Is your organization ready for the Digital World driven by Social Media?

In the old days the only professionals who suffered from Ulcer were those who worked in the fast paced real time market of Trading stocks, currency, commodities and more. They had to think on their feet and made or lost millions based on their ability to respond to information and act on it immediately.
With the advent of Digital World driven by Social Media in Real time organizations need to get Digital Traders onto the floor who can respond in real time to delight customers and protect your organization from Demise.
Can organizations be shaken  from their slumber to respond in real time to social media and infuse the speed required to be on top of your customers needs and suggestions?  The way forward is not throwing in more people with attributes of Traders (and candidates for Ulcer)  but to use technology driven real time analytic solutions to keep listen and respond on the Digital Highway.

 Organizations need business value from traffic in the Digital World!

This means if your organization having a presence in the Digital World driven by Social Media  is not enough! the organization  needs to invest on real time analytic tools which can help them to respond and sieve the good grains from the chaff in the real time traffic of social media.
Organizations who get this strategy right and make investments in the right people and analytic tools have a clear advantage of surviving, while those who don't will go extinct like the dinosaurs.
Are your ready to take on the  Digital World driven by Social Media?

Be Prepared for your Social Media Presence !

Social Media is here to stay as more companies join the band wagon every day, many companies believe the first step in Social Media is to create their company presence with a  Facebook Page, Twitter Handle, LinkedIn company page, Pinterest presence and finally a Google Plus+ presence and maybe a few more to be safe !

Most companies do not have a social media strategy or a social media management agenda or team, most of the social media management is outsourced to ad agencies or social media specialists. Companies need to understand  they are best equipped to respond and support their customer through social media; customer engagement is too valuable to be outsourced ?

Business could use the services of social media strategists who can help them with their campaign and build a road map for their social media presence and  so train their team to handle social media in real time.

Companies who do not handle social media in real time are doomed and will stand  out as non-customer focused companies.

The Toddy Tapper - Social Media is Heady but Be Prepared !

The CEO must lead the social media charge with a Twitter handle and a blog page at the minimum, CEO's could learn from Sir Richard Branson  (@richardbranson) who has a great social media presence. 

Social media affects your company in multitude ways and is unforgiving, one social media gaffe could  be the death knell for your company. Companies need to understand that social media is  double edged sword, it can hurt and maim with equal ease as it can conquer and subjugate customers.

To get your social media strategy right, start in small increments, big bang does not work for social media, maybe start with a Facebook Page and Twitter handle, tend it well like a good gardener and reap the harvest in abundance. Like a good gardener you must know what to plant, when to harvest and when to leave the land fallow for best outcome of your social media strategy.

Be Prepared before you venture into social media; Be ever watchful like a good gardener and enjoy the benefits of your Social Media Presence!

SMAC and the Transformation of Customer Service & Dialogue

"SMAC" is the a acronym for Social, mobile, analytics & cloud the four pillars of the fifth wave of technology as defined by  Cognizant Technology the  Teaneck, New Jersey headquartered ITES company (NASDAQ Symbol : CTSH).
SMAC will change the customer dialogue by leveraging on the collective strength of the Social Media Network, Mobile devices, Analytics driven by Big Data solutions and Cloud Computing as the underlying backbone of affordable and reliable engine for computation. 

Let us look at each of these components and their impact on our lives today:

1. Social Media - The Social Media has seen breakneck growth and significant valuation with the winners, we have the four undisputed leaders in this segment Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest  & LinkedIn with competition from Yahoo, Google and Microsoft and another hundred more social media sites of different hues and aspirations.  

2. Mobility - The way we handle and process information anytime anywhere  is significantly driven by Mobile Devices. Whether it is a mobile phone with two undisputed leaders Samsung and Apple, with two leading operating systems Google's Android and Apples iOS and two fundamental devices a phone or tablet or an hybrid Phablet.  The mobile is the most used device today to access, converse and interact in the internet. 

