Karan Shinde @karanhs-blog - Tumblr Blog

Real meanings of corporate/email jargon

1. As Discussed

I made all these changes myself because you were not listening to what I was saying on the phone. Now I am hoping that you will doubt your memory and think this is as we have discussed. In order to avoid looking like an idiot chances are you will not retaliate.

2. Please Find attached

I am going to shout this to town. A proof that i have accomplished something worthy enough to be attached on mail. I am going to cc this to everyone from the CEO to the canteen guy. And to show that I am really busy I am going to say PFA instead of the whole damn phrase.

3. Warm Regards/Best Regards/BR

Screw you, I have no regards for you. I always sign off mails like that so that you can never argue with me on politeness and customer service. Competence meanwhile is a different matter.

4. SWOT

This is the only term I remember from the jargon we used to throw at each other during B school. I know S is for strengths and W is for weaknesses but have no idea what the O and T stand for but that’s ok because neither do you.

5. I will get back to you

I am too small a fish to take a decision. Will ask someone senior, later I can pretend that it was my idea.

6. Company policy

I will use this whenever I do not wish to go out of my way to help you. No one ever wondered how come all companies have a policy predicted beforehand for situations that are yet to happen.

7. High priority

I have no other role in this company and this is the only thing I do hence I will give it the garb of high priority so that you can think I am an important person.

8. I will have my team attend to this

I don’t have time for this so will assign this to someone I hate or someone junior enough to not say no. They will let you know that we can’t do this.

Misconceptions About SaaS

There are many vendors today offering SaaS applications for IT management. That makes for a lot of product announcements, market noise, and confusion — and misconceptions. Here are three common misconceptions and some advice on what to look for as you navigate the many choices.

1. All SaaS applications are created equal.

Not true. Just as with traditional software, there are important considerations beyond basic capabilities and price. Important considerations include availability (which may be more critical in some industries than others), privacy, and security. Privacy and security may be critically important for businesses that are in regulated industries or that conduct business in Europe, where privacy regulations may require that data be housed in the country in which it is generated. In these two cases, larger, more established SaaS providers may be able to meet these requirements more cost-effectively.

2. SaaS applications are inherently less secure than on-premise solutions.

Again, not true. Data that resides on an on-premise server may actually be less secure than data stored in a cloud application. Data on a local server can be hacked or can walk out the door on a thumb drive or a mobile phone. Data in SaaS applications typically is housed in off-premise data centers that are protected by high-grade firewalls, secure transport protocols, multitenancy technology, and enterprise-grade security. SaaS providers are in the business of providing service assurance, not just renting software capabilities; thus, they can usually provide better security and privacy than you could for yourself.

3. Moving to SaaS means sacrificing functionality and best practices.

Absolutely not true. In fact, for many organizations, moving to SaaS may provide functionality and best practices that they could not have acquired cost-effectively any other way. With a good SaaS application for the IT help desk, businesses should not notice any difference in basic functionality. You are still getting the functionality in coded software that’s been developed, programmed, and continually improved over many years. It’s simply a different ownership model.

Why IT Outsourcing Makes Sense

IT outsourcing makes sense for a variety of reasons. While you may think you have everything under control with your own IT department, there may be some areas that are severely lacking – or missing entirely. When you find a company to outsource to, it can save you time and provide you with an array of other benefits.

You Save Money When you take advantage of IT outsourcing, you save money. Many companies believe that it’s an added expense, but you actually save money. This is because the IT company is providing services to more than just you. As a result, the costs are lower. You won’t have all of the services and labor to pay out to manage your IT because another company will be taking on the responsibilities for you.

You Save Time You can save time with IT outsourcing. Forget about having to check the servers and develop your own website. These can all be done by professionals who are experts in these areas. They know how to do things quickly and efficiently – and you benefit from this. You won’t be the one responsible for these tasks and that means you can allot your time to those other things on your ever-growing to-do list.

You Get Better Services There are better services waiting for you when you outsource. What you do for yourself cannot be compared to what you get from an IT company. You may be able to get better website design, better cloud services and even better internet and email services. All you have to do is determine what you have now and then contact a company to find out how much you can improve by IT outsourcing.

You Get More Services When you outsource, you can get more services than you have now. You may have never thought about enhancing your phone system. If you have to put people on hold often or you are doing a lot of call transferring, you may want to look at hosted and VoIP phone solutions. This will automate a lot of your call volume and even provide you with a simplified way of answering calls. You may even be able to eliminate the operator position. Other services can include managed IT solutions, web solutions, process management as more. When you save money by IT outsourcing, you can suddenly afford the other services you always wanted.

