Entry November 28, 2006

Idea: An online book directory

I realized during the weekend when I rearranged my book case that I had bought many books but had somehow forgot the main contents. This is the result of my habit buying books when I feel they may be useful, but read when I have immediate interest or need. Sometimes, I even surprised to find out that some books I had gave me the exact answer for my questions at that time. Even worse, I have e-books that I buried in a nice structure, yet never looked at, in my hard drive. Then, I decided to create a directory to keep track of my books. It should be easy enough to arrange the books under different categories, and give me an overview of the contents.

After a short while thinking today, I had a creative idea: combining Amazon.com review and Delicious tagging. The system is as simple as 1-2-3:
1. Browse Amazon pages about the books I have
2. Tag them with topic tags (e.g. Organization, Management, Technology_Business, Social_Psychology, etc.) from a new Delicious account
3. Create one window in my Netvibes dashboard to show the tags in this Delicious account

Not only did I meet all the mentioned requirements without spending time to find a piece of software to do this, there are also nice side effects:
- I can access this away from my physical book case (and my computer)
- I can look at the indexes and search for phrases in the books when I need to refer something
- I can share my book list with my friends. Here is the RSS that anyone interested can subscribe to: http://del.icio.us/rss/thnguyen_book. I have entered about a half of the books I have with me in Germany.
- Subscribers in the future can also know the new books I just buy. This helps me to answer the question that some of my friends always asked.

Check it out!

News: Skills gap in India, problem and some immediate reactions and effects

According to The New York Times’ Skills gap hurts technology boom in India, even though the education system in the country every year can produce 400,000 graduates, “only one in four of them is employable“. Lack of “technical skills, fluency in English or ability to work in a team or deliver basic oral presentations” is the major factor, indicated the result of a study by an Indian trade group. “With the number of technology jobs expected to nearly double to 1.7 million in the next four years“, clearly this is a major gap.

Facing this challenge, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software firm, had launched a pilot program with colleges to train engineering graduates in the firm’s facilities in Chennai. The firm said that this is a way to help them to find a “way out of the alarming talent shortage facing the country”.

Will this be a good chance for IT service outsourcing countries to catch up? Yes, but I think, not for all. TCS and some big IT Indian companies alone cannot make a miracle. A shortage in the supply will bid up the price and limit the workload that Indian companies can assume. However, it takes time to form an outsourcing partnership, thus the immediate effect will probably be a slower outsourcing growth. Moreover, only countries with good reputation, conditions and already a critical number of available partnerships can take advantage of this opportunity.

Uploaded in Heidelberg, Germany.

Profiling Europe’s bloggers

Profiling Europe’s bloggers (from SAP Info article)
Around 3 percent – or four million – European Internet users actively write blogs – Weblogs or journals –, according to Forrester Research. Bloggers in Europe are young, early adopters of new technologies, heavy Internet users, and they trust each other and are more open-minded than the average online consumer.

In its study “Profiling European Bloggers”, Forrester sets out why smart marketers should understand bloggers’ characteristics before entering the ‘blogosphere’. The study was presented at Forrester’s Consumer Marketing Forum on the theme of “Integrating Social Media”.

Forrester Research recommends that firms get active bloggers on their side. Jaap Favier, research director at Forrester, states: “Active bloggers can make or break a brand in less than a day. Firms shouldn’t fake a relationship with them or they will experience a backlash. To get bloggers on their side, firms should gain bloggers’ trust by establishing an honest and transparent relation with bloggers first. They should get to know them and give them the tools to connect easily with their peers and pass along messages.”

Forrester’s survey shows that European bloggers are southern European. The population of bloggers is highest in southern Europe. France, Italy, and Spain make up 57 percent of the blogosphere while Germany lags behind with only 13 percent. Today, France is still the European blogging leader with almost one million active bloggers.

Bloggers are usually early adopters of technology. 21 percent of European bloggers have set up RSS feeds – automatically updating selected content on the user’s desktop – compared with 5 percent of all Internet users. Almost 80 percent of bloggers go online daily to check their emails, post, or read messages. These users spend 16 active hours online per week: That’s 5 hours more than the average Internet user.

