Egoless programming

What is egoless programming? This term was coined by Jenny Weinberg in 1971, in his book, The Psychology of Computer Programming. He talked about an environment with lots of peer reviews, as is present in the current environment. The basic idea of peer reviews sits on the fact that the probability of catching a bug rises when more people get to identify mistakes. There could be logic problems, syntax problems or algorithm problems. But to get this system to work, humans would have to go away with their egos.

However it may not always be possible. Not everyone can take a criticism so constructively. Some people just cannot digest when someone disparages their work. For the system of peer review to work, the following are ideas which must be there in everyone's head.

• To err is human – Accept any mistakes you may have made, instead of feeling bad about it.
• You are not your code – Don't take a code bug personally, it's the code whose fault is being identified, not yours
• No matter how much you know, someone would surely know more – Accept this fact and ask people before doing anything
• Don't rewrite code without consultation – Fixing code with a little consultation goes a long way than rewriting code. Don't reinvent the wheel
• Treat people who know less than you with respect – That's the only way you can gain respect.
• The only constant in this world is change – Keep learning, it might not be long before others get ahead of you.
• The true authority comes from knowledge, not position – Don't use the power of your position, you will automatically garner authority when you have good knowledge
• Critique code instead of people – Don't criticize people, don't let them take the criticism personally. Let this be a constructive game.

Taken from an article that appeared on builder.com

Knowledge Management

It is not easy to get people to stand up and say "Look what I did". There is always a sense of competitiveness, an one up manship, that takes us from the warm exteriors to the caliginous interiors. Its human to dissemble, to try to avoid sharing that will result in loss of power. But what to do to get people start sharing?

Show a personal ROI: a normal human being cannot be made to do social service if they do not see a personal benefit out of it. The best way to get ideas and proposals is to ask for it, and appreciate them. On one hand you get ideas for free or at a very low cost, and you also make them happy because they feel they have done something good, and get praised.

Convince the leaders: There are influencers in every organization. to get the custom of sharing into the mass, target these people and convince them of the benefits associated. Let them try it out, and feel that it is indeed beneficial. That will ensure a great amount of penetration.

Make it user friendly: Whatever systems are at place, make sure they are not something that the user has to do over and above the usual work. Make sharing easy. for instance, an innovative method of solving can be copied and pasted for others to see. It should not be that they have to follow complicated procedures.

Hire a knowledge coordinator: Identify a champion who can drive the cause. It will be helpful in getting the message across.

Create in person knowledge forums: Let the users interact online and share their information. This kind of knowledge forum goes a long way in maintaining tacit knowledge.

Tell stories: People should know of instances when sharing has actually been beneficial. They should have the urge to do it. KM experts agree that tacit knowledge is the most valuable type of knowledge. But getting at tacit knowledge is complex.

Ideas taken from http://www.cio.com/archive/120103/km.html

Creating a Positive Professional Image

HBS Working Knowledge: Career Effectiveness: Creating a Positive Professional Image

Adoption of Linux for email servers

The primary reasons for adopting Linux for email servers are

• Total cost of ownership
• Technical superiority, reliability and performance
• Hedge against vendor lock in

Leading email providers have a tight coupling of their proprietary
systems. The combination of MS Exchange, outlook, Active directory,
windows has given the user a lack of choice and flexibility in
choosing their options. This leaves users with a sense of being
locked-in.

Linux provides the features of reliability, robustness,
interoperability, and this is transparent to the end user.

A mature, consolidated market dominated by three products, Microsoft
Exchange, Lotus Notes/Domino and Novell Groupwise, representing an
estimated 80% - 95% market share, has left many organizations
complaining about a lack of alternatives.

Email vendors are rapidly adapting linux email and calendaring
products to the skill sets of today's administrators. Open source and
commercial products alike have begun developing GUI's that ease
administration and look much like familiar messaging products deployed
today.

Powerful, desktop-grade web mail clients that support important
productivity functions such as drag-and-drop, cut-and-paste and
drop-down menus are available today. Advanced email, calendaring and
collaborative functions are also increasingly available. This has
begun elevating web-based mail clients from an anytime, anywhere
secondary method of access to a primary means of access. At the same
time, the emergence of alternative browsers like Mozilla and Firefox
is increasing the requirement for cross-browser support. A rich
function, desktop grade web client that is browser-independent should
be a key criterion in the selection of any Linux email system.

