Will Social Media kill the Rating Agencies

Rating agencies definition in Wikipedia
A credit rating agency (CRA) is a company that assigns credit ratings for issuers of certain types of debt obligations as well as the debt instruments themselves. In some cases, the services of the underlying debt are also given ratings.Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agency
With the advent of social media and a digitally connected world at almost real time credit rating agencies are under pressure to change they work . Will there come a time when rating agencies will have  a twitter feed on companies as events impact the instruments that they rate, With the convergence of Big Data and the Financial World this seems to be the reality. 
But it appears that these real time rating of financial instruments will emanate from new innovative and agile startups and not from the old established rating agencies.
The rating agencies have not been efficient in the past decade in helping investors in managing their risk  since the markets move faster then the rating agencies ability to   issue guidance in real time. 
OWS (occupy wall street ) was the first death knell to the financial industry, yes OWS was quelled, but its new avatar using social media is crowd-sourcing funds by start-ups also known by some as crowd-funding is threatening established VC fund managers. The day is not fare away when Wall Street which is the bastion of funding by companies is sidelined by social media enabled fund collection innovations, which will lower the cost of capital significantly. . 

Social Media and Crowd funding will make rating agencies obsolete!
How do your rate the turbans in this crowd ! 

Rating agencies will be the first to go, since crowd funding need no rating agency or credit rating symbols. IF you have a business plan that needs funding get your followers online and they will open their purse strings, Social media funding may get tougher once the regulator steps in cheered by the established wall street entities and also the need for governance and risk management. . 
Social Media will kill the rating agencies by the end of the decade and we will have real time risk management tools which will emanate from convergence of Big Data and Risk management tools.. 
Please do share your thoughts about the imminent departure of rating agencies from Wall Street. 

Cloud Computing and Business School Academics

Cloud Computing has been changing the global business landscape and the Academics in Business Schools find it a challenge to keep pace.
Today most of the successful businesses are in the cloud, be it Amazon, Facebook, Twitter , Google, blogs, Rackspace,  the list is endless. These companies have created more wealth in less then a decade compared to the stalwarts in the old economy.
Mobility strategy changes every quarter and yesterday's icons have to jump-start all over with a leap of   faith that their solutions will be adopted by the consumer.
Social media has flattened the world and the distances have just shrunk, solutions like YouTube has changed the way we can learn, Wikipedia has become the world's largest and best knowledge portal.
The challenge for Business School academia is how to prepare their students in this fast changing world .
The students have access to knowledge in their finger tips which challenges their professor  and yesterdays business paradigms are no longer valid in today's digital economy.

Academia will be challenged by the pace of  Cloud Computing Economics!

A long time ago HBR case studies used to be the staple diet, but today the world is moving faster and Business schools offer their students real case studies of business which are failing or growing, most of them using cloud as the vehicle.
In the new digital economy the business school courses will need to be made shorter with more digital teaching, mastering topics like Big Data, Analytics, Cloud Computing Economics, Algorithmic trading strategy , digital business strategy, social media  plus more digital economy concepts for business is  the need of the hour.
As I look around I see many business schools losing the plot and falling on the wayside.
cloud computing is truly the catalyst of the Digital revolution in Business but in a time frame of weeks rather then decades.
We need to rethink the Business School Academics and  start working on curriculum that can keep pace with economic changes brought about by the new digital economy.
Business schools need to ride the clouds objectively in grooming future digital business leaders in their business schools who will add value to the global economy.

SME in India may not be ready for the Cloud

The SME sector in India has been identified as the sector that is ready to adopt cloud computing and also benefit the most because its IT Deployment is limited today.
But as one engages with the SME sector we find its leaders are ignorant about IT Management other then using a financial software on a PC the trust factor is abysmally low.
The SME is mostly owner run in India and privately held and has been mainly built by entrepreners with an healthy knowledge and specific niche skills.

It is a long road for Indian SME to adopt Cloud Computing.
Photo Credit : Amitav Thamba

The bankers, lenders and government have been spending years to list these SME companies with limited success, I recollect trying to list SME companies in 1991 which was disastrous in the OTC Exchange of India, it is the same fate of the two new SME exchanges started by NSE and BSE the leading stock exchanges of India.
To get the SME sector to speed it is important to allow them to deploy traditional onsite computing to demonstrate the benefits and build their trust. The SME sector is about 5 years behind schedule in adopting information technology  and about 10 years behind in adopting cloud computing.
Companies like Mindcraft a Mumbai based IT services company (mindcraft.in) in India are adding value to the SME sector by providing them C level expertise for their IT deployment and sustenance. This is the first step in getting SME's in India to adopt computing, once they enjoy the benefits of computing only then they will be ready for cloud computing.
Mindcraft offers SME the same quality and responsiveness they offer corporate customers they support like large banks and financial institutions. They also add a strong IT leadership team and ITIL compliant IT support with quality and agility.
More companies need to start taking the SME to the first baby steps into computing into India to benefit the Indian economy and make an impact on the GDP of India.
This blogger welcome your thoughts and experiences with information technology as SME in India or as a IT service provider to the SME Sector.