3. Analytics - Big Data and the ability to bring affordable analytics by use of cloud computing has transformed the way we dice and slice our data and we can do much more in nano seconds with our Terabytes of data to get a better understanding which influences our strategy and decision making. Analytics has invaded every aspect of business, financial markets, banking, healthcare, manufacturing, the potential is endless on how it can add value to bring insight into the way we do business. 

4. Cloud Computing - In a brief period of ten years the cloud computing has taken the world by storm and has been the catalyst for the growth of social media companies like Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Twitter and more.  The pioneer and leader in the cloud computing space continues to be AWS with others playing catch up, the software giant's Microsoft, Oracle, the hardware giant's Dell, IBM, CISCO and HP.  Cloud Computing is today mainstream computing as more government and business adopt Cloud to bring about reliability, efficiency and cost saving. 

SMAC is the future of our digital lives and these four pillars in conjunction will define the way we deal with our customers.

Companies who have the right SMAC strategy will profit and grow in a flat world. 

Banks who shunned the cloud have taken to Facebook for Banking.

Newsprint companies have be on Twitter today if it wants to reach its audience and garner revenue.
If you want a job today the best place to begin is LinkedIn and if you have a pretty picture to share and profit look no further than Pinterest.

Retailers are discovering the joys of growing their business with a SMAC strategy, understanding their customers needs and serving them in more innovative ways. 

With SMAC we need business leaders who understand their customers lifestyle, use digital technology and the live in a world of social media.

A significant number of the customer base with spending power are GEN Y  today and without a SMAC strategy we may not be able to connect with the GEN Y customer.

The customer dialogue is real time and companies need to respond to this changing scenario.  

We will have companies giving away mobile devices free to their customers as a glue to customer dialogue and interface. 

Imagine a scenario of a bank, it is connected to its customer in a mobile world and the customer lives and thrives on Facebook, the Bank today builds its  banking services around the customer in the world of Facebook. A New Zealand Bank (ASB Bank) has been the pioneer in using Facebook in serving its customers and is laughing all the way to the Bank, other banks are playing catch up. 

Twitter announced its public issue in a Tweet and in day one of its public issue Twitter's offering price was $26 but by the end of the day the stock had risen dramatically and closed at $44.90. On day one of its public issue Twitter's market cap was USD 24.4 Billion ; opening value in the morning was USD 18 Billion; a cool appreciation of USD 6.4 Billion. You need look no further to understand the business dynamics of social media. 

Companies need to address SMAC as the most significant business strategy for their very survival in next few quarters, is your company ready to use SMAC to transform the customer service and  dialogue?

Emergence of National Clouds and National Intranets

With a porous digital world many nations will build National clouds and National intranets to protect their citizens, government and country from intrusion.
A national cloud will go against the very tenets of the internet as a growth engine for collaboration and dissemination of information in a free world.

Countries will erect fences to keep out the freedom offered by the cloud, internet and social media. 

As national clouds and intranets get build countries will shut access to the internet and will also encourage us of social media and other collaboration tools within the country.


This will impact the globalization of digital data and also the sharing of information and use of the social media and the internet for dissent and discussion.
We are charting into dangerous waters as a few countries have already demonstrated the ability to contain the internet access and also have deployed national clouds.
All this does not augur well for the growth of computing and the future of the internet; but with countries and governments getting defensive and protective a better moral policing of information on the internet will be called for to ensure the continuation on the cloud and internet as we know it today.
More importantly the fallout of this will be the death knell to democracy and freedom of expression which is valued by many citizens of the world.

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. 

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. 

Looking Ahead Looking Behind

Every year we ring in the new and ring out the old at New Year, with pomp and celebration.
But let us pause to think ! We have lots to learn from what we have left behind.
Some are tangible but many are intangible, taking stock of this will help us to focus on our future.
We see people passing on, we make new friends, families expand and some contract, jobs are changed, we see ourselves different in the mirror based on our cycle of life.
For a teenager it is coming out into the world and learning to be an adult, for twenty plus time to start life in a job and as a bread-winner,  for someone in their thirties it is time to  work harder to achieve their goals, for someone in their forties it is time to discover the first grey hair and wrinkles and for those above fifty time to plan their retirement or reminiscence on how the world has gone by despite them and those over sixty it is time to start the downhill ride out of this world living and savoring every day they live and those who are luck to have crossed eighty every hour is a boon.