What a demerged Reliance group means?

What a demerged Reliance group means?

How to compare mutual funds

How to compare mutual funds

Some mutual fund gyan

What is a mutual fund?
A mutual fund is a financial intermediary that allows a group of
investors to pool their money together with a predetermined investment
objective. The mutual fund will have a fund manager who is responsible
for investing the pooled money into specific securities (usually
stocks or bonds). When you invest in a mutual fund, you are buying
shares (or portions) of the mutual fund and become a shareholder of
the fund.

Mutual funds are one of the best investments ever created because they
are very cost efficient and very easy to invest in (you don't have to
figure out which stocks or bonds to buy).

By pooling money together in a mutual fund, investors can purchase
stocks or bonds with much lower trading costs than if they tried to do
it on their own. But the biggest advantage to mutual funds is
diversification.

Diversification be spreading of risk. However, I would not go into the
details of it.

Mutual funds can be debt funds, equity funds or balanced funds.

Debt funds invest exclusively in the debt market. So they have lower
risk than the equity funds, which invest in equity shares. A balanced
fund is a combination of both.

Money Market Funds
These funds are a great place to park your money. Whether you're
storing money for emergencies, saving for the short-term, or looking
for a place to store cash from the sale of an investment, money market
funds are a safe place to invest. These funds invest in short-term
debt instruments.

Growth Funds
These funds invest in stocks believed to be the fastest growing
companies in the market. Growth funds rarely provide dividend income
and are considered risky investments.

Value Funds
These funds invest in large and mid-sized companies that appear to be
overlooked or out of favor. These undervalued stocks tend to pay
dividends.

Large-Cap Funds
These funds invest in companies whose market value (# shares
outstanding X current market price) is large. There is no set limit
which can be called as a threshold. For instance, in its IPO (Franklin
Flexi Cap), Franklin Templeton defined large caps as companies with a
market capitalisation in excess of Rs 15 bn (Rs 1,500 crores). But
sundaram mutual fund defines large cap as those companies having
market cap of over Rs 18 bn.

Mid-Cap Funds
These funds invest in mid-sized companies whose market value is more
in the range of Rs 2 bn to Rs 15 bn

Small-Cap Funds
These funds invest in emerging companies whose market value, is less
than Rs 2 bn. These companies tend to use profits to grow rather than
pay dividends.

Sector Funds
Sector funds choose to invest in a particular industry or segment of
the market. Examples of sectors include automotive, technology,
baking, air transportation, biotechnology, health care and utilities.

Sector funds are considered less diversified than most mutual funds,
but they do offer diversification within a particular industry.

More to follow later..

Plagiarism or inspiration?

First it was Karishma Kapoor starrer "Karishma", and how its Zee TV's
Time bomb that has been identified to be plagiarized from those
telecast in the west.

But this time it's the twentieth century fox film corporation of
America, which found the newly launched serial 'Time Bomb' closely
resembling its tele-serial '24'. But is this copied or inspired?

The west has been a forerunner of copyright issues and the IPR. And
Indians have a legacy of getting inspired by them. There is hardly
anyone who doesn't know how Anu Malik fuses the western tunes to suit
them for the Indian audience. Our reverse engineering processes in
pharma had been giving them nightmares. However, 2005 brought in a
patent regime in the pharma sector, and prevented reverse engineering.

Why do we Indians don't recognize the value of one's worth?. You find
pirated books available at rock bottom prices. Go to any suburban
station of Mumbai, you find pirated CDs and DVDs being sold like
fruits. And the price? A measly Rs 20 for a song CD. Call it value for
money or piracy, this system works. There is rampant piracy in
software. Except for the corporate, individuals hardly install any
licensed software. We have the latest developments, but no one pays
for it.

Perhaps the factor is of high prices. You don't expect someone who has
just the capacity to spend Rs 15000 on a computer to shell out another
3500 on a windows XP. Add to that the cost of MS Office. Lower per
capita income and a desire to grow leads to such practices. But is
this ethical? I would say, its ok as long as you don't get caught, and
in India, this doesn't happen often.

