Yahoo! Movie Reviews ...

It is my firm belief that movie studios are getting people to put fake reviews on Yahoo! Movies. Of course, Sony Studios owned up to posting false movie reviews on their advertisements.

1. The deviation between the score that reviews give a movie and the score Yahoo! users give the movie is always high
2. The reader score for movies never seems to drop below a B.
3. The first 15 user reviews are extraordinarily flowery ....

There needs to be some sort of feedback system that ensures that these false reviewers are barred from reviewing.

Indian Railways

I got an interesting email a couple of days ago, from the Indian Railways, announcing the introduction of a Frequent Traveller Program. It works in a similar manner as Frequent Flier programs that airlines run.

Once you enroll in the program, you will get points whenever you purchase a ticket and can use the points to get free tickets.

Most countries in the world subsidize freight rates by overpricing passenger prices. However, the Indian Railways prices their fares in a funny way - They overprice rail freight and subsidize passenger fares - Which is why I was able to travel from New Delhi to Chennai (1500 miles) for about 8 dollars, when I was at Pilani.

Consequently, the high freight rates push businesses to pre-dominantly use road transport which is causing a great deal of stress of the road network.

And as a result, the low cost airlines consider their competition to be the Railways, and not the full service airlines - Jet and Indian.

Airlines are never going to be able to have the level of reach that the railways do - Almost every village in India is within an hour of a railway station, but civil airports are still quite scarce in India. I believe that there is an excellent opportunity for an airline and the Railways to set up a "code sharing" arrangement wherein the railways is used as a feeder to the airline hubs.

Maybe there could be some sort of a transportation service from the railway station to the airport and give passengers one consolidated ticket. For example a person travelling from Sivakasi to Delhi would get a train ticket to Chennai, a connecting service from Egmore Railway Station to Meenambakkam Airport and then a flight ticket from there to Delhi Airport.

The airlines should then concentrate on huge volumes on hub to hub and the Railways can serve more as a feeder and build rural routes.

Gift Cards

Gift cards are an amazing source of revenue for retailers, especially as upto a third of them never get redeemed (a phenomenon called "breakage").

I wonder why eBay does not sell gift cards ? It should be a good source of revenue for them, and the good thing is that the recipient is not limited to one store.

The future of anti-discrimination lawsuits ....

No doubt, the US has one of the most litigious societies in the world. There have not been too many high-profile, dumb lawsuits in the last few weeks, but some of the choice ones from the past ...

• Dude sues McDonalds for making him fat and diseased
• Thief sues owner of house that he breaks into, because he gets hurt by something in there
• And many more here.

Hiring in the US is supposed to done with no importance given to the sex, religion, creed, race, national origin and age of the applicants. This is more or less followed, largely due to the enormous numbers of discrimination lawsuits that have been filed in the past. Companies and Universities have set up informal affirmative action practices in the fear of being sued.

This has the risk of leading to the forced hiring of sub-standard talent to meet an artificial criteria whose overall economic and social impact can be disputed.

In the future, I am waiting for a person to go to court and file a lawsuit saying "I am dumb, I am not intelligent and that is the reason I was not offered this job - I allege discrimination against the unintelligent by Company X"

And then, every company will have to hire a certain number of morons to avoid being sued !

Valentine's Day

Here is an interesting anecdote that I heard from the owner of the restaurant that we ate at yesterday ... (The owner did his bachelors at MIT, MBA from Wharton and then dropped out of the rat race at the age of 45, and started the restaurant, "Carvers Creek" about 11 years ago).

We got to talking about Valentine's Day and how incredibly commercialized it has become, and about how people's expectations of their spouses are sky-rocketing as well ....

He told us about this guy who proposed to his present-wife at a Snoopy's (which is a hot dog chain in Raleigh). She accepted, they got married and now, every Valentine's Day, he takes her there. For a total expense of $12 ! This guy is an absolute genius ! All he has to do is tell his wife, "Honey, this is so romantic, remember, this is where I proposed to you !"

He has gotten away with this for the last 12 years !

Ranbaxy's Website

Ranbaxy is the largest Pharmaceutical company in India, and is one of the Top 15 manufacturers of generic drugs in the world.

Yesterday, I was browsing through their website, www.ranbaxy.com and I was amazed to see how pathetic the site was !

