligations towards each other, yet the couple needs to work together towards a higher purpose of giving birth to and raising a child.<br />
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A founding team is similar - each individual has no obligation to stay in the relationship, yet they decide to work together towards building an idea into a business. Each individual should have a higher level of commitment to make it work. The chemistry between them should be perfect.<br />
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Which means:<br />
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1. <b>Don't take any risks</b>: Look for a co-founder as if you would look for a mother / father of your child. As a rule, co-founder should be your friend over a long period of time. Beware, knowing him at a personal level is not enough - ideally, you should have worked with him closely on a professional assignment. This is critical as you will be amazed how people behave differently in professional settings.<br />
Another tip: Your close family / spouse should know and like the person - it will help you a lot!<br />
Hiring a co-founder is a waste of your time. Employees are hired, not founders.<br />
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2. <b>Matching passion and ambition</b>: Make sure that the co-founder matches or exceeds you in the level of passion and ambition for the start-up. You will have the same vision for the company and put in similar number of hours to achieve it.<br />
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3. <b>Complement at personality level, not skill level</b>: Introvert + Extrovert, detail oriented + intuition oriented, high energy + level headed, impatient + patient -- look for how different he is from you. Complementary personality traits will help you nullify the waves of uncertainty and anxiety you will face.<br />
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Complementary skill sets are a nice-to-have, but not essential. A skilled programmer + a great salesman --> is it an ideal combination? Yes - only if both do not lose patience after 3 months of no revenues. That being said - one must have personality trait is: willingness to learn new skills.<br />
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4. <b>Communication is the most important thing</b>: Which is the single most important trait you should look for? My bullet to the head answer is: can you communicate with him freely? Does he listen to and respect your views? Like any relationship, communication is the fuel to keep the engines running.<br />
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5. <b>Longevity is critical</b>: Raising a child is much more difficult than creating. Is the person committed to the company for a long haul? Can he face tough times for a long period of time? Will he stay around after 5 years if the company survives?<br />
Also look beyond personality, at realities of life - does he have debt? Is he financially comfortable? Does he have the required family support?<br />
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There was a reason I referred founding team as a couple - 2 is the ideal founding team size. 3 is a stretch and beyond is chaos. What about 1? Start-up is a big lonely world - you need somebody to talk to. If you insist on being alone, invite your spouse to be the co-founder (unofficially though!).<br />
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So, get the genes right!<br />
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pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0Jersey City, NJ, USA40.728157499999988 -74.07764170000001540.631877999999986 -74.239003200000013 40.824436999999989 -73.916280200000017tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-70083780029096693492012-04-04T08:24:00.001+05:302012-04-04T08:29:57.994+05:30OneMint - good blog on personal finance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Came across <a href="http://www.onemint.com/" target="_blank">OneMint</a> - one of the few good blogs on personal finance in India. The author, Manshu, puts in serious effort to analyze latest issues and trends in managing personal investment portfolio. It is a great blog to understand some of the most common questions, such as investing in NCDs, FDs, MFs. It also has a 'Suggest a topic' section - which is regularly addressed by the author.<br />
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A highly recommended read. If there are other such resources, let me know.</div>pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-64648521542122378442012-04-04T03:10:00.002+05:302012-04-04T03:15:23.764+05:30Entrepreneurship as a career<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Why not consider Entrepreneurship as a career - same way as being a doctor, engineer, manager, banker, consultant, or an artist? Why can't there be a 'career entrepreneur'? If one is serious about entrepreneurship, he should think of it has a career, rather than as a single shot / single phase in life.<br />
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Start small</b>: In all professions, one starts at the bottom. So, why not start a small business to start? It helps you learn the basics and prepare for next steps.</li>
<li><b>Move up gradually</b>: Don't look for the big bang hit (if it happens, great!), but move up gradually. Like any career, choose a field in which there is scope to move ahead.</li>
<li><b>Be ready to do crap</b>: You do crappy things in the world's most glorified jobs also - why shy away in entrepreneurship?</li>
<li><b>Be ready to handle crap: </b>Stupid boss / managers are the same as irritating co-founders, employees and customers.</li>
<li><b style="font-weight: bold;">Have mentors</b>: In any other career, you need mentors too - even more important in entrepreneurship</li>
<li><b>Switch</b>: A popular way to progress in any career is to switch jobs. An entrepreneur should be open to switching his business as and when need arises.</li>
<li><b>Take a break when necessary</b>: If things are not going well, take a break and come back after some time. It is a 40 year career, not a 3 year stint.</li>
<li><b>Maintain work-life balance</b>: Don't ignore your family</li>
</ol>
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Entrepreneurship is a career, not a stint interspersed in another career.</div>
