The Rise and Popularity of Specialist Social Networks
August 30, 2010 by krisdhingra
Filed under Analysis, Tech, Trends
Take a close look at the picture above and what do you see ? At the outer fringes you will find brands that are now so widely known that they are an intrinsic part of your lives (so I would assume if you are reading this post). Studies indicate that the first thing young women do in the morning is to check their Facebook accounts for updates (as reported by Mashable here). Not till long ago, taking a break from work to explore and travel the world was considered an adventure and an achievement. These days, shutting down your Facebook account and living without it for a month is considered to be a big deal (interesting read Facebook Refugee).
Coming to Twitter, the platform now has more than 75 million users with 50 million tweets being sent per day. People are using twitter as motivational tools to lose weight, run a marathon, quit smoking and what not (read here for more). We even came across an interesting tweet the other day, indicating how tweeting very frequently can be a bad habit:
RT @social_yogirl: Warning – For ur driver’s test. If the guy asks “what do you do at a red light?” ,don’t say… a little tweeting…
And then, foursquare recently reported to signing up 3 million members and LinkedIn too has close to 75 million members and is a highly important tool for job seekers, executive recruiters, MBA students and networking professionals.
But then, most of these are broad social networks which cater to everyone and thus have no specific segmentation amongst its users. Little wonder then, that the success of these networks would lead to other innovations catering to certain specific audiences such as mothers, people who like to travel, MBA students, students starting college and much more.
We like to call these networks “Specialist Social Networks” as they cater to an audience that satisfy a set of characteristics such as age, sex, occupation, future outlook etc. At last count this sheet indicated that their were close to 193 such networks on the Internet comprising of categories such as travel, education, beer, food, business, photography, cars, sports, dating, pets, arts, mothers and many more.
For instance, CafeMom is an online community where millions of moms meet each day to talk, share advice, make new friends and play games. The network employs 65 people in New York, gets millions of unique vistors every month and raised close to 12 million in capital in early 2008. So if you have a brand aimed at pregnant mothers or new mothers such as Babo Botanicals or Nutrabella then CafeMom is where you want your brand to be.
The NYtimes recently carried this article on another Specialist social network called URoomSurf. An excerpt:
Bright Eyes and Regina Spektor share the same bedtime (between 10 p.m. and midnight) and a high tolerance for clutter. They both eat vegetarian food, advocate for animal rights, play guitar and favor the same indie rock acts. They also recently agreed on a polka dot shower curtain.
This is not just great good luck — theirs was a match made on URoomSurf.com, a Web site that does for dormitory life what eHarmony and Match.com have long done for romance.
The article later goes on state that since the site started in February, more than 80,000 students from 700 colleges have signed up, paying $5 or $10 (depending on the level of access to information). Now that’s a pretty good Online Business for what could also be a Facebook group that connects people with similar interests looking to be room mates in college.
Finally, another such network based out of London runs a slightly different model and aims to bridge the gap between schools and students looking to study in those schools. BusinessBecause, is a London based startup that is a news & networking site for the b-school world. It provides interesting content and helps to connect people before, during and after business school. The network has pioneered a new concept of ‘community journalism‘ where its members who are essentially students studying in B-school or B-school alumni are encouraged to share stories of their school experience, favorite lectures, classmates etc.
The website also has its own Editorial team comprising of Journalists from the world’s leading Journalism schools such as Columbia who produces great quality content, conduct interviews with Business schools professors, thought leaders and much more. The website targets international, smart, web-savvy and well-connected individuals between the age of 22-32 interested in Business School education.
Well, these niche networks mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty more out there. So if you’re looking to connect with a group of people who share a similar interest as you, then just do some Internet research and its likely that you’ll find a “Specialist Social Network” catering to your particular interest.
When a MBA Lecture is a Movie with Popcorn
May 21, 2010 by theagsmblogger
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business
Its 8 a.m. on a Cold Monday Morning in Sydney, Australia and I have no intention of leaving the coziness of my blanket for at least the next 2 hours, after all there has to be some advantage of being back in school.
I toss and turn in bed for the next 30 minutes trying to heed to the advice of the devil in me, “get your sleep and screw the class” is what it says. At 8:30 am however my conscience gets the better of me and sluggishly I let go of my one and only true love (sleeping).
As I begin to get ready I start thinking about what would be happening in class today. Chris Jackson, our OB lecturer always uses the most un-conventional methods of teaching. He taught us the art of understanding teams by simulating an F1 Pitstop in class.
He’s showed us advertisements and movie clips to get his message of Organizational culture and design across and then we’ve had classmates make presentations on certain units of the course. The Organizational behavior class has been a fine example of interactive learning, where in we learn not only from the lecturer and the course notes but also from classmates, movies and other things that we see in daily life.
