Billion dollar industry in near future...

1. Cloud resellers. (I borrowed this one from Marc Bennioff of Salesforce, he says there will be “cloud sherpas”)
2. Variants of platform as a service with other models.
3. Mobile payments.
4. Social e-commerce
5. Language & intercultural literacy. (new business models & delivery methods). China, Africa, and India are just the start.
6. Saving.
7. Mobile health care. Both in the developing world & hear at home.
8. Mobile education.
9. Government data transparency to solve waste or fight corruption.
10. Government 2.0 (crowd sourcing, ATM-like transactions modeled on E-choupal experience, data transparency, service delivery, etc..)
11. Green data about the supply chain (major cost cutting & green innovations).
12. Impact assessment for the supply chain (both for corporate social responsibility and for greater efficiency)
13. Filters & silence (solves filter failure & the scarcity of silence).
14. Online delivery (see Amazons entry in this space & it will grow as traffic continues).
15. Making virtual events more like face to face engagement (obviously cutting hotel hosting, air fair, time, and other costs).
16. Self-coaching. Digital lifestyle design. (for goals, education, budget, etc…)
17. Mass automation in human resources.
18. Customized self-publishing (i.e. I have x, y, and z issue….and I need info in 48 hours)
19. Mass customization (by industry segment). CK Prahalad from the University of Michigan wrote a book about this 2 years ago before he passed.
20. Project based education combined with more modular education
21. Entrepreneurship. Business in a box by segment. (or businesses you can run from your mobile or your iPad application–just add salesperson and accounting software)
22. College education changes to lifelong learning (delivery either on campus or via digital platform)
23. Lifestyle health care & nutrition (health care data transparency for individuals to make better decisions)
24. Health Informatics. (data becomes more ubiquitous and more mobile.) Every health care worker will have a mobile phone to do their work.
25. Products & services & business model adjustment for the rise of emerging markets (BRIC countries).
26. Self-driven real estate process. (Red Fin is attempting to do this in the Northwest US)
27. Entirely new models of books beyond the audio book, e-book, or PDF.
28. DIY data. Build your own dashboard. (Zoho I believe already has some of this, but I don’t think its real-time and I’m sure the UI could use work)
29. Process automation + empathy (design thinking + demming, six sigma, or lean)
30. New concern with data forces companies to find hard data to support “soft” results and “soft” functions. (other forms of ratings & certifications to help fill the gaps in information) Professional service firms and educational institutions may have to focus more on these issues.
31. Outsourcing innovation. Not the typical discussion of outsourcing, but rather the ability to get innovation done on the cheap, effectively, quickly, for a particular target market, or with fewer failures along the way. Most companies aren’t geared to do this, but there will be an increasing number of services around this area. They may even be brought in to help create a culture of change around innovation or to support internal company incubators, or 20% time type initiatives.
32. Support services and products for mobile workers (for community, accountability, or training in adopting a new lifestyle).

Pakhi I love you... Muaaahhh

I'm so intrigued by this relationship...
like, i'm legitimately excited to see how it turns out.
I feel like it's growing everyday.
I want to see what we can harvest.
its an incredible feeling, that potential.
but no expectations even.
just an interest in the progression.
and all I can do at night is lie in bed and wonder.
what will happen?
but knowing, somewhere out there is you.
doing the things you like to do.
living.
breathing.
ah.
and glad that I'm living and breathing too.
thats a wonderful thing, right there.