</div>pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-65652286556196325312012-03-19T00:03:00.001+05:302012-03-19T00:03:14.975+05:30The 2 most critical things to do for Entrepreneurs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
What can an entrepreneur do to succeed? Success depends on a lot on factors - some under your control and some outside your control. As is the famous saying - "Success is 90% luck and 10% perspiration" - you can only control the perspiration side of it. It does not guarantee success, but it is the best you can do.<div>
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Internet is full of tips for entrepreneurs - top 10, top 20 things to do. But the following 2 things are the most important for an entrepreneur to focus on:</div>
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1. <b>Spend at least 70% of your time selling</b>: The core business of business is to sell. Every entrepreneur should make it a point to spend time on sales - selling to customers, investors, employees, family members and friends. 'Sales' does not only include talking about your product/services to bring in revenues, but it also includes selling your ideas, your company, and yourself to others. It also includes changing the way you think about your product - how to better understand customer requirements, how to change features to bring in new revenue streams, how to change your business model, etc.</div>
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Entrepreneurs, who come from development background (or think themselves of as 'geeks'), get lost in the development process and completely lose track of sales. Others get lost in day-to-day operational activities. If it happens, alarm bells should be ringing.</div>
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2. <b>Evolve</b>: Entrepreneurs should be ready to evolve with time. Evolution can happen on multiple fronts:</div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Product or service model</li>
<li>Business model</li>
<li>Field of business itself (as dramatic as it may sound, entrepreneurs should not limit themselves to one sector. They should follow any opportunity, where they can play a role)</li>
<li>Founding team</li>
<li>Investors</li>
<li>Employees</li>
<li>Your own style of work and thinking</li>
</ul>
If you do not change with time, time will not be on your side.</div>
</div>pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-15054967687143888262012-03-17T07:15:00.002+05:302012-03-18T23:18:18.962+05:30Thinking like an owner vs. a worker<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have been pushing myself hard to write about my entrepreneurship experience. This is the first post and I hope to post more. Hopefully my experiences and thoughts will benefit somebody out there.<br />
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This post is about thinking like an owner. Plenty has been written about the difference between a leader and a manager. Many believe that successful entrepreneurs are leaders, rather than managers. I think that this debate is abstract and does not offer practical solutions/actions to an entrepreneur. Of course, he can aspire to be a leader - but he should survive to have somebody to lead!<br />
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In a startup context (and even for bigger corporations), the more important question is - <i>Are you able to think like an owner of a business?</i> Owner's mindset is the foundation on which an entrepreneur can succeed. He can be either a good leader, or a good manager or both. It does not matter. Leader vs. manager is more about personal execution style, rather than mindset. It is also not related to whether you are a core geek or an MBA.<br />
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As simple as it sounds, it is not an easy mindset to have. Most of us come from middle class families with little or no business background. Our parents and relatives have been in a job for years. Right from our childhood, the concept of 'ownership' has not been very familiar to us. Let us ask ourselves - '<b>How many evolving things (includes things like a business or an event, a pet, etc. and excluding depreciating things like vehicle and toys) have we really owned in our life?</b>' Many of us come after doing a 'regular job' - where we do not or are not expected to think like an owner.<br />
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I have found some of the best examples of entrepreneurship among small businesses in India. Consider a real estate broker, construction contractor, CA, doctor, or a small factory owner - listen to their conversations very carefully. They will talk about 'my business grew', 'we have grand plans', 'I just opened a new branch' - and compare these to conversations with an employee 'my manager sucks', 'my company did that', 'my bonus was great', 'I got promoted', 'Lifestyle is bad'. The tone is very different.<br />
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So what does it mean to think like an owner? What is the difference between an owner and a worker?<br />
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1. <b>Owners think about tomorrow, workers think about yesterday and today</b>: Owners always think about future growth, future revenues, future products, future trends, future opportunities. While workers are always stuck in today's work, today's TODO list, this quarterly results, this year's bonus.<br />
Owners think about growth, workers think about survival.<br />
It does not mean that an owner just day dreams about future, or just doesn't care about today. As an entrepreneur you have to be ready to sweat it out daily. But at the back of your mind, are you planning for your future always? Are you trying to be always ahead of competitors and time? Do you spend thinking and action time on future plans?<br />
People just get stuck in day-to-day things. This happened to me, and I have always seen this happen to others. If you are spending >80% of your time on just thinking about today, you need a shake up. You are becoming a worker, not acting like an owner.<br />
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2. <b>Owners think about company profits, workers think about their salaries</b>: Owners are worried about company's profitability and cash flow, and not their own salaries, bonuses and increments. When owners think about finance, they start with company's balance sheet and not their own balance sheet.<br />