As I start walking towards college, I begin to look forward to the class. What does Chris Jackson have in store for us today ? He said something about watching a movie called 12 Angry Men, so we would probably be watching a couple of movie clips again about the topics of the day viz. Leadership, Personality and Motivation.
I’m in class at 9:30 am and the first session starts. At 11:00 am Chris announces that the next 90 minutes would be used to sit back, relax and watch the movie 12 Angry Men. Wow, so we would actually be watching the whole movie with rounds of popcorn and chips going around the class. Now that’s something I didn’t expect when I woke up this morning and I am glad I didn’t listen to the devil.
12 Angry Men is a 1957 American drama film adapted from a play. Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or innocence of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt. The movie was great example of demonstrating different styles of leadership, ways of dealing with people having varying personalities and motivations and indicating the importance of avoiding “Group Think” in making team based decisions.
These were the points that Chris wished to drive home. The movie was also the basis for two class presentations that would be presented next week and would be based on learning’s from the movie.
Movie based teaching is apparently a highly effective method of making people learn and has been used to great effect in organizations as well. SBI (State Bank Of India) chairman, Om Prakash Bhatt apparently used this technique to turn around his organization from an ailing public sector bank to one of the country’s leading financial institutions when he showed the movie “The Legend Of Beggar Vance” to a conclave of 25 of the bank’s senior leaders and coupled it with stories from the Bhagvad gita to illustrate the problems plaguing the company.
As I walked back home after the end of the class, I realized how the MBA might be the only few courses in the world where a lecture would comprise of watching a whole movie in class and taking away a course concept at the end.
DP Money watch – Conart Engineers, A Dark Horse in the Infrastructure Sector
October 11, 2009 by Ashok
Filed under Business, Financial Markets
Conart Engineers is an ISO 9000 / 9001 certified detailed engineering, procurement and construction company specializing in Industrial, Commercial, Residential roads and bridges. The Company has a proven record of successful project completion, with several awards and recognitions. It was awarded the ACCE L&T Endowment Award for excellence in construction. NICMAR-200 has listed the company as one of India’s fastest growing companies in the construction division. This will enable the company to maintain its existing clientele and secure new ones. The Present order position is close to Rs. 30 crores while the Company’s market capitalization is barely Rs. 6 crores. Order book is likely to touch Rs. 50 crores in FY10.
On the Financial front, the Company is doing well. The top line has improved by up to 50 % during the last 2 years, while the bottom line has increased by more than 100%.
| Scrip Code : 522231 Company : Conart Engineers Ltd |
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Results reproduced from BseIndia
The Share is available at P/E of 4 and is an excellent BUY at CMP of Rs. 20. Target price is Rs. 40 in less than a year.
This report has been prepared solely for information purposes and the information contained herein may not be deemed to be an investment advice. Such information is impersonal and not tailored to the investment needs of any specific person. The information contained herein is not a complete analysis of every material fact representing any company, industry or security. The views expressed may change. While the information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, no responsibility (or liability) is accepted for the accuracy of its contents. Investors are advised to satisfy themselves before making any investments and should consult with and rely upon their own advisors whether and how to use such information in making any investment decision. Neither the author nor his firm accepts any liability arising out of use of the above information
DP Money Watch: Jyoti Limited – A Stock For All Seasons
September 14, 2009 by Ashok
Filed under Business, Financial Markets
Jyoti Ltd. is an ISO 9001:2008 Engg.Co. that caters to the requirements of
- Power (Thermal, Hydel and Nuclear) generation, Transmission and Distribution.
- Agriculture, providing irrigation through pumping systems.
- Water supply and sewerage schemes.
- Defense-particularly Naval and marine establishments.
- Railways.
- Core industries like steel, cement, paper, sugar, fertilizers, chemicals and Petro-chemicals.
Recently, Jyoti Ltd. bagged a prestigious order worth Rs.541 crores, the largest single order in its history and the largest pump order in India, from the government of Karnataka. The pending orders with the company amount to more than Rs 1000 crores versus its market capitalization of less than Rs. 52 crores at CMP of Rs 40. Its most saleable system in India and abroad is the Jyoti Pumping System for large lift irrigation schemes
On the Financial front the company is expected to come out with better results during FY10 and subsequent years.
| Scrip Code : 504076 Company : Jyoti Ltd |
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Results reproduced from BseIndia
Buy at CMP is recommended with atleast one year HOLD. Jyoti Ltd. may turn out to be a multibaggar.