You Improve Productivity Improving productivity is going to come from more and better IT services. You can talk to an IT company about different ways to improve your productivity. This includes helping your employees when they are on the road with cloud services as well as when they are in the office with managed services. Productivity can also increase by automating some tasks and eliminating the IT management from your payroll – which frees up man hours for your employees to work on other things.

खोल समुद्रापेक्षा जहाजं बंदरात अधिक सुरक्षित असतात, म्हणून काही ती बंदरात उभी करायला बनवली जात नाहीत.

आपण तरुण मुलं आई वडिलांकडे २० हजार कशासाठी मागतो तर लेटेस्ट मोबाइल खरेदी करण्यासाठी. १८ वर्षाच्या सुनील मित्तलनेही आपल्या वडिलांकडे २० हजार मागितले. कशासाठी तर व्यवसाय करण्यासाठी. सायकलचे स्पेअर पार्टस बनविण्याचा व्यवसाय त्याने सुरूही केला, आणि एक दिवस सुनील मित्तलने मोबाइल क्षेत्रात " एअरटेल " नावाने ५० हजार कोटींचं साम्राज्य उभं केलं. कारण त्याच्याकडे होती भव्य स्वप्न. त्याच्यासमोर आदर्श होता धीरूभाई अंबानींचा. आपणही अशीच झेप घ्यायला हवी ह्या ध्येयाने प्रेरित झालेल्या सुनीलने मग डीझेल जनरेटर आयात करायचा परवाना मिळवला. जपानच्या होंडा आणि सुझुकी ह्या बड्या कंपन्यांचे डीझेल जनरेटर तो आयात करू लागला. धंद्यात चांगला जम बसला असं वाटत असतानाच अचानक भारत सरकारने डीझेल जनरेटर आयात करण्यार बंदी आणली आणि एका रात्रीत सुनील अक्षरशः बेकार झाला. आता काय करावं हा त्याच्यापुढे प्रश्न उभा राहिला. नवा उद्योग शोधण्यासाठी मग तो परदेशी गेला. तैवानमध्ये एका औद्योगिक मेळाव्यात त्याने प्रथमच पुशबटन टेलिफोन पाहिले. भारतात तेव्हा काळ्या रंगाचे अतिशय जड आणि अनाकर्षक फोन अस्तित्वात होते. सुनीलला ते इतके आवडले की , त्याने ते आपल्या देशात नेऊन विकायचा निर्णय घेतला. परंतु असे फोन आयात करण्यावर बंदी होती. त्यावर त्याने नामी शक्कल लढवली. त्या फोनचे सुटे भाग त्याने तिकडून मागवले अन इथे त्याची जोडणी करून विक्रीला आणले. त्यांच्या फोनची देशात तडाखेबंद विक्री झाली. सिमेन्सच्या सहकार्याने त्याने पुशबटन टेलिफोनचा कारखाना सुरु केला. आज भारती एन्टरप्राइझेस या नावाने ही कंपनी देशातील सर्वात मोठी कंपनी गणली जाते. १९९४ मध्ये देशातील सर्वात पहिली मोबाइल सेवा सुनील मित्तलने एअरटेल नावाने दिल्ली आणि मध्य प्रदेशमध्ये सुरु केली आणि देशात क्रांती घडली. त्यानंतर टाटा, बिर्ला, अंबानी, वोडाफोन असे रथी महारथी मोबाइल क्षेत्रात उतरले. पण सुनील मित्तलची एअरटेल त्या सर्वाना पुरून उरली. आज एअरटेलची वार्षिक उलाढाल ४५ हजार कोटी तर निव्वळ नफा पाच हजार कोटी आहे. त्याशिवाय भारती एंटरप्राइज हा ग्रुप इन्शुरन्स, औषध क्षेत्रातही कार्यरत आहे. २००७ मध्ये सरकारने त्यांना पद्म भूषण किताब देऊन त्यांच्या कर्तृत्वाचा गौरव केला. मित्रांनो, खोल समुद्रापेक्षा जहाजं बंदरात अधिक सुरक्षित असतात, म्हणून काही ती बंदरात उभी करायला बनवली जात नाहीत. १८ वर्षाच्या सुनील मित्तलला हे कॉलेजमध्ये असतानाच कळल होतं. मराठी तरुणांना हे कधी कळणार ? कालच देशात ३०० कोटी किंवा त्याहूनही जास्त संपत्ती असलेले ७ ० हजार लोक असल्याचे सरकारने जाहीर केलय. त्यांच्यामुळे आज अर्धा देश आपला उदरनिर्वाह करतोय. त्या श्रीमंतामध्ये मराठी माणूस एक टक्काही नसेल हे सांगायला नकोच. मग हा मराठी माणूस करतो तरी काय ? बंदरातील सुरक्षित जहाजांप्रमाणे तो सुरक्षित नोकरी करतो. आणि फावल्या वेळात तो तासंतास टीवीवर क्रिकेटचे सामने तरी पाहतो किंवा प्रवासात किंवा नाक्यावर उभा राहून तासंतास राजकारणावर किंवा पुन्हा क्रिकेटवर निरर्थक चर्चा करत बसतो. गेल्या दोन पिढ्या त्याने कधी सुनील गावस्करसाठी तर कधी सचिन तेंडूलकरसाठी आपल्या आयुष्याची मोलाची वेळ खर्ची घातली. त्यामुळे धीरुभाई अंबानींचा आदर्श समोर ठेवायला त्याला वेळच मिळाला नाही. बाप मुलाला वयाच्या ५ व्या वर्षीच क्रिकेटचे सामने बघायला टीवी समोर बसतो. मुलगा मग त्याचाच कित्ता गिरवत बसतो. तुम्हीही तेच करणार आहात. मग त्या ७० हजारचे जरी ७ लाख झाले तरी आपली टक्केवारी एक टक्काही नसेल हे सांगायला कोणा ज्योतिष्याची आवश्यकता नाही. तरीही आपण म्हणायचं, 'जय हिंद ! जय महाराष्ट् !'