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3. <b>Owners design the bigger picture, workers are too busy in details</b>: Owners know the bigger picture / vision / path of their company and business environment. While workers just want to get the current task done, or achieve the current goal. Owners design a realistic dream of future, while workers think about going home today.<br />
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Ever wondered why small mom-and-pop shopkeepers continue to remain the same size for years and generations. I think that one of the main reason is that shop owner himself becomes a worker, and stops thinking like an owner. He doesn't delegate work, he doesn't think about growth - he gets too stuck up in his day-to-day routine.<br />
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As an entrepreneur, you need to act like an owner first (and a critical thing for an owner to succeed is to have good workers :-)).<br />
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A final point here - There might be no difference between the effort and motivation level of an owner and a worker - the subtle distinction is in the mindset - that's it!</div>pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-35987678260852858662011-07-14T00:24:00.005+05:302011-07-14T05:17:46.319+05:30Reading - July 13Did an analysis of returns from NSE, BSE, gold and silver over the last 20 years. Found some interesting patterns:<br /><ol><li>How much would Re. 1 become now? - In BSE, Re. 1 invested in 1991 would become 20.07 today, suggesting a return of 16%. In NSE, Re.1 in 1997 will become 6.55 today with return of 14%. Gold (1 in 1991 to 7.3 today, returns 11%), silver (1 in 1991 to 7.31 today, returns 10.5%)<br /></li><li>Average 3-year returns: NSE (15.3%), BSE (14.3%), Gold (11%), silver (11.3%)</li><li>Average 5-year returns: NSE (15.2%), BSE (12.8%), Gold (9.9%), silver (9.9%)</li><li>Standard deviation on 1 year returns: 0.39, 0.37, 0.13, 0.26</li><li>Standard deviation on 3 year returns: 0.15, 0.18, 0.09, 0.14</li><li>Standard deviation on 5 year returns: 0.12, 0.12, 0.08, 0.10<br /></li><li>Negative annual returns: 5/14, 7/20, 3/20, 8/20</li><li>Bumper years where return has been >40%: 5/14, 7/20, 7/20 (> 25%), 7/20 (>25%)</li><li>Disaster years where return has been <-10%: 5/14, 6/20, 1/20, 3/20<br /></li></ol>Gold and USD were historically negatively correlated. Now they are turning to be positively correlated. In future, negative correlation is expected.<br /><br />Read through Nassim Taleb's philosophy of black swan events. He suggests to create a portfolio of extremely safe assets and extremely risky assets, as 'medium risk' is difficult to measure. Will read his books now.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mutual Funds</span>: Went through primer on moneycontrol.com. Important points:<br /><ol><li>Asset allocation of a fund can be Equity (growth), debt (income), money market (gilt), balanced, sector specific, etc.</li><li>NAV - net asset value, computing every day by a fund after deducting all expenses.</li><li>Expense ratio: Expenses/ total assets under management (and not returns earned).</li><li>Load: Some AMCs have sales charges, or loads, on their funds (entry load and/or exit load) to compensate for distribution costs. Funds that can be purchased without a sales charge are called no-load funds.</li><li>Open ended funds: Enter or exit anytime</li><li>Closed ended funds: Redemption can take place only after the period of the scheme is over. However, close-ended funds are listed on the stock exchanges and investors can buy/ sell units in the secondary market (there is no load).</li><li>Tax benefits: This is important: a) 100% income tax exemption on all MFs dividends, b) Equity funds - short term capital gain is taxed at 15%. Long term capital gains is not applicable. Debt Funds - Short term capital gains is taxed as per the slab rates applicable to you. Long term capital gains tax to be lower of - 10% on the capital gains without factoring indexation benefit and 20% on the capital gains after factoring indexation benefit. c) Open end funds with equity exposure of more than 65% (Revised from 50% to 65% are exempt from the payment of dividend tax for a period of 3 years from 1999-2000.</li><li>Fund selection: Evaluate past performance and <span style="font-weight: bold;">look for consistency</span>. You can diversify into 3 funds with similar asset allocation. Consider fund costs. s a general rule, 1% towards management fees and 0.6% towards annual expenses should be acceptable. Try and avoid funds that have a sales load, unless of course they have a consistent track record of being a top-performer.</li><li>Use index funds</li><li>Stay away from mutual funds whose fund managers change often.</li></ol>pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-57085925339083040392011-07-12T20:10:00.005+05:302011-07-13T04:35:49.383+05:30Book summary - 'A Random Walk down the Wall Street' by Burton MalkielMy first proper reading on investments (after living for 3 years without money :-)). Main points are described below, which can serve as a summary of the book too:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why do we need to put effort and mind in investing?</span><br />Beating inflation is the most common explanation given to investing. In recent past, real returns on Bank FDs have been negative. Although the theoretical difference between inflation and FD return is 3-4% (it goes up to 6-7% after taxes), I have a feeling that the actual difference is a lot higher for common household (a separate detailed analysis is required to prove it). So we are losing purchasing power if we invest in FDs. Question is: Is that a good enough reason to lose your sleep by investing? You can react to this question in two ways: 1) Yes it is, and I will go aggressively to beat inflation by investing in high risk-high return assets; 2) More risk-averse reaction could be: Not really, but can I come up with safe and intelligent (or rather unknown as of now) ways to reduce the difference.<br />Another less talked about reason to invest (due to our age group) is to save for old age. Other reasons could be investing for a particular purpose like kids' education, buying house, etc.