This report has been prepared solely for information purposes and the information contained herein may not be deemed to be an investment advice. Such information is impersonal and not tailored to the investment needs of any specific person. The information contained herein is not a complete analysis of every material fact representing any company, industry or security. The views expressed may change. While the information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, no responsibility (or liability) is accepted for the accuracy of its contents. Investors are advised to satisfy themselves before making any investments and should consult with and rely upon their own advisors whether and how to use such information in making any investment decision. Neither the author nor his firm accepts any liability arising out of use of the above information
AGSM: Where Diversity Is A Strength
June 26, 2009 by theagsmblogger
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business
This article was originally published on BusinessBecause. Checkout www.businessbecause.com for great stories from the world of Business and B-schools .
No, this isn’t a pair of world music-loving backpackers doing something they’ll regret when they wake up from a bad trip next week.
My friends Phil from Australia and Rose from Hong Kong are MBA classmates who agreed to take part in a fake Indian wedding to celebrate the end of Diversity Week at the School last week. At AGSM diversity is our biggest strength as we have people from over 30 countries representing all the five continents.
There are eight Indians in the class of 2010 and we decided to showcase our culture with a wedding extravaganza, so we talked these two sports into it.
There’s a lot of talk within the Indian community about racism in Australia and abuse against Indians here, but I’d say incidents like that can happen anywhere. From June 9th to June 12th, 65 students at AGSM had fun exploring the cultures of Europe, Asia and Latin America and two non-Indians were married Indian-style. Need I say more?
Checkout at the original article here.
Whatever Happens, Happens For The Best
April 26, 2009 by krisdhingra
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business
There is famous saying in Hindi which when translated reads as “Whatever Happens, happens for the best”. It is basically a statement meant for the optimists and indicates that there is always something positive that comes out of any event that takes place.
Take the current economic climate for instance. There is a lot of concern and apprehension in the minds of the students, employed and un-employed professionals about how long the global financial crisis will last and what the future would be like. However not all industries are being adversely affected by the current crisis. Business Schools around the world are witnessing a surge in applications as people realize that this is probably the best time to invest in oneself and go back to being a student.
Business schools however are not taking it easy. The fact that most of the decision-makers who led the world to the current economic crisis were MBA’s has put a lot of pressure on b-schools to change their curriculum so that it addresses real life problems(read here). At the full time MBA program at AGSM for instance the lectures and course contents are being changed so as to include some detail about the crisis and how such scenarios can be avoided in future.
The picture above is what the AGSM MBA is like, except that you can’t afford to keep those binders on the shelves for too long. Most of the subjects that you see above have introduced some component that talks about what caused the current crisis and what we as future managers should do to to avoid it. So while the Organizational behavior lectures talk about tackling and preventing “groupthink”, the accounting classes talk about how difficult it is to recognize and value assets correctly and how in today’s times it’s better to be conservative in preparing financial results.
Our economics classes have taught us that the media definition of a recession(2 consecutive quarters of negative growth) is absolutely incorrect. As we move ahead into the program more changes are being made to make the learning more relevant and practical. A major step in this direction is AGSM MBA Integrative experience, a rigorous 2 week period where the entire Full Time MBA class would work on real life cases where they would have to bring together their knowledge from all the subjects that they’ve studied. Catch the Academic Director of AGSM MBA Programs, Professor Murali Chandrashekaran talk about this in the video below.
So while the global financial crisis of today can be partly attributed to MBA’s, I suppose the good thing is that it is leading to a re-structuring of the curriculum and should lead to smarter future MBA’s who would be able to ensure that a similar crisis does not occur again. Thus we probably can agree that whatever happens, happens for the best
Public Companies And The Law Of Diminishing Marginal Returns
March 10, 2009 by eladsherf
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business
In Economics, there is a famous Rule called The Law Of Diminishing Marginal Returns and one of the ways it is explained is using the example of Glasses full of Beer. Think of being thirsty. If you go for a beer, the first gulp will taste best and bring the most benefit. In economists lingo, the return is high. Any further gulp will taste good as well, but not as good as the one before. Thus, the return diminishes. You will reach a point, when you had enough beer. This time, the sip will not do any benefit to you. The return is 0. If you – nevertheless – go ahead with drinking beer, the returns will turn negative. The more you sip, the more you will get drunk.
I have been thinking a lot lately about public companies. As someone who use to teach corporation and securities law, I take for granted the fact that the public company is the most efficient way:
- For a company to raise capital.
- For an investor to put his money in the hands of expert management that will ensure his investment grows by generating value.
The whole legal concept of public companies and the stock markets is that this tool will allow the free agents to create more value for society. And in theory, this is a great idea. If I have the money but not the ability to manage a company, I hire other people to manage my company and find a bunch of other people like me. The managers, who are experts in creating value, manage our assets, and we can profit from the value generation, by enlarging the business on one hand and by taking dividends on the other hand. This in turn creates value for the society as a whole.
