May, 2009

Software license fees and poor communities

No doubt that software piracy is unethical practice and should be illegal, but what about the poor who can not afford expensive software?

I am not talking here about some luxury items, but about software like MS windows and MS office which became a household item. Microsoft owns the world as my professor in college used to say and when people have no choice but to buy expensive software that they can not afford an under ground market will emerge.

I don’t think it is ethical either when some software giants dominate the market and then ask the people in developing countries to pay a premium price, this is a stupid approach that will never work and there will always be an underground market for pirated software.

The Impact of Unions on Business

I have never been a member of a union nor have I been member of the management team negotiating with union members. But recently, as a manager, I had few incidents with a group of employees in my company who formed un-official union group.

Each time I request them to do something, they would all band together and refuse to comply and they would only comply after intense negotiations with the management.

This behavior caused me to cancel few plans that I had in mind that would have benefited these employees and I told them openly that the time I spent negotiating with them took me away from working on some programs that would have benefited them.

I am not taking sides here, but in my short experience in dealing with union like groups I found out that management looks at unions demand as “an arm twisting” strategy which usually doesn’t work.

Business Model that based on LOVE

Few months ago I was working on a class project where I had to do field visit to some local companies where I currently live in Doha, Qatar. My task was to analyze the business model and the marketing strategy of the company.

Our team members picked a local hospital to study, we chose this hospital because it was a great success story.

In our meeting with the CEO of the hospital, we asked him the secret recipe behind the success of this hospital and what was his management philosophy, and he only replied with one word “LOVE”, his idea behind success it to show people love.

He said we want our patients to feel that we love them and we are here to serve them with great love. He also stressed the need to share this love among the working staff in the hospital that was his secret recipe for success. He was able to turn the business around and make it more profitable by showing people a lot of “LOVE”.

This was the first business model I have seen that was based on LOVE.

Keep the entrepreneurial minds in your company

Who wants a computer on every desktop? This was IBM reaction to Microsoft business model of having a computer on every desktop. This was way back in the early 70’s or so.
With the fierce competition we face today as the global scale, can companies afford not to listen?

In your company, you may have the guy who is consistently suggesting new ideas and he is often frown upon by his peers or even by the management. Some managers look at this type of employee as “trouble maker”, big mistake.

In my own job as manager, my over all productivity got have tripled have I had an innovative minds in my staff. I want my staff to stop me down the hallways and throw ideas at me, but that is not happening.

A famous quote by someone “Innovate or die”, it’s very true to our global economy today, each day pass on you where you don’t make that step ahead, millions of people around the world would have taken it and gotten a step a head of you.

Manage like basketball coach

If you ever watch the last 10 to 15 seconds on crucial basketball games, you would always see coaches making last second changes to their plans to win the game. Most of the time, the last seconds changes in the plan cause the team to win the game.

Last week, I had, with my team, to do round of presentations in front of panel of judges. Our project was a class project I was taking for the last 9 months. There were total of 12 teams. It was a two days event where we had to do a series of presentations and at each stage few times would be eliminated.

My team consisted of 3 members, 2 of them were doing the presentations and one (myself) was setting in the back watching their performance. I told my team members to think of this as a basketball game, I would watch them perform and as soon as they finish, we would discuss the weak parts and change our plan and re-think our approach for the next round.

This approach worked real well for us, and our team made it to the final round.

The lesson: as you manage, you may have to change your plans consistently, if an approach doesn’t work, don’t scrap the project, but re-think your strategy and change your approach, you will be surprised by how many new ideas will hit your mind as you move on.

Cloud Computing and the future of hardware

Reading so much about cloud computing these days get me thinking about the future of hardware. Which type of hardware will have sustained demand and which type will gradually become obsolete?

If I can make a small list, I would see it as follows:

1- Demand for large capacity hard drive will start to slow, since many applications will be hosted online
2- Demand for more memory will remain strong, since working in the cloud environment will require great deal of RAM
3- Demand for faster processor will always be strong although some of the processing will be done in the virtual cloud environment
4- Demand for flash drives and other storage devices will start to slow
5- Demand for network equipments will remain strong
6- Demand for printers and copiers will remain strong
7- Demand for larger screens will remain strong

One of the major advantages of cloud computing is to provide a secure data backup location, the demand of storage devices will start to slow. I don’t see any other type of hardware sales will be affected.

Don’t let team conflict ruin a good project

Being in a management position, I have seen first hand how conflict with in a group could cause substantial damages to rather a great project. At the beginning of most projects, the morals are usually high and everyone is filled with energy and enthusiasm.

But project progression lead to conflicts for the following reasons:

1-Approching deadlines
2-As project outcomes become more clear, individuals become more concerned about the
reward and the recognition
3-Mistakes that took place at early stages of the project were not corrected
4-Manager loses control as pressure mounts

These are some of the major points I have experienced in various projects, some of rather very good projects and ideas never saw the light because of ugly team conflict.

So my advice, keep the above mentioned points in check.

Is India the best place for low cost computing initiatives?

We heard about the $10 laptop that the Indian government is planning to launch,

Now, Airtel India is launching a cloud-based Net PC, the system will cost about $165 and it will consists of a 15 inch flat screen and plug and play system. It will be connected to the could environment via a backend Linux run server for storage and application.

Considering the addressable market size in India and the ever growing middle class population, the Indian market has all the ingredients to make such project a success.

Many users are still worried about the safety of their data in could computing environment, but in a growing economy where people are trying to get the best of what technology has to offer, I think this and other similar projects will succeed.

Is it fair pay or is it supply and demand?

In the region where I am currently working, part of the Middle East, there is a unique pay system that is tide to your nationality. Your pay rate will depend largely on your nationality and not only on your skills set or your educational background. When you question the rational behind this pay system they tell you “it is supply and demand.”

If you come from developed countries, they would offer you higher pay rate since they know you are used to a higher standards of living, on the other hand, if you come from developing countries, your pay rate would be much lower and again they would justify that as “we are giving you more than what you could earn in your country.”

I know in the US, it’s against the law to discriminate based on religion, race or origin. Is it fair for companies to offer lower pay for people who are willing to accept it although their qualifications would get them better paying if they were able to compete fairly?

Is technology isolating us?

E-mails, text messages, cell phones, and the internet as whole have established new norms for social interactions. During the last public holiday, I received few greeting texts messages, but no one picked up the phone or “god forbid” came to visit. Mass e-mailing campaigns are taking the place of tele-marketing calls, yes those tele-marketing calls are annoying but at least you hear a human voice. Online bookings for various services such as tickets and hotel reservations are slowly eliminating the need to call a live agent.

But there are some great advantages of this advancement in technology to promote better social interactions. It is because of this advancement in technology we can leave our offices armed with cell phones or black berries and meet with colleagues and friends during work hours or we can choose to work from home and spend more time with our families. This technology also allowed us to communicate with people around the world through video conferencing and on-line chat. So in some aspects, technology removed barriers and reduced the isolation between people and even cultures.

I still remember, as a student few years back, how costly was to call my parents who live half way around the world, I would call them once a month and for only few min, technology removed this social barrier and now it is possible to afford more calls per dollar than we did only few years ago.

So, we may feel that technology is really isolating people, but if you think about the barriers technology helped us overcome, we may find technology is actually brining people closer.