<br />I don't think fun and adventure should be reasons to invest. We have places called Casinos for that.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Investment theory #1: The Firm foundation theory</span><br />Each stock/asset has an intrinsic value which can be computed based on present conditions and future prospects. For a stock, it can be computed based on future dividend payouts. There are four determinants of value of a stock:<br /><ol><li>The expected growth rate of dividends: Apparently Einstein described compounding as the greatest mathematical invention of all time. A rational investor should be willing to pay a higher price for a share the larger the growth rate of dividends and earnings and the longer the growth is expected to last.</li><li>Expected dividend payout: Other things being equal, a company paying higher proportion of its earnings in cash dividends should have a higher price. Stock dividends or splits are not beneficial for stock owners. </li><li>Degree of risk: Lower the risk, higher the price of a share (and hence, perhaps lower the returns). Blue chip stocks sell at a premium due to this.</li><li>Level of interest rates: Lower interest rates -> poor returns on debt/FDs -> more money for equity -> higher the price.</li></ol>There are two important caveats here: 1) Expectation about future cannot be proven in the present. 2) Precise figures cannot be calculated from undetermined data (Excel tricks played by analysts in DCF computation can move intrinsic value anywhere. Just change growth rate or terminal growth rate, or number of years, or discounting factor)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It is the P/E of a stock, not the absolute price of the stock, which determines its value for comparison</span>. PEG multiple (Growth/ P/E ) is a more accurate multiple: For a stock with high growth and high P/E, market has already accounted its growth in its price. Higher the PEG ratio, more attractive is the stock.<br /><br />It has been seen that markets do follow logic, and the 4 determinants are followed most of the times (thus a stock with higher expected growth rate will have higher P/E). But what is a good enough P/E? We should take long term historical averages to understand how much premium market has given in the past for a particular growth rate/dividend payout/risk/interest rates.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Investment theory #2: The Castle-in-the-air theory<br /></span>Famous economist Keynes proposed this theory in 1936 - people invest based on crowd behavior and human psychology, rather than sound fundamental intrinsic value. No one can predict future earnings or dividend payouts. So look out for latest 'hot' thing in the market!<br /><br />Stock prices are in a sense anchored to certain 'fundamentals', but the anchor is easily pulled up and then dropped in another place. Both the above theories work in parallel to result in 'controlled madness' or a 'balancing act'.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">How Pros play with above two theories</span><br />Technical (Theory #2) and fundamental (Theory #1) analysis. Chartists believe that market is 10% logical, 90% psychological; fundamentalist believe the opposite.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Technical analysis</span><br />Author has severely criticized technical analysis. It is trading, not investing to begin with. Trends might be built up due to two reasons: crowd instinct/behavior and unequal access to information. There are logical shortcomings such as any information is already accounted for in price, by the time a trend is noticed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fundamental analysis</span><br />For its modeling, fundamental analysis can only provide a range or an anchor point. There are three potential flaws: 1) information and analysis may be incorrect, 2) analysts' estimate of 'value' may be faulty, 3) market may not correct its 'mistake' and stock price may not converge to its value estimate.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Using both analysis together</span><br />Rule1: Buy only companies that are expected to have above average earnings growth for five or more years. Both earnings and multiple might increase - resulting in double benefit.<br />Rule2: Never pay more for a stock than its firm foundation of value: Growth stocks selling at multiples in line with or not very much above the market multiple often represent good value. Keep away from growth stocks with high multiples.<br />Rule 3: Look for stocks whose stories of anticipated growth are of the kind on which investors can build castles in the air.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Does technical analysis work?</span><br />Academicians don't like chartists because: After paying transaction costs, the method does not do better than a buy-and-hold strategy. Results reveal that past movements in stock prices cannot be used reliably to foretell future movements. The stock market has little memory. Correlation between present and past price movements is slightly positive. So there exists some momentum in prices, but too small to be economically significant. Flip of a coin can produce the same chart as a stock market. Reading charting patters produces no significantly better results than placebo strategy of buy and hold. Frequent trading in technical analysis also leads to early realization of capital gains tax.<br />If past prices contain little or no information for the prediction of future prices, there is no point in following any technical trading rule for timing the sale and purchases of stocks.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Does fundamental analysis work?</span><br />Past earnings growth cannot predict future growth. Let us consider a naive forecasting model that every company would enjoy a growth in earnings equal to long-run rate of growth of the national income. A study showed that this model would make smaller errors than those used by professional analysts. Analysts did poorly in 5-year growth estimates, and worse in one-year estimates across industries. This difficulty in predicting future can be explained by 1) Influence of random events 2) creation of dubious reported earnings due to creative accounting, 3) incompetence of analysts, and 4) Loss of best analysts to sales desk or portfolio management<br /><br />Mutual Funds also do not show any consistency in performance. Some funds might outperform the market during a certain period, but not consistently. Good past performance of a fund does not imply good performance in future (in fact, reverse may be true due to law of averages which seemingly works for funds).