Furthermore, bloggers are active, multitasking Internet surfers. Bloggers spend more time online than they do watching TV or reading printed magazines or newspapers. And, 52 percent of them read magazines or newspapers online. Fifty percent of bloggers had posted comments online and 47 percent had published their own Web page in the previous four weeks, compared with only 14 percent and 8 percent of all Net users, respectively.

Forrester’s data shows that bloggers are more open-minded and trusting of consumer-generated information than the average Internet user. In fact, bloggers trust each other. From consumer-generated reference information to blogs, the level of trust of European bloggers is higher than for other Internet users. Almost a quarter of bloggers trust general blogs, compared with only 10 percent of all Internet users.

The Forrester study also shows that bloggers welcome targeted ads. They don’t pay more attention to ads than other Internet users. However, 41 percent of bloggers say they don’t mind ads if they relate to their interests. That figure is only 34 percent for all Internet users.

Last but not least: Bloggers shop differently. They shop around less than the average Internet user before making a purchase, and they are more willing to try or do new things. When they like a product, almost 70 percent of them tell their friends. Peer recommendations matter to bloggers when making a purchase: More than a third of bloggers rely on friend or family recommendations when buying something.

Source: Forrester Research

Entry November 21, 2006

Thought: Capital for globalization – results of Indian’s governance wise move
Today, Infosys of India offered US$ 1.6 billions in shares to Japanese and U.S. investors. Commented on this, Infosys CFO V. Balakrishnan said “We want to position ourselves as a global company”. After all, if companies from developing countries want to go global, they need more cash, from the best investment sources in the world, namely U.S. and Japan. The advantage that Indian companies have is the quick move of the country’s stock exchange governance bodies to adopt parts of Sabarne-Oxley Act (SOA) from early this year. Compliance to SOA, which has gained popular support from European markets, can assure investors and position Indian companies a step ahead their foreign peers. Not only can this help Indian companies in getting the fund from overseas, it also helps to keep the lucrative outsourcing business from U.S. Brilliant!!!

Market: Computer hardware market – IBM, HP and Dell, who won who lost?
October 17, IBM announced a growth of 5% year-over-year in overall revenue. The company had only 2% increase in Global Services after 1% increase in Q2 and 3% increase in Q1 (after currency adjustment). This shows that the company has not gained a lot of momentum ramping up their service business. but 8% increase in hardware and 9% from software revenue on the same basis. However, in Q3, at least there is some good sign when the hardware business grew 8% after two terrible quarters (-8% in Q2 and -31% in Q1).
November 1, HP came out with an impressive growth of 7%, almost across the board. This fourth consecutive growth helped HP to take over the number one position of the industry from IBM.
Meanwhile, Dell delayed its quarterly report for calendar Q3 due to investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the subsequently initiated independent investigation by the Audit Committee of its board of directors into certain accounting and financial reporting matters. Probably, investors were quite skeptical about the numbers that would come out. After a lower earning guidance in May and a lower than expected earning in August and a series of costly recalls, everyone expected a bad news from Dell. Like a miracle, their report came out today with a revenue up by 3.3% and their stock price surged 10% to a -18% of the level a year ago.
Apparently, the hardware market over the last quarter grew more than the modest rate from the turn of the year. HP is the most successful company continued to gain market share while both IBM and Dell just recovered a bit from their bad previous quarters. Looking forward, HP is expected to to keep their momentum in both revenue and profitability. I predict it will be quite tough for IBM to keep up their growth in the hardware and software market, while services will take time to have a majorpush. Dell is betting on the growth of emerging markets (Asia, Russia and Brazil) but to me, it will be not at all easy getting the whole company back on track. Let’s wait for another quarter and back to see if this prediction will hold or not.
Uploaded in Heidelberg, Germany.

Entry November 20, 2006

Vietnamese teacher’s day and people made me who I am
It’s Vietnamese teacher’s day I sat down and thought about people who made me who I am today. I dedicate this note to them, in addition to the mails that I have just sent, hoping to show my appreciation for what they have done to me.