The Next Gold Rush in Financial Markets will be driven by Big Data

The next gold rush in Financial Markets will be driven by Big Data, the key driver for this is the low cost to create, manage, mine and deploy big data using the pay as you use  solutions in the cloud.

Cloud computing has democratized Big Data usage and analytics, the differentiator for the winners will be the traders who use Big Data Analytics and Algorithmic trading engines to churn profits from the markets.

All markets work on information whether it is from government, corporate, industry, social media, economical trends, sales figures, people, historical statistics and future projections and more.

All this data both structured and unstructured will have to be brought together under one umbrella and made to work in tandem to provide analytics which can be piped into an algorithmic  engine which in turn will create the upside in the markets for the bold investors who get this technology usage right.

Big Data will allow traders to harness the energy in information to create value in the financial markets.

Here is a scenario on how could this happen,  let us consider the US Bond market trader who wants to use this combination of big data analytics and an algorithmic engine , wall street data over the years, data on government spending, SEC guidelines, the Federals positions, the various bond gurus prophesies, the news both digital and printed, plus the market prices and the historic data, this list is not complete and there are more pieces in this big puzzle including the various trading strategies that will need to be adopted.

The trader will have an almost infinite information set which needs to be mined with the right tools and analyzed to get the winning formula; we will need some of the best mathematicians and statisticians in our team to prioritize and map this data into the trading strategy and predicted outcome.

The trader will need Big Data to hold the humongous volume of structured and unstructured data and  his analysts will need the ability to toss and turn the data . The trader will need a team to help managing this jumbo canister of digital data.

There will be a need for a  team to scrub and clean this data before it can be used by the customized tools for analysing this data. The team has to be adept at building and deploying tools to clean and scrub data in real time.

There will be static data streams and real time data streams which have to be merged by the big data algorithms to give the trader an useful output to feed the algorithmic trading engine which will connect into the digital bonds market.

Remember all this activity of data  production in the real market will happen in nano seconds or less in a fast moving and frenetic digital market and will be more complex in the equity and commodity markets which are like quicksilver.

If the trader decided on hedging, cross border correlation with other markets and also within the domestic markets the data flows and information engines become more complex but the upside for the winner will be take it all.

How do we put a team together to make this happen, in  my mind it will be a global project,

Big data and algo engines are best today in the USA so we will use the computing infrastructure in that country and also work in the markets in the USA .

Asia  could be the ideal location for data cleaning and preparation, it has a competitive and educated work force which have shown that it can deliver, India could be a leader in this space given its Y2k migration track record. But other countries like China, Korea are also excellent sources.

The algorithmic engines complemented with  mathematics and statistical engines may come from the team in Eastern Europe who have wonderful teams who have made significant contributions in this area.

India could provide the expertise in building the solutions need for data analytics and algo trading engines and other related technology engineering.
The funding for this gold rush would not be from the European nobility but from ordinary citizens who believe in the power of Big Data and its positive outcome.

Once we have the ingredients together and we will need this team of Americans, Asians, Europeans to be connected virtually to make our gold mining expedition a reality and to take on the global markets.

What will be the time needed for such a project, need not be more than three months if we use cloud computing project management methodology. We can start small and keep improving our big data analytical engine and our algo trading engine as we see an upside in our technology.

The downside could be we lose our capital if this does not work, but we have a small investment to make on cloud computing, but with the right team there will be no looking back.

The biggest worry in this strategy is whether the global exchanges will be able to handle the tsunami created by the marriage of big data analytics and algo trading. The barrier  for this project  could be the exchanges and regulators  who may play spoil sport and close this window of opportunity even before the party starts.

The early bird catches the worm, so get your tools sharpened, put your tools together and start your Gold Mining expedition, if you are lucky you may even strike platinum. Markets are all about slices of opportunities like a surfer finding the perfect wave, so get your boards out and ride the waves of this new opportunity. Nerds can change the global markets and Big Data will the technology engine that they can harness  to make the difference



This Post appeared as an article in Information Wee, here is the link .
http://www.informationweek.in/software/13-03-18/the_next_gold_rush_in_financial_markets_will_be_driven_by_big_data.aspx

The Papal Office and Social Media

His Holiness the  Pope issued his first tweet: "HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM," which translates to: "We have Pope Francis.". This was immediately retweeted by the followers all over the world into multiple languages with the same meaning, more then 25,000 retweets in 10 minutes.

The twitter handle "pontifex" not only means pope in Latin, but traces its roots back to Roman times and also means bridge builder. His holiness has to reach 1.2 billion Catholics across the world and most of them do not speak or understand Latin. 

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/new-popes-first-tweet-habemus-papam-franciscum-1C885235

The Vatican needs to tap the social media vehicle for getting His Holiness message across to Catholics across the world. As the believers look for answers and solutions from the Vatican City as the religion stands on its crossroads and needs a new impetus and direction.

It is a momentous occasion a first Latin American Pope and also the first Pope from the Jesuits.
I had the fortune of spending my formative years in a school administered by Jesuits and I have great admiration for the value and character that they have imbibed in me  which I retain till today.
They were great administrators and also managed to  instill the universal values of the Roman Catholic Church and the Bible to even to people who were not Christians into their everyday life.