Its not the goodbye that hurts but the flashbacks that follow

It's the end of the summer. It's the end of it all. Those days are gone, it's over now, we're moving on.

Finally its the end of our engineering life. Today we gave our last exam of the last semester of engineering. This was the first time, instead of being happy I was really very sad. It felt like everything is gone. I really don’t know how these four years passed. Now its time to say goodbye to many of my real best friends. I don’t know how I will fulfill their absence. I don’t know with whom I will share everything. Today in college I was seeing the faces of my friends and I was thinking that I never going to see him/her again. This feeling was really very bad. :( :(

Whole day I was full of these types of bad bad thoughts. I never thought that leaving college will be so much painful. Really its very hard to say goodbye. I am sorry to those, I hurt.

Really Friends are one of the most important part of life. Without friends life is empty. Without friends you can’t even enjoy. Its really very hard to see all your friends are going away… But its a part of life…

I’m gonna miss my buddies, classmates,Our Bunks, Hangouts & Rides, Common offs, Our chu####pa n Comments in Lectures, Will Miss Dingaana in Canteen n Jumbo sandwich, Parties n Hangovers, Nightouts, Chai n Sutta with Friends and I gonna miss our Rocking BE-2 (kya toh mare uppar hawa thi).

" Its not the goodbye that hurts but the flashbacks that follow… :( "

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

Winston Churchill

Eleven shades of an entrepreneur

1. Focus on a specialisation shade in a niche. Be a leader in your field of expertise. Many times entrepreneurs spread themselves too thin with multiple products and offerings. It is good strategy to go after the specific areas where the momentum is good and build big on it. Narrowed market focus helps address customer requirements in depth hence can command premium pricing. Generalisation vision of doing everything for everyone is sure-shot death for a startup.

2. Avoid mixing shades of business interest with near relations like friends and families. Offering discounts, accepting late payments are usually seen when one does business with friends. Relationship clouds the decision when hiring. Design your startup founding team with good complementing professionals whom you can make friends with and will become your so-called extended family.

3. Announce the shade of commitment about your startup’s vision in public. Entrepreneurs who do it are considered serious as they have put their personal reputation at stake. Startup is THE life of entrepreneur. It does not have a predictable end. Commitment with total immersion is required from founders. It evokes lot of trust for in its team, customers and investors equally.

4. Shade of planning should be for best and worst outcomes equally. Things which are beyond your control – look at them in a pessimist way. Things which can be managed, created and steered – look at them optimistically. Entrepreneurs should invest in capital expenditure for better future and cut operational costs assuming worst scenario. If the desired success is not achieved, then plan for the downside as athletes do. It spurs them to take on the next big opportunity.

5. Entrepreneur shade of willingness to gain knowledge is important. Startup founders will be expert in technology, and design, but may lack financial acumen. Learning helps open minds to new and fresh ideas. Hence, learning, reading, and understanding financial management are important for scale, growth and investment value creation. A wise entrepreneur will be eager to learn to increase his wisdom; fools resist teachings and remain ignorant.