<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Timing the market</span>: Holding on your stocks as long term investments works better than market timing because your gains from being in stocks during bull markets far outweigh the losses in bear markets. A market timer would have to make correct decisions 70% of the time to outperform a buy-and-hold investor.<br /><br />Thus, random walk theory suggests that Fundamental analysis cannot produce investment recommendations that will enable an investor consistently to outperform a buy-and-hold strategy. Both Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett admitted that most investors would be better off in an index fund rather than investing in an actively managed equity mutual fund.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Investment Theory #3: Modern portfolio theory</span><br />The only method of beating the market is to assume more risk. However a portfolio can be created to reduce risk and still generate higher returns (upto a limit) through diversification. Two asset classes with covariance <1 can be combined to reduce risk. If covariance = 1.0, no risk reduction, +0.5 - moderate reduction, -0.5 -> most risk can be eliminated, -1.0 -> all risk is eliminated. However risk can't be reduced indefinitely with increasing returns, and after a point, risk increases with returns.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CAPM</span><br />There is no premium for bearing risks that can be diversified away. So to increase returns, you need to increase risks which cannot be diversified away. Risks can be divided into two main types: Systematic (market risk) and asystematic (diversifiable risk). Systematic risk cannot be eliminated by diversification. Unsystematic risk is the stock specific risk which can be diversified away. So market won't pay for this risk. It will only pay for systematic risk (Beta of a portfolio). Thus higher the beta of a portfolio, higher the returns. Note that portfolio might still have some non-diversified unsystematic risk, but there will be no additional premium for it.<br /><br />In practice, CAPM has failed as it was shown that there is no relationship between beta and returns!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Thus it seems that both technical and fundamental analysis do not outperform markets. The only way to get higher returns is to assume higher risks. But there is no measure of higher risk, i.e. I do not know if I have taken greater risk. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Predictable patterns in the behavior of Stock Prices</span><br /><ol><li>Stocks do follow momentum</li><li>Eventually stock prices do change direction and hence stockholder returns tend to reverse themselves: Poorly performing stocks over the last three years may give higher returns. Reversals may be due to economic factors.<br /></li><li>Stocks are subject to seasonal moodiness such as diwali, end of the week, beginning of year: Buy your stocks on monday afternoon at the close, not on Friday afternoon, or monday morning, when they tend to be selling at slightly higher prices.</li></ol><span style="font-weight: bold;">Patterns with Fundamental analysis</span><br /><ol><li>Smaller is often better: Smaller companies give higher returns, but it may be due to the fact that only those giving higher returns survive over a longer period.</li><li>Stocks with lower P/E outperform those with higher P/E: But beware of accounting and real laggards. Results are not consistent over time.<br /></li><li>Stocks having low multiples of their book values tend to give higher returns: Results are not consistent over time. Survivorship bias, not easy to determine book value especially due to real estate,</li><li>Higher initial dividends (D/P ratio) and lower P/E multiples have meant higher returns: </li></ol><span style="font-weight: bold;">Investment guide</span><br /><ol><li>Cover yourself with protection: Invest over long term. So you should have noninvestment resources such as medical and life insurance to draw on any emergency. Go for term insurance. In addition, you should keep at least one year's expenses in safe and liquid investments.<br /></li><li>Know your investment objectives: Determine your risk appetite. In increasing risk profile, bank accounts, money market deposit accounts, money market funds, high quality corporate bonds, diversified portfolio of blue chips, real estate, gold, common stocks of smaller companies.</li><li>Tax should be considered while computing returns and avoid taxes wherever possible</li></ol><span style="font-weight: bold;">Guide to investing</span><br />A person should look at his attitude towards risk and capacity to take risk. The most important investment decision is balancing of various asset categories at different stages of risk. More than 90% of an investor's total return is determined by asset categories that are selected and their proportional representation. Four Asset allocation principles are:<br /><ol><li>History shows that risk and return are related.</li><li>The risk of investing in common stocks and bonds depends on the length of time the investments are held. The longer an investor's holding period, the lower the risk: Follow buy-and-hold strategy over long periods of time.<br /></li><li>Dollar cost averaging can be useful: This is similar to SIP. You need to buy more stocks at lower prices to gain.</li><li>Risks you can afford to take depend on your total financial situation</li></ol>Typical portfolio for mid-twenties<br />5% cash with maturity 1 to 1.5 years, 20% bonds, 65% stocks, 10% real estate<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Three strategies</span><br /><ol><li>Invest in index funds: no capital gains, low transaction costs: choose the right index to invest in - for popular indices, stock prices increase just on listing.