Coming back to His Holiness twitter alone will not be enough to address the believers, there is a great need for the Vatican to publish a blog of all the Pope's mass, sermons and other official pronouncements so that Catholics across the world can follow their spiritual leader in real time.
This will be a departure from the traditional snail mail of passing down from the Pope to the Bishop and finally to the Padre conducting the mass to the followers.

The Catholic Church leadership has a great opportunity to use the social media like You Tube, Blogger, Facebook and even if required Linkedin and other business social  sites to bring the faithful together under the Catholic umbrella globally.
It is time for the Catholic Church to start its Digital Crusade to keep its faith alive. 

Women as the Goddess

It is rather a dichotomy that millions worship Women as a Goddess and in the same breadth discount them socially and economically. 

Today being women's day we need to remember  Women as the Goddess who is worshiped by many cultures around the globe.

In India it is Devi worship, the mother goddess, the protector, the destroyer, the enlightened one  , the caring mother, the benevolent goddess, the one who is one with nature, her roles and representations are multitude,

The Buddhists have Tara and the Jainism its Padmavathi as their goddesses.

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In Peru is Pachamama the mother goddess the one  who is one with nature, transformed into her various avatars into Catholic deities when Spain conquered Peru and the whole population was converted into Catholics. But Pachamama still reigns supreme in the minds of the people of Andes. 

The Greeks had their mother goddess Rhea, who was honored and worshiped with fervor.

The Romans dedicated Ceres as a constellation in the sky in honor of their mother goddess.

The Europeans in various regions have their own mother goddess with several names.

The official mother goddess of the Roman Catholic Church is the Virgin Mary who grants favors for the devout and the church conducts Novena's every week to pray for deliverance in many parts of the world.  

Then there are the real goddesses those who have touched our lives, the mother who brought us into the world, the sisters who taught you to be kind and patient, the teachers in school who taught you how to tie your laces and grammar with tonnes of love and affection and finally our wives, daughters, granddaughters  grandmothers and many more women in our life at work , society and elsewhere. 

Without Women we would not be around, so pause a moment and salute the ancients who embodied Women as the Goddess to celebrate her existence, may we learn from the wisdom of our ancestors and bring back Women to their rightful role in our society and culture. 

 

Wiki Reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_goddess

Oracle CloudWorld 2013

Oracle CloudWorld is coming to your city soon, here is the schedule

Sydney, Australia	March 13	Register Now
Mumbai, India	April 2	Register Now
New York City, United States	April 2	Register Now
Singapore, Singapore	April 4	Register Now
Tokyo, Japan	April 9	詳しくはこちら
Frankfurt, Germany	Coming Soon	Notify me when registration opens
London, England	Coming Soon	Notify me when registration opens
Mexico City, Mexico	May 7 http://www.oracle.com/events/global/en/cloudworld/register/index.html

I wonder if it is too late for Oracle to get into the cloud computing bandwagon ?
Oracle suffers from its database centered marketing, which is under threat with Big Data solutions.
Oracle has to play catch up on Big Data now though it still retains its grip on its citadels in the Banking and Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) sector
Oracle has some of the best business applications in the world either their own or acquired, Oracle has  done a fair job of integrating the various acquisitions into a single platform. But its complacency on not willing  launch them as SAAS services has cost them dearly in getting their rightful place in the cloud computing world.
Even Oracle's foray into the operating system world with acquisition of SUN has been lukewarm, with SUN hardware and operating systems being bundled with Oracle database.
Oracle had the best database, business applications, operating systems, hardware environment and  a hands on leader who is one of the greatest Marketing Gurus in the IT world.
Finally Oracle has been a non-starter on the mobility and social media space, maybe because of the rigidity and culture of database creation which holds it back. It has not built any solutions in this space from its labs or by acquisition . Hence Oracle is weak in dominating  end point devices which play a significant role in Cloud Computing deployment.

Will Oracle give up its past laurels on focus on the cloud which is the "Future of Computing" or will it also start slipping like Microsoft in Cloud Computing?
Look forward to  Oracle's vision for Cloud Computing in the Oracle CloudWorld 2013!

Will love to hear your comments and thoughts on this blog post, thankyou.

Shiva & Nandi and Cloud Computing & CIO

In Hindu mythology Shiva is the destroyer and Nandi the Bull is Shiva's mount and is the gate keeper to Shiva and his consort Parvathi.

Every Shiva temple has a Nandi at its entrance which prevents direct view of the idol at the Sanctum of the temple.
More on Wikpedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandi_(bull)

If the CIO is the Nandi then cloud computing is  Shiva the destroyer of traditional computing. Unless the Nandi moves the business cannot reap the benefits of the cloud and attain salvation.

Hence it is important that the CIO transforms himself as the mount for the organization to benefit from cloud computing rather then being the gatekeeper who will not allow the business to adopt cloud computing.

Is the CIO - Nandi ready for the transformation from a gatekeeper to the mount for the business to ride into cloud computing for agile and innovative computing ?

The monolithic stone Nandi Lepakshi, Andhra Pradesh 

(length 27 feet, height 15 feet)