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Whatever your age maybe is it is a time to look behind in the year gone by and take stock.
The lessons of success and failure  is our experience and is our most valuable Teacher.
Write down the best moments, best relationships, best success and also the worst moments, worst relationships and the failures in the year 2012 and make sure you learn from them so that you have a Wonderful and  Fruitful  year ahead in 2013.

Looking Ahead Looking Behind maybe the one of the best investments you can make for  your future.

Connecting with schoolmates thanks to Social Media

I am today connected to many of my schoolmates thanks to social media, I am connected  with my friends in all continents of our little earth but for Antarctica. But sustaining and rekindling the old relationship after many decades opens a new chapter in  our lives.

Digital connection is social media takes a few minutes, then you join a group made for your schoolmates or classmates and you now connect with more friends from your early and formative years. The Adrenalin rushes as you suddenly realize your school friends have also become old like you and have a family and the pictures belie their age.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="608"] We have taken different routes but are connected again ![/caption]

Meeting some of them in fresh and blood throws up new challenges,we suddenly realize we have nothing much in common other then our years in school. We have taken different paths to reach our life goals and  when we meet again it just seems yesterday that we shared a school bench.

The connect become stronger both in person and in our digital avatars in the social media.

Deep down in our hearts we wish we had more time and opportunities to set the clock back and be school boys once again.

How we wish we could set the clock to relive the wonderful days of comradie  and innocence and the joys  shared in school. Amen.

Videcon and the set top box installation.

Lat week we decided it was time to get rid of my cable operator and get a set-top box instead thanks to the new government regulations. After talking to a few friends and contacting a few dealers we zeroed in on the Videocon d2h service -  http://www.videocond2h.com.

Decided to buy the Satellite HD DVR which offered to record programs http://www.videocond2h.com/WSC/products.aspx and which was also their best model offered in terms of features and functionality.

Sunday the dealer came home and promptly delivered the set-top box and told me that the installation will happen on Monday. I asked the dealer whether he needed  a site survey before selling me the box, he told me that there would be no problem to get ti working, it would happen in no time at all.

Monday nothing happened and had to call the dealer to enquire the status and he told me he would help with sending the technician for installation. Late in the evening on Monday a technician landed up at my  home and told me he would install the antenna in my window after I had fixed the issue of laying the concealed cable. He gave me the cable for the electrician to install.

I managed to get an electrician on Tuesday morning who fixed the concealed cabling which resulted in my existing cable connection to my TV being terminated. There would be no TV in the house until videocon d2h set-top box  started.

The technician came by noon to continue with the installation, he worked on the position of the antenna and figured he had to change the method of the housing since he was not getting the desired signal strength.

The technician vanished for a while and by evening the new position of the antenna was done , but there was no signal in my television. He had a spare  set-top box which worked with my television. He too my set top box and brought a new one after about three hours but that too did not work, after a few phone calls he finally realized he needed a software patch to make it work with my Sony Television.

He promised to be back on Wednesday morning, I am still waiting for him to show up on Thursday morning. When I called him this morning he told me he is trying to get the software from his company and he should be able to fix the problem soon.

We have had no television at home since Monday but fortunately I have twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to keep connected on the news in the world and not to forget the newspaper. And since there is no television I have had to time to write this blog post

My friend tells me I expect too much customer service in India and I should get down to reality. He says I should be patient and not get too bothered by Videocon's  attitude as it is the same by all companies in India.

