Do you join a group of your company on social networking sites just because you want to announce that that’s the organization you work/worked for?

Do you feel happy seeing your colleagues (whom you think is one of your good friends) at workplace and you have good times at break hrs?

Do you feel happy that your manager/boss is a known personality or someone from IIM or IIT?

Do you feel proud/ happy completing a task much earlier than the time given to you?

Do you think you are intelligent than your colleagues?

Do you set your target to be a Manger/VP or some senior grade in your organization?

Do you love to distribute your organization’s visiting card?

Do you wait for month end for salary credit in your account and the SMS alert for the same makes you happy?

Do you enjoy your weekends just because you think there is no life from Monday?

Do you wish to be associated with a company for a certain remarkable period just because you do not wish your CV to look like a job hopper’s?

Do you float your resume on internet only at the time of crisis?

Do you join a new company with a ray of hope that things won’t go wrong like the previous?

If answers to these questions are ‘Yes’, my friend be alert, these are some symptoms of an Ordinary Employee. Yes you read it right “You are an Ordinary Employee”. I am not trying to be jerk but this is the fact that most of Indian employees including a major percentage of B-School pass outs are just an Ordinary Employee and not an Entrepreneur.

Myth vs Truth:

I understand that most of us would blame the social struggle for survival as one of the main reasons for being an ordinary employee. From the day one of joining, each and  every employee starts working hard to fulfill his own set milestones of life: First month: bike, after 6 months: a separate rented flat with a LCD TV, after 10 months: life is all about party over weekends, after 3 years: a small car/second hand will also do as you realize that the rains which you have been handling till date has just became unavoidable. After 5 years it’s a compulsory to settle down in life, not only its a long term beneficial investment but it’s a matter of prestige as well to own a flat. After 6 years another car (may be a sedan) is much have asset. And the series goes on because by now you have been addicted to set your milestones and fulfill it. And most importantly everyone around you liked you because of this.

The truth is 25% of the crowd left behind struggling with this basic necessity. Other 25% get themselves busy enjoying these success. Other 25% get lost defining their next milestones. Other 20% realizes the need of being an entrepreneur but they also realize that its been too late now, who will break the stocks now. And very few think about the entrepreneurship.

Are you a true Entrepreneur?

It’s very important to understand the entrepreneurship and what this is all about. I have seen young entrepreneurs who have fallen in love with just this word. To be a successful entrepreneur the need should come from within you and not from the other social factors. Its not about freelancing. Its not about making extra money. Its not at all a side business. Its not an alternative to your stupid boss. Its not about luxury of working from home. Entrepreneurship is all about designing and implementing your own business model. The services/ products/ strategy/ target markets etc should be your brain child. Start is always small, more small you are the more growth you deserve.

CEOs and Entrepreneurs more often stand in the first row of buzzword creators, as they always wanted to give a unique name of their brain child product/services. Other than CEOs, professionals from marketing, business development, strategy and planning are the key contributors in originating a buzz word. Being from the same field even I have several buzz words of my own and have proven its success till date. Have a look at the billion dollar buzzwords.

Web 2.0 :

This is the internet technology revolution, which introduced the empowered version of web technologies like, ASP.Net, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, AJAX, CSS and many more others. This revolution not only changed the features and functionalities but the look & feel of the websites as well. In early 2000, the smart and professional website were the ones with small font size and with the least use of bright colors. Now the best websites are the one with rounded box, bright color banner, glossy and liquid effect giving buttons.  The Photoshop CS4 and HTML 5 are the latest version of such technologies which are enabled with much more advanced features to design one more level up websites. If you have a live chat applications embedded on your website you are one step ahead. The best example of this revolution would be the Blogs and social networking sites with millions of applications for fun and entertainment. Another revolutionary component of this web2.0 is the Content Management System (CMS). There are lot more technical capabilities of this new version of internet technology which would be difficult to count here. And the fact is everyone across the globe has accepted this new technology with the name Web 2.0.