Consultancy Skills

Consultancy Skills Day 2 & 3

As the 2nd day approached we got more insights about consultancy. Consultancy is not only required in professional but also for personal life. How to help somebody with advice how to discover the true problem? However during our whole three session I had one doubt lingering on my head, we dealt with all aspects of client consultant relationship and simulated situations about client and a consultant would behave but we dealt very little on how a consultant will sell a proposal to a client? There are different style of consultancy depending on how consultant perceives and how he wants the relation with his clients. First category of consultants are those who thinks themselves as experts and offers advice to the line manager but don’t involve themselves with the decision making process and often don’t collaborate with line managers. As a result, the solutions provided are superficial and do not solve the problems on a long term. Second are those who become a ‘pair of hands’ to the line manager. This type of relation is sometimes difficult to maintain even though the consultant is entitled to provide solutions. This is not the win-win situation expected out of a consulting assignment because consultant in this method works as a “surrogate manager”. Third is the best practice followed by consultants i.e collaborative method in which both client and consultant are 50/50 relationship. This is a win-win relationship.
Depending on whether the problem exists or not consultant can categorize it in 3 ways:
•    The problem does not exist: The consultant should convey this to the client in a polite manner that actually there isn’t any problem.
•    The problem exists but cannot be solved: Here, the consultant should make the client understand that the problem cannot be solved and should provide a valid explanation for it.
•    The problem exists and can be solved: The consultant should solve the problem.
For a consultant rephrasing the problem and asking appropriate question is a vital task to get into the roots of the problem and then thinking about finding the possibility of weeding out the problem.
In a client meeting, the consultant should ask 3 things to the client:
•    Redefine the problem
•    How others are contributing to the problem
•    How he is contributing to the problem
Giving a genuine feedback to the client is another important activity. The consultant should be conscious enough on how to give the client feedback. The consultant should follow appreciative enquiry and then follow with the set positive and negative feedback in a tentative manner so as not to hurt client in the process. Should bring out specific instances were the client he felt might be helped.

Our most important take away: “Gain to a company should not be at the cost of loss to the society”,

On our last session:
Anil Sachdev mentioned for a consultant being authentic is most important and it means bringing forward the actual issues without any manipulation. It is important from the point of view that a consultant must make a client trust him. Being authentic builds a relationship, which will help the consultant understand the need and requirements of the client.
As committed by Anil Sir, we were to experience a live consulting case of a reputed company R, who wanted rebrand their company. We were briefed about the situation earlier. One of our colleagues represented the consultants end to the client. The consultant had to work with a line manager, who headed the change management department. The company operated in many diverse sectors and had a federal system of administration. As a result of office politics. And its often very difficult tobring in consensus in all line manager so that tasks can be started and implemented. Even in such a scenario it is important that the consultant be rooted to his/her values.
After that we had a role play session in which in teams of three, one person played the role of a consultant, another, the role of the client and the third person was the observer. We used the guest clients’ issue as our assignment and began the role-play.

In this entire session, we learnt that:
•    It is important to be yourself and be clear about who you are and what you stand for.
•    Give maximum attention to what the client wants while you are rooted in your values.
•    The best way for you to work with clients is to be seen as a person who goes out of way to help them and be genuine. Be careful in giving any short-term commitments that you cannot deliver.
•    No matter what the politics of the organization, never backbite anyone in the clients’ organization.
•    If you have made a mistake, have the courage to immediately own up and do not try to give excuses.
We are eager to take up live project and hopefully will do justice with it.

My First BLog

This is the my first blog and it goes like this. Many people often try things first hand, they wanna try it on the first go as it comes in the market and on the other hand there are people like me who after hearing about the product so much that it excites them then think about the prospects of purchasing the product. When the product is already at the end of its life cycle. Here I’m in Gurgoan  rather than calling it fortune 500 company head quarter I would like to call it ‘Bay Of Pigs’. Pigs and Companies are competing for the same space and it very funny to see. Many Interesting things have lined up starting with my promise of not smoking more than 1 cigarette today. Still pondering how to spend the whole day.


Nivea “re-civilize man” is creating a buzz in the market. All US black community is stunned by Nivea add, which directly by any means looked at as a derogatory remark. Cosmetic companies have long been practicing this kind of cajoled practices to get their product sold in the market. What makes me feel is ‘Are they being racist’? Or is the “black” market simply not big enough to invest money in “black” makeup? Really funny far South India, sale of fair and lovely is far too much than other product, which makes me feel. Are the people really themselves responsible for this racial attacks or is it the companies exploiting our frame of mind. People’s perception “White” is more attractive would ultimately lead us nowhere it’s a curse of Europe and we are doomed to suffer from this.
Recent L’Oreal  was up in the news because of the tagline “You're Worth it - if you're white”. Come face to face with another form of racial discrimination. The pressure to alter one’s features and body is endemic in every group and ethnic community. But the number of minorities getting plastic surgery is apparently on a steep rise. The totalizing and dismissive assumption that Asian women who elect such surgery obviously desire to look like Western has seemed too readily to essentialize Asians as degraded imitations and mimics”. Not simply matters of personal self-esteem, facial alterations can mark changes of social status, such as graduation, coming of age, or first full-time employment in western countries.