<br /></li><li>Hiring a professional mutual fund: Choosing funds is tricky. Choosing 'best' funds with high performance has shown to under-perform market, even after ignoring load fees and expenses. So recent performance is not a good indicator of future performance. There are three factors in selecting mutual funds: 1) Risk level - understand beta of fund's portfolio 2) amount of fund's unrealized gains - do not buy funds with high unrealized capital gains due to capital gains tax and 3) fund's expense ratio - should be low<br /></li><li>Pick up stocks as per the following rules:<br /></li></ol><ul><li>Confine to companies which can sustain above-average earnings for at least five years</li><li>Don't pay more than intrinsic value of stock (you can estimate a range of the value)</li><li>Buy stocks with the kind of stories of anticipated growth on which investors can build castles in the air.</li><li>Trade as little as possible to avoid brokerage and capital gains tax<br /></li></ul>pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-79291039264418111902008-09-14T13:52:00.003+05:302008-09-14T14:21:58.144+05:30Why am not I using Chrome?I am (or was) a big fan of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Google's</span> products. As a true follower, I dumped my Yahoo! <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">IM</span> for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Gtalk</span>, always used Google search, Google docs, Google alerts, News, and other apps. I was almost tempted to use <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Google's</span> new browser, Chrome..I downloaded and installed it. Then when I was about to type first URL into it, a strange doubt haunted me. Am I giving away too much to Google?<br /><br />There have been innumerable reports on privacy concerns and how Google is trying to 'better understand' (in Eric's words) us. It knows which websites I surf, which videos I am watching, all my emails (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">ok</span>, may be Google does not know it, but there is a program sitting there which is reading my emails). And there may be other ways in which Google might be tracking me.<br /><br />Now, through Chrome, am I ready to further increase my exposure to Google? I don't think so. May be there is no information or history being tracked, but what if there is one clause in one of those licensing agreements which I click without reading. Should I take that risk? People may argue that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Firefox</span> might be doing the same thing. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Ok</span>! but at least it is not Google, information at 2 different places is better than 1 single consolidated place.<br /><br />My decision is not based on logic and facts, but on suspicion and fear. But then remember that fear is never based on facts, but on feeling and intuition, and I don't feel good about Google as of now.pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-33279852886105589472008-08-14T17:45:00.002+05:302008-08-14T18:18:40.755+05:30Olympic gold medal: Abhinav's medal or India's medal?India finally got an individual Olympic gold medal after 108 years! Kudos to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Abhinav</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Bindra</span> for his splendid effort in Beijing and bringing happiness to a billion Indians.<br />The coverage given by global media to the dismal state of Indian sports is incredible. On the day <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Bindra</span> won his gold, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">WSJ</span> had 2 half page articles on 2 topics: "India being missed at Olympic hockey" and "First individual medal for India". My friend told me that CNN had a news item on "Why a billion Indians only have 57 member squad?" on the opening day of the Olympics. I still remember 1992 when India did not win a single medal at Barcelona (now I know that it had happened in 1984, 88 also). There was some usual hue and cry (some media reports, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">IOC</span> comments, and finally, an "enquiry committee" to end all those war cries). But now, with increasing focus on India due to its economic growth has made world media more worried about Indian hockey than Indian media (I haven't read any article on hockey in Indian press for the last 10-15 days).<br />I am just wondering whether this medal gives us a hope for medals in future also. In management, we learn "building internal competencies which enable you to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage". In sports, India has not done so. Many of these performances are individual efforts (with personal money) and not really, an output of a well-placed system. I don't see a stream of new players coming up in these sports in future. We are struggling to find replacements for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Paes</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Bhupathi</span>; <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Bindra</span> trained on personal money in Germany (as per media reports), shooters still complain of lack on facilities; no comments on hockey; women weightlifting seems to be dying out now after <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Karnam</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Malleshwari</span> won an Olympic bronze. Only in badminton, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Padukone</span> Academy seems to be producing players at regular intervals (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Saina</span> just reached quarters).<br />With this gold medal, some corporate money might pour into shooting or other Olympic sports. But the fact of the matter is, we can't say that there will be a medal for India in the next Olympics. We don't have any system or infrastructure built for it. It will depend on few individuals who can put in effort and money on their own.