3G:

Another billion dollar buzzword is 3G, the irony of this buzzword is that it has got more number of people who just use it than the number of people who are aware of the technical meaning of this. This buzzword belongs to Mobile wireless Technology. The actual name of 3G (third generation) is International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000), which is a family of standards for wireless communications. The earlier version was 2G and 2.5G, which unfortunately was not as popular as 3G. The GPRS and EDGE were already there in second generation which enabled the internet wirelessly over the mobile phones. Now 3G is enhancement in the wireless technology with introduction of HSDPA. What makes 3G unique is the capability of simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates. 3G networks offer a greater degree of security than 2G predecessors. Also there are best mobile phones and PDAs are available in the market with many applications which can be used best by 3G services. Like video conferencing, broadband speed internet on mobile, GPS and Maps Navigation, multi player games and much more. The technology has already reached toward 3.5G which has been named Long Term Evolution or Ultra Mobile Broadband.

SaaS:

Software as a Service is another buzzword in IT and Telecom Industry. This buzzword was published in early 2000 by the Software & Information Industry’s (SIIA) eBusiness Division. SaaS is a model of software deployment based on service on demand funda. A provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand. In this model application is either hosted on Provider company’s server and allowed to download on consumer device, which can be disabled after use or after expiry of the on-demand contract. The main benefit of this deployment model is that it reduces traditional End User License Agreement (EULA) software maintenance, ongoing operation patches, and support complexity. If we look into the detail we will find that virtually all software fits into this SaaS model, and that’s why all Software companies are mentioning themselves as SaaS providers. I can sense that SaaS is still not a high grade buzzword for marketing because its has come complexity as well. The CEO or any other decision maker must understand that though the revenue streams are lower initially than traditional software license fees, but are also recurring, and therefore viewed as more predictable, much like maintenance fees for licensed software. Another challenge for  Small and Mid Size companies with products below the $100 range and its focus on the mid market, direct selling can become an expensive undertaking and that’s why either they have to setup a huge sales team or by sell it through value-added resellers (VARs) or Managed Service Providers (MSPs), and similar alliance partners. Whatever it is, the fact says that this buzzword helped IT companies of India to get an identity in the global market.

Some other buzzwords which are spreading in the business world  and marked there significant presence are Brand Building, Brand Awareness, Lead Generation, Web Presence, Sync-Up, Value proposition, User engagement, Blended Search, Brand Identity, Value Stream, Twittering, Social Networking, Low Hanging fruit, Share of Voice, SEO2.0, B2E (Business to everyone), Cut Backs, Demand Creation, Waste Identification, Trended Analysis, ROIC (Return on Invested Capital), Lean, Turnaround Time, Mindshare and now I am tired to list all…

My conclusion is that Buzz words matters a lot, you may not get business or crack a deal just because of buzzwords but it certainly give your company a ‘mark on globe’.

btw did you notice I  just introduced a new buzzword of my own.

The number of start-up companies has increased surprisingly in the year 2009. The global economy slowdown, which ultimately affected every single person in direct or indirect way. On one hand the big companies have tightened their hands on expenses and the controlled their credits, while on the other side its an opportunity for entrepreneurs to jump into this market with their innovative ideas. One of the best examples among such is the “Loan-Modification” business which has rapidly spread up in the USA. And there are several such business ideas which has popped up because of this global economy slowdown. This resulted in an opportunity for Indian IT service providers as well in a positive manner. The focus has now shifted from the enterprise level applications to small utility application development and iPhone app is one of the best example for this statement. The demand of social networking has increases so much that it flooded the market with demand of web development and this time no one is willing to go to big shots for web development or iPhone app development. The budget is tight but the project is profitable and hence the small and mid size companies are having good time in increasing their clientele.