It looks like the site a start-up company with a turnover of 1 crore would have, not a 5,210 crore company ...

If you don't miss a flight once in a while ...

... You are probably spending too much time at airports. So said a CEO to his sales team. And the next day, he and his family of six missed a flight to Japan :-)

Tamilmatrimony ...

Of course, we have all heard of how a popular US website, eharmony.com does not allow same-sex matching.

A friend of mine (Srikanth), alerted me to a subtle kind of selective-admission that he observed at tamilmatrimony.com.

For the uninitiated, Tamilmatrimony.com is one of the more popular marriage websites used by Tamilians around the world to find a mate.

In the Search section within the website, when a male is trying to find a female - The first selection criteria is "Marital Status" with the options being Any, Unmarried, Widow/Widower, Divorcee and Seperated.

The second criteria is "Have Children" where the options are "Does not matter", "No", "Yes. Living Together" and "Yes. Not living together"



The interesting thing is that when a user selects the Marital Status as being Single, the second criteria cannot be modified ! The website automatically assumes that an unmarried woman cannot have a child :-)

Dear Tamilmatrimony.com, when are you going to join the rest of us in the 21st Century ?

Exits - Numbers or Names ?

Firstly, some background for my non-US readers .... In the US, there are these huge highways called Interstates. Their name usually starts with an I. For example, the Interstate that passes through Raleigh is I-40. This highway goes all the way from the East Coast to California (does not reach the West Coast though). On these Interstates, there is an "exit" every one mile.

For example, if you are driving on I-40 and going westwards from Raleigh, you will pass Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro etc ... If you want to go into one of these cities, you will take an exit which takes you to a smaller road that leads into the city. If you want to get back on the highway, you take an "on-ramp" which is the reverse of the "exit ramp".

Now, these exits are numbered - The numbers increase as you move Eastwards or Northwards. And then it gets re-set once you pass a State border. For example, on I-40, Exit 1 is the first exit (in Asheville, NC) and then you have exits 284-303 in the Raleigh Area and then the final exit is near the beach.

Ok, now on to other stuff ....

Each exit usually has a number and a name. The exit I take to get to home is 295 - Gorman St. I realized something interesting today ... When Americans give directions, they usually refer to the name of the exit, while Indians refer to the exit number.

Have you guys had the same experience ? I wonder if this is a reflection of our races' relative comfort with words and numbers respectively ...

Soon to be CEO's

Being the CEO of a large multinational corporation ....

Being responsible for billions of dollars in revenue,
Influencing the lives of millions of people,
Creating a strategy and watching it filter through the organization,
Visiting dozens of countries every year,
Corporate jets and huge expense accounts,
Meeting political leaders, activists and other cool people ...

The latest issue of "Fortune" got me thinking about the joys of being a CEO. Of course, there are quite a few negatives to counter-balance this - Some prominent ones being the lack of personal time, Sarbanes-Oxley and huge amounts of accountability ....

In an article, the magazine profiled 12 up and coming executives that they predict will become CEO's of their own company or another very shortly ...

They were:

• David Calhoun, GE
• Ursula Burns, Xerox
• Greg Brown, Motorola
• Kevin Johnson, Microsoft
• Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart
• Brad Sheares, Merck
• Steve Burke, Comcast
• Mary Minnick, Coke
• Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs
• Ellen Kullman, DuPont
• Jeff Dewkes, Time Warner
• Bob McDonald, Procter & Gamble

Each of these executives have had a meteoric rise to the top - They have been responsible for great projects/ideas that turned the company or an important division of the company around. Each of them has challenged the norm and has gone beyond changing processes/business rules - They have challenged the company's philosophy - Which is what the CEO needs to do ...

However, the most interesting thing that I noticed was the fact that almost all of these 12 has overseas experience (Particulary in Asia) - Running an overseas business unit is fast becoming a pre-requisite to success in the corporate world. And I am referring to a position that is actually based overseas as against one that has the word "Global" in it !

Some examples ...

• David Calhoun - Ran GE Plastics Asia
• Eduardo Castro-Wright - Ran Wal-Mart Mexico
• Mary Minnick - Former head of Coke Asia
• Bob McDonald - Soon to run P&G Asia

Cheerleaders !

Sorry to my readers of the male variety for the somewhat misleading title !