Colas are passe, health drinks are in

In spite of being successful in its bubbly theme, pepsi wants a new market, targeting a niche segment. Pepsi would produce its health drink Gatorade at its Aurangabad plant. For this health drink segment, Pepsi has zeroed in on bulk water, Tropicana juices, Lipton ice tea and Gatorade to market its health platform in India.

According to Pepsi officials, Gatorade was formulated by researchers at the university of Florida in 1965 to help its football team, Gators, prevent dehydration when they played in the swamp-like heat. Pepsi claims that the drink has been formulated to replace fluids and electrolytes and provide energy to improve athletic performance. It "quenches deep body thirst", says its website www.gatorade.com.

It was launched last year and was sold along with the Tropicana distribution channel. But how many people would love to grow healthy with a drink that costs Rs 45 for a 500 ml bottle, is a matter of question. Personally, I would prefer fruit juice and Glucon D to such artificial health drinks.

Outsourcing engineering services

Outsourcing is the name of the game. Till now we used to have low end
jobs getting outsourced to cheap destinations like india, but the
NASSCOM visualizes that engineering services is the next big thing.

The current work done by the Indian vendors is about $ 500 million,
which means there is quite a lot of untapped market. The main kinds of
work handled include product design, process engineering, plant
operation and enterprise asset management.

There arent many people doing this kind of work, since it has
primarily been related to IT and ITES services. But this could change,
says the NASSCOM chairman Ramadorai. As per them, Germany, France, UK
and the US lead the outsourced engineering services industry.

Now we have something which China cant emulate, at least for the time
being. Colleges churning out engineers by lakhs can be productively
utilized for something good, and they will not have to made do with
low end jobs. This might also reduce the load on management
institutes!!

Petrol gets dearer!!

Another rise in petrol prices, kept stagnant since November 2004 has
brought the left again with their threatening to call a nationwide
strike. But that did not deter the UPA government to declare the hike.

Petrol gets Rs 2.50 dearer and diesel Rs 2. Internationally crude oil
has been touching new heights, and this volatility has taken it to $55
per barrel. Its widely accepted that we, end up paying a substantial
amount in the form of taxes. Now this increase would mean increase of
our petrol / diesel bill, taxi / auto fares, and all commodities that
travel by road to reach us. The hike in one commodity can affect us so
largely.

So what is the solution to this problem of depleting resources? If
taxes were reduced, the demand would surge to the extent that prices
would rise all the more. The only way that the problem can be solved
is to utilize other sources of energy like natural gas. It has been
quite effective in Delhi, and Mumbai is following suit. But getting
this change implemented on a pan india level needs quite a lot of
effort.

What is a book building exercise

What is a book building exercise?- The Economic Times

Made for India

"Made in India" is a ubiquitous phrase. What about "made for India"?
Nokia brought out its mobile especially suited for the Indian market,
the 1100. And this low cost basic model did work, it now holds a
market share of 25%. Interestingly, its white screen variant, costing
about Rs 250 more at Rs 3250 has just about 12% of the market. Can
there be a better example of price sensitivity?

But nokia has been exporting its models to India ever since it entered
India. India is the fifth largest market for the finnish giant with
sales of over Rs 100 billion, so its decision to invest in a factory
in India makes sense. Its investment of $50 million at the Chennai
plant demonstrates its proactivity.

Nokia is getting to be the next Xerox of the mobile world. It has
created a new category of products, the FMCDs (fast moving consumer
durables), because it could not be placed in consumer durables or
FMCGs. Currently it holds 60% of the market share.

However, nokia's India strategy has been an interesting one. Its
introduction of the low cost entry level models was well taken.
However, the higher color models were better developed and marketed by
its rivals Motorola, Samsung and LG. it delayed entering into
clamshell (flapping) models, and has only one till date.

The key feature of nokia that differentiates it from others is its
ease of use and its battery life. This makes the handsets slightly
more expensive than the comparable models of Motorola or Samsung. But
nokia was late to get into the CDMA segment, where LG and Samsung held
alliances with reliance infocomm.