Technology:

As said in the previous section the focus has been moved from the enterprise level applications to small utility applications. The biding sites are full of web development projects and all they want is a new/revamped web with all web2.0 features. Web2.0 was not that popular when it was launched as it is today. PHP, MySQL, ASP.net, ruby on rails are into limelight. On the other hand CMS like Joomla, WordPress, Drupal have overtaken the web market completely. Another revolutionary moment in IT application development was launch of iPhone SDK in the market. Within no time, the Apple store crossed millions of application to shop. The demand for quick and handy solutions has increased.

Lifestyle:

There is a definite cut down in this travel and hospitality domain. The industry faced a little cold wave specially the hotel industry as compared 2006-2007. The luxury hotels have dropped their suits rates or have come up with several offers in each seasons. There are some 5 starrer in western India where the rates have been dropped by more than 60%. Now people are also looking for short term holidays and preferring near by spots over a long distance. One reason might be the uncertainty of getting leaves for a longer period. However the number of trips per family have certainly increased because of the weekends coverage and availability of special offers. As far as shopping is concerned  people are now more careful about each single paisa. The addiction to shop from a mall has increased only for groceries. Where there are several shop brands who are now left with just empty racks. More than 10 pyramids stores are closed as of today. The shops are not getting more customers even it’s a flat 60% sale. This shows that the public now defiantly understand the value for their money. The DVD rents or rather pickup from roadside has increased as public thinks movies are not worth a watch at theaters. The multi cuisines restaurants are doing good day by day as they provide international food in almost similar price of India which made Indian customers to go to a International cuisine restaurant and enjoy continental, Italian, Chinese, South Asian, Mexican in the similar cost band as Indian.

Mobile and Gadgets:

The iPhone 3GS must be rocking in USA but in India its still on the costly side as only 2% percent of Indian mobile users use mobile phone having price more than 20K. The touch phones are in demand and HTC violated the myth of touch phones have high price. As of today the touch phones are available in the market with less than 10K. Samsung, LG, HTC, Asus, recently Nokia have launched touch screen phones giving no place for iPhone to get a hold in Indian market. The main reason for this is that the priority is given to the price, over features and looks. Yes I agree to the point that there have an increment in the awareness of technical front which was not there in last year. Now people talk about 3G services and I am looking for a revolution in this domain by launch of 3G services. The laptop’s screen size is reducing and mobile’s screen size is increasing. There is a very high demand of Mini Laptops and Asus has proved it by proving EE PC with 7 inch screen. Other brands like, Acer, Sony Vaio, HP and Dell have also introduced there mini laptops with price range of 25k which is getting popular in market.

Fashion:

The Indian young generation wants to be in up to date attire which is hot in the market. The loose and macho jeans are out of market now and once again low rise, slim fit with narrow bottom are in the stores. The light shaded with cuts are not obsolete and dark blue and black are in. there have been no change in the tops, however there has been variety in men’s top wear. The ESPIRIT has targeted the Indian youngster who were bored with same stuffs and and a new look at any cost. The success of ESPIRT made formal brands think on launching casual wear and that’s why Louis Philippe, Van Housen also loaded their racks with tees and jeans along with knitwear. The big dial watches with multiple functionality are still holding the trend. At one place where Fast Track is targeting young generations with low cost sporty watches, the big brands like, Police, Fossils, Giordano have come up with high range watches with, speedometer, accelerometer, compass and much more. The sketchers have been replaced by ID shoes with flat sole.

Jobs:

Everyone knows that there have been cut offs in jobs in all sectors. Yes that’s true but a detailed analysis of this reveals that there are a particular band of resources which have been given pink slip. People are also saying that its not easy to get a job now and general public thins now employer don’t value their quality. The real thing is that employer is giving value to their single dollar and want to have the only the best ones. Earlier this scene was not there, earlier each person was considered as a resource who even doesn’t do anything still they can raise a bill for that resources to the clients. Since clients have become tighter in spending, ultimately employers are left with no option than saying those unbilled resources a good bye.

Will post trends from other domains soon.

Thanks,

Shashi Sudhanshu