He may right  "Videocon is now 80% oil company: Venugopal Dhoot, CMD, Videocon" , d2h is no longer a focus area for Videocon.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-03-27/news/31245137_1_venugopal-dhoot-ravva-videocon

I still wonder why Abhishek Bachchan endorses a brand which is no longer a focus area by the Videocon business leadership.
( Photo courtesy Videocon d2h website).

Meanwhile I have  a new perspective about life with no TV, I have been spared of the nonsensical news beamed to me, I have learnt to laugh at other's jokes without being  prompted and finally the family is all set to go outdoors since there is no television program binding them to the couch. Also my fingers are at rest since they are not twitching on the TV remote.

Maybe I should just try to sell the videocon d2h on ebay, and use my television as my computer monitor and get on to the digital highway.  Shall wait until weekend before putting up these items for sale :-). Until then I wait for Videocon to fix my set-top box.

#Mephisto and #Facebook

 Mephisto is a movie of the last century, but  the message of the movie is etched in my mind, especially the ending.

Well, how do you

enjoy this limelight?

This is the real light, isn't it?

What do they want of me? After all...
  ... l'm only an actor.
Source courtesy : http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/mephisto-script-transcript-klaus-mann.html

( More about Mephisto at the bottom of this blog).

Facebook has become every persons delight,  I opened my Facebook page and presto I had this lovely picture of the Miami beach posted by my friend with the time and date. Mobile computing makes everything a breeze. One button click and presto you have it on Facebook. Wow

Are we trading our soul, our privacy for the moment of glory to tell our family, friends and fools connected with us on FB our innermost secrets and not to forget everyone else who buys our data from Facebook. Facebook already has  our timeline ready thanks to power of its data analytics.

Are we the  Emperors and Empresses in the world of Facebook, just like the King in the story of the Emperor's New Clothes.

Well we seem to be blind to fact that we are naked in a digital world and even this blog I am cranking away is faithfully logged in by my browser.

Is Facebook the Devil, actually Facebook is the only the messenger, the Devil is in the details we post on Facebook.  Amen.

Source : http://www.flixster.com/movie/mephisto/

Mephisto (1981)

Based on Klaus Mann's novel, Mephisto details the rise of a Faustian character who figuratively sells his soul in exchange for greatness. Hendrik Hofgen (Klaus Maria Brandauer, offering an electric performance) is the star of a state-funded theater department who tires of his job. Like his friends, he pays lip service to socialist ideals fashionable for artists of his time -- that is, until the Nazis rise to power. He then sees an opportunity to achieve his objective of fame: he will perform propaganda plays and thereby use the Nazis as a vehicle to spread his name across the country -- only too late does he realize his mistake. This well-adapted version of the book featured the first teaming of Brandauer with director Istvan Szabo; they would later reunite to make Colonel Redl and Hanussen. Brandauer first gained attention in the U.S. after the film's release and would be cast as the villain in Never Say Never Again as a result. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi

Cloud and Religion

All Religions of the world including the atheist need a forum to propagate their beliefs and get more converts or followers as you may want to call the new initiates.
Twitter is almost organized like a religious body with followers and following, so now you have the Vatican and the Dalai Lama twitting. A great way got for their follower to  keep connected and also to attract new followers.

Cloud Adoption is the path for any new religion.

One of the significant costs of any religious order is the economics of propagation and sustenance, we know large sums of money have been spent by various religions in sustaining and propagating their beliefs.
Religions that did not propagate or convert are slowly dying, Zoroastrian religion more popularly known as Parsis is an example of a dying religion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsis
The cloud which support the social networks is one of the most economical mediums to start a religion and induct new followers, one could use Google+ which includes circles of influence and video to take the religion to the digital literate anywhere in the world .
Religion has always been an important social glue to keep people together . We will see new messiahs emerge in the cloud, may they light the way for millions with their new religious doctrine.
The Cloud will be the new medium like the printing press was for Christianity and the Bible! Many religious leaders/organizations continue to use the press for propagating their beliefs and holy books. As the Digital Divide is bridged the Cloud will emerge as the chosen medium to take the message of religion to millions of people in our planet.