September 2006 Archives

If a 3 year old can buy something on ebay, I'm sure the vast majority of humankind can do so as well.. The BBC has this story of a 3 year old called Jack Neal in the UK who bought a Barbie pink Figaro. This is going to be my next goal when designing something. "Playskool it" - Make/build things and services so that a 3 year old can understand and use it.

I read this post by Adam Bosworth on his blog, and I find it refreshing and MECE (Mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) and appropriately sloppy :-). The Takeaways are

1. Simple and Sloppy wins over Exhaustive and Formal
2. Information overload is here to stay - Judgement and Reputation will form the basis of the solution to this problem

How do you take these principles to Management Consulting?

1. No Prince2 / PMI inspired formal engagement process
2. Plan outcomes and work back through outputs and still further back to efforts
3. Get just enough information to get to the next effort/output
4. Quick and dirty processes: No Memos or email please; Call or Skype the right guy/girl, then walk to the source

Kudos to the Pope Benedict XVI, for taking the time to analyse Christianity as thoroughly as he did. I wonder if some other Islamic scholars would also take the time out to analyse Islam to come up with their own views in a similar format. His speech as transcribed by the BBC is here.. Do read it before making your own judgement. My own view is this: The Pope in his speech is trying to get people to "reason about religion" and not just "have blind faith", and wants to strongly anchor theology as a living subject constantly questioning religion, allowing fresh insights and allowing the religion itself to evolve and incorporate modern elements into it. The speech is almost entirely about Christianity, and at no point in time belittles Islam, in fact the Pope actually praises Islam in this sentence (which is him actually giving his meaning about Islamic thought)

But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent.

His Big Mistake was in the choice of an example to illustrate his point that violence is bad. He could have chosen from a multitude of examples even on how spreading Christianity through violence was wrong (as was the norm in the 13th - 15th centuries) or even refrained from using any example at all. I guess he's learning to be the Pope. But He has guts, he should be prove to be a great Pope. Give him some time!

Seth Godin points us to this 17th Century monk, who apparently understands modern marketing.. Or rather, do we understand 17th century marketing properly? The point is: Ideas endure.. they get repackaged with nice acronyms or brandable words, but they're just the same over and over. But if the new version gets you to think or better still ACT... WOW.. Here's 17th Century marketing as seen by Baltasar Gracián y Morales:

"Know how to sell your wares, Intrinsic quality isn't enough. Not everyone bites at substance or looks for inner value. People like to follow the crowd; they go someplace because they see other people do so. It takes much skill to explain something's value. You can use praise, for praise arouses desire. At other times you can give things a good name (but be sure to flee from affectation). Another trick is to offer something only to those in the know, for everyone believes himself an expert, and the person who isn't will want to be one. Never praise things for being easy or common: you'll make them seem vulgar and facile. Everybody goes for something unique. Uniqueness appeals both to the taste and to the intellect."

Is it just me, or is it that users of the iTunes Netherlands store cannot purchase movies (yet)? Perhaps it's this reason: Movies in the US are rated by the MPAA as U, or R or PG or whatever.Movies in the Netherlands are rated by the Kijkwijzer.Apple needs to make sure that all these different rating agencies are satisfied in an age of digital downloads. Guess we'll have to wait a while to get the goodies in the Netherlands! One more thing: It would be cool to be able to burn the downloaded movie onto a DVD that can be played on all DVD players. It's not too much to ask for is it?

I just love that line in this article in CNN Money. hahaha India's capital markets are still shallow, but there's money flowing in, so while there is a chance of manipulation, that chance goes down each day. Admittedly, the author is a lover of democracy and feels that it will make up for deficiencies in execution on the part of India vis-a-vis China, but being an Indian, I just love the fact that companies look to India now as the place to invest. 4 great reasons:

1. It's still cheap to buy out companies or grow organically.
2. You have property rights, and can own your own business (in most sectors now)
3. It's got a massive market of "brand-loyal" customers - most of them in the middle class.
4. There's price parity in what the consumer will pay between India and the West.

Think about that.. again.