• Thank you, grandpa. You taught me how to read and write since I was 4. It not only helped me so much in my later school day, but more importantly, helped me to create a reading habit, which is the most critical way to improve myself now.
• Thank you, Mr. Trinh The Vinh, my late math teacher. You taught me a happy life was more than fame, career, but also patience and love.
• Thank you, Dr. Son Nguyen, who opened the world for me. You showed me that we can give and don’t have to care about take. You taught me with your example one can change the world around him with what he does, today.
• Thank you, Dr. Viet Nguyen. You gave me the confidence to be myself, and the passion to help people to become who they can be.
• Thank you, Monica Worline. Though I was only a TA in your classes, I learned so much from your guidance and our conversations. You helped me see a new dimension in me and the world around.
• Thank you, Kembrel, the dean of my GBS program. You gave me the inspiration and passion. You showed if I believe that I can do the extraordinary, I can; and that if I live and act like a leader, I am.
• Thank you, Thuy Duong, Tuan Linh, Tuong and others of the Vong Tay Be Ban. You helped me to realize that the best way to fight the bad is to plant and nurture the seed of the good.
• Thank you my friend, Vu Thanh Tu Anh. You have said what I came to know that it’s the mission of mine as well, or maybe it’s the mission of our generation. We’ll be the bridge stones, laying ourselves down as the foundation for the next generation. I will.

Observation: How people choose where to sit in a bus/train
I had a very strange idea and have tested it for a few days now. I observed people and try to find out how people choose where to sit in a not very empty bus or train. Normally, if one travels with a friend or acquaintance, of if one meets on the train/bus, they will come and sit next or in the opposite. If the car is empty enough, people will just choose their “favorite” type of seats. Now comes my observation. If one comes and can recognizes no one familiar, and has to choose to sit somewhere next to some other, the number one reason he or she select a seat (if at all) is the inviting gestures, and sometimes only eye contacts with the person already sits next to the empty place. This observation really disproved my impression before, that people in that case will choose to sit next to someone similar to them, who doesn’t show any threat to their safety, and probably a certain degree of privacy.
This is not proven and I know there will be no one even pay attention to carrying such an experiment. This is just a small hint to the young guys, when you see some beautiful girl step up toward you, remember make a gesture or just a quick eye contact to invite
Uploaded in Heidelberg, Germany.

Entry November 18, 2006

Thought: Business model for media-related social networking sites
Does being acquired with tens billion dollars prove a new business model for media-related social networking sites like MySpace and YouTube? Not quite. The recent legal suit against MySpace for copyright infringement by Universal Music Group (UMG), UMG’s licensing agreement with You Tube, and YouTube’s deal with Warner Music Group to distribute the latter’s music video catalog emphasize the importance of copyright to those sites. Even for acquiring company like News Corp. and Google, finding out a way to solve this issue is quite a challenge. Law suits have once brought down Napster is the threat if they fail to do so. Technology to keep track of the video and audio contents is not at all easy and such an investment requires a good return. In theory, the companies can use these sites to provide ads and its own or contracted copyrighted contents. However, reduction of number of users, and problem of collecting money from its users are big headaches. More importantly, if this cannot be resolved, it can loom the ever-high enthusiasm for similar ideas in the future.

Organization: How much to pay your employees
Alfie Kohn in his article “Challenging Behaviorist Dogma: Myths About Money and Motivation”, Compensation and Benefit Review March/April 1998 presented a short but very insightful summary of researches about compensation system:

- Pay people well

- Pay people fairly

- Then do everything possible to take money off people’s minds

Citing Herzberg’s Two factor theory, which suggests that salary among others are factors that if not provided sufficiently will lead to dissatisfaction but more than a certain point will not motivate people, Kohn concluded “The jazziest, most expensive and elaborate comp system ever devised can never do anything other than prevent some problems. It can take you only to the baseline, the zero point. And if you become preoccupied with the topic, it can distract you from attending to what can move an organization forward — projects such as meeting people’s needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence.”

In summary, management should carefully consider to create about a compensation system that helps people to feel that their efforts are appreciated and that they have a certain financial freedom. Meanwhile, management should according to Herzberg, focus more on factors that really create satisfaction, namely:
- Job enlargement – Giving employee a wider range of tasks.
- Job enrichment – Giving the employee greater responsibility and scope to make decisions.
- Job rotation – Rotating the work in which employees carry out.