Nokia is in the stars segment of the BCG matrix. Now it has stiff
competition with squeezing margins, thanks to falling prices. However,
the market will discard the weak players and reach the cash cow state,
and that is when nokia would actually earn the spoils of victory.

Provogue IPO

So provogue is finally out with its IPO. Lets look at the financials
of this company.

Debt Equity ratio is 0.77

PAT = Rs 7.2 crore
No. of equity shares = 1,61,97,608
EPS = Rs 4.47

Band price of IPO: Rs 130 to Rs 150

PE ratio is 29.08 – 33.56

Growth rate of the apparel market: 13%

PE Ratios of other companies in apparel market.
Madura Garments
Raymond

Company	Price	EPS	PE Ratio
Madura			19.70	(got from the site)
Arvind Mills	139	3.75	37.07
Raymond	351	9.82	35.74

They say that this PE ratio is too high for an expected growth rate of 13%. However, I find that Arvind Mills and Raymond have quite high PE ratios. But we need to accept that they had their IPOs quite some time back.

Should you invest in Provogue's IPO?

Should you invest in Provogue's IPO?

Thinkpad and Thinkvision

So lenovo is all set. Having acquired the PC division of IBM, lenovo's
latest strategy for India is to look for innovative products. Call it
product differentiation, or just the proverbial old wine in a new
bottle, the Chinese computer maker is serious about this market.

So what can the new products be, where IBM does not have a market? The
oldest computer manufacturer is omnipresent, be it hardware or
software. lenovo can make PCs particularly suited for some segments,
say students or novice users, with easy upgrade. With PCs having
reached many households, it has become another electronic gadget, at
least in the urban region. So why stick to the good old black or
white? Like apple, they could bring it out in vibrant colors to suit
the mood. Going ahead, they could also produce detachable cases, which
could be changed as desired.

The thinkpad caters to the niche market; they could follow the acer or
zenith model, of providing these mobile devices at a lower price.
Nothing wins in India as a low cost product. people are more willing
to try it. Now it has a new name, and lenovo could stand for low cost
high quality computers, straight from the IBM stable. This kind of
product positioning should work.

Rebranding products

The latest cosmetic surgery of some of the popular Indian brands
indicates just one thing: in today's competitive environment,
rejenuvate or die. No longer can a brand sustain itself just because
the older generations were vivid users.

The 97 year old Bank of baroda, for instance, has gone for a total
image makeover, with its sleek orange logo. Kinetic would be putting
up an image of metallic gray and silver color, and so has the FMCG
giant Dabur, giving a new look to its old banyan tree.

But why are the companies doing it? Why does Bajaj have to re-brand
itself? That's because a change in logo to a "Flying B" signifies a
change in perception (from the consumer point of view). People can
take the image makeover to be a change in strategy, to provide new and
improved products. A bajaj is no longer known as "hamara bajaj", it
inspires confidence. Otherwise how does one expect the generation X to
buy bikes from a company whose core competence lies in making
scooters, best used by unclejees?

Tata AIG and ONGC have also invested heavily in changing the brand
perception, hiring professionals for the designing process.

A globalized India, home to a number of mom and pop brands may spell
danger to them, unless they shed their archaic image and go for
glossy, sleek and hep designs. Perhaps we can expect HLL to do the
same, in course of time.

Marketing

In response to
http://www.coolavenues.com/placements/2005/maya_madhukar_1.php3

The farcical nature of B-school rankings and their impact is too
conspicuous to be unaware of. And talking about the scoring pattern of
the schools, there is an inherent confusion among aspirants regarding
what's best for them. Usually they end up looking at the salary
figures, as they are the most tangible benefits they can decipher of
extracting from a B-school.

Most of the aspirants have little or no work experience, and some of
the terminology is alien to them. They fail to appreciate the
importance of the value addition. Spending two years trying to do
something isn't unheard of, especially in India, where unemployment
levels are high. And this has lead to the shooting competition for
B-schools today.

The figures are impressive; we have something to boast about. Yes, the
world is a market place, and the most successful people are the ones
who can sell themselves the best. However substance one might have,
but it all comes down to being able to package oneself. And that's the
reason why B-schools have been advertising high figures, which may not
be too close to reality. This explains why Microsoft products are so
popular, they have less than 2500 technical people, and over 22000
marketing professionals!!