6. Entrepreneurs many times are very rigid in their ideas, processes and partnerships. Unable to adapt to situations results in loss of time, opportunity and relationships. Very often entrepreneurs are at cross roads with multiple options to select. There are times when conflicting guidance, approach to a problem is given to entrepreneurs. It is of utmost importance to maintain shade of flexibility along with persistence.

7. Priority shade brings in the value of saying NO to all which does not matter, and what is not useful and not good. Entrepreneurs should learn to say ‘No’ without feeling of guilt. Do not try to please everyone at the expense of the startup’s interest. Entrepreneur’s first and only goal is realising its vision. It is not considered rude if one is not able help, give time, and entertain, due to business priorities.

8. Entrepreneurs should learn the shade of active listening. Listening is not merely hearing the words but interpreting the underlying message. Good listener will be able to know unsaid or partially said communication, which is common in startups. Listen without bias, for ideas, for knowledge to become efficient and effective. Talk less, listen more.

9. Shade to focus on good quality content in all modes of communication. Startups value increases with its ability to generate high quality content. Entrepreneurs’ focus on technology skills is very high. It misses out on creating content related to its products or services. Content is extremely important to engage and attract customers, investors and employees equally. Great entrepreneurs build arsenal of content recipes like good chefs which leaves a lasting taste on its readers.

10. Intuitive shade is like shadow which follows the entrepreneur all the time. Internal voice of entrepreneurs is very strong signal for actions when in early stage. Intuition helps entrepreneur innovate in unchartered territories. Education trains to believe in analysis, data and experts, but entrepreneurs have relied otherwise on gut feelings while taking decisions.

11. Shade of being imperfect is a gift within every entrepreneur. One has the right to do mistakes, but not to repeat the same. Do not wait for the perfect moment, perfect product, perfect team and perfect investors to land up. ‘I will release the product which is perfect, complete and flawless’, we hear entrepreneur speak many times. It is ok launch products even when it has fewer features and not a perfect one. Perfections are a myth and enemy of good.

How a leader can be blinded by a coterie: A lesson from Indian cricket

It’s a familiar scene in the corporate world: A boss gets cosy with a set of familiar faces, and others find it hard to break into the inner circle. This proves counter-productive before long. The coterie around the boss land plum positions, the potential of talented newcomers is undervalued, and ultimately the atmosphere in an organisation gets vitiated.

It may be too early to conclude that something similar is happening in the Indian cricket team, but there are telltale signs. Consider the treatment of Stuart Binny, who broke into the Indian ODI team for New Zealand on the back of impressive performances in the Ranji Trophy and IPL. A medium pace all-rounder like him would have fancied his chances on seam-friendly wickets, following his exploits for Rajasthan Royals. The Indian captain, MS Dhoni, himself had more than once bemoaned India’s lack of a seam bowling all-rounder. The inclusion of Binny for the tour thus seemed like a good move by the selectors to experiment with new combinations ahead of next year’s World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand.

Domestic performances, IPL exploits and the selectors’ nod mean little, however, if the captain has other ideas. Regardless of the drubbing in South Africa, and Ravichander Ashwin’s ineffectiveness in the middle overs, Dhoni was obdurate about playing two spinners on Kiwi wickets.

After two losses and a tie, Binny finally got into the playing eleven for the fourth ODI, but only as a fielder, as it turned out. He was so low down in the order that he got no batting. When it came to bowling, he was given one over, in which he conceded 8 runs, before being consigned to the outfield. Dhoni must have seen something he didn’t like in that one over, because Binny was dropped for the next game, which was the final ODI of the NZ tour.

India lost the series 4-0. Ashwin played all five games and picked a grand total of one wicket. And Dhoni praised the Kiwi batsmen for cleverly keeping their wickets intact in the middle overs for a blast in the end. One would have thought the connection between Ashwin’s lack of penetration and the Kiwi batting success was obvious, but apparently it wasn’t to Dhoni.

The Indian captain blasted India’s seamers for not using their heads in the slog overs, glossing over the fact that New Zealand were always getting into the slog with seven or eight wickets in hand. Sure, Shami Mohammed and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar are inexperienced, but better bowlers than them would be hard put to contain a team if no wicket-taking pressure is applied in the middle overs.

It’s in the middle overs that India lost the plot in New Zealand, and Dhoni admitted as much after the ODI series. Why then did he persist with his Chennai Superkings team-mates Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, instead of having a go at the Kiwi middle order with the seam bowling of Binny, who took 11 wickets in 6 domestic matches right before the tour? Why not at least try another spinner when India were getting roundly beaten in match after match? Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, another top performer in the IPL, sat out the entire tour on the reserve benches.