But as always, there is a difference between theory and practice.
The problem is that the structure of public companies and the stock market creates the wrong incentives. Instead of investors looking for expert managers to ensure their investment grows by creating more value, the investors (directly or indirectly using all kinds of funds) are searching to make profits out of the volatility of the markets. When you have 1,000$ (or less) invested in a company, you are not interested in the value generation or in drawing dividends, but in the impact on the value of the share, so you can sell it.
This in turn puts pressure on the management to perform for the short run and to take steps and risks that a company without these incentives would not have taken. It creates a culture of a race after growth and of ignorance to the cash at hand. The short run outlook does not allow companies to sustain their profits over time and thus, does not create value for their investors and the society. I think that from society’s outlook, the current structure of the markets endangers the goal for which society has created these markets in the first place.
What is interesting is that the bigger the market, the more diversified it is, the more people are in it, the worse this phenomenon gets. And our markets are getting bigger, because of the internet, globalization and capital in emerging markets. I think that stock markets have a diminishing marginal return and we have crossed the point where they become less effective the bigger they get. Perhaps the near future will lead to a surge in the number of private companies.
From what I have seen in the last few months in the world and from the little I covered in my MBA (at AGSM, Sydney), if I was the leader of a private company thinking to go public today, I would reconsider. Maybe try to raise money in different ways or from a small number of strategic investors, but avoid going public at any cost. That is the most responsible thing to do, as a manager and as responsible citizen of society.
Note: This article has been reproduced with explicit permission from the author. Check the original post here.
Social Entrepreneurship – The Need Of The Hour And The Demand Of The Future
March 4, 2009 by theagsmblogger
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business, Entrepreneurship
Economics states that the Theory Of the Firm is essentially to perform those activities that maximize profits. A firm should focus on improving the productivity of it’s inputs so as to decrease the cost of production and increase profits.
Well, this is what has been taught in Economics at Business Schools for the past many years and it is unlikely that these basic theories would ever change. However the Business Environment today demands new rules and new ways of thinking and that’s what makes it exciting to be a B-School student at reputed International university as of today. The theory of the firm is essentially what has led to the current Recession and it is this ideology that needs to be changed over the next decade.
Any kind of change would always trigger the birth of new ideas and concepts and one such Idea is that of Social Entrepreneurship. So what exactly is Social Entrepreneurship:
Social entrepreneurship is different from business entrepreneurship because the main goal of the former is to promote social development, not profits. Social Entrepreneurship is not Charity, Philanthropy or CSR, it is all about optimizing profit rather than maximizing profit.
Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development. They pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods and the courage to innovate and overcome traditional practices. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organizations, which are either set up as not-for-profits or companies.
Today the Students of AGSM, Australian School Of Business had the wonderful opportunity to listen and interact with Dr.Pamela Hartigan(see picture below), a pioneer in Social Entrepreneurship and the former MD of the Schwab Foundation of Social Entrepreneurship.
Her experience and stories truly left the audience spell-bounded and drove home the point that Social Entrepreneurship is the need of the hour and the demand of the future. Watch the video below, to hear her amazing stories and thoughts about Social Entrepreneurship.
Networking Your Way To The Top Job
March 1, 2009 by theagsmblogger
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business
Attending Business School is like an experience in itself, especially if you’re doing the AGSM MBA. The decision to go for an MBA is always a well-thought out one although very few people would actually follow a traditional decision making process usually followed in business. Unlike any other Undergraduate course or postgraduate course, the MBA places great stress on all-round development.
So while it is important to learn about finance, accounting and the other core business subjects it also important to know how to create and deliver an effective presentation, how to handle difficult conversations and most importantly how to network . These are qualities and skills that most people, who have been in the workforce for a couple of years tend to take for granted. But step into a global MBA and only then would you realize that what you knew is just the tip of the iceberg.
One of the core competencies that any global Manager must possess is excellent networking skills. These are not only essential to find the right job but later on become an important tool for growing a business, winning important contracts etc. The MBA places great stress on this area and more than 30% jobs in International B-Schools are found through effective networking. However that is easier said than done. Psychologists and experts have identified certain barriers that prevent people from Networking effectively, some of these are:
- We feel pushy.
- We feel shy.
- We feel intimated.
- We fear rejection.
- We consider it to be a waste of time.
Most International MBA programs run sessions to remove these fears amongst their students and at AGSM this starts of from the very first day when each student is encouraged to know all his classmates, something that is not possible at Wharton or Harvard given the number of students in an MBA class.
The video below is an excellent guide on how to overcome your anxiety of meeting people and establishing effective contacts.