I think that instead of B-schools, we need courses in marketing in the
undergraduate levels itself. That might reduce the burden of so many
aspirants trying to make themselves eligible for the schools. The
marketing bible by Kotler has its own predicaments. All examples are
American, which one can hardly relate to, unless one has spent 10 odd
years in the Yankee lands. But we do read, and do so to put our GPAs
in place. How much of Kotler do we actually use in our real lives?
That's an open ended question. Let me get some answers from people who
have faced the industry much more than me.

3G rollout in India

In response to http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshowindia/1132114.cms

Technology development does not go down well in a price sensitive
market like India. A new technology brings with itself promoters, who
are usually the visionaries and the early adopters. However, the
majority are the late adopters, who would rather stick to the good old
thing, rather than shell out money for the snazzy gadget.

Pricing, per se is high when the technology is new. When mobile phones
were introduced in India, they were very expensive (Rs 10000 + to
begin with), so was the air time. With penetration and increased use,
the rates fall. The majority always waits for the rates to fall. And
the first mover advantage always prevails. A resistance to change, the
tendency to stick to the good old thing, which is usually cheaper, is
something the mass cant get away with.

3G, and its ramifications taking the world by its charm, will not go
down well with the masses. The first reason is the uphill price, and a
lack of utility associated with it. 3G may boast of successes in Hong
Kong, but Indian market is different. GSM has got a first mover
advantage. CDMA could penetrate the market, only because of the low
prices it offered. So it all comes down to prices. The average Indian
has a tendency to stick to the basic necessities, rather than opt for
any swanky features that come along with new technology. What else
explains that over 60% of the households in India still have black and
white TV sets?

Betting on rainfall!!

So its all about risk, and making money out of it. Lottery is already
a big time business. On the suburban stations of Mumbai you find these
people making brisk cash, with fools around trying their luck. The
government has even legalized this business, and so it has gone high
tech. computers adorn these little lottery shops, and they have
automated lotteries, meant to be "fair".

Looking at a larger perspective, isn't betting the same thing? Betting
for cricket or politics is one thing; the punters can actually change
the rules of the game. But betting for weather? Or are they a form of
weather derivatives? If they are, why not legalize them? The ET report
today states that some Rs 2500 crore has already been put in, with the
mm of rainfall being the prime indicator. The government could
actually fill its coffers by taxing this new form of business.

Scrapping the merit list

The maharshtra board has decided to make the merit list a historical
item for SSC / HSC. But is it really justified?

The merit list might be unhealthy, but scrapping this at the school
level will not prepare these kids for the more serious competition,
that comes from all sides. Be it higher studies, or job, competition
is the key everywhere. Thanks to our burgeoning populations, it has
only been rising. The number of candidates taking entrance
examinations like CAT has only been on the high. Now unless there is a
merit system, how do institutes decide on who is good and who is not?
How to determine the cut off?. Given the scarcity of resources
(educational instituets, jobs you name it), we cant help but accept
competition, and the merit list is only an indicator.

Ban on smoking!

The recent ban on films showing people smoking is surely a restriction
on expression. The film is a social media, and should show things that
are there in the society, and smoking is very much a part of our
lives, either actively or passively. If smoking is to be banned, so
should drinking or taking drugs. Or going ahead, ban all sorts of
social evils, like rape, corruption, theft and politics!! To me it
looks completely illogical.

FDI in retail

The current FDI in India stands abysmally low at $ 5.3 billion, representing less than 1% of the foreign trade worldwide. With the new UPA government initiative of opening up FDI in retail, it seems that we would have the likes of Wal-Mart and Carrefour in our cities. The retail market has grown substantially in the past 3 years, thanks to the high disposable income of the knowledge workers and call center executives. The growth rate is at 30%, which means immense scope for business. Currently the retail market in India is worth $ 180 billion, with a plethora of shops in the unorganized sector. A lot of international brands could actually open up exclusive showrooms once the FDI is allowed.

Shopping would never be the same again, though we don’t see us getting rid of the good old grocery stores! They will remain, after all, the personal touch matters too!!