Dhoni deserves the benefit of the doubt, given his success rate as captain of India. Perhaps it was miscalculation and misplaced faith, more than cronyism and the Chennai connection. But, it would be a great pity if Indian cricket goes down the path it has so many times in the past – when a coterie so blinded a captain that he could not see all the talent available to him or the best ways to achieve his goal.

A team leader anywhere, in cricket or in business, must understand the pitfalls of getting sucked into a coterie. Often, it’s the talent outside the coterie that could help the leader succeed, but the boss is too insulated or too stubborn to see that – until it’s too late.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

Steve Jobs

#steve jobs #innovation #Visionary Solutions

#How Many Times Should You Try?

13 most remarkable tech acquisitions in world history

1) Microsoft bought 86DOS

Date – 27th July, 1981 Money involved – $ 75,000

The smartest business move in the world history. Microsoft bought 86DOS from Seattle computer systems to fulfill the contract with IBM. Another interesting point to note was that instead of selling it outright to IBM they were one of the earliest to implement software licenses. It was a business move which changed the world unlike anything else.

2) Apple acquired NeXT

Date – 7th Feb, 1997 Money involved – $ 404 Million

When your company is suffering and you need to bring back the founder of the company who was ousted, what do you do? You buy the company! It was a very strategic move from other angles as well. NeXT software laid the foundation for Apple’s OSX.

3) Microsoft bought Hotmail

Date – 31st Dec, 1997 Money involved – $ 400 Million

Apart from bringing Sabeer Bhatia on the global map, this deal was iconic for the fact that it helped Microsoft compete with Yahoo! on the email front. It is a different story that Microsoft has been able to re-launch the service multiple times and has made it available in over 106 languages around the world in its latest avatar outlook.com

4) Microsoft bought Skype

Date – 10th May, 2011 Money involved – $8.5 Billion

Another brilliant buy for Microsoft which replaced its MSN Live Messenger service in favor of Skype everywhere apart from China. Skype also brought a good amount of market share to Microsoft when it comes to VoIP and video calling, prompting Google to foray into the sector with the introduction of Hangouts.

5) Google bought Android

Date – 17 Aug, 2005 Money involved – $50 Million

It has been officially said by Google’s M&A Chief David Lawee as the best deal ever. This deal helped Google grab the majority of the smartphone market share. Thus not only giving them a head start in the mobile space but a great one. In retrospect, it is difficult to say how Google managed to see through the future of mobility in 2005.

6) Disney acquired Pixar

Date – 23 Jan, 2006 Money involved – $ 7.4 Billion

Disney was in a huge loss and on the verge of collapse at the time they acquired Pixar. ‘Toy Story’ was like a breath of fresh air for Disney and since then they were able to turn it around using other major productions from Pixar Studios.

7) Google bought YouTube

Date- 9 Oct, 2006 Money involved – $1.65 Billion

Another example of brilliant foresight from Google. YouTube has become one of the biggest revenue generators for Google with over billions of dollars in ad revenue. They bought it despite the fact that they had their own video hosting platform at that time.

8) Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems

Date – 27 Jan, 2010 Money involved – $7. 4 Billion

Larry Ellison bought its competitor in this brilliant business maneuver. By buying Sun, Larry made sure that it had Java and MySQL under its hood. This acquisition made sure that Oracle gains a market share of corporate and service companies who are still dependent on Java for the client development.

9) Facebook bought Instagram

Date – 12 April, 2012 Money involved – $1 Billion

Mark Zuckerberg always worried about not focusing on mobile, and Instagram was the perfect opportunity for them to capture the mobile market in an effective manner. And paying one billion doesn’t sound like much when your own mobile app is crappy and you are looking to fix things.

10) Google bought Doubleclick

Date – 11 March 2008 Money involved – $3.1 Billion

With the biggest part of its revenue coming from ads, it was no wonder the Google would do anything to acquire its major competitor. Either you cut the hand which steals your food or make sure it feeds you, isn’t it?

11) Google acquired Applied Semantics

Date – April 2003 Money involved – $102 Million

Applied Semantics is not a well known company, but you would be surprised to read that they developed the algorithm behind the initial version of Adsense and thus opening up a revenue stream in the early days of Google.

12) Facebook acquired Whatsapp

Date – 19 Feb 2014 Money involved -$19 Billion

Another great move to capture the mobile market, but what will be the results of this acquisition, only time will tell. It is too early to say anything as of now.

13) AOL acquired Time Warner

Date – 10 Jan 2000 Money involved – $164 Billion

We started with the best deal in the history but this one was certainly the worst deal. Looking into the amount of money involved and internal clashes between the top management of the two corporations, adding the dot-com bust into the picture and you have a recipe for disaster.

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Karan Shinde