<br />Let's face the reality: India is not a sporting nation. From childhood, we have been told <span style="font-style: italic;">"<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Kheloge</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">kudoge</span> to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">banoge</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">kharaab</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Padhoge</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">likhoge</span> to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">banoge</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">nawaab</span></span>". Rise of a nation in sporting arena has historically been a mix of its economic power and associated national pride. Eastern European countries always <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">fared</span> better than western Europe during cold war times. China has also made special focused efforts to rise as a sporting powerhouse (I don't know how many of those efforts can be applied in a democratic India!). Will it happen for India?<br />May be it's time for us to not to make a huge issue out of our failures at international sports, and just enjoy individual glories as and when those come.pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-76545281188925938352008-08-09T12:32:00.003+05:302008-08-09T12:55:22.285+05:30"Sing is Kiing"- A good skitWith all the hype created around it and the fact that it was being released in Brussels, we could not afford to miss "Sing is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Kiing</span>". To give you a summary of the movie, it's a "<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">machau</span></span>" movie, with college skit level <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">fattas</span></span>, illogical script (as expected), and a large screen presence of new name of dependability, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Akki</span>.<br />As we entered the cinema hall, we were awed by the number of Indians. I can bet that it was the only packed hall in the multiplex. Indians are everywhere now! Sound system was horrible and seats worse than my small multiplex in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Kota</span>.<br />There is only one purpose of the movie- to make money. The fact that title of the movie came before the script itself (as told by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Akki</span> in his interviews) speaks a lot. It has its moments of laughter, the enactment of one of the classic Hindi dialogues "<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Mera</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">khoon</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">khaul</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">raha</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">hai</span></span>", treatment given to the 'real' king and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Javed</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Jaffrey's</span> acts. But make sure you don't miss these, otherwise rest of the movie can be quite irritating at times.<br />Katrina with her stupid <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">NRI</span> accent is simply irritating. Remember, how British actors spoke Hindi in a historical movie of 70-80s. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Akki</span> seems to be enjoying his new stature, he does some amazing stunts and carries the movie on his shoulders (it proved to be quite heavy for him too). <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Javed</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Jaffrey</span>, as a blind and deaf goon is hilarious. Watch out for his small dancing act. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Neha</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Dhupia</span> shows off her talent pretty well ;-)<br />Did I forget the plot of the movie? Which plot, which script, which logic? I have found a new respect for our <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">IIT</span> skit script writers. They should perhaps try out in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">bollywood</span>, they might earn a lot more than Engineering or management jobs.pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-25706191772529933272008-08-05T20:29:00.003+05:302008-08-05T20:52:28.402+05:30Indians and visasOne of the biggest frustrations of holding an Indian passport is the difficulty to use it. Damn, Indians need visa everywhere. I am working out of Brussels when my whole team is in London because my UK visa expired. Indians can't go anywhere without visas. Now, even Nepal is considering visas for Indians! (I mean where you would want to go. To find the list of countries where Indians can travel without a visa, visit: <a href="http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=772153">http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=772153 )</a><br />Now why does that happen?<br />I think the biggest reason is that everybody else in the world require an Indian visa to visit India. These agreements are bilateral and for some reasons, India has not entered into any such agreements.<br />This treatment is always mutual. Usually Indian embassies in Europe issue short term visas, and Indians end up getting the same 3- month single entry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Schengen</span> visas. I don't know who started this. With the increasing terror around terrorism, situation is not expected to get better. Till then Indian tourism industry continues to be hit, and we continue to stand in long lines, filling forms and apply for all the visas in the world.<br /><br />p.s. Perhaps the Indian passport is the thickest in the world. All the EU/US/Canada passports are wafer thin :-)pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-51610831237799241042008-08-04T18:27:00.006+05:302008-08-04T22:38:53.832+05:30Why you would hate living in EuropeIt is almost 1 year in Brussels for me. Coming to Europe is always a dream sequence for people all over the world, and especially in India. Indians always flocked in Switzerland to spend their holidays (and to spend their black money!), but since <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Kajol</span> ran into <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">SRK</span> in the backdrop of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">swiss</span> alps, grassland, and Swiss cows, things have taken off!<br />Now, situation changes a lot when you look at Indians living actually in Europe (I exclude UK from Europe, its not Europe, its a colony of the US across the Atlantic). From my experience here, living in Europe can be a real pain at times. Please note that I have just shifted my house and really frustrated, so all my views have extreme negative co<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">nnotations</span> (but close to reality).