Blogging from the Pittsburgh Airport now - At the gate next to mine, there was a large group of high school cheerleaders taking a Southwest flight to Chicago. And as can be expected from a group of 30 teenagers taking a flight, they were creating a major ruckus :-)

So, one of the SouthWest gate attendants made this announcement - "Please do not leave your High School cheerleaders unattended - Any unattended cheerleaders, especially those from Ridgeland High School will be ticketed and towed !"

Pilsner ...

I heard this interesting anecdote when I was in California last week ... We were quite a diverse group of people - There were folks from India (me !), US, Canada, UK, Spain, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Germany and Switzerland. We were all sitting at the hotel bar - We were going to grab a quick drink before going out for dinner.

When the bartender asked us what we wanted, all the Europeans ordered the Czech beer (which is supposed to be the original), Pilsner Urquell. I stuck to my Corona, which got a mild dose of ridicule from the European beer purists - But when my American colleague ordered a Bud Light, they really tore into him !!

"Horse piss", "Fermented Horse piss", "Horse piss without the horse", "Don't take the piss out of Budweiser, it needs all the flavor it can get" were some of the choice comments about the Budweiser. All in all, it was clear that nobody considered Corona or Budweiser as being worthy of the name "beer" !

And it was then that my Spanish colleague told us an anecdote about a World Beer Conference (in Munich), where the CEO's of all the top beer companies in the world were present. In the evening, they all went to a bar. Every CEO ordered his own company's brand - The Budweiser CEO ordered a Bud, the Miller CEO wanted a Miller Lite, and so on ....

Finally, it was the turn of the Pilsner CEO to order. And he declared - "I will have a Coke".

This caused gasps of surprise all around the room and everybody wanted to know why the Pilsner CEO would not drink Pilsner ...

And then he responded, "Seeing that none of you is having beer, I decided I would not either !". Classic Eastern European :-)

Movie Blink Prediction III

Movie: Firewall
Starring: Harrison Ford
Prediction: Flop

Super Bowl XL

Ohmigod, the Super Bowl has to be the most mediocre ever - Not one spectacular pass or breakthrough run ...

And the national anthem by Aaron Neville and Aretha Franklin - I just could not believe how badly the song (Which I love) was mangled !

I loved the Diet Pepsi ads with Puff Daddy and Jackie Chan, though I doubt if I will switch from Diet Coke.

Godaddy's ad was good and I must admit that I made a mistake last year when I thought that their superbowl XXXIX ad was a waste of money - They have really, really grown over the last 12 months.

Budweiser just has to get a new agency - Period. Their ads just don't compare with Miller's.

No more ads ...

I got rid of the ads ... 8$ in six months. Thats what I earned. Not really, because you have to earn $100 before the "evil corporation" Google will send you a check.

Screw them and their ugly ads.

Movie Blink Prediction II

Movie: Shaggy Dog
Starring: Tim Allen
Prediction: Flop

Indian Wage Increases

Indian wage levels are on the ascendant ... There is no doubt about that. When I graduated from Pilani, most of us would have been happy with a 20,000 Rupee job (This was in May 2002). This situation has definitely changed, with software companies starting at 35,000 and upwards - An interesting consequence of this is that Engineering companies have been forced to pay better as well !

And of course, as one gains experience, there is an exponential growth in wages. I have been trying to recruit a manager with about 6 years of experience and folks that apply are asking for a minimum of 12 lakhs pa !

Often, I have found myself worrying about this, and the seemingly obvious negative effect it would have on India's economy. However, this might not be true ....

Rising wages in India are getting a lot of press in the US, and it has even found it's way into the pages of Playboy ! A blurb article on that magazine declared that India's marketshare in the off-sourcing market would drop to 40% due to an anticipated 50% increase in wage levels by 2008.

Yesterday, during a sales call I was making, an executive at a company asked me how we were going to manage these increases and whether India would still be competitive in 5 years time. A bulb suddenly went off in my head - Productivity !

Cost is only one piece of the picture. If you can increase productivity, increases in cost (to an extent) can be absorbed. And I strongly feel (Though I have no documentary evidence), that Indian productivity has increased in the last few years due to ...