Entry November 17, 2006

Event: TechNet Innovation Summit
The program introduction looks quite interesting with presence of representatives of the “old giant” innovators in the industry, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco (Linksys), Sun Microsystems, NetFlix and venture capitalist John Doerr (who funded Sun, Amazon, Intuit and Google). Somehow, there is no sign of any new innovators that I think will change the face of the industry in the next few years. Worthwhile to follow but I still doubt to hear something very new here.

Thought: Globalization of companies from developing country
The success of CEMEX as a global company from a developing country is impressive, but not very since they could attract the capital directly out of NYSE. The deal between Lenovo and IBM was high-profile but through an acquisition and funded by HongKong financial market. The company’s recent move to gradually erase IBM brand from its laptops is a brave move to grow an independent brand, while it’s considered as a slap on the face of Corporate America. In comparison to these, Tata’s globalization through its IT service and coffee exporting, hotel chain franchising and acquisitions funded by the domestic stock market is phenomenal. Is it a new wave of globalization from countries once considerred third-world?

Entry November 16, 2006

Idea: “context, not a place to advertise”
Source of revenue for social media sites is “context” for advertising, not place for advertising. Context in which people actively pay attention or search for information gives a much higher effectiveness than traditional target advertising.

Tool: Geotag with Zoomr
I got to know Zoomr today from the suggestion of my Web 2.0 buddy, Oliver Kohl of Zsapping blog. Just listen to him, I got excited about the idea of geotagging. This feeling confirmed when I tried it quickly today. One can post his/her pictures with a geotag then others can search for the tag name or do a geographic search. Another feature that I like about Zoomr is the feed that one can subscribe. For example, thinking of visiting France next year, I will just subscribe to the France tag and get all pictures in my Google Reader. Fantastic! Finally, Oliver noticed me that Zommr gives you 100 MB quota vs. 50 MB of Flickr.

Final note
I wrote down these ideas when they came up to the note in my Netvibes dashboard, then copy and paste to my Google Documents (used to be Writely), then will in a minute post it directly to my blog in WordPress. Long live Web 2.0!

Did your people turn bad, or you have an organizational problem?

At work, there are many problems that normally are attributed to people while they actually originate from organization. Examples are employee’s burnout due to lack of organizational respect as pointed out in “More than Job Demands or Personality, Lack of Organizational Respect Fuels Employee Burnout”, and low management effectiveness as well as coordination issues in growing company as described in “Growing pains”.

In the first example, because the common sense is to “conceptualize burnout as stemming from the job or the individual, rather than the organization, “the ‘problem’ from a managerial perspective is the person.” The article also points out that this issue will spread as “when team members see someone else on the team being treated unfairly, they alter their own perceptions of the fairness of the team.”

In the second case, management and people working on related tasks got blamed because “the lack of defined roles and responsibilities”. Managers are considered lacked of training or skills while the organization is dysfunctional as the company grows. Similarly, when cooperation was not successful as people have different assumptions of who is doing and responsible for what, people turn to each other as the sources of the problem. This phenomenon also gets escalated if the key people got “overloaded” as they have not enough time to develop necessary relationships to complete their tasks.

These examples suggest that management should consider carefully if the organization is the source of problem before blaming its particular persons. If they don’t do that they run the risk of being “left with neglected and neglectful individuals who have figured out how to cope or survive by mentally turning over while those with better job alternatives — or more commitment to their professions rather than the organization — end up leaving.”

Uploaded in Walldorf, Germany

Changing the way I blog, from broadcasting articles to sharing ideas while inviting feedbacks

Since the beginning, I tried to craft very carefully articles on my blog. This normally a good fit when I have ample time and a well-thought idea. The downside is clear. I couldn’t write for a long time when I had to fulfill other priorities, which was a realistic part of a balanced life. In addition, I lost the chance to develop ideas with my friends, rather just broadcast and get comment for what I know for a while.

I decided to post from today, everyday one or a series of ideas and links that I find interesting together with my comments. I invite my friends to comment on those posts and let me know interesting topics or your ideas so that we can continue to develop it together.

I look forward to interesting discussions we will have.

Uploaded in Heidelberg, Germany