<br /><br />So, why can you hate living in Europe:<br /><ol><li>All shops remain closed on Sundays. Markets close down at 7 during weekdays and at 5 on Saturday. You even can't get bread on Sunday. This is European definition of customer focus! Mindset of a shopkeeper is "You came here because you want something, not because I want to sell something."</li><li>All restaurants close down at 9 30-1000.<br /></li><li>You need to take appointment from everybody, from government officers to a cleaner (!). Appointment from a cleaning company- can you imagine that! First an "inspector" comes to visit your house and he gives you a quotation. I got a quotation of 350 Euros, bloody hell! Then he sends over 2 persons after 2 weeks. All services are damn expensive!</li><li>Landlords rule here. You shell out a huge sum to leave the apartment. So-called expert charges you for everything from a small scratch on floor to cleaning of the apartment. You may end up paying 3 months of rent while leaving the apartment.<br /></li><li>You receive all your bills in french/dutch, you ignore and 6 months after, they send you a bill in English with a penalty 3 times the amount on bill.</li><li>All government processes are extremely slow and bureaucratic. I got my commune card after 2 months of repeated visits.</li><li>Don't be lured by the EU passport, tax rates can kill you. It can be up to 70%, all for your social security when you get old...so you will have to live your whole life in Europe as you would have nothing to save!</li><li>You will get nasty looks if you ask for ketch up for pizza. The heavenly cuisine prepared by the Godly chef should not be disturbed at any cost.</li></ol>Some added by Kunal:<br /><ol><li>It takes 1.5 Euros a minute to call India. Almost equal to the amount you would pay when you bring your Indian cell phone to Europe on international roaming. Even the local calls and roaming within Europe are max expensive.<br /></li><li>Appointment for a plumber takes 3 months. So if your flush stops working, well... Good luck!</li><li>Normal shops close at 7:30 and night shops close at midnight. Aren't they supposed to be "night shops"?<br /></li></ol>More to follow I am sure as I have more time to go in Europe....pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-5198631543303088592008-08-04T01:45:00.004+05:302008-08-05T20:29:54.804+05:30Vancouver- best city after retirement- II set my foot in North America when I landed in Vancouver, Canada. I stayed there for about 3 weeks. My first impression of Canada was a relaxed country with lots of open spaces and few people. I got out of the airport and even before I could see few locals, I saw all the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Desi</span> taxi drivers. I boarded a taxi and we were off to downtown. Soon I was in a conversation with the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Desi</span> driver. First of all, he was now a Canadian citizen, he got rid of his Indian passport 5 years ago (that's a very sensible thing to do given the number of visas required for Indians!). "<span style="font-style: italic;">Ab <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">koi</span> airport par <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">sawaal</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">nahi</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">poochta</span></span>" was his candid admission. Fair enough!<br />First experience with a local was with the hotel receptionist who taught me a few lessons of hard core selling. He tried to sell an upgrade to his best, but then he could not get over my strong <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Desi</span> "never say yes" attitude, and I got rewarded for it too. He gave me a top floor room without any extra charges. I ran to the nearest shopping mall to buy some clothes for next day's meeting. Why? Didn't I tell you that Lufthansa forgot my baggage at Frankfurt! It was so good to see some shops open on Sunday after a long time. Europe really needs to learn customer focus.<br />First day at work was a complete disaster with meetings on technical details of mining. I did not know even a single detail and was trying to write notes to look intelligent. By 4 PM, things got worse as I was struck by <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">jet lag</span>. That night's dinner with the client was the longest one ever for me.....<br />People in Canada are amazingly lifestyle oriented. Work hours start usually early, more important reason being avoiding early morning traffic. People usually commute 1-2 hours daily. But by 5, everybody was gone! Simply amazing! I met a guy who used to run 10 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">kms</span> daily during lunch hours. And he was not alone. There were several groups of 10-20 running during afternoon hours in Vancouver.<br />Meetings after meetings, and week was over (anyways you live for weekends in a job). Finally on <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Saturday</span> morning, I got to enjoy the view from my room. It was <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">fascinating</span> with mountains (peaks were still snow clad), port and the river. With sun coming out, it was the right time for a stroll. So like a true tourist, I picked up a map and off I went.pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9280781.post-51758033727915402792008-06-06T21:51:00.004+05:302008-06-06T22:10:35.228+05:3010 most interesting questions about India by videshisBased on my experience over the last year (includes some personal questions too):<br /><ol><li>Are all Indians vegetarian?</li><li>What is an 'arranged' marriage?<br /></li><li>Is India really growing?</li><li>Why are bollywood movies long and have song and dances?</li><li>What is the caste system?</li><li>What is the famous 'Indian' marriage?</li><li>Do you speak Hindu? Do all Indians speak Hindu?<br /></li><li>What is your religion?</li><li>Why do Indians talk a lot about money?</li><li>Why a<a href="javascript:void(0)" tabindex="10" onclick="return false;"><span></span></a>re Indians not interested in charity?</li></ol>pangohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03252474441790219384noreply@blogger.com2