• Better internet connectivity
• Improved telecom
• Better training
• Education system becoming more job-oriented
• Better management techniques
• Software re-use
• Move from "service" to "product"

That is the way for India to retain competitive advantages - By increasing productivity ...

However, let us contrast the situation with China for a second ... China's growth has been predominantly driven by manufacturing. Wage levels have not appreciated by much in that country due to the large worker pool and artificially controlled labor pools/salaries.

However, if these above factors are removed, China would be under significant risk of losing competitive advantage, because in order to increase productivity in manufacturing, one of the most effective methods would be "automation" - Which would negate the reason for off-shoring to China in the first place !

I realize that this is a very superficial analysis, but then, I am not an economist !! However, I certainly feel a lot better about the future of India vs. China ...

Movie Blink Prediction: Pink Panther

I loved the book "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. He talks about how most human decisions are made in the blink of an eye. He encourages people to rely on their instinct - Most people are taught to distrust their instincts and perform a rational thought process before any action.

Unfortunately, in most cases, the decision has already been made and the "rational process" works to extract facts selectively to prove the argument !

Gladwell believes that there are some folks that can through sheer instinct, predict the success or failure of ventures.

I believe that I might have such a talent with movies. I believe that I can tell if a movie will be a hit, just by looking at the trailer. So, I am going to perform an online experiment of sorts and "predict" the success of various movies .....

First movie, Pink Panther.
Starring: Steve Martin
Verdict: Flop

The blog trail ...

Whenever a person is considered by either by the Democrats or Republicans as a candidate for office of any sort, they are subject to all sorts of scrutiny - Their entire personal history is analyzed - Convictions/misdemeanours, drug use (Clinton/Bush), opinion of friends (John Kerry - Swift Boat veterans), etc ... And of course nothing is more scrutinized than the judicial history and expressed opinions of Supreme Court nominees.

Today, it is still difficult to collect information about opinions, writings and activities from thirty years ago. However, when it comes to our generation's time to inhabit the halls of power, the quantity of information that is readily accessible is going to be much higher - Personal blogs, message boards, online comments and articles.

More opportunity for the detractors of the future to bring up the issue of "flip-flopping" - Which in most cases might be the gradual maturing of people's opinions and the consequent change in stands taken on issues, as expressed in online commentage. Comments made online today, could easily be taken out of context and twisted beyond recognition to prove a point.

And it might not just be an issue for political aspirants -It maybe a problem for every job-seeker in the world !

Yahoo Mail Beta

I have been a loyal Yahoo Mail user for the last nine years and I was pleased to be part of Yahoo Mail's test sample for their new beta version of Yahoo Mail.

I have been using it for the last few weeks and it simply blows me away ! The interface is designed to resemble Outlook, with a preview pane, the ability to drag and drop emails onto folders and the right click commands on several parts of the interface.

Here is a screenshot ...


The interface is several light years ahead of GMail. It is striking to me how many "me-too" products Google has developed, most of which are a distant second in their respective markets - Mail, directions, messenger etc ... However, that's another separate topic.

A suggestion I gave the Yahoo guys is to add the ability to compose emails "offline". This is one of the things I love about Outlook - The ability to work offline and write emails which are saved and sent when you connect to the internet.

I wonder if Yahoo could develop a downloadable exe file that would save offline messages and run the local scripts necessary .... This would be an extremely useful addition and would be another step in the process of bridging the gap between web-based mail services and email clients such as Outlook.

Spotlight on India ...

I flew American Airlines to California (as always). And while I was flipping through their inflight magazine (American Way), I read with extreme interest the CEO's letter to travellers.

The topic of the entire one page letter was American's recently launched service between Chicago's O'Hare and Delhi's Indira Gandhi ! It is the first time American is flying into India, although PanAm (now defunct) used to fly into Mumbai - In fact the flight number was PanAm 1 !

Apparently, the Indian employees at American helped the airline design the menu and choose the entertainment (Hindi movies !).

An interesting thing that I noticed was the fact that they have tied up with Air Sahara to offer connections within India. It is going to be interesting to see what Jet Air (which just purchased Sahara) is going to do about this arrangement, considering that they have a pre-existing code share/frequent flier miles sharing arrangement with Northwest !

The flight is going to be 7,500 miles and will fly over the North Pole or Russia, depending on the season. 14 hours to India. I think this might be the airline I fly to India, on my next trip ...