Daily Archive for October 15th, 2003

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Gagan Kaul
on October 15, 2003
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A public toilet with TV and newspapers!

Chalomumbai.com reports that the luxury of television sets inside washrooms is not restricted to five-star hotels alone. A public pay-and-use toilet in Govandi is now offering residents a chance to watch their favourite programmes and also read the morning newspaper while waiting their turn to answer nature’s call.

The toilet, managed by Nav Disha Samajit Shaikshanik Sanstha, caters to about 1,000 residents of Datta Nagar, Buddha Nagar, Gautam Nagar and Kamgar Vasahat. It is also frequented by taxi drivers and truckers.

As many as 250 families from the area are members of the public toilet and have monthly passes.

This seems like a really healthy change in the pathetic state of public restrooms. Reminds me of the Tom Peter’s repeatedly stressed paradigms about public service and profitability from his book, “In Search of Excellence”. A small effort leading to a customer (read consumer) centric endeavour is a sureshot winner any day.

More such projects should come up in nearly all the suburbs of the city. And its a sure way to improve the society and make money at the same time, which I am sure no one would mind given the benefits.

Shine on Mumbai :-).

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Gagan Kaul
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Your face can be your Password

The Economic Times reports that there is a high-tech solution that could render obsolete your growing jumble of credit card PINs and computer passwords — and it’s as plain as the nose on your face or fingerprint.

The concept is based on biometrics — a branch of technology that identifies individuals based on biological traits. Already, a host of firms including Minnesota-based Identix and Paris-based Schlumberger Smart Cards and Terminals built businesses on military and government contracts. But with costs of raw material, computer chips and scanners plummeting, the technology is moving to the high street.

The USP of this whole biometrics business is the price of the chip and doing away with remembering PIN ids et al. The chip unit costs in the past year are believed to have fallen from £40 ($66.79) to four pounds. This drop in price is expected to attract the interest of cost-conscious consumers and businesses, building the biometrics market into a $4 billion segment by 2007, up from $900 million in 2002, according to recent industry studies.

According to a recent study by Aberdeen Group, large organisations spend as much as $350 per employee annually on computer password management as employees invariably ring the IT “help” crew asking them to reset one of the myriad password codes needed to access the corporate computer network.

IIT Bombay currently uses smart cards for login access at the institute computer centre. Says a student, “As I can login with my smart card on a terminal, leave my work in a GUI running…. Just take out the smart card… go do whatever work I want to do and come back and insert the smart card back again in any comp having those smart card slots, and Voila!! my whole desktop magically reappears… I don’t even need to put my password or go through any such login procedures…”

Personally, I find the concept of moving from any terminal to any otherterminal in CC, without having to go through the hassle of savingwork, logout, go to other comp, login, open the work again.

The utility of a single smart card is such an effort-saving process on the part of the customer or user who has to remember a lot of passwords or carry such stuff as smart cards. However, this new application obviates the need for even the smart cards, which till now proved a lot better than having to remember passwords.

So now, imagine a quick scan of your iris, fingerprint or entire face to authorise a credit card transaction, speed your way through customs at the airport or log you onto your computer.

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Gagan Kaul
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MIT’s OpenCourseWare Project

MIT has come up with a very commendable effort; a worldwide applauded project, called the OpenCourseWare Project.

MIT OCW is a publication of the MIT course materials, the best part of which is that the material is freely accessible and does not require any registration. Its a great effort to further the education process by opening up the courseware for the whole world to see. I hope that a lot of Indian universities take cue from this, learn from the method of instruction and teaching at MIT and improve their own educational modus operandi. I am just waiting to see when IIT comes up with the same idea, and I am so sure that the IIT course curriculum would be a toughie for the world to match up with.

Check out the site at MIT OCW.

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Gagan Kaul
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Entrepreneurial Checklist

Most of the start-ups that are based on a product or a concept, start with much aplomb and energy. But as the business process unfolds, the myraid problems and hindrances, facing realistic everyday issues become too much of an unseen and unwanted stress for the entrepreneur. To give potential entrepreneurs an idea of the sort of questions they must face when entering business for themselves, the StartupJournal enlists a checklist. Its a very EXTENSIVE list, but interesting at the same time.

I am sure its going to be a handy reference for all the budding entrepreneurs out there. Shine on !!

The list can be accessed at Startup Checklist.

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Gagan Kaul
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Speech Writing

“The higher you rise in the corporate ranks, the more you’re expected to speak on public occasions, and the shorter the preparation time often is. The temptation is to wing it or, if you do prepare something, not to rehearse but to rely on your native ability and good luck to see you through. The sad truth is that when you wing it, the performance is rarely as good in the audience’s memory as it is in the speaker’s. The reason is that your heightened adrenaline literally makes you feel better–more energy, more enthusiasm, more acuity–and so you rate your own performance better.”

HBS Working Knowledge begins thus with the article from the book Blank Page to First Draft in 15 Minutes: The Most Effective Shortcut to Preparing a Speech or Presentation, by Phillip Khan-Pami, a coach and competition-winning speaker himself.

Khan-Pami suggests beginning by identifying your core message:

When you have completed your presentation or speech, what will people remember? What will they take away with them, to apply and change their ways, and one day perhaps even thank you for? What one sentence will correctly sum up your entire presentation? That’s your Core Message.

Make no mistake: Your listeners will take away a core message of sorts. They will carry away an impression of what you were saying. It may be complimentary, it may be less so. It may be about you and your delivery, or it may be about your content. If you want them to receive and carry away the right message—your Core Message—you must first identify what you believe it to be and write it down.

The article provides a number of formats to structure a speech:

  • PREP, which stands for Position—Reason—Example—Position: The idea is that you state your claim (which should sound a lot like your core message) and then give your reasons for it. Follow that with a compelling example, and close by restating your position.

  • Past—Present—Future, which takes the storyline of your idea and presents it in chronological form.

  • Problem—Cause—Solution. This structure works well for business arguments and situations. You state the problem—declining sales, say—and then analyze the cause. You follow the analysis with your recommendations for a solution.

  • AIDA, which stands for Attention—Interest—Desire—Action, works best when you’re trying to persuade someone of something. First you grab their attention with a statistic or anecdote or claim that is sufficiently surprising to take your audience away from its concerns to yours. Then you raise the audience’s interest by stating the benefits of the position you’re advocating.

  • Tellx3, which, despite its trendy appearance, is actually the most conventional of structures. It stands for “Tell ‘em what you’re going to say, say it, tell ‘ em what you said.”

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    Gagan Kaul
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    The Red Lobster Story

    There are some good marketing lessons to be taken from the news about the Red Lobster executive who was fired for initiating an all-you-can-eat special.

    Analysts say where Red Lobster, which is operated by Darden Restaurants Inc., went wrong wasn’t in launching the promotion, but in depending on it too heavily. The trick in such situations is to make the rest of the menu — or the rest of your product line — appealing enough so the promotion draws people in, but persuades them to choose something else, not the special.

    Red Lobster also thought it would cover the downside by charging a higher price for the special. But that just prompted people to eat even more.

    In addition to all of this, the seafood market shifted and crab prices went up.

    So don’t get baked like Red Lobster. Be smart with your marketing ideas.

    Taken from StartupJournal | Small Business Report.